Rest in power, rest in punk, Peter!
On 14 December 2025, Peter ten Seldam, singer of Panic, one of the first Dutch punk bands (Peter is second from right on this band photo), passed away as a consequence of a fall.
Peter was born in 1943. So, he was one year older than Lou’s drummer Syama de Jong, the first Dutch punk in the 1970s. He loved athletics, becoming the Dutch junior hurdling champion. A similarity to Syama de Jong, the Dutch 60-meter running junior champion. Like Syama, Peter participated in the twist-dancing championship. Like Syama, he was a vegetarian. Peter studied Dutch language and philosophy; he was a secondary school teacher.
In 1976, he became the singer of the Amsterdam band Big Peter and the Terrible Garage. They played 1950s revival-style rock ‘n’ roll. Their whole set was covers, like ‘Be-Bop-a-Lula‘.
When punk took off in the Netherlands in 1977, the band switched style and became the punk band Panic. No more covers; they now wrote their own songs; Peter usually writing the lyrics.
In November 1977, they played the first-ever punk concert in Leiden, alongside The Boys from England and fellow Amsterdam punks Inside Nipples.
Peter moved frantically on stage during Panic gigs, transferring his enthusiasm to the audience. He did lots of stunts on stage, like fire-breathing and discharging fire extinguishers. He got his stage name, Peter Penthouse, from a female spectator who said he should be in Penthouse magazine. Once, during a Panic concert, a teenage punk shouted: “Mick Jagger is an old fart!” Peter felt a bit embarrassed, as he was born in the same year as Jagger.
We, the editors of my fanzine Pin, in the summer of 1978 went to Amsterdam by bus to interview Panic at Peter’s place for our issue #4. Panic bassist Piet van Dijk was also present. Peter lived next to a squat, where Panic and other punk bands rehearsed.
On this live video, you can hear Panic playing their song ‘Requiem For Martin Heidegger‘. The footage is from their concert in Gouda in May 1978. Well-known German philosopher Heidegger was a nazi party member from 1933 till the collapse of Hitler’s and Hitler’s hand-picked successor Admiral Dönitz’s Third Reich, on 8 May 1945. The chorus of the song, sung along by the audience, is: “Heidegger, hi!” For the benefit of concertgoers who were not good at German or philosophy, Panic brought signs, saying ‘Hai, dikke, hai’; like the Ramones had signs with ‘Gabba Gabba Hey’. ‘Heidegger‘ still is a favourite of The Boys. Peter told me: “We wrote this anti-fascist song within two minutes.” Me: “I heard it one whole time on Dutch radio.” Peter: “Don’t mention how radio obstructs punk. And all that trash talk about punk supposedly being ‘dead’, just because they don’t like it … We have stopped reacting to that.”
Panic became one of only four of the hundreds of 1977-1982 first-wave Dutch punk bands to get a major label contract. At first, Phonogram, “they did fuck all for us, they only obstructed us” Peter said. Then, Ariola Records released their debut album ‘13‘ in 1978.
It would be their only LP. Like the other Dutch punk bands, Ivy Green and Speedtwins, after their first album, and Flyin’ Spiderz, after their second album, their big record business dumped them.
Peter told how they became the first Dutch punk band to play in the USA; at CBGB in New York; see this photo by Kees Tabak, with Peter on the right. Peter then gave me, as payment for subscribing to Pin, a rare poster announcing Panic playing in New York.
At the time, the band said “At CBGB’s, the audience had to remain seated if they did not want to be thrown out by bouncers. It is nice, though, that if you are on stage, you are surrounded by concertgoers on two sides. Compared to the UK, punk is just beginning in the USA. We would like to go there again, including to the West Coast.”
Peter told how at a concert in Dongen for kids under 16, “the audience pogoed right through the rotten floor. Police came, the kids were shackled and put against the wall.”
In the summer of 1978, Dutch Rock Against Racism was founded at a meeting in Paradiso, Amsterdam. I advocated then to let punk bands play at concerts. That meant that bands like Panic (‘Of course we support RAR’) were invited for the first concert.
On 22 November 1978, the first Dutch Rock Against Racism festival was in Paradiso. Peter again had prepared a special stunt. He dressed up like Saint Nicholas. With fireworks under his clothes for a spectacular sound effect. However, the fireworks unexpectedly set his clothes on fire while igniting. The other band members did not notice and played on. Peter was saved from serious burn injuries by audience members grabbing fire extinguishers and by rolling on the stage floor, dousing the flames.
In the summer of 1979, I spoke with Peter, recorded in Pin #12. He told about how the music business obstructed punk. Their record label, Ariola, did nothing to promote Panic. “They do everything to push [mainstream rocker] Herman Brood. Strangely enough, they seem to see us a kind of competition for Brood. In February 1980, our record deal will be over. Ariola probably will not prolong it. Kim Fowley [ex-Runaways manager] has written asking if he could produce our second album. That might work.” When Peter was in a record shop, a batch of LPs by the pioneer Dutch punk band Ivy Green arrived. “Can I buy one?” Peter asked. “Yes, you can have one as you saw it arriving,” the shopkeeper replied. “We send stuff like that straight back.”
The hassle about recording caused tensions in the band, which eventually petered out. Panic was Number One in his life for Peter. A few years ago, at an interview, he cried while discussing the breakup of the band.
On 22 December 2025 at Zorgvlied Cemetery in Amsterdam, people paid their last respects to Peter. Carlo Edel and Peter Sinnige of the Bugs were there. So was Oscar Smit, author of the book series on Punk in Paradiso. So were Panic guitarist Michiel van ’t Hof and his partner. So was Monica Kugel, who in 1978 had filmed Panic and other punk bands.
Duco Donk, the maker of the documentary film ‘Jimmy Is Punk‘, about Panic, called after the Panic song ‘Jimmy is A Punk‘, was the first speaker: “On 2 December 2025, Peter broke his hip in a fall. He shouted. Someone that night heard him, was not certain from what flat the shouting came, and called the police. Then, they discovered that the sound was from Peter’s flat. Peter could not open the door. The police forced the door open, and Peter went to a hospital.”
“At the hospital, they said that operating Peter might risk killing him. So, they did not operate. Maybe they did not do enough to help Peter convalesce. This leaves some sadness among his family and friends. He died on 14 December.”
Then, Maria Anne, Peter’s sister, spoke. “We were two brothers and two younger sisters. I have great memories of Peter, seven years my senior. He rode me around in a stroller. Peter was very friendly and humorous. When I was five, my father left our family. There was no alimony. My mother could not raise all four children. So, the boys were taken away to a boarding school in Hilversum. That school was horribly harsh, Peter hated it so much. His disgust about it later turned up in Panic’s punk songs like ‘It’s My Pain‘. We girls stayed with our mother. It meant we completely lost sight of each other. I only very recently heard that Peter had been in Panic. So good that Peter’s friends managed to locate me, so I could visit him at the hospital. It was so moving to see him again after all that time.” Tears in her voice. “Even though Peter had Alzheimers, we had a friendly heartfelt conversation. As I prepared to leave, he said: ‘It is so good to have a sister’. I looked forward so much to my next visit, on 14 December. But that day, I heard that Peter had passed away.”
After a video of Panic playing ‘It’s My Pain‘, Panic bassist Piet van Dijk spoke. Peter married and divorced twice. Miriam was his last partner; Peter became her caregiver. After her death, Peter himself needed home care.
Beppy Viergever said his early youth was similar to Peter’s: authoritarian children’s homes, contact with siblings broken. When he was 16 in 1977, he heard punk, including Panic. “It changed everything for me. Panic was pure DIY.”
Then, everyone who wanted to put something on Peter’s coffin with a marker, did so. Everyone walked with the coffin to the crematorium.
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In 1978 Herman co-founded Dutch Rock Against Racism and was a founder of Pin punkzine. He’s vocals/saxophone for Cheap ‘n’ Nasty and in 2021 co-founded the Punk Scholars Network, Netherlands.
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