KAYAK (https://www.kayakonline.info/)
Kayak was founded in 1972 by keyboardist/composer Ton Scherpenzeel and drummer/composer Pim Koopman, along with lead singer Max Werner, guitarist Johan Slager and bass player Cees van Leeuwen. The band has known many line up changes. In the beginning critics often compared the band to contemporaries like Yes and Focus, but the band quickly developed their own style of more compact, song orientated symphonic rock.
In 1978 Kayak charted the USA Top-60 with their single 'Want You To Be Mine.' One year later the band's commercially most successful album 'Phantom of the Night' went platinum in The Netherlands, hitting the number one spot in the Dutch album charts for several weeks. The single taken from that album, 'Ruthless Queen', reached the Dutch top 5. The first episode ended in 1981, when after two more albums the group decided to call it a day.
Fast forward to 1999: after an 18 year abscence Ton Scherpenzeel and Pim Koopman restarted Kayak. Koopman died in 2009, leaving Ton as the sole original member.
In Januaryb 2018, with singer Bart Schwertmann and guitarist Marcel Singor, bass player Kristoffer Gildenlöw and drummer Hans Eijkenaar a reborn Kayak once again proves that the band's name- though chosen randomly back in 1972- is as appropriate as ever with the release of the album 'Seventeen', followed by the release of 'Kayak LIVE 2019' in 2020.
The band plans to return in 2021 with the new studio album 'Out Of This World'.
