1984-06-02 Muziekkrant OOR announcing Bodine's split, p.10Split

Not very long after the 1984 Earthquake Festival, Oor announced the band falling apart. According to the news flash, guitarist Henry van Manen (formerly in Picture) auditioned to replace Arjen Lucassen, but he only lasted one gig.

In an interview with Aardschok, Niki Buzz (more about him below) described the situation Bodine was in as follows:

The moment that I started working with Gerard and Jeroen, Bodine had just gone belly-up. In my view, Bodine was suffering from ‘musical cancer’. They had a singer with a drinking problem, a guitarist who thought he lived on Mars, a guitarist who was serious and about to leave the band, a bass player who, as the youngest band member, tried to reactivate the band and a drummer who, as the founder of the band, was really sick of the whole situation. That influenced the recordings in a negative sense. Gerard can do a lot better but he was mentally broken. Jeroen had his arm in plaster and would have done better in a fit state.

Arjen Lucassen sums up several factors leading to his departure: "... due to all those familiar problems; lack of (international) co-ordination, poor management and internal conflicts I accepted an offer from the Dutch hardrock band "VENGEANCE" in '84".

The departure of Arjen Lucassen seems to be a pivotal point in Bodine's existence. The factors mentioned by Lucassen affected al the band members, mainly Gerard Haitsma and Rheno Xeros, who had been longest serving members. It appears as if a certain dismay settled in. Even though a replacement was found in Van Manen, it was short-lived and there was no one really  able to fill Lucassen's place. Not long after even Xeros and Haitsma, who had been friends for years till then, broke up their long-lasting musical co-operation. Rheno Xeros sold his guitar to Arjen Lucassen and joined a religious community.

History has proven that Arjen was a creative driving force, in spite of the fact that he does not really consider himself a musical talent ("I acquired all my skills through a lot of practicing", Ayreon explains in Headache). He is obviously being humble. Perhaps his input was missed in composing new songs and maintaining inspiration at a desirable level.

Many questions remain unanswered yet. What happened in the stint after Arjen's farewell gig on 7 April 1984? Bodine played at least another seven gigs, but in what line-up?

Oddly enough, Herman Frank (formerly in Accept) was mentioned by Gerard Haitsma as a potential follow-up for Arjen Lucassen on the forthcoming album. How did that not work out? Bodine had supported Accept on a couple of occasions, so they may well have been acquainted with each other. Later, Herman Frank appeared in Victory, with a similar beefy (albeit more AC/DC-based) sound and production as on Bold As Brass.

M80 Maniac's Revenge (1985)After Bodine fell apart, Haitsma and Jeronimo made a guest appreance as a rhythm section for Nicky Buzz' band M80 on the album Maniac's Revenge. Nicky Buzz was (and probalbly still is) a multi-talented musician whose guitar sound resembled Gary Moore's in his G-Force period and he had a voice similar to Charlie Huhn's. Further he was credited for playing drums on his first album--an EP he recorded with Don Costa on Megaton.  After the first album, Buzz chose Europe as a basis and used changing line ups to record albums. Haitsma and Jeronimo were invited to play on "Maniac's Revenge", which came out in 1985. According to Jeronimo, they played on the songs "The Big Fiz" and "Nothing To Lose". M80 was definitely out of the conventional stream of rock you could get hold of in those days. Regretfully, the shrill mix of the album hides the potential of the musicans that played on it.

After his stint with M-80, Jeronimo spent a year in the United States and teamed up with former Dokken guitarist in The Greg Leon Invasion.

And then there was a long silence, until, in 1992, news flashes in Aardschok had it that Bodine tried to re-merge in yet another line-up.