Oct 30th, 1963 - June 11th, 2015
AFTER A DISHONEST BATTLE AGAINST CANCER OUR GREAT
FRIEND, AND FOUNDER OF THE BAND, MARIO HAS PASSED
AWAY ON THURSDAY JUNE 11th, 2015
We are deeply sad now he's not with us anymore.
But also grateful for the many wonderful moments
and memories. He was a great musician. A great man
with love for the music and for the people around
him.
We will miss you and will never forget you, our
friend. Thank you that we could know you. You have
left an indelible impression on us and everyone.
Deep RESPECT.
Dinant, Alexander, Jorrit and Menno.
"When you're around someone
good, your own standards are raised".
Ritchie Blackmore
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MARIO'S EXISTENCE
I was born and raised in Hoek van Holland, a place
where lots of good bands were 'born'. One of them
was called JENNIFER. A great band with a very skilled
guitar player (also called Mario ;-) The band played
a lot of covers, one of those was the song 'Black
Night', and I fell in love with that song. I was
14 years old and played for about two years already.
I started to practice for about 6 hours a day, 'till
my fingers bled. Very soon I was able to play all
the things that Ritchie played. Then I started to
search for skilled musicians who also wanted to
play the 'In Rock' stuff. The searching really was
a nightmare ;-(
EARLY INFLUENCES
I am influenced by Ritchie of course, but also Jimi
Hendrix, Jan Akkerman, Jeff Beck, Michael Schenker,
Uli Roth. Later George Lynch and Yngwie Malmsteen.
I still listen to those guys. I really hated the
grunge 'hype' (Curt Koppijn ;-)), they all were
posers and not real musicians.
MARIO'S PAST
Really too much to mention, but a few of my previous
bands are DEALEN, BIG ANOUSHKA SESSIE BAND (the
band where I met Sabine) and A.J.MHARYO.
I also studied two years on the Rotterdam Conservatory,
but that was not my piece of shit because I wanted
to play live on stage instead of playing in front
of a class. Funny thing is that I taught guitar
during my whole life as a guitarist. At the time
I was working for "Music Store", I had
about 60 students in one week in my class.
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HOW MARIO STARTED PURPLE RAINBOW
When I was young everybody said to me: "You stole that riff from Ritchie". Mostly I got mad because I didn't steel the riff. I just played the same style funny enough. Later I got used to it and took it as a compliment. Some years ago I thought: "Why not play it official, and play some of the best songs that where ever written?!". The only problem was to find good musicians and they also had to like Deep Purple and Rainbow songs. In the mean time I had the first gig organized, but still not completed the band. But all things fell in place when I finally met the other Purple Rainbow boys (and of course lady Sabine). The rest of the story is history...
MARIO'S GEAR
Lot's of Fender Stratocasters:
• Black Fender 1970
• 2 Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Strats (blond en cream colored)
• Ritchie Blackmore Signature Strat
• Left-handed Strat
• ShoreLine Gold (very rare !!)
• American Standard Strat (four of those, with DiMarzio pickups en scalloped fret board)
• Lots of guitar accessories, which are mostly used as spare parts, in case things don't survive on stage ;-))
• Amps: Marshall JMT 45 (I love it, I need it!). Marshall 4x12" speaker cabs
• Bunch of pedals
LIST OF OLD TIME FAVOURITES
Everything of Deep Purple and Rainbow, my favourites are 'In Rock' and 'On Stage'.
LIST OF 'NEW' FAVOURITES
Blackmore's Night and G3 ;-)
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