Coat of arms of the Counts of Holland

The Counts of Holland ruled over the County of Holland in the Low Countries between the 10th and the 16th century.

House of Holland[link]

The first count of Holland, Dirk I, was the son or foster-son of Gerolf, Count in Frisia (Dijkstra suggests that Dirk may have been the son of a sister of Gerolf and that his own father died while he was still an infant). He received land around Egmond from Charles the Fat at a place called Bladella (modern day Bladel near Eindhoven, The Netherlands) in 922. This is seen as the beginning of the county of Holland. However, until about 1100, the usual names for the county were West-Friesland, Frisia or Kennemerland; in spite of this the counts from Dirk I onwards are named of Holland.

Note that the chronology of the first few counts is uncertain. The existence of a count between Dirk I and Dirk II was only recently suggested, since it is thought that the references to counts named Dirk between 896 and 988 refer to three, not two, different counts. This third Count Dirk is placed between Dirk and I and II and numbered as Dirk I bis to avoid confusion with the already established numbering referring to the other counts of Holland named Dirk.

• Gerolf (r. 880 – 896)
• Dirk I (r. 896 – 931)
• Dirk I bis (r. 931 – 939), son of Dirk I
• Dirk II (r. 939 – 988), son of Dirk I bis
• Arnulf (r. 988 – 993), son of Dirk II
• Dirk III Hierosolymita (r. 993 – 1039), son of Arnulf I
• Dirk IV (r. 1039–1049), son of Dirk III
• Floris I (r. 1049–1061), brother of Dirk IV
  • Gertrude of Saxony (regent), widow of Floris I
  • Robert the Frisian (regent), second husband of Gertrude
  • Godfrey the Hunchback, Duke of Lower Lorraine (regent)

Name	Portrait	Birth	Marriages	Death
Dirk V 1061–1091		c. 1052 son of Floris I and Gertrude of Saxony	Othelhilde bef. 26 July 1083 two children	17 June 1091 aged 38–39
Floris II the Fat 1091–1121		c. 1080 son of Dirk V and Othelhilde	Gertrude-Petronilla of Lorraine 1113 four children	2 March 1121 aged 40–41
Dirk VI 1121–1157		c. 1114 son of Floris II and Gertrude-Petronilla of Lorraine	Sophie of Salm bef. 1137 nine children	5 August 1157 aged 42–43
Floris III 1157–1190		c. 1141 son of Dirk VI and Sophie of Salm	Ada of Huntingdon 1162, bef. 28 August eleven children	1 August 1190 aged 48–49
Dirk VII 1190–1203		c. ? son of Floris III and Ada of Huntingdon	Adelaide of Cleves 1186 two daughter	4 November 1203 Dordrecht aged ?
Ada 1203–1207 with Louis I		c. 1188 daughter of Dirk VII and Adelaide of Cleves	Dordrecht 5 November 1203 no issues	c. 1223 aged 34–35
Louis I 1203–1207 with Ada		c. ? son of Gerhard II, Count of Loon and Adelaide of Guelders		29/30 Jul 1218 aged ?
William I 1203–1222		c. 1141 son of Floris III and Ada of Huntingdon	(1) Adelaide of Guelders Stavoren 1197 five children (2) Marie of Brabant July 1220 no issues	4 February 1222 The Hague aged 80–81
Floris IV 1222–1234		24 June 1210 The Hague son of William I and Adelaide of Guelders	Matilde of Brabant 6 December 1224 five children	19 July 1234 Corbie aged 24
William II 1235–1256		February 1228 son of Floris IV and Matilde of Brabant	Elisabeth of Brunswick-Lüneburg Brunswick 25 January 1252 two children	128 January 1256 Utrecht aged 27

• William II (r. 1234–1256), King of Germany, son of Floris IV
  • Floris de Voogd (r. 1256–1258, regent, as guardian for Floris V), brother of William II
• Floris V the Peasants' God (r. 1256–1296), son of William II
  • John III, Lord of Renesse (r. 1296, regent)
  • Wolfert I, Lord of Borselen (r. 1296–1299, regent)
  • John II, Count of Hainaut (r. 1299 as regent, inherited the county after John I's death, see below)
• John I (r. 1296–1299), son of Floris V

House of Avesnes[link]

When John I died childless, the county was inherited by John II of Avesnes, Count of Hainaut from 1299. John of Avesnes was a son of Adelaide of Holland, sister of William II of Holland.

Name	Portrait	Birth	Marriages	Death
John II 1299–1304		c. 1247 son of John I of Avesnes and Adelaide of Holland	Philippa of Luxembourg 1265 twelve children	22 August 1304 aged 56–57
William III 1304-1337		c. 1286 son of John II and Philippa of Luxembourg	Joan of Valois 19 May 1305 eight children	7 June 1337 aged 50–51
William IV 1337-1345		c. 1307 son of William III and Joan of Valois	Joanna, Duchess of Brabant bef. 27 November 1334 one son	26 September 1345 Warns aged 37–38
Margaret I 1345–1354 with Louis (1345–1354)		c. 1311 daughter of William III and Joan of Valois	Louis Cologne 25 February 1324 ten children	23 June 1356 Le Quesnoy aged 44–45

House of Wittelsbach[link]

During the rule of Margaret, her son William V had the real power in the county. He became ruler in his own right as a result of the Hook and Cod wars. He was also Duke of Bavaria-Straubing as William I.

• Louis the Bavarian (r. 1345 –1347), Holy Roman Emperor, husband of Margaret
• William V (r. 1354–1388), son of Louis and Margaret
• Albert I (r. 1388–1404), brother of William V
• William VI (r. 1404–1417), son of Albert
• Jacqueline (r. 1417–1432), daughter of William VI
  • John III the Pitiless (r. 1417–1425), Duke of Bavaria-Straubing, brother of William VI, rival of Jacqueline
  • John IV (House of Leuven) (r. 1418–1427), Duke of Brabant, cousin and husband of Jacqueline
  • Humphrey (House of Lancaster) (r. 1422–1425), Duke of Gloucester, husband of Jacqueline
  • Francis, Lord of Borselen (r. 1432), husband of Jacqueline

There was a war of succession between John III and Jacqueline. This war was finally won by Philip of Burgundy in 1432, who, in the meantime had inherited John's claims on the county. Philip was a nephew of William VI, who had married a daughter of Philip the Bold of Burgundy. In 1432 he forced Jacqueline to abdicate from Hainaut and Holland on his behalf.

House of Valois[link]

• Philip I the Good (r. 1432-1467), grandson of Albert I
• Charles I the Bold (r. 1467-1477), son of Philip I
• Mary I the Rich (r. 1477-1482), daughter of Charles I

House of Habsburg[link]

• Maximilian (r. 1482-1494, regent), Holy Roman Emperor, husband of Mary I
• Philip II the Handsome (r. 1494-1506), King Philip I of Castile
• Charles II (r. 1515-1555), Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, King of Spain
• Philip III (r. 1555-1581, 1581-1598 titular only), King Philip II of Spain

During the 'foreign rule' by Burgundy and Habsburg, the county was governed by a stadtholder in name of the count. In 1581, the Estates General of the United Provinces declared themselves independent from the Spanish rule of Philip II (who was Philip III of Holland). Until the Treaty of Münster in 1648, the kings of Spain still used the title Count of Holland, but they had lost the actual power over the county to the States of Holland.

• Philip IV (1598–1621, titular only), King Philip III of Spain
• Philip V (1621–1648, titular only, renounced 1648), King Philip IV of Spain

The County of Holland and West Frisia 1582–1795[link]

The County remained in existence as a constituent member state of the Dutch Republic until 1795. There were no more Counts however since the Estates of Holland and West-Frisia were the sovereign of the County (although the countship was offered to William the Silent in 1584, shortly before his death). The Stadtholders, who were servants of the Estates were the de facto Chief-Executives during this period.

References[link]

• B. K. S. Dijkstra, Een stamboom in been, Amsterdam 1991.
• Counts of Holland

See also[link]

• Counts of Holland family tree
• A book of 32 plates of the counts of Holland published in Amsterdam in 1663, engraved by Adriaen Matham

External links[link]

• Counts of Holland on Familypedia

v t e Burgundian Circle (1512–1806) of the Holy Roman Empire Seventeen Provinces of Habsburg Netherlands Seceded 1581 Drenthe · Friesland · Groningen · Holland · Overijssel · Utrecht · Zeeland · Zutphen Remained Artois2 · Brabant · Flanders · Guelders · Hainaut · Limburg · Luxembourg · Mechelen · Namur County Burgundy3 Imperial City Besançon3 Dependent territories Antwerp · Breda1 1 until 1648;    2 until 1659;   3 until 1678.

Coat of arms of the former County of Holland

Holland is a region in the western part of the Netherlands. The term Holland is also frequently used as a pars pro toto to refer to the whole of the Netherlands. This usage is generally accepted but disliked by Dutch people in the other parts of the Netherlands.^[1]

From the 10th century to the 16th century, Holland proper was a unified political region, a county ruled by the Counts of Holland. By the 17th century, Holland had risen to become a maritime and economic power, dominating the other provinces of the Dutch Republic.

Today, the former County of Holland consists of the two Dutch provinces of North Holland and South Holland, which together include the Netherlands' three largest cities: country capital Amsterdam; seat of government The Hague; and Rotterdam, home of Europe's largest port.

Etymology[link]

Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) referred to this region as the land between the Helinium and Flevo ("inter Helinium ac Flevum"), the names of the mouths into which the Rhine divided itself, the first discharging its waters in the Mosa in the neighbourhood of Brielle and the second into "the lakes of the north" (present IJsselmeer).^[2] The name Holland first appeared in sources in 866 for the region around Haarlem, and by 1064 was being used as the name of the entire county. By this time, the inhabitants of Holland were referring to themselves as "Hollanders".^[3] Holland is derived from the Middle Dutch term holtland ("wooded land").^{[citation needed]} This spelling variation remained in use until around the 14th century, at which time the name stabilised as Holland (alternative spellings at the time were Hollant and Hollandt). Popular, but incorrect etymology holds that Holland is derived from hol land ("hollow land") and was inspired by the low-lying geography of Holland.^{[citation needed]}

Usage[link]

The proper name of the area in both Dutch and English is "Holland". "Holland" is a part of the Netherlands. "Holland" is informally used in English and other languages, including sometimes the Dutch language itself, to mean the whole of the modern country of the Netherlands.^[4] (This example of pars pro toto or synecdoche is similar to the tendency to refer to the United Kingdom as "England".)

The people of Holland are referred to as "Hollanders" in both Dutch and English. Today this refers specifically to people from the current provinces of North Holland and South Holland. Strictly speaking, the term "Hollanders" does not refer to people from the other provinces in the Netherlands, but colloquially "Hollanders" is sometimes mistakenly used in this wider sense.

In Dutch, the Dutch word "Hollands" is the adjectival form for "Holland". The Dutch word "Hollands" is also colloquially and occasionally used by some Dutch people in the sense of "Nederlands" (Dutch), but then often with the intention of contrasting with other types of Dutch people or language, for example Limburgish, the Belgian form of the Dutch language ("Flemish"), or even any southern variety of Dutch within the Netherlands itself.

However, in English there is no commonly used adjective for "Holland". "Dutch" refers to the Netherlands as a whole, not just the region of Holland. "Hollands" is ordinarily expressed in English in two ways:

• a possessive construction (e.g. "Holland's economic power"); or
• an "of Holland" or "from Holland" construction (e.g. "the Maid of Holland"; "a girl from Holland").

The following usages apply in certain limited situations but do not ordinarily serve as the English equivalent of the commonly used Dutch adjective "Hollands".

• Occasionally, the noun "Holland" is used in apposition (e.g. "the Holland Society").
• The adjective "Hollandic" is occasionally used by some historians and other academic writers as an adjective for Holland. Historians who use the word tend to reserve it to pre-Napoleonic Holland. Hollandic is also the name linguists give to the dialect spoken in Holland.
• The adjective "Hollandish" is a word in English but is no longer in use.

Geography[link]

North Holland

South Holland

Holland is situated in the west of the Netherlands. A maritime region, Holland lies on the North Sea at the mouths of the Rhine and the Meuse (Maas). It has numerous rivers and lakes and an extensive inland canal and waterway system. To the south is Zealand. The region is bordered on the east by the IJsselmeer and four different provinces of the Netherlands.

Holland is protected from the sea by a long line of coastal dunes. Most of the land area behind the dunes consists of polder landscape lying well below sea level. At present the lowest point in Holland is a polder near Rotterdam, which is about seven meters below sea level. Continuous drainage is necessary to keep Holland from flooding. In earlier centuries windmills were used for this task. The landscape was (and in places still is) dotted with windmills, which have become a symbol of Holland.

Holland is 7,494 square kilometres (land and water included), making it roughly 13% of the area of the Netherlands. Looking at land alone, it is 5,488 square kilometres in size. The combined population is 6.1 million.

The main cities in Holland are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. Amsterdam is formally the capital of the Netherlands and its largest city. The Port of Rotterdam is Europe's largest and most important harbour and port. The Hague is the seat of government of the Netherlands. These cities, combined with Utrecht and other smaller municipalities, effectively form a single city—a conurbation called Randstad.

The Randstad area is one of the most densely populated regions of Europe, but still relatively free of urban sprawl. There are strict zoning laws. Population pressures are enormous, property values are high, and new housing is constantly under development on the edges of the built-up areas. Surprisingly, much of the province still has a rural character. The remaining agricultural land and natural areas are highly valued and protected. Most of the arable land is used for intensive agriculture, including horticulture and greenhouse agri-businesses.

Language[link]

The predominant language spoken in the Holland is Dutch. Hollanders sometimes refer to the Dutch language as "Hollands", instead of the standard term Nederlands. Inhabitants of Belgium and other provinces of the Netherlands refer to "Hollands" to indicate someone speaking in a Hollandic dialect, or strong accent.

Standard Dutch was historically largely based on the dialect of the County of Holland, incorporating many traits derived from the dialects of the previously more powerful Duchy of Brabant and County of Flanders. Strong dialectal variation still exists throughout the Low Countries. Today, Holland-proper is the region where the original dialects are least spoken, in many areas having been completely replaced by standard Dutch, and the Randstad has the largest influence on the developments of the standard language—with the exception of the Dutch spoken in Belgium.^[5]

Despite this correspondence between standard Dutch and the Dutch spoken in the Randstad, there are local variations within Holland itself that differ from standard Dutch. The main cities each have their own modern urban dialect, that can be considered a sociolect.^[6] A small number of people, especially in the area north of Amsterdam, still speak the original dialect of the county, Hollandic. The Hollandic dialect is present in the north: Volendam and Marken and the area around there, West Friesland and the Zaanstreek; and in a south-eastern fringe bordering on the provinces of North Brabant and Utrecht. In the south on the island of Goeree-Overflakkee, Zealandic is spoken.

History[link]

Each of the provinces in the Netherlands has a history that deserves full attention on its own. However, to a certain extent at least, the history of Holland is the history of the Netherlands, and vice versa. See the article on "History of the Netherlands" for a more detailed history. The article here focuses on those points that are specific to Holland itself or that highlight the nature of the role played by Holland in the Netherlands as a whole.

Reclamation of the land[link]

The land that is now Holland had never been stable. Over the millennia the geography of the region had been dynamic. The western coastline shifted up to thirty kilometres to the east and storm surges regularly broke through the row of coastal dunes. The Frisian Isles, originally joined to the mainland, became detached islands in the north. The main rivers, the Rhine and the Meuse (Maas), flooded regularly and changed course repeatedly and dramatically.

The people of Holland found themselves living in an unstable, watery environment. Behind the dunes on the coast of the Netherlands a high peat plateau had grown, forming a natural protection against the sea. Much of the area was marsh and bog. By the tenth century the inhabitants set about cultivating this land by draining it. However, the drainage resulted in extreme soil shrinkage, lowering the surface of the land by up to fifteen metres.

Benthuizen polder, seen from a dike

To the south of Holland, in Zeeland, and to the north, in Frisia, this development led to catastrophic storm floods literally washing away entire regions, as the peat layer disintegrated or became detached and was carried away by the flood water. From the Frisian side the sea even flooded the area to the east, gradually hollowing Holland out from behind and forming the Zuiderzee (the present IJsselmeer). This inland sea threatened to link up with the "drowned lands" of Zealand in the south, reducing Holland to a series of narrow dune barrier islands in front of a lagoon. Only drastic administrative intervention saved the county from utter destruction. The counts and large monasteries took the lead in these efforts, building the first heavy emergency dikes to bolster critical points. Later special autonomous administrative bodies were formed, the waterschappen ("water control boards"), which had the legal power to enforce their regulations and decisions on water management. As the centuries went by, they eventually constructed an extensive dike system that covered the coastline and the polders, thus protecting the land from further incursions by the sea.

However, the Hollanders did not stop there. Starting around the 16th century, they took the offensive and began land reclamation projects, converting lakes, marshy areas and adjoining mudflats into polders. This continued right into the 20th century. As a result, historical maps of mediaeval and early modern Holland bear little resemblance to the maps of today.

This ongoing struggle to master the water played an important role in the development of Holland as a maritime and economic power and in the development of the character of the people of Holland.

County of Holland[link]

Until the 9th century, the inhabitants of the area that became Holland were Frisians. The area was part of Frisia. At the end of the 9th century, Holland became a separate county in the Holy Roman Empire. The first Count of Holland known about with certainty was Dirk I, who ruled from 896 to 931. He was succeeded by a long line of counts in the House of Holland (who were in fact known as counts of Frisia until 1101). When John I, count of Holland, died childless in 1299, the county was inherited by John II of Avesnes, count of Hainaut. By the time of William V (House of Wittelsbach; 1354–1388) the count of Holland was also the count of Hainaut, Flanders and Zealand.

In this time a part of Frisia, West Friesland, was conquered (as a result, most provincial institutions, including the States of Holland and West Frisia, would for centuries refer to "Holland and West Frisia" as a unit). The Hook and Cod wars started around this time and ended when the countess of Holland, Jacoba or Jacqueline was forced to give up Holland to the Burgundian Philip III, known as Philip the Good, in 1432.

The last count of Holland was Philip III, better known as Philip II king of Spain. He was abolished in 1581 by the so-called Act of Abjuration, although the kings of Spain continued to carry the titular appellation of count of Holland until the Peace of Münster signed in 1648.

Holland's prominence in the United Provinces and Dutch Republic[link]

In 1432, Holland became part of the Burgundian Netherlands and since 1477 of the Habsburg Seventeen Provinces. In the 16th century the county became the most densely urbanised region in Europe, with the majority of the population living in cities. Within the Burgundian Netherlands, Holland was the dominant province in the north; the political influence of Holland largely determined the extent of Burgundian dominion in that area.

Comitatus Hollandiae (1682)

In the Dutch Rebellion against the Habsburgs during the Eighty Years' War, the naval forces of the rebels, the Watergeuzen, established their first permanent base in 1572 in the town of Brill. In this way, Holland, now a sovereign state in a larger Dutch confederation, became the centre of the rebellion. It became the cultural, political and economic centre of the United Provinces, in the 17th century, the Dutch Golden Age, the wealthiest nation in the world. After the King of Spain was deposed as the count of Holland, the executive and legislative power rested with the States of Holland, which was led by a political figure who held the office of Grand Pensionary.

The largest cities in the Dutch Republic were in the province of Holland, such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leiden, Alkmaar, The Hague, Delft, Dordrecht and Haarlem. From the great ports of Holland, Hollandic merchants sailed to and from destinations all over Europe, and merchants from all over Europe gathered to trade in the warehouses of Amsterdam and other trading cities of Holland.

Many Europeans thought of the United Provinces first as "Holland" rather than as the "Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands". A strong impression of "Holland" was planted in the minds of other Europeans, which then was projected back onto the Republic as a whole. Within the provinces themselves, a gradual slow process of cultural expansion took place, leading to a "Hollandification" of the other provinces and a more uniform culture for the whole of the Republic. The dialect of urban Holland became the standard language.

Kingdom of Holland[link]

The formation of the Batavian Republic, inspired by the French revolution, led to a more centralised government. Holland became a province of a unitary state. Its independence was further reduced by an administrative reform in 1798, in which its territory was divided into several departments called Amstel, Delf, Texel, and part of Schelde en Maas.

From 1806 to 1810 Napoleon styled his vassal state, governed by his brother Louis Napoleon and shortly by the son of Louis, Napoleon Louis Bonaparte, as the "Kingdom of Holland". This kingdom encompassed much of what would become the modern Netherlands. The name reflects how natural at the time it had become to equate Holland with the non-Belgian Netherlands as a whole.^[7]

During the period the Low Countries were annexed by the French Empire and actually incorporated into France (from 1810 to 1813), Holland was divided into the départements Zuyderzée and Bouches-de-la-Meuse.

Provinces like any other[link]

After 1813, Holland was restored as a province of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Holland was divided into the present provinces North Holland and South Holland in 1840, after the Belgian Revolution of 1830. This reflected an historical division of Holland along the IJ into a Southern Quarter (Zuiderkwartier) and a Northern Quarter (Noorderkwartier). But the actual division is different from the old division.

From 1850 a strong process of nation formation took place, the Netherlands being culturally unified and economically integrated by a modernisation process, with the cities of Holland as its centre.^[8]

Image of Holland at home and abroad[link]

The predominance of Holland in the Netherlands has resulted in regionalism on the part of the other provinces. This is a reaction to the perceived threat that Holland poses to the identities and local cultures of the other provinces. The other provinces have a strong, and often negative,^[9] image of Holland and the Hollanders, to whom certain qualities are ascribed within a mental geography, a conceptual mapping of spaces and their inhabitants.^[10] On the other hand, some Hollanders take Holland's cultural dominance for granted and treat the concepts of "Holland" and the "Netherlands" as coincidental. Consequently, they see themselves not primarily as "Hollanders", but simply as "Dutch" (Nederlanders).^[11] This phenomenon has been called "hollandocentrism".^[12]

Holland tends to be associated with a particular image. The stereotypical image of Holland is an artificial amalgam of tulips, windmills, clogs, cheese and traditional dress (klederdracht). As is the case with many stereotypes, this is far from the truth and reality of life in Holland. This can at least in part be explained by the active exploitation of these stereotypes in promotions of Holland and the Netherlands. In fact only in a few of the more traditional villages, such as Volendam and locations in the Zaan area, are the different costumes with wooden shoes still worn by some inhabitants.

New Holland[link]

The province of Holland gave its name to a number of colonial settlements and discovered regions that were called Nieuw Holland or New Holland. The most extensive of these was the island continent presently known as Australia: New Holland was first applied to Australia in 1644 by the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman as a Latin Nova Hollandia, and remained in international use for 190 years. On the same voyage he named New Zealand after the Dutch province of Zeeland. In the Netherlands Nieuw Holland would remain the usual name of the continent until the end of the 19th century; it is now no longer in use there, the Dutch name today being Australië.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Holland

• Map of Holland (the provinces of North Holland and South Holland) on Google Maps

Coordinates: 52°15′00″N 4°40′01″E / 52.250°N 4.667°E / 52.250; 4.667

Jools Holland
Holland at the British Academy Television Awards 2009
Background information
Birth name	Julian Miles Holland
Born	(1958-01-24) 24 January 1958 (age 54) Blackheath, London, England
Genres	Boogie-woogie, jazz, blues, R&B
Occupations	Musician, composer, television presenter, bandleader
Instruments	Piano, keyboard, guitar
Years active	1974–present
Associated acts	Squeeze Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
Website	Official site

Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze (1974-1980 & 1985-1990) and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, David Gilmour, Magazine and Bono.

Holland is a published author and appears on television shows besides his own and contributes to radio shows. In 2004, he collaborated with Tom Jones on an album of traditional R&B music. He currently hosts Later... with Jools Holland, a music-based show aired on BBC2, on which his annual show Hootenanny, is based.^[1]

Life and career[link]

His great grandfather came from Ireland.^[2]

Holland played as a session musician before finding fame, and his first studio session was with Wayne County & the Electric Chairs in 1976 on their track "F*ck Off."^[3]

Holland was a founding member of the British pop band Squeeze, formed in March 1974, in which he played keyboards until 1981 and helped the band to achieve millions of record sales, before pursuing his solo career.^[3]

Holland began issuing solo records in 1978, his first EP being Boogie Woogie '78. He continued his solo career through the early 1980s, releasing an album and several singles between 1981 and 1984. He branched out into TV, co-presenting the Newcastle-based TV music show The Tube with Paula Yates. Holland achieved notoriety by inadvertently using the phrase "groovy fuckers" in a live, early evening TV trailer for the show, causing it to be suspended for six weeks.^[4] He referred to this in his sitcom "The Groovy Fellers" with Rowland Rivron.

Holland at the Tsunami Relief concert in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, 22 January 2005

In 1983 Holland played an extended piano solo on The The's re-recording of "Uncertain Smile" for the album Soul Mining. In 1985, Squeeze (which had continued in Holland's absence through to 1982) unexpectedly regrouped including Jools Holland as their keyboard player. Holland remained in the band until 1990, at which point, he again departed Squeeze on amicable terms to resume his solo career as a musician and a TV host.

In 1987, Holland formed The Jools Holland Big Band which consisted of himself and Gilson Lavis from Squeeze. This gradually became his 18-piece Rhythm & Blues Orchestra.^[3]

Between 1988 and 1990 he performed and co-hosted along with David Sanborn during the two seasons of the music performance program Sunday Night on NBC late-night television.^[5] Since 1992 he has presented the music program Later... with Jools Holland, plus an annual New Year's Eve Hootenanny.

In 1996, Holland signed a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records,^[3] and his records are now marketed through Rhino Records.

Holland has a touring band, The Rhythm And Blues Orchestra, which often includes singers Sam Brown and Ruby Turner. In January 2005 Holland and his band performed with Eric Clapton as the headline act of the Tsunami Relief Cardiff.

Personal[link]

Holland lives in the Westcombe Park area of Blackheath in South East London, where he had his studio, Helicon Mountain, built to his design, inspired by Portmeirion, the setting for the 1960s TV series The Prisoner.^[6] Holland owns costumes and props from the series and occasionally appears wearing the trademark brown-with-white-pipe blazer featured in the series. In 1987, Holland demonstrated his love of the series and starred in a spoof documentary, The Laughing Prisoner, with Stephen Fry, Terence Alexander and Hugh Laurie.^[6] Much of it was shot on location in Portmeirion, with archive footage of Patrick McGoohan, and featuring musical numbers from Siouxsie and the Banshees, Magnum and XTC. Holland performed a number towards the end of the program. His younger brother, Christopher, also plays organ in the Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, as well as being a singer-songwriter.

Holland was an interviewer for The Beatles Anthology TV project, and appeared in the 1997 film Spiceworld as a musical director.

He received an OBE in 2003 in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, for services to the British music industry as a television presenter and musician. In September 2006 Holland was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Kent.^[7] He is also known for his charity work: in June 2006 he performed in Southend for HIV/AIDS charity Mildmay,^[8] and in early 2007 he performed at Wells and Rochester Cathedrals to raise money for maintaining cathedral buildings.^[9] He is also patron of the Drake Music Project^[10] and has raised many thousands of pounds for the charity.

Holland was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Canterbury Christ Church University at a ceremony held at Canterbury Cathedral on 30 January 2009.^[11]

On 29 August 2005 Holland married Christabel McEwen, his girlfriend of 15 years (between 1983 and 1995 she had been married to Edward Lambton, 7th Earl of Durham, before they divorced). The wedding, at St James's Church, Cooling near Rochester, was attended by many celebrities, including Ringo Starr, Robbie Coltrane, Stephen Fry, Lenny Henry, Noel Gallagher, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.^[12]

Holland is also a patron for The Milton Rooms, an Arts centre in Malton, North Yorkshire, along with Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Kathy Burke.^[13]

Writing[link]

His 2007 biography, Barefaced Lies and Boogie Woogie Boasts was BBC Radio 4 "Book of the Week" in the week beginning 8 October 2007 and was read by Holland. He is the author or joint author of four other books.

Discography[link]

Albums that have charted and gained Certifications[link]

Releases[link]

• 1978 "Boogie Woogie '78" (EP)
• 1981 Jools Holland and His Millionaires
• 1984 Jools Holland Meets Rock 'A' Boogie Billy (U.S. release only)
• 1990 World Of His Own
• 1991 The Full Complement
• 1992 "Together Again" (single with Sam Brown)
• 1992 The A-Z Geographer's Guide To The Piano
• 1994 Solo Piano
• 1994 Live Performance
• 1996 " Jazz & Rock & Roll
• 1997 Lift The Lid
• 1998 Best Of
• 1999 Sunset Over London
• 2000 Hop The Wag
• 2001 Small World Big Band
• 2002 SWBB Volume Two: More Friends
• 2003 Jack O The Green (SWBB Friends 3)
• 2004 Tom Jones & Jools Holland
• 2005 Beatroute
• 2005 Swinging the Blues, Dancing the Ska
• 2006 Moving Out To The Country
• 2007 Best of Friends
• 2008 The Collection
• 2008 The Informer (With Ruby Turner)
• 2008 "The Informer" (single with Ruby Turner)
• 2009 "I Went By" (single with Louise Marshall)
• 2010 Rockinghorse

Film and television[link]

• 1981 Urgh! A Music War
• 1982 Police: Around the World
• 1982 - 1987 The Tube (Host for 121 editions)
• 1983 Rebellious Jukebox: Compere
• 1984 The Young Ones: Punk (Episode entitled "Summer Holiday")
• 1985 Walking To New Orleans (Jools Holland in New Orleans)
• 1987 Eat the Rich: Sun Reporter
• 1987 Filthy Rich & Catflap: Strip Show Pianist (Episode #1.3)
• 1987 The Laughing Prisoner: No. 7
• 1987 French and Saunders (Episode 1.5)
• 1988 Sunday Night: Host (unknown episodes)
• 1989 Juke Box Jury: Host (unknown episodes)
• 1989 The Groovy Fellers Himself, 6 episodes
• 1991 Mr Roadrunner (Jools Holland in Memphis)
• 1994 There's No Business: Pianist
• 1994 - 1995 Don't Forget Your Toothbrush
• 1995 The Beatles Anthology
• 1997 Spice World: Musical Director
• 1997 Name That Tune: Host and Pianist
• 2003 Jool's History of the Piano : Presenter
• 2006 Top Gear: Star in a reasonably priced car.
• 2007 Fairport@Forty: Interview
• 2009 Chop Shop Rover Concept: The Jet 1 Car : Customer

Current television programmes[link]

• 1992–present Later... with Jools Holland
• 1993–present Hootenanny

Books[link]

• "Rolling Stones": A Life on the Road, (with Dora Loewenstein), Viking/Allen Lane (1998), (ISBN 0-670-88051-5)
• Beat Route: Journeys Through Six Counties, Weidenfeld & Nicholson (1998), (ISBN 0-575-06700-4)
• Ray Charles: Man and Music, (with Michael Lydon), Payback Press (1999), (ISBN 0-86241-929-8)
• Hand That Changed Its Mind , International Music Publications (2007), (ISBN 1-84328-645-9)
• Barefaced Lies and Boogie-woogie Boasts , Michael Joseph Ltd (2007), (ISBN 0-7181-4915-7)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Jools Holland at the Internet Movie Database
• Jools Holland's Radio 2 show at BBC Programmes
• Later...with Jools Holland at BBC Online

Ruby Turner (born 22 June 1958, Montego Bay, Jamaica)^[1][2] is a British R&B and soul singer, songwriter and actress. In 1967, she relocated with her family to Handsworth, Birmingham, England when she was nine years old.^[1] She is best known for her albums and single releases on both sides of the Atlantic, and has sung backing vocals for others such as Bryan Ferry, UB40, Steel Pulse, Steve Winwood, Jools Holland and Mick Jagger, as well as writing songs that have been covered by many artists including Lulu, Yazz and Maxi Priest.^[1] She achieved the rare feat, for a British singer, of reaching #1 on the US R&B chart, with "It's Gonna Be Alright" in February 1990.

Between 1986 and 1995, eight of her singles appeared in the UK Singles Chart with "I'd Rather Go Blind" being the most successful reaching #24 in 1987.^[3] Turner performed at the Birmingham Heart Beat 86 concert,^[4] which featured George Harrison; and sang on BBC Television's Jools Holland's Hootenanny, in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. She has also appeared as an actress on stage, film and television.

Musical style[link]

Biography[link]

Music[link]

In the early 1980s Turner worked with Alexis Korner. In 1983, she recorded with UB40. She achieved a solo recording contract with Jive Records after singing backing vocals on Culture Club's From Luxury to Heartache.^[1]

Her first album Women Hold Up Half The Sky, was released in 1986 to critical acclaim.^[1] and produced hit singles such as a cover version of the Staple Singers song,"If You're Ready (Come Go With Me)", a duet with Jonathan Butler, and the Etta James standard "I'd Rather Go Blind".^[1][3]

In March 1987, Turner sang on the Ferry Aid single, "Let It Be". Around this time she also released her hit album, The Motown Songbook, on which she performed with Motown others including The Four Tops, The Temptations and Jimmy Ruffin. Turner appeared on Corey Hart's album, Young Man Running (1988), on the duet "Spot You in a Coalmine".

Turner achieved a #1 R&B chart success in the US in February 1990 with "It's Gonna Be Alright",^[6][7] becoming one of the few British artists to top that chart.^[8] Four other US R&B chart entries followed in 1990 and 1991, including "Paradise" from the movie Dancin' thru the Dark.^[6][7]

In 1998 she recorded the album, Call Me By My Name, with British rhythm and blues luminaries Boz Burrell, Zoot Money, Bobby Tench and Stan Webb. On New Year's Eve 1999, she sang the National Anthem for Queen Elizabeth II, Prime minister Tony Blair and other dignitaries, at the opening of the Millennium Dome in London.^[9]

Turner sang backing vocals on Mick Jagger's 2001 album, Goddess in the Doorway, and performed "Nobody But You" on the 2002 album Jools Holland's Big Band Rhythm & Blues.^[10]

In 2007, Turner presented a documentary Shout Sister Shout about Sister Rosetta Tharpe for BBC Radio 2.^[5] She sang on Seasick Steve's album, I Started Out with Nothin and I Still Got Most of It Left (2008). In September 2009, Turner released her first gospel music album, I'm Travelling On.^[5]

In 2011, Turner narrated the BBC Four documentary Reggae Britannia, which chronicled the history of British Reggae music.

Acting[link]

As an actress, she has appeared in productions of A Streetcar Named Desire, Carmen Jones, Fame, as well as One Love at the London's Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.^[1] Turner also had a small part in the English film, Love Actually.

In 2006, Turner made an appearance in Little Britain Abroad. She played the Sheriff Judy.^[11] On 12 October 2007, she appeared as a guest star (as herself) in the BBC One soap opera, Doctors.^[1] The episode title was entitled "Raising The Roof".

Her most recent theatre appearance, was a successful run in the London West End production of the musical Simply Heavenly, which was nominated for 'Outstanding Musical' at the 2005 Laurence Olivier Awards.^[5] In 2009, Turner appeared in the BBC drama, Hotel Babylon.^[12]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles (selected)[link]

See also[link]

• R&B number-one hits of 1990 (USA)
• List of artists who reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart
• List of performers on Top of the Pops

References[link]