The Phantom Four

Check out video footage LIVE @ VPRO's 3voor12 (Dutch National Radio)
TV Performance video of "Belly Dance 6":
To many music fans The Treble Spankers need no introduction. In a period of five years the band did over 500 gigs between 1993 and 1997. They played packed venues and crowded festivals throughout The Netherlands with one of the highlights being thousands of jumping kids at the famous Pinkpop festival. Their second album “Hasheeda” sold over 25.000 copies. Due to physical problems of Phantom Frank, the mastermind behind the band, The Treble Spankers had to call it a day. Some years later, after releasing a very well received solo album Phantom Frank decides to form a new band early 2004.
With Marc de Regt, known from garage band Kek ’66 a steady and reliable bass player is found. Marnix Krabbendam from garage band The Budgetics joins as second guitar player. Finally drummer Niels Jansen, playing in shoegaze formation The Butcher’s Wife during the late nineties completes the band and The Phantom Four have been born.
Once they have found the right balance in playing together new compositions come about quickly. Besides surf standards like Malagueña, Margaya en Johnny Guitar a huge collection of own composities is born. Within a years time the band builds up a repertoire of over two hours of material, more than enough to start performing live. On 7th November 2004 the very first concert of The Phantom Four takes place in Café De Diepte in Amsterdam. In front of a small group of friends part of the repertoire has its live debut. With a VHS recorder and a simple stereo microphone a local radio station makes live recordings of this very first gig. When hearing these recordings the band gets so excited they decide to release the concert in a limited quantity. On 20th May 2005 “Live At De Diepte” gets released on CD.
From early 2005 The Phantom Four plays shows in The Netherlands on a weekly basis. Besides many gigs in clubs and pubs the band also plays Oranjepop, the “Vierdaagse” in Nijmegen and the 30 year old Sjock festival in Belgium. A gig in Amsterdam´s legendary pop temple Paradiso even lands them a residency which leads to a monthly return at the clubnight de “Classic Noodlanding”. The band also gets asked to open for the famous Surfaris in de Melkweg and at FZW in Germany.
The band starts 2006 with a gig during New Years Eve in a sold out Max (Melkweg) and becomes resident band of “Surf´s Up” evenings in de Melkweg. In summer they support G. Love & Special Sauce in Tivoli and open for Los Straitjackets during their Dutch tour. They end the summer with a smashing performance in a totally packed Lima tent of the Lowlands festival. On Friday August 25th their studio debut album “Madhur” gets released, receiving raving press reviews. Lead guitarist Phantom Frank gets the coverstory on the Dutch edition of Gitarist magazine and the band plays at Club 3voor12 on national radiostation 3FM. During autumn 2006 the band writes new material and records eight tracks for an upcoming 10” vinyl release ”Harmattan”.
In March 2007 the band embark on a highly succesful two weeks tour to Spain as support for El Vez. On Friday 13th in April the band plays De Diepte for the second time to celebrate their 100th show, 888 days after their first ever show. May 16 finds the band opening for Fun Lovin' Criminals in a sold out Max (Melkweg) in Amsterdam. After a long summerbreak the bands plays it's first UK show at The Beatrocket @ Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes in London. This is followed by an invitation to open for Dick Dale at Patronaat in Haarlem, during the only Dutch show of his European tour.
Discography:
May 20th 2005 – CD “Live At De Diepte” (Mirananda Records 001)
August 25th 2006 – CD “Madhur“ (Mirananda Records 002)
LIVE @ LOWLANDS FESTIVAL 2006: