Gruppo Sportivo

Biography

Gruppo Sportivo was a Dutch post-punk/new wave pop band, from The Hague (1976-2013). Formed in 1976, Gruppo Sportivo enjoyed modest international success in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The frontman of the band, and writer of the material, is Hans Vandenburg. Their first ever single was Out There in the Jungle (Polydor 1976), but the height of their career came with the two albums 10 Mistakes (1977) and Back to 78 (1978). They came to popularity just after the height of punk, but were rega...

Gruppo Sportivo was a Dutch post-punk/new wave pop band, from The Hague (1976-2013). Formed in 1976, Gruppo Sportivo enjoyed modest international success in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The frontman of the band, and writer of the material, is Hans Vandenburg.

Their first ever single was Out There in the Jungle (Polydor 1976), but the height of their career came with the two albums 10 Mistakes (1977) and Back to 78 (1978).

They came to popularity just after the height of punk, but were regarded as more post-punk, veering more towards the mainstream pop. They were much admired for their live performances, which had great humour--even slapstick. Their biggest hit in their native Netherlands is Disco Really Made it (#11 in the Dutch Top 40 in 1978), but their most well-known song internationally is Beep Beep Love (from the album Ten Mistakes), which enjoyed some success in both U.K. and U.S.

The U.K.'s Radio & Records voted them "Top Newcomer '78". In July 2006 the Japanese girl band Puffy AmiYumi recorded a new version of Tokyo, originally recorded by Gruppo Sportivo in 1978.

Gruppo Sportivo kept recording and performing on and off until December 2013, when the group announced and performed their last show in Haarlem, The Netherlands. Their comeback studio album, Great, was released in 2018. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.