John Mendels
1974 2011
You might have noticed it already, John Mendels’ whereabouts at the start of his career can be found in the ‘History of LAVA’ section of this website. Okay (apart from the LAVA reunion concert) nowadays he isn’t so much involved with hard rock anymore. But his post-LAVA life did not laps without any excitement. Not at all!
In fact, John still is a great performer today! When LAVA ceased to exist, he gave up being a Rock Musician and opted for a professional career switch. He became very active, in multiple disciplines, and a real star within the entertainment industry. Starting from scratch once again, he founded (with Martin de Vreede/Drums and Anton Camijn/Keyboards) the band Flame. Apart from playing the bass guitar and taking care of vocals, he alternately handled the lead guitar. Later female vocalist Joke de Knecht came on board in order to strengthen Flame.
This formation toured The Netherlands with numerous well known Dutch top-artists for many,many years. Like LAVA, also Flame had to deal with various line-up changes. Anton Camijn was firstly replaced by Aad Dijkhuisen and later by Jacques van Egmond. Martin de Vreede stayed for 23 years!
Progressing technology is another reason for the current cast; John and his daughter Mandy are now Flame and they still can be admired on a stage somewhere weekly!
In parallel with his musical aspirations John Mendels became a well-known and popular Guitar/Bass guitar teacher. For years, John had to maintain a weekly list of 40 to be guided and tutored talents! André Geldrop (Shocking Blue) and Johan Witt (Ready to Play) were once among them.
Writing songs, on behalf of whoever needed his support, turned out to be another talent belonging to him. John himself even had a couple of ‘football’ (soccer) CD’s released on the Disky label. His ‘Road to Wembley’ sold over 200.000 copies!
In the middle of the eighties John and his beloved wife Ilse (who sadly passed away in March 2004) put a totally different act together. Today tens of thousands children only know him as Johnny Mendola, the musical Clown performing fabulous magic tricks!
John Mendels developed into a versatile professional artist. If he has raised your interest furthermore now and keen to learn more about him, please, feel free to check his website here.
May 2014
Leo Nagglas
1972 2011
Leo Nagglas’ career was launched in Rotterdam. From 1967–1969 he was the central figure of a band named ‘Never Mind’. This band was regularly the support act of Cuby & The Blizzards when they visited the north-eastern part of The Netherlands. He also acted in the band Looking East.
When he moved to The Hague in 1969, Leo could be found in various line-ups. He impressed the scene for a pretty while with Green Lizard [Jacques Kouwenhoven (vocals) and brothers Chris (drums) and Peter van Dijk (bass)]. Green Lizard welcomed some new staff members and became 'Stonehenge', still having vocalist Jacques Kouwenhoven and Leo on board.
In 1971 Stonehenge split and prior to his LAVA activities, Leo was asked to write and play a couple guitar solo’s on behalf of Q65. Their Album ‘Afghanistan’ (in those days no one could think of the current topicality..) needed an upgrade. Please, click here then scroll down for Reünie (Reunion).
In his ‘post LAVA’ life, Leo could be seen performing with guys like Paul Heppener (bass), Iwan Leue (vocals) and English George Jackson on drums. This band 'Confrontation' even toured a couple of weeks in Austria. It was a short, but heavy, adventure.
After various hard rock and even heavy metal bands (Scimitar being one of them), Leo switched to another discipline at the end of the 70s. He turned into a highly appreciated Sound Engineer and toured with acts like Park Lane (Amsterdam), Bodine, Vengeance and Avalon (Maastricht).
From 1985 up to his retirement, June 2008, Leo Nagglas focussed on his social career successfully.
May 2014
Ger Crama
1975 2011
Ger Crama started his musical career in 1967 with ‘Bobbey’s Children’. The band was born at the ‘The School of Economics’ in The Hague and ‘Blues’ was on the menu. Rehearsing was done at school and Dirk Alexander Bobbe - after whom the band was named – turned out to be an excellent manager. The youngsters were busy exploring their home country from North to South and from East to West more often then advisable regarding homework. Who cared?
March, 1969
Bobbeys Children
L2R Hans Segers (Bass), Frank van der Kloot (Lead Guitar), Gerrit Crama (Vocals, Harmonica),
Jay Quee (Drums) and Aldert van Wijk (Rythm Guitar)
Things turned already a bit heavier, early 1970, when Gerrit switched to ‘Wild Cherry’, a group formed by musicians from ‘The Scarlets’ and ‘Big Wheel’. ‘Solid rock and heavy blues’, could have been the style label of Wild Cherry.
Wild Cherry (June, 1970)
L2R: Leen Alleblas (Bass), Henk Kicken (Guitar), Gerrit Crama (Vocals, Harmonica),
John Groen (Drums), Karel Koeleman (Keyboards)
After his Wild Cherry period, Gerrit, like John Mendels, shared almost the complete LAVA history.Early 80s, Gerrit was approached by a successful producing Duo and asked whether he fancied to use his vocal talents in Dutch! For various reasons, the released single didn’t reach the charts. This part of his career ended before it really had started. Once the blood vessels contain music, music will always be streaming. From 1985-1990 Gerrit was the manager of Livin’ Blues. In this period the LP (1987) ‘Now’ and the CD (1989) ‘Snakedance’ were released.
Bobbey’s Children:
Frank v.d.Kloot - Lead Guitar
Aldert v.Wijk - Guitar
Hans Segers - Bass Guitar
Jay Quee - Drums
Gerrit Crama - Vocals / Harmonica
Wild Cherry:
Henk Kicken - Lead Guitar
Bram v.Aarsen - Bass Guitar (quickly succeeded by Leen Alleblas)
Karel Koeleman - Keyboards
John Groen - Drums
Gerrit Crama - Vocals / Harmonica
Livin’ Blues:
Niko Christiansen - Vocals / Saxophones
John Lagrand - Harmonica’s
Aad van Pijlen - Bass Guitar / Vocals
Art Bausch - Drums
Joop van Nimwegen - Lead Guitar
Willem v.d. Wal - Slide GuitarLivin' Blues Wikipedia link here
May 2014
François (Frans) Wesselink
1968 François today
For the very first time in its long history, LAVA added keyboards to their explicit hardrock sound! The one responsible for this new dimension is François Wesselink.
Please, let us introduce him to you:
He started playing piano at the age of 9. Not really surprising if you know his mother was a professional piano teacher. For seven straight years he followed those typical classical piano lessons. When he reached the age of 16 he had enough of it. In fact, the classical musical aspirations of his mother, on his behalf.
The Hague was flooded with Rock and Roll and by then ‘Beat’ music. This modern musical art became his passion. Like all his buddies did in those days (60s), François wanted to play the electrical guitar. If you wanted to grow-up as a musician, there wasn’t a better place than The Hague. The city hosted countless talented bands and these could perform daily and, almost literally, on every corner of the city.
If a band wanted or needed a new guitarist, it could choose from limitless options. However, the musical scene lacked talented keyboard players. Something François discovered soon during his quest for a band membership.
Consequently he rediscovered the piano and ..... keyboards. Starting with one finger, he added one at the time during practise. Very quick he knew how the play the popular keyboard bits and pieces of The Doors, The Animals, Small Faces and the like at first and Manfred Mann and The Zombies slightly later.
After his studies at the ‘School of Aviation’, François found himself a proper job and finally he could afford a real ‘keyboard’. With his brand new Höhner pianet, he joined ‘Question Marks’.
And, indeed, the boys performed on a lot of different stages in The Hague.
In 1968, at the age of 22, François switched to ‘Wem’, a real cover band. Quickly thereafter, when soul music became popular, he joined the ‘Marcus Soul Train’. No sinecure, since he also arranged and adapted the bits and pieces of the complete brass section! At this time he used an ‘Eminent’ and a ‘Farfisa’.
After a couple of years, the band turned into ‘Marcus Symphony’ and – like the new name already suggests – it now had Symphonic Rock on the menu.
“Well, in 1971, I was asked to join ‘Sick Joke’”, François recalled, “Rick Groeneveld and Peter Kok became ‘Greenfield and Cook’ and the other ones from ‘The Hurricanes’ decided to do something else. That became ‘Sick Joke’. Drummer Piet de Kruijf brought his father with him and he was an excellent manager. Due to his efforts we became, for example, an opening act on behalf of the ‘Golden Earring’ at numerous occasions.”
Somewhere in 1974 François Wesselink disappeared from all radars for a while.
“That was a remarkable period in my life, to say in mild”, according to the talented keyboard player and fully skilled electrical engineer, “in those days I was employed by Parie organs. In various ways, the company was competing Hammond and the owners decided to move the whole company to Belgium. For fiscal reasons. I moved with them and I even got married over there! Fourteen days after that memorable day, however, Parie Organs went bankrupt. Great!”
“I returned to The Hague in 1978 and almost the same day, I came across Tony Hagen. He played the bass guitar at The Incrowd and was looking for someone who could replace Wil van der Hurk. That turned out to be a mission impossible and I should have known that in advance. Not so much his keyboards, but the vocals of that guy had determined that specific sound of The Incrowd for a decade and a half or so. He had moved to Germany and I learned quickly that they were looking for a clone. That was not a very pleasant adventure. Just a couple of months prior to their show at ‘De Haagsche Beatnach’ in 1980, I had to call it the day.”
Quickly enough after that experience, François joined a band which fitted his circumstances perfectly. The group was even labelled according to his private life; ‘Return’. That combination lasted a bit longer.
“Hell yeah”, LAVA’s new star tells, “About 20 years or so. Return was a professional 'Party Band'. We played at weddings, festivals, theme nights and all kinds of other parties. All over the country. It started as a quartet and became a Trio.
I had a short break from Return and joined ‘In the Winning Mood’ in 1994/1995. Our home was the Casino in Rotterdam. After a year and a half or so, I returned to ‘Return’ indeed. Still a Trio at that time. However, due to the continuously developing electronics, we ended as a duo somewhere in 1998. The electronics and computers used became so damned good, that at a certain point in time it became a possibility to have the accompaniment do sound like a complete orchestra! The vocalist, André Koenen, and yours faithfully continued until the end of 2000.”
The period which followed, is, according to Wesselink, not worth mentioning. Apart from the occasion when he met John Mendels: “We showed up at certain events regularly. Once, I did help him out with some bits and pieces of his equipment”, he said about that period.
François continues: “Somewhere in 2001, I did team-up with a band called ‘VOF Bahamas’. It was a established and registered a some company type. One of the better conditions derived from that principle; I even got paid for rehearsing! The band operated without a bass player. The initial keyboard players grew up as accordionists and didn’t have any electronic background. I ended up programming the bass lines and sections on behalf of the complete play list.”
Apart from a Blues project, of which the singer performed the lines in Dutch (“pretty good actually!”), François’ only appearances on stage from 2007 onwards where all types and kinds of Jam Sessions.
Wesselink about the most recent developments: “At one of these I met John again and he asked me to come along and have some fun too.”
“You have hardly played any old school hardrock in your career, is it difficult to adapt to this style”, we asked. François closed our idle, but informative, talk showing the necessary confidence and said: “I have played all kinds of stuff. Funk, Soul, Jazz, Rock and even Ballroom dancing. You name it, I have played it. It is a real and rewarding challenge to design, develop, play hardrock harmonies and to find the accompanying sounds. It’s great fun. Really, believe me, I love this!”
Check his private scrapbook for more great pics! 
May 2014
Ronnie van Vliet
Ronnie van Vliet is LAVA’s new drummer and, as often, also Ronnie was born with music in his genes. Although his dad was the musician in the family, it was his Granddad who played a key role regarding his aspirations!
His father was a respectful guitar player, Ronnie, however, got his first drum kit from his Grandpa when he turned 15. Pretty quickly, he joined a band called ‘Dog House’, covering Rolling Stones and Beatles songs. In between gigs, he took lessons from a conservatory student and visited quite a few drum clinics of Ceasar Zuiderwijk, the legendary percussionist of the Golden Earring.
As a Kiss-fan, Ronnie became part of the solid foundation of ‘Phalanx’ a couple of years later. This really was his first hardrock time. The band played all kinds of covers, as well as own stuff. All this was also applicable for his next buddies of ‘Frozen Christal’.
Right after fulfilling his military conscription somewhere in 1985, he joined another hardrock band. However, this time he followed his other passion. Hardrock turned into Metal and Ronnie was no longer busy ‘in the kitchen’, but he returned into the musical scene as lead singer of ‘Claymore’!
Van Vliet admires guys like ‘Iron Maiden’s’ Bruce Dickinson. His all time favourite and major respirator, however, is the chap to whom he is named ... well ... sort of; One of the greatest rock voices ever; Ronnie James Dio!
Early 90s, things got even more serious with ‘Eclipse’. The band toured a lot together with ‘Rosie’, a well-known AC/DC tribute band. Halfway the 90s, LAVA’s new drummer showed-up in ‘Between Hooks’. Still taking care of the vocals and guitarist Gerard van Dien, Leopard these days, being one of his mates. By the end of that decade the band ceased to exist.
At the start of a new millennium Ronnie van Vliet found himself back in a band named ‘Crash’. An all round all time top-100 cover band. Something like that. Nice to know is the fact, that guitarist Ruud Verwijk and bass player Jason Waasdorp are still performing within ‘Pink Project’, today announced as ‘the most passionate Pink Floyd tribute band’.
In 2004 Mario Schippers, the other guitarist from ‘Crash’, and Ronnie started ‘Daytona’. Consequently in 2014 this band, performing classic top-100 rock songs, celebrates its 10th birthday.
Daytona
L2R: Mario, Michel, Adri, Ronnie and Joaquin
It really was pure coincidence. Ronnie came along at a LAVA gig in summer 2012. Just to enjoy some of the hardrock tones, tunes, licks, riffs, fills and sound he loves so much. He just came down. At least, that is what he thought. Due to an acute illness, Remy Kueter was, unfortunately, unable to perform that night. In those circumstances, there are only two things left to do. Bring the bloke to the nearest hospital and, secondly, withdraw completely. Consequently disappointing the organisers and leaving them with a gap in their program.
Well, things can turn differently if a passionate musician is around and you are lucky enough to have Ronnie, still unsuspectingly, somewhere in the audience. After a quick chat, a number of ‘classical hardrock covers’ – he used to play is his drumming days – were agreed upon and he climbed the stage without any hesitation and hit the drums and cymbals if he had always done so for the last twenty or so years! In this way he – and LAVA – gave the audience the night of their lives!
When Remy Kueter decided to stop and due to this experience two years earlier, Ronnie was the first choice to become his successor. Fortunately he agreed when asked if he wanted to join LAVA.
“True, I didn’t hit the drums and cymbals for a while”, Ronnie said when asked if it isn’t really difficult to be a hardrock drummer again after so many years, “therefore it was a bit rusty in the beginning. But I have been a musician all my life, in one way or another. We do not rehearse that much either. Therefore it took slightly longer than I expected, but in the meantime I’m familiar with the set list and things have turned for the better now. No worries, we’ll get there in time! It’s great fun and it’s a great band. Being on stage with John Mendels, guitar tutor of Daytona’s Mario Schippers shows once again that the hardrock world is one big family. So feeling welcome, or home wasn’t even an issue!”
May 2014
Former Members
For former members of LAVA, click here.