At the age of 24, I describe my life as “troubled”: not feeling well, no dreams, not a clear ambition to go anywhere… But it is a life, so take a look and have a share!
Never been a guy to sit still, so -not surprisingly- reading through my notes of 20 years ago a lot of action emerges: my soccer team played fifth in the league in last year’s competition, went to see ‘Delicatessen’ movie with one of most gorgeous Indian beauties of Amsterdam (why not Holland?), took a train to Utrecht to help friend ‘Spy’ who moved house and did my best for bachelor exams Psychology at the University of Amsterdam.
But I was not the only one having a busy life. My brother played “Two men of Verona” in Amsterdam theatre Stalhouderij and got terrific reviews, including Hein Jansen’s in daily “De Volkskrant”.
In the meantime, the USSR collapsed, “First wait, then see” I noted, “The West has been spoilt too much by Gorby these past years”.
Rock, football, or …?
With a group of friends we travelled to Pukkelpop festival in Belgium end of August. Mind you, crossing a border at that time was an endeavor, witnessed by the currency exchange note in my diary: lost HFL 8 in bank commission to buy the equivalence of HFL 160 in Belgian Franks…
“Arrived 10PM at the overcrowded campsite at Hasselt, experienced a good deal of fighting that night, pretty sure we blamed those guys that looked like nazi punks … but anyway we had a good time. Sunday 25 I woke at 8:45 and tried to get everyone to move to go see Nirvana: “surprise act” at the Pukkelpop festival! We knew they were worth to overcome our hang overs from their 1988 Bleech tour that included a gig in Utrecht’s venue Tivoli.
Bad luck, we didn’t make it on time … one of the infamous ‘missed chances’ to feel sorry for a lot of years. Who would remember that day’s shows by Dinosaur JR (my recording: “uninspired”) , Sonic Youth (“my first time ever since May 11, 1986” ), Francis Black (“Black Francis?”), House of Love (“…”), the Pogues (“McGowan only physically present”) and Ramones (“worth the pit…”).
The Monday after I woke in a terrible state: festival mission accomplished. My writings that week expressed some concerns about my getting better for the next piece of the action: Nijmegen pop, Sunday September 1: ACDC, Metallica, Queensryche and Black Crowes (latter probably skipped, “not for metalheads…”). The fact that I regained my fitness for that festival on time was probably due to the excellent preparation: a house party at “IBB” campus in Utrecht (connoisseurs just need that three letter code) to celebrate Spy’s departure there.
Just to make sure this story is not going to be repetitious and boring: there was more than rock and booz those days: Ajax! Ajax still playing good old “De Meer” stadium: September 8, vs RKC: 5-1, 4 goals by Bergkamp, Indian Summer sunny Sunday afternoon gallery play, that day, what a joy! Value for money (HFL 12.50 a pop) those days, Ajax in De Meer: 3-1 and another 5-1 vs Fortuna and De Graafschap.
Ajax not playing in Amsterdam? No worries, FC Utrecht perhaps does, Spy being our man in the frontline: October 26, Utrecht-Ajax 2-1. Or, in a really desperate scenario: travel to De Kuip stadium in Rotterdam: November 17, Feyenoord-Ajax 2-0 (after a Delft party on Saturday, connoisseurs just need that five letter code) … but after all I think I preferred Ajax playing at home.
Rock, football … or better both!
The final weekend of November 1991 got it all, in one day: Sunday 24. I told you I was not the guy to sit still.
Took a train to Enschede, where Twente played Ajax (0-0) at 2:30PM. At 4:30 another train to Zwolle, unfortunately held up by hooligans fighting on the train. At Zwolle station late to meet up with Xoc to see Slayer play at IJsselhallen, up for more violence? No, absolutely not: I cannot think of two groups being any more different in that respect, football hooligans vs metalheads: football divides, metal unites.
On the train trip back to Amsterdam late that night, I had a chat with a couple of metalheads from Den Haag, its local side being mortal enemy of Ajax: metal unites.
And where did it all go?
Monday 25: Nirvana playing at Paradiso club in Amsterdam. And this is the point I am going to leave you with my story, for the moment: “It was great; in the afterward of the concert we had a great time with some metalheads at the Barba snack room…”.
In my life of today, 2011, the ‘records’ include a new set of ingredients, perhaps best framed by the label “regular life”, alongside the ‘pillars’ of 1991: rock and football.
A word of thank in 2011
A word of thank to VPRO, it was their broadcast of the live recording of Nirvana in Paradiso, Yesterday (September 24) on Dutch TV, that brought me back to the days of 1991.
Hope you liked it.
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