Punishment Park

I formed Punishment Park in November 1990. The band’s first rehearsal took place on December the 23rd 1990. The line-up: me on guitar, Pez on drums, Anja on lead vocals and Claes on bass.

We played our first gig ever on the 19th of April 1991, at Hulen Rock Club in Bergen, Norway. On the 26th of April we supported Life But How To Live It! at Garage Rock Club in Bergen. On the 8th of May we supported Pompel & The Pilts at Joss Pub in Høyanger, on the 10th of May Femi Gange at Hulen, and on the 16th of May Pompel & The Pilts again at Garage. In May Sveini joined the band on keyboard, but he joined too late to play on the first album.

During the rest of the year we played together with bands like Stage Dolls, Stengte Dører and Old Funeral. We released our first album in August 1991. The first person who ever bought the debut CD was Varg Kristian Vikernes, or Count Grishnackh, from the band Burzum. The release was followed by a great release party at Hulen at the end of August.

In November we got a call from A&S Musicproductions in Germany. We got our first record deal offer at the end of November that year.

We signed the deal with A&S Musicproductions for one LP/CD. Anja left the band in January to focus on her studies. Leni replaced Anja on lead vocals. We recorded our new album, The Return Of The Shovel Police, during one week of June in Delta Studio, Germany.

That album was never released by A&S Musicproductions or their partners Inline Music and AVC Music. As it all turned out later, these companies were big frauds. They cheated new and upcoming bands for money and rights. We struggled with these corrupt companies for many years. We were lucky enough to keep a copy of the master DAT tape of the recordings.

We went on our first European tour in the autumn of 1992. We toured Belgium, France, Yugoslavia and Norway with the American band Agent 86. In Lyon, France we played with Jawbreaker from the USA. In September the Yugoslavia leg took us through Novi Sad, Belgrade, Smederevo, Smederevska Palanka and Nis, in what is Serbia today. We had to cancel our one month tour of Italy due to four serious breakdowns of our very old van in Norway, Holland, France and Germany during the tour.

Leni was sacked from Punishment Park in November 1992, after only ten and a half months in the band.

We started to write new songs without a new lead singer. We tried out a few singers who did not work out at all. In April Kikki called the band, and after just one rehearsal she got the job. We started the recordings for our new album during the summer of 1993.

Sveini quit the band to focus on his studies. Birgitte joined for a short time on keyboard to replace Sveini, but left after just a few weeks. After all this we decided to become a quartet for ever. We played a couple of gigs, but 1993 was a quiet year for the band.

We continued the work and recording of our new album. In April and May we went on a four and a half week European tour. The tour included Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Germany. During this tour we played with bands like Jawbox in Poznan, Poland, Dirt and Hellcrusher in Halle, Germany, and Hammerhead and Jennet & Joe in Halberstadt, Germany. We played 27 gigs during this tour, spread over those countries.

We got our first number one hit on an indie radio programme in Croatia with our song This Ain’t No New York Rap Shit!, voted number one for two weeks. At the end of the year we started to mix the new album.

In addition, the album from 1991 was released by Harmony Records in the Czech Republic on vinyl LP, in 666 copies only. This LP version was only sold at gigs.

In May 1995 we went on a two and a half week tour in Germany with the Swedish Tequila Girls, and did a few gigs in Norway. At the end of the year we released the MC Blendwerk in 500 copies. As a bonus, A&S Musicproductions, Inline Music and AVC Music went bust after being sued by several bands, including us. We got back all our rights for the album The Return Of The Shovel Police. All the artwork was lost for ever.

Rovers Records in Poland released our first album from 1991 on MC, in Poland only. The first pressing was 1000 copies, and sold out fast.

In 1996 we were picked up by Dream Circle Records in Germany. Dream Circle released the album Blendwerk on CD, including four bonus tracks from the recordings of The Return Of The Shovel Police, which was never released. In June we went on another two and a half week tour through Germany together with our friends Tequila Girls, and played some gigs in Norway.

We took a break. We only played some local shows in and around Bergen, including the show at Hulen in February together with Tequila Girls, Twigs and Furia. That show was done for the fun of it all and the party after the gig. The gig was recorded live.

We took a break again until April. Then we began the preparations for three concerts in London: the 1st to the 4th of May at Rusking Arms, The Albion and The Laurel Tree. One week before departure our drummer Pez was beaten up by a crazy man at Os, thirty minutes south of Bergen. Pez ended up in hospital and stayed there for a while. The London trip was cancelled. Pez got back on his feet just in time for our concert at Quart Festivalen on the 3rd of July 1997 in Kristiansand.

We kept a low profile until the 29th, 30th and 31st of August. Then we went to London to give three concerts at Rusking Arms, Goldsmith Tarven and The Penbury. We took Twigs with us to London as a supporting act.

We stopped our CD Blendwerk and pulled it off the market because of dissatisfaction with the CD cover artwork. We played a few concerts during the rest of 1997, and between the gigs we took some time off from music.

The album Blendwerk was rereleased with new CD cover artwork and a new title, Party, by Dream Circle Records in Germany. Party sold 1200 copies in the first two weeks, in Germany alone. We started the recording of a new album. Two split vinyl 7 inches were also released: Punishment Park/Mu 330 and Punishment Park/Link 80. Both were pressed in 1000 copies and given away free to the fans. We played a few gigs during the year, but nothing more really happened during 1998.

In 1999 we appeared on the Indica Records compilation Inhale Fig. 2 with a brand new song, Survival Sweetie, next to bands like No Means No, Grimskunk, Liberator and Voodoo Glow Skulls. We were on the DHMG/October Party Records compilation Genetic Mutations Volume One with another brand new song, a cover version of the old German band Nena’s big hit from the 80s, 99 Luftballons, and the same track came out on the compilation CD Outra Coletanea Em CD from Detroit Noise Records.

Dream Circle Records released the single 99 Luftballons in Germany, where it became a small radio hit for the band. Claes decided to leave Punishment Park to concentrate on his studies. In August we asked Katy, lead vocalist and bass player in the great band Twigs, to replace Claes. Katy joined from August 1999 and entered the stage with us at Garage Rock Club in Bergen in November. The concert was a massive hit. Katy rocks like hell and the audience loved the new Punishment Park bass player.

We continued to write and record the new songs we had started on in 1998. That album ended up as the Sweetie EP. We released it at the last official Punishment Park concert, on the 30th of September 2000, together with No Means No at Garage in Bergen.

From 2001 Punishment Park did not exist as a band anymore. The records kept travelling without us. Over the years the band has appeared on hundreds of compilation MCs, LPs and CDs all over the world: Russia, Poland, the USA, Canada, Brazil, China, South Africa, Norway, the UK, Germany and more.

In 2006 our CDs were released in China on October Party Records in Beijing. Three CDs: the first album from 1991, Punishment Park, the second album The Return Of The Shovel Police, and the third album with the last official EP as bonus tracks, Party with Sweetie EP. Each first China pressing was 3000 copies.

We played a show at the Ride This Train Festival in Bergen in 2004, and a private party for Os Rockeklubb, just for fun, with friends, on Saturday the 26th of November 2005 in Lysekloster.

In 2007 we started to talk about a reunion of the band. On Friday the 8th of May 2009 we sat down together at a bar in Bergen. The goal for the night: get the band together and start playing again. It took about nine years to get this done. In 2012 we finally played the planned reunion show at the Barons Festival in Os, on the 28th of July.

On Saturday the 1st of October 2022 we played Hulen in Bergen again, the same room where our first show ever happened in April 1991. Fifteen songs, with short stops between the blocks to tune the guitars and say a few words to the crowd. Then a two song encore. The set list from that night survives in full.

Every release since the start in 1990, as I listed them.

• 1991 Punishment Park CD Sold out!
• 1992 Demo Tape MC Sold out!
• 1994 Demo Tape MC Sold out!
• 1994 Punishment Park LP, Czech Republic Sold out!
• 1995 Punishment Park MC, Poland Sold out!
• 1995 Demo Tape MC Sold out!
• 1995 Blendwerk MC Sold out!
• 1996 Blendwerk CD, Germany Sold out!
• 1996 Blendwerk MC, Poland Sold out!
• 1998 Punishment Park / Mu 330 Split vinyl single Sold out!
• 1998 Punishment Park / Link 80 Split vinyl single Sold out!
• 1998 Party CD, Germany Sold out!
• 2000 Sweetie EP Red vinyl 10" Sold out!
• 2000 The Return Of The Shovel Police White vinyl 10" Sold out!
• 2006 Punishment Park / The Return Of The Shovel Police / Party with Sweetie EP 3 CDs, October Party Records, Beijing. 3000 copies each