Utrecht Roxx
July 2010
One time reunion of Graze at Hilversum Alive
Last weekend was the 12th edition of Hilversum Alive. Compared to the past year's editions, the band listing is quite thin. The one time reunion of Graze, however, is a good reason to still go to Hilversum.
Hilversum Alive always takes place in the last weekend of June. During three days, downtown Hilversum is transformed into a big festival area. Various stages, a fair and on Sunday an "All American Day" with old American motorcycles and cars.
As said before, the programming is this time less appealing than the past few editions. Reasons can be found in the financial crisis, economical downtimes and increased security measures. Almost every festival is hit by this nowadays. Despite this, downtown Hilversum is still packed with people. Four years ago, we witnessed two talented Dutch Rock Bands at Hilversum alive, both in the same atmosphere as the Dutch Rock chick "Anouk". These bands were Graze and Gemstone. The latter broke up only one year later. Graze did not give up that quickly. With their sucessful EP "Hesitate" the band even made to stages in the USA and UK. Changes in the band lineup, however, didn't work out for the better. Therefore, today the curtain will fall for Graze as well. Graze was started in the late nineties by drummer Nout Arends.
The band grew and developed throughout the years. With bass player Chris Cavone, guitar player Albert-Jan Vink and singer Liane Hoogeveen, the right lineup was found. Later, producer Dick Kok joined as 2nd guitarist. Two years ago, things started going wrong. First guitarist Albert-Jan Vink left the band, to be followed a few months later by singer Liane Hoogeveen. She is now the vocalist in the band of blues legend Ted Oberg.
The former guitarist from Livin’ Blues is present today in the audience. After departure of Albert-Jan and Liane, Graze didn't give up. A new guitarist was found in Ivar Leliveld. However, finding a vocalist to be a right match was a completely different story. Subsequently came and went: Mirjam Zippora, Vicky van Zijl and Claudia de Graaf.
Each are good vocalists, but seemed not to be the right match. After a live performance of Graze in the Utrecht venue Stairway to Heaven in the fall of last year, things turned silent around the band from Hilversum. The good news reached us a few weeks ago. Graze will be recording a new EP in the old line up with Albert-Jan Vink and Liane Hoogeveen. The bad news is that this will be last act of Graze. It was decided to do one more live show with this lineup. It was initially planned to release the new EP at this gig. Unfortunately, the recordings haven't finished so we'll have to wait a bit more for the disc with new material. The last show takes place today on the large stage of "De Doelen" on Market Square, where the band had played before during Hilversum Alive and Hilversum On Air festivals. It's early in the afternoon when the goodbye show starts. It's still a bit quiet on the Market Square, but when Graze starts playing it gets busier quickly. Nevertheless, everone stays at a safe distance from the stage on the large square. The band shows they're evidently having a good time. Graze opens with "Halleluyah" and "Hesitation". Both songs are from the EP "Hesitate". The other two tracks from this EP are played at the end of the set. Also tracks come by from the demo EP from 2006: "My Plate", "Appreciated" and "Never doubt". We also hear more recent tracks, such as "You Say" and "A little too late", which will appear on the to be released EP.
Today Graze ends her (live) career with a terrific performance. We could one more time see the band in with its best lineup. It was an unexpected but pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, it was also the very last time. What remains is the EP that will be released shortly.
