A Classic : "Moontan"

1973 "I been drivin' all night, my hands wet on the wheel..."

Up until that year, Golden Earring were only known to a few people like me who lived in the South East and listened to the Dutch pirate ships. "Radar Love" grabbed the rest of the unsuspecting rock music fraternity and assaulted them with what had become one of the most impressive rhythm sections in the genre, driving a classic song that everyone knows and remembers. But Moontan's five tracks opened up for me   Golden Earring's exciting vision of Continental Europe, a sophisticated world of fast cars and faster, treacherous women. They came to play in Portsmouth one evening; Cesar Zuiderwijk vaulting over his drumkit, Rinus Gerritsen laying down epic driving basslines, George Kooymans, the quiet architect, and Barry Hay, the consummate frontman oozing Dutch self confidence with his flawless English. But even then I would never imagine that this band which started before the Beatles would still be playing its classy European rock in live gigs 50 years after the first pirate ships set sail. True rock and roll resilience!