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

Ger’s scrapbook can be found here.

May 2014

François (Frans) Wesselink

1968		Present

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

Rob Wezepoel

Rob Wezepoel was born and raised in Voorburg, a suburb of The Hague having its own ‘scene’.

His musical aspirations and skills, sought and found a way to develop during his first high school years. Class mate Hans Segers (see also Bobey’s Children in Ger Crama’s bio and scrapbook) learned him how to handle a guitar. In 1964 both joined brand new formation ‘The Black Jewels’. Rob had to switch to bass guitar for an obvious reason; Hans Segers fancied playing solo!

Due to personal circumstances, Rob had to put his musical adventures on hold for a while in 1970. During 1975 it started, however, to itch again. Employed by lift manufacturer ‘Starlift’ in Voorburg, he joined the band ‘Enterprice’ (the misspelled letter ‘c’ was done on purpose here). The foursome were all colleagues and the owner of the company (famous Mr. D. Stoop) made a great space available for rehearsing.
A re-start of his musical career at full throttle was a fact.

Currently Rob is also regularly performing on stage with ‘GreenHouse’. An extraordinary skilled company of musicians, named after a historical, but small,  rehearsal facility in Voorburg.

For a complete overview of his career, please, check the Scrapbook of Rob Wezepoel here.

Leon Bazuin

Leon Bazuin-Ebels would become an artist of some sort rather sooner than later. If you are born and raised in a music and theatre loving family, it’s even a kind of obvious. Already in his young years Leon discovered his Dad could handle a guitar pretty well. On top of that, both his parents admired theatre and acted, over many years, in numerous (amateur) plays.
When he, as a kid, showed interest in playing the maracas, it was no wonder his parents stimulated his sense of rhythm. At the age of 12, he received his very first drumkit wrapped in birthday paper!

In 1976, at the age of 17, Leon had his first band; Black Birds. The band wore the logo of the iconic Pontiac Firebird car. These Birds never showed up in order to perform publicly. “No, we were simply too scared for that. Really,” recalled LAVA’s drummer.
These Black Birds rehearsed a lot of The Rolling Stones and some Beatles work.

His very first public appearance as a drummer on stage came on 11 June 1977 with his new team ‘Artificial’.
Leon on this event: “For this, we put our complete back-line in a Citroen 2CV and headed to the shed of the Jansen family in Poeldijk. We rehearsed in their Boiler Room and as a matter of appreciation we agreed upon doing a show on stage for them and their friends.”
The sets contained basically still Stones and Beatles songs.

Things turned into more serious business with a band named ‘Guerrilla’. Own, Pop-Rock style, work was on the menu. Nicko Christiansen, front man of well-known Livin’ Blues and Livin’ Blues Experience, handled various instruments highly competent as always also on behalf of Guerrilla.
Leon on one specific occasion: “On 30 August 1980 we performed on a huge stage at Noordzee Pop on Scheveningen beach. The promotors of this festival went on, later, with ‘Malie Pop’ and eventually with the largest ‘free’ festival of Europe; world famous ‘Park Pop’ in The Hague/NL!”

In the early Eighties of the previous century, Leon switched ‘scenes’. He moved to Delft and joined ‘Stealer’, based in Rotterdam.
“This band had already quiet a few records out in Germany”, he remembered, “consequently, we have toured in our neighboring country on many, many occasions. When I left them back in 1983, Stealer added a female singer (Fréderque Spigt/HH) and changed names. The band turned into “I’ve got the Bullets’ and now also became successful for a while in our home country.”

After this turbulent period of time, Leon switched scenes once again. This time not geographically, but musically. At the end of 1983 he joined ‘De Neus’ (The Nose/HH), a pop-rock band. The name already tells something. ‘De Neus’ perfomed using the Dutch language only!
Leon Bazuin-Ebels: “This was great fun. Half of the band came from the Utrecht area and the other half from The Hague. We had a few singles out and one of them ‘Het Strand’ (The Beach/HH) became a small hit.”

During the last decennium of the last century and the first of the current one, Leon found his way in various ‘Cover Acts’.
Somewhere in between these, Leon had busy period with Waldorf. This band developed its own ‘lounge’ style of music.
“The cover acts were exciting ones”, Leon remembered, “I’ll try to mentioned them in some kind of order. Here we go; ‘Roezband’, ‘No Erection at All’, ‘The System’, ‘LeoN&FriendS’ and ‘Footloose.”

Leon on the one with the most naughty name: “No Erection at All was a band for the largest consisting of students from the Delft University and we did show up all over the country. We must have performed at least on 250 different occasions. By the way, every 10 years we do a reunion concert somewhere. Still great to do.
”LeoN&FriendS existed about 10 years. And finally, I had a great time drumming in ‘Footloose’. We were world famous ……. In Vlaardingen and Schiedam! The most memorable concert was the final one. In 2014, we have done that show on a huge stage prepared on ‘The Maasboulevard’ in Schiedam in front of an attendance of 4,000! A great concert and experience that was.”

Regarding LAVA, Leon isn’t shy or whatsoever: “Well, first of all, it’s a bunch of nice guys. Down to earth. That is of help regarding a speedy integration. The current setlist is a nice mix of own material and specific covers. Also some blues. I like that. Looking forward now to show our progress to the audience and fans.”  

A long list of ‘happenings’ and styles in Leon’s career:

 A nice overview of his looks in all those years can be found in his scrapbook.

Former Members

For former members of LAVA, click here.