Hank The Knife & The Jets

Biography

When Henk Bruijsten left Hollands no. 1 Rock and Roll band Long Tall Ernie & The Shakers to start up his own band, he contacted Pierre Beek, the bass player from the band Darling, with whom he had written "Love Centaur/Lazy Daisy" (1974). Darling's first and only single was issued on the Pink Elephant label but didn't enjoy much success.

However, luck struck when Henk Bruijsten formed Hank The Knife & The Jets in 1975, with Pierre (vocals and guitar), Jan van Haaften (bass guitar), Hans van Geffen (rhythm guitar) and Rob Mijnhart (drums).
Their first single "Guitar King" was an immediate hit, reaching no. 2 in the Dutch charts in May 1975, and remaining there for eleven weeks and in Germany even for twenty-seven weeks! Their follow up "Stan The Gunman" did even better and got to no. 1 in October that year, but their heavily underrated album "The Guitar King" didn't enjoy mass attention and failed to reach the album charts.
The band continued to produce catchy Rock 'n' Roll songs, but in 1976 their third single "Yesterday Star" got stuck at no. 14 and "Crazy Cat" at a disappointing no. 31.

By now Rob Mijnhart and Hans van Geffen had left the band. Mijnhart was replaced by ex-Trademark drummer Eugene Arts and Hans, who started his own Van Geffen Band, was replaced by ex-Long Tall Ernie & The Shakers guitarist Alfons Haket. When their single "Ennio" flops, in 1977, the band splits up.

Henk and Pierre continued as Hank The Knife & The Jets, bringing out the single "Johnny & Honey" but this didn't make the charts either. Another single "The Man With The Golden Guitar" wasn't even issued.
In 1978 Eugene Arts left to join Long Tall Ernie & The Shakers, and Henk, using the name Silverstone, brought out the single "So What", co-written with Pierre.

Bruijsten makes a comeback in 1979. A compilation album, "Golden Greats of Hank The Knife & The Jets" was issued by Bovema-Negram. Bruijsten now started up a new group Hank the Knife & The Crazy Cats. The Crazy Cats consisted of three girls from their hometown Arnhem: Yvonne Beyerink, Kitty Bruijsten and Letty Arts. Their 1980 single "Crazy Guitar" got to no. 5, but the next single, Diamonds only made second place in the Tip parade and the following "Crazy Guitar" album hardly sold at all.

However, a second "Best Of..." compilation album with old hit material was issued. When their single "Six Bass Man" also flopped, it was inevitable: they broke up. The Crazy Cats still made one more single together "Crazy, Crazy, Crazy", but things were going downhill.

But blood is thicker than water, so occasionally Hank The Knife & The Jets were reunited for a couple of times after which they fell into oblivion again.

Until Henk, Pierre, Alfons and Alan Macfarlane (drums) decided in January 2003 to perform again as Hank The Knife & The Jets. Untill death do us part, they promised!

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