Retired ICTeer who played in an Amsterdam band (The Volcanos) a long time ago and acts as an archivist of all musical memories from this period (see: also:  www.facebook.com/groups/thevolcanos ). In 2017 again bought an electric guitar, a VOX amplifier and a VOX I / O interface with accompanying JAMVOX III software and the playground is open. Try to play the oldest guitar repertoire from 55 years ago. Good to keep the Parkinson's out of my fingers. Fun, but of course not as good as long ago.

I recomend headphone for  listen to music here. All music here is made by Cubase5 and Kontakt4, sometimes Absynt4. The music here is made from MIDI-files. Remastered and remixed by me.

Hello, 

I played drums and percussion instruments (and some backing vocals)  for 50 years with The Hottletts ('66-'68) and other pop rock blues bands in 
the Haarlem region,  (25 km west off Amsterdam) 

* In the '90s I was active as a manager-booker of two Local Bands.

After 2012 I was active again as a drummer and now also have fun as a starting singing  as you now understand ....

I discovered  5 years a go (!) That singing (again) makes me also very happy, and sometimes even more than playing drums ... I am now looking for the limits of what touches me and train my voice through singing exercises and lessons, the styles go from Classical to pop-rock-blues-alternative- bossa-jazz- from 50-ties till now I follow everything that comes to me and enjoy small progress and finish and occasionally acting to raise the bar, being able to do the singing is in principle the most important thing for me, the path, the self-examination is more interesting than the end goal ....

Charles-Louis
Haarlem
The Netherlands

Ex Drummer  by the HOTTLETTS  ( 1966-1969) 
Ex Manager  off  Life To Us  ( 1e line up) . ‘95-‘99
Ex manager. Off. The Link  ( ‘99-‘00)




@ sept. 2023 . CdB  (alias : Charles-Louis)

I started playing the guitar at 15 but as is my way didnt take lessons or learn formaly, all I wanted to do was play instrumentals so providing someone put the guitar in tune for me I would spend hours trying to learn shadows numbers armed with just my ears and a Bert Weedon play in a day book and the odd chord being explained by a very talented musician called Eamon Toland hidden away in the tap room of Martins Nest Public House in Brighouse. Hidden away because legally it should have been another 3 years before I  was entitled to enjoy the experience.

Without doubt the lack of any formal lessons did and still does hamper my progress and abilities with such things as scales, keys and chord progressions being a total mystery to me. Nonetheless undeterred I battle on, convinced that I will have time to get to grips with the technicalities of it all once I retire, at the moment such learning would interfere with my playing time. 

Despite a few brief years playing in a local band performing in pubs and clubs my playing has always been limited to picking up the guitar for ten minutes here and there, usually to throw off a bad mood which it usually manages to do. Life must have been pretty good over the last few years as my equipment has sat gathering dust and after around 12 years in hibernation I decided it was time to dig it all out and see if I could manage to start knocking out tunes again so weekends are now spent locked away busy having a go at creating something to remember me by.

The sounds are produced with my 1988 USA Strat and although I have an original Fender Blues Deville 212 valve amp it isnt practical to use due to the volume needed so tend to use the guitar plugged into a Presonus Audiobox into a PC outputting to good quality domestic speakers which is fine for the volume I need for recording.

Recording is managed by Studio One Pro V2 which true to form I only use a small percentage of, (Its a bit like having a Ferrari to pop to the shops in) but it 's intuitive to use without spending too many hours learning.

I hope you find some enjoyment in my offerings and am always happy to receive constructive comments.

Followers of Stratpete