Kebab



Simone.


  "Back in 1978, at the age of 17, I used to go to a pub named Pink Cafe. The bartender, Luc was a rather eccentric gay guy.  All kinds of young people would come to his cafe.  During that time, not that many kids were into punk.  Me and a few of my friends were, but not to the extreme as we had seen on TV.  There was two boys and a girl from out of town who use to come to the Pink Cafe.  They were obviously punk-minded and had my attention.  They were Felix, Katja and Nelis.  We had similar ideas and interests, and so we started to hang out together.  The four of us would regularly go to London to buy records and cool punk stuff.  We were a bit bored on the weekends and politically frustrated, so instead of destroying things that didn't belong to us (because i hated the wannabe's who had no idea what was punk about), we decided to start a band.  And Kebab was born:


Katja (24, worker) - synthesizer and vocals, Nelis (18, miner) - guitar and vocals,
Simone (19,  worker) - percussion and vocals, Felix (23, miner) - bass.


We used to rehearse in the kitchen at Katja's home.  Our influences were Crass and the albums that came out on Crass Records.  Also, Siouxie & the Banshees, the Damned, the Clash, Sex Pistols, the Mob, Buzzcocks, Virgin Prunes, Bauhaus, Flux of Pink Indians, Killing Joke, Wire...

We released the Life It's a Joke 7" and a cassette tape on our own label Barakkenplaten.  We pressed 500 7"s and only 30 tapes.

Kebab played in several cities in Belgium and in the Netherlands.  We played with Siglo xx, Struggler, Brassers, AA, O, O Veux, Ze-Barbies, the EX, and the Zounds.

We continued to play gigs until I was 7 months pregnant.  In July 1983, after my son was born, the band broke up with the intention of starting again later on, once i had reconciled motherhood.  I did reconcile being a mum, but Kebab never played again. 

Katja and Nelis were married and then divorced.  Katja started working for the union.  Nelis became a journalist for the local news-paper, "Het Belang van Limburg."  Felix and I got married and are still together.  Felix quit his job as a miner and he and Eddy, from the band AA, took over the former Pink Cafe.  After a few months Felix stepped out of this deal and started school again.  He has been working as project manager in the chemical industry since 1989.  I started up a music store as manager for a larger chain HVH-Megastore.  After 15 years I'm still happy working in my music store.  The name has since changed in Extrazone." 

                                                                                                                        - Simone, Kebab.

Read 'Kebab on the Grill' - an interview with the band from 1983.