Picture (band)

Picture
Picture at the 2016 Heathen Rock Festival in Hamburg, Germany
Background information
Origin	Hilversum, The Netherlands
Genres	Heavy metal, Hard rock
Years active	1979–1987, 1996–1999, 2007–present
Labels	Backdoor, Touchdown, Artist Station
Website	Official Web Site
Members	Ronald van Prooien - vocals Jan Bechtum - guitars Rinus Vreugdenhil - bass guitar Laurens Bakker - drums Appie de Gelder - guitars
Past members	(see below)

Picture is one of the first Dutch heavy metal bands. Formed in 1979, they were especially popular in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy for their live performances, and still have a fan base in South America, Mexico and Japan.

Picture supported AC/DC, Ted Nugent and Saxon in the Netherlands. With Saxon, they did a full European tour in 1981. Later on they toured with Rose Tattoo in Germany and headlined tours in Italy and Israel.

Rinus Vreugdenhil and Laurens Bakker originally got together in 1977 and started jamming with various musicians. It wasn’t until 1979 that the classic lineup of Rinus, Laurens, Jan Bechtum, and Ronald van Prooijen came together.

Early on in Picture's career they were produced by Cat Music. They worked with manager Henk van Antwerpen and were signed to Warner Bros. Records. However, Picture felt their label were trying to steer them in a pop direction and quit the label to sign with Backdoor Records, a subsidiary of Phonogram Records.

The original line-up recorded their debut album, Picture 1 and their second effort, Heavy Metal Ears in 1980 and 1981 respectively. To begin with, they gigged throughout the Netherlands and nearby Germany and built a following. In the meantime, they started composing their own music. Jan would usually come up with the riffs, then the other members would contribute their parts. After hashing and rehashing the songs, they became the titles that would appear on the first album, Picture I.

As a bunch of young kids, they didn’t know much about the realities of recording. When the album came out, none of them liked the sound quality. As they grew in popularity, they returned to the studio to record Heavy Metal Ears and it was much of the same sound quality. It wasn’t until they were a little older and wiser that they really got their sound in the studio with Diamond Dreamer. However, by this time, Ronald had left for personal reasons and they found Israeli singer, Shmoulik Avigal. Not only was the recording done much better, but Shmoulik had a different, and some say, more powerful voice. Many consider Diamond Dreamer as the band’s best album.