DVD in the making

06 Dec 2011 by Hans

Hello,

Tonight is our show in Gouda and we're gonna use that opportunity to record the show for a DVD. Exciting!!
Everybody is asking for a CD but to us a DVD of this show makes much more sense. One of the comments in a newspaper once was "music to look at" and I think that is so true so seeing us sing in this show will be a much better memory than "just" our voices on CD.
You can still follow us (and everybody who contributes there on Facebook.
Feel free to drop by and comment on what you've seen and heard.
Time is going fast and now we only have 17 show left to go before the last one in Helmond on December 29.
So hurry if you haven't seen Montezuma's Revenge Strikes Back yet!

After premiere glow

14 Oct 2011 by Hans

Hello everybody!
I have to confess we are not as busy at this site as we used to be.
For those of you who are on Facebook: a lot more is going on there.
But thanks everybody for the great compliments! We had our opening night last Monday (October 10th) and we couldn't have been happier. Everything worked out great and it all went like we hoped for.
It's great touring again and the reactions in the theaters we visited are great.
So please tell all your friends and family to visit us on one of our shows. We got plenty of them till December 29th. So check out our touring list.
See you!

photo by Andy Doornhein

HET IS WAAR!

27 May 2011 by Hans

Het gonsde al een tijdje in de wandelgangen en het klopt!
Nadat een aantal theaters met de vraag kwam of Montezuma niet weer eens wat kon ondernemen hebben we de koppen bij elkaar gestoken. Zo'n kans laat je niet liggen natuurlijk dus het resultaat is: er komt een najaarstournee;
Montezuma's Revenge Strikes Back .

Na een kleine vier jaar een winterslaap of zomerreces of herfstdepressie is het nu tijd voor een voorjaarsschoonmaak. Dat klinkt alsof we eens de bezem hebben gehaald door de bezetting. En dat klopt ook eigenlijk wel, zij het dan dat dat een gevolg was van het feit dat niet alle leden van de laatste bezetting aan deze aanstaande tournee konden meewerken. Vandaar dat we vanaf september met twee gloednieuwe zangers op de proppen komen. Tom Schraven en Robbert van Unnik vervangen Sanne en Bert.
Deze site is natuurlijk hopeloos achterhaald maar omdat het nog wel even duurt voordat alles weer werkt en geüpdatet (ja echt, je schrijft het zo) is, dus tot die tijd heb ik een ] facebookpagina in het leven geroepen waar je veel meer kunt lezen en horen over de nieuwe bezetting. Het gaat om een groepspagina met de naam Montezuma's Revenge... Daar staat ook een voorlopig tourlijstje. De uitgebreide versie volgt zodra ik hem binnen heb. We doen maar liefst zo'n 70 theaters aan tussen 23 september en 30 december 2011 dus allicht dat er iets tussen zit.
Ook een van de fanpagina's heeft er een item aan besteed. Valt ook uit te checken!

Wij verheugen ons enorm en hopen jullie ook! Tot snel!

Mede namens Paul, Menno, Robbert en Tom, Seb en onze nieuwe lichttechnicus Tom van Hooff,
Hans

FAREWELL AND FAREWELL PARTY, February 5th, Schouwburg Leiden

02 Jan 2008 by Hans

foto: Lodi van der Weerden

First of all, now that we've said goodbye to 2007 I want to wish everybody a very happy 2008. We wish you good health, love and happiness and that all your dreams may come true.
A lot of you have already come forward with your "dream" during last December, in expressing the feeling that it is so sad that Montezuma has stopped and "how can we ever see you sing together again?" not knowing then that this opportunity would soon take place.
There will be an official farewell party! Karel de Rooij, the director of our program Pop Art has taken the initiative of organizing this happening on February 5th at the Schouwburg in Leiden. Part of the show is also a surprise for us but of course we will sing too!
You can (read: have to) but tickets to this special concert. Up till now I haven't seen it in the official program on the site of the Leidse Schouwburg but I would just call their ticket office and order your tickets.
It is also your opportunity to buy the DVD of the Montezuma Code there, since we will have the copies ready by then.
So let's agree to make it a huge celebration!!!

Now that we have really stopped, this is also the moment to thank everybody who contributed to the great times we have experienced during 23 years of a cappella pop, both on artistic side as well as on the audience side. Without all of you, it wouldn't have happened at all!
We can look back and be proud, so that is exactly what we'll do!!

foto: Lodi van der Weerden

Stil in mij... It's oh so quiet...

18 Sep 2007 by Hans

Dit wordt een treurig nieuwsitem...
Het seizoen gaat bijna weer beginnen en is gevuld met theateroptredens, een aantal schoolvoorstellingen, een reisje naar Wenen en een fanclubdag.

Maar daarna wordt het stil.

Na 23 geweldige jaren hebben we besloten dat Montezuma’s Revenge de pensioengerechtigde leeftijd heeft bereikt en zullen er per 1 januari 2008 geen optredens meer plaatsvinden.

Natuurlijk hebben we deze beslissing niet over één nacht ijs genomen. Het valt niet mee om tot dit besluit te komen maar gezien onze visie op een Montezuma toekomst, gevoed door hoe het de laatste paar jaren gaat, en ieders persoonlijke visie op zijn persoonlijke toekomst bleek stoppen de verstandigste keuze.

Het zal wennen zijn, na zo vele jaren met heel veel plezier aan het Montezuma product gewerkt te hebben, waarmee we toch wel iets op de kaart gezet hebben (hoop ik te mogen zeggen) om zonder Montezuma als live theaterfenomeen door het leven te gaan. En ik vermoed dat dat ook zal gelden voor onze trouwe fans en bezoekers.
Niet in de laatste plaats gaat onze dank dan ook uit naar hen die ons al die mooie jaren hebben opgezocht, gevolgd en zich als trouwe aanhang hebben ontpopt.

Maar we zijn nog niet weg. hč! Natuurlijk gaan de geplande Nederlandse theatershows gewoon door en ook ons tripje naar Wenen laten we natuurlijk niet zitten!. Dus grijp je kans en bezoek ons tijdens een van deze (laatste) voorstellingen en wie weet daarna, zitten we naast elkaar in een theater, beide als publiek te kijken naar andere mooie (a capella) dingen…
Tot ziens!

This is going to be a sad news item…
The theatre season is almost starting and filled with theatre shows, a couple of school concerts, a trip to Vienna and a meet and greet with the fan club.

But after that there is silence.

After 23 great years we have decided that Montezuma’s Revenge has reached the age to retire and as off January 1st 2008 there will be no more shows.

Of course we didn’t take this decision over night. It’s not easy to come to it, but considering our visions of a Montezuma future, led by how things went the last couple of years and everybody’s personal visions of one’s personal future, to stop seemed to be the wisest choice.

We will have to get used to it, after so many years of creating the Montezuma product with so much joy and I hope I am allowed to say that we really have contributed something special to the theatre world. It will be strange to go through life without Montezuma as a live theatrical phenomenon. And I suspect that the same will be the case for all our loyal fans and visitors.
So not in the last place we want to say thank you to those who came to see our shows in all those beautiful years, who followed our career and who became our loyal supporters.

But we haven’t gone yet! Of course all the planned Dutch theatre shows will take place and also our trip to Vienna is not cancelled, not at all! So go for it, and come to see us during one of our (last) shows and who knows, after that, we will be sitting next to each other in a theatre, both as an audience member enjoying other beautiful (a cappella) things…
See you!

Appenzell

26 Apr 2007 by Hans

As you may have understood, this is the commercial that is broadcasted in Switzerland to promote the Appenzell a cappella festival, in which we take place on May 12th.
That is also our last performance before our summer break. Although with this kind of weather it seems that this break already started.
We are doing a (very small) reprise of the Montezuma Code this fall, of which the dates will be known very soon. Promise!!!
I can already tell you that it also includes a short trip to Italy and Vienna in November. We are also gonna do a concert with students of the Pleincollege, Eindhoven in the theatre of Valkenswaard. So though we are not playing a lot we can say that we have the currants in the porridge ( to put it in a nice literally translated Dutch expression...)
At our last two shows in Kaarst and Büren we spotted many Dutch fans in the audience. We want to thank them for taking the time and effort of making this trip to see us all the way there. I think it were two great shows. Next Saturday it's the " out of nowhere" Montezuma Code in Oss. Japanese films always differed the piquancy and Japanese Scat to that not an exception.
We are all stressed out because it's over three months since we did that for the last time. So we are rehearsing at home with our mp3 players and Ipods and go over the steps in our heads, over and over again. Ah, we all will be surprised!! Hope to see you there! Funny!!!

What are we doing???

08 Feb 2007 by Hans

Hello everybody,

You all probably know that this is a very quiet period in Montezuma terms. We are only doing a couple op Pop Art shows till summer, most of them in Germany and a few in Switzerland. You can find more about this on our tour list.
"But do they earn their money", you may ask yourself. Here are the answers.
Paul is keeping the company up to date, because even when there are no shows, there still is a business that needs to be running. And, he still does studio work, in dubbing cartoons and voice overs.
Menno took up his old job as a music teacher at a school in Bergen op Zoom. And together with Bert he also has the two men's company Kort Vokaal, with which they provide workshops at schools or for whoever books them.
Besides that Bert is working again as a group leader in houses for children that cannot live at home, for whatever reason. This is also a job that he did before he started singing as a profession.
Sanne runs a hotel in Amsterdam, that has apartments all over town and next to this he is working on music for a solo project with a looping machine.
And I am teaching at the Rotterdam Conservatory at the musical theater department and translating cartoons for dubbing. (if you have children you may know series as Galactik Football, the Secret Show, 6Tien or Pepper Ann...)
And in March I will be a substitute for one of the singers of baSix, the Danish a cappella group. It's just for one event during the 'Nederlands Festival voor Vocale Ensembles' in Almelo on March 10th. That of course is an excellent opportunity for all you vocal minded people to hear and see a lot of choirs en vocal groups of Dutch origin.
For those of you who wanna see baSix in their show Star People, you can go to Helmond on March 8th where they will sing with all 6 original Danish men...

For those of you who stick to Montezuma only: we see you in Germany!