On my ninth birthday I received a guitar from my father, which he had bought at a popular shop named “Geutjes” located on the Kruiskade in the city of Rotterdam.
Now, playing that guitar was another story. A left handed boy with a right handed guitar took some time to get used to and precisely for all those reasons it seemed wise to take some lessons. Pretty soon I was able to write some songs myself and recorded those onto a 2 track tape recorder from Sony. Music became my whole existence, therefore no surprise that I also decided to take piano lessons. I am still in the possession of a recording where I played both the guitar and the piano. Sure, not at the same time “smarty”, remember, 2 tracks does have its limitations.

At the age of twelve I had my first gig together with a friend from school, we called ourselves “The Two Friends”. Both dressed up in red blazers we sang songs like Marina . One year after this modest start the “duo” grew into a four men band, pretty well known around Rotterdam and its surroundings, as the for ever to be famous Quartet Nico Kien. We performed a wide range of songs from The Beatles to... you name it. Screaming girls, fans, etc., etc. Wow, those were the days my friend.

Luckily we were able to maintain that same success for many years, performing in nice places such as the “Rijnhotel” and “de Doelen”. We’ve also played on many private parties, company gatherings, sport clubs, etc. However, the most fun ones were those on a cruiser from the Dutch K.D. Line. For an entire week we were cruising on the Rhine , entertaining American tourists, which in those days were easy going in terms of tipping us with those handsome green bills, the dollar.

In addition we often were the backing band of many known Dutch artists.

One of our highlights was an appearance in the movie “ Rotterdam ” by the famous Dutch movie maker Bert Haanstra.  

Sometime in 2009 I received a call from Lanny, our Bass player when I sang in came2play, to ask if I was interested to join The Rocking Thunders (these guys go back 30 years or more),  knowing Lanny well it took me about two seconds to accept the offer. These guys understand Rock & Roll better than most other bands I have played this type of music with.