In 1966 a boy was born in Utrecht, in the centre of Holland, two years after his older sister saw The Beatles (without Ringo) in the town of Blokker. My name is Robbie Korver. As a young child I picked up the music that was played by my parents and brothers and sisters. I listened to wide variety of music styles: Opera, Fats Domino, Paul Anka, The Hollies, The Stones and of course, The Beatles.

My brother Ad was playing in a famous band called ‘The Caverns’ since 1963.
So music was a common thing in our family. I remember that the music by The Beatles always drew my attention. Later I got an old guitar from a brother-in-law. Since I am left-handed, I turned the strings around and broke the thin B and E string whilst tuning.

As if this was meant to be I started playing bass lines. In my sister’s albums collection I often found one or the other album by The Beatles which contained those lovely McCartney bass lines! During my life I have collected a lot of Beatles albums, singles, EPs, CDs, DVDs, etc. (It’s always a nice thing to have older brothers and sisters!)

 In the 70s another band caught my attention: The great Sting with his band The Police. They created a completely new sound which I really loved (and I still do!). During my years in school I played bass and did some singing in a band, but when I started working as a truck driver throughout Europe I stopped for many years.
In 1996 I picked up the bass again and started singing in a band called ‘Jetlag’, a cover band which leaded to the band ‘Why Not’ in 1998. I did a lot of gigs with this band. I sang songs of, e.g. The Police, CCR, U2 and .. The Beatles. In 2000 I met George (Diederick) in a rehearsal studio. He introduced me to jam sessions where he persuaded me to play some Beatles songs. Since this was so much fun we got together with Ringo (Willem) and when my band ‘Why not’ stopped in 2010, Pim joined us and we really got off serious.

Hi, I am Pim Vermeeren, born in Amersfoort in November 1964. The Beatles had already given their only concert in The Netherlands in a little village called Blokker. My mother didn’t even had the courtesy to (pregnant and all) go, otherwise I would have been there.

No, my first encounter with the Fab Four were the red and blue double LPs which my brother non-stop played in his room. The first record I bought was: With the Beatles (because there were lots of songs on the album I didn’t know).

While everybody was listening to ABBA and disco in the late 70s and early 80s I saved money to buy my next Beatles album. Then I started to play the guitar and I played in a school band. In my cover band ‘Groovy’ we mostly played Rock and Roll and (of course) Beatles songs. After playing in a wedding and party band I finally stopped making music and had break for 15 years.

 A few years ago I was pleasantly surprised when I read that the Beatles Cover Band ‘Get Back’ was looking for a ‘John Lennon’. After an exciting and energizing audition I was completely over the moon that I could participate. It is now almost a year ago but it feels like we are together for years.

My name is Willem Perrels, born in Uithoorn in September 1950. My first drumming experience was at a school party in the early 60s, when I playbacked, the song 36-24-36 by The Shadows (also known as the opening tune of the legendary Dutch tv programme TOP or FLOP) behind a drum set made of cardboard. It really felt like I was Brian Bennett. Shortly after that I bought my first drum kit. It was an unkown Japanese brand called Pearl. Most of the drummers at that time thought this kit was rubbish but I was very pleased with it (and nowadays many drummers around the world, still are). Soon I started taking drumming lessons from Willem Roosendaal (who played with Johnny Kendall & The Heralds). My favourite drummers of those days were Brian Bennett (The Shadows) and Bobby Elliott (The Hollies).

 From 1965 till 1975 I played in various bands. I stopped for approximately 5 years because I got too busy working for IBM computers. In the early 80s, my brother-in-law took me to a pub called ‘Eigenwijs’ (english translation: Stiff-necked) in Utrecht to attend a jam session. The drumming virus got me again!

A week later I bought a new drum kit (TAMA Superstar) and from that moment on I have played various music styles (from Soca / Biggie Pokoe to Pop, New Wave, Disco and Reggae) and in several bands. A couple of years ago I ran into Rob and Diederick at various jam sessions. Since Rob and Diederick were totally crazy about Beatles music they came up with the idea to starting (in addition to our regular bands) a Beatles project. As a true Rolling Stones fan at heart I had to get used to play the songs of their biggest competitors but after a while I got used to it (also to the unorthodox drum patterns that Ringo plays).

Last but certainly not least I really enjoy playing with Rob, Diederick and Pim in our Beatles Tribute Band. It’s great fun! 

My name is Diederick Rebel (what’s in a name?). My role in the band is to play George’s part of the Fab Four. I was born in 1953, so I actually experienced the rise of The Beatles myself through my parents’ Philips tube radio.

 In my teens I didn’t like The Beatles very much. I liked the Stones better. The Stones were really tough guys in my book. I played songs by The Stones in my school band as well as songs by The Cream, The Kinks, etc. Many years later I realised that I found the music by The Beatles far more interesting. Since the early 90s I picked up playing in several cover bands again.

 After a difficult period in my life I asked a few friends in the music scene if they would like to do some Beatles songs with me just to get back to playing again. We had a few rehearsals and during our next gig in our club ‘Highlands’ in the town of IJsselstein, we had so much fun that we immediately decided to do more of this!

At some point in time we came to the idea of starting a professional band with a website of our own. The first name of our band was ‘Get Back’. But when we applied for a domain name on the internet we found out that there were dozens of Beatles Tribute bands with that name. After a night of brainstorming we decided to adopt the name ‘One after 909’, the title of one of The Beatles’ early recordings. This song, in the version of the rooftop concert, became one of our favourites, as it sounds really well!

We had our launch party in club ‘Highlands’ on 27 February 2010. Since then things only went up. I hope to play in this band for many more years since it is great fun and I hope you will enjoy this too!