Biography
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Years Active
1985 – present (40 years)
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Members
- Dim Veldhuisen
- Henk Jonkers
- Henk Koorn
- Peter Konings
- Toon Moerland
Hallo Venray is a Dutch indie rock band from The Hague, The Netherlands, fronted by songwriter, guitarist and singer, Henk Koorn. Established in 1987, Hallo Venray has been active for well over 35 years straight, although there was a bit of a hiatus around 2000.
The band's very first line-up, active in 1987 and 1988, wrote songs in Dutch. It comprised Henk Korn, Anno Houwing (guitar) and, very soon, Peter Konings (bass) and Dim Veldhuisen (drums). The dynamic changed when guitarist Toon Moerland replaced Houwing in 1988. Hallo Venray reverted to singing in English and developed a blend of indie rock heavily influenced by Neil Young and Bob Dylan.
The year 1992 catapulted Hallo Venray to fame. The album The More I Laugh, The Hornier Due Gets proved very succesful and the band appeared on the main stage of the 1992 Pinkpop Festival, with Henk Koorn making quite the impression by appearing on stage in fishnet stockings, jumping around on a pogo stick. The performance was shown live on national TV. Hallo Venray were closer to stardom than they would ever be.
The album A Million Planes to Fly (1993) saw Hallo Venray tour internationally, for example as the opening act for Texas on a trek in France. However, the albums thereafter sold disappointingly and by 1997 the band seemed to be petering out. Dim Veldhuisen quit the band in 1997, followed in 2000 by Toon Moerland, whose classic guitar playing style and songwriting had been crucial for the band's sound.
Hallo Venray's final albums with Moerland were the live album Roll Another Number, a Tribute to Neil Young (1999) and the studio album I'm Not a Senseless Person, At Least I Don't Want to Be (2000).
After five years of silence Hallo Venray re-emerged on the prestigious Excelsior Recordings record label. They had become a trio, comprising Henk Koorn (vocals, guitar), Peter Konings (bass) and Henk Jonkers (drums), and had developed a fundamentally different, grittier indie rock sound, as underlined by the album Vegetables & Fruit (2005).
The new Hallo Venray gained prominence with the albums Leather On My Soul (2008, a double disc set with the same set of songs in two versions: 'electric' versions on disc 1, acoustic versions on disc 2) and Show (2014), the highest charting album in the band's history (#44 in the Dutch album charts).
2012 saw the 20th anniversary re-release of The More I Laugh, The Hornier Due Gets, followed by a promotional tour, with the 'new' Hallo Venray (with Jonkers) opening up for the re-united 'old' Hallo Venray (with Moerland and Veldhuisen). Hallo Venray is still going strong in 2024, supporting their 12th studio album of original material, Coffee and Cake (2022).
Studio albums
1. You Don't Hit A Guy With Glasses On (1989)
2. King (1990)
3. The More I Laugh, The Hornier Due Gets (1992)
4. A Million Planes To Fly (1993)
5. Merry-Go-Round (1995)
6. Hallo Venray (1997)
7. I'm Not A Senseless Person, At Least I Don't Want To Be (2000)
8. Vegetables & Fruit (2005)
9. Leather On My Soul (2008)
10. Show (2014)
11. Where's The Funky Party? (2017)
12. Coffee And Cake (2022)
Live albums
1. 2 Meter Sessie (radio session, 1994, now listed on streaming platforms as Jan Douwe Kroeske presents: 2 Meter Session #406 - Hallo Venray, digitally released 2019)
2. Roll Another Number, a Tribute to Neil Young (tribute concert, 1999)
3. Gallons of Gasoline (2001)
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