The Dutch quartet Livin' Blues, was along with Cuby &The Blizzards, one of the main forces of Continental European blues at the end of the Sixties.
Until 1967, the duo Nicko Christiansen (voc, perc, g) and John La Grand (harm) had only played acoustic instruments, but switched to electric and formed Livin' Blues. American city blues was the source for their authentic, hard blues-rock on the vinyl debut "Hell's Session" (1969). They adapted songs by Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and Little Walter.
Permanently changing personal hindered the band on their way up to stardom. Especially the position of a drummer was often vacant. Founder member Cesar Zuiderwijk was supplanted by Dick Beekman, later came Johnny Le Jeune and Arjean Kamminga and finally Englishman Kenny Lamp (ex-Jellybread and ex-Keylargo). Second bassist was Ruud van Buuren. Producer of the first LP was former Golden Earring member Jaap Eggermont. Later British blues expert Mike Vernon produced the band.
For Three LPs, Livin'Blues played solid, technically perfect blues-rock. Focal point was Nicko Christiansen's roaring voice and Ted Oberg's excellent guitar technique.
Artists:
Teddy Oberg: leadguitar
Nicko Christiansen: vocals, sax, bongo's
John Lagrand: harmonica
Ruud van Buuren: bassguitar
Jonny Le Jeune: drums
From 1967 until 1975 the Dutch band Livin' Blues tours in Germany, Poland, Belgium, Italy, Swiss, and England. They play their unique boogie-, rock- and shuffle blues music. Within this period 3 hits and 5 albums were produced. Frontman and leadsinger Nicko Christiansen continues with the band Himalaya. The unique sounding harpplayer, John Lagrand continues with a new band called Water.
In 1980 this blues duo united, and performed together in bands called: New livin' Blues, Blues Summit, Nicko C. Band. In 2005 John Lagrand passes. In this year Nicko puts his new band together with very experienced blues artists and named it LBX, "Living Blues Xperience".
Really back again!
Now, in 2006 the band, renamed as "LivinBluesXperience" is really back again! With its purified musicians, the professional support team, the huge group of faithful fans and last but not least performances on major blues festivals like the Zuiderparkpop with 350 thousand people and the blues festival in Moscow (Svetlanov hall with over 2000 seats! good old days seem to have come back!
The album 'Ram Jam Josey' is the fifth and last album featuring myself, John Lagrand and Nico Christiansen. After having grown into a band which was successful and popular in the club and festival circuit, personal differences eventually led to a definitive split. This record's coming into being was partly made possible by the contribution of British drummer Kenny Lamb who helped pen a number of the compositions. 'Ram Jam Josey' was recorded in eight days in Chipping Norton in England and produced by Mike Vernon, an important and well known British producer. He also made an important contribution to the songwriting and material which was recorded. Through lack of inspiration we were unable to write enough new tracks during this recording session. The only thing preventing a LIVIN' BLUES split was that we had a recording contract that still had to be honoured.
With the addition of John Frederikz as vocalist, LIVIN' BLUES (part 2) started out on the most successful period of it's career. This lasted from 1974 'til 1980. Tracks 11 (Backstage) and 12 (Crazy Joe) are the best demos of this period and Track 13 (Lazy Liza) is previously unreleased single; for some reason we didn't give it our seal of approval at the time. Producing a stream of hit singles was almost always a tiring and frustrating process.
Nicko Christiansen: vocals, bongos, guitar
Ted Oberg: lead guitar
John La Grand: harmonica
Henk Smitskamp: bass, keyboards
Cesar Zuiderwijk: drums
Album-Notes:
The Dutch quartet Livin' Blues was, along with Cuby & The Blizzards, one of the main forces of Continental European blues at the end of the Sixties.
Until 1967, the duo Nicko Christiansen (voc, perc, g) and John La Grand (harm) had only played acoustic instruments, but switched to electric and formed Livin' Blues. American city blues was the source for their authentic, hard blues-rock on the vinyl debut "Hell's Session" (1969). They adapted songs by Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and Little Walter.
Permanently changing personal hindered the band on their way up to stardom. Especially the position of a drummer was often vacant. Founder member Cesar Zuiderwijk was supplanted by Dick Beekman, later came Johnny Le Jeune and Arjean Kamminga and finally Englishman Kenny Lamp (ex-Jellybread and ex-Keylargo). Second bassist was Ruud van Buuren. Producer of the first LP was former Golden Earring member Jaap Eggermont. Later British blues expert Mike Vernon produced the band.
For three LPs, Livin' Blues played solid, technically perfect blues-rock. Focal point was Nicko Christiansen's, roaring voice and Ted Oberg's excellent guitar technique.
The fourth album "Ram Jam Josey" (1974) went into a different direction. The band switched to popular and timeless heavy rock, but still showing blues outlines.
Thanks to the Dutch hit single "Boogie Woogie Woman", in 1973, the band was on the road to commercial success. Until then they had lived of their reputation as a good live band and their cult following. But, despite hopeful signs of a bright future, the band got into internal quarrel again and disbanded.
Ted Oberg rivived Livin' Blues only a few months later with Indonesian John Fredriksz (voc), Cor van der Beek (dr) and his old Livin' Blues friend Henk Smitskamp (b, key). The new Livin' Blues team returned to classical blues roots, but in 1975/76, musical preferences had changed, nobody wanted to hear blues anymore. Livin' Blues ended on the club circuit and as festival opener.
