Catapult (band)

Once they were back at home they threw themselves into their work immediately, quitting jobs and dropping out of school to concentrate wholeheartedly on music.

The band came to the attention of ex-Golden Earring drummer Jaap Eggermont, who advised them to start playing glam rock, a popular genre of music at the time.

[3][6] In an episode of Toppop Yeah, Bergman revealed the amount of effort it took to get his long bleached haircut for the band.

After that, they worked on their first single, "Hit The Big Time", produced by Eggermont and recorded at Phonogram Studio in Hilversum in December 1973.

They became quite adept at this, writing and producing songs for Lia Velasco, Patricia Paay, The Internationals, The Surfers, and Snoopy.

The quintet also formed Rubberen Robbie in 1978, their vehicle for parody and carnival songs, sung in their native Dutch language.

[1][8][2][3][4][9][10][11] In the 1980s, the members wrote songs for Leidsche rock band Tower and André Hazes (three of which were recorded for his album Gewoon André, including his number 1 hit "Een Beetje Verliefd"), and specialised in writing and producing breakdance, hip hop and Italo disco music, with 1983 and 1984 becoming their most productive years.

Since their new songs were cut down as non-format and did not hit the airwaves, they used pseudonyms such as "Adams & Fleisner" and "Tony Acardi", and formed various fictional bands and artists in which the members were models and dancers hired for cover photograph shoots and lip-synced to songs sung by Bergman, Hessing and session singers in live performances.

The album also contained three bonus tracks, progressive rock-style "Accident" and "Midsummer Switch", and "White Christmas", which was recorded but went unreleased.

[15] "Hit The Big Time", "Let Your Hair Hang Down" and "Teeny Bopper Band" were included in the compilation album Cat Nuggets, released by Red Bullet.

With his band Van Beukenstein, he played a "tribute to Catapult" at Haringrock in Katwijk aan Zee, and performed with them at the Bevrijdingsfestival on the Rijnplein on 5 May 2017.

[18][3] In 2020, "Hit The Big Time", "Let It Be True", "Let Your Hair Hang Down", "Performers Prayer", "Teeny Bopper Band", "Nightrake", "Seven Eleven", "Springtime Ballyhoo", "The Stealer", "Back On The Road Again", "Remember September", "See You Back In '86", "Here We Go", "Run For My Wife", "Disco Njet Wodka Da", "Didn't Sleep A Week Last Night", "Spanish Eyes", "The Highways And The By-Ways", "Schoolgirl", "Woman", "Accident", "Midsummer Switch" and "You Better Stay" (from Picture's Every Story Needs Another Picture) were released as part of the compilation album The Golden Years Of Dutch Pop Music by Universal.