Video Kids

Video Kids were a Dutch Euro disco duo consisting of Peter Slaghuis (1961–1991, later replaced with René Portegies) and Bianca Bonelli (1964–1995), best known for their single "Woodpeckers from Space". The band's members also had solo careers on their own, such as Peter being a famous DJ and remixer, and Bianca having a solo single called "Je Veux L'amour (Follow Me)". All of their original songs were produced and written by Catapult musicians Aart Mol, Cees Bergman, Elmer Veerhoff, Erwin van Prehn and Geertjan Hessing (under the aliases "Adams & Fleisner" and "Tony Acardi"), and recorded at Cat Music. The most notable aspect of the band is the fact that they were very popular yet short-lived, only releasing two albums, The Invasion of the Spacepeckers in 1984 and On Satellite in 1985. They also had an animated mascot named Tico Tac, a "spacepecker" who wore a yellow space suit and white space helmet, and had a wood drill on his backside functioning like an insect stinger. He also had the same laugh as Woody Woodpecker as his trademark, and was featured in the band's music videos for "Woodpeckers from Space" and "Do the Rap" along with the real band members, so for that reason they were almost considered a virtual group. In 1985, The Invasion of the Spacepeckers was released at the Midem music festival, and went on to sell 1.1 million copies. The band received the RIAA Gold Record Award and Conamus Export Award for their success with their first album and songs. The songs "Tico Tac" (from On Satellite) and "Witch Doctor" were the only covers that they did, originally by synth-pop group Polysix (also produced by Cat Music) and Ross Bagdasarian, respectively. Catapult, a glam rock band formed by and consisting of Aart Mol, Cees Bergman, Erwin van Prehn and Geertjan Hessing and later joined by Elmer Veerhoff, had scored a number of hits in the 1970s; "Let Your Hair Hang Down" and "Teeny Bopper Band" were two of the band's hits. As their popularity began to fade, the band decided that it was time for something different. They wanted to make music in different styles, which was difficult because of their Leiden dialect and Dutch radio stations and television channels' refusal to accept the quintet's ability to do so. With advice from Dutch DJ Willem van Kooten, they started writing and producing songs for other artists, including Lia Velasco, Patricia Paay, Liberation of Man, The Internationals, The Surfers, Rita Hovink, and Snoopy. In 1977, they formed Cat Music in Hazerswoude-Rijndijk, where they formed Rubberen Robbie and recorded as The Monotones, scoring a hit in Germany and the Netherlands with the song "Mono". In the 1980s, the members formed a new studio in Rijnsaterwoude, where they wrote songs for Tower and André Hazes, and started writing and producing breakdance, hip hop and Italo disco music. They entered a compact disc store owned by Gert van den Bosch, where they listened to illegal records of Italian dance projects and Hi-NRG artists. Inspired by this, they took the records to their studio and used electronic instruments to make "legal" sound-alikes of them. The members used pseudonyms such as "Adams & Fleisner" and "Tony Acardi", and formed various fictional bands and artists where the members were models and dancers hired for cover photograph shoots and lip-synced to songs sung by Bergman, Hessing and session performers. These included Fantastique, Gazuzu, Polysix, Digital Emotion, Master Genius, X-Ray Connection, Dr. Groove, Blanc De Blanc, Joanne Daniëls, Comfort & Joy, Party Freaks, and Twiggy Bop. Many of their dance and Italo disco records were released by Dutch labels such as Dureco Benelux and Boni Records (through their sublabel Break Records), founded by and named after Van den Bosch and Jan van Nieuwkoop in 1982. In 1983, Cat Music wrote and produced "Let's Break" by Master Genius, a medley of songs done in an 80's megamix style. One of the many sounds included in the song (and its 1984 follow-up "Let's Break Into the 80's") was the laugh of Woody Woodpecker, provided by Hessing. Van den Bosch's children, who were big fans of Woody and always wanted to hear him on the record, asked their father if he could produce a record based on the character. Upon learning this, Cat Music decided to write, produce and record a song about Woody, named "Woodpeckers from Space", a 5-minute synth-pop cover of "The Woody Woodpecker Song" by George Tibbles and Ramey Idriss. The song's name was also inspired by "Invaders from Space" by Dynamic Seven. The main vocals were performed by Bergman, with Hessing singing as Woody. The female vocals and two of Woody's laughs were done by Anita and Sylvia Crooks of The Internationals. Inspired by the popularity of the VCR and the earliest video game consoles, Cat Music gave their new studio project the name "Video Kids". In order to avoid being sued by Universal Studios, a new character named Tico Tac, a "spacepecker", was created as the group's mascot and used on the single's front cover. Tico was named after the song of the same name by Polysix, and designed by Boni Records cover designer Dirk Arend (going under the pseudonym "Fruut" at the time). Several other companies, including Polydor Records, showed interest in the song, but did not like Arend's early design for Tico, so the character was redesigned by Bjørn Frank Jensen and coloured by Frits Godhelp at Toonder Studio's. Jensen also drew a promotional comic strip named Tico Tac: Spacepecker, in which Tico meets a man who invites him into his house. Upon entry, he starts poking holes everywhere. The man decides to tame Tico by taping his mouth shut and tying his drill to a plunger. The single was released on 4 September 1984, peaking in 14th place in the Dutch Top 40 in 6 October 1984 and 17th in Ultratop 50 Flanders between 13 October 1984 and 17 November 1984. Cat Music decided to record and produce some more tracks in full, and compile them in their project's debut album, The Invasion of the Spacepeckers. They hired and asked Peter Slaghuis and Bianca Pikaar to be the faces of the Euro disco act. Slaghuis had done remixes of Cat Music's other projects, such as the Special European Edit of "After The Rainbow" by Joanne Daniëls (along with Emile Noorhoek) and "Steppin' Out" by Digital Emotion, and would later use "Woodpeckers from Space" in the seventh instalment in his "Disco Breaks" bootleg series, while Pikaar, under the stage name "Bianca Bonelli", would later have a solo single called "Je Veux L'amour (Follow Me)", also written and produced by Cat Music. A music video for "Woodpeckers from Space" was filmed, in which Tico plays pranks on the Slaghuis/Bonelli flight crew, messing with their spaceship. The video was shot in the Airplane Museum at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Peter, Bianca and the flight crew's pilots and scientists (played by Cat Music themselves, except Mol and Hessing) lip-sync to Cees Bergman, Geertjan Hessing and Anita and Sylvia's vocals during the video. The former two's costumes were personally sewn by Peter's mother, Helen Slaghuis. Tico was animated by Bjørn Frank Jensen, Frits Godhelp and Harrie Geelen. The album was released by Break Records in December 1984, and by Polydor in 1985. By 1985, "Woodpeckers from Space" was an international hit, peaking in 72nd place in the United Kingdom, 6th in Switzerland, 4th in Germany, 2nd in Portugal, and 1st in Norway and Spain. Boni Records promoted The Invasion of the Spacepeckers by airing the song's music video on music television channels, and Video Kids began their tour around Europe, doing live shows and concerts. The album was released at the Midem music festival and sold 1.1 million copies, and won the band an RIAA Gold Record Award. "Woodpeckers from Space" and their other songs, such as "Do the Rap" and "La Bamba", were played quite often on radio stations at the time, and covered and included on several best-of albums and compilations. A cover version was made by the