Scheveningen – ‘’Do you know the Musselman, the Musselman’’. The iconic ‘Mussels’ song has been a memorable part of the Dutch 90s generation’s childhood. In the 90s, the gabber-parody of ‘The Musselman’ became a national Top 40 hit with the homonymous kids’ song. What started out as a ‘prank’ became a 6-week-long phenomenon in the Top 40. 25 years later, the ‘Musselman’ returned for a big crowd of 20,000 people at the Dutch GelreDome stadium. A trip down memory lane that resulted in a hilarious brand-new version of the song.
In September 2022, the Musselman made his unexpected return to a big audience. After 25 years of not performing, he popped up during the DJ-set of Dutch party duo Altijd Larstig & Rob Gasd’rop at X-Qlusive Holland (XQH) at the GelreDome. ‘During the annual edition of XQH, the harder styles and typical Dutch music unite in one big show. It’s a rollercoaster that consists of loads of hits and craziness and each DJ act brings out some special surprise acts. We were raised with ‘The Musselman’, so it was about time to bring back this icon to the stage.’ commented Rob Gasd’rop.
It turned out to be a big challenge to track down this living legend. Altijd Larstig: ‘After doing a lot of digging, we found out that Sander (The original Musselman) currently owns a kitchen company. Also, we had the fantastic plan to send an e-mail to this company with the subject line: ‘Guest performance GelreDome’ and that worked out perfectly because only 2 months later we performed together in a massive stadium.’
As the Musselman finally returned to the stage, the duo thought it had to be accompanied by a new version of the track. Sander: ‘In the past decades we often received remixes of the track, yet none of them really managed to convince me. However, Lars & Rob came up with a brilliant idea that I couldn’t decline. We met up in the studio, instantly recorded a new vocal and a few weeks later the brand-new hardcore version of the song was finished. It was incredible to return after 25 years and cross the GelreDome off my bucket list. The GelreDome had been on my bucket list for a long time already.’
The official remix of ‘Mossels’ (Mussels) is now released on X-Qlusive Holland Records, the official label of event-company Q-dance. The Musselman: ‘For the video clip we went back to the location where it all started 25 years ago and switched it up in a way that fits very well with 2023.’ The brand-new version of ‘Mossels’ is now available on Spotify and all major streaming platforms.