THE HOLLAND YEARS.

1981. From Laura to Rosie.

In January 1981 we performed our first shows in Holland playing mainly in Discos and for the first time to backing tracks. It was a different scene completely in Holland where most of the top acts performed a thirty minute show, and singing live to backing tracks was totally acceptable unlike England at that time. On 23rd January we set off from Rotterdam on the cruise ship "BLACK PRINCE" for a two week cruise of the Canary Islands and we were booked to perform three shows during those two weeks. My wife Lynne was with me and she had just heard that she was expecting our first child. She spent almost all of the two weeks in bed with either sea sickness or morning sickness and was really quite ill. On Tuesday 4th February we performed our final show on the boat which was also Martine's last appearance as a member of Guys n' Dolls. We had decided to replace her with Julie's younger sister Laura, and as we had a period where we were not working we were able to rehearse the act with her.

We did our first shows with Laura in March. We based ourselves in Rotterdam and travelled from there to our gigs, and Lynne stayed at the Hotel to look after Dominic and Julie's son Luke.

In July I recorded a "Stars on 45 " type record which featured a medly of "SHADOWS" instrumentals. EMI Holland decided to release it under my own name Paul Griggs and called it Guitar Collection. I still perform a "Shadows" medly today which is based on my record.

We were only contracted for one album with EMI Holland and another company CNR were keen to sign us and this we did in the summer of 1981 and were put together with another top dutch producer Hans van Hemert. Julie Dominic and Laura recorded the first record for CNR "I've Got The Fire In Me" without me as I was at home with my wife Lynne who gave birth to our son Wayne on 1st September 1981.

It was around this time that we met Ludo Veuten who was to be our manager for the duration of our time in Holland. He ran a company called "Rocket Management" and was in partnership with a Guy called Peter Koelewijn who was a famous dutch rock singer.

In November Laura decided that being in a group was not for her and said she was leaving. We replaced her with Rosie Hetherington who had previously been with "LEGS AND CO" who were featured every week on "TOP OF THE POPS". Rosie"s first gigs with "Guys n' Dolls" were to be in Indonesia. We had been offered a trip to Jakarta which would mean leaving the day after boxing day and I really didn't want to go. There wasn't much money, as it was more a paid holiday and because Wayne wasn't yet three months old it meant that my wife Lynne couldn't come with us. It was a difficult time for me, I was unhappy with the songs we were recording with Hans van Hemert and his style of production. I had always had a certain amount of difficulty with some of Guys n' Dolls songs through the years but a couple of the songs we recorded with Gerrard Stellard I consider, were among our best. With Hans van Hemert we produced some of the worst i.e. a song called "Don't Dance Alone" and "Pakatoa" (those bloody seagulls). Apologies to any fans who liked these songs. To Hans van Hemert's credit he did produce one of our biggest Dutch hits with a song called "Broken Dreams".

(click on photo to enlarge plus more photos)