Background information on Frédérique Spigt Frédérique Spigt was born in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) on January 28th, 1957. After finishing high school she studied graphic design at the academy of arts in Rotterdam (1975-1980). As graphic designer it was hard to find a job in the early eighties. She started to work in a youth club called Arena, where she met a lot of musicians. During a session she impressed with a cover of "First cut is the deepest". Her friend Peter van Gameren, former guitarist of The Health Band, proposed to form a band. And so in 1985 she started her first group named I've got the Bullets.




The name I've got the Bullets is a frase from the movie Rebel without a Cause (1955, starring James Dean). The Rhythm & Blues group consisted of 9 persons including a trumpet player, sax player and backing vocalists, and had almost immediately success. That year the group became third in a pop music competition in the Netherlands (De Grote Prijs van Nederland) and some months later the single "In the Middle of the Night" reached the pop charts. Autumn 1986 the group represented the Netherlands during the Euro Rock Festival in Liverpool (UK); in the same period the debut album "I've got the Bullets" was released. But to hear the real sound of The Bullets you had to go to a concert: they were at their best live on stage! So the group became one of the most wanted live acts in the Netherlands. The second album Wounded, produced by George Kooymans of The Golden Earing, was released in 1988 and had also some success. Still the group had well-visited concerts every week and was well-known for its live act. In 1990 the group broke up; Frédérique Spigt wanted something new ...




That something new was her second group A girl called Johnny, named after a single of the folk group The Wonderboys. The music of the group was characterized by Country in combination with Rhythm & Blues. The group, consisting of 5 persons, released the CD album "Cry for the Moon" in 1994. The songs are full of themes and dramatic art and they are very well composed, mostly by herself, but also together with Jan van der Mey. A girl called Johnny became well known as a live act, but didn't have a hit.




In 1996 she decided to do a solo theatre project, in which she showed her emotionality and her love for strings. Therefore she changed the musical strength: a string quartet became a very particular part of it. This project was called "Frédérique Spigt con La Piccola Orchestra".

The arrangements were not only accompanying, but in some cases they were leading. And also Frédérique Spigt's powerful raw voice was more in the limelight. Still Frédérique didn't betray her background of rock music. By using percussion and guitars (and of course by her raw voice) it seemed she wanted to escape the scene of the orchestral, almost classical setting, originally created by her own hand. On March 8th 1998 she participated in the National Song Contest of the Netherlands with a song called "Mijn hart kan dat niet aan" (My heart can't cope with that); in this Contest the Dutch entry for the Euro Song Contest 1998 in Birmingham (UK) would be selected. It's a pity: Frédérique Spigt didn't win the National Song Contest, but with the third place she did it very well. She made a great impression on almost everyone with this performance. The song, written by Leo van de Ketterij en Huub van der Lubbe, is not at all typical for the Euro Song Contest; the song is totally different from it. Due to the success she scored with the song "Mijn hart kan dat niet aan" in the Dutch language, she and her orchestra decided to perform in Dutch (instead of in English).            Singing in Dutch This has been artistically a good movement: her concerts and her albums were both received with open arms by the audience as well as the critics. It started with the album and theatre tour "Engel" (Angel) in the year 1999, followed in the year 2000 by "Droom" (Dream). The year 2001 will be a remembering year. First she was the crowning touch during the opening ceremony of "Rotterdam Cultural Capital of Europe 2001" by singing her ode to the city "Rotterdam" in front of Queen Beatrix. Second she got the Edison Music Award for her album "Droom", from which the song "Rotterdam" has been taken. The CD "Beest" (Beast) has been released in September 2002. From this CD the single "Hoe laat" is tracked. In 2003 Frédérique Spigt started a unique project together with Mandy Brown. During the live concerts Mandy Brown 'translated' the songs by her talking hands for the deaf. Begin 2004 a DVD of a live concert by Frédérique Spigt and her talking hands Mandy Brown has been released. In 2004 the album "Mans genoeg" (She can handle it) has been released. This is a cooperation with several Dutch musicians like Huub van der Lubbe, Barry Hay, Katja Schuurman, Liesbeth List, Bennie Jolink and more.




Boyish girl A lot has been written and said about her raw voice and her boyish performance. She has been compared to many other persons in pop music: Rod Stewart, Melissa Etheridge, Frankie Miller, Janis Joplin, Kim Carnes and so on. Her voice has been described as a wung wild animal, slippery tram or hoisting crane. "In the Dutch pop music scene there are a lot of female singer who are more civilized and less tame than I am; anyway there are only a few females who sing Rock 'n' Roll and sometimes raise cain" she said once. To crown it all: in 1995 a compilation CD was released with songs of the great ladies of Rock with Frederique Spigt between Melissa Etheridge, Bette Midler, Tina Turner, Chrissy Hynde and Janis Joplin.




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This page has been created by Maurice de Jong. Please mail me if you have any comments or questions.

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