The Tapes

The Tapes were a band from Amsterdam, Netherlands, active between 1977 and 1982. Singer / guitarist Rolf Hermsen and guitarist Michiel Brandes met at the Rietveld Academy, and the group started in late 1977 with bassist Igor Roovers and drummer Dick van der Vaart. The influences came from emerging new wave bands like Talking Heads, XTC, Wire and Scritti Politti -especially with Talking Heads, with which the band was often compared. With its short and quirky songs, the debut album 'You Just Can't Sleep' (1978) was well received, and the band attracted interest from record labels, and abroad. The LP 'Party' was recorded on a larger budget, and distributed by Passport / WEA. There was a new drummer (Peter Meuris), and they work at Music Farm Studio in Baambrugge, under the direction of producer Don Willard (Beach Boys, Ron Wood, Steve Marriott). The album received good reviews in the country and abroad in 1980. 

For the next album -and the last one- producer John Leckie (XTC, Magazine, Simple Minds) was cast. The group gained identity, ceasing to be "the Dutch Talking Heads". On this record they received participations from Henk Hofstede and Michiel Peters (Nits), Dennis Duchhart (Minny Pops -who would continue to perform with the band, replacing keyboardist Huba de Graaff), and from the pop and jazz singer Mathilde Santing (all artists who achieved recognition abroad). But The Tapes did not receive financial support to pursue an international career (although the record was released in the USA), and decided to stop. For the re-release of 'Party', the album was remixed, and received an additional CD containing nine bonus tracks recorded live in 1980.