I have been asked by non-Dutch speaking fans to publish an
English
translation of the CD-booklet text on this site.
OK, here we go:
The
Dutch answer to Abba.
Sparkling
and exciting, the new top (act) from Holland.
The
Dutch Manhattan Transfer.
These
are praises by the international press addressed to the group
which stormed up
the charts around the world at the end of the 70s with the huge success of
“Rock and Roll Star”, even surprising the group too.
Champagne
was founded on 25th November 1976.
To the lyrics of the singer of “The Outsiders”,
Wally Tax,
“Rock and Roll Star” was recorded and the single was in a
high chart position of their homeland within 2 weeks.
In February of the following year the second single was recorded and it
reached the 2nd position of the charts as well.
Something special is the fact that despite the high frequencies of
releases Champagne never had a single that flopped.
All of their singles reached high positions in the national and
European charts.
Champagne
emerged due to a number of random events. Trudy
and Bert knew each other already from school,
met in the Rotterdam music scene
and decided to form a duo. Around the same time
Jan and Paulette decided to end their
jobs as drummer and singer with their band’s daily performances
and try their
luck in a different way. Top-producer
Martin Duiser brought all of them together
and formed a strong charismatic
quartet. The avid song “Rock and
Roll Star” did the rest.
Dressed
up in noble Gatsby clothes and with a thought-out and very professional stage
act,
Champagne became very quickly one of the most popular groups from The
Netherlands.
The charts could be
imagined without their records. Successively
each of the first four singles
stormed up the charts in no time.
With a thought-out mixture of hits and songs from the 50s
they achieved
to attract a big audience abroad.
Coincidence
or not, the combination of lyricist Wally Tax, producer Martin Duiser
and the
four Champagne-members seemed to be a golden combination.
Foreign countries were involved too.
In the American Billboard Hot One Hundred
Champagne reached the 51st
place and many tours around the world followed.
A spectacular matter was the
tour to Israel where the group
reached the number 1 position of the charts with
all of their nine singles.
There
was almost no time for family or lovers back home.
After six years of permanent flights, hotel rooms,
TV-studios and an
endless row of performances in The Netherlands as well as abroad
the hitmachine
from Rotterdam started to fade and finally on 1st April 1981 this
chapter was closed.
THE
BEAT GOES ON!
But….after
30 years of absence Champagne is finally back!
The comeback has a real special input,
typical Champagne.
Together with the members of their old live-band a full-length
theatre-show will be put on.
With pictures, interaction, humour and many, many songs the
audience will be taken back to the 50s
in which the members of Champagne grew up
and all four have dearest memories of.
When
this CD was compiled our thoughts went straight to the one who was responsible
to a great extent of our successes and, alas, left us much too early; our friend
Wally Tax.
Wally,
thanks for everything. Let’s rock
on the stairway to heaven!
Jan,
Paulette, Trudy and Bert.
Do
you want to follow Champagne in the future?
Then go to: www.champagne-music-online.de