Bevrijdingspop Haarlem 2013: Van Velzen

You can listen to 'Sing sing sing' here.

This is instalment 3 of this year's Bevrijdingspop.

Of course I had heard his name before, I had seen his appearance on tv, so I was not surprised by the size of Roel van Velzen, but after hearing his show, I can honestly say that I had never heard a song by Van Velzen before in my life, as far as I know. Nothing sounded familiar to me. I must have been the only one together with my girlfriend. The exception being the Bruno Mars cover 'Locked out of heaven'. The cool part for Van Velzen was that this did not make any difference to the enthusiasm of his audience, minus two. Or plus two. We had heard this song on the radio, so finally could sing along to something.

I'm gonna be honest here. I had expected a Nick & Simon act, but was treated to this pop, soul and supple poprock, played by a very good band and fronted by a near perfect singer. It is not that I am going to run to the record store, far from it, but I never had the idea that I was not entertained by Van Velzen. The audience was there for him, all the way. Dust clouds hovered over the audience from all the jumping around. Van Velzen had everyone captured from note one. Men, women, boys and girls were singing along. Roel van Velzen has charisma, is a real stage presence and gets adoration in return.

On me Van Velzen made the impression that Elton John makes on me. Mostly too clean pop songs, without an edge, with a few songs that really stick out. I will not be a fan, but very well done Mr. van Velzen and band. This was fun.

Wo.

You can order 'The rush of life' here