In the early 1980's, a few young fellows started their own hardrockband, Vengeance.
Their base was a place called Waalwijk, in the southern part of Holland.
At first they called themselves Lynx, but as it happens every other day, there already
was a band by that name so they changed it to Vengeance.
Like every other band, they started out doing gigs in small places..
Soon however, they were noticed by a record company, that spotted them during one of their gigs in Waalwijk. Derk Joling, A&R manager of CBS records spotted them in 1984 and signed the band after having seen one gig.
A demo was made, containing their earliest songs: "Metal days", "Down and out" and the unfortunately never released "Straight and fair".
Songs like "Metal Days", "Vengeance", "Deathride to glory" were songs that actually made it to the first piece of vinyl the guys brought out in 1984 on CBS Records;
of course, the album was called "Vengeance".
The band, and of course their fans, were anxious to see what the music press in Holland thought of this album, produced by musician Ferdi Lancee...
Later on, the band were not happy with the producers' work
THE 1984 line-up :
Leon Goewie.....................vocals
Oscar Holleman................guitar
Arjen Lucassen..................lead guitar (replacing Leo van Breemen, who had quit)
Jan Bijlsma....................…bass
Mathieu Olischlager .........drums
Their 1st single was released : "Prisoners of the night"; the first week after the release, a promising sales figure of 1000 copies was already reached.
Unfortunately, not enough to do anything on the radio except for specific hardrock shows.
This release though was the breakthrough for the band in Holland; at this time the real touring had just begun ! They played all over Holland with enormous success.
Vengeance's anthem, "Deathride to Glory", was put on the B-side of the single; although it surprisingly never appeared on any album (only a live version as an extra on a 12" single), this song is probably seen as THE real Classic.
Starting really slow as a train (this was done because of a poor drumming performance during the recording) this up-tempo song really did it for the fans.
Of course this song has been on every setlist during their touring career.
Album number 2
In 1986, after the successful 1st album the second one followed; John Solleveld produced "We have ways to make you rock", and the band got help of Barry Hay and Hans Vermeulen, two respected musicians from the Golden Earring and the Sandy Coast.
John Sonneveld knew how to let Vengeance sound on vinyl and his services were thankfully appreciated for a number of years to come.
Before the recording sessions started in 1985, drummer Olischlager was replaced by John Snels who turned out to be a solid drummer.
The earlier mentioned Hans Vermeulen gave Leon some vocal guidance, as well as Barry Hay did.
For "Power of the rock" the band got vocal help : Okkie Huysdens did second voice on this piece, forming a fine twin-toned couple with Leon.
The sleeve of the album contained a stringbass; this bass was "used" during the tours after the album release.
Leon ,still being a Beast on stage, raped the poor bass on stage and would then take a poster of Samantha Fox to rub against (if you know what I mean).
The single that was released from this album was a ballad called "Only the wind".
In the early demo stage before getting a record deal, this song was known as “Trouble”.This time the radio-guys got more requests for this song and it was played several times, although it never made the charts.
Before going on a German tour, the song was seen on German TV on a show called "Gut d'rauf" , but after the tour in 1987 guitar player from the early days Oscar Holleman left the band for family and other reasons.
He was replaced by former "Highway" guitarplayer Peer Verschuren.
Later on, Oscar started his own recording studio "RS 29" in Waalwijk.
Album number 3
It was time to get some TV exposure
The 3rd album, “Take it or leave it” , did it for the guys.
Maybe it was the work of their manager, maybe my unstoppable fax-attempts to
Sky Channel’s “Monsters of Rock”, hosted by Mick Wall contributed to the 1st real TV experience. Leon and Arjen were interviewed during the show, meanwhile promoting the album.
The clip that was broadcasted (“Rock and roll shower”) was originally recorded
for a Dutch TV show; didn’t matter much…
The guys also did a gig in London; although the critics were fabulous, Britain never really went nuts for our heroes.
Also the Belgian TV showed interest in Vengeance; TV host Bart Peeters even joined them in the performance they gave in a studio, doing crazy facial duets with Peer Verschuren (and raping a Gibson Flying V) ,whom had just replaced Oscar before the recordings of this album.
I think the main reason why this album finally got the guys famous was the happy-rock style of the songs; they were catchy, sometimes even poppy in the Status Quo-style but always on the heavy side. Still the singles did not turned out to be hits again….
Album number 4
It was time for a new approach.
Arjen Lucassen had been influenced by ancient stories, told by his brother Gjalt.
Ancient Greek stories about Ulysses and the Sirens, Arabic-like “song-moods”
appeared out of nowhere. The fans were absolutely amazed !
The release of the album “Arabia” came down in 1989.
Even the start of their “Arabia”-tour was in the album tradition; Leon,
dressed like an Arab, flew on a magic carpet through the front rows of
the audience .
For the first time, the band recorded a cover song; Rose Tattoo’s
“Bad boys for love” was put on the album and appeared to be the heaviest song on
that album.
Again, a single was released, and in the good tradition of a real rockband
it was again a ballad; “If loving you is wrong” was played several times
on the radio, but….you guessed it!
“Arabia” was the second one, and for the first time, the band went to Saudi Arabia
to record a real videoclip !
In this time(1988), Peer Verschuren had left the band for family reasons
(he said) and was replaced by Jan Somers.
Jan had the disadvantage to be third in a row; Oscar and Peer were two
clowns on stage, and very steady and melodic musicians. I have never heard
him play a solo which contained a recognizable melody. Apart from the solos,
he was as steady as a rock. Jan was respected by lots of fellow musicians.
Split up
Every band goes through difficult times; after “Arabia” two members had
decided to quit.
John Snels and Leon Goewie left the band. Leon became a very irritating
frontman to his fellow musicians and got kicked out
How to replace 2 musicians at once and not lose your identity ?
Well, the two replacements were found : Ian Parry on vocals (ex-Hammerhead)
and, after recording their final album “The last Teardrop” drummer John Snels was
replaced for the farewell-tour by former Helloise-drummer Ernst van Ee. This was back in 1993.
“The last teardrop” contained 6 new (demo-)songs and 12 “best of” songs, compiled by
the band.
And again, a ballad was released as a single :”As the last teardrop falls” , one
of their finest and atmospheric ballads. And again……no hit. Worth mentioning is a wonderful 12 strings acoustic version that appeared on that single!
The farewell-tour was an absolute success ! The band had even let their old
manager arrange this tour, during which The Netherlands and Belgium were
taken by storm.
I visited the Tilburg-concert, one of the last.
Leon Goewie, although in the audience, denied a guest appearance, where
Oscar came on stage for “She’s the woman”.
Arjen, being the only guitar player left, did a hell of a job; near the end of the
show, the band gave a hell of a performance with Rainbow’s “Kill the king”.
Secretly, it is still on one of many of my tapes…..
After quitting with Vengeance, Arjen Lucassen began a solo career
calling himself Anthony (his middle name).
Loving English traditions, he made an album "Pools of sorrow,
waves of joy" , leter on followed by a number of albums released under the project name AYREON. More info on that sublect can be found on www.ayreon.com ; His ambient project AMBEON was less succesful, and after STAR ONE, he formed STREAM OF PASSION. More information on the latter can be found on www.streamofpassion.com .
Barend did several projects, Leon joined German rockers "Stonewashed" (later renamed to "Way of Thorns") and recorded the album "Way of thorns".
Peer Verschuren joined US prog/sympho rockband Lana Lane in 2001.
Back again
Leon asked Arjens help to start over again with Vengeance in 1997.
Arjen wrote songs, and Transmission Records saw a new Vengeance
in them; so a group was formed around Leon again to give Vengeance
a second chance.
Leon Goewie on vocals of course, his old buddies Peer Verschuren
and Jan Somers on guitar, Paul Thissen on drums, Barend Courbois on bass and
Roland Bakker on keyboards.
Together, they recorded the album "Back from flight 19".
First gig was (of course) in Tilburg (Noorderligt), visited by
a massive number of (old) fans (like me), and very successful too !
A single was released, "Planet Zilch" followed by a videoclip
that was broadcasted several times on The Music Factory, a Dutch
music TV station.
After that : silence.
The release of another single (the old Osmonds song "Crazy Horses") was new hope for those who still enjoyed Vengeance. Unfortunately the single was not succesful. Jan Somers quit the band and was replaced by Mark Hagenaars, with whom the band did several gigs but the end was again very near.
In 2003, there was another attempt to get Vengeance back together again, but after recording 3 demo songs, arguments stood in the way.
Untill 2005; Leon and Barend Courbois (www.barendcourbois.com) got back together again and invited a drummer and guitarplayer to complete the current line-up.
In January 2006, former drummer Paul Thissen died much too young in his sleep, and his funeral was musically "entertained" by Leon, Barend, Peer and new drummer Hans van 't Zandt. This is the line-up for the new album "Back in the ring", release date June 23, 2006 , after signing a new record deal with MTM Music.
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