Herman Brood

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:Herman brood.jpg Herman Brood (pronounced "Broat" /bro:t/; Zwolle, November 5, 1946 – Amsterdam, July 11, 2001) was a Dutch musician, painter and media personality. Brood was the Dutch personification of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll.

After playing piano in Cuby and the Blizzards and several other bands since 1964, Brood started his own group, Herman Brood and His Wild Romance, in 1977. The band had their first hit single, Saturday Night, in 1978. But even more than his music, it was his outspoken statements in the press about sex and drug use that made Herman Brood famous in the Netherlands. For a while in the early Eighties he was romantically involved with similarly outrageous German artist, Nina Hagen, with whom he appeared together in the movie Cha Cha. Brood relished the media attention and became the most famous hard drug user of the Netherlands. In the 1990s he took up painting and became as successful as a painter as he was as a musician.

With the band 'Herman Brood and his Wild Romance' he made his best known album 'Schpritz' (a play on the German word for injection needle), containing anti-drug use songs like 'Dope Sucks', but also 'Saturday Night'. Brood swore off most drugs, reducing his drug use to alcohol and a daily shot of speed. When in 2001, he found out that he had only a few months left to live, Herman took matters into his own hands and, depressed by the failure of his drug rehabilitation programme, committed suicide on July 11 by jumping off the Amsterdam Hilton at the age of 54.

[1]

1 Herman Brood, the artist
2 Discography
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit]

Herman Brood, the artist

Although Herman Brood was famous mostly among music fans outside of Holland, in his own country of origin he is primarily known and loved for his contributions to public art, particularly for creating murals in different public places in Amsterdam. Most art critics still have a hard time trying to describe the unique Herman Brood style, but many of his murals have definitely made a great contribution to the ever young beauty of the Dutch capital.

Herman Brood had a great impact on the following generation of Dutch street and public artists. See also:

Herman Brood as an artist

[edit]

Discography

Street (1977)
Shpritsz (1978)
Cha Cha (1978)
Go Nutz (1980)
Wait a Minute... (1980)
Modern Times Revive (1981)
Frisz & Sympatisz (1982)
The Brood (1984)
Bühnensucht/Live (1985)
Yada Yada (1988)
Hooks (1989)
Freeze (1990)
Saturday Night Live! (1992)
Fresh Poison (1994)
50 The Soundtrack (1996)
Ciao Monkey (2000)

50 The Soundtrack is a tribute album for Herman's 50th birthday, on which he sings duets with various guests.

[edit]

Trivia

Herman Brood never made it big in the US, but a poster of 'Herman Brood and his Wild Romance' can be seen in the Cronenberg film Scanners (about 53 minutes into the film).

[edit]