John Mendels
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| 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
Gerard Haitsma
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| 1983, Bodine (MK-III) |
2008; LAVA rehearsal |
Gerard Haitsma must just have turned 14 when he started to tackle drum bits and pieces seriously. In John Engels Sr he not only found an impressive and world famous teacher. Engels also managed to convince him to focus even more and to keep on working on his talents. Haitsma started to practise daily. For hours and hours.
Since drummers tend to make a lot of noise, when practising, his activities didn’t remain unnoticed for very long. Soon the first musicians came along and many invitations to join their bands were rejected politely. He judged himself not to be ready (yet).
Gerard Haitsma made his public debut with ‘Blues Band Respect’. He climbed the stages with this group on a few occasions late 1971. Almost immediately Leo Nagglas and Ger Crama (literally) rang his doorbell and asked him if he was willing to rehearse with LAVA. Just to check whether there was a ‘click’.
His jazz techniques were slightly amended in order to accommodate to the real hardrock style of his new team mates. The next few months are part of the LAVA history.
When Gerard Haitsma and LAVA divorced, he wondered around for a while. Drummers do need to practise frequently. Preferably even a lot. For this reason Gerard set the pace and the rhythm on behalf of (jazz) ballet dancers. In this way he trained the flexibility of wrists and ankles in a professional way for almost two years.
Somewhere in 1976 Haitsma met René Rijsdijk, a young and tremendous guitar talent. The end of their rehearsing period, which was used for writing stuff and – above all – developing a sound, was the start of Bodine.
Bodine, which has had various line-ups, were extremely popular in Eastern Europe and Japan. Remarkably, they’ve never been there! The group had released a few singles and three Long Play records (Bodine, Bold as Brass and Bodine III) before it split in 1984.
Early 90s Haitsma tried hard to give Bodine a second life. Although Bodine II (a.k.a. MK-IV) proved to have tremendous potential, contracts with promoters and a record label remained unsigned. When the cooperation with Jan van Feggelen unfortunately failed to be fruitful, the search for another qualified vocalist simply took too long.
In the same year as LAVA's reunion concert, Jan Metalman, a huge Bodine fan launched an impressive Bodine tribute site. Metal fans have to go there, great stuff!
1981
Bodine MK I
L2R: Armand van der Hoff, Jan van Feggelen (Jay van Feggelen, Jay Bodean), René Rijsdijk (Reno Xeros)
and Gerard Haitsma
June 19th, 2008
Reunion Concert
Graphical Summary Bodine
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Period |
Guitarist |
Guitarist |
Vocals |
Drums |
Bass |
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1979 - 1981 |
René Rijsdijk |
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Jan/Jay van Feggelen |
Gerard Haitsma |
Armand van ‘t Hoff |
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1981 - 1982 |
René Rijsdijk |
Arjen Lucassen |
Axel Langemeijer |
Gerard Haitsma |
Armand van ‘t Hoff |
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1983 - 1984 |
René Rijsdijk |
Arjen Lucassen |
Axel Langemeijer |
Gerard Haitsma |
Jeroen Bos |
Graphical Summary Bodine II
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Period |
Guitarist |
Guitarist |
Vocals |
Drums |
Bass |
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1990 - 1990 |
Oscar Holleman |
Erik van de Ven |
Robert Soeterbroek |
Gerard Haitsma |
Jeroen Bos |
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1991 - 1992 |
Oscar Holleman |
Erik van de Ven |
Jan/Jay van Feggelen |
Gerard Haitsma |
Jeroen Bos |
Remy Kueter
Remy Kueter was, in fact, the very First ‘New Face’ in LAVA since 1976! No one speaks this out loud, however, Remy was not even near to conception in the early stages of LAVA!
The name of the multi-talented musician certainly isn’t a black hole in the History of the Dutch Hardrock scene. He had a fair share of name and fame in the 90’s of last century when he prowled around The Netherlands with ‘Little Bo Peep’ and, later, being part of ‘Touch Me I’m Dick’. All this came with failing record deals and hysterical teeny-boppers. A kind of 'LAVA 25 Years After' though.
It already has been a while since he dusted off his drumming tools after a fatherhood sabbatical. With his sense of humor and his cheerful character, Remy fits the Team perfectly.
LAVA rehearsal; 7 March 2011
Yesterday:
Mutiny In The Orphanage (Thrashmetal) – Drums
Little Bo Peep (Hardrock) – Drums
Pillow Talk (Poprock) – Drums
Touch Me I’m Dick (Ska) – Drums
Moviescar (Close Harmony) – Guitar & Vocals
LAVA (Hardrock) - Drums
Today:
Act of Self (Punkrock) – Guitar & Vocals
Las Hormigas Gigantes (Punkrock) – Bass & Vocals
Frank de Vries
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| 1974 | 2011 |
It really isn't a wonder that Frank de Vries opted for a professional career as a musician. Why? Simply because music is in his genes! Like his grandfather, also his father was already a musician. His Granddad accompanied silent movies while playing the piano and his Dad was a great drummer and bass player.
At the age of seven, little Frankie rehearsed solos from the repertoire of his father's jazz band. On his very first guitar, that was. Still a 'Franky' he founded 'The Clarks' together with Bert Ouwehand and Ferry Sinds. This band had and has nothing to do with 'The Clarks' which are still roaring today.
When he turned 17, Frank committed himself to 'She'. The leading role of that band was for singer Loes Hess. He furthermore lined-up with Ton van de Meer (Bass) and Cor Oosterhout (drums). Somewhat later this 'She' turned into 'The Nice Unlimited' and featured Johan Tillema (drums), Bert Visker (vocals), a guy named Coen (keyboards) and Harrij Klein (bass).
Like John Mendels, also Frank de Vries developed into an often sought guitar teacher during all his various band activities. One of his students in those days was the youngster Japie Jonckheere. This lad would conquer the World with 'Urban Heroes' later in his career.
The next move for Frank became the early stages of 'Galaxy Lin' and 'Smile'. Then he started, together with Smile's keyboard player Charles de Leeuw, 'Lincoln'. The Foursome was completed with Poalo Grobbe (Bass) and Gerard Haitsma (yes, that's the one) on Drums. This formation had a kind of breakthrough as in the years 1971/1972, until the voluntarily chosen ceasing.
In the summer of 1973 Frank joined LAVA.
At the final stages of LAVA and at the very beginning of this band, he combined this with 'Himalaya'. A formation formed from the remains of 'Livin Blues'. However, when LAVA really stopped existing, Frank found a new love.
In this post-LAVA life, Frank started to play the Flamenco. He continued focusing on this style with sheer passion for almost two decades. He guided various dance companies. Something he enjoyed doing very much.
From 1990 onwards, Frank is currently a driving force within theater company 'Briza'. Composing, producing, rehearsing, playing and perform its pieces is currently his profession. Briza has issued 12 CDs in the meantime and this explains why Frank de Vries is still a very busy man, who really enjoys to perform with LAVA too!
Ronnie van Vliet
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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
François (Frans) Wesselink
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| 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
