Biography
 
Nicko Christiansen was born in 1950 at the seaside of West Holland, in the year of rock and roll. Ten years later he tried to sing, and about eleven years later he began to accompany himself on the guitar. Mainly songs of Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Bill Haley. In 1965 his hair was too long for his glasses and he met his musicpartner and friend John Lagrand the harmonicaplayer. They formed the bluesduo Indiscrimination. Singer songwriter Leo Unger introduced them to the jazz and blues scene of Holland and a year later (66) they made their first single record, accompanied by the most famous band of the Hague then, the Q65. Then John and Nicko created the Band Livin Blues together with Ted Oberg. Also with Cesar Zuiderwijk (Earring), Henk Smitskamp (Shocking Blue, The Motions), followed by Ruud van Buuren (Group 1850, Long Tall Ernie) and Johnny Lejeune. Three hitrecords came out with the help of producer Jaap Eggermont (1970). And 5 albums followed by tours through Germany, England, Switserland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy until 1975, when the band had split up. Highlights were the Dutch tour with Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, the Jazz and Rock festival in Palermo, with names like Ella Fitzgerald, Collosseum and Deep Purple. When this band split up in 1975, it was directly followed by a second LB. N.C. was a singer saxplayer in all combinations of LB. Later highlights were the Music and Harmony event in the Ahoy. Were LB jammed with Steve Lukathor (Toto) and Ad Van Den Berg. And after the millenium change the band toured from Moscow to Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic & Slovakia (2007) to Luxembourg, Spain and the Jakarta Bluesfestival in Indonesia. With the help of manager Ruud jansen.
NC says: "This is really the best combination of LB ever. It steams and rocks, and is really alive. This band also goes deep into the spirit of feelmusic. These guys have great instrumental skills combined with feel. Also the atmosphere is so much better than before. To become friends is maybe the biggest talent. And the future is still young".


Kees van Krugten (1957) is a well known musician in the professional Dutch music scene and he has been playing the drums for over 30 years with all kind of famous and less famous bands. He is very versatile and able to play almost all music styles, his preference is blues and jazz. During all the years Kees played with a huge number of musicians and artists, some of them are Hans Dulfer, Egon Verhoeven, The Amazing Stroopwafels, Boris van der Lek, Willem Breuker and Robert Long. In 1986 he toured with Barend Petersen in the States and in that year he also played in the Danssalon Bigband, the band that was a side act on a popular TV talkshow and he was the driving force in the Dunn Packer band. And last but not least did Kees a tour with Herman Brood in Spain. With Livin' Blues Kees has been playing now for 12 years and he uses various drum kits but currently he is playing on a Tama starclassic that he sometimes mixes with Rogers en Slingerland toms 15"-16" 18" with K- Zildjian cymbals.


Jeroen van Niele
Whatever deceptions life may have in store for you, music itself is not going to let you down.
Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) American composer

Jeroen was born November 12th 1965. Since 1980 he is an active member in the national music community. He worked in musicals, cabaret shows, pop, rock, jazz, latin and fusion bands, projects and consequently also teaches these styles. Jeroen is also a composer and a producer. He performed and recorded with artists as : Rinus Groeneveld, Nippy Noya, Elion Noya, Tico Pierhagen, Paul Williams, David Hollestelle, Arthur Ebeling, Saskia Laroo, Freddie Cavalli, Gilian Baracs, Boris van der Lek, Dirk van der Wal, Michael de Jong, Billy o'hara, Terry Mann, Lamar chase, Pieter Engels, Nathan Hamilton, Rob Takema, Roger Happel, Susanne Alt, Magic Sam, Andre Duet, Roland Zeldenrust, Lucas "amor" Jansen, Thijs van Leer and many more.

Certain keys, tonalities, and melodic formulas fortify the human character; others may weaken it.
Plato (427-327 BC, Greek philosopher)


Loek van der Knaap (1960) has been working since 1981 as guitar teacher and ever started as guitar player in various local bands. From 1989 he followed his music study at the Rotterdam Conservatorium and got his official degree as music teacher in 1991. Shortly afterwards Loek was asked to join the legendary blues formation Livin' Blues and performed with them numerous times in and outside the country. After some follow on projects like the Nicko C band and Little Big Muff (with Billy the Kid guitar player Ron Knoester) Loek has been playing now with Nicko Christiansen in Livin' Blues Xperience a number of years. In this band he can demonstrate his dedication for blues-oriented music. With his riffs and grooves he delivers an essential contribution to the compositions of the band and amazes the audience with his impressive solo's during their live acts. In addition to his band activities, Loek has his own productive guitar school named Gitaarstudio Loek van der Knaap. Here he educates a variety of styles like (of course) blues and rock but also jazz, fingerpickin', pop, latin and classical music. He also writes and officially publishes his own education material and his methods have been appraised and rewarded by the press and is being used on many music schools in the Netherlands and Belgium.
For more info: www.loekvanderknaap.nl.


François Spannenburg. The passion for music and especially for harmonica brought François Spannenburg among the best harmonica players in Europe. Born in Paris, France, he grew up in Bretagne (west part of France), where he started studying harmonica by himself. Few years later, back in Paris, he won the French Harmonica Championship in 1994 in the category amateur. Constantly focused in studies to develop his skills, in less than a year François won again the French Harmonica Championship, now in 2 categories: professional and duet. In the same year, he created his own band called The Naughty Harps performing all over France and in other countries like Belgium and Germany. The contagious energy of this band based on up-tempo harmonica instrumentals mostly gained François access to major French and German Country music and Rock festivals. In parallel, he also developed other projects like workshops, where he shared some of his skills with young harmonica players in pedagogic works for schools in the musical area as well as harmonica lessons in a conservatory in France. After delighting thousands of people with his fast play throughout Europe, François aimed to live new experiences and moved to Berlin where he joined Southern Company, one of the best Country Rock band from North Germany, while working in other musical productions. In 2005, François moved to the Netherlands where he joined the Dutch band Livin' Blues Xperience with whom he performs worldwide starting a brand new experience mixing music and magic! Now he combines his notes with impressive visual effects, causing astonishment and curiosity from the audience! Currently François is working on a project called "stage masters", writing an E-book full of tips, anecdotes and tricks addressed for performers who want to achieve a great stage performance... coming out next year, stay tuned!