Jan Bechtum

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Jan Bechtum ^[1] (born 1958) is a Dutch guitarist and composer.

Bechtum was the first lead guitarist of Picture. He was influenced by Deep Purple, mainly by Ritchie Blackmore, Yes and Genesis.

After having played in a few local bands, in 1979 he got involved with Picture and was responsible for writing most of the songs for their first 3 albums. He left the band for personal reasons in 1983, right after their tour in Israel.

In 1992 and 1993 he played in the gospel rock band Changed where he played with drummer Mark Maas. When that band stopped in 1993, Jan and Mark decided to try something and reformed Picture. With bassplayer Johannes Adema and vocalist Michel Zandbergen the band recorded a demo and did a few good shows in the Netherlands. Jan decided to quit playing live performances in 1997 because of the growing violence in the Dutch nightlife.

Bechtum's favourite guitar is a Fender Stratocaster. While with Picture, he plugged straight into a Marshall with no effects.

Recently (late 2007), Laurens and the original members of Picture, with Ronald van Prooijen, teamed up for a reunion rehearsal. It went so well that they are going to continue rehearsing for some concert dates and will record a new album in early 2008 with Shmoulik Avigal from the Diamond Dreamer lineup as their singer.