How often have YOU heard a musician say "I'm sure we're gonna make it" when it comes to the future of the band they play in? Yes, and I shamelessly admit I've also said it several times. It's the beauty of the innocence that lies within us all, and when it comes to expressing pure emotions like rage and anger, it's easy to believe in your ideas that you just know you're gonna make it. The title is a song from one of the early Dutch punk bands, Ivy Green.
In 1996 the book "Het gejuich was massaal" (literal translation: The exultancy was massive) by Jerry Goossens and Jeroen Vedder saw the light of day. It describes the rise of punk in the Netherlands from 1976 to 1982; it ends with the arrival of hardcore punk. "I'm sure we're gonna make it" is translated into English by Frans de Waard and Mark Poysden. The book has several parts: the actual book, a close to complete list of all records released in that period, a bibliography and scans of the covers of loads of fanzines, magazines, leaflets, and the works.
The book describes the how and what and the era when things took place. It mainly focuses on where most of the action took place, being the big cities Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Those were the cities where you could be yourself the best and where the most influences from abroad could be found and felt.
The best thing about this book is that it describes the development of the DUTCH punk, which I can say - after reading the book - is something quite different from the global punk movement. Naturally, there were influences from the worldwide punk movement and the heroes we all had, but being Dutchies, we had to do things our way. Probably everybody in all countries will say the same, but as punk is a reactionary movement to a political system, well, yeah... So, of course, each country created its punk movement. That's what it was all about.
Being an old fart (born in '67 in the countryside), the early years completely went past me, but I did get a sniff of the last years described in this book. Of course, I still get to see The Ex when I get a chance (they've been active since 1979), and several of the releases mentioned in the discography are in my collection. But those were all from '81 or '82 when the story of this book ends. But my collection is more extensive, and I kept buying stuff. Maybe not as D.I.Y. as the ones mentioned in the book, and probably better produced than a 4-track recording in a practice space, and very definitely less politically engaged than most of the releases from that era, but it's a fact that punk still is alive; It never died, it just hibernated.
It's a good read, a trip down memory lane and an explanation of unwritten context you missed if you weren't into punk back then.
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