According to Mark Boon guitar-player Bas Krumperman is one of
the great undiscovered musical talents of the Netherlands. Mark first
noticed him when Bas was playing in DELROSE, a Santana-like band
(according to Bas a mixture of funk, latin and soul) that included
some members of Mark's previous band STAMP 'N GO. Before that Bas had
done some professional work in the backing band of Dutch entertainer
Gerard Cox, but it was this very experience that made him doubt he
wanted to be a professional musician. After one year in Delrose Bas
moved to Hilversum based band BRUNO BASTA, that included future
musical star Bill van Dijk as vocalist. In the summer of 1981 with an
American tour imminent, Mark and Rob decided to fire Hugo de Bruin
and ask Bas Krumperman to join DIESEL. Mark knew how the Americans
loved great guitar-players and for him Bas was the perfect choice, he
could be Diesel's secret weapon. However, it was not easy to lure Bas
into professional musicianship again, as he'd just started studying
to become a piano tuner. But the chance to tour the US and Canada as
a Diesel-member was too great an opportunity to pass and Bas
joined.
After rehearsals in September and October the band left for the
States early November. Bas is quite philosophical about it now, but
the tour proved to be a difficult experience for all concerned. The
claustrophobia sometimes became too much and Bas is reported walking
to one of their concerts for 12 miles, although he himself claims he
walked for about 7 miles back to the hotel after a concert. Like Mark
he noticed how Rob Vunderink retreated into his Russian books during
the tour and he felt "something was missing".
The same applied to the making of the "Unleaded" album. In retrospect
Bas wonders why there were no elaborate discussions before they went
into the studio, for while recording different points of view and
expectations emerged. These internal differences led to the departure
of Kim Weemhof during the recording of "Unleaded" and when the album
flopped and Rob Vunderink split for Moscow, Bas also felt the Diesel
adventure had not lived up to HIS expectations. He left early 1983
when the band were struggling to get a new line-up together.
Ex-Diesel member Frank Papendrecht then tipped Pim Koopman and in
1985 Bas recorded the "Muscles" album with Pim and vocalist Okkie
Huysdens (who had engineered "Watts in a tank" and Bruno Basta's
recordings) under the banner of The President. This CD includes some
incredible guitar-solos, but once again Bas is quite modest about it:
"That's the way you were supposed to play in the 80's", he
claims.....
Bas still makes music, but not in the rock vein as his love goes to
folk and country like music.
