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Record label: Polydor

Produced: The Outsiders

Recorded: GTB Studios, The Hague; spring—summer 1968

Released: October 1968

Chart Peaks: None (UK) None (US)

Personnel: Wally Tax (v, g, hm, o, pc, flute, vibes, balalaika); Ronny Splinter (g, b, bv); Frank Beek (b, g, o, p, bv, vibes); Buzz (d, pc, bv, mouth harp).

Track listing: Misfit; Zsarrahh; CQ; Daddy Died On Saturday; It Seems Like Nothing’s Gonna Come My Way Today; Doctor; The Man On The Dune; The Bear; Happyville; You’re Everything On Earth; Wish You Were Here With Me Today; I Love You No. 2; Prisonsong

Current CD: Pseudonym VP99008

Further listening: Strange Things Are Happening: The Complete Singles Collection (2002)

Further reading: www.alexgitlin.com/outsider.htm (fan site)

Download: Not currently legally available

It’s easy to forget that at the height of the ’60s, rock’n’roll was alive and kicking in the most unexpected places. And arguably nowhere outside the UK and the US had a more fertile scene than Holland, home of the now-legendary ‘Nederbeat’ scene, where great bands like Q65, Group 1850, Sandy Coast and the Motions were churning out high quality records that were barely released abroad. Few would dispute, though, that the greatest Dutch band of all was The Outsiders, who never recorded a song they hadn’t written and in 1968 produced the mighty CQ.

Led by the androgynous Wally Tax, they’d been playing the dives up and down the seafront of the Hague for years, honing their musicianship in front of a transient audience largely comprised of rowdy sailors. In this period they grew impressively hard-hitting, their magnificent, adrenaline-filled set captured on their live March 1967 debut – such was their power that they reportedly blew the Stones off stage when supporting them in 1966. Releasing a string of punchy hit singles like the raunchy Touch, the melodic Monkey On My Back and the gritty That’s Your Problem, in the summer of 1967 they had a Dutch smash with the uncharacteristically fey Summer Is Here. This success encouraged Polydor to grant them total freedom in recording their second album early the following year.

Closeted in the studio for months on end, The Outsiders experimented with new instruments and sounds, massively expanding their repertoire without losing any of the focus or drive displayed on their singles. The crunching opener, Misfit, announces itself with an ominous bass riff before dementedly energetic drums and guitar crash in. Its unusual, jerky structure typifies the unconventional approach of the album. On the spacey, claustrophobic title track (which could be mistaken for Can or even Radiohead) waves of static wash from speaker to speaker as Tax increasingly desperately cries ‘do you receive me?’ over a mesmerising groove.

Few releases of the time could boast such varied fare or ferocious delivery, but when CQ appeared in 1968 (in a striking yellow pop art sleeve) it bombed and the band disintegrated. Less than 1,000 copies are thought to have been sold, making the recent reissue especially welcome. Though The Outsiders can be compared superficially to the Stones or The Pretty Things, on CQ they developed a sound all of their own and proved that they could hold their own alongside anyone – and that means anyone.