Circle J

It must have been 2008, somewhere in the city centre of mo*********ng Arnhem, in the middle of a roundabout. With cars rushing by, two folkpunk bands were doing what they do best: get drunk, play their asses off and create mayhem. One of those bands was Circle J, who had just played a support show for Dropkick Murphys in a sold out Poppodium 013 and getting ready for their first tour through the north of Spain. And the other one was, well, uh, Drunken Dolly.

We met Kevin Snoey before. He showed up at our shows regularly, always escorted by an older lady (his mum?!). But this time he was escorted by Erik the Pirate, who arhythmically hit old oil barrels, and a couple of sweet, drunk bastards who tried to play their instruments as well as they could. Which, at that time, wasn’t, uh, all that good 😊Nobody gave a f**k: we had the best time ever, the drinks were free and the crowd enjoyed it.

We always kept in touch, regularly playing chaotic shows together.

All this changed in 2015. Circle J played a Saint Patrick’s show at De Zwarte Ruiter in Den Haag. A shy (!) Kevin came up to us after the show and handed us a copy of ‘Drunken Dolly and the Drunken Man’s Curse’. ‘Can you give it a listen and tell me what you think?’, Kevin asked.

On our way back to Utrecht we popped the cd (!) in our cd-player in our van. And fair to say: we were blown away! Drunken Dolly’s songs and musical abilities had shifted a couple of gears. In the right direction – up! − that is. And fortunately, other people noticed too. Drunken Dolly started playing more shows, in the Lowlands and abroad, bigger and better but always with the energy and fun of that first show we played together in 2008.

Now it’s 2025. We old farts are ready to retire, due to circumstances beyond our control, as they say. But not without going out with a bang. We'll play one more show, together with our good old friends in arms Drunken Dolly, March 14th at Rotown Rotterdam Rotterdam. The show’s sold out, but you can always try TicketSwap.

No longer will Circle J be ‘the flag-bearer of folkpunk in the Lowlands’. The title now rightfully belongs to Drunken Dolly. Wear this title proudly, children!