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December 23rd 2014:
The Return of Longshanks now on Spotify
For those of you who hadn't noticed yet: our CD can now be played via Spotify (courtesy of our friends at CD Baby). And since the last post our CD has become available at a number of websites (again via CD Baby), e.g.: Amazon, Google Play, Great Indie Music, Media Net, Xbox Music and Mix Radio.
We've also updated the individual track pages on our website with a new player, that has a direct link to the CD Baby music store.
We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we hope we can release some new songs in 2015! |
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January 15th 2012:
The Return of Longshanks now available on iTunes
As of now the album can be downloaded via the iTunes store, either as individual songs or as an entire album.
This is due to registering with CD Baby, where Longshanks now has its own page. |
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October 26th 2010:
The Return of Longshanks Podcast!
Not only did Woody Harris write a splendid review for the Dutch Progressive Rock Pages, but, as he was so immersed in the album at the time, he thought it would be worthwhile to dedicate an entire podcast to the album.
He took the topics from the various songs and sought songs with matching themes to complement them.
Listen to this amazing dedication in episode 207 of Soundscape. |
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October 25th 2010:
The seventh CD-review is online...
We were warned in advance: it might take several months before the DPRP (Dutch Progressive Rock Pages) would be able to post a review (due to a big workload of reviews each month), but it is there finally! And it was well worth waiting for! A very positive review indeed! Thanks DPRP, and thank you Woody Harris!
Read it on the DPRP CD-review pages |
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July 14th 2010:
The fifth CD-review is online...
Here's a postive review in the Norwegian language...
A big "Thank You!" to Ulf Backstrøm!
Read it on Merlinprog.no
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July 12th 2010:
The fouth CD-review is online...
This one is in French and rates the CD 5.5
out of 10, so not very good. Besides that, according
to this review Bregje is married to André
instead of Alex! LOL!
Read it on Musicwaves.fra
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July 5th 2010:
The third CD-review is online...
(The second was in Dutch) It's slightly less
positive than the first, but still OK (despite
several unnecessary typo's and other mistakes).
Read it on Backgrond
Magazine.nl
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May 27th 2010:
The first CD-review is online...
And what a review it is!
Thank you very much, Costas!
Read it on Rockpages.gr
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May 24th 2010:
The Ferman Show, episode 26
Sunday May 23rd a special episode of The Ferman
Show was recorded featuring Longshanks.
Though the podcast itself is in Dutch and so
of not much interest to the non-Dutch fans,
one item in the podcast may interest you after
all:
there was a LIVE-PERFORMANCE of "The
Travelling Song, prt.3", which has
been recorded on video as well!
The video can be watched on YouTube!
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May 18th 2010:
R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio
Sunday May 16th Ronnie James Dio passed away
at the age of 67. He was diagnosed with stomach
cancer at the end of last November. He was one
of the greatest singers to emerge from the 70's,
being front man for Rainbow, Black Sabbath and
Dio. Only last year he released an album in
a reunion with former Black Sabbath mates, under
the name of Heaven and Hell, named after the
legendary Black Sabbath album. But maybe he
will be remembered best for inventing the 'horned
hand' symbol...
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April 26th 2010:
Release of the CD "The Return of Longshanks"!
Saturday April 24th at 19:00 hours (GMT+1)
the long awaited moment finally arrived:
in the company of Bregje, Inge and some close
friends André, after a short speech,
presented the first CD to Alex.
After that, everyone was presented with a copy
and a champagne toast was given to the succesful
conclusion of this project and to the start
of many more to come.
Then it was time to upload the new and updated
pages to the website (the TRoL-CD
page, the Home
page and the Music
page) and, of course, to play the CD!
From today the CD can be ordered via the website!
To do so, visist the Music
page.
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April 15th 2010:
The CD is coming!
Today the last part of the artwork for the
CD, the booklet, has been sent to the printers.
As a result some changes have been implemented
on the website as well, most notably some images
have been updated.
The illustration for "In
the Desert" has been modified: storm
clouds have been added, and a bolt of lightning
as well.
The painting for "The
Bath Song" has been replaced by a selfmade
image (a 3D-modeling project in Lightwave-9)
Besides that, obviously the front cover of
the CD has now been finalised. It consists of
an image that has been made using mixed techniques:
- landscape modeling in Terragen
- additional 3D-modeling in Lightwave
- 'old school' painting in the foreground
- compositing in Photoshop
Curious for the result? Click here!
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April 11th 2010:
Release of "I Love the Road"
At last!
With pride we present the last song for the
CD "the Return of Longshanks": "I
Love the Road".
This 5:08 minutes song is a true 'road song':
an up-tempo rock song with musical influences
from Micheal Schenker. A song that'll make you
push the pedal to the metal!
The song will be placed inbetween "All
My Days" and "the Travelling Song,
part 3" on the CD and thus restores the
balance between rock songs and ballads.
Alex' sister Anita van de Graaf again makes
an appearance on this song.
At the moment all is being done to finish the
CD: mastering all of the tracks has been done,
the artwork for the CD-booklet is nearly finished.
This week everything will be sent to the printers...
The release date has been set for sa. April
24th !
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November 24th 2009:
R.I.P.: Pim Koopman (1953-2009)
We are saddened by the news that on Monday
morning November 23rd Kayak drummer and composer
Pim Koopman has suddenly passed away, due to
heart faillure.
In 1972 Pim Koopman and Ton Scherpenzeel founded
Kayak, having played together in local bands
from 1968 onwards (Balderdash en High Tide Formation).
On the first three records by Kayak there are
several songs he wrote either by himself or
togeteher with (e.g.) Ton. Among these are the
single's "See See the Sun", "Mammoth"
and "Wintertime". In 1976 Pim left
Kayak and started to work for EMI as a producer
and composer. He enjoyed major succes with acts
like Pussycat, Maywood, Time Bandits and Sandy
Coast.
In 1979 Pim formed another band of his own,
resulting from a hobby project from 1978: Diesel,
together with e.g. Guitarist and singer Rob
Vunderink (Vitesse).
In 1980 Pim left Diesel. From 1983 to 1985 he
played in The President. After that he was involved
as producer with albums by Robby Valentine,
Valensia and Petra Berger.
In 1997 Pim was asked by the TV-show Classic
Albums to perform once more with Kayak. This
reunion inspired the band to record a new album
in 1999: "Close To The Fire", which
was followed by several other CD's, e.g. "Coming
up for Air" (last year). Recently the band
issued the double-CD "Letters From Utopia",
which led to a full-scale Dutch tour from October
onwards. André was present at the concert
Kayak gave Friday November 6th at "de Boerderij"
in Zoetermeer, and had a short conversation
with Pim afterwards. He describes the news of
Pim's death as "bizarre" and "unreal".
Visit Kayak's
website
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November 14th 2009:
Release of "In Dreams"
The 6:47 minutes song "In
Dreams" takes a different approach
to the theme 'setting out on a journey'. This
time we will journey inside our dreams and we'll
seamlessly and incontrollably flow from one
scene into another.
In this song Alex and Bregje are joined on vocals
by a true opera soprano: Alex' sister Anita
van de Graaf, who can be heard in the 2nd and
3rd choruses.
Now all that remains to be done before the release
of the CD is recording the last song: "I
Love the Road".
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September 22nd 2009:
Organ version Wandering Merchant recorded
Last saturday, september 19th, Alex and André
visited Aad de Vogel to make a 'car-free' recording
of the street organ version of "The
Wandering Merchant" (see news item
below). The recording (4 mics) has been mixed
down to a stereo track and the second half of
it now appears at the end of the new version
of "Leave
Me Alone".
In the process that song has also been remastered
and now has a clearer and more vibrant sound.
Over the next two months the other tracks will
also be remastered prior to their release on
CD.
At the moment the last two songs are being recorded:
"In Dreams" and "I Love the Road".
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August 5th 2009:
Surprise!
Last saturday, August 1st, Alex celebrated
his birthday, he got a surprise he won't forget
anytime soon: suddenly a street organ appeared
outside his house and started off by playing
a "Happy birthday to you.."-medley,
followed by... a
version of Alex's first true composition: "The
Wandering Merchant", arranged especially
for this occasion!
Compliments of Bregje, Inge and André.
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June 17th 2009:
Release of "In the Desert"
At 7:55 minutes "In
the Desert" is the longest track for
the new CD yet. This epic song describes the
adventures of the traveller after he has fled
the pushy salesmen in the city (Leave
Me Alone), to find some peace and quiet
in nature, which of course turns out not to
be so quiet and peaceful at all...
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May 15th 2009:
The new band photo
Sunday April 26th a photo shoot was held at
several locations in Amersfoort to obtain a
more up-to-date photo of the band, to replace
the well known photo from 1988. The photographer
was the same guy as back in 1988: Rijk-Willem
Schmelter. The band members and the photographer
were unanimous in choosing the best photo. This
photo was taken at one of the old gates to the
city: the Monnikendam
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May 11th 2009:
"The Bath Song" on internet radio
Saturday May 9th (less than 12 hours after
its release) "The Bath
Song" was first played by Ferry Molenaar
in his show "Your
Weekend Action" at ActionRadio.nl.
One day later the song was played by Woody Harris
in episode 155 of Soundscape.
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May 9th 2009:
Release of "The Bath Song"
In "The
Bath Song" J.R.R. Tolkien has Pippin
Took singing on the joys of a hot bath at the
end of a long day of travelling. Obviously these
lyrics fit in perfectly with the "travelling"
theme of the CD "The Return of Longshanks".
The music is iïnspired by The Dubliners
and clearly has a "folk" character.
The melody was written by Alex.
Recorded live at "The Prancing Pony"
in Bree...
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April 6th 2009:
Release of "The Wandering Merchant"
"The Song of The
Wandeing Merchant" is the first Longshanks
track for which Alex provided the basic ideas
(melodie and lyrics), more on this subject via
the info-link on the page dedicated to this
track!
With this song and with the next one, that is
currently in its mixdown phase (The Bath Song,
with lyrics by Tolkien), the band has chosen
to definitely promote the "travelling"
theme to the main theme of the CD "The
Return of Longshanks". As a consequence
the band has decided to remove the songs "I
Have A Dream (2008)" and "Wanted D.O.A."
from the track list and to save these songs
for a later release. At this moment, work is
in progress on two replacing songs, that will
fit the theme.
The 'international release' of The Wandering
Merchant took place last sunday night on episode
150 of Soundscape
(also celebrating André's birthday at
the same time).
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February 25th 2009:
Release of "The Travelling Song",
part 1
Celebrating the release of "The
Travelling Song, part 3" and the 21st
aniversary of the release of "Cycles
& Circles" there now is the back-catalogue
release of
"The Travelling Song, part 1", rescued
from the old box of demo tapes, washed and polished.
Henceforth to be found at the same page
that already housed part 2.
There has also been an update of the mp3 player
on all pages (now you'll only find navigation
buttons if there is more than one song present).
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February 21th 2009:
Release of The Travelling Song,
part 3
Was the process of recording and mixing "Leave
Me Alone" a difficult and time consuming
one, not so with this sequel to the two previous
Travelling Songs:
the entire song was recorded within one hour,
and mixed and released within one day!
Well, with one acoustic guitar and three voices...
"The
Travelling Song, part 3".
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February 11th 2009:
Release of Leave Me Alone
'Only three months late of the originally intended
release date' Longshanks today presents the
next song for their upcoming album "The
Return of Longshanks": "Leave
Me Alone".
The song is about a traveller who visits a city
in a foreign country and has to fight off lots
of pushy salesmen (rings a bell?).
Click the link above for the mp3, the lyrics
and some inside information.
The international fans had a chance to hear
the 0.99 version of the final mixdown in last
sundays episode of Soundscape
(Tangential Drift, Feb. 8th).
The Dutch fans will be able to hear it played
by Ferry Molenaar in his (Dutch) podcast/vodcast
that will be recorded next saturday. He will
also play the track live at ActionRadio.nl
in his MolenMotion show next thursday (Feb.
19th).
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December 8th 2008:
The Web of Life and "Cycles
& Circles" in "MolenMotion"
on Action Radio
Since November 13th our good friend Ferry Molenaar
has his own radio show, MolenMotion,
on the internet radiostation Action Radio. Right
off, in his very first show, he played "The
Web of Life" (halfway through the first
hour) and in the show from December 4th he played
"Cycles
& Circles" (halfway through the
second hour), and also anounced our taking part
in the "Serious Request"-action "Demo
of the Day". These shows can be heard at
Ferry's website
(in Dutch only).
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September 11th 2008:
All My days in "The Ferman
Show"
Back from absence Ferry Molenaar today has
reacted very enthousiastically to "All
My Days", which he featured in "Mad-Minded-Music"
in his podcast at Boomr.nl: "The
Ferman Show". To be heard in episode
17 (also available via his new website)!
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August 13th 2008:
All My days and "Web of Life"
played on American Internet radio!
In last nights episode of the internet radio
show Soundscape
(no. 122, Aug. 12th) Woody Harris picked up
on the anouncement of the release of "All
My Days" and during the show received
an mp3 for playing. Consequently "All My
Days" was played, hot from the needle,
back to back with "Web
of Life".
The show will ofcourse be available for downloading
as mp3 (or streaming) from the Soundscape website.
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August 12th 2008:
Release of All My Days
Only two weeks late of the originally intended
release date Longshanks today presents the next
song for their upcoming album "The Return
of Longshanks": the funky symphonic ballad
"All
My Days".
Click the link above for the mp3, the lyrics
and some inside information.
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July 5th 2008:
Borderline and "I Have a
Dream - 2008"
on American Internet radio!
In episode 116 of the internet radio
show Soundscape
(June 25th) the song "Borderline"
was played because it fitted the central theme
of that episode. One week later in episode 117
Woody Harris played the 2008-version of "I
Have a Dream" and also used the jingle,
that André had made for his show!
Both shows can be downloaded as mp3 (or streamed).
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June 11th 2008:
I Have a Dream in new version
After finishing the recordings for "The
Web of Life" both Alex and Bregje have
asked André whether they could record
a new version of the instrumental song "I
Have a Dream" from 2004, with vocals
added to the mix. All of this to save this song
and to include it in the song-list for the new
CD.
April 19th the first concepts for the lyrics
and the melody were e-mailed to the singing
couple, and already the next day the first try-out
came back!
Yesterday evening André has e-mailed
them the last two versions of the mixdown. As
both Alex en Bregje chose the same version as
André, today we can present you with
the final version of: "I
Have a Dream - 2008".
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May 16th 2008:
Into the Dawn now digital
Almost lost in the hectic events around the
Soundscape broadcast and yet already present
in the news item below was another piece of
important news:
last monday we saw the long expeced digital
release of "Into
the Dawn". According to both Alex and
André that was one of the best songs
from the concept-demo "The Quest"
(and with 9 minutes the one but longest song
from that demo). Needless to say both were very
happy with this release, that was hastened by
the Soundscape broadcast.
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May 14th 2008:
Web Of Life on American internet
radio! prt.2
Episode 110 of the internet radio show
Soundscape
by DJ Woody Harris really did feature Longshanks:
not only did he play "The Web of Life",
but six other songs as well! You can download
the entire show as mp3 (or stream it). Longshanks
is right in after the first song (Styx - "Grand
Illusion") and is represented with:
- Prelude
- Courante
- Tango
- Cycles
& Circles
- Into
the Dawn
- The
Travelling Song, prt.2
- The
Web of Life
Longshanks sincerely wishes to thank Woody for
the airplay and support!
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May 1st 2008:
Web Of Life on American internet
radio!
On May 13th "The
Web of Life" will get airplay on the
internet radio show Soundscape
by DJ Woody Harris from Kennesaw, Georgia (USA).
He has found Longshanks via a news item on the
release of the CD-single in the Dutch Progressive
Rock Pages (DPRP)
and immediately contacted us to get hold of
an mp3 of the song.
To be continued...
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April 29th 2008:
LONGSHANKS relic-hat-trick news
In the 1988-October isue of symphonic rock
magazine Sym-Info there was
a review of Longshanks demo tape "Cycles
& Circles". Very proud (justly
so) of the very favourable review André
showed the magazine to Alex at the end of 1988.
Strangely it had gone missing without a trace
ever since
Until Alex payed a visit to his parents (in
March of 2008) to rummage through his old photo
archive, and doing so came across: The Sym-Info
from 1988!
Shamefaced Alex returned the magazine to André
at the beginning of April 2008
(but not
without striking the deal that André
is to lend the magazine to him again in april
2028, for another 20 years
:-)
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April 8th 2008:
LONGSHANKS NEWS FLASH
By reporters: Alex, Rixk and Bregje.
CD-'single' presentation Web Of Life
Last Friday, 4th of April, Longshanks founder
André Kamer celebrated his 46st birthday,
in Amersfoort. Besides a well received party
for his own birthday, it also was a special
birthday party for Andrés band Longshanks.
After having released the first Longshanks
song "Cycles
& Circles" 20 years ago (Feb. 1988),
André anounced the official CD-release
of Longshanks latest song: "The
Web of Life", on April the 4th, in
the intimate company of his closest friends
and his beloved Inge. The official scoop of
the internet release had already been given
over a month ago to internet podcaster Ferry
Molenaar from The Ferrman Show,
who also interviewed André by phone at
that occasion.
In the presence of this company André
made the solemn pledge that they are to see
more releases by Longshanks in 2008 and
that the gathering for his 47th birthday is
to become the scene for the release of a full
Longshanks-CD with multiple new tracks !!!
Well, André, a promise is a promise
(and there were plenty of witnesses)!!
The Longshanks Web of Life CD-single
comes with a 4 page booklet, which shows some
fine artwork by André on the cover (for
insiders: it gives a sneak preview of the location
for the story of the next song to be released...),
and contains the lyrics and the history of W.O.L.
The CD-label shows a close-up of our own planet
Earth, refering to the theme of the song: The
Web of Life.
The CD can be ordered via info@longshanks.nl
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March 26th 2008:
Today we launched the new website for Longshanks.
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Februari 25th 2008:
On saturday Februari 23rd 2008 we did the mixdown
of our new track "The
Web of Life", today André was
interviewed on the phone by Ferry Molenaar of
"The
Ferman Show"-podcast: broadcasting
tomorrow! Show number 7 (only in Dutch, unfortunately...).
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Februari 8th 2008:
Show number 3 of "The
Ferman Show"-podcast is online at Boomr.nl,
featuring our song "Borderline"
as ultimate track in the show! Check it out
(if you understand Dutch...) and vote for this
guy!
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