BIOGRAPHY:

The Flying Tygers were formed early 2008, as a spin-off from garage-surfheads the Raving Bonkers.
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Here, we start at the beginning and since the Raving Bonkers bit is essential to the Flying Tygers (hey, they even share the same line-up nowadays), we get into the Raving Bonkers first:

(This may take some time to load... photos by Maaike Geevers)

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These wildmen of surf have been around for a couple of years now. The whole thing started as a one-off afternoon of surfing fun with 'Mijnheer' Timon Grob on drums, Sander Mast on bass (both of Dr Reverb) and Eric Geevers (Ace-Tones, Link Wray, Napoleons etc) on guitar. Some recordings of this fruitful afternoon in 2001 appeared on the internet and even on the "Motor Rock" compilation CD, released by Motorwolf records.
This was the first time the band name 'the Raving Bonkers' was used.
Some time later, a short-lived sixties garage rock band band called The Hepburns (with Sander and Eric, plus Ace-Tones/Link Wray drummer Rob Louwers and Dr Reverb guitarist Willem Verbuyst) were asked to play a set of instrumental surf tunes. Rob bailed out, but the others liked the idea and drummer Barry Esbroek joined for that evening. The band played on teardrop Vox guitars (one six-string, one twelve-string). Again, it was meant to be a one-off thing, and just one afternoon of rehearsal was all they had. They made up for their being inevitably sloppy by going a full 120% berzerk on stage, fuelled by the free cans of lager, and an audience going wild with the band.
Even the band name wasn't certain at that stage; the band was billed as "Los Hepburns", and they referred to themselves as "Hepburn 69" (referring to Barry's surf band Ward 69). Yes, this first gig was pretty wild.
It was only when they were asked to play some more of these 'garage-surf' gigs that the band name The Raving Bonkers was adopted again: instead of a 'backdrop', the band had the lid of a pizza box with 'FUCK ART LET'S ROCK'N'ROLL - WE ARE THE RAVING BONKERS" written on it pinned to the wall behind them. And while the Hepburns silently vanished, the Raving Bonkers flourished...
The 12-string lead guitar gives the band just that different kind of feel, and with a stage show that's wild beyond your average surf combo, dressed in badly fitting suits, the Raving Bonkers play everywhere. From jazz clubs to metal hangouts, from skate festivals to venues like Paradiso and De Melkweg - and people dig their kind of mayhem!
The Vox guitars were given a rest when the band started using Squier 51 guitars and matching Fender bass. A cute 3" CD titled "For The Love Of Sweet Fanny Adams" was released and got some, er, raving reviews in national magazines. However, playing live is what the band is all about.
After a couple of years and a long list of gigs, Willem left - with Jochem Jonkman taking over his guitar. In 2007 Sjors van Roosmalen took over the bass from Sander... but both ex-Bonkers are frequently seen at Bonkers gigs!

This, too, started as just another idea, never meant to be seriously going places...
(These tygers are bonkers... photo, again, by Maaike)
...and it was probably when the band was in a state like the above (l-r: Willem, Barry, Eric, Jochem and Sander), that someone said:
"Why don't we start playing on Flying V guitars, then call ourselves the Flying Tygers, and do exactly the same thing as the Bonkers... same songs and all. And continue playing as the Raving Bonkers as well... How long would it take people to notice that there's two bands doing exactly the same thing?" - "Yeah! The Flying V is a 1957 design, so that would be just about right!"
It was, indeed, just another idea. Until Eric bought a cheap Flying V and modified that into a 12-string (most of the Bonkers/Tygers guitars is seriously tinkered with!). There was no way back... but by the time the band had dug up a cheap V-bass and another cheap V guitar for Jochem, the idea had grown into "what if Eric dusts off his old Vox organ, too", "wouldn't it be cool if we did some of those sixties garage punk songs", and "I have some songs written in the last couple of months that would fit right in". Before they knew it, a handful of songs was recorded, and things started to snowball from then on.
Fred Cole (of Lollipop Shoppe/Dead Moon/Pierced Arrows fame) wanted to release a split 7" EP of Bonkers/Tygers on his Tombstone label, a (now defunct) local band called 4for1 asked if the Tygers wanted to headline their gig at the biggest venue in town... and then, it was about bloody time for Eric, Jochem, Sjors and Barry to start rehearsing.
Recording songs leap-frog-wise is one thing, but cramming a whole set of songs into a hard-punching set... in short, whereas the Raving Bonkers famously never rehearsed (estimated it's "gigs:rehearsals=10:1"), the Flying Tygers have to work a bit harder than that. Especially when they introduced weird shit like a theremin built into one of the V's... like, hey, I told you they tinker with guitars!
The second gig was a support act for Pierced Arrows, and after the third gig (at 'Koornbeurs Open Air') the Flying Tygers were asked to play the Westerpop Festival that anually attracts some 17.000 (that's se-ven-teen-thou-sand!) visitors.
Not bad, indeed. The Friday night of the Westerpop festival is not just a great opportunity to play, it's also a contest: the winner gets a huge trophy, the "Peter Tetteroo Bokaal", and a full year of band suppport by the Westerpop team. The Flying Tygers brought in Sem Mol (of Lonely Friends) guest starring on trumpet for two songs, and recklessly played a song they had rehearsed only once (the night before). Guess what? They walked away with the prize.
What followed was the usual: gigging, recording... until another band involving Jochem and Barry took off in a way that forced them to leave the Flying Tygers. A friendly split and all that, but there has been some line up changes since then, with Dorien Meijsing taking over the guitar for well over a year. When she had to focus on other activities (like het amazing 'Constellations' projects!), one gig was even done as a trio with Eric jumping from guitar to organ and back - luckily Lisanne brought her sax for one song as well. Jonathan van der Haak filled the drum seat for quite a while; after that, Rob Louwers joined and left (being too busy touring with the Fuzztones), so did Bart van Halderen. We're now happy to have Remco Cornelissen (drums) on board, along with Tim 'Dead Cat Stimpy' Herrebrugh (on guitar) and let me tell you... this feels like a band ready to take on the world. From most of these line-ups there are at least some recordings, a split EP of the Flying Tygers and Manimal was released in February 2013, the album 'Radio Action! The early years of the Flying Tygers' (clocking in at over 79 minutes) was released Spring 2014, gigs leave both band and audience with huge grins on their faces, and there's plenty of material for a new album.


The Flying Tygers are:

Eric Geevers - lead vocal, Vox/Farfisa organ, guitar and things
Tim Herrebrugh - lead guitar and vocals
Sjors van Roosmalen - bass guitar and vocals
Remco Cornelissen - drums and cymbals
and maybe, occasionally you will hear:
Lisanne van der Valk - saxophone

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