RIP Gerard Koerts - Earth and Fire

**rockcup** · 02-20-2019

Dutch keyboardplayer Gerard Koerts from Earth and Fire died at 71.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joSfvT-IF-o

**moecurlythanu** · 02-20-2019

Sad. One of my earliest Prog-Rock CDs purchased was by that band:

https://www.discogs.com/Earth-And-Fi.../master/790459

**spellbound** · 02-20-2019

Great band, fine musician. Rest in peace.

**zeprogmeister** · 02-20-2019

Bummer.

**Rarebird** · 02-21-2019

I heard the news at midnight. Very sad news indeed. I remember I delivered the newspaper at the house of the drummer of Earth & Fire.

**strawberrybrick** · 02-21-2019

RIP

**interbellum** · 02-21-2019

Sad news. To The World Of The Future is an album that moves me since I saw E&F live in 1975. I wonder if Gerard will be "a voice from yonder"... (such a great song):

**zeprogmeister** · 02-21-2019

https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-ach...019-~b756cd43/

Google Translation:

Earth and Fire keyboard player Gerard Koerts died (1947-2019)
Gerard Koerts, the keyboard player of the Dutch band Earth and Fire and writer of number-1-hit Weekend , passed away on Wednesday. He had lung problems for some time and died in a hospital in Perpignan in France, his homeland for years. Koerts was 71 years old.

Menno PotFebruary 21, 2019 , 11:54

The band members of Earth and Fire in 1979. From left to right: Gerard Koerts, Theo Hurts, Jerney Kaagman, Ton van der Kleij and Chris Koerts. Picture RV
The 'export' of Dutch pop hits is difficult in the second half of the seventies, but then there is suddenly the seductive Weekend of Earth and Fire. It has everything that a pop hit should have in 1979: synthesizers, touch of disco, Chic- meets- reggae percussion guitar. Weekend will be number-1 in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Portugal. The man who wrote the song died on Wednesday: keyboard player Gerard Koerts (71).

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On band photos singer Jerney Kaagman is often flanked by the twin brothers Koerts: Chris (guitar) and Gerard (keys), viking-like appearances from Voorschoten with blonde hairs and beards.

As teenagers they set up the cover band that will be called Opus Gainfull in 1967. A year later, it bears the name Earth and Fire. When singer Jerney Kaagman joins in 1969, it goes fast. George Kooymans of Golden Earring takes the group in tow and gives them a song that becomes the breakthrough single: Seasons (number-2 in January 1970).

Then they can do it themselves. The brothers Koerts and bassist Hans Ziech write the songs, Kaagman shines them into the top-40. Ziech and the Koerts brothers are the architects of the symphonic pop sound that makes Earth and Fire one of the most successful Dutch bands of the seventies.

Initially, Chris Koerts is the leading 'hit writer', but Gerard is co-author of, for example, Wild and Exciting (number-5 in 1970), Storm and Thunder (number-6 in 1971) and the first number-1 hit Memories (1972). His keyboard parts color the band sound.

In the second half of the decade, when the flow of Dutch global hits seems to have dried up, only Earth and Fire will present convincing trump cards with a new sound and the Cracker Weekend . Other than Shocking Blue, Focus and Golden Earring, they never break through in English-speaking countries.

In 1979 Chris Koerts gets out of the band. Gerard writes a few more modest top 40 hits for the group, of which Twenty Four Hours (1982) is the largest, but in 1983 it was done.

Chris and Gerard Koerts open a music studio together, return together with Earth and Fire Orchestra in 1988, deliver songs together for Children for Children and play together in France in a hobby band, The French Connection. Rightly inseparable. They will always stay on the Earth and Fire records.

**Progbear** · 02-21-2019

Very sad. I was just listening to Gate to Infinity (underrated album BTW, at least the suite on the A-side is) and I was struck by what a creative and imaginative synthesist he was. Especially on “Infinity” his synthesizers shine. There’s more where that came from on their previous disc, To the World of the Future, particularly on its title track.