MBP - The story, details blurred by 15 years
MBP started on the 9th floor of a students' flat in Groningen, in 1984. Listening to the Dead Boys, Black Flag, Hüsker Du, Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers, Damned and more, Michel (ex-RIP), his brother Vincent (ex-Blik), Jules and Onno were supposed to play a party in the flat's bar. Based on MDC and BGK's success, they opted for the name of MBP. Second, we had to decide what that acronym stood for. Mee Brul Punk (shout-along punk), Millions of Boeren Punkers (millions of farmer punks) were nice, but Maximum Break Party it would be. After it being spelled Maximum Braek Party once (more or less Dutch for Maximum Puke Party, thanks Hoogezand!) we decided to stick to just the abbreviation MBP.
The first two gigs were done with help of a drumcomputer called Thomas. Early 1985 this machine was replaced by me on drums. As a five piece, the first gig was played in the bar of the adjacent student's flat, Selwerd II, Vincent's home base. The entire concert is included on the CD, except for the first song because Marcel forgot to put on the taperecorder. You can hear Onno using a tape-deck with the record volume on 10 as a distortion. You can also hear him getting electrocuted at the start of the encore. Because Jules went for a leak inbetween he didn't know what song we were doing as an encore, hence the special Alcohol with Punk Doll lyrics... (the songs had only been arranged recently from different parts of the songs-with-drumcomputer - you can also hear Vincent struggling with the right note to start Missiles). The show was great, and crowded. During "Pain", which was better known as "I wish I could die", it became a total mess... if you listen carefully you can even hear Jules singing from inside the bass drum at one moment. Onno and Michel wrote most of the music, and Onno took care of most lyrics. Nevertheless, we still thank Peter & the Test Tube Babies for the guitar-riff on Pain.
One of the people at the Selwerd gig was DJ Thermo, who got us a gig at the local Vera Club next. Here we got to support the legendary Antisect. We also found out it takes five people to take a drumkit by public transport. The gig was great again. So, things became a little more serious.
MBP rehearsed in the student's flat, at the 10th floor barroom, but after I joined there were too many complaints (from as far as the neighborhood Aldi-supermarket three streets away). So we were kicked out very soon. Problem was that we had a gig coming up at the local Simplon Club. We managed to rehearse the night before, disguised as a concert during the student's occupation of the University Buiding. Not everyone there was pleased with the noise (they preferred to dance). But the Simplon gig went fine again... We kept searching for rehearsal space after summer. We found a small demostudio
(Roy's "Demo 85"), but we were kicked out already after one hour by the local EPA. Something with no license for this noise... That's why there were
headphones and reggae colours all around I think... We'd managed to record 6 songs directly to 2 track though, which are all included on the CD. The first three of them were even played in one take without pauses inbetween, just as they are on the CD. The hippie intro to "the worst policy" was first conceived in the next weeks...
We were asked by Peter, Vera's programmer, to do a support for the Jesus and Mary Chain and we could rehearse once in Vera's main hall. About the JM Chain concert: I didn't know one could take so much time for a drum soundcheck with only one snare, one tom and one cymbal. It took longer than their entire gig. I also learned that at the end of the gig I should not kick my drumkit of stage with my bare feet (which was my style of playing back then).
Later that month we finally found a steady rehearsal place in the Viadukt, a big complex inside a bridge that used to be a gymn. Back then, it had three rehearsal rooms and 18 lockers. By 2000, it would have been tripled in size - still at the same price of approx. 8$ per band per night. We started working on more songs, and recorded our demo tape (in our rehearsal room, directly to a tapedeck). The tape was split with our blood brothers Ampachen, in which Onno played drums and his brother Marcel was singing. We added a few tracks from our gig at the local Cultural Center "De Oosterpoort". This was a funny festival called "Zing Zing" ("sing sing"). It also featured the Winschoter Lady Choir - if you think punk's shocking you should try listening to one of those... it's society's revenge on us. The audience was sitting in theater chairs. Jules climbed the rows, got himself a bleeding nose, but kept singing. He also got the usual conflict with the soundman for using his mike to amplify Michel's solos.
Anyway, the tape was released and got us a lot of attention. It was played on national VPRO radio by Hans Dulfer (father of Candy, and also a famous jazz/blues saxophone player). We did an interview with de Nieuwe Koekrand, the best Dutch punkzine ever. The tape made it easy to get gigs as well; Vera again, now headlining with Ampachen, and regional venues as Iduna and De Nije (I remember a terrible migraine, but still we played inbetween me sleeping on a sofa backstage - 2 songs are on the CD). We played Emma in Wijk aan Zee, which was a squatted beach hotel in the dunes, in summer this was great. Kraakjorum in Assen was a concert we couldn't finish; somehow some police had managed to enter the squat and close the show. It was fun, however, despite Marcel Ampachen busting his head and needing medical help... two songs are included on the CD. We played a
festival in Steenwijk with Larm, Winterswijx Chaos Front and Conflict. In Groningen we played with local punk heroes De Boegies at Simplon. In Amsterdam, we supported Government Issue. They tuned my drumkit. We brought along a van with Groningen people. Some got thrown out of Emma. One kicked out the door of the van. I ran over a rabbit (and it was national Animal Day). No sweet memories on that gig... we played like shit as well – at least as I thought, because later Vincent told me we did play good (different sound behind the drums then I guess ;-).
The last gig of 1986 was on Boxing Day, at the Parkhof in Alkmaar. This was a great X-Mas festival. Ampachen were first, with their goodbye show. Marcel was deaddrunk and kept falling over. We were last (because Berlin's Vellocet had got car trouble). There was a great atmosphere. The audience decided to come on stage during "up in smoke", you can hear us trying to keep from falling. My bassdrum was turned in a 90 degree angle because Jules dropped over – just before he himself was going under - about 15 people were on top of him on stage. Later, Michel started to play a Dead Boys song which we had never played before. We had a break and made new songs early 1987. We supported Fang at the WNC, probably we never played any faster than that show (some songs are on the CD).
Then we went to play in Germany and Denmark with Massacubadset (a reunion of Jet Set, Massagraf, Vacuum and Bloedbad members). In Osnabruck, we didn't have a place to sleep yet so we asked the audience and Alfred volunteered to house us. Provided we went to a party out of town first (with our van). It was over when mommy and daddy arrived (blaue Mutti ist noch immer bose...). It was tough getting back with a friend of Alfred, a two person-wide German, sitting next to me, since he kept falling over the gear and the steering wheel... but we managed. And after listening to the entire new Metallica double album we were finally allowed some sleep. Next day, in Neumunster, we met with Colera from Brasil, who were on their way from Kiel down south and just dropped by. They were so kind to open for us... We had some fun with Big Man, their Belgian driver. The food fight afterwards landed Jules in hospital to get some stitches. One of the beer cans thrown hadn't been empty yet. Luckily, he managed to get the stitches for free... Part of the Neumunster gig is included on the CD. Onno did his best as MC.... In Hamburg, we stayed with Goliath for a week. Sankt Pauli rules.
Copenhagen was "OK", though tiring. You cannot party and sleep in the same building. We saw the inside of another hospital, since Robbie Badset had a small skating accident. He played with his hand in plaster. Tough guy! We couldn't stay long in Denmark, and despite my efforts to crash the van we reached Groningen in time to do our support for Suicidal Tendencies at the Vera Club. Mike Muir wasn't satisfied with the Vera-downstage bar closing, though hours after the concert, and kept demanding 'mas cerveza por mes amigos'. It was great. After summer 1987, we made two new songs, but we felt the end of MBP was coming near. Too many different personalities et cetera, the usual thing.
However, Michel managed to arrange a tour for us in Spain and the Bask Country first (with Edu of Basati Records in Donostia/San Sebastian). So, there we went for two weeks, with Jan "Aaszo" Switters (ex-Murder Inc) as a driver. Already within 25 kilometers we knew the van was overloaded. We got a trailer somewhere, and managed to get its lights working in only two hours, but later that night in Belgium we again felt the axis at every bump in the road. Jan sawed some wood blocks and put them on top of the axis. Surprisingly it worked. We reached Burgos in 24 hours. Whilst on stage for our first set somebody stole the coversheet of our trailer and the remaining things inside it. Luckily we found back Jules' clothes a few blocks away. The cover sheet was worth about 500$. And we needed one because of the bad weather. Luis overcame his dislike for the police and came with us to get the papers we needed for our insurance. In fact he came with us for the rest of the tour. We still had a second set to do and it was probably the best we ever did. All the anger came out. After the gig, we went to a 8 sq. meter bar and drank beer in liter-mugs for free. Next morning, the whole street helped us cover the trailer again - one had wood, the other screws, the next one paint - this was truly nice. We went to Bilbao, nearly
crashing on a mountain road because of the clouds that were suddenly there just before a sharp turn...In Bilbao we made the mistake of mentioning the word "Spain" (or Spanish, whatever). Never do that in the Bask Country, it ruins your gig. Next day, Donostia (Bask for San Sebastian) was totally different. About 600 people had shown. RIP was opening and they were the most famous Bask punkband at that time. Everybody shouted along their Bask lyrics. We were getting pretty nervous... However, the gig was great and the audience was fantastic. We only spoke English and French to them this time... We played a small squat in Elgoibar next, had them remove the huge stage and played on the floor. Great. Then to Andoain. During the stormy night an iron barbeque fell of a balcony on top of the van... this wasn't the nicest way of waking up for Onno, at 5.30 am in the freezing dark. We were scheduled to play somewhere next (forgot the name), but the place was flooded. Instantly, we were rescheduled to do another gig in Burgos. We got our friends Thomas, MariMar and Luis to support us with their band Ultimo Gobierno, and also Aaszo did a solo-act. The last gig was in a squatted beach hotel (which is fine in December on that latitude). Three kilometers before town limits our van broke down. Pulverized something in one of the axis. They hauled over our trailer with another truck and we still played - despite Onno and Michel being rather ill from tourdisease. It would take a lot of time to repair the van, so Vincent and me were forced to go back by train (we had exams coming up). Luckily, by then we smelled so heavy that we had lots of space in the train...
That was supposed to be the end of MBP, but we did one more gig in Simplon at the Rhythm Pigs benefit, to help these poor suckers buy tickets home after their disastrous European tour. This was January 1988. The end of MBP, and for me the start of Rat Patrol. Onno had made solo tapes as "(So) Who Cares" already and made one more, followed by a solo-LP, "Phoebe", with jazz-fusion music (released under his own name, Onno Ottevanger). The other three got out of music. Maximum Break Party it was.
Henk (aka Henry), 2001