"I already sing about the obvious advantage of living in Holland!"

Mark Foggo can't wait to visit Bulgaria with his Skasters for the first time ever, and the reason for his show in Sofia on March 23 shall be the first birthday of Tangra Mega Rock!

Vassil Varbanov: Hey, Mark, how are you?

Mark Foggo: Hey, I'm great, thank you!

V. V.: Where are you at the moment?

M. F.: I'm in Belgium, in Antwerp, sitting by the sea.

V. V.: What's the weather like?

M. F.: Terrible! it's always terrible here.

V. V.: You know, actually the birthday of Tangra Mega Rock is today, March 20...

M. F.: Happy birthday!

V. V.: Thank you very much! The second thing is that you and your band are coming to play on the occasion of this birthday in 3 days. You haven't played in Bulgaria so far. Why?

M. F.: Yeah, it's the first time for me. Nobody's ever asked us before.

V. V.: I don't know whether you know, but you're famous here with "Hashish from Amsterdam", so please tell us more about it. For example, why is the song not on your "best of" CD?

M. F.: It will probably come out on the "Best of, Vol. 2", ha-ha! Anyway, the story of the song is that we were on tour in Germany quite a few years ago. We're from Holland, so duringВ a soundcheck somebody from the band just started playing the famous tune "Tulips from Amsterdam", and we began jamming away with it and singing "hashish" instead of "tulips", and everybody was saying, "You've gotta record it! Do it!", so when we got back to Holland we booked a studio and recorded "Hashish from Amsterdam" in ska.

V. V.: We know you were born in Liverpool - the most dangerous city in Europe, as they call it.

M. F.: Well, some do, yeah... I haven't been there for many years.

V. V.: Why did you move from England?

M. F.: I was playing punk - this was in the late 1970's - and my band split up. Our drummer moved to Rotterdam, because he was offered a job with a punk band there. We kept in contact for a few months, and then he said, "Why don't you come here for a few weeks? We'll have a lot of fun!", so I did. I came over there and stayed... ever since.

V. V.: What are the advantages of living in Holland?

M. F.: Well, the obvious one I already sing about, ha-ha-ha! I don't know... When I arrived in Holland years ago, I got in contact with several musicians and thought, let's just try it here for a while and see how it goes. I got a lot of work and gigs, we released a single called "New Shoes" - it's on the "best of" CD - and it was a bit of a hit in Northern Europe. It just built up and went on from there, and I had no reason to go back.

V. V.: You'll be playing here, in Sofia, on Friday, March 23. As you know, it won't be exactly a concert, but a birthday party, together with 4 more bands. What do you think of The Toy Dolls?

M. F.: I've known their music for a long time, as I was into it years ago. I don't known them personally, but they're great entertainers.

V. V.: What do you expect to see in Bulgaria?

M. F.: It'll be a complete surprise to me and I'm really looking forward to it.

V. V.: Now tell us more about your band, the Skasters.

M. F.: There's 7 of us. The band exists for over 20 years, but not many of the original members are still here, only one in fact - Paul Berding, the saxophone player, who's been with me for 25 years. He just became a father two or three days ago, by the way. Otherwise we have quite a stable band - the drummer Rene Beaart has been with me for nearly 10 years and... I mean, we don't change very often. The last change we've had was the guitar player, just a few months ago. The one who left, Mr. Fish, had been with me for more than a decade, but he wanted to do his own ska project, and the guitarist who joined us now is 22 years old and is absolutely phenomenal! His name is Loek Hauwert.

V. V.: What did his parents say when they heard he's going to join Mark Foggo's Skasters?

M. F.: I don't know, I didn't speak to them about it, he-he! He was already playing in another ska band in Holland, so we knew a little bit about him, and when the time was right we took him away from that band - this upset them, because he was in fact their leading member, so we kinda messed that group up. I feel a bit guilty about that, but we need the best in the Skasters, so we had to go for it.

V. V.: Well, I hope you guys will have a great flight to Bulgaria!

M. F.: Yeah, we'll start the party before we get there, ha-ha!

Copyright: Tangra Mega Rock