Introduce yourself – who you are, what you do, and where you are.
To come straight to the point: my name is Dick van der Heijde and in 1991 I suffered a stroke at the age of 28, a heavy one. I am completely paralyzed and can’t talk anymore. After all these years I still manage to cope with it. As a single person, I live independently with a team that is taking care of me 24/7. I’m always busy, never seem to have enough time.
I used to play saxophone in all kinds of bands, composed music for our prog band Ligeia Lie and participated in various jam sessions, workshops etc. Music was a way of life for me. If I didn’t help organize a festival, I was somewhere in a studio or listened to some music at work. Because of my stroke, all of that immediately came to an end.
The only thing I can control consciously are my eyes and the tip of my lip. While my mind is running at full speed, I make my opinion clear letter by letter.
Two years after the cerebral infarction I started to write CD reviews. At first this was, back then, for Background Magazine, it lasted for about five years, until I needed the time to write a book about my disability. After “M’n ogen zeggen alles” (only available in Dutch, translation: “My eyes are telling everything”) was published, in 2002, they asked me to write for Progwereld www.progwereld.org and, about 600 reviews later, I unfortunately had to stop. In the meanwhile I have also written a few years for IO-pages www.iopages.nl .
In 2019 my second book “Je zal m’n ouders maar zijn” (only available in Dutch, translation: “if only you would be my parents”) was published.
Early 2021, I got the idea to create my own website with CD reviews. I proudly present “Prog & Rock”, the website where I write passionately about my passion.
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