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.

      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.