Hitweek - Magazine, 1965–66 Complete first year (3 issues missing) – Including No. 1 – Nederlands Underground - 1965

A rarely offered, nearly complete collection of issues from the first year of Hitweek, from issue 1 (17 September 1965) through issue 53 (16 September 1966).

Only three issues are missing (6, 8, 15), but the extremely rare first few editions are included.

All periodicals are in better-than-average condition. See images. Only issue No. 30 is partially damaged.

When offered, the editions are often bound/trimmed, but these are the original editions in their original state.

Over Hitweek.

Hitweek was a Dutch underground weekly magazine that existed from September 1965 to April 1969. It was later continued as Aloha. Occasionally it was called Witheek, intended as a parody of itself.

Hitweek was launched on 17 September 1965 as a youth magazine by Willem de Ridder and Peter J. Muller, who also coined the name. “Hitweek has no editorial staff (‘staff’), nor an editor-in-chief or supervisor. This is a newspaper that stands wide open for all YOUR contributions,” announced the first issue. “For all inquiries Marjolein (Kuysten).” With a lot of ambition and little money, De Ridder went to Ruud Schoonman, an unconventional printer who had just acquired a new printing system. Beat groups and street vendors were used to distribute the first issues. Regular staff were André van der Louw, Laurie Langenbach, Pim Oets, Wim Bloemendaal and Peter Schröder. Later Koos Zwart, Henk Bongaarts, Frits Boer, Jan Donkers, Arend Jan Heerma van Voss, and Wim Noordhoek also regularly contributed. From 1967 there was an editorial board (Van der Louw, Bloemendaal, Schröder, Oets, Zwart, de Ridder and Kuysten).

Hitweek wrote a lot about pop music from the home soil — consistently referred to as Nederbiet. Groups such as Les Baroques, Motions, Golden Earrings, Outsiders, Q ’65 and Cuby and the Blizzards owe part of their fame to this magazine. The magazine also regularly published a blacklist of schools, companies and hospitality venues that discriminated against long-haired people; an idea by Muller who founded the Pro Lang Haar Foundation (Stichting Pro Lang Haar) in 1966. Furthermore, the magazine wrote about fashion and published many letters from readers.