The news was broken by the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, who revealed that Kooymans had informed his bandmates – frontman Barry Hay, drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk and bassist Rinus Gerritsen – at the end of last year.

 

In a phone call with the newspaper, Kooymans confirmed the story, saying, "I am indeed ill. I have ALS. It's a very bad prognosis and I'm not really in the mood to say much about it. I am being treated at the university hospital in Leuven. That's it. It's a progressive disease. Unfortunately, performing is no longer possible."

"This is a death blow," says Hay. "We always said we would keep going until one of us fell over. I didn't expect George to be the first. Kooymans was always the toughest of the four of us. 

 

"You sometimes philosophise about that: who goes first? And he was always at the back of the line. It sucks, and we would have preferred a farewell tour, but unfortunately it is what it is."

 

The band's final show was in 2019, at the 16,000-capacity Ahoy venue in Rotterdam. The final date on the band's winter tour, the setlist included their three most well-known international hits: Radar Love, a UK top 10 hit in 1973, and Twilight Zone and When The Lady Smiles, both Billboard chart hits in the early 1980s.  

 

Kooymans formed the band with in The Hague in 1961 with Rinus Gerritsen, and the final line-up of Kooymans, Gerritsen, Hays and Zuiderwijk had been in place since 1970, with the classic Moontan album arriving three years later. 

 

Asked if it would be possible to carry on without Kooymans, Zuiderwijk responded, "We are a group of four men who are irreplaceable. A new band member? That wouldn't fit."