Years are passing by and in 1979 both men become health problems. They decide to quite the business. They personally want to inform their most important customers: the eight shops and some instrument making companies, all who had been so loyal to them. In just one day they visit all their main customers. What a drive! The last one is a musical instrument company called Schenkelaars-Brekoo in the city of Eindhoven, in the south of The Netherlands. The owner, Mr. Dolf Schenkelaars, is ‘not amused’ about the idea of not able to buy these quality drums ever again. He in fact just made a fantastic deal for hundreds of marching snares for South-America and he grumbled: ‘Where can I buy such a great instrument at that short notice?’ The spontaneous response of Looise and Vogel was -in fact it was more of a joke- : ‘Well, you can always buy our business!’. Dolf Schenkelaars, 100% businessman and always looking for new challenges, immediately responed: ‘Gentlemen, I think we have a deal!’ Late that night Looise and Vogel returned to Amsterdam with nine months of extra work and a sold business in prospect.

Here is the drum badge for a Royal Schenkelaars Snare Drum

In January of the year 1980 Dolf Schenkelaars sends one of his employees to Amsterdam ‘to learn how to make such a nice snare drum’. That man is Toon Kobussen. In the next six months Toon learns everything in the business of making drums and during the summer of that year all machinery and equipment is moved from Amsterdam to Eindhoven. There Toon becomes the chief of the new drum department at Schenkelaars-Brekoo. On the first of October 1980 the ‘Amsterdam Royal’ officially closes, except for the basement on number 62. It is still rented by Wim Vogel. Mr. Looise retires, Wim Vogel has a surgery but returns some months later in the Bloemstraat and starts to make special drums for some private clients, as a kind of hobby. In the year 1986 the company of Schenkelaars-Brekoo goes bankrupt and Toon Kobussen buys the (old) machinery and all the rights and name of the brand Royal and starts his own litte drum company ‘Royal Kobo Percussion’ in a small village nearby Eindhoven. Nowadays that firm still exists and Toon and his son Ruud are doing the same thing as Mr. looise and Wim Vogel: making beautiful handcrafted snare drums. History repeats.

By the way: the first name of Mr. Looise was ‘Leen’. But no customer knew this. And if a customer knew, he wouldn’t dare to use it. People always referred to Looise as ‘Mister’, for he was such a well respected and admired drum professional and –builder.

Tom Vermulst
Nijmegen/The Netherlands