Dutch prog rockers For Absent Friends reform

For Absent Friends
(Image credit: Press)

Dutch prog rockers For Absent Friends have reformed and will release a brand new studio album, Disappear, through Freia Music, on September 29.

For Absent Friends originally formed in Rotterdam in 1986 and went on to release six albums between 1990 and 2006. Following the band's demise singer Hans Van Lint, guitarist Edwin Roes and drummer Ed Wernke formed Genesis tribute band Squonk along with keyboard player Clemens Steenweg and bassist Jan Nieuwenhuis.

Founding member and bassist René Bacchus passed away in 2017 after a long-illness, which prompted the band to reform for a one-off show at the Boerderij in Zoetermeer, to date the band's final live show.

Squonk released one new song, The Poet, under the monicker SQ1, but following the pandemic it appears the band have decided to forge ahead as a new line-up of For Absent Friends.

"We know we said goodbye to For Absent Friends. But it's time to say hello again to old and new friends," the band say.

The band will support the Von Hertzen Brothers at the Boerderij, also on September 29.

Get tickets.

Pre-order Disappear.

For Absent Friends

(Image credit: Freia Music)
Jerry Ewing

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.