our man in Amsterdam part 4 the train ride to harlemm

Hammer hawk is a trio in the strongest tradition of heavy metal starting in 1984 they became quite famous in Europe and shared many of the successes and frustration i realized with wild dogs and indie labels in their infancy. Steve alerted me to them prior to departure from Oregon so i did a bit of research and contacted a few of my email internet buddies ive met through us metal and the wild dogs revival,

we hit the train station me with a bit of a beer buzz from lunch and what with the KGB coursing thru me .. i was geed up and ready for excursion armed with a backpack and good intentions we boarded the train which moves very fast and for 5 dollars will take you clear across the country it seemed.. gumby our resident train expert and steam engine engineer was the track guide and got us on board the right train bound for the proper destination without him your humble narrator may be speaking from a German prison or worse yet Siberia....

you may confuse this trip with onbe of those northern california wine tasting sundays so many yuppies enjoy- especially when it's off to francis ford coppolla's vineyard and winerywhich i'm sure has an after effect much like the discomfort in his famous movie Apocolypse now nbut no! we were on a mission to rock and roll and learn the history of this fine and drowning land- i say drowning because left un touvched the whole place in it's entirety would end up in the drink as the famed city of atlantis i'd hate to that happen to all those nice little coffee shops(unless of course they had a brain hemmorage and started opening them in cities like Portland or Seattle where beer and coffee mix like paint. Keep pumping Holland the although the general public is ready for that the police and uncle sam would lose way too much income form their zero tolerance attitude and what would judges and attorneys do then- golf? or take up needlepoint perhaps?

we arrived in the Harlemm station and took the bus to Ijmaudien pronounced I- mow den...and were warmly received by Paul the guitarist, from the group and thys, the bassist vocalist who is from Australia. they were quite hospitable i should learn some of that for when guests arrive at my house,.So after a bit of jolly up via a semi cold bevvy called amstel bier.. we were off to "THE bunker

THE BUNKER:The rehearsal facility is called is actually an old converted Nazi ammo bunker the size of a small high school once it was all open or divided here and there, with walls 4 m thick and the rails which bombs torpedos and the like were railed to the awaiting boats to carry them off to their place of detonation and death which the Nazis as you may know were quite good at.- another thing they were quite adept at was building things that the big bad wolf could never huff and puff enough to blow down in fact on a later recon we went to bunker island miles and miles of connected bunkers with and underground tunnel system-and now..back to the bunker-and the bands.

On the way in,paul stopped at several of the double security (heavy steel doors) rooms and we witnessed an awesome display of talent that would make people here in Oregon quit their instruments out of embarrassment all of the drummers i saw were amazing and on par with old deen catsronovo and slayer's drummer to be sure.. and the oldest punter of em all - a ripe young 19 year old long hair is NOT out of style and form the luxurious locks all of them were sporting, led me to believe there is either something in the water at my house or too many mirrors resulting in messing with my hair until it gave in and fell out..- i muster that buying stock in the local [Paul Mitchell outlet would be a grand trading move ) as we passed through all these rooms with my vid cam going i noticed that NO one was playing anything resembling commercial music and not a tribute band in sight what a relief these guys take their music serious and pay only 80 Euro for a 30X30 room with 24 hour video surveillance and steel doors and owned by the government...

hammer hawk was having one more practice before guitarist Paul was to go in for a hand surgery that may result in losing the pinky on his fingering hand ( a victim of soccer hooligans who beat him up for no good reason) " ya gotta watch out for those Australian surgeons they figure with one of the best medical programs that everyone is entitled to they might as well just cut things off. thats why you see many folks hopping about or hitchiking with the opposite hand..by the time they started in on the black sabbath that was it i was off on the mike doing my best ozzy(the osbournes had yet to play there yet on mtv euro so they had no clue as to what we kept referring to as the hit new show ) it turns out that Paul is a friend or acquaintance of tony iommi and possesses some of his gtrs as he his a left hander as well black sg's with cross inlays made Especially for tony not the signature models you buy at the local guitar center for the price of a small car- no quite reasonable actually tony has quite a few made selects the ones he wants and sells the rest pauls and thys' gtr collection is quite extensive and include a line of ibanez basses that never made it to America- ibanez knock offs of rickenbacker, gibson grabber, explorers, shit they kept coming down the stairs... all of which I'm sure are highly valued pieces in la but will never make it to the stores they are good friends and some of the best playing instruments ever i can see why mr gibson sued them---so we do a rousing rendition of many motorhead songs with me and Allen wrench singing.. and Raymond on drums who i have failed to mention as IM awaiting a good time to talk about his drumming which may be now. Raymond IS for all intents and purposes filthy animal Taylor form motorhead he even looks similar and plays awesome a stripped down sonor kit stripped down in this case means no paint... its a huge set with custom bent cymbal stands and the like Raymond is a biker and owns a Harley and a kawa chopper and is a member of a local bike club in danger of being taken over by the local hells angels chapter - who have a complete store in downtown Amsterdam by the way and many outposts advertising their connections by way of old jackets, posters and promos for hc sponsored events we visit Raymond in another episode so ill save it for then

as the night finished we went back to pails house and prepared for a venture to the "Tipfel Zone"a secret place .. which turned out to be harder to find than toilet paper in a 7-11

but once we did my curiosity was fulfilled it was a prostitute park- an industrial type park with a loop, bus top type shelters, police security and stalls built for privacy for you and your date, a typical date is 20 Eros ( about 18 dollars) and the women are a bit more rugged than in the red light shops they also are not sanctioned , or require a health report as do the renters in the rld. the stalls have garbage cans and look like a drive in movie which it is in a funny way

we circled the circuit and got nasty looks because no one will date a 4 man carload in a small bmw so they knew we were not there to buy or even sample the goods.. as we got to the end of the street a group of very pretty and made up women in the best clothes awaited- some were really beautiful as i mentioned this laughter erupted from the front seat... THEY WERE MEN!

leave it to me... oh well i can only judge a book by its cover if thats all they are showing ya know. we went back and drank more amstel til the sun started up again..and prepared for a festival. a concert in a nearby park. Paul has two cats one looks so much like my barnaby it was amazing and the cat slept spoon style with me just as my dear old friend did before he died at age 18 this January.. i slept well......

knowing that we were going to be consuming mass quantities of the green bottled stuff we took the bus to the local queens day fest in ijmauden many of hammerhawks friend and roadies were there and i was lured into painting my head or having it painted a big anarchy sign on the top of my head which later revealed to me was televised on the local news- an elderly lady ripped the hat from my head at the food stand and saiud you are the American with god save the queen on your head ii saw you on the news at my home.... it was the first time in my life of eating i wasn't able to communicate with the person taking my order- not only did i not understand what was available but didn't know how to pronounce it properly i could get skinny there...

i interviewed a guy who went on and on about drunken stuff and how he is too drunk to drive ".which was kinda funny, and gumby had a hanger on in the form of a woman who resembled steve marriot from humble pie. as homophobic as this guy was you'd think he'd wanna lurk about someone that remotely resembled a female..or.maybe.not. We rode the train back to the novatel barely remembering the ride.and hit the sheets just in time for concerto no3 in gumby minor all tenorish and complete with orchestra snoring 5th movementsolilioquy for no one.

my ex wife angela used to tell the tall tales mof my legendary snoring and to put the point across like a nail in my eye she once bought a futon for me and my cat friends to occupy

while she slept in another room- that was 10 years ago some things are long learned sorry bout that......she was training me for debbi who i only annoy a wee bit and doesnt break my ribs with an NBA sized elbow slam to make her point a simple touch with one small fingerdoes the trick nowadays. needless to say the little man on Allen wrench' sarm stared at me all night and i dreampt i was trying to sleep thru the invasion of normandy-on the beach.

aaaargh~! CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE--