I just heard that my old friend John Snellenberg died unexpectedly while coming back from a vacation in the Czech republic. He was the drummer in the band I used to play in when I was in college in Utrecht, The Netherlands. He is pictured above in our rehearsal and recording studio built inside the old Fort de Gagel (clearly visible in the satellite image here). A fort that was part of the Dutch Waterline, built to resist invading armies and proven quite useless in WWII (the Germans just flew and parachuted over it). I haven't spoken to John in many years, but I am quite sad that he is gone. We had a great time playing with our band The Mailmen (three of the bandmembers (Gido, Paul, and John) used to work the nightshift in the Dutch postal services) at gigs and in the rehearsal room. The rehearsal room was in an old ammunitions room inside the fort which we rented from a pigeon club that owned the place. We even brought out a limited edition CD/tape recorded ourselves in the fort using 8-track equipment. Here we are perched on the side of a pillbox behind the fort:
From left to right, Jao van de Lagemaat(me), Paul van Soelen, Gido Boekschoten, John Snellenberg.
A while ago, I put a set of images on flickr.
I also made a little slideshow video with shots I had in my library of us in the fort and mixing our CD at Paul's place. It is set to the Mailmen song "Bill the Cowboy". If you maximize the video, you can access a High Def version. Sometimes this video can stutter I noticed. Try pausing it and waiting a little so some more data can be loaded ahead of time.
Rest in Peace John!
