photo: © Luuk Denekamp - De Staat Paradiso, 2016
The exhibition 50 Years of Paradiso opened at the Amsterdam Museum on Friday, March 30. It presented Paradiso as part of Amsterdam’s cultural heritage. It was especially interesting for anyone with memories of Amsterdam’s iconic music venue—of its concerts, parties, debates, or perhaps even their own performances on stage. More than 26,000 events had already taken place at Paradiso.
The exhibition 50 Years of Paradiso showed how the ‘Cosmic Relaxation Center Paradiso,’ which opened its doors on Weteringschans in 1968, developed into the famous music venue. Around 200 unique photographs of concerts and artists, parties and special gatherings, and the many visitors were interspersed with recognizable posters.
Authentic music recordings from Paradiso could also be heard, while visitors, artists, and staff shared their experiences in an audio tour of the venue, which on March 30, 2018, officially marked 50 years.
The Many Stories
Paradiso’s turbulent history contains many remarkable events. In 1967, after the Summer of Love, hip and rebellious young people occupied the dilapidated, abandoned church but soon had to leave again. The first evening at Paradiso on March 30, 1968, was described as ‘unique, mind-expanding, and breathtaking.’ Hashish and marijuana were available from the in-house dealer tolerated by the police.
Paradiso became a magnet for young people. Desperate parents regularly stood in the lobby searching for a child who had run away. But Paradiso was more than a music venue with good music. It was also a creative playground, with children’s afternoons, macrobiotic food, theater, and erotic underground films.
Around 1975, fierce debates arose about whether pop music was art or commerce. Punk sparked a musical revolution, and Paradiso’s audience began to dance. In the early ’80 era, photographer Max Natkiel took his Rolleiflexcamera to Paradiso and made more than a thousand portraits of its diverse audience. Punks, new wavers, rockers, rastas, and skinheads were happy to pose for a photograph in exchange for a beer.
In the early ’80 era, Paradiso received funding from the Ministry of Culture for a series of artists’ parties intended to bring art closer to the public. As part of this initiative, Amsterdam’s Stadskunst Guerilla (SGK) organized the most intense performance ever staged at Paradiso. With elephant dung from Artis in the hall, a curtain of chicken legs, and deafening punk music, they created an anarchic disruption.
In May 1995, the Rolling Stones had the main hall transformed into a New Orleans club, complete with a temporary extra balcony, for the recording of their album Stripped. It looked good and created room for more visitors, so a permanent balcony was later installed. Herman Brood’s impressive funeral took place at Paradiso in 2001, and over the years many love stories began at the music venue.
At the time of the exhibition, Paradiso operated almost around the clock. It hosted a growing number of concerts, events, and major parties such as Manifesto and Lovedance.
Alongside its many stories, the exhibition at the Amsterdam Museum also emphasized the diversity of musical styles. It featured numerous unique photographs by well-known and lesser-known photographers of unforgettable performances, including concerts by De Zangeres Zonder Naam, Hans Dulfer, the Sex Pistols, Prince, David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, Cheb Khaled, Kane, Amy Winehouse, Snoop Dogg, and many others.
