Bass: Jonas Bernaerts
Jonas Beraerts plays the bass in the London punk rock band the Blind Luck Band. The band has become popular in the punk scene around England and Bernaerts is a big part of that. He along with John Vanderbilt formed the band and they are the ones who do most of the song writing. Although they still have a relatively small following the fans they do have are quite loyal.
Jonas Bernaerts started playing the bass as a teenager but he never really took it seriously until much later. After finishing school he got a job as an iron worker doing construction in London. During this time he found a roommate to share an apartment with by the name of John Vanderbilt. It was Vanderbilt who came up with the idea of starting a rock band. He convinced Bernaerts to join as the bass player despite that fact that by then he hadn't played in years. The band they formed took the name the Blind Luck Band and in the early days they were a punk cover band.
The early years of the Blind Luck Band were hardly enough to allow Bernaerts to quit his day job. They really lacked the skills required to be professional musicians and paying jobs were few and far between. However as time went by they improved their playing to the point where they were able to find consistent work as a cover band. However they also realized that their future would be limited as long as they were limiting themselves to doing covers. Therefore they made the decision to start writing their own songs.
In the beginning it was just Vanderbilt who wrote songs for the band but as time went by Bernaerts started contributing to the writing as well. Their early songs were much like their early performances, not good. However they eventually got better at it and they have now become fairly proficient at writing songs. In large part it is still Vanderbilt who does the bulk of the writing but Bernaerts is now a regular collaborator. Their writing has now reached the point that they are able to find regular work performing their own songs and they are no longer working as a cover band. It also meant they have reached the point that Bernaerts is no longer working in construction; he is now a full time musician.
The Blind Luck Band have managed to carve out a place for themselves in the London punk rock scene mainly because of the high energy shows they put on and their music which is throwback to the early days of punk. The result is a group of loyal fans who follow them around from show to show. They have also started to build a reputation outside of London and are now quite well known around England.