The Actor - Exploded View,tape,1982,Netherlands

Before The Actor became The Actor, singer and songwriter Marcel Reimer joined a band called Gil Galad, named after one of Tolkien’s legendary characters. The band consisted of two brothers, Arthur Steenkist (guitar) and Peter (drums). Since Gil Galad had no bass player, Marcel took up the bass guitar and thus the band gigged the south of The Netherlands. Not just the name was inspired on Tolkien’s work. Even some of Gil Galad’s songs had a high ‘Hobbit’ level. ‘The Kobold Song’ was one of the favorites. Sung in German, it told the story of an evil Kobold (dwarf) who turned the narrator into a frog …When Marcel started to work as a graphic designer with Vinyl Magazine in 1980, he got influenced by the New Musical Wave that was going on in Amsterdam. Bands like Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, Fad Gadget and DAF were becoming increasingly popular. Marcel decided that it was time to change Gil Galad into a synthesizer band. To get this done, the band contacted two synthesizer players, one of them being Sander Horsthuis.The five members of Gil Galad were having a jam session playing only one chord (A minor) wich was to become The Actor’s destinctive sound. Marcel thought up the lyrics as he was singing, thus giving birth to The Actor, which was the main character in the song Unreal Personality, that resulted from the jam session.Fed up with the name and musical concepts of Gil Galad, Marcel transformed the band into The Actor. Arthur got hold of a synthesizer and the band played their first ever real concert in Paradiso (Amsterdam). The band’s repertoire had completely changed, and the critics were very positive.Arthur and Peter didn’t approve much of the band’s newly found direction, so they decided to leave The Actor. Marcel teamed up with Sander Horsthuis whom he knew very well from Art School. The Actor had become a dynamic duo .In the beginning of the eighties, a new phenomenon emerged: home taping. All kinds of obscure underground bands recorded their music using the so called “ping-pong” method. With the help of two cassette decks, musicians first recorded the basetracks on one of the machines. Then playing back the music through a primitive mixing console and adding more tracks live, while the second machine was recording. This way of making music resulted in a lot of noise in the background of the song (and sometimes in the forground). But that was less important then getting one’s music published.Sander Horsthuis and Marcel Reimer bought themselves several primitive synthesizers (Korg MS 20, Crumar Performer, Casio VL_tone and a Soundmaster SR-88 drum machine) and started recording their material. All songs and lyrics were written by Marcel, but the final product was always the result of close co-operation of the two.One well known label for cassette-bands in those days was Trumpett Tapes from Heiloo (Netherlands). They were the first to publish the music of The Actor, who became the best selling Cassette Band in 1982 and 1983.The band’s first release was Exploded View in 1982. To view the complete contents, go to [The Actor’s Songbook]. Since both Sander and Marcel were students on one of the best Art Schools in Holland, they of course designed their own cassette cover, showing an exploded view of a music cassette. The songs - in English and German - often related to fashion, modern times, dancing and appearence. This made The Actor ‘quite fashionable’.The Actor was also performing live throughout The Netherlands. Positive reviews in Dutch Music Magazines resulted in sold out Club Concerts. Some of the places The Actor gigged were Paradiso, De Melkweg, Music Center Vredenburg, Hal 4 and many more.Rehearsals were always combined with recording of the songs’ basic tracks for live performance. The Actor used a tape machine on stage to play along with. Sometimes, people from the audience were quite surprised to see the musicians not striking the keys while the music played on …
A New Concept Every Day
The Actor’s second music project was called A New Concept Every Day. It was the year 1984. The New Wave scene had reached its peak. In 1982 and 83, The Actor recorded some twenty songs, which were mostly performed live. Some of the songs remained in the band’s repertoire, some disappeared. One of the forgotten songs turned out to be a clear sight of the future. This song is called “40-50-60″ and is about the race between art and advertising. By now, advertising gained up on art and sets the tone.Some of the lyrics on A New Concept … were written by the band’s manager Griselda Visser, who later became a popular tv presentor. Romanza Della Discoteca and Mr. Cool were written by her.A New Concept Every Day also introduced a third band member. Sabien Jilesen was a good looking girl with a golden voice. On Simple Pop, the band secretly recorded her screams and sighs and made the Song one of the most popular Actor-songs ever. During the presentation of A New Concept … in the Mazzo discotheque in Amsterdam, The Actor continued to sing Simple Pop a capella long after the song had finished! The audience was given a special edition of two of the new Actor songs on a limited edition cassette.Using better equipment like a Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, a Roland TB-303, a Roland SH-101 and a Yamaha DX-9 polyphonic synthesizer (nowadays considered ‘must-haves’), the material sounded better than before. Deep bass sounds and very danceble beats made the popsongs of The Actor very popular in all kinds of clubs.But, the second album also introduced a new sound with Le Champ d’Honneur. No funeral would ever be the same again. The song became the opening of almost every performance.The Actor was in high demand. They continued playing the Dutch club scene and performed live next to Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and Fad Gadget. Sander and Marcel gathered a steadily growing number of fans around them. They were frequently seen in the club ‘Spock’ where the crowd often danced their heads off to The Actor’s music on tape.
From THE ACTOR's website

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