In 2001 The GVB (the Amsterdam Public Transport
Company) introduced a new tram to its city streets. The
Combino. The Combino marked the disappearance
of the familiar yellow trams – some
The new Combino tram seemed designed to discourage
graffiti – huge windows leave almost no room for panels and allow personnel to
look right through them in the yards. It has also shown considerable design
flaws since it was first introduced – the Combino is extremely noisy and unstable and will
probably have to be replaced because of structural defects.
This might cost the city millions.
Another thing that has cost the city a considerable
amount of taxpayers money is the line up of graffiti
writers sitting down tonight to discuss the
Gasp, one of the senior heads, kicks off the
discussion by going back to the punk roots of the
1980’s: Punks, insides and the old Leidseplein
hangout
Gasp: In 1981, 82 skinheads started bombing trams. I
saw a lot of insides, the windows and the outsides were hit by writers like OK
and EGO. They used to hit the trams while they were leaving them. That was the
skinhead period. The trams were reasonably bombed then. Then it got less. I
also remember seeing a really fresh Dondi nyc tag on a tram in about 1983
and thinking – peculiar – 
that
guy’s from
Again: That’s a huge leap.
Oase: What about that
United Street Artists piece? That was 1985.
Gasp: 1984
Set: That was done in the yard.
Gasp: That’s true - but at the time that
Gasp: Yeah, guys like Sweepee.
Right in the street, on the Leidseplein.
Artik: Gasp, how did
the insides get bombed so fucking hardcore?
Gasp: I gues that was the Leidseplein hang out period. Just getting in and out of
trams all Saturday and completely bombing the back of the tram – just ten guys
getting in, riding the tram for a stop, bring your stuff, everyone did two or
three tags and the place was covered.
Artik: I especially
remember you (the
At this point certain names of writers and crews that
were hitting trams in the mid eighties come to mind: zap CBS USA delta high tom top rhone cula zion
tabu shea sonic shock
styles pengo again shy zar harakiri banana gillete biter zodor bronx dalton
yat york rebl quash qash ethic magic rhyme
scene sweepee vampirella
coke enter euro hiz dyre cat22 beat53 cita renz31
midget gnoom def dolby, to
name a few – the average age was between 14 and 18.
Gasp: I think guys definitely brought ink from
The Sticker period was a mid eighties craze among a
lot of writers, when all of a sudden methodic stickering was done mainly on the insides of trams.
Stickers were usually blank stickers that had been carefully tagged on with a
variety of markers at home. The stickers often incorporated several colors and effects, sometimes they were huge and had
elaborate designs complete with detailed fill ins. There
were writers who saw stickering as too easy, a way of
avoiding the act of tagging in front of other passengers. In truth the sticker
period was a unique and inventive sub wave. It had kings and trends of its own
and caused the GVB quite a headache.
Artik: Then it went
back and forth, stickers and tags.
Gasp: In those days they used needles to really widen
the marker tips, which caused really drippy tags but all this happened while
riding the trams, just getting on and off all Saturday and also hitting the
outsides.
Set: How long did the tags last?
Gasp: Most of it was gone in a day or two, it just
kept on going.
Ski: Was there a lot of trouble?
Gasp: I think there was a lot of running but few
arrests.
Dr Jay: Was there any scratching then?
Gasp: No the scratching is a nineties thing.
Again: They were scratching with those little stones.
Artic: Biter was the tram window king. (And we
should mention Maty, Gillete
and Templ as well)
Again: I never pieced on trams but I did a lot of
insides and I came in just after the ‘84/’85 hang out. The ‘86 hang out was on
the actual square by that hamburger phone booth or bus stop or whatever it was.
You just asked if people were getting caught but there were so many kids
bombing that tram in one go people didn’t know what hit them – they were in
shock. I was talking to someone about it just recently and it was a free for
all on the Leidseplein – insides, outsides – it
travelled for a day and it just looked beautiful. Fat pentels, dark blue, dark red. Just
brushing it on and letting it drip – how long did it last for? I think
till about ’86.
Basically there was a lot of beef which caused the now
infamous Leidseplein hang out to fall apart around
‘86. Graffiti remained prominent in the streets throughout the 80’s and 90’s,
although there was a slight standstill in the early 90’s. Hot spots and halls
of fame always came and went. For instance a few legendary spots that have now
completely disappeared were the old Waterloo underpass (for reference see the
book ‘The Battle of Waterloo’), and the abandoned and closed prison ground by
the Leidseplein that was known as ‘De Luchtplaats’ (The Airing Ground), which was demolished and
rebuilt as the Max Euwe
square.
Gasp: In those days people used to go to the last stop
on the 2 line (one or two trams would pause there while the drivers went for
coffee or a smoke in the staff building) and thats
when you saw the first small filled in blockbusters and simple pieces coming
across the Leidseplein. In that period I went to the
yard with Delta, Shoe and Aloha and we were thinking we’d go at it all night
but they caught all of us quite quickly. They had no idea what we were about –
they thought we were activists or something – but the 2’s last stop was always
good to go – the tram was in a bend and there were some bushes behind you.
Again: There was a little canal there, remember?
Everyone used to fall in the water there.
Oase: What about that
Zap story? Taking a shit on the driver seat – that really
happened.
Dane told me it happened in the Havenstraat
yard. Zap started driving the tram up and down in the yard.
Gasp: Yeah, ‘cause he had all the keys back then.
Oase: Dane wasn’t
piecing that much but he did a character in the back of the tram, on the
inside! It was a Bodé character, ‘Biscuit’, that’s
why I remember. He told me about that and afterwards Zap took a shit on the
driver seat. Its too bad Zap isn’t here but that must of
been about ‘85.
Set: Gasp, do you know if Zap drove a tram out of the
yard?
Oase: Out of the
actual yard?
Gasp: He drove one back and forth I think.
Artik: I remember in
those early days Zap always used Hema Yellow (Hema is a department store) on every tram bumper – they
were rubber bumpers and that yellow would bite into the rubber and stay there.
Again: See, Artik knows – he
was on every bumper, Zap, and Yat.
Again: And Zap used to hit
the front of the trams, above the driver, by the tram number.
Late 80’s and early 90’s: Final stops and Throw ups – strictly outsides.
Gasp: Sure of course, he did a lot of trams at the 2’s
last stop. We were there almost every weekend, and I think out of everybody he
did the biggest silver pieces on the side.
Cece: I remember that,
and he used to do them in reverse.
Gasp: And Chintz and them (from Germany) used
to come to Amsterdam regularly back then, they didn’t know us yet, when they
got to Central Station they used to immediately check the trams and there would
be simple pieces and throw ups on the side that had been done an hour before –
they didn’t realize, they thought it was always like that, but during the weeks
the trams were pretty much clean and then every weekend it was on.
Gasp: At the 2’s last stop Cat22 and me experimented quite a bit with epoxy finishing, smearing
it on our tags and throw ups.You had to prepare it in
a little holder, mix two components and we’d be stirring it.
Gasp: We’d be stirring in the bushes! I think Cat22
once covered a silver piece completely and they painted it yellow the next day
because they were painting over quite quickly. One of my throw ups was
travelling for a really long time – it was pretty eroded but if you followed
your outline well with the epoxy it would really last.
Cece: Cat22 told me he
did trams which dissappeared for months and then they
came back with completely new rear ends – they’d just replace the entire end of
the tram or they’d completely strip them down.
Gasp: We used to recognize the trams by their serial
numbers, we remembered all the numbers of the trams we’d pieced or done stuff
like epoxy throw ups on to see what they’d done to them, because we were always
looking for the ultimate method they wouldn’t be able to remove.
Gasp: Well the GVB’s
‘Supporting Task Force’ came for a look every now and then on Saturday when
they started that. I usually took my car – just going to the final stops, from
the 12 to the 25 to the 4 and then the 2 line.
Set: Everyone started doing that a certain point. Sweepee(2)
and Sims came together after some beef they had over a wall and then Enter and
Sims and Sweepee(2) started doing the same parcours: 12, 25, 4, 6, 16, and the 2 line at the end –
that’s a pretty good day.
Ski: But we know doing trams was always super easy
right? Was it a constant thing or did it happen in waves?
Gasp: Yeah, rushes and waves.
Set: It would be subways, and then trains, then trams
– it used to change; if there was a lot of railway police, we would switch.
Ski: The trambombing, was it
always fun as a side thing, were subways always more important? For
Gasp: Well I remember Shoe saying about the subways –
he hit them once or twice but he’d say ‘I’m not bothered about the subway
because this is my city and I want it travelling in my city’, and he did quite
a few trams.
Cece: If you’re living
in the Bijlmer, that’s my thing, you’re living near Gein and you’re always seeing the subway that’s what you go
for. If you’re living in the city – there’s no reason to use the subway.
Gasp: In the beginning people wanted to make an
impression on their immediate environment. Shoe did his trams because that was
his environment and kids from the Bijlmer would do
subways. Later on people started focusing on where is it possible, as long as
it travels, where can you do it, and that’s were you’d go. So then people
started doing trains and subways, while they didn’t even live there.
Set: Also it used to be more about tags – you’d be
like ‘Wow, I saw three of your tags’. I used to take pictures of tags and a
throw up – I couldn’t even imagine you could do finished pieces. Few people
were doing that.
Gasp: Yeah, first it went round, and then the tram
came back and he outlined it.
Set: Sure also did that with the reversed piece. But
mostly they used to be scrawled pieces – if you look at the pictures now you’re
like - we were happy with that? There was no German paint and we didn’t have fatcaps. Cat22 would say ‘do this
to the cap’ - he’d have like a trick - so you’d try it and prfffffffffffffffff…
It would never work for you, just for Cat. All we had were those Holz silver cans with fat caps. And a guy like Zeis would do throw ups on the roof of the trams. (Early
90’s)
Gasp: He could see the roof of the trams from his
living room and he definitely had about six or seven blockbusters on the roofs
at some point. He would get on the roof at the final stop
Set: He was doing one once and the tram left – he was
still on the roof and he had to climb down at the next stop.
The mid 90’s – hitting the havenstraat yard in force
Ski: And what about the Havenstraat
yard? Because that was about top to bottoms - doing them with a whole group – I
don’t think they travelled.
Oase: They did!
Set: At first.
Oase: Those guys from
Set: Cat used to go over everything Mask did – he didnt want him getting any fame – Mask was uninvited – no
Mask tag ever left that yard.
Gasp: You had to get out of there before Mask started
blowing his didgeridoo.
Ski: Okay, what about those anecdotes? I know an Oase story involving a fence…
Oase: There was just
one place you could climb the fence, one by one. Set went over so I had to
wait, but the guard was getting really close. I had to circle the tram we just
did a piece on and then I could go over – and I heard the guard saying ‘Anyone
can do that!’ – like a Benny hill chase.
Set: And you cut your hand on the fence.
Oase: We kept on
running all the way to the hospital to get my hand stitched.
Gasp: Cat was sitting on this Café terrace on a really
busy day when a tram rolls by with a Gasp throw up on it – so Cat spontaneously
jumps up and starts applauding the tram. The whole terrace is staring at him
and he’s like: ‘No, thàt’s where you need to look!’
Set was notorious for taking a roll of toiletpaper with
him – he always had to take a shit while hitting the yards.
Set: I went to that yard once with Sel,
Zedz and Days. Me and Sel were checking things out in the bushes – suddenly this
dude walks up – not a guard but a cleaner with a little fucking dog. The dog
spotted us immediately and came right at us so the guy sees us. I was like -
what do we do now?, so I thought ok, and grabbed Sel’s hand. He was like, what’s this? Both of us had really
short hair and we were dressed in all black - ninja style. If you saw us you’d
be like – ‘ok, I get it’. So we walked through that hangar holding hands, out
the door – you could see all the workers staring and thinking: What the fuck
were those guys doing?
1997/1998 Tramkillers: The
Brush and Math revival
Gasp: I think everyone was looking for the thing they couldnt clean because at a certain point Brush and Math
started experimenting with ink that doesn’t come off for ages - but at some
point everything will come off. We were always looking for a method they couldn’t
remove because they buffed so much. There were periods when trams were pretty
covered but usually they’d be clean in two days. I remember I used to think
trams were cleaned much faster than subway trains.
Around 1997 at a time when the trams were pretty much
clean Brush and Math launched a vicious and systematic attack on the tram
system, methodically covering tram after tram with rows upon rows of their
tags, from end to end and sometimes top to bottom – it blew a lot of minds.
Their bombing was so obsessive and neat it almost seemed like a school teacher
had punished two wayward art students by forcing them to write their name on
the schoolboard a million times. But in this case the
trams were the schoolboard, causing other writers to
call their efforts “Strafwerk” (a dutch term for school punishment).
(This is where tram 14 makes its last stop – the walls
underneath Schellingwouder
bridge make up one of the the citys
best known piecing spots.)
Brush: Yeah, the final stop for line 14, the 9, what
else, the 2 line I guess. The 3, the 16 and the 6 too – no
yards really. Math, what about you?
Math: I don’t
know
Set: Now you wont tell!?
Math: I dont have anything
to say about it.
Set: So tell us about the ink.
Math: Don’t have anything to say about that either.
Brush: Leatherdye – from the
north side of town
Math: I regret it. Its not
something I remember as a great period I wanna tell
anecdotes about and inspire others with.
Set: Why do you regret it?
Math: It was just ridiculous
Math: A waste of time – for me and the GVB.
Brush: I had a pretty good time.
Ski: You didn’t enjoy it?
Math: If you call that enjoyment.
Set: But some really heavy bombing
right? I mean, what kind of a period was it for you to say I don’t want
anything to do with it anymore?
Math: Didn’t I just tell you?
Ski: Do you just regret the tags,
or the pieces too? Because you did a lot of piecing on trams.
Again: And subways…
Cece: And on trains…
Oase: You did a piece
on that Herman Brood tram
In the mid nineties the GVB commisioned
a series of ‘Art
Trams’ – one of which was an MTV tram done by Quick featuring Beavis and
Butthead and a Bunny character. Herman Brood was a legendary dutch rock singer and artist who
also painted a tram with his artwork.
Oase: A handpainted tram by Herman! They could never remove that.
Ski: The situation was quite intense at some point. I
don’t know which period was the heaviest. The authorities always become more
alert but not with trams.
Gasp: Lets get back to those
Math Brush trams ‘cause I saw hundreds of those.
Brush: Not much to say – it was quite boring, really –
like working a conveyor belt.
Oase: You always took
your bike right?
Brush: Yeah, my mountain bike
Gasp recalls taking his bike to hit a tram. After
finishing he turned around and some guy, who must have watched him do his thing, had stolen his bike!
Set: You never got caught right?
Brush: One near fight but it didnt
come together.
I was doing a piece on the 4 line and all of a sudden
someone’s there – you can only go in one direction. I used to make markers
using a sponge, a video cover, a piece of cardboard and a nozzle and then I’d
keep wetting it with a bottle of leatherdye.
Set: How long did it take you to do a tram?
Brush: About ten minutes – you saw me once.
Set: I was filming you – your phone rang and you
answered it! I was thinking you’ve gotta stop now,
but you just kept going. I was like this is impossible, then the tram drove
off, another one came in, and you did that one too.
Ski: Why were trams so important? All
those trams.
Brush: I didn’t
analyze it – my girlfriend lived by the 4 and my school was there – it was
always in my path
Set: On your lunch break, risking getting arrested.
Brush: Yeah, yeah. But I never stopped and said: this
is it – trams or subways. Subways are the coolest to me but I did more trams
than subways. The subways got tricky cutting the fences and stuff – although I
did a lot of shit with Cece and Math
Ski: Ok, what about the combino
– has anyone visited the Havenstraat yard recently?
Brush:
I tagged the windows a month ago
Set:
They’re filming everything nowadays – inside and out.
Brush:
No way…
The old yellow trams have all become scrap iron.
Writers visited them in their graveyard. Of course, there’s little the
authorities can do about people hitting trams in transit. In 2002 the combino was coated with anti graffiti coating – including
the insides. It’s very rare to see anything travelling on trams nowadays.
There’s no telling if the Combino’s will be replaced.
If they are, some writers will be keeping their fingers crossed for a graffiti
friendly design, however unlikely. Will
Tekst: Crash2 - Copasetic WRT januari 2005