Ollie Oldenburg

OK, below you find the 'short story long'.
Take a trip down my memory lane, starting way back in the previous millennium!
Call it 'Old School', if you want (...)

ARENA (1983 - 1984).
It all got started when I met guitar maestro Peer Verschuren. After some time trying to do things on
my own, I had finally dared to consult 'Him' for some lessons. Of course we were soon talking music
and he almost straight away convinced me my guitar
playing was quite all right, would develop by itself, and I should concentrate on singing (!) instead. So the first serious band I joined as a singer was a hard rock band that I believe was named Arena with Peer, at age 16. Some time afterwards, Peer got a second chance to join Holland's national hard rock pride Vengeance, and
so our band broke up.

ROXLIDE (1986 - 1988).
After I moved to Maastricht in the south of Holland -to pick things up again- I joined the
first rock band I bumped into that needed a singer, and we played covers only. The rhythm section had another serious band, but no singer...
So went on to form a band we named Roxlide, which existed a couple of years, performed live and recorded a demo but didn't really progress.

Somewhere along the line in '88 I was introduced by fellow singer Richard Muurmans to a band with Noud Smeets (g), Sjaak Kraal (dr) and Ronald Klatt
(b) to see if we had some chemistry, but nothing got serious.

TIGHTROPE (1988 - 1991).
Later in 1988 I met guitarist Peter 'Bourbon' Timpe who was already rehearsing with some musicians but was still looking for a singer (...)
So I auditioned, and Tightrope was born.
We wrote tons of material, had some line-up changes along the way and were on stage a lot.
Our first demo 'In Balance', recorded in Vengeance's engineer Latz Varga's studio became the highly acclaimed demo of the month in Aardschok/Metal Hammer in June 1990, and got great
reviews in foreign rockmagazines as well.
Many gigs nation-wide followed, and we supported Golden Earring, Raven, Paul Di'Anno (Iron Maiden) Gypsy Queen and Vicious Rumors. Meanwhile, I auditioned for Vengeance, but Ian Parry deserved the spot. Tightrope were also invited by Ernst van
Ee to record two songs for Metal In Rocks Vol.III,
followed by a small club tour, and we made name as 'techno metal/prog rock band'. After that there was some interest from a German production company, who had us book a studio near Hamburg and
record 3 songs. We had a great time and learned a lot. But nothing further happened, and the songs weren't even given a proper mix. After a while the
band split up because the rest of what we did didn't lead us anywhere.

ZINATRA (1991 - 1993).
Shortly after Tightrope ended, halfway through 1991 I received a call from Zinatra's manager Bert
van Klaveren. Through my friend and album artist Eric Kusters their producer Erwin Musper had heard
'In Balance', and he thought I was the right man for the vacancy of singer with the band.
Zinatra had split up after 2 albums, several hit singles, a headlining tour through Asia and one through Europe supporting on David Lee Roth's Skyscraper Tour, with now only bassplayer Ron Lieberton and guitarist Gino Rerimassie remaining.
So I was given a week to learn the albums, got invited into a studio, and as a kind of audition I
sang over playback tapes Zinatra had used for radio and TV gigs: 2-track full album mixes with no lead vocals, sort of Zinatra karaoke to give you an idea. Well, I got the job, and the plan was
to restart the band to see if we could get things working again, this time in the States under the wings of Erwin who over the years had become quite
known in the US as a producer/engineer for major artists and labels. The 'new' Zinatra became
a more straightforward 4-piece rock 'n' roll band (with additional synth players) completed by drummer Raymond Herveille. We started composing, rehearsing and even did some try-out gigs in small
clubs in Holland, some promotion and interviews and of course there was the preproduction and recording of our demo's. And although I think the band sounded a great deal heavier than before; record companies who wanted to hear more after our
fist demo didn't sign us after the second one. Guess they were looking for a new Pearl Jam or Nirvana? So, again, after a while the band split up because the rest of what we did didn't lead us anywhere ...

OLIVER (1993 - 2005).
The time for reflection had come, and I decided it would be nice to finally make some money in music for a change! So in 1993 I started looking for musicians who would want to form a coverband with me, and after a short time I founded a band with Marcel Swelsen (dr), Eugene Boermans (k), Lola Herveille (v) and a some other musicians who were more or less known in the Dutch cover circuit, and called it The Works!
But after almost a year of preparation, demoing and rehearsing we finally had 1 gig that went all wrong; making the members argue, disagree, and split up. On the other hand, at that same time in 1994 it became the foundation of Oliver, who grew to become a well known Dutch cover band starting with Wim Janssen (b) and Gesuino Derosas (g). In between, I was asked and auditioned for singing with Terra Nova, but bassist Fred Hendriks decided
he should sing himself. After over 10 years, with a short side project as 'Tiggers', and hundreds of
shows all over the country and abroad Oliver transformed into Stagelive in 2004. With 2 new members Paul Lenders (g) and Patrick Jans (b) we chose to play only classic 80's music in different
arrangements as a concept, but sadly and for diverse reasons the members discontinued the band as of August 2005, remaining good friends to this day.

DaMANUAL (1996 - 1998).
In between all other things I joined an Amsterdam-based band called Wild Disney in 1996. After the first promotional activities we were forced to change our name for obvious reasons and christened
it DaManual. Great progressive rock/metal! We put out a 4-track demo entitled CDemo in 1997. Good reviews and great response at our live shows came our way. We were even called the Dutch Dream Theater (yeah right!) Well, at least we had some thing going. But later on, mainly due to an overdose of musical ideas that went from hardcore digidance, r'n'b, to brutal metal music we couldn't find a proper course and we decided to proceed on more of a project-base so that other styles, musicians and singers could be involved. The band never officially split up, we keep track of each other and there still are plans... Who knows about the future?

SAXONITE(2001 - 2002).
Well worth mentioning here is this Saxon-tribute band with my old Tightrope guitar companions. I sang with them for almost a year until due to moving to the other side of the country I was forced to give up the frequent rehearsals unfortunately. They searched and found another singer, which also transformed them into the best Guns 'n' Roses tribute band ever!

HIS & CO (since 2006).
After Oliver/Stagelive ended, I did quite a few really nice gigs with my SaLT (Sing-A-Long Tunes) concept, and being on stage solo is ... somewhat different to say the least!
Early 2006 former Les Cigales keysman Renee Hissink crossed my path, and 2-man band His & Co has since then become a well known name for all kinds of gigs; we play festivals, big tents, small
bars, birthday's, BBQ's, wedding parties, shopping malls, entertain guests at holiday resorts, casino's; you name it!
What you wanna hear? You call it!
Now, let me be honest: that is much more fun than I anticipated. Even better so, it got me back to playing E-guitar for the first time since 18 years.

And there you have it - full circle! For now ...