PICTURE - ROZENBURG (ZUID-HOLLAND) 1979 - 1988

BIOGRAPHY: Picture was a heavy metal band that formed in the Netherlands in 1979. The original band consisted of Ronald Van Prooien on vocals, Jan Bechtum on guitar, Rinus Vreugdenhil on bass, and Laurens Bakker on drums. They recorded a demo in 1979 which included the song "My Gun Shoots," which was very popular on Dutch radio. They were offered a record deal with Warner Bros. initially, but were dropped when they refused to bow to the wishes of the record company to play commercial rock.
After getting a record deal with Phonogram/Back Door Records, Picture recorded and released their debut album, Picture, in 1980. The album had a raw sound, and featured such songs as "Dirty Street Fighter" and "Bombers." The album was big in the Netherlands, but international success would be another story.
In 1981, the band released their second album, Heavy Metal Ears. Better production led to much stronger album sales. The title track and "Rock And Roll/Under Your Spell" were notable tracks from this classic metal outing. Talk about Picture began to spread beyond the Dutch border. It seemed that the band were on their way.
Just before Picture was set to record their third album, vocalist Ronald Van Prooien left the band for personal reasons. This was a blow to the other members, but they found a replacement in Israeli born singer Shmoulik Avigal. The third album, Diamond Dreamer, was released in 1982, and is classed as one of the best Picture albums. Highlights included the title track and "Get Me Rock And Roll." By this time, Picture was popular enough to start touring overseas. They were offered chances to tour with such bands as Kiss, but financial problems plagued the band, so they could never promote their music like they wanted to. Diamond Dreamer was the only album to feature Avigal...during the tour, he fought with Picture's management, and was kicked out of the band.
The band started to fall apart at this point. Guitarist Jan Bechtum left the band at the end of 1982, and two new guitarists stepped in to take his place, Chriz Van Jaarsveld and Henri Van Manen. With this lineup change, Picture's sound changed dramatically. English vocalist Pete Lovell came in to replace Avigal, and the new lineup released the powerful metal album Eternal Dark in 1983. Featuring the sinister album cover, Eternal Dark was another big success for the band, featuring the hit title track. Though the band was offered several chances to tour, they had to turn down most of them because of lack of funds. They sold albums, but never enough to get out of Europe much.
More problems plagued the band by 1984. Drummer Laurens Bakker dropped out of Picture, to be replaced by a drummer known as 'Shake'. This left only Rinus Vreugdenhil from the original band to record the fifth album, Traitor, released later that year. The band's albums finally started to get noticed in North America, particularly in Canada, where Traitor was released on Canadian-based Viper Records.
The band originally called Picture pretty much ceased to exist after Traitor. The band had two more albums to complete on their contract with Phonogram. With studio musician lineups, Picture released Every Story Needs Another Picture in 1985 and Marathon in 1986. After those two albums, Picture was put to rest. The original lineup tried to reform in 1988, but did only one concert. The members went on to various projects afterwards, and it looked like the Picture story was over.
In 1995, original guitarist Jan Bechtum formed a new band with bassist Jos Adema and drummer Mark Maas. After auditioning many vocalists, the band chose Michael Zandbergen to be the frontman. Bechtum named the band Picture, and a new era appeared to be starting. But only demos were recorded with this lineup, and after a few years and several concerts, Bechtum disbanded Picture for good. 
Source: http://www.rocknrollhell.com/picture/

MEMBERS:

Ronald Van Prooijen - Vocals
Shmoulik Avigal - Vocals
Pete Lovell - Vocals
Bert Heering - Vocals
Michel Zandbergen - Vocals
Jan Bechtum - Guitars
Chris Van Jaarsveld - Guitar
Henry Van Manen - Guitars
Rob van Enkhuizen - Guitars
Rinus Vreugdenhil - Bass
Ronald de Grouw - Keyboards
Laurens Bakker - Drums
Jacques van Oevelen - Drums

DISCOGRAPHY:

1980 Picture (Backdoor)
1981 Heavy metal ear (Backdoor)
1982 Diamond Dreamer (Backdoor)
1983 Eternal Dark (Backdoor)
1984 Traitor (Backdoor)
1985 Every story needs another picture (Backdoor)
1986 Marathon (Touchdown)

MEMORABILIA

Fanclub magazine's:

BOMBER (Click on pic to enlarge them)

 



BACKSTAGE / METAL ATTACK (Click on pic to enlarge them)

Goodies

Stickers

 

With the old Picture slogan. Translated it means something like "Let's be heavy / rough for each other!"

Photocards