Definitely no soaps! Mostly music programs and DVDs
Books
Stephen King, Nick Tosches, Colin Escott, Martin Hawkins
Heroes
Black Cat
Chris Fender Black
Wild Bob Burgos
Chris Black & Bob Burgos
Eddie Angel
Gene Vincent
Eddie Cochran
Chuck Berry
Sonny Boy Williamson II
Lester Butler
Quite often people from all over the world who visit my website and read my newsletters ask me why I am called "The BlackCat" and why the website is called "BlackCat Rockabilly Europe". Well, since you're obviously all quite curious, I thought I'd write down the story for you.
It all started back in 1979. I had been a DJ for over 10 years then and I had my own Oldies Drive-In, I was a fan of what we called "oldies music", which included music from the 40s, 50s and early 60s. In a local pub in the small village of Schijndel, Netherlands, where I live, we (my girlfriend and I) went to see a band named "Black Cat" from the UK. We had never heard of them before, so we figured we'd check 'em out. Wow, we were very impressed! From that day in 1979, I was a "rocker" and not just an oldies fan anymore.
We got acquainted with the bandmembers Chris, Vic, Doug, Ricky and Terry and the next time they played in Holland, they all stayed over at our place and we became good friends. In 1981 my girlfriend and I got married and we went on our honeymoon in the UK, spending most of our time touring with the band. We stayed over at Doug's and Terry's house and we even spent a night in a tent in Chris' garden. We had the best honeymoon anyone could have wished for.
Because I had become a big fan, I stitched "BLACK CAT" on the back of my leather jacket with huge letters. After a while people started calling ME the BlackCat, because of the letters on my back. I've kept the name ever since, I still have that jacket, and I still wear it with pride.
In the mid en late 80s I knew more about rock 'n' roll and rockabilly than most, and I was also a fan of Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. I started writing down lyrics of their songs and fellow rockers asked me for copies, because at that time the lyrics to most rockabilly songs were not available anywhere. I got the idea of issuing lyrics books, the first two containing all of Gene Vincent's songs. They were home printed, and I could hardly keep up with the demand. I got more and more requests for other songs and by 1989 I had released 6 booklets.
1990 was the beginning of the digital age for me and I started a Bulletin Board System from my home. You could log in with a modem and download pictures and lyrics. Of course I needed a name for the system, and "BlackCat BBS" was the obvious choice. In 1993 the Internet became more accessible for home users and I moved my BBS to the Internet, renaming it to "The BlackCat Rockabilly Homepage" and later changed that to "BlackCat Rockabilly Europe".
Now, 20 years on the move, I have several friends helping me out with writing reviews and lyrics and we have over 4500 pages on our website and over 2 million hits each month. That makes us the largest rockabilly website in Europe by far! I still work on it almost every day, and I still enjoy it very much.
The band Black Cat unfortunatly broke up in the mid 80s, but we always stayed friends. Chris has constantly been active on the rock 'n' roll scene as "Chris Black, The Fenderman". A few years ago Chris started a band again using the same name "Black Cat", playing all the old favorites. Chris's "Ghostriders in the Sky" is still the very best rendition I ever heard.
Many years ago I became very good friends with Kevin Fennell, who has been Ray Campi's guitar player for decades, but he has also recorded many superb albums on his own. In 2005 Kevin issued an album titled "Mo' Blues! Mo' Blues! Mo' Blues!" and when he send me an complimentary copy I was very surprised to see that he had dedicated a selfpenned song to me named "Black Cat Boogie". Thanks Kevin!! I maintain an extensive page about Kevin on my website, please do check him out in our "Hall of Fame".
Who I'd like to meet: Rockabilly and rock'n'roll fans
on Saturday , May 16 , 2009 : Berlin Wild Ones ( www.myspace.com/berlinwildones ) present at the SpreeLacArt , Edisonstr. 63 , 12459 Berlin-Schöneweide on stage: THE HOT ROCKS (Fr) and BLACK RAVEN (Ger) , Price: 12€
Hey Guys, Hope you had a great Holiday. Very good here. Just letting you and your friends on the site know, a New Documentary on Gene Vincent will air on BBC radio 2 Next month. Please pass on the word. Family Members will be interviewed for this. Tommy Facenda and Myself will be saying a few things also. Should be a good one. Will Post on my space when I hear the date. Thanks for keeping the Music alive and keep rocking my friend.
Hi Marijn , and welcome aboard !! Happy new year and the best to you and yours for 2009, and thanks for all the great work with your website ... Rock on brother, take care ...
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