The History of:
It all starts back in August 1985. Jan Arjen Veenstra and Elco Veenland are getting a band together under the name: 'Mad Snail', after splitting up the schoolband 'Noch Nix'. But they needed more musicians and they found Rik de Vries on rhythm guitar, Danny Kok on the bass, Gerard Stobbe sologuitar and Jan Ensing as singer.
Danny Kok and Jan Ensing in Mad Snail
In 1988 the band 'Mad Snail' splits up and Jan Arjen, Rik and Elco continue as Lekker Fris. But they still needed a bassplayer and a new singer. They recruted Benny Eling and Jan Willen ten Wolde. But where oh where did we get the name Lekker Fris from. Please Jan Arjen, tell us.
Lekker Fris anno 1995. From your right upwards: Rik, Jan Willem, Benny, Jan Arjen en Clemens.
Jan Arjen's story:
We were already rehearsing and our first gig was getting up in 1988, but we still didn't have a name. Surely, we had to change that situation. There had to be a name. Discussions, nightmares, being isolated, locked up and everybody came with all kinds of english sounding names. But then Rik saw the light. Under a tray of a well known dutch lemonade factory he saw the words:" Lekker Fris uit een flesje ", which means as much as " Nice and refreshing from a bottle". We still haven't thanked the factory "HERO" for that, thanx guys.
That's the story behind the name and really, the music we like to play is still very nice and refreshing.
Lekker Fris Live in Old Dutch Assen 1996. From your left to your right: Jan Arjen, Benny, Donny, Jan Willem en Rik.
Original line up through the years: Jan Arjen, Rik en Jan Willem. Several musicians were: Elco Veenland, Benny Eling, Clemens Hogenelst. Don Jasper came in 1996 as the new drummer and Hans van den Brink joined the band in 1997 as the new bassplayer. In that period we also got a new soundengineer: Max Wiefferink
