Jos Koek (1958) was born and raised in Kampen. Father and mother Koek ran café ‘t Centrum on the Nieuwe Markt together, where the family lived upstairs. Jos started making music as a drummer with the Municipal Orchestra Kampen. He was taught there by Jan Schinkel, who taught him the technique on a simple piece of baton for the first year and a half. After that, Jos was finally allowed to play a real drum.
In 1980, Jos was already at the Lochem festival with the Drenthe band Frankenstein, where Motorhead, the Romantics and Joan Jett also played. The festival attracted around 30,000 visitors. Around 1982, he played for a short time in the wedding band The Joyhills from Emmeloord. Through that circuit, he got to know Joop Albers from the Kampen wedding band the Sturgeons. He asked him to come and play drums with the Sturgeons. The band practiced in the pigeon club in the Stadspark. The Sturgeons have a full schedule of performances, partly in Kampen, but the vast majority outside of it. That is why part of the band decides to start a new band with a quieter schedule. Around 1986, the band Mata Hari is started with former members of the Sturgeons Wim Duiveman, Hilde Paassen, Jos Koek, Dick Wonnink and Gerry Bastiaans. Mata Hari also uses the pigeon room as a practice location.
In the meantime, Jos is studying studio technology in Hilversum. He decided to record some songs with the band during available studio hours. One of those recordings is done together with the carnival association from Kampen with, among others, Jac Ruiten and Hans Hulsebos. They record, among other things, the Banana Song. With these recordings, every record label in the Netherlands is approached, but without any success. In Kampen, the song does become very well-known and in 1998, De Boswachters still manage to score a hit with it in the Netherlands.
When Mata Hari gets as busy a playing schedule at home and abroad as the Sturgeons, Jos quits Mata Hari and decides to step out of music for a while. He takes over his parents’ café, where he soon organizes jam sessions for all kinds of musicians. Eventually, Jos starts playing the drums again, in bands such as Travelin’ Time and the Joe Cocker Tribute Band. He also starts giving drum lessons. Nowadays, Jos runs his own drum shop, “De Koektrommel”.
Stedelijk Orkest Kampen – drums
Revelation – drums, from September 1976 to January 1977
Crypt – drums, 1976 to 1977
8.12 – drums, 1977
Frankenstein (Drente) – drums, 1977 to 1980
Joyhills (Emmeloord) – drums, 1982
Sturgeons – drums, 1982 to 1986
Mata Hari – drums, 1986
Papillon – drums
Red Plague – drums
Travelin’ Time – drums
Angelya – drums
Goldies – drums
Joe Cocker Tribute Band – drums
The Tribute Band – drums
(Source: Muziekarchief Kampen)
