The beginning of this band started in 1982 when guitarplayer Henky Backer and bassplayer Erik Meyer re-composed a complete symphony of Beethoven into a hard-rock version. This was all done under the name 'Sword'.
After two years of composing and many live performances 'Sword' released the single 'I've been trying / Excalibur'. In 1986 Sword cha...
show full description »
The beginning of this band started in 1982 when guitarplayer Henky Backer and bassplayer Erik Meyer re-composed a complete symphony of Beethoven into a hard-rock version. This was all done under the name 'Sword'.
After two years of composing and many live performances 'Sword' released the single 'I've been trying / Excalibur'. In 1986 Sword changed its name into JEWEL. At that time singer Peter Ort left the band to be replaced by Rick Ambrose. Rick started to write his own lyrics on the existing songs to make the songs more personal. After three months JEWEL hit the stage again, which resulted in a
live-recording at 'Vara's Vuurwerk', a famous metal show at Dutch National Radio late 1987. These recordings were released by the band on a tape under the name 'La Morta Live'. The line-up at that moment was:
Rick Ambrose-Vocals
Henky Backer-Guitars
Wim Smits-Bass
Henk Mulder-Drums.
In 1988 JEWEL released four songs from a fully recorded album as an EP called 'La Morta'. Soon after releasing this EP Henk Mulder left the band to be replaced by Frankie Woodhouse, who played in an early line up of Sword.
Jewel’s star was rising and lead to many concerts across Europe. In August 1989 JEWEL went as first metal band ever to play a stadium tour of three weeks in Russia.
Back in Holland the band started to prepare a live CD, which was recorded in April 1989 and released in the beginning of 1990. The long touring schedule and musical differences resulted into a split of the band. Henk Mulder returned and bassplayer Antoine van der Linden (Martyr) helped the band out for a couple of months.
Arwin Vergers (Defender) joined the band in 1991 and Jewel started with the recording of their first studio full length CD 'Revolution In Heaven'. After a long touring schedule in 1992 the long awaited success still wasn't there, which resulted in personal conflicts and the band decided to break up.
In 1993 they did a farewell tour and on the 29th of May 1993 they played their last show ever. This show was recorded on video and released as 'Pugnandi Causa'.
« hide full description
