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ANDRÉ VERHUYSEN
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 This year DOA celebrates their sixteenth anniversary. The first DOA took place in 1986. For those of you who may have missed one or more DOA's and especially for those who have never visited the world famous event, Rockezine sat down and spoke with founder André Verhuysen. This man is hard rock and metal history in the flesh…  André, how old are you and when did you get involved with Dynamo? I'm 37 years old. I went to the Athenaeum-b (Dutch school before entering university) but didn't finish it. In the 4th grade already I visited the Dynamo youth center and with a couple of friends I founded the hard rock cafe. This was in 1981. Although I didn't have too many difficulties with the level, I never made it to the 5th grade, haha. I can tell from my own experience: it's very hard to combine music and school! From the very beginning, I started booking my favorite bands in the Dynamo club. At that time, 1981/1982, most of these bands came from England. I just grabbed the phone and started calling, we didn't have fax or e-mail back then. On November 28th Raven were the first band ever to play the club. To a sold-out crowd of 300 sweaty fans, Raven put on an unforgettable show. The club and fanatical visitors soon made a name for themselves resulting in me booking more and more bands like Mercyful Fate, Anvil, Agent Steel, Jaguar, Satan... well, the list is endless really.  They all played for traveling expenses, which I could pay from the ticket sales (5 to 7,50 guilders a show, JG). Dynamo didn't have any money really. Those bands were happy to play outside their own country. I was living with my mom back then and the band members slept at our home. No hotels or anything, they stayed with us. By that time I got into contact with the other venues in The Netherlands, because I wanted to make a little more money for the Dynamo booking. In order to do so, I had to book more shows for one band and there I was, booking the Dutch shows for foreign bands. This got more and more. Belgium as well, Germany et cetera and before I really knew what was going on, I was "in the business". Nowadays you can go to a school like the Rock Academy in Tilburg and learn about these things. Last year I taught students Music Management at the Fontis Hogescholen, also in Tilburg, as a guest teacher on booking bands, promoting and stuff like that.  Around that time you did the famous first European tour with Slayer… Slayer was the first band I joined around Europe. I only booked the 8 (!!, JG) Slayer shows in The Netherlands. Slayer was very popular back in 1985, mostly in our country. However, their first show was at Heavy Sound in Belgium. I met the guys at that festival and immediately saw that they were completely unprepared. They drove a van from England and didn't have a tour manager or whatsoever. The band asked me if I cared to join them and I said 'yes'. Then we went on a 4-week European tour. It was hell but absolutely fantastic of course. I wrote a tour report for Aardschok magazine and it was my first real tour. A year later you organized the Dynamo Open Air festival for the first time. Was it meant to be a one-time thing? By the time 1986 came around it was time to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Dynamo club. We put up a stage on the car park next to the club, invited some bands and let everybody in for free (!!, JG). So there you have it; the very first Dynamo Open Air. An estimated 7.000 people turned up to see bands like Satan, Angelwitch and Onslaught. To be honest, we intended this day to be a one-time event. We just wanted to celebrate our fifth anniversary, that's it. But it turned out to be such an enormous success that both the organization and the visitors said: "Let's do this every year!" And so we did. In fact we were a bit lucky with our timing because at that time Jan Smeets, the founder of Pinkpop (another huge festival in The Netherlands, JG) had just stopped booking hard rock bands at his festival. I mean, this guy booked Van Halen, the only festival gig ever by Rush, Yngwie Malmsteen, Dio, Y & T, Thin Lizzy et cetera. He always had the top of the bill in the hard rock scene. More and more hard rock fans went to visit his Pinkpop festival and he thought this to be a bit too much and stopped booking heavy acts for a while. This is where DOA thankfully came in. As soon as we decided to do a second DOA, I started thinking about the bands and stuff. This is a constant process. From 1985-1990 the Dynamo club organized many many shows, and a lot of those bands also appeared at the various DOA's. We did acts like Slayer, Exodus, Savage Grace, Agent Steel, Laaz Rockit et cetera. Almost everything really. I refused to join the Dutch army at age 17 and was given the opportunity to do my civil duty elsewhere. At the Dynamo club, that's right. I made a living out of booking tours. It wasn't much but I was young, single and had no real obligations whatsoever. I was able to do the music thing 24 hours a day. Around the time I was 20-21 years old I wrote a lot for the Metal Hammer (German rock and metal magazine, JG), which paid pretty good. I guess you were one of the youngest bookers in the scene at that time? Was it difficult for you? Yes, I was the youngest; 20 years old and booking tours around Europe. Being that young is both good and bad. Bad because not everybody believes you're a serious partner. It's good because you're at the heart of the scene and really know what's hot or not. You're right in there every day. Of course I've been fucked a couple of times by other promoters, but that's the way it goes. But you learn as you go along. Looking back I wouldn't have done it any other way, it was just fine like that. There was no alternative. |
How did the next couple of DOA's evolve? You went to the ice skate ring.
Yeah, we were forced to look out for another location to do the 3rd DOA because things really got out of hand. We did the famous DOA 1987 with Testament's debut in Europe and the pressure of the 15.000 visitors was way too much to handle for Eindhoven's small center. It just rained all day and we didn't sell too many beers that day. But I heard stories from several pubs which were completely out of booze before midnight. Not only beer or vodka but simply everything with alcohol in it! These were the two main reasons for us to find another place. Tinus Kanters and I went to the ice skate ring just outside the center and we were very enthusiastic about the facilities. A huge hall, dressing rooms, toilets, voltage et cetera. They had it all. The owner didn't have any problems with metal fans having a party and we have had several fantastic years there.  You mentioned Tinus Kanters. He was your partner from the very start? Yes. Tinus was working at the Dynamo with Eindhoven's youth. This was his daytime job. He was also into organizing stuff and we founded the AnTi Concerts foundation. André and Tinus, it's that simple. He was into the logistic part of DOA and I did the bands and promotion. Of course we had a lot of people around us to make the DOA dream come true every year, you can't do this kind of event with two people. 1993 was the first time DOA had an official camping, it was a 2-day line up and Welschap was the new place to be. Yes. Again, things got out of hand. Around 1991/1992 the fans started to create their own campsite at the ring and this went beyond our control. The ice skate ring turned out to be too small for the 30.000 metal heads and we headed for Welschap at the Eindhoven Airport area.  This was the military part of the grounds. Tinus and I went there to talk about our plans and we found ourselves discussing with generals and colonels. Since I had refused to join the Dutch army, you can imagine this was quite a unique experience for me, haha! But seriously, we got along great and worked things out for the next couple of DOA's. These DOA's were very successful, except for the one in 1994 counting over 70.000 visitors. This created enormous traffic problems. Correct. We still hold the record of the largest and longest lasting traffic jam ever in the history of The Netherlands. The police allowed the fans to start camping alongside the highway A2, just to get their cars off the road. It was a crazy situation. I particularly remember a bus with mentally disabled children from Germany on their way to entertainment park De Efteling. They were in the traffic jam all day and never made it to that park. Later on that year, DOA organized and paid a special police escorted trip to De Efteling for these kids to make up for this dramatic day. Again this was a moment we realized we had to take control of the growth once more. The 1995, 1996 and 1997 editions were okay, we learned from our mistakes. Plus, the city of Eindhoven limited us to 60.000 visitors.  Did you enjoy the huge amount of visitors as much as the 7.000 at DOA 1986? Of course, I loved it. We all loved it. The only negative thing about the growth was the bills we had to pay after we finished our party. In 1996 things looked really bad because of the limited 60.000 visitors and the immense costs that year. Security and stuff, it's very very expensive. Mojo Concerts helped you out? Indeed. Mojo and AnTi Concerts had been in the same line of business for so long. We knew each other very well and co-operating was a logical thing to do. People started saying things like "DOA is selling out"… Well, we didn't have any other choice. If we could have done it on our own we would have, but we just couldn't. It's that simple.  About DOA selling out, it's the same thing when hardcore bands like Sick Of It All or Biohazard sign a contract with a major label. Certain people start saying these things right away. |
 Looking back, I think the negativity wasn't that big a deal. In fact, we should be glad with a company like Mojo Concerts. Just go to Germany with their six promoters and buy a ticket to any particular show. You'll find out very soon that Mojo Concerts is a fair company. DOA always tries to offer attractive ticket prices. But especially the last five years things in the business have changed dramatically. We've had our own share of disasters in The Netherlands (Enschede and Volendam, JG) and don't forget the Roskilde deaths at the Pearl Jam show. The people in charge are scared to allow huge events taking place in their towns. This is a normal reaction, but it makes for enormous expenses as far as security measures are concerned. We used to have volunteers helping us at DOA. Nowadays you have to get yourself professionally trained people to do the same job. Too bad, but since 1997 also DOA has to cope with people who want to destroy stuff and set things on fire while we just want to have a metal party. It's very sad and I hate it, really. For a decade DOA has been a festival with no violence at all. And now…. I think it reflects the change of our entire society. It's become a bit harder, less friendly and relaxed. Maybe it's a change in the DOA audience itself, I don't know. Didn't the collective violence at DOA 1997 make you think "Well, if this is the way you want to party at DOA, then I'm out of here. I'm leaving the DOA thing behind me"? I was very scared when I saw it happen. I just couldn't believe it. DOA was about having a party together without any violence and here I was in the middle of some kind of war! No, this wasn't the way DOA was meant to be. Sure I had doubts but Tinus and I had these mixed feelings almost every year. I mean, doing DOA is a hell of a job. Believe me. Working your ass off and if you make any money, you go and invest it in the next DOA. We considered ourselves being mentally ill every year but went along with it anyway, haha. We just love doing this, that's the drive. In this perspective, the 1997 violence really hurt me and Tinus as well. It was a sad thing.  In 1998 again things were pretty scary. We were forced to go back to the ice skate ring once more and there were just too many people at the ring. People got irritated, that's a natural reaction and again they started destroying and burning stuff. I just had my fill of it and didn't help very much organizing the 1999 DOA with Metallica at Mierlo. Of course I went to the festival to check out the atmosphere and too bad, again a lot of violence. I mean, 110 toilet units (so called Dixies, JG) were set on fire! It was crazy. Just look back at 1993, we allowed people to park their cars next to their tents. Nothing happened. You only need 1 stupid fool to start driving and people can get killed. But, it didn't happen. This is the change of atmosphere I am talking about. Too bad the entire transportation idea with the shuttle bus didn't work out, as we all know. We were very sorry about that, we failed. This, combined with a pretty expensive ticket, because we had major acts like Metallica and Manowar, didn't do much good. No wonder. 1999 also was the year Tinus quit the DOA organization. I don't know for sure, but I think Tinus made his decision for that particular reason. I guess he missed the good old friendly atmosphere at DOA, just like I did. I decided to get back in after the 1999 edition, but with the old feeling. I want 20-25.000 visitors max., that's it. DOA goes back to its roots… Yes. We want the real Dynamo fans back. Especially at the 1999 edition I saw a lot of people, maybe even over 10.000, being there just to fuck things up instead of enjoying the music we all love. We don't need these so called 'fans', we want the real ones. They know who they are and so do we.  In 2000 we went to Nijmegen, which was okay for one year. We had Iron Maiden headlining and 20.000 visitors. Too bad the mad cow disease fucked up a 3-day DOA at Lichtenvoorde in 2001. This was a huge disappointment for us. We were so close, already sold 15.000 tickets in advance with bands like Tool and Motörhead but it wasn't meant to be I guess. There isn't any insurance company to help you out in times like that, I'll tell you. You pay for 15 years to cover your ass in case of emergencies. The mad cow disease is an emergency but don't expect anything. We managed to survive, but it wasn't easy. André, thank you very much for your time. As we all know DOA 2002 is at the Bospop-Weert on July 14th, but 2003 will bring us a new DOA territory. Any last comment on that? We're very happy with the friendly Bospop organization helping us out this year. We got Opeth, Within Temptation, Peter Pan Speedrock from Eindhoven et cetera. Really talented bands. Nothing is 100% guaranteed in this business, but we think we have found a great place in Nuenen near Eindhoven. It can hold 50.000 people and seems to be just great for the years to come. But as I said before, we'll do a 25.000 visitors max. DOA in 2003. Back to basics. I think we've learned our lesson really well. But first of all we have to get these 25.000 fans back to our DOA party to begin with. Regain their trust. We'll just see from there. And I do hope to continue booking the most diverse bands within the scene. The DOA fans always proved to be very tolerant and this is a major aspect of our festival. More info at: http://www.dynamo.nl (Review: Johan Godschalk Pics: Rockezine archive & Aardschok magazine & DOA website)
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