My buddy JACK MAUER, the SHIVA studio owner, was married to ANNA, a Spanish lady, and had so learned to speak the language quite well. (He probably picked up a lot when ANNA yelled at him in her native tongue when she caught him chasing other women…). Thanks to JACK being able to negotiate in Spanish we were able to sign the awesome BARON ROJO to the roster. Performing two years in a row at the HEAVY SOUND festival - and although they sung in Spanish (except for BRUTAL VOLUME, the English language version of their album VOLUMEN BRUTAL) we sold all four of their records very well. We were also successful with OBUS and PANZER, two other bands from the Iberian Peninsula.

JOS KLOEK also turned out an invaluable member of the team. After a while LEO became less involved with MAUSOLEUM as it became necessary for him to be more attentive of the import-export and wholesale operation. KLOEK started By taking over the production tasks on KILLER and CROSSFIRE albums, and later on also recorded SPEEDWAY and THE DAY AFTER, the two enormously successful albums by speed metal band WARHEAD. He became the de facto MAUSOLEUM house producer and went on to work with FN GUNS in Belgium, DARK WIZARD in Holland, FISC in France, and the E.F BAND in Sweden. The latter he will particularly remember because he recorded the Anglo Swedish E.F. BAND during an exceptionally cold winter in a studio somewhere in the deep forests of Sweden at mind numbing, limb laming, and freezing temperatures.

I made it up to JOS by next assigning him to produce LIONSPRIDE in the luxurious and comfortable surroundings of the Brussels' ICP studio. LIOSNPRIDE featured one of my favorite vocalists, WILLY BECKERS, the Joe-Cocker-of–heavy metal, as well as the outstanding guitarist BENITO BOCCASILE. The ensuing album, BREAKING OUT, was in my opinion another grossly underrated effort.

JOS KLOEK not only produced numerous records for MAUSOLEUM, but also managed KILLER, and accompanied most bands on tour, engineering their sound during concerts and festivals. The WARHEAD boys called him SPEED RAT, and that's exactly what he had to be in order to get everything done.

Early 1983, through reviews in the British press, I became interested in LIMELGHT, a band from the North of England that had recorded an album for FUTURE EARTH, a local Northern label. I contacted the label-owner, DAVID MOFFITT, and effectively negotiated for the album "ASHES TO ASHES" to be re-released on MAUSOLEUM for worldwide distribution.

I had been thinking of opening a UK office for a while and DAVID MOFFITT seemed very much the natural candidate to head the operation. Soon DAVID and I not only became the best of friends but he also rewarded my confidence in him by signing some absolutely great acts to the MAUSOLEUM roster; WOLF, ACE LANE, CHINAWHITE, SYAR, SNOWBLIND, HAWKWIND, the impressive McCOY, and last but not least BLACKLACE, the American outfit fronted by the lovely, extremely talented and very sexy vocalist; MARYANN SCANDIFFIO.

1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7