I know Michiel Peters ever since I was a kid. We went to primary school together and made the first attempts to form a band together.Michiel had, and still has, a huge collection of records. So he introduced me to a lot of music. One of those records was Led Zeppelin III. He played me the track “Since I’ve been loving you” because he was really impressed by the guitar playing of Jimmy Page. And he was right, it was remarkable.
But what I got very excited about was the drumming of John Bonham.
He is one of the few drummers I know who can play fat and heavy and at the same time create space and a sense of lightness. He has the ability to make the other players sound really good. To me that was and still is (among lots of other things) the greatest attraction of his playing. And that sound he produced!
So when Slagwerkkrant in the summer of 2004 published an item about the re-issue of the Ludwig “John Bonham” Vistalite drumset, I was immediatly very excited. The Vistalite embodied for me this feeling of power and lightness, in spite of the fact that John Bonham did not record “Since I’ve been loving you” playing the Vistalite. He started doing so in 1973 (it was an enormous promotion for this drumset), and the album Led Zeppelin III was made in 1970.
The difference between the remake and the original set is mainly that on Bonhams set the 14’ tom was mounted on the bass drum, as was a cymbal holder. My 14’ tom is on a separate stand, and there is no cymbalholder on the bass drum anymore

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July 2004 saw me visiting my local drumshop Drumworld in Badhoevedorp; and there it was, the huge amber beast!
After some discussion with Edwin Kas, the shop manager, he very kindly agreed to let me play the set a while in our studio, “to get acquainted”, before deciding whether to buy it or not. During that period of time the photo was taken which Drumworld a little later used for an ad in Slagwerkkrant.
Now the special thing about the Vistalite set, apart from being made from acryl, are the drum sizes. The bass drum measures 26 inches, the toms 14, 16 and 18 inches, which is quite big for what is commonly used.
The only thing I really missed was the 8” single headed tom we call “puk” (this name is an invention of Tom I think) with it’s clear high pitched, very percussive sound. Since it isn’t available through Ludwig, I built it myself.
My plan was to play those big skins very softly, to create this feeling of restrained energy, the feeling that there is so much more possible, but you only lift the corner of the veil.
Trying this approach I was amazed about the effect. I used all kinds of brushes, hotrods, broomsticks, mallets and so on. Even chopsticks! The set really sounded warm and powerful. And with great, unique character.
To complete the palette, I chose a combination of big and very small cymbals. The latter I found in a shop in Amsterdam where they collect smashed cymbals and then turn them on a lathe until you get rid of the cracked edges. The result is a cymbal with very peculiar overtones.
In may 2005 we started the work for what was to become Les Nuits.
I put up the set in our drumbooth, made an array of all my soft sticks and we started playing, very softly.
Paul did the rest.