•  It was around spring 1989. We were still going strong with 1st Avenue. Though recording our debut album went slow. We had a deal with the famous Bolland brothers (Falco-Amadeus, Status Quo-In the Army Now) And we recorded in their Bolland-Studios, however mostly in the dead hours. Nevertheless the result was satisfying and we had finished 4 tracks so far : Going For The Gold, When The Night Is Gone, Never Too Late To Live, the intro, which I all wrote. Except the first, I wrote together with guitar player Gil Lopez and singer Peter Strykes. Okkie Huysdens produced and engineered it. But those songs alone almost took a whole year to get finished because of the limited studio time. And we got very impatient. At that time I developed a big hunger to sing my own songs and start a solo career. It was my wish from the very beginning ever when I was an infant. But although I sung before in Spoiled Brats and on demos I made for Line and 1 st Avenue I thought I could never become a lead singer. Suffering from asthma and hay- fever and a million allergies always made and still makes it very difficult to sing freely.

At that time I was already tired after singing one verse. But I just couldn’t ignore my biggest dream anymore. And decided to go for it. Starting with singing lessons from Elly de Jong to get my voice in better shape, doing all I could in that era. To prepare myself and satisfy my ego of really becoming a front-man. I never liked being in the shades on the stage. Didn’t want to be in the back like a drummer. Always wanted my keyboards at the front. (That is at the side. In the middle would be ridiculous, even I would agree on that.) But I was stuck behind the rack of keyboards. Being wild, posing and weird behind it didn’t really compensate the frustration too much. I just had to be the front man.

Ok, still spring 1989. 1 st Avenue was a real technical and virtuoso hard-rock band. They were all very good on their instruments. Technically great and easy to get bored when an arrangement was too simple for them to play. I was the main writer of the band so the musical direction lied on my shoulders. And I wanted to go a more melodic AOR direction. So I wrote new songs with a more open approach. A bit Vixen, Toto, Heart. However I sensed they were not that thrilled with it and got bored with what I wanted them to play. At the same time I gained good contacts with the management of melodic Rock-band Zinatra, who initially asked me to play keyboards with them at their European tour as support act for the legendary David Lee Roth band. But in those days it was kind of a betrayal to play with another band, even for temporary and especially if it was the competition. You just had to stay exclusive. So I threw away that great opportunity.

But I kept contact with them and once they heard my demos the ones most of the guys in 1 st Avenue didn’t really like (I’m searching, Only Love, Love Never Dies, Unknown Skies, Forever and Ever) they offered me to help me to find a publishing and a recording contract. Zinatra was the most popular rockband in Holland at that time, they were close to the fire. Recording in the great Wisseloord studio’s, having chart-successes. And their management had the contacts. It was an offer I was waiting for and too good to deny. But then the difficult part came. I had to tell my friends from 1 st Avenue. Especially nowadays it seems ridiculous, because everyone has different projects and bands, but with us and in those days, like I said before, it could feel as a big betrayal. But anyway, I was ignorant enough to think I could set up a solo career besides the band and didn’t want to leave them at all. And they didn’t like my new songs anyway, so I would use them for myself. But once I told them they didn’t accept it. No way in the world it was possible for me to do both. They felt I was betraying them big time. So I lost my best friends. Later on I regained my friendship with some of them. Especially singer Peter Strykes is still one of my best friends to this day.

But at that time especially he felt I could only do one thing. I remember meeting them for the last time, outside of our rehearsal place to talk about it all, but only got hostile looks and mean, angry remarks. That I let them down, leaving them in the shit and all that sort of stuff… Funny enough I didn’t want to leave them at all. But didn’t want to give up my solo aspirations. That was a black day in my life. Losing my friends. I remember crying on the car when their anger came down on me. Nobody cared, nobody came to their senses. No normal conversation was possible. We were too young and too emotional to be able to talk it over with sensible arguments. There was only pain and betrayal we could feel. I rushed off with spinning wheels, tears in my eyes and a big ‘fuck you too’ in my mind. More determined than ever to go for my goals.

I just had this 8-track Fostex ¼ inch-tape multi-track recorder so I could make my demos better. I was recording and writing continuously. With endlessly bouncing the tracks I made it able to approach the harmony vocals I had in mind. My friend Johan Willems was a big help. Everytime I needed him he came as quickly as he could. And we spend hours and hours of singing the harmonies together. Right from the beginning when we were teenagers and started to record our voices together, there was a great chemistry in our sound. Something really special. I was satisfied with the songs I came up with and believed they were good enough to get me anywhere. I felt I was on the right track. At that time I adapted the name Valentine. As my real name Robert Marco Kempe didn’t really sound good for a Rock-artist and I needed to get a much more suitable name for the sound I created. I always loved the names like Prince, Madonna. Wanted to find something with that same feel to it. And I liked the letter V. It stands for victory, and it just looked great to me. And it could also be a good connotation to love because a lot of my songs were about it and about the pain that comes out of it. But the love aspect was rather small in the name. It has nothing to do with Valentine’s day as far as I am concerned. And back then in Holland the whole Valentine’s-day commerciality we now get shovelled down our throats was not there at all at the time. So no one would even connect that aspect to it.

So I became VALENTINE. But unfortunately I later discovered there was already a band using the name. So I decided to put Robbie in front of it. Later before the release of my first single changed into Robby. And again later returned to Valentine because the band in question changed their name. and I was free to use it again. During that time of making my demo’s Zinatra asked me to become their keyboard player just temporary, until my own career would take off. I agreed. Their producer Erwin Musper wanted a couple of my songs for their new album. I also agreed, but managed to keep one song they wanted for myself: "Heaven Is Calling". That was the song I wrote after leaving 1 st Avenue. Very important to me at that time. It’s about how hurt, lonely and misunderstood I felt, losing my friends, but at the same time determined to give it all, and not to give in. I always had these destructive suicidal feelings, not able to cope with the feeling I don’t belong anywhere. And that always gets stronger when losing important people, of course. There was one more song they really wanted to have on their/our "The Great Escape" album, and was also very important to me: "Love Never Dies". It’s about Liesbeth, my backdoor neighbour-girl, who took her own life April that year. She was only 18 years old. That was of course a huge tragedy in the neighbourhood. Because it was so personal I didn’t want to let that song go either, but we agreed I could share the lead-vocals with Zinatra’s singer Joss Mennen. ( 8/9 years later I recorded it again on the "No Sugar Added" album, since I was not too satisfied with the version we did with Zinatra.) For my songs on "The Great Escape" the management got me a publishing deal with Polygram Music Publishing. With president Frank Wisse. Months went by and I sensed the management wasn’t so keen on finding me a solo deal. They rather wanted me to stay with Zinatra much longer. While I was busy trying to write AOR stuff I liked and that I thought A&R managers would want to hear, nothing happened.

Strangely enough the recording of Zinatra’s 2 nd album started with getting all my keyboards on tape first, so when the band continued the recording I was free to work on my own songs again. I decided to give up the 3/4 minute-making catchy tunes-rule and began to work on something I wanted to do for a long time. Making my own Bohemian Rhapsody. That is : Starting off soft, as a ballad and then bursting out into bombast. An epical piece of music, no limits whatsoever. That was "I Believe In You". I was really pleased with that song. Eager to play it to everyone I knew. Erwin was mixing the Zinatra album and I played it to him. Being a Queen-fan himself he loved it and got the management to call my publisher Frank Wisse to come over. That was a landmark in my life. We were in Wisseloord studio 1, having a Zinatra listening session for the songs Erwin had mixed so far. Then in the end he put on the cassette of my 8-track demo of "I Believe In You". Even for a silly 8-track recording it sounded huge on those big speakers of the control room. A magical moment. My then girlfriend (whom I called angel) my first big love, was by my side. The song was partly about her. She grabbed my arm when the sound at level 10 filled the room with magic. Something was really happening. Frank Wisse was very impressed. Took it immediately to the 4 major record companies in Holland and they all wanted to sign me. I chose Polydor because they did the best offer and also because I got a very good feeling with their A&R manager Paul Brinks.

Beginning of 1990 the deal was there. I wanted Erwin Musper to do the album. But had to wait for him until he finished a Scorpions record. So I had time to write a few more songs and get myself perfectly prepared for the big nerve-wrecking adventure, getting into the big studio alone for the first time. Finally September 1990 the recording started.

To Be Continued . . .