Besides That was founded in the summer of 1988 by singer and guitarist Berry Hoeksema. In the first months the band had Gert B. on drums. In 1988 around the fall Gert Zwerver was replacing him on drums. In 1988, Besides That was a local band from Bedum, drawing inspiration from groups such as The Cure, U2, Simple minds, The Church and The Alarm. Their first demo was recorded in December 1988 and featured four light pop-rock songs. As with many starting bands, there were numerous lineup changes the first years. See chart below:
Image 1. Time line Besides That
Image 2. Besides That (1989) Joop, bass, Berry guitar vocals and Gert Z drums. The first demo “Chinese food in Belgium” in 1988 was made in this line up.
1991, Mark Steenhuis (lead guitar and keyboards) joined the band. Berry stopped playing guitar and focused in lead vocals. Joop on bass made room in 1991 for Jan on bass. Jan played only a year, Rob replaced Jan in 1992 on bass guitar.
Image 3. Besides That at Beempop (1992). Mark, Berry and Rob on bass.
Nice peak moment for the band. In 1992, at Beempop festival, Besides That performed as the opening act for the Muskee Gang.
Mark brought later along keyboard player Jeroen Bruintjes from his earlier bands, and in 1994 Cees de Jong joined as permanent bass player.
Audio engineer and soundscape artist Bruintjes left his mark on the demo Burn (1994) and also on the first CD Lament of the Naiad (1995). The music of Besides That shifted from light pop-rock to rock-pop with heavy keyboard arrangements.
Main lineup from 1994 tot 1997:
Vocals – Berry Hoeksema
Bass – Cees de Jong
Drums – Gert Zwerver
Guitar – Mark Steenhuis
Keyboards – Jeroen Bruintjes
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Image 4. Tonika Award. 1995
The years 1995 and 1996 were good ones for Besides That, with an honorable participation in the Tonika Award (1995) and the opening act at Pagepop (1996) with Benjamin B and SKIK.
Image 5 and 6. Pagepop (1996)
All things come to an end, and Bruintjes moved to Amsterdam, leaving Besides That. In 1998, the band celebrated its tenth anniversary. With the CD The Sign (1998) the band, now four people, launched a own website. That was a thing back then. Hand coded HTML.
Image 7. Live Appingedam (1998)
Image 8. Local News on the gig in Appingedam.
One of the highlights in the nineties was a concert at Noorderzon on August 28, 1999.
Image 9. Rockblock at Noorderzon (1999).
Besides That released two official music video’s.
Love is a secret place (Video by Richard Dijkema) and Do you know what love means (Video by Richard Dijkema). Songs are from 1995 so there is keyboards on this video.
Image 10. Official Video clips (1998). Direct link here.
Since 1996, the unchanged four piece lineup has formed a tight-knit band with dark compositions. The songs became harder, shorter, and sharper, as can be heard on the CD Driven (2001). Recorded in Beaufort Studio’s Amsterdam. Mark played keyboards on that album too.
- Image 11. Berry filming Cees and Mark listening to the master tracks in Studio Beaufort (2001).
Image 12 – poster, 13 Besides That live in bar “Achterdek”. (2002).
Image 14 Besides That playing a small setup live on the OOG radio. (2003).
Image 15 Besides That live in bar “Cafe Koster”. (2004).
A very nice gig and with a good quality recording was the 2005 festival at Harry Loco’s his bar. Don’t know who took the pictures but good eye! The recording is on youtube. We remember, no soundcheck! Plugin and play.
Image 16. Besides That live at Harry Loco (2005).
Image 17. Gert Zwerver behind the kit. Harry Loco gig. (2005).
Image 18. (VIDEO Youtube)
Big highlight in 2006 was a performance on Sunstation, a famous festival in Middelstum. Opening for Hydrofish and VAN DIKHOUT.
Image 19. Besides That live on the stage at Sunsation (2006)
In 2007 the band released the last album ever, called 24-7.(See Spotify).
- Image 20. Draft print and official print of the cover of the album 24-7
Image 21. Delfzijl Harley dag gig (2008).
In 2008 Trip, Superman and Red Alert were released as leftovers because there was not going to be a new album.
Image 22. Besides That live in Simplon (2007).
Image 23. In 2008 the band played one last show in music club “Den Hertog” in Groningen and that was all she wrote?
“Dat was het dan”?
In 2019 there were plans to perform once more but after two rehearsals we all got the Covid19 flu and the plans were put in the fridge. On our Youtube channel there is a nice rehearsal 360 video of one of our songs (Love will rescue you) – we still got it and we had fun playing, who knows…
- Image 26. * The 360 video might not work on all browsers.
- Image 28. The demo Land of Lies was recorded on this four track tape machine. (1992).
Discography Besides That – official releases (all own compositions 1988-2008)
1988 demo – Chinese food in Belgium. (cassette)
1991 demo – Visions. (cassette)
1992 demo – Land of lies. (cassette)
1994 demo – Burn (released from digital copy DAT on streaming services AAD)
1995 CD – Lament of the Naiad (released from digital copy on streaming services DDD)
1998 CD – The Sign (released from digital copy on streaming services DDD)
2001 CD – Driven (released from digital copy on streaming services AAD)
2008 CD – 24-7 (released from digital copy on streaming services DDD)
Besides That Appears on:
ART WORK
From the press
Dat was het dan
That’s all she wrote
Image 11. Rob Mark Gert Jeroen in the nineties.
CD ART WORK COMPLETE
The SIGN (1998)
Driven (2001)
Lament of Naiad (1995)
ART WORK COMPLETE (22 pages)
24-7 art work (2007)
