Fungus - Fungus (1974)

The Rotterdam folk festival in 1978 (1)

It is hard to imagine now, but in the 70's Folk (Rock) was so popular in the Netherlands, that each year the Rotterdam Folk Festival was held in a weekend in June in the prestigious classical concert hall "De Doelen" in Rotterdam. It had three podia: one in the lobby, one in the small hall that was usually reserved for chamber music, and one in the big hall where the podium is big enough for a 120 person symphony orchestra.

I think it was 1978 that I went there. Very little can be found about it on the Internet, so this is mainly from my memory. The last evening the programme in the main hall had Fungus, the Albion (Dance) Band, and Alan Stivell. There were other bands, but I do not remember the names.

Fungus

Let's first focus on Fungus. It was the first Dutch folkrock band, a five man band founded by singer Fred Piek. The first album with mostly traditional songs: Fungus - s/t (1974, Negram) was their biggest success. The A side contained Dutch songs and instrumentals, the B-side English material. Fred Piek sounds a little like Dave Swarbrick IMO, so it is interesting to compare the Fungus version of Poor Ditching Boy with the Fairport Convention version.

"Kaap'ren Varen" from this album was a minor hit in the Netherlands. It's a well known children's song about the Flemish pirates from Dunkirk. And although it is called a traditional, the music is probably early 20th century.

Three more albums followed but they never had the success of the first. By 1978 they struggeled on as a trio, and in 1979 the band made a farewell album and called it a day. Fred Piek continued with a duo, the "Amazing stroopwafels", that scored another hit with Oude Maasweg (Manhatten Island Serenade).

Albums

• 1974 - Fungus
• A-side: Kaap'ren Varen / Madlot-Schoenmaker / De Ruiter / Rijke Boer / Langbonken-Mieghimmels* / Garrenkwak 
• B-side: Farewell To Tarwathie / Irish Girl / Two Brethren / Farewell to Whiskey / The Poor Ditching Boy** / Ye Mariners All
• All songs traditional, except * Sido Martens and ** Richard Thompson
• d/l Fonus Lp-5248, with scans and cue. 
• 1975 - Lief ende Leid
• 1976 - Van de Kiel naar Vlaring
• 1977 - Mush-rooms
• 1979 - De Kaarten zijn Geschud (farewell album) 

• 2000 - The Fungus Collection (the first 4 albums on 2 CD's: still available from Fred Piek's website).

Otherwise the albums have never been reissued on CD, but copies on CD are available by mail order from a Dutch Music Archive (www.fonos.nl). I do not know how they are made, but I must assume that they are high quality copies from the LP's, not from any master tape. Anyway, that is the copy I used (I only have the first album at this moment).

I have not been able to find much image material, here is a newsclip from Dutch television (Fungus and Bots  - Popfestival Nederlandse lied - 1976):

and another, Oude Maasweg (Manhatten Island Serenade) by Amazing Stroopwafels (1982):

 For d/l, again use code zcxkas.