Han was born on July 19th 1962 in Brummen in the eastern part of Holland. For more than 15 years he has been living in the small, but beautiful town of Zutphen. At an early age Han started to show an interest in drumming. He was drumming on almost anything, but he got his first real drum kit at the age of 13. Three years later, in December 1978, he was asked to join a 'real' rock band called Zame. Together with bass player André Simmelink and singer/guitar player Henk Lambert he made his first podium appearance. Shortly after that guitar player/singer Jan Veldkamp joined the band which name changed into Blackbury Accident. In the eighties Blackbury, together with singer/guitar player Karel van Hal had a lot of success in the Dutch club scene with their powerful bluesy hard rock. In 1981 they even hit the local charts with the song 'Overdose of Love'. In 1985 the band had their first album, called 'Too late to hide', but without being successful anymore the band split up in 1986. At that time Han was already playing in the Charley's Blues Band. In the late eighties and in the beginning of the 90's this heavy blues band had a lot of gigs in the Dutch blues and rock circuit.
In these days Han got acquainted with the young, but by then already great guitar player Gordon Groothedde. Together with Gordon they joined the new, melodic rock band Vangouw in 1988. Shortly after that bass player Pascal Groenen came along, with whom he's playing in Tony's band now. Vangouw was a very talented, ambitious band and within 6 months after their start they had two TV appearances and a couple of radio shows at Veronica, a very popular Dutch TV station. After a lot of shows and many contacts with record companies, studio’s and management offices Vangouw finally signed a contract at Willem van Kooten's Red Bullet Records in 1990. Vangouw has been working with famous Dutch rock producers, such as Alfred 'Big Al' Lagarde, Golden Earring producer John Sonneveld and ex-VandenBerg bass player and close friend Dick Kemper. Unfortunately, after a while Van Kooten and Vangouw turned out to be on a different level so they broke up their contract and soon after the band slowly passed away. Vangouw made a lot of great songs and they were all taped in the famous Bullet Sound Studio but…..unfortunately they were left on the shelf forever.
In the late days of Vangouw in 1992 Han, Gordon and Pascal were already playing covers for fun of among others Van Halen, AD/DC and Led Zeppelin. In the beginning they were playing just for the crack of it, without a real purpose. But things went on so well that they started looking for a singer and found a very good one: Jacko Kreukniet. And so Poundcake was born. Until 1999 Han, Gordon, Pascal and Jacko played a lot of gigs all over Holland and also some gigs in Belgium. In 1999 the Poundcake members went their separate ways. Together with Pascal Han played in Nash Unlimited for a while and then Han joined professional cover band Superfly. Although he managed to make a living with this band, Han didn’t feel comfortable with Superfly anymore after a while. In March 2001 he left the band and after some musical dwellings he ended up with his Poundcake pals once again. They felt like carrying on and since the beginning of 2002 Poundcake is back in the Dutch concert scene again.
Because of the busy working schedule of especially guitarist Gordon, who is becoming famous as a rock producer (Intwine, Barry Hay, Beth Hart) and singer Jacko, who is doing a lot of session work and who is also working on a new album, Poundcake hasn't been doing so many gigs lately. Tony Spinner’s invitation to accompany him on his Dutch tour therefore suits Han very well. Not only because Tony is a great singer/guitar player, but also because his bluesy rock happens to be just Han's piece of cake. Led Zeppelin has been Han's long time favorite and their drummer, John Bonham, is his number one because of his powerful groove. He also likes to listen to seventies bands, such as Bad Company, Deep Purple and (the old) Whitesnake, but also to symfo band Rush and his youth heroes, The Sweet. Next to grooving rhythms and flashing guitars Han especially likes good songs and powerful melodies and Tony's album contains plenty of those!
Equipment:
DW Collector's Series Maple Drums, solid white.
Bass: 24 x 18"
Snare: 14 x 6"
Toms: 12 x 9", 14 x 14", 16 x 16".
Cymbals: Paiste 2002.
20" heavy ride. 18" crash, 18" crash (black logo) en 16" crash. Sound Edge 14" hihats.
