Stars in their Eyes

Larry Joe was introduced to Stars in their Eyes by the Dutch Embassy in early 2011. Made possible by funding from the Royal Nederlands Embassy, Larry Joe appeared at a number of ´New Beginnings´ coaching courses which were organised by Stars in their Eyes on behalf of the WorldCoaches organisation of the Royal Dutch Football Association. He was such an inspiration to coaches, community leaders and children that a collective vision and dream was recognised: to change lives!

Larry Joe and Stars in their Eyes subsequently discussed ways in which Larry’s unique talent could be instrumental in pursuading more people in the Nederlands to support social projects amongst the ‘poorest of the poor’, and the result was the formation of a collective project which opened the door for Larry Joe to visit the Nederlands in the autumn of 2011, and in which Larry Joe and Stars in their Eyes collaborated intensively.

The initiators wanted the tour to create opportunities for Larry Joe to be instrumental in mobilising Dutch people to become even more involved in and supportive of social projects. Most importantly, the objective was to present a ‘real’ role model identity which would genuinely inspire a great many people. 

Larry Joe was accompanied by Aron Turest-Swartz, his producer and mentor. The tour schedule was arranged by Nic Jooste of the Stars in their Eyes Foundation, and was executed operationally by Christiaan van der Goes (tour manager) and Elton Hart (representative of Stars in their Eyes).

The tour covered a 12 day period, and specific highlights and achievements are given below.

Desperados is a Dutch group which consists of members of various nationalities: Mexico, Italy, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Canada, New Zealand and Netherlands. Their home base and recording studios are located at the residential holiday park ‘Eekhoornnest’, which belongs to one of the band members’ father. Larry Joe and the tour members were accommodated at Eekhoornnest, and when the Desperados were introduced to Larry Joe a great musical collaboration resulted whish saw Desperados backing Larry Joe and Aron at a number of performances.

Wim Visser, director of the famous Dutch theatre Carre saw a show by Larry Joe in Darling early in 2011. He was extremely impressed by the show, and when he heard that Larry Joe would be visiting the Netherlands he offered to host a show at ‘Kleine Carre’. On Friday 18 November Larry Joe and Aron blew away a group of more than 80 special guests, and the announcement was made that Larry Joe would return to Carre in Septemer 2012.

The evening performance on Sunday 20 November in Theatre Cultura in Nootdorp was Larry Joe’s first ‘complete’ show, and he was again accompanied by the Desperados. The venue was sold out to capacity – 174 people from all age groups attended. The show was a huge success, with a number of standing ovations. In addition the show had a unique character, in that a substantial donation was made to ‘Work in Progress’ a group of youths who use their annual summer holidays to perform development activities in poor countries.

During his stay Larry Joe was also invited to perform a master class lecture at the pop academy of Zadkine College, one of the largest education colleges of the Netherlands. During his session of more than three hours he inspired a large group of students with his life story, and did a ‘jamming session’ with the young musicians. Larry Joe and Aron were impressed with the energy of the group, and selected Richard (a bass guitarist) and Tim (an accordionist) to perform with them during the remainder of the tour.

Some weeks prior to the tour, a performance by Larry Joe had been attended in South Africa by Dorine Hulshof, a lecturer at Hogeschool Zuyd in Limburg. Subesequently Larry Joe was invited to perform at this college. The only problem was that 1000 students wanted to attend the performance, but the biggest hall could only accommodate 300 students. The solution was to host three performances: at 14h00, 16h00 and 18h00. It was a great success, and resulted in substantial local press coverage.

The full tour report will be published on this page soon.