Vandenberg

Vandenberg is one of those bands that definately did not recieve enough praise from the music world, but left behind a legacy of superior music, in that heavy metal/hard rock sound. The band released 3 cd’s between the years of 1982-1985, before the founder of the band, the magnificent Adrian Vandenberg, left to join the band Whitesnake. But this page is dedicated to the band, and not the history of Whitesnake, that is for another time, another place.

The band was formed in 1982, when Adrian Vandenberg decided he wanted to move on with his guitar playing career. He had auditioned for a spot in Thin Lizzy, but he was unable to continue on with the band, after practicing with them for several weeks, because he could not fit in with them on a social level. He then teamed up with drummer Jos Zoomer, who he had played with in a band called Mother of Pearl, and they began a quest to fill in the other two positions to complete the line-up. Adrian remembered a vocalist that he had worked with before, Bert Heerink, and invited him to join the new band. After one jam session, Bert decided to quit his current job, as an electrical repair man, and join the axe slinger, and his buddy drummer. Bassist, Dick Kemper was lured from another Dutch group called Turbo, to make it a four-piece.

Adrian named the band Vandenberg, after his last name, and they quickly went into the studio and demo-ed plenty of material, including Ready for You, and Out In the Streets, both which made it onto their first release simply called Vandenberg. They sent the completed demo tape to a friend of Adrian’s, rock journalist Kees Baars, who offered to manage them on the spot after hearing their powerful good time rock and roll sound, and Adrian’s fantastic riffs. Atlantic Records quickly signed the band, and ordered up a second set of demos, they dispatched ex-Pretty Thing’s vocalist Phil May to Holland in an effor to help out Bert with his enunciation.

Everything was going well, so in April of 1982, Vandenberg (the band) started work on their debut release, several months later, in October, they released their first effort. The cd Vandenberg was an awesome disc, easily one of the best releases of that year. It included mostly feel good hard rock tunes that bordered on the metal side, and a song that is truly one of the greatest of all time, the ballad, Burning Heart, a true masterpiece where Adrian shows off his song writing skills, and Bert Heerink’s vocals are absolutely breathtaking. It is packed with such heartfelt pure emotion. As I hear the song now, misty tears come to my eyes, its sheer beauty still pierces my soul to this day. It is a true classic. Your Love Is In Vain, is one of my favorite rock masterpieces. It has some of the best guitarwork I have heard to this day, the guitar seems to just reach out and attempt to communicate with the singer. It shows off Adrian’s quirky guitar playing, and his versatility. Nothing To Lose was simply a fast and furious rocker, which is another of my favorites from this band, some of their best stuff was on this first cd.

Burning Heart turned out to be an American hit single, it was the band’s only time to flirt with success, in the mainstream arena, outside of the cozy position as being one of the hottest bands in the hard rock/guitar driven music circles. The year of 1983 was spent touring. Vandenberg teamed up with another guitarist led band, MSG (The Michael Schenker Group), and they set out in support of them in Europe and then headed back to the States to headline and open for a few major groups. The group filed back into the studio soon after, and by February of 1984 it was the right time to release a new album. The sleeve was painted by the guitarmaster himself, Adrian Vandenberg, and he designed it so it was completely original and eyecatching. Heading for a Storm hit the stores and featured a slight change in musical direction. It was recorded in a breath-taking twenty days, and was produced by the band and Stuart Epps. Some describe the ‘84 release as a more AOR album, but the quirkily gorgeous fretwork of Adrian is unmistakable. Even though some say this one isn’t as metallic as the first release, it is often considered to be one of the greatest displays of guitar work ever. The band really outshined themselves on several songs, most notably Welcome to the Club which is a very catchy, sing-a-long hard rock song, and the breezy Foreigner-esque ballad Different Worlds which is as touching and beautiful as their all-time classic, Burning Heart. This Is War and the almost anthem like title track are two other classic hard rock songs. In fact, now that I am thinking about it, every song on this cd was hard rocking.

After the release of Heading for a Storm the band went straight back to America, for a lengthy tour with Kiss and then over to Japan for a round of headlining dates, all which were highly successful. In September of 1985, they were once again back in the middle of the music world with their third, and tragically for Vandenberg fans, last album. Titled Alibi, and produced by long time friend of Adrian Vandenberg’s from Holland, Jaap Eggermont, it was a solid disc, at times, wonderously beautiful, sporting not one, but two ballads, (Bert Heerink sings ballads, so beautifully…), How Long, and Once In A Lifetime. There were several other great songs on here, and a couple that were just so-so. They seemed a little rushed, unlike the polished sounding instrumental Kamikaze and the anthem Fighting Against the World, which leaves little to the imagination and has quite an explosive ending. The cover of Alibi, which showed an alligator breaking through a stone ground in an Aztec looking setting, was painted by Adrian Vandenberg.

The release of Alibi is the end of the story for this band. Adrian Vandenberg, the fabulous leader of this fantastic hard rock outfit, was invited once again by David Coverdale to join the new-look version of Whitesnake, he accepted and left the rest of the band members to drift out on their own in other bands, none which recieved the kind of success that Vandenberg (the band) or Whitesnake later did. Bert Heerink ended up in a cover band with bassist Dick Kemper, called Undercover. I do not know what happened to drummer Jos Zoomer. Adrian Vandenberg went down in history as one of the best musical composers (he wrote all the music for Vandenberg and co-wrote music for Whitesnake and Manic Eden), and guitarists in the world. Unfortunately the only two releases he has played guitar on since Alibi in 1985, are the self titled Manic Eden cd, and Whitesnake’s latest Restless Heart. Hopefully in the future we will hear more guitarplaying from this master, and hopefully a reunion of the original Vandenberg band, but that will probably only be left to our dreams and imagination.

Vandenberg will always be one of my favorite bands, vocalist Bert Heerink, at times, has a voice like an angel, belting out the most beautiful ballads I have ever heard, and Adrian Vandenberg’s gorgeous guitarwork and songwriting skills, leave little to be desired. This band, in a very short period of time, produced some of the most memorable songs of the decade, possibly the century. The band will be remembered for a long time, and as a unit, sorely missed.

Stolen from http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/2786/vandenberg.html