I discovered a photo album I wasn’t aware of. It contains photo’s I made when I was about fifteen. The year was 1985. I was very much into the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Heavy metal in the UK provided the working class youth with an alternative to punk music. It was less political than punk and more geared towards escapism. The lyrics of Iron Maiden, for instance, were purely romantic and often referenced 18th century romanticism. The black and white photo above was made in 1986 when we went to see either Dio in concert in Zwolle, or Iron Maiden in Leiden. Metallica I saw in concert in 1988.

I wasn’t working class by any stretch of the imagination but still, it was my kind of music. The other music culture was New Wave. New Wave was big, but at the time I found it rather boring. The energy of metal fitted well with the high levels of testosterone I experienced (suffered would be a better word). It would take another six years before I got close to a girl and metal was the way to let off steam. And cycling. After school I would often cycle as fast as I could on the dusty unpaved country roads, not until I was tired but until sunset.

I did photograph a few hard rock bands in small local venues. I can’t remember the names of those bands. The music wasn’t particularly good, but it was a good antidote to boredom.

School

I went to the VWO (which translates into pre-university education in English) in Aalten. This school was also known as the ‘atheneum’, named after the ancient school founded by Roman Emperor Hadrian. I followed Latin for just one year but this wasn't a required exam subject. Today I would be lost in Ancient Rome.

These years were the most awkward years of my life. Most of my class mates were still being dressed by their parents, I think, and life was excruciating boring. I’m eternally grateful I never have to relive the 1980s again. I am not in the photo below because I took the damn class photo. Presumably there exists a version with me in it on the far left side, made with the 10 second self-timer on my Nikon camera. Al least one of my class mates from ‘85 is dead now. The guy below the black arrow is probably thinking: “for fuck’s sake”.

After school I would listen to the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) for the Armed Forces in Germany on my little radio. The BFBS broadcast BBC news and rehashed British comedy shows like The Goon Show, Just a Minute and Dads Army adapted for radio. The BFBS, unlike Dutch radio, had great music shows: Tony Jasper’s Heavy Metal Show and Rodigan’s Rockers with the best of 80s reggae. I would tape the HM Show on music cassette to play again and again and again. I never ever listened to Dutch radio.

Luckily I also discovered Led Zeppelin around the time, which led me to listening to blues and folk music.

On television I liked The Young Ones, which capsulated the vibe of the 1980s perfectly. The Chernobyl disaster would occur in 1986 and added a sense of 80s doom, which didn’t bother me much at the time. Neither did the arms race between the West and the Soviet Union. In 1983 U.S. President Ronald Reagan labeled the Soviet Union an "evil empire" which was a defining moment. The same year more than half a million people protested the placement of 48 Tomahawk cruise missiles in The Netherlands. I was pretty much apolitical and spent most time dreaming of a life beyond secondary school.

We received more German television channels than Dutch channels so a fair amount of time was spent watching the Krimi’s Derrick (1974 - 1998) and Der Alte (with Kriminalhauptkommissar Erwin Köster, 1977–1986) on ZDF. With a murder to solve (almost) each episode both crime series delve into the psychological mindset of post-war West Germany at a time of high unemployment rates.

Trainspotting

Apart from music the only exciting thing in daily life was the railroad track leading to Arnhem and beyond Arnhem to the bright lights of the big city: Amsterdam. Sometimes I would hang around the track and photograph the trains. The red DE-2 multiple units were built between 1953-1954. In 1985 the trains were over 30 years old and still running the original AEC diesel engines. You could hear these trains leave the station seven kilometers away.

And yes, even my mother would still buy my clothes in 1985. She also probably made this photograph.