CUBY & THE BLIZZARDS
Cuby + Blizzards – also known as Cuby & the Blizzards – are a Dutch blues group, founded in 1964 by vocalist Harry Muskee, and guitarist Eelco Gelling. During the 1960’s, the band’s mixture of sound, drawing upon a variety of genres which included blues and rock and roll, gave them a pioneering sound which was completely different from any other Dutch band in the same time period. The band is unrelated to another Dutch band using the name Peter & the Blizzards. The spelling of the name varies, with ‘Cuby’ also written as ‘QB’ and the ampersand (&) also written as ‘and’ or ‘+’ and the ‘and’ sometimes left out. The spelling ‘Cuby + Blizzards’ was used on the first albums. (More from Wikipedia)
I was first introduced to the raw 1960’s sounds of Dutch rock when I was fortunate enough to find a copy of a compilation album called Searching in the Wilderness in about 1987 in a fondly remembered basement-level New York record store called Underground Records in the Village. (There was at least one and maybe two other record stores in that same space over the years). Though much of the early output from Dutch bands was heavily influenced by Merseybeat sounds almost to the point of aping them, that was most definitely not true of two of the tracks on that album: “Chunk of Steel”, an early single by Golden Earring; and “For Another Man” by the Motions, which included the future bandleader of Shocking Blue, Robbie van Leeuwen. Wilderness was also my first introduction to other excellent Dutch bands, like the Outsiders (not the American band called the Outsiders that is best known for “Time Won’t Let Me”) and Cuby & the Blizzards.
(January 2013)
