Jules Deelder is an 'auctor', a poet who needs to be heard and seen. He was born as Justus Anton Deelder in Rotterdam, on November 24, 1944. He started writing when he was 11 years old – his first poem: 'Hoort, men werpt een atoombom.' (Hark, an atom bomb is being thrown).



Jules Deelder is also a jazz connaisseur and he plays drums.



In the early sixties Deelder is vocalist in guitar-less beatgroup The Addicts. They perform only two songs: Halleluja, I'm A Bum, and Can I Get A Witness.

In 1968, together with his then girlfriend Roselie Peters (with whom he met Jimi Hendrix in 1967) and school friends Peter Snoey and Rob Peters, he formed the Schlager Company of the Hyacinth. The group managed to get a record contract with Bovema and on 28th November presented their first single 'We Were as Happy as My Uncle Ray'.



In 1969 the Peters leave the Schlager Company of the Hyacinth. The remaining duo reinvents itself as Popera and records two more singles: Something and Look over Here. After a fight with Radio Veronica, which refuses to play Something, singer/songwriter Deelder and composer Snoey call it a day.



In 1985 Deelder instituted Deelder Ltd. (BVD; which was also the abbreviation of the then secret service). Privately things were looking up as well. On 6th March 1985, with his 'eternal' fiancée A.M.C. Fok, he has a daughter, who they call Ari. Later that year the brand-new father took the leap from youth and community centres to the big stage with a full evening show entitled Deelder Speaks. In between the set pieces Deelder freely improvised and this made him comparable to American entertainers like Lenny Bruce. The five-man jazz combo Trio Me Reet (Trio My Ass) did the musical backing for this and following shows. The band has been around for years and is the pet project of Jules Deelder (drums), Chris Koenen (guitar), Aad van Pijlen (bass guitar) and the tenor saxophonists Boris van der Lek and Ger 'Sax' van Voorden. They recorded a few albums together, as well. The theatre show was a hit and in 1986 the Deelder Speaks tour was prolonged for two months. This wins him the Silver CJP prize. Riding the wave of his success, label EMI issues the show in its entirety on vinyl and Pieter Van Oudheusden and Herbert Verhey publish an interim biography, De Mensch Deelder (Deelder the Man; Veen, 1986).



Deelder, having tasted success, now was unstoppable. In 1992 the album Deelder Drumt Jazz appeared, containing music, stories and poetry.



On 5th November 1995 singer and artist Herman Brood turned fifty. Deelder, who put words to many of Brood's paintings, writes the song 'Oh Kut' (Oh Cunt), a litany on the subject of female genitalia. On the cd 50 The Soundtrack Deelder and Brood perform this as a duet. That year commercial TV-station Veronica even gave him his own talk show on television.



In 1997 Deelder toured with his show Deelder Zingt? (Deelder Sings?). Again Trio Me Reet, the jazz combo, took care of the musical part of show.



(main source: Willem Groenewegen, via www.epibreren.com)<1-- related: Thijs Verwer -->