The Death of RICHIE BACKFIRE!

by John Schoorl July 24, 1999, 0:00 AM

Those who saw him coming - a bald, tattooed giant with rings in his ears - preferred to step aside ....

It was written on his stomach. Victim In Pain. Freely translated: victim with pain. In large stately
letters even, carefully put by Tattoo Guus. If he sat behind the drums with bare torso, everyone
could read the text. His band members. Public. The scene.

Richie? Victim? The long, beastly-good drummer from Backfire!?

Nobody from the M-town Rebels, as the Maastricht hardcore scene calls itself, could imagine
anything about that. Pain? That Victim In Pain was just a song from the renowned American band
Agnostic Front? A favorite song, from a favorite band, and nothing more.

Richie was "two meters hardcore," they knew in the scene. A leading figure in the M-town Rebels.
Always busy with this hard music, a fierce variant of punk. A tree of a guy. Bald head with
earrings. Full of tattoos. And tattoos that refer to favorite bands belong to hardcore like a western
shirt to country.

His father Jo Bruinen was the first to suspect that Richard did not just have tattoos put on. After he
returned from the United States last December, after a chaotic tour with an American band,
Freedom was tattooed in large letters in his neck. Just below, pressing on his Adam's apple, a
crown, as it were.
Jo Bruinen: 'I saw him enter the living room, saw the tattoos and thought: our Richard has it
wrong. Freedom is freedom. That crown at the very top of his body. A crown on his life's work: a
body full of tattoos. Freedom becomes the crown on his life's work. That means he wanted to quit.
Suicide.'

"Boy, do you have all those tattoos," his mother Lucie asked. He remained silent, turned around
the answer and went upstairs to his room that he had been in for a few weeks in the family home.
'Richard, do you have those tattoos for what happened? To tell your story with that? ”, His mother
called after him.

Father: 'We suddenly understood that he had events of his life on his skin. We had never thought
about that before. We thought he saw it as an ornament. But suddenly we also understood Victim
In Pain. He wanted to tell something without saying anything. "

Jo and Lucie Bruinen were only aware of 'the story' of their 26-year-old son for two months. One
day after his mother found a crumpled - unsuccessful - suicide letter in his room, he had told it. At
the age of 8 he was raped by a man. It was about 'a big guy' who then got into a car with 'a Belgian
license plate'. It happened close to their home in Maastricht, between a bunch of old containers. All
this time, for eighteen years, he had not dared to tell anything, he said to his parents: "I was
ashamed, I didn't want to hurt you."

His mother: "He was our only child. He always told us everything. We have never noticed anything
about him. Yes, afterwards. . . He sometimes showered three times a day.

"Rinse off smoothly," he would say. I just thought: that boy is beautiful in itself. And he was always
restless. He couldn't sit still for a moment. At night I heard him leave the bed and then he went for
a walk in the neighborhood. Richard returned after a few hours. That's how he was. "

He was a kid who was always drumming with his fingers on the table, his parents tell in their neat
Maastricht terraced house. Richard wanted to become a drummer and his greatest wish was a
drum set. The music he played had to be especially hard - hardcore.

In Maastricht, in the early nineties, he was not the only one who devoted himself entirely to this
music. They were ten and called themselves M-town Rebels, as Eindhoven in hardcore circles was
called E-town. The scene in South Limburg quickly grew to a hundred people. Everyone started a
tape, their own magazine and had the weapon of Maastricht tattooed on their body.

There was also a hardcore sound of their own, says Serge van Uden, editor-in-chief of Core, the
Dutch-language hardcore and punk rock magazine. 'Hard, straightforward, and yet with a specific
Maastricht sound. That was because everyone played together. Richie was a drummer for Right
Direction. That band had a pioneering role and determined the sound. Richie was always at all
concerts of all bands. He kept track of everything. "

Dave Reumers, friend of Richard and singer of Right Direction: 'Richard was very proud of our
scene. His entire life revolved around the band and the music. He has grown a lot in that time.
From a shy kid to a two-meter guy who took care of everything. If he didn't have to perform
himself, he would watch everywhere, or he would book performances. Hardcore was his outlet. "

"He strongly believed in the positive of hardcore," says Onno Cromag, friend and editor of the
music magazine Aardschok. 'If you saw him, you'd prefer to take a block. But he was a gentle boy,
always enthusiastic, and he didn't hurt a fly. "

The music went better and better. Right Direction became known throughout Europe. Backfire !,
where he has been playing drums since 1994, also appeared to impress in the genre. Onno Cromag:
'When I got Backfire! heard for the first time, I thought: "This is not possible, I have never heard
this." With a huge appearance. An adrenaline rush. So heavy. You hear something like that every
once in a while. "

Backfire! performed for tens of thousands of people in the Netherlands, such as the Dynamo Open
Air festival and the Lowlands festival. Major American bands, touring Europe, asked Backfire! as
a supporting act. Negotiations were negotiated with the American record label Victory Records.
"Backfire! is one of the best known hardcore groups, also outside of their own country. Many
people in America knew the band, "says a representative of Victory Records. Richard Bruinen was
seen as one of the very best hardcore drummers.

In interviews, he gave his fans wise life lessons. 'Be yourself, don't act stupidly. Consider where
your roots are and what you stand for. ' Or: 'You don't have to sit in a corner and do everything;
then it really goes wrong. " As if he mainly spoke to himself, because outside of the music or band
he could absolutely not find his way. He took a job here and there, was a carpenter for a while, or
worked at the municipal waste collection service. Every attempt to get a regular relationship ended
in nothing. For a while he lived in a house with a group of friends.

About a year ago he ended up in a room in the center of Maastricht. Only. It was as if he were
thinking about his past there for the first time, his mother says. He got into a depression, he thought
it was terrible in that room. After six weeks his mother said: 'Boy, come and live with us again. Do
you care that they will say that is not appropriate for a guy of 26. What does that matter? "

They also noticed the struggle of 'the long one' in the band. After concerts he often sat staring
ahead. That while he seemed to be playing better than ever, was behind the drums with a big smile.
"You couldn't take your eyes off him. It was as if he was giving light. " To Backfire! Guitarist
Wybrand Brouwer he said: 'I have everything. I have a good bond. Friends. But I'm not happy. I
am happy only when I play.'

He actually wanted to shout from the rooftops what really bothered him. About the rape, 18 years
ago, and the sadness he still had from it. That he had meanwhile sought help from his doctor and
the Riagg. But he didn't dare. He finally told a girl who was told to tell the band.

Wybrand Brouwer: 'Hardcore is after all the world of tough guys. It's about the music and the fun.
A boy like him, with such a stature and all those tattoos, did not want to go off like a pathetic heap
of people. After he told it, he was not bothered. He apparently kept feeling unhappy and actually
didn't want to talk about anything. He was ashamed. "
Dave Reumers: "He was never serious. And when he got serious, with problems or something, then
I thought: man, what a dick you are. When he talked about the Riagg, I started to laugh loudly. I
thought it was a raw joke. "
A few weeks ago his very last recording appeared: Old Habits Die Hard by Determined, another
Maastricht band in which he played the drums. On the cover is a sticker: "In loving memory of
Richard Bruinen, 1972-1999." The CD contains one song written by him: Fuck the past, kiss the
future. At a supersonic pace, and with overwhelmingly hard, fast drum beats, he dares to describe
his trauma for the first time. "The innocence you took from me / All the tears that I have cried /
The secrets that I tried to hide / All the nights I couldn't sleep / Because of what you did to me / Did
you ever think of me?"
His mother Lucie: "Sometimes he sat staring sadly before him, then I asked him:" "Boy, can I do
something for you? Is there anything else we need to know? "" "There is only one thing that can
help me," he said, "and that is death."
On March 19, he went to the Riagg early in the morning. When he got home, he had red eyes from
crying. In the afternoon he took a thousand guilders from the bank to - probably - buy a weapon.
He told his parents that he had a party in the evening. "See you later," he wrote on a note, without
drawing his usual drum.
The next day Richard was found by scouts in the forest. A gunshot wound to his head. Next to him
lay a weapon, a smoked joint, and a backpack containing a pack of goat feet and a bottle of Spa.
Local residents had seen him go into the forest the previous day.
Dave Reumers received a CD in the letterbox last week. The newest from the American band
Agnostic Front, which will be in stores in September. Bullit On Mottstreet, is called a number. "A
tribute to Richie Backfire, A Victim In Pain."
Victim In Pain was shot during the funeral in the church. Hard guitar riffs sounded in the packed
church. His mother Lucie: "Richard had already said," "If I die, I want to hear that number of
that band in the church." I never thought that should be allowed, such loud music. But Mr. Pastor
did not find it a problem. Because Mr. Pastor also knew that Richard was in pain. "