Last century

Scottish drumming with the The Boys’ Brigade

Together with primary school classmates Carlo Piscitelli, René van de Brandt and Patrick van Hal, Eric became a member of The Boys’ Brigade. Here he learned how to play Scottish drums from Chris Mommenhof.
The Boys’ Brigade Pipe Band, sometimes acted as a sponsored banner for Tempo Team and was then named the Tempo Team Pipe Band. They also performed for the Royal Air Force Association and then the bagpipe band in the same composition was called the RAFA Pipe band.

Eric has written a report of most of the performances and in total he has performed about 180 performances. All in kilts with cotton underpants underneath.

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The City of Amsterdam Pipe Band

When he was 16, he became a member of the best bagpipe band in the Netherlands: The City of Amsterdam Pipe Band. With the drum corps led by Carel Ooms they won many prizes. The City of Amsterdam Pipe Band has played many contests (also in Scotland)

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At the age of 18 Eric bought his first drum kit. That ended up in the attic where he could never practice because it made way too much noise in the center of Amsterdam. And yes, he sometimes had the police at the door who ordered him to stop.
The real drumming started at the Amsterdam accordion association Insulinde. Eric got to know all the retirement homes in Amsterdam at a young age.

Popband Zapano

His first pop band was Zapano that played Italian rock from the 60’s. Even though his snare drum technique was very good, his foot work was rather questionable. So he took drum lessons.

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After drum lessons from Tom Rooijers at the Amsterdam Music School, he took the entrance exam for the Music Registration Master at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Jazz drums was his secondary subject.

Band ‘How ’bout the money’

Eric worked part-time at RAF hi-fi. He formed the band How ’bout the Money with his colleagues Gerard de Sterke and André Houtkoop. Ernie Nauta and Clif Houtkoop joined later.

The Teens and Twenties community center in de Pijp in the centre of Amsterdam organized every two weeks a jam session. Together with Ben Jansen (the guitarist with the most famous last name in the Netherlands), he was hired as session leader.

The Crack

The English-American band The Crack was looking for a drummer and they found one in Amsterdam, where the band members also lived. Eric does not use coke, does not smoke weed and does not drink beer. After six months, it turned out that he did not fit in with the other members as a person. He didn’t mind, because he was the only one who was still sober after a gig.

Anubis

At the Teens and Twenties jam sessions, René van Dalen and Marc Trines played along with the well-known covers. A few years later they formed the formation Anubis together with Keith Esseboom.