Kayak is a Dutch rock band formed by Ton Scherpenzeel and Pim Koopman in Hilversum in 1972.

[2] In 1999, the band was asked to perform on the TV show De Vrienden van Amstel Live.

After "The Last Encore" in 1976, he decided to leave the band; he was offered a job as a full-time producer, working with Dutch artists Maywood, Valensia, Robby Valentine, and Petra Berger.

Apart from drums, Koopman played occasional keyboards and guitar, as well as providing lead and backing vocals.

He became a lawyer, and in 2002, he became the Dutch State Secretary of Culture and Media in the short lived Balkenende 1 cabinet.

After the 2003 album Merlin – Bard of the Unseen, Veldkamp left Kayak because he could not combine his work in a band with his own career.

Long-time Kayak fan Edward Reekers became lead singer in 1978, when Max Werner changed to drums.

After that, he did two solo albums and worked as a backing vocalist, doing commercials, and lending his voice to cartoon films and children's TV shows.

From 1978 until 1981, Kayak was augmented by two female background singers; Katherine Lapthorn, wife of bassist Peter Scherpenzeel, sang on three studio albums.

Ton Scherpenzeel's wife Irene Linders not only sang backing vocals, but also developed into the band's main lyricist.

In 2003, female singer Cindy Oudshoorn joined Kayak for the Merlin album and tour, and she decided to stay.

He had previously worked with Sister Sledge amongst others, and played in the house band for many Dutch stage musicals.

But the sudden and unexpected death of Pim Koopman in November 2009 (halfway through the tour) made the future of the band uncertain.

Some of the names that appeared on stage: Pussycat, Karen Maywood, Alides Hidding, José Hoebee and Michael Robinson.

That excerpt was also released on an EP, backed by a newly recorded version of Symmetry, a song that Scherpenzeel and Koopman originally wrote in 1971.

In October 2014, both Edward Reekers and Cindy Oudshoorn announced that they would not take part in the live performances of the Cleopatra album in 2015.

At a one-off live performance of Cleopatra in March 2015 on the Dutch isle of Texel, Oudshoorn was replaced by Marjolein Teepen, who had worked with Kayak before.

In the summer of 2017, Kayak announced: "The band that will go on tour features keyboardist Ton Scherpenzeel, guitarist Marcel Singor and vocalist Bart Schwertmann, as well as bass player Kristoffer Gildenlöw (who can be heard on the new album 'Seventeen') and- recently added to the band- drummer Collin Leijenaar."