Ir. Vendermeulen

Ir.Vendermeulen (Amsterdam) is known for promoting the sound of what he calls 'The Golden Era of Music": the rare and beautiful lost treasures of the 50's-early 70's.He does this through his deejaying, playing the saxophone and organising cool parties.

In the early 80's he deejayed and held his first parties in/around Haarlem and Amsterdam, which where R'n'R/R'n'B/Soul/Ska-nights.
In '98 deejay-duo De Teutonics was formed together with dear friend Gerrit-Jan van Ham, specialising in what they called "BuleBule à Go-Go": a blend of French YéYé, 60's Europop, Soul, Beat and Crazy Cover-versions from all around the world. The duo worked together for 5 years.

In 2003, as a reaction to the poor nightclub-action at that time, Ir.Vendermeulen started Amsterdam BeatClub with friends and colleague deejays Charley Rhythm, Wilf Plum, Eddy de Clercq and Piet Popcorn. These parties often featured live bands and singers, Burlesque and à Go-Go-dancers and veejay-visuals. First starting out at ultra-small underground venues, ABC soon turned out to be a huge succes and with that more parties came and venues grew..
Nowadays Amsterdam BeatClub is produced by 'The Dynamic Duo" Ir.Vendermeulen and Charley Rhythm and it's widely considered an important Dutch organisation for Vintage Music, with a steady following from around the country and outside.

In 2007 The Dynamic Duo teamed up with manager Koos van Dijk to do a series of Burlesque-parties called Tease-à-GoGo at The Comedy Theater in Amsterdam. These were Holland's first Burlesque all-nighters and finally Burlesque had the platform it needed so long and a Burlesque movement could develop. The parties where an instant succes and after this Burlesque FreakOut was started, which is still going strong today!
Having years of experience in producing, promoting, hosting and organizing Amsterdam BeatClub and Burlesque parties, Ir.Vendermeulen brings his practice to clubs, companies, festivals and private parties to put together complete events.

Over the years Ir.Vendermeulen's musical tastes developed, broadening as well as deepening, but always the fantastic "Golden Era"-sound kept his main interest.
As deejay the Ir. likes to dig deep and he's best known for his sets filled with steamin', groovin', often obscure, but always soulful vinyl, mainly played from original 45's.
Main ingredients include Soul, Beat, R'n'R, YéYé, Boogaloo, Funk, Ska, Surf, Boogie, Exotica, Mod-Jazz, Burlesque, Popcorn, R'n'B, 60's Garage, all 50's/70's dancefloor killers!
Together with Charley Rhythm he has d/vj-duo The Scopi-Tonics and at times even did put on a show as Batman&Robin!

As Baritone/Alto-saxophonist Ir.Vendermeulen (often using his aka, Mr.Mills) has worked with great musicians and groups, too many to name here..
Nowadays his main band is Mod&Crime-Jazz group WestHell 5 and he does side-projects with people like Sue Moreno and La Sirène.
In 2007 Ir.Vdm formed a group of Dutch musicians for gigs and recordings with Jacqueline Taïeb, transforming her all-time 60's Garage-classic "7h du Matin" into "7h du Soir".
In 2006/09 the Ir. did gigs and recorded material with Rhythm&Tunes-band The Spinshots. Some tracks were recorded for the Serge Gainsbourg tribute-album "Gainsnord".
In 2009, together with The Anacondas, a live soundtrack was made during projection of the Cult-movie "King Kong vs Godzilla" (Jap.'63) for Rocket Cinema). Also he recorded some tunes for The Anacondas' new album to be released in autumn 2010.

Last but not least, the Ir. can sometimes be heard as thereminist, for instanse in "Music To Be Murdered By", a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock.

There are many plans for projects, parties and recordings in the future ..the best is yet to come!