From:   "steve walker" 
Date:  Sun Nov 3, 2002  11:56 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Dik De Heer
 
DIK DE HEER

Born 3 November, 1944 near Amsterdam, The Netherlands

(purloined unashamedly from Dik's autobiography [message # 5946] and with thanks
to Henk Gorter for additional [printable] facts and to Colin Kilgour for the
idea).

Dik grew up in an isolated rural community, some 15 miles north of Amsterdam,
where the radio was the only source of entertainment. It was mainly from
English-language radio broadcasts that Dik obtained his excellent command of the
language, but it was on a Belgian radio station that he first heard Little
Richard's "Long Tall Sally" - an unforgettable experience which led to a
lifelong fascination with rock'n'roll music and in particular, the recordings of
Little Richard and Specialty Records.

In 1957, after moving to a new school, he discovered the jukebox in Purmerend on
which he first heard most of the R&R classics. He also noticed that most of his
favourite artists at that time - Little Richard, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis -
and, from 1958 onwards, Duane Eddy and the Coasters, were all released on the
same Dutch London label (a subsidiary of the famous UK London-American label).

His fascination with list-making encouraged him to produce, in the mid-1960's,
the earliest complete 'A' and 'B'-side listings for (UK) London-American
records. His phenomenal memory enabled him to impress his friends by being able
to write out most of this list without reference.

Also in the mid-60's, whilst studying at Amsterdam University, Dik discovered
the joys of second-hand record collecting. Many of his purchases from the
Waterloo Square market were shared with friends such as Henk Gorter. Henk
remembers, in particular, receiving two Johnny Burnette Trio 45's on German
Coral, as well as Ronnie Self's "Bop-a-Lena" on Dutch CBS.

Dik was a long-time contributor to Cees Klop's Rockville, a well known R&R mag
in Holland during the latter '60's.

After gaining his political science degree and a short stint with the Dutch
National Service, Dik took up a post as subject librarian for the social
sciences at Leiden University Library where he works to this day. In 1981 he
published "Politicologische literatuurgids" (Political science : a guide to the
literature).

Dik's other interests involve football, cycle-racing and, in particular, chess,
where he has become a very successful coach for young chess players in Leiden,
resulting in many successes at the Dutch Chess Championships (two former members
are now Grandmasters).

I don't wish to start any sort of precedent here, but, as Henk wrote to me, if
anyone on this list deserves to be singled out and thoroughly embarrassed like
this, it is Dik - not just for the incredible work that he and his colleagues
have done (and are continuing to do) with the BTBWY feature (surely now one of
the most comprehensive reference works of its kind available), but also for his
unstinting and generous support for all features that make this list so much
fun.

Happy birthday, chum.

Further reading: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Shakin_All_Over/message/5946

Further listening: "Now Heer This" CD