Ede.
In the middle of the bible belt of the Netherlands and a small city close to Arnhem.
On a friday night somewhere in the eighties, Paul and I went there by train. Our friends Dorien, Berletta and Patrick went by car. I clearly remember that, because for Paul and myself the night ended quite abruptly. More about that later.
At that time, bands were trying to play faster and faster and the majority of the punks liked it that way. If you did not play fast, they were not interested and hated you. Simple as that.
The Neo Pogo's were one of the faster bands at that time and had a very raw and distorted sound. We had already seen them a couple of times before and they were loved by all the punks into the faster style.
They were one of the bands who played at that gig in Ede and we decided to go there. I can't recall which other bands played, maybe Neuroot or another band from Arnhem, because there were loads op punks and skinheads from Arnhem there.
For some reason, the Neo Pogo's decided to play all of their songs in a really slow version that night. At first it seemed like a funny joke, but pretty soon the crowd got fed up and started to throw things at the band. If that wasn't enough, the venue was being vandalized too. Their set was cut short and Paul and myself went outside.
We were approached by some skinheads and punks who asked us where we were from. When we replied: 'Amersfoort' they threw beer in our face and obviously were out for a fight. I think we said something among the lines of: 'That's a waste of your beer' and tried to ignore them. Luckily our other friends showed up in their car, so all of a sudden there were 7 of us instead of just us 2. The skins backed off (for the time being) and we were thankful for our friends to arrive. We talked about the Neo Pogo's being more or less kicked off the stage and then things became more violent around and in the venue.
Paul and I decided to leave, but we were really scared the skins (and their nazi punk friends) would notice that. So we sneaked away and started to run as soon as we could. We were terrified when a punk on a motorbike followed us and stopped us. He just wanted directions to the venue......phew. Lateron we were told the night ended really violent and I think it was the last gig ever at that bar.
Back to the Neo Pogo's, they were from Rotterdam and their only recorded output is some tracks on the 7,50 compilation lp (with Lullabies, Nixe, Rapers, Bizon Kids and Zero Zero). At that time they were maybe the most raw band from the Netherlands. Amongst their tracks on this compilation are some really killer songs, but I have the feeling that some of the songs might be written right before the recordings.
One of the other times we went to see the Neo Pogo's was when Noxious (from Utrecht) organised the infamous 'Strength thru Noxious' festival at the NV Huys in Utrecht. Another night ending in skinhead violence when a fight broke out between skins from Rotterdam and punks from Utrecht. We were scared shitless and left as fast as we could.
During their set on the Rotterdam New Pop Punk Stage a massive fight between the punks an skins broke out. The singer was pleading for unity between punks and skins but no one listened. I remember the skins getting their asses kicked pretty bad.
I have no idea what happened to the members of the band. I remember reading something on a forum some time ago. Mr. Bootsman met the singer of Neo Pogo's by accident.
If someone has more information, please share.
In the link you'll find the complete compilation lp. It also features some outstanding Nixe tracks, good Rapers recordings and a really bad coverversion of Abba's SOS done by the Bizon Kids.
zeven vijftig compilation lp
Every city must have had one of those recordshops....... A shop that did not seem to have too much to offer when you walked by. Amersfoort had one of those shops too and I remember passing it on the way to something. I went inside to have a look and discovered a small section of punk singles. That section turned out te be a small goldmine, because I found most of the X Ray Spex singles, some UK Subs ones and a single by a band I had never heard of, called Mollesters. I bought it because the cover looked really punk. I am talking about 1978-1979 by the way. I purchased the records over a period of a couple of months because I was 14-15 at that time and did not have that much pocket money.
