Hallo Venray

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Hallo Venray
Origin	- The Netherlands
Genre(s)	Rock
Years active	1985- present
Label(s)	Excelsior Recordings
Website	Official website
Members
Henk Koorn – guitar, vocals Henk Jonkers - drums Peter Konings – bass guitar

Hallo Venray is a guitar rock band from The Hague in the Netherlands. The band is a mainstay in the Dutch rock scene and has produced a number of successful albums of which Vegetables and Fruit (2005) is the latest.

[edit] Biography

Hallo Venray is founded in 1985 by Henk Koorn and Toon Moerland. Together with drummer Dim Veldhuizen the band releases its debut album You Don’t Hit a Guy With Glasses On in 1989. The following year the next album King is released. It is with the band’s third record The More I Laugh, The Hornier Due Gets that the band gets their due. Released in 1992 this album receives a lot of airplay on the Dutch national radio stations. The band tours extensively in their home country, with Pinkpop as crowning achievement.

A Million Planes to Fly (1993), the band’s fourth record builds on this success. The band plays a number of international shows. Supporting the band Texas in France.

In 1995 the band’s popularity has waned and the album Merry-Go-Round fails to live up to the success of the two previous albums. Two years later Hallo Venray releases a self-titled album. This album shows off a more modern sound with samples and electronic instruments. After this album the band becomes less active. In 1998 drummer Dim Veldhuizen leaves, he is replaced by Henk Jonkers.

The group’s members dedicate their time to side projects in the following years. During this period rumors of a possible break-up arise. But with 2000’s album I’m Not a Senseless Person, At Least I Don’t Want To Be Hallo Venray returns and sounds as vital as ever. In 2003 the album, which was originally only released in the Netherlands, receives a UK release on the Lo-Max label.

The co-operation with Lo-Max does not last long as that same year the band signs with Excelsior Recordings. Together with that label’s staff producer Frans Hagenaars, the band initiates recordings in November 2003. Two years later this results in the release of Vegetables and Fruit. The cd is presented in Paradiso, Amsterdam on January 23. This show lauds in an extensive club tour through the Netherlands.