The Phantom Four

The Phantom Four are the follow up to the legendary instrumental surfband The Treble Spankers from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The Treble Spankers did over 500 gigs in The Netherlands between 1993 and 1996, playing packed venues and all major Dutch festivals like Pinkpop, Lowlands, Parkpop, Paaspop, Noorderslag and various "bevrijdingsfestivals". The band toured Belgium, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the UK extensively and received major radio airplay on the single “Red Hot Navigator”. Their second album “Hasheeda” ended up selling over 20.000 copies in The Netherlands. Due to physical problems of Phantom Frank, the mastermind behind the band, The Treble Spankers had to call it a day in 1997. Early 2004, after releasing a very well received solo album, Phantom Frank decides to form The Phantom Four with members Marc de Regt (Kek '66), Marnix Krabbendam (The Budgetics) and Niels Jansen (The Butcher’s Wife). Besides surf standards like Malagueña, Margaya en Johnny Guitar a huge collection of compositions is written. On 7th November 2004 the very first concert of The Phantom Four takes place in underground Café De Diepte in Amsterdam. The concerts audio is recorded in stereo on VHS by some friends. Because of the great quality and spontanious vibe of the recordings the band decides to release it on CD without any post-production or mixing. Probably the first band ever to put out a live album of their entire debut concert. 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 a show 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 single "Kyma" is featured on the covermount compilation cd of Revolver magazine. In December the band plays at Club 3voor12 on national radiostation 3FM. 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, unfortunately this show gets cancelled duet to health problems of Dick Dale. During summer the band plays festival De Beschaving in Utrecht. In december the band is invited to host an evening at 3FMvoor12 @ national radiostation 3FM where they open every hour of the show with their single “Kyma” and play three other tracks live on air. March 2008 The Phantom Four open for the legendary Trashmen in a packed Melkweg and play two gigs at the Paaspop festival. During the summer the band starts working on new material and November finds the band in the studio to record the follow up to their studio debut “Madhur”. Early 2009 the band opens for Dutch artist Boris in a sold out Paradiso. In April the band opens for Agent Orange in De Melkweg. June finds the band playing at the legendary Timboektoe venue where they first perform live with Rudeboy of the legendary Urban Dance Squad. In October the band is once again scheduled to support Dick Dale for his shows in The Netherlands. Unfortunately the tour once again gets cancelled, this time due to problems with the booking agent. Due to some personal circumstances the finishing and release of the new album gets postponed 'till 2010. In April 2010 the band finally supports Dick Dale during his shows in Patronaat (Haarlem) and Tivoli (Utrecht). In May the band embarks on a tour in Spain supporting The Blasters. Plans for the release of the new album drastically change when they decide to release a double album; the instrumental album recorded November 2008 and a vocal album featuring Rudeboy of the Urban Dance Squad. In September the band will go back to the studio to record the vocal album which will be released under the artist name The Phantom Four & The Arguido. The double album is scheduled for release February 25th, 2012 Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.