A Brief History of Gabber

We Have Arrived
'We Have Arrived' is regarded as the first hardcore track ever made. Written in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1990 by Marc Acardipane, it pioneered a dark and distorted sound that would form the blueprints for hardcore techno. The Dutch would turn these blueprints into gabber.

Planet Core Productions

Marc Acardipane formed Planet Core Productions (PCP) with Thorsten Lambart in 1989. PCP was a label, hardcore techno production outfit, and formidable live act featuring a varied lineup. PCP disbanded in 1996. This video captures the group’s final live performance together in Leipzig in 1995.

Gabberhouse versus Mellow
House music hit Amsterdam in the late summer of 1988. As pop culture journalist for Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, Gert van Veen was the movement's main champion. In this clip from a 1993 TV report on house music, by Christian public broadcasters EO, Gert van Veen explains how 'gabberhouse' (or gabber) evolved as the hardest offshoot of house in the Netherlands.

Multigroove

Between July 1991 and April 1992, a group of 20-year-old Amsterdammers, headed by Ilja Reiman, threw a series of illegal raves in squats and warehouses throughout the city. This was the start of Multigroove. Their most (in)famous event was the Tunnel Rave, captured by VPRO's youth culture program Onrust ('Unrest'), which drew 1,500 ravers to an abandoned cycle path underneath the A10 motorway on Saturday March 7, 1992.

Operation Ponytail

On Saturday May 15, 1993, the police raided Warehouse Elementenstraat as part of an undercover operation, codenamed 'ponytail' because most of the Multigroove crew had long hair. Multigroove were operating without an official license, but the main reason for the raid was drug-related. All the founders and DJs performing that night were arrested. Ilja Reiman was imprisoned for four weeks and slapped with a 1.5 million guilders fine, whilst Warehouse Elementenstraat was forced to close for good. Two years later, Multigroove was resurrected at the Hemkade in Zaandam, now as a fully legitimate operation.

DJ Paul and Holy Noise

Rotterdam's 'Godfather of Hardcore', Paul Elstak, started his career as a hip hop DJ in 1987. He was a resident of the Bluetiek-Inn discotheque in Rotterdam when he formed the group Holy Noise with Rob Fabrie and Richard van Naamen. Peter Slaghuis was also involved in the beginning, but quit the group after their first release. Holy Noise scored their biggest hit in 1991 with 'James Brown is Still Alive', a response to L.A. Style's 'James Brown is Dead'.

Remembering Parkzicht

The popularity of Parkzicht grew simultaneously with the gabber craze. In this 2002 TV special for RTV Rijnmond, Paul Elstak and DJ Rob share stories about the club that put Rotterdam (and gabber) on the map. DJ Rob left Parkzicht in 1995. After two shooting incidents the following year, Parkzicht was closed down by the Mayor of Rotterdam. Here, DJ Rob confesses regret over leaving Parkzicht; if he had stayed, maybe the club would still exist.

The Sound of Parkzicht

DJ Rob, as well as other residents and guest DJs, recorded mixtapes live from Parkzicht, which were sold every fortnight. Due the the popularity of the club, a bootleg industry soon evolved with bouncers selling Parkzicht tapes to punters in the club cloakrooms or the car park. There are hundreds of official (and unofficial) Parkzicht tapes in existence.

The Energiehal

The Energiehal was considered 'The Temple’ for gabber in Rotterdam. From 1992 until the building was demolished in 1999, it hosted monthly large scale raves, chiefly with a hardcore/gabber soundtrack. The last rave at the Energiehal was held on Queen's Day, April 30, 1999.

Rave The City

Rave The City, and its affiliated label Rave Records, were early adopters of the emerging hardcore/gabber sound in the Netherlands. Based out of The Hague, the first Rave The City event took place on Saturday September 28, 1991, at the Houtrusthallen and was organised by local pirate radio station Radio Stad Den Haag. Follow up editions happened infrequently throughout the decade at sports halls across the country, including The Energiehal in Rotterdam. This video shows Human Resource performing their newly released track ‘Dominator’ live at the first Rave The City. ‘Dominator’ would go on to become a cult rave classic.

Rotterdam Records

In 1992, whilst working at the counter of Rotterdam's Mid-Town Records store, Paul Elstak founded the first Dutch hardcore/gabber label, Rotterdam Records. The infamous 'Amsterdam Waar Lech Dat Dan?' 12'' by Euromasters was its first release, written by Elstak with Holy Noise members Rob Fabrie and Richard van Naamen. Rotterdam Records peddled Rotterdam's early '90s 'straight to the point' style of gabber to the rest of the world.

Harder! Faster!

By 1993 gabber was getting harder and faster. In this TV report from the same year, Dano explains how a record he made a year ago will be 'too slow' to play in a DJ set in a few months' time.

Gabber Culture

Gabber in the '90s was the Netherland's most significant youth culture movement. Gabber culture emerged as the scene exploded, with gabbers all dressing, dancing and acting the same. Being a gabber was fundamentally about unity and belonging to an outsider community.

Thunderdome on Film

Thunderdome 1993 at the Jaarbeurs convention centre in Utrecht was the biggest edition during ID&T's founding years. The event featured The Dreamteam, DJ Rob and Paul Elstak on the bill, as well as New York DJ Joey Beltram and Grooverider from the UK. Thunderdome crucially documented every rave, which were later exported to the rest of the world via DVDs, and nationally on Dutch music show TMF Hakkeehhh.

Happy Hardcore: Rotterdam Records

Happy hardcore, a pop-friendly version of hardcore, hit the Netherlands (via the UK) in 1995. Between 1995 and 1996 Paul Elstak made the switch from gabber to happy hardcore, releasing a series of happy hardcore tracks via Rotterdam Records. Though the music was commercially successful, the move alienated the diehard gabber community that had grown around the label.

Happy Hardcore: Mokum Records

In 1995 Mokum released ‘I Wanna Be A Hippy’ by British act Technohead, featuring remixes by Flamman & Abraxas and Dano. It was an instant hit, selling 50,000 copies in the Netherlands and topping the charts in several countries around the world. As with Rotterdam Records, Mokum continued to release a mix of underground hardcore/gabber and more commercial hardcore music for the remainder of the ‘90s, including parody acts like Hakkûhbar.

Gabber Parodies

Hakkûhbar, formed by Bob Fosko, was the first gabber parody act to emerge in the Netherlands. Their track 'Gabbertje' hit the top of the Dutch music charts when it was released in 1996. Many more parody acts followed, who outrightly mocked the music and the culture. It was the beginning of the end of the gabber scene.

TMF Hakkeehhh!!

Gabber peaked in 1996. The same year Dutch music channel TMF launched it's own weekly gabber TV show: TMF Hakkeehhh!! Hosted by Thunderdome MCs Drokz and Da Mouth of Madness, TMF Hakkeehhh!! broadcasted gabber raves, interviews and more to the livingrooms of thousands of gabber fans every Monday nigth from 10PM, becoming one of the channel's most popular shows. Here is Da Mouth of Madness reporting from Mysteryland Indoor in 1997.

Gabber Commercials: Duyvis

By the mid-'90s gabber had transitioned from an underground youth culture movement into an exploitable commodity for advertisers. Here's an advert for Duyvis dipsaus.

Gabber Commercials: Kit Kat

Even Kit Kat tried to cash in on the gabber craze.

Media Frenzy

The press were drawn to the excesses of gabber culture. TV and newspaper reports focused on the hooliganism, racially motivated violence and extreme drug-taking associated with the gabber scene. During a New Years Eve rave in 1996 at the Energiehal in Rotterdam, 19-year-old Dennis Goudappel died from a suspected overdose. His story was turned into a 1997 investigative TV documentary by Dutch broadcasters VARA.

Collapse and Rebirth

Prolonged negative media profiling, commercial exploitation, parodies and massive overexposure all contributed to the collapse of the gabber scene. By the end of the '90s, gabbers were a national joke and many DJs moved away from gabber into other genres. At this point ID&T issued a series of EPs by DJ Promo showcasing a darker, rawer sound, inspired by Marc Acardipane and early PCP. ‘The Promo Files’ marked the start of a new scene emerging from the ashes of gabber, complete with a new uniform. Dutch hardcore was (re)born.