Mark Ritsema (born 8 March 1962 in Amsterdam) is a singer, guitarist, songwriter, journalist and writer from the Netherlands. During the eighties and nineties he fronted cult bands Spasmodique and Cobraz and currently he plays with Raskolnikov. He also performs as the solo artist Nightporter and plays guitar for John Sinclair, Vera and Mecano.
Early years
Ritsema, born in Amsterdam, grew up in Zwijndrecht and Maassluis, suburban towns near Rotterdam where he moved with his parents in 1974. After teaching himself to play guitar, Ritsema started writing songs in the late seventies, inspired by the punk and new wave movements. He formed a duo with drummer Reinier Rietveld called Evil a.k.a. Puberpunk. Around 1979 the pair (with Ritsema now on bass) joined singer/guitarist Arjo Hijmans, and guitarist Ed Versloot, to form their first serious, but short lived, band .
Bands
Spasmodique
In 1981 Ritsema began to work at a psychogeriatric nursing home in Capelle a/d IJssel. Here he met bassplayer Martin Doctors van Leeuwen and drummer Bob Stoute, who had just disbanded their band Slum. They joined forces, with Ritsema on lead vocals and guitar. Soon after their first show in a car-park in Nieuwerkerk a/d IJssel in 1982, they were joined by Reinier Rietveld on drums and Arjo Hijmans on guitar. In 1983 Stoute left. In this (classic) line-up Spasmodique remained active until 1990, gaining a solid live-reputation in the Netherlands and releasing a few cassettes during the first half of the decade. They released their first mini-album in 1986, followed by four albums, a mini-album and two singles. The quartet toured intensively throughout the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Hungary and the former Czechoslovakia. After Hijmans left in 1990, they worked with guitar players Niek den Brave, Hans Brussee and Raymond Gerrits, and finally broke up in 1992. In 1998 the classic line-up of Spasmodique reunited. They recorded the soundtrack for the short movie In Forced Perspective by Favola Film (Rino Gouw and Hugo Goudswaard) and performed live in the Rotterdam club Rotown under the name Villa Delirium. Spasmodique started recording new material they had written around 2000. The album Villa Delirium was finally released in 2002 and the book Cellar of Roses, about Spasmodique, edited by Jean-Paul van Mierlo, was launched at the same time. After a lengthy Dutch tour Ritsema decided to leave Spasmodique, which meant the end of the band.
Cobraz
In the early nineties Ritsema started playing and composing with multi-instrumentalist Willem Cramer. Cramer had just left the Rotterdam-based multi-cultural band East Meets West. They soon recruited more (ex-)members of this band – percussionists Alex Eind, Daniël Bloem and John de Wit – to join a 1992 tour of the Netherlands with East Meets West and Hi Ho Silver, called Rotterdam Olay I (De Rotterdamse Daad). They were joined by Martin Doctors van Leeuwen on bass and changed their name to Cobraz. A CD was issued, featuring three tracks by each band on the tour. Most of the band members left after the tour, so Ritsema and Cramer were joined by percussionists Joke Hamminga (East Meets West) and Coen Aalberts (Willy Nilly), and drummer Ron de Bruijn. This line-up debuted in Rotterdam at the Metropolis Festival in 1993. Doctors van Leeuwen left to be replaced by Chris Grem. This sextet recorded Cobraz only studio album Sato Bar (produced by TC Matic guitarist and producer Jean-Marie Aerts) in 1995, and disbanded the following year.