The history of The Treble Spankers dates back to 1989 when Marcel Kruup (ex-The Other Side, -The Comedown, -The Kliek) starts trash combo Ouke Baas. After gaining a live reputation in the Amsterdam underground the band undergoes some lineup changes and finally renames to The Treble Spankers in 1993. At that point the band exists of Marcel Kruup, "Phantom" Frank Gerritsen (ex-The String Phantoms), Maarten Heijblok and Frank Sloos (ex-The Kliek). The band starts playing as opening act for The Kliek but soon the band becomes more popular than it's headliner.
September 1994 finds the release of Araban. The album gets lots of airplay on Dutch national radio, various university stations in the US and at John Peel's program on BBC Radio. Due to the bankruptcy of their record label Semaphore the album gets sold out in no time. Following impressive live performances at the Lowlands festival and Crossing Border festival The Treble Spankers sign a record deal with Polydor Records in 1995 after which they go into the studio to record their follow up album.
In 1996 Hasheeda gets released. Following the success of Pulp Fiction and an "easy tune" hype The Treble Spankers get massive airplay with the single Red Hot Navigator on Dutch national radio. The band plays a packed Roskilde tent at the Pinkpop festival in front of 10.000 jumping kids and the album Hasheeda ends up selling an impressive 20.000 copies. The band tours Belgium, Germany, Spain, Switserland and The UK extensively. In december 1996 Polydor re-releases Araban with three extra tracks.
Early 1997 finds the band in the Toe Ragstudio in London to record mainly covers for b-sides and bonus tracks of foreign releases. In the summer of 1997 the band goes back into the studio to record their third album. During the recordings Phantom Frank's RSI becomes unbearable and the band has to call it a day. In the short five years of their existence The Treble Spankers did over 500 shows and left behind two classic albums in the history of surf music.
After years of rest and revalidation Phantom Frank slowly picks up the guitar again and returns with a solo album in 2004. Later that year he forms The Phantom Four, an instrumental surfband, with which he starts playing live regularly from early 2005. Late 2005 Marcel Kruup and Maarten Heijblok form Los Tiki Boys, an instrumental surf / rock&roll band.
i played in a surf band from 99-04, and came across Araban whilst in Belgium for a film festival 3 years ago. to this day my all time favorite album. from the first note, the production is stellar, the musicianship tight, just perfect, thank you.
