November 23, 2009 – Pim Koopman was born in Hilversum, the Netherlands on March 11th 1953. In 1972 he co-founded the progressive rock band Kayak along with Ton Scherpenzeel, Johan Slager and Max Werner.
He left the band in 1976 because of health reasons and some issues with the band manager and went on to become a record producer, and was successful with acts such as Maywood, Petra Berger, Valensia and Robby Valentine.
He returned to Kayak for the reunion in 1999 and played drums in Kayak until his death. His last album with the band ‘Letters From Utopia’ was released on September 16th 2009, just two months before his death.
As well as his musical performing talents, he was the composer of six entries to the Eurovision Song Festival Contest: “Jouw lach” performed by Dick Rienstra in 1977, “Later” by Brigitte in 1984, “Déja Vu” and “Champagne” by Willeke Alberti in 1994, “De wereld is van jou” by Gina de Wit and “Met of zonder jou” by Clau-Dya’s in 1996. He has been involved with two other bands, ‘Diesel’ and ‘The President’ which was a collaboration with Okkie Huysdens.
He died from a heart attack on November 23, 2009 at the age of 56.
