Birthplace of that fan dancing temptress Mata Hari.
20 September 2015
peter mcornithologist
Largest city and capital of Friesland. Frieslanders have long been considered to be exceptionally tall. The fact was mentioned by Dante all those years ago. Possibly a factor behind The Netherlands korfball success?
20 September 2015
dickhead in quicksand
@PMcO – are you allowed to stand on two teammates in korfball, though? Inf. XXXI:65.
21 September 2015
peter mcornithologist
@ Dickhead.If the teammates are Gagarin and De Burgh ,or 2 similar shortarses, then yea,verily.
21 September 2015
Peter mcornithologist
We may have been led to believe that the locals are a bunch of jolly grinning grouters but the supporters of the local football team, F.C Cambuur, are notoriously naughty. The M.I. Ultras are not joybringers.
1 February 2016
Dr desperate
Anyone fancy a trip there in 2018 – it’s going to be the European Capital of Culture, nietwaar?
29 February 2016
Rubber Faced Irritant
For sure.
There may be an opportunity to hear those bells-a-ringing and even glimpse Alice van der Meer.
I passed within a few kilometres last year whilst on a motorbike road trip with a non-Biscuitonian. He was already irked by being asked to photograph me outside the Melkweg earlier in the day. I thought I’d be pushing my luck to ask him to make another detour.
If you told me that from Leeuwarden you can get an Ordinary to Enschede then I’d crawl there on my knees.
1 March 2016
Alice van der meer
You called, M’sieur Irritant? (and I’m also a bellringer…)
They really ought to have another vote and call the N357 the even more popular N310.
11 April 2018
Featureless tv producer steve
“Sietske Poepjes”
I think I’m in love.
12 April 2018
EXXo
BBC4 you say? Maybe after I’ve put me tea on, which has been delayed ‘cos I got too absorbed in Leeuwarden scrapping in the sleety rain to go fourth in the top division behind the big three. Highest league place for a generation.
26 November 2021
Just another lackey
I was listening to Elfstedentocht Parts 1 & 2 by Public Service Broadcasting at the weekend and my ears pricked up at the mention of Leeuwarden. The music is inspired by the Elfstedentocht ice skating event held every now and then in Friesland during which skaters race approximately 200km between 11 historical cities. A quick check of Wikipedia reveals the race starts and finishes in Leeuwarden so I guess the citizens of our favourite Friesan town are not just joyful when the ice skating takes place, but cock-a-hoop too.
Feel free to enjoy the PSB Elfstedentocht on Youtube….
Discovered last night (on ‘Pointless Celebrities’) that ‘leeuw’ is the Dutch for lion, which might have explained the depiction of that animal on the flag of Leeuwarden. However, the chronology of nomenclature of the city doesn’t fit, so it’s probably one of those little jokes that vexillographers are so fond of.
20 August 2023
Rien
@Dr D – The lion (leeuw) in the flag of Leeuwarden occurs in other city flags too. It’s the lion from the Dutch coat of arms and royal standard, and has nothing to do with the name of the town. Nice theory, though. ;-)
28 June 2025
Fred From Amsterdam
Has anyone before me noted that HMHB have actually played in Leeuwarden? They did so on 26 April 1986, as part of a six-day Dutch tour, which as one newspaper review reports, were their very first (and last – Ed) gigs outside the UK. They performed in the country’s four major cities, Utrecht, The Hague, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam, as well as two outliers: Deventer in the east, and Leeuwarden in the north.
The Leeuwarden gig was at De Brouwershoeck, tucked away in narrow Poststraat, number 21. Brouwershoeck, meaning “Brewer’s Corner”, had a pub downstairs and a modestly sized concert space upstairs. Just to get an idea: when a crowd of 170 came to watch HMHB, the local paper considered this to be “a large audience”.
De Brouwershoeck, sometimes spelt Brouwershoek, operated in the 70s and 80s, then changed its name repeatedly, to Gloppe, Bar 21 and Club 21. Its current status is unclear, since its last renter, a holding company named De Lachende Koe II, or “The Laughing Cow II”, went bankrupt in 2024.
Under whatever name, it must have been the hottest venue in town. It was the place to go for anything from jazz and blues to punk and techno; it was once described as “where all styles are completely free”. Alongside local bands, jam sessions and DJ’s, it featured odd (often formerly famous) names from abroad, such as The Peddlers and Captain Sensible. Its most notable regular guest was local resident and guitar legend Jan Akkerman (q.v.). Akkerman had played at the Brouwershoeck on 29 March 1986, just four weeks apart from HMHB.
The HMHB Dutch tour was immortalized in at least three newspaper reviews. Two of them, in the national papers NRC Handelsblad and Volkskrant, reviewed the first gig, at Tivoli, Utrecht. The Brouwershoeck concert got a review of its own in the proud local daily, Leeuwarder Courant. The concert was “great fun”, it wrote, the venue was “steaming”, and it didn’t matter that the music was simple and most of the English references were lost on the Frisian public. “The uninhibited presentation and the whining melodies were very amusing and the audience crowded in front of the low stage to catch a glimpse of the band.” In the course of the concert “the enthusiasm and the temperature reached boiling point”, and the band abandoned the fight exhaustedly after an hour and a half and three encores. In contrast, the local support act, a band called The Peptones, were judged to be “dreary” and “pretentious”, and suffering from (I’ll leave this untranslated) “gezochte arrangementen en moeilijkdoenerij”.
—
Footnote number 1, on sources: most of this information is from http://www.delpher.nl, an archival site that offers access to millions of historic Dutch newspapers and magazines. Here’s a direct link to the Leeuwarder Courant review: https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:010566024:mpeg21:p006. Footnote number 2, biographical: I spent my teens in the 1970s in the Dutch province of Friesland, of which Leeuwarden is the modest capital. It featured the nearest serious record store to my home, called Bij de Put, or “At the Well”, where I bought life-changing albums such as Kevin Coyne’s “Blame it on the Night” and either “Jammy Smears” or “Dandruff” by Ivor Cutler. I moved on from Friesland as soon as I could, but once having been there, one is left with irreparable memories.
4 February 2026
Chris The Siteowner
Time to resurrect the Silver Biscuit Award, I think. Superb stuff, Fred.
4 February 2026
EXXO
Brilliant stuff, Fred. Silver Biscuit nomination seconded. I’m sure some of us were aware of the tour, but not of the details. When living in Cairo in 1992-94, I bonded with a musician from Tilburg over his musical tastes, and he’d been at the Rotterdam gig on that tour, and had been a fan ever since. He was the first person (of several) I’ve met to play me Biscuit tunes on the mandolin.
Hartelijk bedankt for the detail and links!
4 February 2026
Chris The Siteowner
There’s not a lot been written about the tour, but at least one member of the band discovered they didn’t like touring, never mind being abroad, and consequently they’ve hardly played a gig in the 40 years since where they didn’t go home the same night.
In Nige Tassell’s book “Whatever Happened To The C86 Kids?”, talking to Nigel B, he says:
“We did a six-date tour of Holland. There’s no way I’d do that now but, again, we were just following instructions. I remember the itinerary: Utrecht, Groningen, Deventer, Leeuwarden, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. It was the first time I’d ever been abroad. We were driven by this guy called Bob Proctor who had been on tour with the Who and had had to look after Keith Moon. He ended up having to come into a Dutch supermarket to show me how to buy a packet of crisps. I was pathetic. It remains the only time I’ve been anywhere. All I remember is steep staircases and cheese for breakfast.”
Nigel obviously also learned how to buy a football shirt when he was in Amsterdam as he was wearing a box-fresh Ajax top when the band appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test the following month, May 1986.
I chatted to (the band’s much-missed manager) Geoff Davies once at a gig, and asked why there were so many copies of the “Dickie Davies Eyes” 7-inch single for sale (I think there still are). Geoff said that he’d planned for the band to do a lot more touring, including elsewhere in Europe, so he had tens of thousands pressed for sale. The touring never happened and he’d been storing them in his garage ever since. Of course Geoff’s tales were often as far-fetched as Nigel’s, but this one sounds quite possibly true.
✉ Letters Sent (19)
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(4 months ago by Sylvian's Whippet)
peter mcornithologist
Birthplace of that fan dancing temptress Mata Hari.
20 September 2015
peter mcornithologist
Largest city and capital of Friesland. Frieslanders have long been considered to be exceptionally tall. The fact was mentioned by Dante all those years ago. Possibly a factor behind The Netherlands korfball success?
20 September 2015
dickhead in quicksand
@PMcO – are you allowed to stand on two teammates in korfball, though? Inf. XXXI:65.
21 September 2015
peter mcornithologist
@ Dickhead.If the teammates are Gagarin and De Burgh ,or 2 similar shortarses, then yea,verily.
21 September 2015
Peter mcornithologist
We may have been led to believe that the locals are a bunch of jolly grinning grouters but the supporters of the local football team, F.C Cambuur, are notoriously naughty. The M.I. Ultras are not joybringers.
1 February 2016
Dr desperate
Anyone fancy a trip there in 2018 – it’s going to be the European Capital of Culture, nietwaar?
29 February 2016
Rubber Faced Irritant
For sure.
There may be an opportunity to hear those bells-a-ringing and even glimpse Alice van der Meer.
I passed within a few kilometres last year whilst on a motorbike road trip with a non-Biscuitonian. He was already irked by being asked to photograph me outside the Melkweg earlier in the day. I thought I’d be pushing my luck to ask him to make another detour.
If you told me that from Leeuwarden you can get an Ordinary to Enschede then I’d crawl there on my knees.
1 March 2016
Alice van der meer
You called, M’sieur Irritant? (and I’m also a bellringer…)
Somewhat less joy near Leeuwarden at the mo.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-43725796
11 April 2018
EXXO
They really ought to have another vote and call the N357 the even more popular N310.
11 April 2018
Featureless tv producer steve
“Sietske Poepjes”
I think I’m in love.
12 April 2018
EXXo
BBC4 you say? Maybe after I’ve put me tea on, which has been delayed ‘cos I got too absorbed in Leeuwarden scrapping in the sleety rain to go fourth in the top division behind the big three. Highest league place for a generation.
26 November 2021
Just another lackey
I was listening to Elfstedentocht Parts 1 & 2 by Public Service Broadcasting at the weekend and my ears pricked up at the mention of Leeuwarden. The music is inspired by the Elfstedentocht ice skating event held every now and then in Friesland during which skaters race approximately 200km between 11 historical cities. A quick check of Wikipedia reveals the race starts and finishes in Leeuwarden so I guess the citizens of our favourite Friesan town are not just joyful when the ice skating takes place, but cock-a-hoop too.
Feel free to enjoy the PSB Elfstedentocht on Youtube….
https://youtu.be/o63qrV4iKTc
21 February 2022
dr DEsperate
Discovered last night (on ‘Pointless Celebrities’) that ‘leeuw’ is the Dutch for lion, which might have explained the depiction of that animal on the flag of Leeuwarden. However, the chronology of nomenclature of the city doesn’t fit, so it’s probably one of those little jokes that vexillographers are so fond of.
20 August 2023
Rien
@Dr D – The lion (leeuw) in the flag of Leeuwarden occurs in other city flags too. It’s the lion from the Dutch coat of arms and royal standard, and has nothing to do with the name of the town. Nice theory, though. ;-)
28 June 2025
Fred From Amsterdam
Has anyone before me noted that HMHB have actually played in Leeuwarden? They did so on 26 April 1986, as part of a six-day Dutch tour, which as one newspaper review reports, were their very first (and last – Ed) gigs outside the UK. They performed in the country’s four major cities, Utrecht, The Hague, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam, as well as two outliers: Deventer in the east, and Leeuwarden in the north.
The Leeuwarden gig was at De Brouwershoeck, tucked away in narrow Poststraat, number 21. Brouwershoeck, meaning “Brewer’s Corner”, had a pub downstairs and a modestly sized concert space upstairs. Just to get an idea: when a crowd of 170 came to watch HMHB, the local paper considered this to be “a large audience”.
De Brouwershoeck, sometimes spelt Brouwershoek, operated in the 70s and 80s, then changed its name repeatedly, to Gloppe, Bar 21 and Club 21. Its current status is unclear, since its last renter, a holding company named De Lachende Koe II, or “The Laughing Cow II”, went bankrupt in 2024.
Under whatever name, it must have been the hottest venue in town. It was the place to go for anything from jazz and blues to punk and techno; it was once described as “where all styles are completely free”. Alongside local bands, jam sessions and DJ’s, it featured odd (often formerly famous) names from abroad, such as The Peddlers and Captain Sensible. Its most notable regular guest was local resident and guitar legend Jan Akkerman (q.v.). Akkerman had played at the Brouwershoeck on 29 March 1986, just four weeks apart from HMHB.
The HMHB Dutch tour was immortalized in at least three newspaper reviews. Two of them, in the national papers NRC Handelsblad and Volkskrant, reviewed the first gig, at Tivoli, Utrecht. The Brouwershoeck concert got a review of its own in the proud local daily, Leeuwarder Courant. The concert was “great fun”, it wrote, the venue was “steaming”, and it didn’t matter that the music was simple and most of the English references were lost on the Frisian public. “The uninhibited presentation and the whining melodies were very amusing and the audience crowded in front of the low stage to catch a glimpse of the band.” In the course of the concert “the enthusiasm and the temperature reached boiling point”, and the band abandoned the fight exhaustedly after an hour and a half and three encores. In contrast, the local support act, a band called The Peptones, were judged to be “dreary” and “pretentious”, and suffering from (I’ll leave this untranslated) “gezochte arrangementen en moeilijkdoenerij”.
—
Footnote number 1, on sources: most of this information is from http://www.delpher.nl, an archival site that offers access to millions of historic Dutch newspapers and magazines. Here’s a direct link to the Leeuwarder Courant review: https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:010566024:mpeg21:p006.
Footnote number 2, biographical: I spent my teens in the 1970s in the Dutch province of Friesland, of which Leeuwarden is the modest capital. It featured the nearest serious record store to my home, called Bij de Put, or “At the Well”, where I bought life-changing albums such as Kevin Coyne’s “Blame it on the Night” and either “Jammy Smears” or “Dandruff” by Ivor Cutler. I moved on from Friesland as soon as I could, but once having been there, one is left with irreparable memories.
4 February 2026
Chris The Siteowner
Time to resurrect the Silver Biscuit Award, I think. Superb stuff, Fred.
4 February 2026
EXXO
Brilliant stuff, Fred. Silver Biscuit nomination seconded. I’m sure some of us were aware of the tour, but not of the details. When living in Cairo in 1992-94, I bonded with a musician from Tilburg over his musical tastes, and he’d been at the Rotterdam gig on that tour, and had been a fan ever since. He was the first person (of several) I’ve met to play me Biscuit tunes on the mandolin.
Hartelijk bedankt for the detail and links!
4 February 2026
Chris The Siteowner
There’s not a lot been written about the tour, but at least one member of the band discovered they didn’t like touring, never mind being abroad, and consequently they’ve hardly played a gig in the 40 years since where they didn’t go home the same night.
In Nige Tassell’s book “Whatever Happened To The C86 Kids?”, talking to Nigel B, he says:
“We did a six-date tour of Holland. There’s no way I’d do that now but, again, we were just following instructions. I remember the itinerary: Utrecht, Groningen, Deventer, Leeuwarden, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. It was the first time I’d ever been abroad. We were driven by this guy called Bob Proctor who had been on tour with the Who and had had to look after Keith Moon. He ended up having to come into a Dutch supermarket to show me how to buy a packet of crisps. I was pathetic. It remains the only time I’ve been anywhere. All I remember is steep staircases and cheese for breakfast.”
Nigel obviously also learned how to buy a football shirt when he was in Amsterdam as he was wearing a box-fresh Ajax top when the band appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test the following month, May 1986.
I chatted to (the band’s much-missed manager) Geoff Davies once at a gig, and asked why there were so many copies of the “Dickie Davies Eyes” 7-inch single for sale (I think there still are). Geoff said that he’d planned for the band to do a lot more touring, including elsewhere in Europe, so he had tens of thousands pressed for sale. The touring never happened and he’d been storing them in his garage ever since. Of course Geoff’s tales were often as far-fetched as Nigel’s, but this one sounds quite possibly true.
4 February 2026
Sylvian's Whippet
Birthplace of M.C. Escher, according to this morning’s MapTap.
That’s the M. C. Escher who’s most famous for his “impossible” drawings of staircases; not to be confused with any rappers of the same name.
17 June 2026