I thought at least some of you might want to know a bit more about Musical Youth’s No 1 Fan. I am the type of person myself that wants to know who the people are that are crazy enough to put their spare time into a website that doesn’t even earn them some money. I would like to know what drives them to do this, so I reckoned I at least owed you people an explanation for my insanity.

So who am I? I am Nathan Veenstra, born in 1973 and I started to get interested in music at the tender age of eight. My brother started stalking me with The Beatles, but once he came back singing “Hey Jude”, the way The Beatles probably wouldn’t be proud of, I resigned. So when by the end of 1982 Musical Youth came up, chanting that irresistible “Pass The Dutchie”, I thought I might like that and became a fan instantly (well, kind of, I guess).

Now I’m the kind of guy that pretty much sticks to the things he’s fond of, so I kept on listening to Musical Youth music from 1982 on. Meanwhile, I discovered lots of other music of course, like Michael Jackson, a-ha, Five Star, Duran Duran and many more. As you can see, I don’t really care what kind of music it is, as long as I like it. So I got into hiphop, R&B, New Jack Swing, whatever. You could probably even catch me listening to some music you might despise (sorry in advance).

Anyway, as I grew older, I got more and more into music, which now dominates my life. OK, it’s not only music that dominates my life, since I got married to a wonderful woman, Yvette. So I’m involved in lots of things that have to do with music. I always kept thinking what had happened to my idols from Musical Youth and then, in 1993, “Maximum Volume: The Best Of Musical Youth” was released. This was a great thing to me, as I could finally listen to the music on CD. But when I started to read the booklet, I found out that Patrick Waite had died. This was one of the reasons I wanted to get in touch with the remaining members of Musical Youth. The major thing, though, was that I wanted to let the guys know that they made some great music that still brings a smile to my face and that I know that there are lots of other people out there that are still enjoying Musical Youth’s music.

So I started writing a letter, with tears in my eyes because of the sad news. I never posted this letter though, but I think I might even still have this letter somewhere. In the years after that, I saw my best friend Emile moving to London. I realised that from England it might be easier getting in touch with any of the guys (which later proved wrong), so I asked him if he would try and find out if one of the guys was still living in Bimingham. This also didn’t really work out and I even got to the point where I started calling people whose telephone numbers I found and whose names were similar to the Musical Youth members.

Then, some years later, internet was the solution. First I had to learn what it was all about and how it worked, but I think I can say I know my way around the internet these days. Searching the internet, I found some more information about what happened to Musical Youth. Then, some day, I tried to get in touch with a guy who used to work with Musical Youth. He never replied, but I didn’t give up of course. I somehow managed to find a contact on the internet who worked with Dennis’ new band, XMY. I was able to convince him that I had to get in touch with Dennis and some days later I had an e-mail in my inbox from one of my childhood idols!

So then, when I planned to visit Emile, I asked Dennis if I could meet him in Birmingham. He said OK and we made an appointment. When we arrived in Birmingham, Dennis was on the phone, just finishing a call, but he recognised us immediately (probably because we were looking around, trying to find him ;-) ). Dennis was very friendly and showed us around town, telling stories about all the places we passed. When we were at the terrace of a bar, Michael Grant joined us and we had a very nice conversation. We have been in touch ever since and I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to meet these guys, who are very modest, honest and definitely some of the nicest people I know.

Nathan