Owned since: 2021
Genre: Funk infused post-punk?
Where I bought it: Castoffs from my uncle
Year: 1978
Label/pressing: Ariola
We return to some Dutch stuff, it’s been a while. I think I’ve had this record around 5 times now but it hasn’t survived any purges of my collection I do to keep its size kind of easy to handle. Not that Gruppo Sportivo’s debut is a bad record, it’s just one you will run into the €1-3 bins to this day because it sold so much at time of release. So when helping out my uncle to clean out his vinyl collection a bit I grabbed it again so, well, it can be reviewed for Crate Skimmers.
Gruppo Sportivo are one of those bands I think are kinda hard to place in the Dutch pop music history, even if they were for sure one of the biggest successes of the (early) post-punk boom. Still led to this day, with various stop-starts, by Hans Vandenburg, the band never really stopped being a staple at Dutch venues and/or festivals. While I never bought a ticket to see them, the number of times I’ve witnessed a show by them goes past 5 these days and it was always enjoyable.
10 Mistakes is a record that very much sounds like the early 80s even though it came out in 1978. It’s clearly a spinoff of the punk movement but goes as easily into Frank Zappa chords/lyrics and the weird ironic pop music in it remains on the edge of being great and irritating to this day. There’s even a parody of I Shot the Sheriff on here called I Shot My Manager which parodies the various bands getting into reggae around that time. That is where Sportivo’s real identity lies; their sense of humor. It’s all very dry and Dutch which means it’s heavy on dark humor and making fun of yourself. Coupled with Vandenburg’s pretty unique “singing” and the plenty of call-and-response choruses on this, it endlessly swings from 60’s Beatles pop to 60’s girl pop to oddball 70’s post-punk.
There’s also that dinky organ that is all over the album and appears in every song. I’m a sucker for a good dinky organ in music and Lord does this band use it a lot. Highlight of this might be the charming Mission á Paris where the chorus recalls even the instrumental music of bands like the Shadows before a kazoo chorus. Honestly 10 Mistakes is just made of genre hopping. The robotic pop of Dreamin’ that recalls producer Robert Jan Stips’s band The Nits to the cabaret like Armee Monika to the peppy organ pop music of Girls Never Know.
Girls Never know for sure is the standout here. A perfect 3,5 pop song full of minimal guitar work, handclap drums, organ chiming and Josée van Iersel en Meike Touw girl group backing vocals it always will be one of my favorite songs from this era of Dutch music. But then we got Superman; a 50’s doowop throwback that lasts 6,50 minutes, recalling Zappa’s endless flirtations with doowop. I’ve never been a massive fan of Zappa’s music and while it’s overlong Superman really has a lot of charm to it and recalls a lot of Sheik Yerbouti stuff which is mild praise from my side. Still, it’s a shame the album opens up on the weakest song; Beep Beep Love is a charming but also a bit irritating slice of hyperactive New Wave pop that gives no moment to rest and kind of tires itself out halfway through. For the rest, it recalls a lot of Nina Hagen band stuff that came out slightly before it. That same weird but cool mix of cabaret music, funk-jazz and rock music and honestly I should get around to covering some Hagen pretty soon.
10 Mistakes is very much what Gruppo Sportivo is still doing to this day. Making endless curving weird pop music with the lack of defining genre is its worst and best trait. It was also a mild hit in Europe and honestly sounds a couple years ahead of its 1978 release date music-wise. I think it really suffers from a stronger B-side than an A-side but still there is a lot to like here and is an interesting relic of the spinoffs of post-punk in the Netherlands. Sportivo are doing a tour right now where they play their top ranked 25(!) Spotify plays songs every night, so hey at least they’re still being own weird selves.
Sloot Mistakes: More dinky organ, I say. More! More!!!