On 31st August 2025, Paradiso hosted an evening of old and new punk bands to launch the book by Oscar Smit, AND a new compilation album!
In 1977, Paradiso hall in Amsterdam was the first venue in the Netherlands where at first, foreign punk, and soon after, Dutch punk bands played.
On 31st August 2025, Paradiso held a punk festival in its big hall. Journalist and DJ Oscar Smit launched a new expanded version of the first volume of his book series on punk in Paradiso. This volume is about proto-punk in 1976, and the explosion in 1977, after the Sex Pistols had played Paradiso.
There is also a new compilation LP on Suburban Records, with twenty songs by twenty early Dutch punk bands, now available to order! Two of these have never played in Paradiso: The Snifters, of Boudisque record shop boss Ruud Jacobs, and Schmucks 44. The latter originally played together from 1979 to 1980, and were founded by Fons Dellen, who later became a radio DJ.
The other eighteen bands have all played in Paradiso, including Panic, Workmates, Paul Tornado, Dummies (featuring Oor magazine journalist Swie Tio), Rondos, Flyin’ Spiderz, Bugs, Ketchup, Eton Crop, Cheap ‘n’ Nasty and others. These bands are included in Oscar Smit’s book series. The album is called ‘NEDERPUNK: The Early Years (1977-1982)‘.
Before the bands started, the DJ played ‘The Kids Just Wanna Dance‘ by Fast Cars. The big hall was packed to capacity. All eight bands that night played 20-minute sets, from 8 pm till just before midnight. This video shows clips of all bands, in the order they played: Eton Crop, Suzannes, Waterschade, Schmucks 44, The Bugs, The Flyin’ Spiderz, Eddie And The Roadcrew and The Protos.
Then, Suzannes, founded in 1976 in Overijssel province, inspired by the Ramones. There were clearly plenty of Suzannes fans in the audience! Unlike the 1970s, their lineup now also included a woman on saxophone and two men on saxophone and trumpet.
The third band onstage were Waterschade, a riot grrrl band founded in the 2020s by three teenage girls and one teenage drummer boy from Haarlem. They had played successfully before, for example at this riot grrrl night in Leiden, and they played maybe the fastest, loudest and rawest punk of the night. The audience reacted with lots of pogoing, as with other bands. They stated their opposition to the lethal violence against Palestinian civilians in Gaza. This is a Waterschade live video:
Then, a set by Schmucks 44. This time, their bassist was Bobbie Rossini. She was the singer in 1970s punks The Suspenders, a band with, among others, Allard Jolles. Later, they were both in Claw Boys Claw.
One of Schmucks 44’s songs was ‘Death to Disco‘. They also had a song about the Dutch 1948-1980 Prince Consort Bernhard, born in Germany. He always denied having been a member of Hitler’s NSDAP party. After His Royal Highness’ death, proof came that he had been a party member indeed, as well as being in the Nazi paramilitary organisations SA and SS.
Then, Oscar Smit told Fons Dellen about the new book, new compilation LP, and about his punk podcast, launching this autumn. He also spoke about his first punk concert: The Damned at Paradiso in 1977.
The Bugs played the next set. On 19th January 1979, they played in Amsterdam at the first NRC squat gig, to celebrate half a year of Pin fanzine and one year of the fanzine Razorblade , edited by Bugs member Carlo Edel. They also played at an earlier presentation of Oscar Smit of his Punk in Paradiso book series, in 2021. Then, original bassist Simone Mansveld, playing now, did not play. Guitarist Peter Sinnige, like Carlo, had already played at that earlier book presentation. They started their 31st August 2025 set with the reggae-influenced ‘Return of the Giant Bugs‘, as this video shows:
The Flyin’ Spiderz from Eindhoven appeared next on stage. They started their set with ‘City Boy‘, which they had also played when I interviewed them in Leiden in 1978.
After the Flyin’ Spiderz came Eddie and the Roadcrew. They were founded in 2022 by four young Haarlem guys. Not one of them is called Eddie! Many of their songs, in the Dutch language, are on political subjects. They also played a cover of the 1978 Ivy Green song ‘Pak ‘m Beet‘.
The final band of the night were The Protos. They are a three-piece Amsterdam band, founded in 2023. This is a 2024 Protos video.
Everyone left Paradiso fondly remembering a nostalgic night of punk rock.
The ‘NEDERPUNK: The Early Years (1977-1982)‘ album is available from Suburban Records HERE
All Photos: GERIE HERMANS
All Paradiso Live Show 31/8/25 Videos: TERRY
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