Beginnings

Catapult, a glam rock band formed by and consisting of Aart Mol, Cees Bergman, Erwin van Prehn and Geertjan Hessing and later joined by Elmer Veerhoff, had scored a number of hits in the 1970s; "Let Your Hair Hang Down" and "Teeny Bopper Band" were two of the band's hits. As their popularity began to fade, the band decided that it was time for something different. They wanted to make music in different styles, which was difficult because of their Leiden dialect, and the fact that Dutch radio stations and television channels did not want to accept the fact that they could do so. Dutch DJ Willem van Kooten later advised them to start writing music for other artists. They became quite adept at this, writing and producing songs for Lia Velasco, Patricia Paay, The Internationals, and The Surfers. Because they could respond and record music themselves, that saved them money. They worked for ex-Golden Earring drummer Jaap Eggermont, who produced the records, and he in turn worked for Van Kooten, who financed the records and came up with the concepts. He then played the music in his own daily program on Hilversum 3, and at the same time received part of the royalties. The quintet also formed Rubberen Robbie in 1978, their vehicle for parody and carnival songs, sung in their native Dutch language. Around that time, the members were all living together in the same apartment and recording music there. However, the neighbours constantly complained about the terrible noise, so in September 1979, they had to find another place to record their music. They went to Rijnsaterwoude and formed a recording studio and production company named Cat Music, where they recorded as The Monotones, scoring a hit in Germany and the Netherlands with the song "Mono" on 15 December 1979. Seven days later on 23 December 1979, they gave their farewell gig as Catapult in the "Feest Paleis" in Beervelde.^{[6][7][3][8][9][10]}

In the 1980s, the members wrote songs for Leidsche rock band Tower and André Hazes (three of which were recorded for his album Gewoon André, including his number 1 hit "Een Beetje Verliefd"), and specialised in writing and producing breakdance, hip hop and Italo disco music, with 1983 and 1984 becoming their most productive years. Inspired by listening to illegal records of Italian dance projects and Hi-NRG artists such as Bobby Orlando, Giorgio Moroder and Divine in a compact disc store owned by Gert van den Bosch (who imported many records himself and sold them through record stores in the Netherlands), they took the records to their studio and used electronic instruments such as ARP and Moog synthesizers, the Roland TR-808 and the Akai S612 to make "legal" sound-alikes of them. Since their new songs were cut down as non-format and did not hit the airwaves, they used pseudonyms such as "Adams & Fleisner" and "Tony Acardi", and formed various fictional bands and artists in which the members were models and dancers hired for cover photograph shoots and lip-synced to songs sung by Bergman, Hessing and session singers in live performances. These included disco group Fantastique, synth-pop groups Gazuzu and Polysix, electronic trio Digital Emotion, breakbeat group Master Genius, X-Ray Connection, Blanc De Blanc, Joanne Daniëls, hip hop groups Comfort & Joy and Party Freaks, and Eurobeat quartet Twiggy Bop. They also, along with Aad Klaris, wrote and produced "Talkin 'Bout Rambo" by Linda Snoeij, under the stage name "L-Vira", and wrote and produced two albums for hard rock band Picture: Every Story Needs Another Picture and Marathon. Many of their dance and Italo disco records were released by Dutch labels such as Dureco Benelux and Boni Records (through their sublabel Break Records), which was founded by and named after Van den Bosch and Jan van Nieuwkoop in 1982. Van den Bosch exported Cat Music's records to America, where they were sold as special imports.^{[6][11][7][3][8][9]}

Music career

In 1983, Cat Music wrote and produced "Let's Break" by Master Genius, a medley of songs done in an 80's megamix style. One of the many sounds included in the song was the laugh of Woody Woodpecker, provided by Hessing. The voice was recorded at a slow speed, and then played back at double speed using a studio tape recorder.^[12][3][13] Van den Bosch's children, who were big fans of Woody and always wanted to hear him on the record, asked their father if he could produce a record based on the character.^[13][14] Upon learning this, Cat Music decided to write, produce and record a song about Woody, named "Woodpeckers from Space", a 5-minute synth-pop cover of "The Woody Woodpecker Song" by George Tibbles and Ramey Idriss. The song tells the story of a man waking up at night and hearing a "funny cry". The laugh comes from Woody, who makes a sudden appearance, wearing a space suit and holding a laser gun, and hypnotizes the perplexed man, telling him to take him to the hippest spot in town to do the "Woodpecker Boogie and Rap". The man takes him there, and Woody tells everyone to do the "Woodpecker Boogie and Rap", and they do so, snapping, clapping and rapping along with the woodpecker, and having fun. The main vocals were performed by Bergman, with Hessing singing as Woody.^[3][8] The female vocals and two of Woody's laughs were done by Anita and Sylvia Crooks of The Internationals.^[3][8]

Giving their new project the name "VideoKids" and recording and producing some more tracks in full, Cat Music hired and asked two good-looking young people, Peter Slaghuis and Bianca Pikaar, to be the faces of the Euro disco act.^[3] Slaghuis had done remixes of Cat Music's other projects, such as the Special European Edit of "After The Rainbow" by Joanne Daniëls (along with Emile Noorhoek) and "Steppin' Out" by Digital Emotion, while Pikaar, under the stage name "Bianca Bonelli", would later have a solo single called "Je Veux L'amour (Follow Me)", also written and produced by Cat Music.^{[3][1][2][15][16][17]} After the band was formed, a music video for "Woodpeckers from Space" was filmed. In the video, the woodpecker plays one prank after another on the Slaghuis/Bonelli flight crew, messing with their spaceship and leaving the duo hardly any time to sing. The video was filmed in the Airplane Museum at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.^[2] Peter, Bianca and the flight crew's pilots and scientists (played by Cat Music themselves, except Mol and Hessing^[13]) lip-sync to Cees Bergman, Geertjan Hessing and Anita and Sylvia's vocals during the video.^[3] In order to avoid being sued by Universal Studios, a new character named Tico Tac, a "spacepecker", was created as the group's mascot and used in place of Woody. Tico was designed by Dirk Arend, who was occasionally doing cover artwork designs for Boni Records and Break Records under the pseudonym "Fruut" at the time. He originally had pink skin and yellow eyes alien and wore a light blue helmet, blue overalls with yellow braces, and grey shoes. After Arend handed in the design to Toonder Studio's, they produced Tico's scenes in the video, redesigning him to have human-coloured skin and white eyes, and wear a yellow jumpsuit, white helmet and white gloves, with a wood drill on his bottom functioning like an insect stinger. The animation was done by Bjørn Frank Jensen, while Frits Godhelp did the colouring. The backgrounds were drawn, painted and photographed by Harrie Geelen, who composited the animations of Tico over them and the live-action footage. Jensen also drew a promotional comic strip named Tico Tac: Spacepecker, in which Tico meets a man who invites him into his house. He enters the house, poking holes in the stairs with his drill. Inside, Tico hops around the house, poking holes in the floor, wall and ceiling, vocalizing and laughing. The man decides to tame Tico and make him "more presentable" by taping his mouth shut and tying his drill to a plunger.^{[18][19][20][2]}

Cat Music licensed "Woodpeckers from Space" to Polydor Records, Carrere Records and Record Shack Records for release in Germany, France and the United Kingdom, respectively, while Boni Records would release it through Break Records in the Netherlands. The single was released on 4 September 1984, peaking in 14th place in the Dutch Top 40 in 6 October 1984 and 17th in Ultratop 50 Flanders between 13 October 1984 and 17 November 1984.^[21][22][23] Slaghuis would later use "Woodpeckers from Space" in the seventh installment in his "Disco Breaks" bootleg series,^[24] and he and Bonelli would release their debut album, The Invasion of the Spacepeckers. The album also contained a large "Happy Birthday" calendar, in which children could write birthday wishes to their friends. By 1985, "Woodpeckers from Space" was an international hit, peaking in 72nd place in the United Kingdom,^[25] 6th in Switzerland,^[26] 4th in Germany,^[21] 2nd in Portugal,^[27] and 1st in Norway and Spain.^[28][27][29] Boni Records began promoting The Invasion of the Spacepeckers by airing the song's music video on music television channels,^[30] and VideoKids began their tour around Europe, doing live shows and concerts, complete with clips of Tico from the video, displayed either manually or through a video projection screen.^[2] The album was released at the Midem music festival, going on to sell 1.1 million copies,^[4] and the band won the Buma Export Award for their international success with the song and album.^[5] "Woodpeckers from Space" and their other songs, such as "Do the Rap" and "La Bamba", were played quite often on radio stations at the time, and covered and included on several best-of albums and compilations. A cover version was made by the South African band Café Society, staying on the South African Top 20 for 22 weeks from June to November, of which 7 were held at the No. 1 position from August to October.^[31]

During their popularity, VideoKids released "Do the Rap" as a single, which only peaked in 9th place in the Dutch Top 40 on 18 May 1985.^[32][33] The single also included "Happy Birthday" (from "Cartooney Tunes") and "Skyrider", and featured Tico Tac: Spacepecker on its back cover. A music video for "Do the Rap" was filmed, in which Slaghuis, Bonelli and Tico (who reuses some animations from "Woodpeckers from Space") are at a party, dancing and singing along to a record player playing the song. At one point Tico plays around with a ball in a Star Trek pinball machine, and accidentally falls on top of the record player, temporarily stopping the song. He then suggests that they do it again. Eventually, Tico falls on the record player again and says, "That's all, folks! Goodbye!", ending the video. Following "Do the Rap" was the release of VideoKids' second album, On Satellite, in which the music sounded somewhat different, becoming generally more strict with the addition of some bass guitar, though still containing its usual twinkly synthesizers. Some of the album's songs had vocals performed by Marian Pijnaker.^[3][34][35] The first song of the album, "Satellite", would later be released individually as the band's third single, with its music video reusing footage from "Do the Rap's" music video. Slaghuis and Bonelli split up after the production of the album and single, with the former leaving to continue remixing. In 1986, Boni Records promoted On Satellite for release at the Midem music festival.^[4] Unlike The Invasion of the Spacepeckers, this album was unsuccessful, as were the band's other singles, "Do the Rap" and "Satellite". Boni Records would later release a 12" remix of "Woodpeckers from Space" that year.

In 1988, Cat Music recorded VideoKids' fourth and last single, "Witch Doctor" (also known as "Witch Doctor/Tico Strikes Again"), a cover of the song of the same name by Ross Bagdasarian, which also included "Tico's Day Off". They released the single under the name "Replay Records" due to Boni Records' closure the previous year, and like "Do the Rap", "La Bamba", On Satellite and "Satellite", it failed to hit the charts, making VideoKids a one-hit wonder with "Woodpeckers from Space".

In 1999, "Woodpeckers from Space" was included in the compilation album Cat Nuggets, released by Red Bullet.^[36] In 2004, Cat Music licensed "Woodpeckers from Space", "Do the Rap", "Satellite" and "Witch Doctor" to Weton-Wesgram for inclusion in their compilation album Club Hits of the 80's.^[37] In 2008, they released the 12" remix of "Woodpeckers from Space" as part of their album Cartoon Hits and On Satellite on iTunes, Spotify and Apple Music, followed by The Invasion of the Spacepeckers in 2012 and 2013. They would also release Club Hits of the 80's themselves on Apple Music that year. In January 2013, they closed their studio in Rijnsaterwoude, and Cees Bergman moved some of the equipment to a small studio in his house, where he continued to make music. Despite this, Cat Music still exists as an entertainment production company named Cat Music & More, based in Voorburg, owned by Aart Mool (currently) and Bergman (until his death in 2017), and managing the rights to all their music.^{[8][7][10][38]} In 2014, Cat Music licensed The Invasion of the Spacepeckers to MiruMir Music Publishing for release in Russia. The reissued album included the original "Happy Birthday" calendar and Tico Tac: Spacepecker, and expanded artwork recreated from the original art by Daniel Maslovsky. It also included a comic strip named Tico Tac: The Woodpecker from Space, drawn by Maslovsky. The comic begins with Tico's ship crash landing into a dogface's garden. He dizzily staggers out of his damaged vehicle, before falling unconscious in the dogface's arms. The dogface puts the spacepecker in his dog Yslo's doghouse. Later that night, the dogface is awoken by Yslo's barking and growling and Tico shooting his laser gun, destroying the doghouse. He rushes outside to see Yslo chasing Tico, before he pounces on him. The dogface tells Yslo to leave Tico alone and calm down, saying that he will build something for the spacepecker and repair the doghouse tomorrow. He then goes back to bed, only to find Tico sleeping in his bed, dreaming about sawed wood.^[39] In October 2023, "Woodpeckers from Space" was released as part of the compilation album Adams & Fleisner: The Ultimate Collection by i Venti d'Azzurro Records.^[40][41]

Personal lives

Slaghuis died in a car accident on September 5, 1991, and Bonelli died a few years later in 1994-1995.^[3]

Albums

• The Invasion of the Spacepeckers (1984)
• On Satellite (1985)

Singles

• "Woodpeckers from Space" (1984)
• "Do the Rap" (1985)
• "Satellite" (1985)
• "Witch Doctor" (1988)