Henk Westbroek

 ( Www.henkwestbroek.nl Official ) 

Westbroek described his adopted father as "a Social democracy and a bit of a Communism", who died from black lung disease because he was exposed to coal while working at the municipal electricity company.

When Westbroek was 17, he met his wife, an English woman named Julia Harris, while the two of them were on a school trip to Paris. She came to the Netherlands when she was 18 and lived there illegally for a years. They had a daughter in 1990. They married in 2002, as they promised each other to only have a wedding when they were both 50 years old.

He studied sociology at Utrecht University, completing his course in 1973.

In 1991, Het Goede Doel stopped performing. Westbroek said that "Henk and I split up at the time because we were bored with each other. Compare it to a broken marriage. That's how it goes when you're in a band. In the long run, we also got other interests."

They had a brief reunion in 2001 and reunited again in 2008, producing a new record, Gekkenwerk.

Since 1991, Henk Westbroek has been performing solo with his band "Henk Westbroek & Consorten". In 1998, he had a solo hit, "Zelfs je naam is mooi", which spent 42 weeks in the Dutch chart Mega Top 100.

For the municipal elections, Westbroek and his business partner Broos Schnetz funded the campaign themselves. The party won nine seats but was still the minority. In 2000, they won 14 seats and became the largest party in Utrecht.

In 1999, the local parties Leefbaar Utrecht and Leefbaar Hilversum combined to form a national party, Leefbaar Nederland (Livable Netherlands). Jan Nagel, leader of Leefbaar Hilversum, met Westbroek while they were both working at Omroepvereniging VARA. Pim Fortuyn became the party leader of LN in 2001 but was kicked out shortly afterwards for his remarks about immigration and Islam in a controversial interview with De Volkskrant. Westbroek immediately demanded that Fortuyn be suspended as LN member and party leader, declaring that "We find discrimination unacceptable, especially when it comes to an entire group." Fortuyn asked Westbroek if he wanted to be second-in-command in his new party, Pim Fortuyn List (LPF), but Westbroek declined.

A day after Fortuyn's assassination, a Moroccan man put a gun to Westbroek's head in Groningen, causing him to quit politics. He had a 12-year-old daughter at home and it was necessitated that he needed three bodyguards for protection.

In 2007, Westbroek attempted to run for mayor of Utrecht. However, in September, he received a letter from the Queen's Commissioner for Utrecht, stating that he is not among the candidates selected for interviews with the confidential committee. Westbroek claimed that his interview with the Commissioner resulted in him advancing to the next round and felt "suddenly dropped." There were questions about whether he could manage his busy life as a singer, radio host and manager of a well-known Utrecht café with the mayorship of his city.

In 1994, Westbroek bought the Stairway to Heaven café on the Mariaplaats in Utrecht. It became a place where popular artists such as Alanis Morissette, Shania Twain and Golden Earring performed. It featured pieces of memorabilia that Westbroek owned, like an autographed guitar by Kurt Cobain. There was also an adjacent club opened, Club Stairway. In July 2020, Westbroek and his wife Julia Harris announced that they were retiring and would sell the cafe to their daughter Chrissie and her husband Dani Aguilera. It became a New Orleans-themed joint named NOLA. Then in 2024, NOLA announced it will also close.