For record details, see solo and other projects.
Present members of the Nits
- 1951
- born on September 20 in East Amsterdam
- 1959
- creates group The Henry Boys with Henk van Limburg
- 1962
- visits middle school
- 1965
- meets Michiel Peters
- 1966
- visits high school
- 1967
- meets Frank and Paul Telman
- 1968
- helps cleaning the concert building, thus can see all bands
for free
- 1970
- starts visitin Rietveld Academy
- 1971
- changes to MO-tekenen (drawing)
- 1972
- forms group Midas with brothers Brautigam
- 1974
- meets Alex Roelofs and forms the Nits with Michiel, Alex and Rob
Kloet
- 1974
- goes to Rijks Academy
- 1980
- becomes professional musician
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- 1952
- born on June 16 in Amsterdam
- 1956
- meets Michiel Peters in kindergarten
- 1963
- first music rehearsals with Michiel
- 1964
- forms the group The Acclaim
- 1970
- goes to HTS (high technical school)
- 1974
- is asked to play in the upcoming group The Nits by Henk and Michiel
- 1977
- gets free from the military to record first single Yes or No
- 1978
- works as a music- and scienceteacher on a LTS (lower technical school)
- 1980
- becomes professional musician
Top of Page
- 1950
- born on February 4 in Den Haag (The Hague)
- 1955
- his father buys a piano
- 1958
- gets his first piano lessons
- 1960
- meets Rob Douw on a YMCA summer camp
- 1964
- forms group The Blubs with Marco Vrolijk and others
- 1967
- the group changes its name via The Q Provocation, The Provocation
and Sweet Okay Supersister finally to Supersister; goes to the conservatorium
- 1969
- starts working with Aad Link
- 1972
- works with Supersister and the Nederlands Dans Theater on the
project Pudding en Gisteren
- 1974
- becomes keyboard player with Golden Earring
- 1976
- forms Sweet d'Buster with Bertus Borgers
- 1978
- sees on April 20 the Nits for the first time; produces among others
Gruppo Sportivo and The Nits
- 1979
- works on a project named Transister
- 1981
- first stage appearance with the Nits on November 21
- 1996
- starts solo project Stips Egotrip'
- 1997
- plays with Dutch comedian Freek de Jonge
- 2004
- joins back with songwriting, live and studio work
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Former members of the Nits
Before joining the Nits, Martin played with Gruppo Sportivo, Jango Edwards
and De Bombitas. He played with Robert Jan in the Egotrip. The band
Het groot niet te vermijden signed him up recently.
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Before joining the Nits, Peter played with the Tapes and Matilde Santing
Ensemble.
Top of Page
- 1950
- born December 14 in Amsterdam
- 1958
- starts playing accordeon
- 1964
- trades his accordeon for an electric guitar
- 1965
- forms with some friends the group Nameless
- 1967
- buys his first tape recorder, a Sony 256
- 1969
- does final exam HBS-b (A-levels)
- 1972
- begins MO-opleiding at Rietveld Academy
- 1974
- forms with Henk, Michiel and Rob The Nits in the cellar of a school
- 1977
- finishes studying MO-tekenen
- 1978
- gets a teacher's job
- 1980
- becomes professional musician
- 1981
- last stage appearance with the Nits on October 31.
Alex left the Nits because he did not want to go touring anymore. He now
works as a graphic designer. Alex worked with the Nits designing the covers
for the Alankomaat album and the respective singles.
Top of Page
- 1951
- born on December 10 in West Amsterdam
- 1955
- meets Rob kloet in kindergarten
- 1958
- visits the muzieklyceum in Amsterdam
- 1963
- first music rehearsals with Rob and Michel Schutte
- 1964
- forms his first group The Acclaim
- 1967
- meets Henk Hofstede
- 1970
- starts to study sociology
- 1972
- forms the group Midas with Henk and brothers Brautigam
- 1974
- first stage appearance with The Nits
- 1978
- finishes studying sociology
- 1980
- becomes professional musician
- 1985
- leaves The Nits, because of, among other reasons, his dislike
of the music industry and studies laws
- 1989
- published solo-LP Infant King
In 1989, after releasing the album Infant King, Michiel Peters joined
The Nits for a one off concert in which they performed a lot of oldies
and some of the songs from his album.
This concert was played on the Dutch radio.
Michiel now works as a bookkeepers-assistant.
Top of Page
- 1957
- born on October 18 in Den Haag
- 1968
- gets her first guitar
- 1973
- stops playing guitar
- 1975
- final exam Havo
- 1976
- plays percussions with Dizzy Daisy
- 1977
- starts playing bass guitar
- 1978
- forms Ducks Nightmare with Peter van Schie
- 1980
- studies at the social academy for a brief period
- 1981
- Ducks Nightmare cease to exist
- 1982
- unemployed
- 1983
- creates Not A Slow Affair
- 1986
- Aad Link sees Not A Slow Affair in café Schlemmer
- 1990
- stops making music because of a muscle disease
Joke Geraets now runs a small soundstudio.
Top of Page
Arwen studied music at the conservatory of Rotterdam and played with several
smaller bands, making South American style music, some Tango and some Soul.
Currently she plays bass, standing bass and provides background vocals.
Top of Page
Laetitia studied music in Tilburg, gave piano lessons and played mostly Jazz
style music. She also does some composing and arranging and was a fan of
the Nits. When the Nits phoned her and asked her to play with them, she
was pleasantly surprised. Laetitia has found her own interpretation of
Robert Jan's keyboard playing.
Top of Page
Nits behind the Scenes
Paul, one of the 5 Telman brothers, was born on August 18 1950 in Amsterdam. He
got into the music scene soon with his brother Frank, but found his true
talent in mixing the sound. Since the foundation of the Nits in 1974 he has
been working on the sound, first with Alex Roelofs, later on his own.
Paul also studyied MO-bookkeeping, worked some time as a teacher in this
area and is observing the financial state of the band, together with
manager Aad Link. Paul made a cameo-appearance as butcher in the video
J.O.S. Days.
Top of Page
Born on May 20 1957, Tom takes care of the light during concerts, and is also
involved in creating stage decors. He has been with the band since 1980.
Top of Page
Born on November 28 1949 in Den Haag, Aad Link quickly exchanged his active
music career for a job as roadie. In 1969 he joined the crew of Supersister
and took care of Robert Jan's keyboards. When Robert Jan left to join
Golden Earring, Aad followed him as RJ's personal road manager. After
Sweet'd Buster both discovered the Nits. With his experience as soundengineer
and manager, Aad has proven to be of value to the band. He managed
the band and organizes the concerts. Now he works mostly with Robert Jan.
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Last modified: 29-09-2009