Ace-Tones

They were one of the first bands of the latest sixties-garage-punk generation.

They were playing in the same line up for over five years, and released three full length albums, two EPs, and tracks on a handful of compilation albums.

They survived shit that would make other bands split up. In fact, most of them did so long before the Ace-Tones quit (when their singer moved to Canada).

These are the Ace-Tones and this is what happened...:

The Ace-Tones, 1992 promo photo;
L-R: Jeannemieke, Ad, Andre, Eric, Rob

Eric and Jeannemieke, here on stage as Crab Nebula, a psychedelic duo working with tape loops and electronics

Beginnings...

The story of the Ace-Tones starts somehere in 1991, when Jeannemieke "Miss Jean" Hectors learns to play bass and recruits Eric as a guitarist for a garage band-to-be. At that time, Eric was still playing bass in Paradogs who had just released their LP/CD and a 7". These aren't 'garage' although in essence Paradogs was a punk band, but on the side Eric played some Hammond and Vox organ that was hinting at things to come.

When Paradogs did a support act for the Fuzztones, that certainly left some traces in the minds of Eric and Jean. In spite of the apparent success of the Fuzztones,it turned out to be very hard to put a sixties-garage band together back then, and they were going through some considerable line-up and bandname changes (the Dwelves, the Blackshades, Crab Nebula).

Names and nicknames

After a couple of months, things finally got together and by the time the bandname Ace-Tones was adopted, the line-up was: Miss Jean (bass), Eric, (playing 50/50 guitar and organ), Andre Elskamp (a.k.a. El Scampo: guitar and self-built fuzz devices, recruited from a band called Ask Doctor Ruth), Jan 'Wickie' Vrolijk (drums... and a beard!!) and finally Ad 'Ace' van Dijk (lead vocals, blues harp) who dragged in an old Ace Tone organ: that's where the band got its name from, and where Ace got his nickname from!

Live at OJV De Koornbeurs, Delft, 1992

Mr Danno with late '60s Teisco 'Vox Phantom' clone

And speaking of nicknames... when the Ace-Tones planned to record their first demo tape, Paradogs weren't happy with Eric's sixties obsession. They asked him if he could please use an alias in the Ace-Tones so that the reputation of Paradogs wouldn't suffer from that "awkward sixties-trash hobby band". (Seriously!) That's why since the first releases of the Ace-Tones the stage name "Eric Danno" was adopted - it was Peter Stuart of the Headless Horsemen who came up with that name, "Danno" being short for Danelectro, a guitar brand Peter and Eric were raving about. (NB: the guitar on the 'Index' page is a Danelectro!)

Lucky shots

Jean and Eric being the Vox-enthusiasts they were (and are!) got in touch with Rudi Protrudi, talking about guitars and music in general, and gradually (also because of photos Jean had made of the Fuzztones that Rudi wanted to use) they got to know Rudi and his wife Cori personally. So when Jean and Eric met Hans Kesteloo of Music Maniac records, backstage with Dead Moon (a band that would also become friends of Eric's over the years), Hans said something like "oh, but I heard about you guys from Rudi - can't you send me a demo tape?"

Fred Cole having a taste of Eric's Dead Moon tattoo... (Photo: Jeannemieke Hectors)

Rob Rehorst, "Guru of the Faders", the sixth Ace-Tone,
who died November 2002. Missing you, giant.

(Photos: Jeannemieke Hectors)

Only Everything...

Fortunately, the Ace-Tones had just booked a studio. Unfortunately, they had just decided to ask Wickie to leave. Bit of a problem there... if it hadn't been for Ace, who after all had been spotted by Miss Jean when she had heard him doing (backing-) vocals being the drummer of a 'motörpunk'-band named Teenagers from Hell...! So after some frantic rehearsals the demo was recorded with Ace on drums and vocals; this was the first recordings made by the Ace-Tones in what would become their #1 favourite studio, the Holland Spoor Geluidsstudio in The Hague:

Produced by the late Rob Rehorst (missed by more bands and musicians than I could begin to list here), the tape was named "Only Everything", and it contained five classic garage songs.

Ace played it to a friend of his, a drummer called Rob Louwers who had been in bands like The Headhunters and The Treat (together with Ace on bassguitar!); The Treat were basically a Ramones type of band and they were, according to reviews, one of Holland's brightest hopes in the early eighties.
Rob had quite a reputation, having also played in the latest (eighties) line-up of the legendary sixties band Q'65...! He decided to join and did his first show as an Ace-Tone after only one rehearsal - and during the show, ex-drummer Wickie was standing in front of the stage, giving him cues that Rob actually didn't really need... Anyway, no hard feelings there!

On air!

One night, Eric and Andre slipped a copy of "Only Everything"to the Dutch 'enfant terrible of jazz' Hans Dulfer at one of his gigs in Ace-Tones' home town Delft. Dulfer, who vaguely knew Eric from his Paradogs days, reportedly said "O.K. I'll play it on my radio show" with Andre and Eric going like "Whoa! Don't you better listen to it first!?" Within a week, the producer of Dulfer's show gave Andre a call if the Ace-Tones could play a gig live-on-the-air, and they did - although Ace showed up hours late due to a gig he had to play earlier that night (with another band - another Ramones kinda thing called Durango). Dulfer joined in on saxophone, unrehearsed, jamming along in 'Suzy Creamcheese' and 'You're No Good' (then the band's only original fit to be played in public...).

Hans Dulfer on air

Photo: Simon Konings

Teen Trash

The day after that radio-show the band got into the studio to record an album for Music Maniac's "Teen Trash" series, still just playing the band's favourites, for the hell of it, without giving a damn about the fact that most of them had been done by other bands too. They felt it was better to play good songs, even if they're classics, than (then still) under-average originals. It was encouraging, though, to read in reviews that the only original (the before-mentioned "You're No Good") was very promising for things to come...!

The Ace-Tones had returned to the Holland Spoor studio for their debut album, and although looking back the overall sound is a bit thin and a bit clean, the album still stands as a landmark in the Dutch garage scene, although the fact that it was released as both LP and CD (and the obvious choice in covers) gave some people ammunition to call the Ace-Tones 'sell-outs', 'bandwagon-jumpers' and 'fake-Fuzztones'. Mind you, back then the Ace-Tones did pay attention to sleeve lay-outs, cool equipment, and the way they appeared (they still do), but they certainly were not more interested in their looks than in their music. Probably it was the fact that the Ace-Tones got a record deal pretty fast that ticked some people off. "They still hate us in some places, like probably Vera in Groningen", says Eric, "it's too bad 'cos I think Vera is a nice venue to play... but if they still think we're would-be's, howcome we're didn't quit after our first album when 'garage' got out of style again, pray tell?"

Ad "Ace" van Dijk, after some serious mixing
(Photo: Jeannemieke Hectors)

Jean and her Phantom bass

In the studio, Andre listens to a guitar part

Ace-Tones: Fuzztones after all?

At rehearsals and gigs, the band concentrated on more and more originals, most of them organ-orientated (it was Jeannemieke who insisted: more organ songs!) Then came a phonecall from Rudi Protrudi: he had put the latest (American) line-up of the Fuzztones to rest, and was now thinking of moving to Europe. Would the Ace-Tones be interested in becoming his new backing band...? Some offer indeed, and the Ace-Tones decided it was definitely worth a try, but not as 'the new Fuzztones line-up' ("we're not the Fuzztones, we're a band already, people wouldn't dig it!") and only if Ace could stay in the band, switching to guitar (guess what - he had played the guitar in that other band, Durango!). This would mean Rudi would refrain from playing guitar, and 'only' sing. Rehearsals with Rudi were good fun and there were even plans of recording an album full of 'Nederbiet' (Dutch sixties beat) covers together, but things didn't work out at the time for a couple of reasons. However, when Rudi had a European tour booked to promote a new 'Link Protrudi and the Jaymen' album, Rob and Eric joined for a European tour (see here).

With Rob and Eric back from that tour, the already mentioned Dead Moon connection resulted in a 7" EP on their 'Tombstone' label in the U.S.A.: Three originals and a cover of The Craig's "I Must Be Mad" recorded at the Ace-Tones' rehearsal hangout ("Spod"), mastered by Fred Cole on his vintage mono disc cutter that was once used to cut the original Kingsmen's "Louie, Louie" single - and all Dead Moon vinyl, of course. The EP sounds way beyond lo-fi but is a raw rock'n'rolling record! (Eric: "I think the rest of the band hates it but it's my favourite Ace-Tones record!") Another EP was released on the Dutch LADA records; again it counts four songs, but this time exploring the more psychedelic side of the Ace-Tones, featuring Andre on both guitar and saxophone in Love's "Stephanie Knows Who". Another song, a raw version of "Your Body, Not Your Soul" (originally by Cuby + the Blizzards) was contributed to a compilation of the French "Say What!!" magazine. Meanwhile, Eric Danno also produced some of the Rotterdam-based Perverts' EP's and their debut LP "Maybe Tomorrow", also contributing his Vox organ to a couple of songs. Then came yet another phonecall...

The Link Wray connection - and surviving it

Link Wray wanted Eric and Rob as his backing band (see here); they indeed recorded two albums with Link Wray and did some heavy tours, but this didn't keep the Ace-Tones from releasing their second full-length album "Sixteen", recorded live and mixed by the band and Gert Jan "Joe" van Avezaath (who recently produced Dutch punk heroes De Heideroosjes). Although there was virtually no distribution of this album, the reviews were raving; "Sixteen" is app. 45 minutes of non-stop psychedelic garage mayhem with only one 'slow song', some incredibly furious punkrock and the anthemic "Still In Love With You" as a blistering apotheosis.

The touring with Link was great fun for Eric and Rob, and there was the same possible danger as touring with Rudi Protrudi had brought: what if there were choices to be made? On the one hand, it wasn't bad for the Ace-Tones, being "the band who supplied Rudi Protrudi and Link Wray with musicians" and everything - but it also meant being "the band that's missing two of its members frequently". After some arm-twisting here and there, at least Eric promised the band to choose for the Ace-Tones ("when push comes to shove"); see the Link Wray page. With Eric and Rob returned home once more, there was yet another set of songs ready to be recorded - enough for a whole new studio album, for which the band headed for Rob Rehorst and the Holland Spoor studio again...

Jean and Andre with Link Wray, who said:
"I'm not going to steal your band members, okay? I'm just borrowing them!"

Eric's "cat paw" tattoo (and plenty of scars) where once was a Vox Phantom tattoo...

(Photo: Jeannemieke Hectors)

In Your Eyes

By now, the Ace-Tones were looked upon as one of Holland's leading garage bands; their third album "In Your Eyes" (released by Perfect Sound Forever! Records) met with some very good press (and terrible distribution...), and it was the first time that the whole band was more or less satisfied with the results.
Nevertheless, Eric felt the need to go back to the 'proud-to-be-primitive' basics once more as well - and meanwhile try a bit of lead vocals, too. "It's not that I think the Ace-Tones are getting 'too produced' now - that's just a growing process, and I always said that there's no point in sounding bad on purpose. But I simply love primitive sixties trash, I like recording to a 4-track with everything in the red, and that's why I started another band called the Napoleons..."

Maybe the writing was on the wall, but then out of the blue lead singer Ad van Dijk announced he would pack up his things and move to Canada. Although the Ace-Tones have never officially broken up, there's not much chance of the original line up being together again either since Canada isn't around the corner from the Dutch point of view. However, songs from the third album keep appearing on compilation albums (sometimes mistakingly calling the Ace-Tones a Canadian band!) and there were some vague plans of making recordings in separate studios. Even in january 2003 an Ace-Tones song surfaces on the Motorwolf-compilation "Motor City Vol.1", but for now it seems like the name of the Ace-Tones is layed to rest...
There's a good deal of Ace-Tone spirit in Thee Hepburns though...!

WIG OUT!!!

To be continued...

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