Marco Kleinnibbelink played drums in Dutch progrockers Silent Edge until 2005. He was followed up by Matthieu Boer.



Kleinnibbelink's biography - in his own words (thanks to the official Silent Edge website):



I started playing at the age of ten, listening to bands like the Stones but pretty soon ended up listening to Rainbow, Deep Purple, the Police, Jethro Tull and Rush. I started playing one bass drum, like Ian Paice, but after hearing Cozy Powell playing two bass drums, I saw the light! My main influence in timing is Stewart Copeland of the Police. Strange thing maybe for you to understand, is that I am not influenced by, what I think, were the best drummers ever, namely Buddy Rich en Gene Krupa. For me it was clear how it had to sound like! Heavy drums with Stu's timing.



My first official band was called Jesaja and was mainly symphonic. We only played our own music but could never find the right singer, so after 5 years we split up. At the age of 23, I thought myself good enough to play in public. Being a perfectionist, I considered that to be the best time to hit the stage. The band was called Maerlyn and we played half our own material and half covers, in the style of Queensryche and Crimson Glory. But the band split up after only one gig, no luck again! At that time I practiced double bass real well and I ended up playing the heavier kinds of music. First I joined Adetar, a band from Enschede. In 1992 I turned down an offer from Pestilence and was hired by Dead Head. At that time, Dead Head was known as one of the best heavy bands in the Netherlands.



I recorded my first CD with them and we went on our first European tour. While playing in Dead Head, I also played in a band called Syrinx, which I formed with two other maniacs. Syrinx sounded like early Rush and we got us a record deal with help of a rehearsal tape. Imagine that! After recording "Kaleidoscope of Symphonic Rock" at the same studio as Dead Head, it was time again for me to go on the second European tour with Dead Head.



In the meantime I was involved in an instrumental project called Highwire. Highwire was formed around guitarist Wilko van Beek (ex-Hammerhead). Everything was taking care of. The CD should be produced by Jurgen Rosenthal (Rainbow, Billy Joel) and he would of course also play the keyboards. (Jurgen Rosenthal played with Wilko in Hammerhead btw) All this happened in the period just before Steve Vai and Joe Satriani were in the picture. Last minute before signing, the deal was cancelled.



I guess the project was badly timed. If we would have pulled it of a year later, I think the show would have been on the road, sort of speak. I also played for a year with the German band No Inner Limits. Before I joined them, I produced their first CD. By the time they were recording the second album, I took over the sticks and played drums on their CD. I also did the gigs after the CD was released, but my health made me quit the band so I helped them to find a new drummer. This was not a big problem, because I was teaching drums for several years, so there were several candidates within my students that could fill my spot.



It is hard to imagine, but with all bands I participated, I also had the time to play with Purple Haze. They celebrated their 10 year anniversary in 2001. They don't play very often, but when they do, the roof goes off. They play a load of Deep Purple songs and of course, Glenn Hughes is their major inspiration! I have played several years with them. I was out of the band for some years and rejoined a few years ago. Right now I left them again because of lack of time. Besides the fact that this is an outstanding band, they are also very good friends of mine, which is one of the most important things for me to play in a band.