Pioneer punk rock women Lou’s badges reconstructed


This music video (only audio, unfortunately) is the Lou’s playing their song Back on the street.

The Lou’s were the first punk band in France, and the first all-women rock band in any genre in France.

They were Dutch Sascha (aka Saskia, Syama) de Jong on drums, and three Frenchwomen: Raphaelle Devins on rhythm guitar, Tolim Toto on bass and Pamela Popo, vocals and lead guitar.

They were the only band playing on both days of the 1977 Mont de Marsan punk festival.

This video shows British band the Damned at that festival.

The Lous were support band to the Clash during the 1977 Out of Control tour in the UK.

In 1978, they played with Public Image Limited.

In 1978-1979, Sascha became drummer, and Raphaelle saxophone player, in London band Verdict. They played much for Rock against Racism.

Meanwhile, Pamela and Tolim founded Les Rois Fainéants in France.

In 1981, Sascha was back in her native Leiden, the Netherlands. She founded the all-girl Miami Beach Girls.

This is a live video of the Miami Beach Girls playing their song Delight in Utrecht in 1981.

Raphaelle came to Leiden as well, playing saxophone in Cheap ‘n’ Nasty.

Now, in November 2020, Dutch visual artist Marion van Egmond has reconstructed the original 1977 Lou’s badges. Today, there are 5 big and 5 small glow-in-the dark badges.

Lou's badge

In 1980, Ms van Egmond was one of four 12-13-year-old girls, the youngest punk band in the world. Younger than Eater. Dutch national radio interviewed them. But the drummer’s father did not want his daughter to play. And so, Marion’s and her bandmates’ plan to play a support set to British band Crass and Poison Girls and Dutch Cheap ‘n’ Nasty did not happen.

Locally extinct fish back in the Netherlands


This 28 July 2020 Dutch video is about a rare fish species, the allis shad.

It had been considered extinct in the Netherlands, because of pollution, overfishing, and human-made obstacles in rivers had stopped its migration from the North Sea up the river Rhine.

Recently, a small opening was made in the Haringvliet dam, to enable fish to travel up the Rhine.

This week, researchers discovered two adult allis shad fish in the Haringvliet.

Rare hoopoes nest in the Netherlands


This 2019 video is called Hoopoe facts: birds with stinkin’ great accuracy | Animal Fact Files.

This spring, for the first time since a long time ago, a hoopoe couple has nested in the Netherlands: in the Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen area, in a hollow in a big tree. Five young hoopoes have fledged.