Beginnings
Claw Boys Claw was founded in 1983 by guitarist Allard Jolles, at the time guitarist and singer of L'Attentat, though he played drums in his newly-founded band. The original four members were Jolles, Peter Te Bos, John Cameron, and bassist Bobbie Rossini. Their "garage rock," as the Dutch termed it (a lo-fi mixture of rock and roll and punk), quickly gained popularity, and in 1984 the band releases their first album, Shocking Shades Of Claw Boys Claw, containing among others a cover of the song "Venus" by Shocking Blue. The album was recorded in three hours and cost 500 guilders (some $250 at the time), money the band had won in a talent show. While not a commercial success at the time, the album (which was reissued in 2008) was later called one of the best records in the history of Dutch pop music by Trouw. Jolles leaves the band in May 1985 to focus on L'Attentat, and is replaced by Marius Schrader.
The singles "So Mean" and "Indian Wallpaper" were successful in the underground scene, but the 1986 album With Love From The Boys, released by Polydor, broke through to a broader audience, selling 8000 copies. That year the band played at Pinkpop, the most important open air festival in the Netherlands, and under the pseudonym "The Hipcats" opened up for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, playing mainly cover songs. They even released a Christmas single, "Blue Bells." In 1987 the Claw Boys Claw played at the Roskilde Festival and released their third full-length album, Crack My Nut, their last on Polydor. There was disagreement between the band and their label: Peter Te Bos, in an interview with the leading Dutch music magazine, Muziekkrant OOR, complained that they received no support from their label and that their records were not promoted at all. The band received the prestigious BV Popprijs from the Christian-Democrat minister of culture Elco Brinkman, and Te Bos caused a stir by kissing the amazed Brinkman as he handed Te Bos the award; five years later the photograph was on the cover of André Nuchelman's study of the difficult relations between the Dutch government and popular music, "Dit gebonk dient tot het laatste toe te worden bestreden": Popmuziek en overheidsbeleid 1975–2001.
Hoping to reach a larger audience, the band performed at the New Music Seminar in New York in 1988, but success in the United States never came about. They met with John Cale, who was interested in producing the band's next album. Despite having built a great reputation as live-artists, the band were dropped by Polydor because of disappointing sales. The band subsequently released the album Hitkillers on the Megadisc label, an album consisting of Nederpop covers. In February 1989, Rossini and Schrader left the band and were replaced by Marc Lamb en Arno Kooy from The Agentz. Despite trouble with personnel and disappointing commercial success, the band's reputation seemed solid, and they were called one of the most prominent bands of the 1980s.
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