Kamanjab combined school choir

Kamanjab in Namibia is little more than a cross roads having there a bakery, supermarket, post office, police station and a combined school for mostly orphans and children, who don't see their parents (farmers around) for the whole of a semester.

For tourists, Kamanjab is a start to visit the Himba tribe to see "Real Africa". But we saw something other spectacular in the evening: suddenly around 40 pupils came out of the darkness to the Oase Guest House and sang. They are incredible musicians, autodidacts,  conducted by 3 students this evening; they have no music teacher! After one hour vocals, they disappeared in the darkness. From the collected money they will finance a journey to the capital  Windhoek for a performance.

This was a highlight of our Namibian trip. This is real Africa, not the Himba Tribe DisneyShow for tourists ...

Wanna rummage about children choirs ? Verarschte Kinderchöre

Golden Earring 50 years today

Golden Earring is one of the most enduring bands in classic rock history. They continue to tour in the Netherlands, and the band is the longest existing rock band in the world, as they were founded in 1961, one year before The Rolling Stones.

The Dutch rock group was formed by two 13- en 15 year old childhood friends, guitarist George Kooymans and bassist Rinus Gerritsen in The Hague Netherlands.

Rhinus in 2000:

Being a child of the post-war baby boom, most of your spare time was spent on the streets with a ball at your feet. The same goes for yours truly in the late fifties, in a virtually car-free era. Music could be heard coming from open windows and echoing off the walls and in the stairwells. Little Richard, Lloyd Price, Fats Domino and Elvis; those are the first names that come to mind when I think back to those days. He was always noticed, that slight young boy of not yet twelve years old, always hanging out with the older kids and always at the forefront if there was any action. Football was not his thing, but he was enthusiastic at judo, a solo sport, and then there was his other passion: playing the guitar, which he had been doing since he was eight. We met at our house when he came to give my brother guitar lessons. My brother Rob, who is three years older than I am, has many talents (at this moment he fulfils all the management positions in Golden Earring BV) but musical talent is not something he can be said to possess. We got on well immediately, Rob’s guitar eventually became mine and George and I had found each other in our shared passion: playing the guitar and our dream of a band that would lead us to great fame. [more]