THE GATHERING Celebrating 20th Anniversary

Drummer Hans Rutten of Dutch/Norwegian rockers THE GATHERING has issued the following update:

"And then, suddenly it is there! The 20th anniversary of THE GATHERING. Exactly 20 years ago my brother René and me, together with Bart Smits on vocals, started this band. No strategy, we just wanted to write songs so we could release a rehearsal tape. Lots of people in Oss were playing in bands, and they triggered us to do something for ourselves.

"Exactly 20 years ago we biked from our parents house in Oss to a little village called Heesch, were we rented a rehearsal room on a farm, and started writing our first song: 'Anthology In Black'. Great, exciting times. I can remember clearly it was freezing cold in that room in wintertime. I see Bart struggling to get the heater on with matches. Every Sunday morning we biked to that farm, most of the time with a big hangover because of a rough Saturday evening, and started early in the morning writing and playing songs.

"A lot of things happened in those 20 years! Good times, bad times, but we always survived. Sometimes we had to struggle our way back and managed to come back stronger than ever. Most of the time we enjoyed playing in this band, seeing a lot of countries, touring all over the world and playing clubs and festivals, making nine studio albums, two DVDs and a lot of EPs, singles (even a small top 50 entrance with 'Strange Machines') and live records, getting to meet some of our fantastic fans.. A lot of positive things to remember!

"And now? A party? Well, we will celebrate this with the upcoming live gigs in the Netherlands and a European tour around January/February 2010! The tour will be around three weeks and we are all really looking forward to hitting the road again. There is some sad news in this though as Marjolein can't go with us the first week of this tour due to her daytime job. Luckily she will be there the second and third week. So, who will play bass guitar then? :) We had only one name in our mind: Hugo Prinsen Geerligs. As many of you know Hugo was with us for 15 years and we were very happy when we asked Hugo and he said yes! Five years have gone and now he will join us and help us out! These gigs will be something special for sure and give our 20th anniversary even more cachet!"

Quality fan-filmed video footage of THE GATHERING's performance at the Amphi Festival, which was held July 18-19, 2009 in Cologne, Germany, can be viewed below (courtesy of "privategwar2").

THE GATHERING's new album, "The West Pole", was released in North America on June 2 via Season of Mist. The CD was issued in most of Europe on May 4 via the band's own label, Psychonaut Records. More information is available here.

"The West Pole" marks the recording debut of THE GATHERING's new singer, Silje Wergeland, who was previously in the Norwegian band OCTAVIA SPERATI. It also includes two very talented guest singers, Anne van den Hoogen and Marcela Bovio (STREAM OF PASSION),along with other guest musicians.

Singer Anneke van Giersbergen announced her departure from THE GATHERING in 2007. She has since launched a project called AGUA DE ANNIQUE, which released an album called "Air" in October 2007.