fifty years of Tos.
I first met Tos in 1998 on rock and roll tour in Western Europe. He and his amazing girlfriend Eef were the first two Dutch peeps I had ever spent any time with and I can trace my love affair with NL all the way back to the lounge of a Vanhool coach double clutching and weaving through Spain, France and Belgium on the wintery verge of 1999.
Today is Tos’ fiftieth birthday. He’s been one of my oldest friends, one of the most succinctly unique people I have ever met and also the first of my inner circle to make it to the half century mark.
We’ve been friends since the days when you could buy postage in Guilders at a state run post office in Amsterdam… He taught me my first (and best) Dutch curse, showed me how to roll a proper inside out cone (because overlap, often, is everything) and shared an unending love of etymology, science fiction writing, toys, 1960’s audio design and white asparagus.
Tos was at the cutting edge of Amsterdam Punk in the 1980’s, played in too many bands to list and has provided technical support to an even larger and fully impressive cast of Seminal Superstars.
He is the first true Phillips freak I would meet (but surely not the last), and has spent the last ten years extolling the history and virtue of the company to me. More than anything, Tos and Eef have been my Dutch cultural mentors, effortlessly educating me about local customs, Amsterdam living, squatters rights, the impossibly confusing politics of the city and country and cautiously correcting my horrid to non-existent Dutch pronunciation.
This of course, occurred over the course of a decade of the best dinner parties and terrace get togethers a wayward traveler could ever dream of.
The only thing more impressive than Tos’ Telefunken tube collection (which includes the most comprehensive box of SS stamped octals I have ever seen in one place) is their record collection, where our bond was really solidified.
Tos was the guy that turned me onto Split, the single record that arguably had more impact on my adult life and professional career than probably any other recording. There is not another man or woman alive you can find who will display a white label first edition pressing of a Humble Pie record the way Tos will: with pride, joy and sneaking, giddy lust. One will also have an equally impossible chance of finding another person out there who has the complete Utopia catalog on a shelf next to the known recordings from the Phillips Research Laboratories…
Endless nights of Soft Machine, Blue Cheer, early Alice Cooper and Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac have tuned my ears into the secret history of rock that few are privy to. All this played through a proper Phillips Hi-Fi replete with Amperex EL-84’s driving 800 ohm Phillips speakers. Yes, 800 ohm.
There is a very short list of people out there who have extended such unconditional patience, warmth and hospitality towards this often confused and wandering American. Tos and Eef, from the moment I met them have always made me feel like family. The experience of my life has forever been touched, impacted and redirected by the time I have spent with them, both in their home, around town in Amsterdam and on the road, rolling past blurred kilometer markers in the middle of the night, attached to the traveling circus, blazing the path of rock and roll.
I have some awesome people in my life and couldnt be more proud to call Tos a friend, and old friend and comrade.
Happy 50th Tos ! !! !