Amsterdam our home from home
Dam, Dam & more Dam
From the very first time we ever went to Holland, we loved it. From that point on all our wages went funding trips to Amsterdam, where we just felt much more at home.
Nowhere else quite like it.
From the start, the more liberated Dutch Bar & Coffeeshop culture became a major early & lasting influence on us. We fell properly in love with Amsterdam & went there to do all our thinking & to dream.
Back in the 80s, it had a real 'edge,' was packed with street hustlers & could be a very dangerous place. We saw some really crazy stuff go down. But you just coupled up, kept your game tight, mouths shut at the right times & blended in like Dutchies.
The differing Dam fettles of yesteryear.
It was only the daft tourists who got hassled & the way we saw it, we were just as likely to be taken out by a passing cyclist, given how we rolled.
All that considered, unlike 80s Newcastle, somehow you always still felt really accepted & totally at home.
The Feds out there were called 'The Polities' & all had mad tashes. There was so much crazy street hustling going down, that as long as you were cool, they actually were polite & just let you get on with stuff. A far cry from the 80s plod of the Toon.
Over in the Dam you didn’t get the kind of hassle you would in England, living the kind of lifestyle we were rocking at the time. It was so laid back & a far more open, liberated & welcoming culture than the UK & certainly Newcastle, had ever been to us.
The greatest ever city marketing campaign..?
We hung out in & (though we didn’t realise we were doing it at the time…) studied all that great city’s many Bars & Clubs.
We were just young, hanging out, getting mashed up & having a cool time, but just like when we were working in the Arcade, we were always switched on & noticing & learning stuff.
We spent so much time out there, it got to the point where we really felt we knew Amsterdam & its cool bar culture – inside out.
Still makes us feel all warm.
It's a Love Thing...
We have maintained our love affair with Amsterdam & many memorable, hilarious & pivotal moments in our lives have been spent there with great friends. In our opinion it's the greatest dating & most intimate city in the world. A truly special place, where couples can really get to know each other.
Plane lands, quick drop off at the hotel, hit the city streets, two small beers, quick flutter on the pool table & the rest takes care of itself..!
A city that's really cleaned up it's act over the last few decades - You should go.
Music & the Boardroom
Later in the 80’s we saw acts like De la Soul & followed Public Enemy out there on their first tours, so a love of & respect for the Dam will never leave us.
It’s been the inspiration, boardroom & backbone, for every single major idea we’ve ever realised & it's cultural influence runs right through the very heart of WHQ.
When we find the time, we'll write more on our times the Dam, giving a wider window into that dreamy, dangerous & wonderful little world.
Anyway, we digress – There were only a handful of places in Newcastle that offered any respite from the mind numbing boredom of the 80s…
One of them was this little Bar, called the Trent House, near the footie ground, tucked up on Leazes Lane.
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