All Aboard

It's January 2012, and in the midst of a painfully hot summer, much like the one at hand, Facebook feeds are full of complaints about the weather and people are tucked away inside, curtains pulled, air conditioners on overdrive, only venturing outside to seek temporary refuge at the beach. Pushing your way through a sea of body heat in a sold out venue isn't a particularly appealing thought, but then, the Vengabus rolls into town. Any concerns of discomfort are crushed by nostalgia and their entire tour sells out in no time, with more dates being added, and just as quickly reaching capacity. The fact the Vengabus is fuelling up for a return less than 12 months later is homage to classic songs such as We Like To Party, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, and We're Going To Ibiza that forged a firm imprint into the minds of teens last decade.

“We had such a nice and great time [in 2012] that we wanted to give the crowd something extra, so we've added like five, six songs now, to give more than last year,” Pors pieces together, with a Dutch accent and the vocabulary you'd imagine in a lost tourist. More songs means more partying, and everyone knows that The Vengaboys love to party. “Well, we're getting a bit older, like the song We Like To Party, we made because we do like to party, and I still do love to party, but I do notice, when we're like 16 years further, I like to party like two or three days in a week, not seven days a week,” he laughs.

“It's getting tougher these days, but we're quite the same onstage and offstage, but I don't wear a sailor hat when I'm going to the store or shopping, because that's quite strange. But Zon is always crazy cowboy, Denise is always a sweet girl, Kym is a tough army kind of girl. [Our] personalities are really fit to our characters onstage.”

There's no confusion what We Like To Party is about, but on occasion Pors and co. have been confronted, and confused, by people interpreting their fun, uplifting songs as something else. “We always try to keep the lyrics fun, and you can think whatever you want when we sing something, because Rocket To Uranus I always thought we went on a rocket to a planet, but some other people said some other things to me and I don't understand why. But we always like to have some fun with lyrical things and there's always a message behind it. That's always what we're gonna do with Vengaboys – we always wanna have some fun with uplifting and cheesy, cheesy Dutch music.”

Two of the additions to their setlist are new, unreleased songs. With three other tunes demoed and sitting on the bench, maybe The Vengaboys will have a new record in the near future? “I'd love to put a new Vengaboys album into the world, because I really want to have some fun with some new songs. I do love Boom Boom because it's old, almost like an evergreen – someone came up to me like a week ago and he said, 'Boom Boom and Ibiza are like evergreens', and I was really proud, actually. I love those songs, but it's really nice to have new songs so we can tour again all around the globe. I'd like that. So, well, I dunno what's gonna happens, but I hope 2013 is gonna be some exciting new fun for us.”

The Vengaboys will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 10 January - The Esplanade Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Friday 11 January - The Entrance Leagues Club, Bateau Bay NSW
Saturday 12 January - Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee NSW
Thursday 17 January - Hornsby RSL, Hornsby NSW
Friday 18 January - The Hi-Fi, Perth WA
Saturday 19 January - Metropolis, Fremantle WA