Herman Brood

Herman Brood ranked among the Netherlands’ most prominent rock figures throughout the 1970s and 1980s, yet he also became known for a lifelong struggle with alcohol and narcotics as well as a parallel career as a visual artist. Early on he drew inspiration from piano-driven performers such as Little Richard and Fats Domino, and at age seventeen he enrolled in art school; twelve months later, however, he shifted his focus after enlisting with the Moans. That ensemble later evolved into Long Tall Ernie & the Shakers, after which Brood joined Cuby & the Blizzards, widely regarded as one of the finest Dutch blues outfits of the 1960s. His stint with the group proved brief, and he subsequently played with the leading Dutch psychedelic band Q 65. Additional stops included the bands Stud and the Flash & Dance Band, most notably Vitesse alongside Herman Van Boeyen, which issued the 1975 album In Vitesse.

In 1977 Brood assembled the loose-knit backing unit Wild Romance. Their debut release, Street, preceded the follow-up Shpritsz by a year. That record yielded the unexpected success “Saturdaynight,” which reached the American Top 40 in 1979. The two albums that came afterward, In a Bad Mood and Go Nutz, met with unfavorable responses from reviewers and listeners alike, yet Brood gradually regained momentum through the stronger-selling Wait a Minute and Modern Times Revive.

By the mid-1980s he had also ventured into acting and appeared at several prominent festivals, only to step away from music by the early 1990s. Throughout the ensuing decade he concentrated on painting, later reentering the music world to support a fresh compilation and an accompanying live album. On July 11, 2001, Brood took his own life by leaping from the roof of the Amsterdam Hilton.