artist’s impression of ‘No Sense’

‘Feeding The Fire’ were a political straight-edge band from Dutch Limburg (Kerkrade). Burt & Michiel of ‘Man Lifting Banner’ released their No Submission 7” on their label, Red Wax recs (in 1993). The line-up was (I think) Rob Franssen (vocals), Roger (bass), René Natzel (drums), and guitarists Illona Stephan & Har(ald) Brosselt. (see 91-12-21)

Also ‘No Sense’ were from The Netherlands’ ‘deep south’… Eric Hellebrand’s (bass) favourite bands are ‘No Means No’ & ‘Victims Family’ so you get an idea of how they sounded… Also in the band: Har(ald) Brosselt (vocals; guitar for ‘F.T.F.’), Roy Moonen (drums) and Léon Kleikers (guitar). A few months after this they would record their 7” Ruminating Small Fry.

A month after their 1^st passage ‘Born Against’ was here again… Saying goodbye to their tour-mates (‘Nations On Fire’) and us…. (92-03-08)

‘A.M.D.’ (‘Anti Military Demonstration’) from Budapest, Hungary were (at that time) Sotar (vocals), Loerke (Sandor Fuleki; guitar), Kiskovacs (Zoltan Kovacs; drums) and Sik Endre (bass)… Their music was metal-influenced HC/thrash and the lyrics were in Hungarian. The guys hardly spoke English, only the bassist… I’d gotten to know them via their Sucking Stalin tape in 1988 but they also had an LP out called The Horrors Of War, And Worse! (1991)… (For those who speak Hungarian go to amd-bphc.blogspot.com)

I was really sick and had a fever before the show which was gone afterwards. Bands like ‘Born Against’ and that whole scene marked the beginning for a lot of people (including us). We were being too politically correct for a while, unrealistic and very black and white about things. Obviously not saying people shouldn’t be political but it was a scene being against almost everything. We grew out of it fast luckily. It was a really good show and ‘Born Against’ were at their height back then.

Rob Franssen, ‘F.T.F.’

The second time I was at the V.V. I think for ‘Born Against’ this was the last one of their tour. I don’t recall much of the gig other than ‘B.A.’ were pretty intense. I didn’t know their records until then but was immediately blown away.

Cartsen Pötter, visiter from Frankfurt

The kick-pedal of the drum-kit was totally double-folded by ‘Born Against’s drummer…

Léon Kleikers, ‘No Sense’ guitarist

‘Born Against’ was an emotional wreck on that tour but looking back on most of the videos on YouTube, we played pretty well. And I do think we had a (hypocritical) point about the U.S. musical/style imperialism in Europe at the time that allowed us to tour [Brob: In my view ‘Born Against’ was totally different from the ‘imperialists’…], but also rewarded so many American bands who came over just for being American.

I am still in touch with Sam, saw Jon at a ‘Rorschach’ reunion show and I hear Bret’s doing AOK right now. I am happily living in Richmond, Virginia with my two daughters and wife Alyssa (she sang in ‘Disrupt’ for awhile). I run a jail education-program here and teach adult literacy and English as a Second Language.

Adam Nathanson, ‘Born Against’ guitarist

First of all, many thanks to Brob for persistently inviting us to stroll down memory-lane, a.k.a. harshly confronting us with a long-gone past, which we’ve been carefully moulding and polishing into semi-self-critical historical bliss. If you have young children, you know how often Lightning McQueen says: “Master, this did not happen”… Which leads me to quote Rob Franssen, who said in this blog: “… We grew out of it (being against almost everything) pretty fast”… Oh dear, how I envy your good memory. Mine must be totally distorted. Just like I seem to remember how ‘F.T.F.’ got the VortnVis gig in the first place. After years of lobbying, Bruno VdV and I had signed a contract in triplicate that ‘No Sense’ were going to play at the V.V., together with a German band we knew (seriously, I can’t remember their name right now but they were not straight-edge, they were not well known at all; they were amazing musicians and very nice people though). When Rob F. found out, he insisted that ‘F.T.F.’ deserved to play instead (picture Boris Becker with a tantrum and you get the idea); so that’s what happened. The German band didn’t seem to object very much. They were not political and felt that ‘Born Against’ would tear them to bits because of their apparent lack of political commitment. For those who know German, the phrase he used was “Die werden uns in der Luft zerreissen.”. I think he captured well how ‘B.A.’ were perceived and respected by many at the time. What impressed me most was their explosive sadness-driven (rather than the index-finger-we-know-what’s-good-for-you-lecturing attempts from the imperialist fleet) story-telling. It seemed very real at the time, certainly not hypocritical as Adam Nathanson seems to think. For our band ‘No Sense’, this gig was the absolute pinnacle in terms of crowd-intensity and joy-while-playing. I have fondly accessible rock-star memory snippets of being carried-by-the-crowd-while-playing but according to my V.V. guestbook-entry, I was more concerned with the quality of the sanitary facilities. ‘No Sense’ continued until early 2000s but gradually started to dissolve after I moved to grad school in ‘97. We all have successful careers, abandoned the ideals we never pretended to have and continue to have different opinions about whether ‘Kreator’s Pleasure To Kill is better than ‘Metallica’s Master Of Puppets.

Eric Hellebrand, ‘No Sense’ bassist

From Reminder zine (done by Wim & Chat’n ‘Blindfold’): >>‘Feeding The Fire’ is a communist band and they carry that out on stage. Rumour is they will get a new drummer. They should. The slow parts are heavy and moving, but the fast bits are too fast. ‘No Sense’ is fun-HC. Yes! The music is silly but (most) lyrics are serious. This made us go wild. We’d never heard of ‘A.M.D.’ before. They were good, musically. Social lyrics. Listening-music. But they played too long. ‘Born Against’ played the V.V. for the second time and it was the best. Last show of their Euro-tour and they gave everything they had left. A short but good set. The drummer let out his frustrations on the drum-set in a negative way; the only negative aspect of the show…<<

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Another gig with a mix of locals/regulars (‘Blindfold’ from Menen/Kortrijk & ‘6FO’ from Duncercque; just across the border in France) and ‘newer’ bands… Organised by the Touch My Heart Crew (basically an invention of Ed of ‘Nations On Fire’; more or less the forerunner of the H8000 Crew); who were promoting smoke-free shows.

Karl and his mates (Steph Cormary, Pierre Anne & Fred) were regulars, yes: this was their 3^rd gig and they’d just been here (92-02-09) and their 1^st appearance (91-06-08) was only half a year before this one here. It must’ve been the time their tape was available and right before they recorded their 7” (in Brussels) to be released on Panx recs…

‘Blindfold’s members Wim, Hans & Chat’n were V.V. shitworkers at that time… The band steadily became a established value. They’d done a few gigs here already (91-12-21 & 91-12-31) and some months later they would go into the studio for their 1^st 7”: Sober Mind Meditation released on Edward’s label Warehouse recs.

‘Burning Fight’ (from Oostende/Koksijde) was a SxE band (with connotations to hardline & Hare Krshna). I remember this young kid (at that time) – from the Oostende area – who used to write me – Keith Hioco – was their bassist. On the pic I also recognise Ilja De Ceuleneire (later drummer of ‘Congress’; nowadays a.k.a. Ill Jay) on vocals and Joost ‘Josh’ Noyelle playing guitar… In an interview in Wim Vandekerckhove’s Reminder zine, there’s mentioning of a gig which was their very first one (they “only had 2 songs” and were “all a bit nervous”). That was with Yoeri ‘TMC’ (vocals), Frederic ‘Fre’ (Flameygh) (drums; later ‘Vitality’) and Ilja ‘DAC’ (guitar)… In an other interview I read somewhere (blog.rwhaf.net) Joost (‘Congress’) says: “I knew Fre ([techno] DJ Flameboy) and Keith Hioco from the ‘Burning Fight’ period. I was in that band, which also had Ilja on vocals (!). Their bassplayer quit so I asked UxJ to join. He said yes but didn’t like the drummer, so Ilja switched from mike to drums and we had to find ourselves a singer to move on.”.

‘Right Direction’ from Maastricht played metal-influenced hardcore. The band soon outgrew the DIY scene… In 1991 they put out 2 7”s: The Struggle Continues, and No Reason To Laugh (with Daniel Immekeppel on bass, Richard Bruinen (a.k.a. ‘Ritchie Backfire’ – R.I.P.) on drums, guitarists Chris Immekeppel & Maurice Gijsbers, and Dave Reumers doing vocals. Their album How Many More Lies would appear on Old World recs the next year; it featured Dominique Katjili on lead-guitar and Chris Immekeppel on drums. After that they released stuff on labels such as Lost & Found and Victory recs…

Brob

Photos (kind donation of Bart Verelst):

’6 Feet Over’ (Karl – Pierre – Steph)

‘Right Direction’ (UxJx bottom L)

‘Burning Fight’ (Joost – Ilja – Fré – Keith)

additions wellcome!…

More on this concert: 91-03-16 N.O.F. – Scraps – P.J.D. – C.F.C.

Here’s a some extra photos, donated by Eric ‘React’ W.:

Raphael (guitar) – Xavier (drums) – David (vocals) – Tomoy (bass) [a 'peeping' Lord Moloch and an attentive Brob on the R]

‘Defiance’, an anarcho street-punk band from Portland (Oregon), were bassist Kelly Halliburton (also backing-vocals; ex ‘Resist’ – see 92-06-13, also later on in ‘Cluster Bomb Unit’ for a while), singer Alaric ‘Gibby’ (Tony Mengis of ‘Resist’ was on the split-CD with ‘Police Bastard’ – Ataque Sonoro in ‘95), guitarist Mike ‘Arrogant’ Aragon and drummer Eric ‘Niff’. Kelly put out the European Tour 7” (only sold on that tour) on his Consensus Reality label. There’s also a tape with recordings of their concert in Warsaw, Poland (95-09-15).

‘Cluster Bomb Unit’ (from South Germany, Stuttgart area) were – at that time – Mike Gunser (bass), Oliver Barth (drums & vocals), Roland Sesulka (guitar), Werner Nötzel (guitar) and Marc-Oliver Dambrowski (vocals). They play(ed) D-beat (their own words); Thought Crime releases (Thomas Franke & Jens Walter) described them as “solid crust in raw noise distort”… Kelly of ‘Resist’ had met them on their European tour in 1992 and released a split-flexi on his label. He also joined ‘C.B.U.’ for a while in the noughties. ‘C.B.U.’ did part of the ‘Defiance’ tour with them but didn’t make it to the Vort’n Vis. The band still performs in a slightly different line-up (with a female vocalist).

‘Sabot’ was originally from San Francisco. They live in the Czech Republic nowadays and still play. Nobody really knew the duo but I remember they – Christopher Rankin (bass) & Hilary Binder (drums) – really got the crowd enthusiastic and dancing with their instrumental mix of hardcore-punk and progressive rock/jazz.

‘Stalingrad’ from Bradford were Rich(ard) Claxton (vocals, synthesizer), Russ Snell (guitar), Mik Allison (drums, R.I.P.), Justin Sullivan (bass). They were considered a ‘hate-core’ band by some but read the review I wrote for Tilt! #8… Mik had send me their demo-tape the year before… Later Russ contacted me because he was sorting out some gigs for a tour (together with ‘Underclass’ from Liverpool) and his letters to Bruno remained unanswered. Michael Knopp from Common Cause recs was supposed to help out for Germany. I can ‘t remember if I arranged other gigs in Belgium and/or The Netherlands but they did end up at the V.V. (without ‘Underclass’, if I remember correctly). Mik & me exchanged some decent letters after that… I think they had their split-7” with ‘Voorhees’ out by then (on Jason Kilvington’s label Caught Offside). The 7”s – a self-titled one (on Richard Corbridge’s Armed With Anger) and a split with ‘Underclass’ (with the tracks from the demo; on Caught Offside) – came the next year… In ’98 the album Patty We Kind Of Missed You On Your Birthday was released on Armed With Anger.

Brob

We only played Ieper that one time with ‘Defiance’ and ‘Sabot’ in ‘95. The second tour was with ‘Underclass’ and I’m sure we played La Zone in Liège [96-04-06 Stalingrad, Underclass, Hiatus] on our way into Germany and some god-awful squat in Gent on way out (I think!). [Brob: According to what I found back that was 97-09-05 (Hogepont Squat): Stalingrad, Tromatism (Fra), La Fraction (Fra), Machine Gun Etiquette (UK).] It was a weird one playing with ‘Defiance’ cause they were all ‘punk as fuck’ – haha – and I think there was some trouble because ‘Defiance’s drummer (who was a bit of a dick) was smashing glasses in the bar after the show. ‘Cluster Bomb Unit’ didn’t play; ‘Sabot’ did. We didn’t get to play the V.V. again – I remember we had to practically beg Bruno for a gig… We played Liège and Gent on a later tour… Mik was still in the band when we played Ieper. Bri [Talbot] was driving us then. Bri joined the band [on drums] for the Euro tour in ‘97. Andy Irvine [‘Disaffect’] joined the band after I left and played on the (shitty) 10” released by [German label] Scene Police [entitled Abandonment]. I still go to the 1in12 now and again but am not active really.

Russ Snell, ‘Stalingrad’ guitarist (& 1in12 collaborator)

Unfortunatly we never played at the Vort’n Vis, nor Belgium. Don’t know if we can ever make it there. We had a bunch of offers but the time never really fitted. Maybe in the future… I know the Vort’n Vis is a legendary club! I recall we were supposed to play there once but had to cancel last minute. In a way I’m glad we didn’t play ;-) We do like to be remembered… If no-one would remember that we played when we did, it would mean we were boring… That would be dramatical! Haha…

Oliver Barth, drummer of ‘Cluster Bomb Unit’

Sadly I was in jail most of 1995. I was at the V.V. in ‘92 with ‘Resist’…

Tony Mengis

I think we helped ‘Defiance’ get into the UK by taking their guitars in our van on the ferry…

Brian Talbot

I found my journal but no Vort’n Vis… I must have stopped by then. Bummer… Well I do remember meeting ‘Stalingrad’ on the ferry and hearing stories about how hard it was to get into England. This tour was before the E.U. so every border on our tour was a shakedown, sometimes at gunpoint. Bri offered to take our guitars in their van so we could just walk in like tourists…punk tourists with no money! But it worked; we were let in pretty easily with no gear we didn’t have to answer the standard band-questions. I honestly don’t remember too much about the Vort’n Vis gig – nearly 20 years ago – as I only played there the one time; and well a lot of punk clubs are pretty similar. I do remember drinking at the bar across the street and a biker telling me I had to try Duvel… Great beer and a really fun tour!

Mike ‘Arrogant’, ‘Defiance’ guitarist

Some photos of ‘Defiance’ (by Wim DL -1&2- & Michael M -3):

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Russ: “I have no idea what that post in the guest-book is about! Looks like Mik or Rich’s doing…”

additions wellcome!…

I think this gig at the Vort’n Vis was the best we’ve ever done. The atmosphere was just so brilliant – everybody having a good time, etc. I was just so please to be there that night and experience it. We made many new friends on the tour and it was so great to see our other friends such as your self, mate. Christ, it’s so depressing being back home again – I just want the rest of my life playing gigs in Europe!

‘Badgewearer’ díd eventually turn up at that gig but only after it had long finished and most people had gone home. It turns out that they had been driving all day to try and get to the Vort’n Vis in time but it was so far to travel that they couldn’t make it. It was a shame for them. They looked totally exhausted when they arrived.

Rumours are goin’ around that the Vort’n Vis is SxE? That’s strange. Sure, it’s obvious that a lot of straight-edgers go there but there’s also lots of other kinds of people and punks that go there too, from what I’ve seen. I definitely wouldn’t say that the venue was SxE dominated.

Andy ‘Orchy’ Irvine, bassplayer ‘Disaffect’; personal communication ‘93

‘Disaffect’ (a HC/punk band with political lyrics from Glasgow) had been here the year before (92-10-04)… I’d gotten to know Andy Irvine (bass; later ‘Scatha’, ‘Debris’, etc.) – in the early 90s through his Peace Terrorist distribution (he helped me bring my zine Tilt! to Glaswegian and other Scottish readers) and his DIY label Anonymous recs, so we were writing back and forth a lot. Through him I got to know his band-mates; a bunch of nice, warm-hearted people! They were: Lynne Entwistle (vocals), ‘Joe Fear’ (Jock Deacons; vocals; nowadays in ‘Constant Fear’), ‘IB’ Iain Blue (a.k.a. Debo Williamson; drums, later bass in ‘Scatha’) and Brian Curran (guitar; later ‘Quarantine’, ‘Debris’, etc.). Billy Steele (also in ‘Sedition’; I guess he was driving here…) played second guitar only the last time (94-05-22) they were here…

They had a demo out and the 7” An Injury To One Is An Injury To All on Flat Earth & Nabate in ‘92. 1993 was the year of Work As One, the split-7” with ‘Sedition (Nabate & Flat Earth recs) and the Home Of The Slave 7” (Anonymous recs).

The video that Karl Penando did, was most probably from this gig (not the one in ’94). Brian Curran wrote: “Wasn’t Billy [Steele] playing with us on the ‘94 tour? [He’s not in the video.] I think this video is from ‘93, the gig with ‘Subway Arts’ and a makeshift ‘Hiatus’ borrowing our gear and doing a few songs…” The vid captures the amical and warm-hearted atmosphere quit well. Lots of ‘silly dancing’ (‘Fast music doesn’t mean violent dancing!’, remember…) goin’ on, mates from Liège, Lux and France, etc.

‘Badgewearer’s music was complex jazz-punk with quirky guitars and groovy bass-lines. They were also from Glasgow, Scotland. They released their stuff on (‘Dawson’ guitarist) Jer Reid’s label Gruff Wit recs. The band consisted of Tony Kennedy (bass & bugle), Jim Carstairs (vocals), Ross Main (drums) and ), Neil Bateman (guitar & sax) – but the latter wasn’t on this tour…

‘Subway Arts’ had been here before (93-02-06) and would come back a few times (e.g. 94-04-02), sharing their melodic “anarcho/peace-punk”. Steve ‘Diff’ Differding (guitar), Sabrina D’Aurelio (vocals), Fränz Laureys (bass) and Claude ‘Bourano’ Bour (drums) left their names in the guestbook. I guess guitarist Xavier was also playing; he was on their LP Una Definizione Perveresa Della Pace (I guess that should’ve been ‘Perversa’) that got out that year…

The second bassplayer of ‘Turmoil’ (formerly ‘Moribund Youth’), Tolga Güldal, did an anarchist zine (called 30%; in Turkish) and he’d written about his band (who got a split-tape with ‘Inkisiçao’ released by Resistance productions – Pablo in Switzerland). They were from Istanbul. Besides him there was Taylan/T(a)y Ipek on bass/vocals, Kerim Cönençer on guitar/vocals and Orkun on drums. Bruno announced them in the V.V. newsletter at that time but for some reason ‘Turmoil’ never made it outside of Turkey… The band did some split-releases, e.g. a 7” with ‘Acoustic Grinder (on Boezie’s label Grinding Madness)…

Brob

I’m pretty sure Ross Main was no longer in ‘Badgewearer’ then …but I don’t know who drummed on that tour – they had a few different drummers! … Maybe Duncan Sillars… Mmm could’ve been Duncan on drums … They also had a drummer called Rich but I think that was later on… Neil would know!

Jer Reid

It was nice because we’d started friendship-links with lots of Scottish people and mates. As you know ‘Hiatus’ reformed for 3 gigs in 2009 and we did these with ‘Sedition’. Very good times! ‘Subway Arts’ were very good too; I still have both their records…

Willy ‘Hiatus’

I remember we shook hands in 1993 (or perhaps when I was there in 1995). Lots of memories from those times, all the people and the mighty Vort’n Vis where I slept at least a couple of times… It was Bruno’s good intention to help ‘Turmoil’ with touring Europe and with a (split)LP; which never happened because of hard situations in Turkey. It was a nice dream anyway. I tried my best and with the help of Bruno I showed up alone instead of a tour and had a great time. There was also a great gig with ‘Scraps’; ‘Subway Arts’ & ‘Subcaos’ were touring. [93-08-01]. There were lots of cool people at V.V. like the guy from ‘Neuthrone’, the unknown crusties of ‘War Cry’ and ‘Corpus Christi’, the people of Nabate recs and – I want to mention these names – Boezie, Stevie, Jimyh. I’m still a noise-freak, still enjoy a lot of the same old stuff. I wouldn’t care sounding like ‘Youth Corps’ or ‘Terveet Kadet’…

Tay Ipek, ‘Turmoil’

This was one was with our good friends ‘Hiatus’ and ‘Subway Arts’; we met Diff for the first time. ‘Hiatus’ weren’t on the bill but borrowed our gear and played all the same, and as usual were great.

Brian Curran

All 3 gigs we (‘Disaffect’) played at the Vort’n Vis were brillant. All the people we met, the bands we got to see and play with… Sleeping up in the attic after the gig and getting up next morning to croissants + jam and loads of fruit-juice after a night of boozing and smoking just hit the spot. It was amazing to see this kinds quiet town with this amazing venue and punk-scene, just blew me away. I think the first time we played there me and Andy were looking at gig listing and we had just missed ‘Nausea’ by a couple of weeks, gutted to say the least ;-).

I returned to the Vort’n Vis a couple of years ago with my old band ‘Constant Fear’ and no one told us that the place had moved, so I was arguing with the drummer (as usual) about where the bloody place was. Anyway after travelling for 2 days with 4 hours sleep, we didn’t go down that well, in fact we were shit. But I was disappointed to find that it was not the same place. Didn’t recognise anyone there and I don’t think we will be invited back.

Hard to imagine that the ‘Disaffect’ gigs were all 20 years ago; time just seems to have run away. I don’t remember a lot about the gigs we played as I was pissed but they amazing. So a big thanx to everyone involved with the venue, who put us on, fed and watered us, came to see a band and left as friends. Cheers!

Joe Fear

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

The Slinke Molen squatters from Gent were there…

Olivier Hogie from Toulouse…

Laurent ‘Lorenzo’ from Liège…

Yannick ‘PikPik’ from Lille…

Arnaud Waterblez from Pérenchies…

Pascal Bortzmeyer from Trelon: ” I remember the day when the drummer of ‘Crimpshrine’ & ‘Pinhead Gunpowder’ [Aaron ‘Cometbus’ Elliott], who was travelling around Europe, showed up and we took him to Fourmies [France]…” [Brob: Aaron (who’s zine I’d been distributing) was riding his bike through several European countries; he wrote about it in one of his issues.]

additions wellcome!…

I remember this one only vaguely… I do recall being tremendously nervous when I had to sing a song myself. Well, wánted to sing. I’m not sure ‘Agathocles’ played though. We did do gigs together but not here, I think…

I also recall people having a discussion outside (or was it some other gig) because someone was selling a ‘Screwdriver’ LP; the guy claimed it was a stolen one and he was offering it for sale to see the reactions – bullshit off course – Dirk and I were around…

Gunter Braem, ‘Hopeman Path’ guitarist

No, ‘Agathocles’ didn’t show up then…

Dirk ‘Scum’, ‘Hopeman Path’ singer

Steve [Houtmeyers; ‘Agathocles’ guitarist at that time and now in ‘Hypnos 69’, also founder of Intestinal Disease’] couldn’t play then…he had sprained his wrist. We did a few gigs with him doing vocals around that time…

Jan Frederickx, ‘Agathocles’

‘Hopeman Path’ (from the Kempen area) were Dirk ‘Scum’ (vocals; ex ‘Zero Positives’), Stefan Goos (drums), Bart Verelst (bass) and Gunter Braem (guitar). A hardcore band – named after the home-address (in Glasgow) of Stef’s and my pen-pall Adam Johnston (Go! Zine & the band ‘Headstart’) – with a D.I.Y./political attitude. They lasted a couple of years and would merge into ‘Vuur’ with members of ‘Deconsume’ and ‘Outrage’… I have vague recollections of Yannick Daems singing for them too for a while…

Probably the first or one of the very first concerts ‘Congress’ (a “vegan straight-edge metal-core” band) played here; with their first singer (who got replaced a bit later): Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitar) & Ilja De Ceuleneire (drums) – both were also in ‘Burning Fight’ (92-02-22), Roy Cappan (vocals; R.I.P.) and Jan ‘U.J.’ Vandekerckhove (bass) – who played in ‘Dreft’ for a while (together with Joost). As you can read below their 1^st singer wasn’t really an asset. With Pierre things changed for the better until…

One of the many dates ‘Hiatus’ played… This one was about a month after they recorded for the LP From Resignation…To Revolt (out on Sound Pollution). The usual ‘gang’: Azill, Wills, Ben, Phil and Fred Alabas (on bass).

After their gig on 91-09-01, ‘Agathocles’ got invited back. Apparently they didn’t make it… They must’ve been replaced by ‘Nessun Dorma’. These guys toured the continent quite a bit and this was their 3^rd time here (after 92-05-02 & 92-11-01). I had already gotten them a few gigs earlier during the Smurfpunx days (90-09-02). Hardcore punx from Bristol: Seamus Cummins (bass), Paul (vocals), Phil (drums), and Ju & Tony ‘Tone’ (guitarists). They had a 12” out on Mike Foster’s MCR UK: Chew It Over 12” (recorded in Oct ‘91)

Brob

About the incident with ‘Congress’… I expressed my opinion clearly (as always); stuck my neck out. And you can’t imagine how much shit I got over me. I’m not afraid to speak up. I constantly criticize the ‘status quo’ in the HC-scene. I say out loud what people only barely dare to trust onto paper. My harsh reaction towards the singer of ‘Congress’ was a response to his aggressive attitude. My anger only got worse because other V.V.-collaborators came back on their earlier decision… [The group of VV-collaborators had been putting question-marks behind the homophobic statements of one (Roy) -or more?- members of ‘Congress’. On one of the collaborator-meetings there had been a decision that we were not gonna tolerate this and not let them play. For some reason (some collaborators were good friends with them) this happened anyway and I spoke up about it when they started their gig…]

Brob, personal communication ‘94

About Roy, I believe a lot of people didn’t get you (Brob). I didn’t know that the V.V. collaborators had agreed on a meeting the very day of the concert, not to let ‘Congress’ play. Why didn’t ‘Congress’ know about that? Or did they? Why didn’t some sort of representative make a clear statement at the very beginning of the concert, on stage? And explained clearly that the V.V. didn’t want ‘Congress’ to play? If I remember well, Dirk [of ‘Hopeman Path’] started about it first… The audience could’ve decided on yes or no (letting them play), or there could’ve been agreed that the people with ‘Congress’ were to outside. The latter would’ve had a much bigger impact on Roy and the band, I think, then 1 or 2 people announcing the decision… I had the impression that your words didn’t affect Roy; on the contrary: they seemed to convince him he was right – even though your arguments were valid. I think it would’ve been better if we all had sat down without starting a war… Just make it clear to Roy that he stood alone with his opinion. Perhaps let him explain where his ideas were coming from and have a discussion. Or did all of this uncover that more people had ideas similar to Roy’s?

Françoise ‘Hazel’ Lepers, personal communication ‘94

With all respect, but Roy is dead and he was a good friend. Roy will never be able to prove that this was a adolescent mistake because he is no longer among us. Anyway, Roy wasn’t a person that carried hate within him. Politically he can be ‘caught’. His argument was that homosexuality isn’t natural. [...] This “it is not natural”-argument stemmed mainly from his religious beliefs… Personally I never saw him hurt or humiliate gays. But I understand your protest… [Brob: I’m not the mouthpiece of the gay community but I didn’t wanna be the guy who said “I’m not gay so I'm not gonna speak up”...]

That gig at the Vort’n Vis was indeed historical, legendary even, for so many reasons… For instance that for once there was no preaching on stage between the songs but true discussion. For many that was an informative dialogue; like with the guys of ‘Hopeman Path’. I loved it because it was HC, and in full effect! Not always fun for everyone but generally fair. I found what happened at that show a positive thing rather than a negative one. Consultation is the solution! So without restraint and with direct access to a decent right to reply, simply by jumping on stage and grabbing the mic. Precisely as it happened. Wonderful, actually.

Didn’t know that show disrupted some things for you. [Brob: Here I got the mark of ‘pain in the arse’ - no pun intended...] But actually it was the same for Roy. He was so impressed by the whole thing because he never made an issue out of it. It wasn’t important. And he didn’t want to have a negative impact on the scene…so shortly after he left ‘Congress’ and the scene.

Anonymous

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

I was trying to find ‘Recusant (residing in Bradford, using the 1in12 mail-address) a few gigs. (Florian had asked met to help out.) As usual, an ‘international punk affair’ with Armel Presselin helping in France, Pablo of Resistance productions in Switzerland, etc. Eventually I think I got them to play in Dunkerque (Nov 2^nd), Arnhem (at a place called Babylon, Nov 4^th), and some other places…if I remember correctly… At the same time I was also doing a weekend for the Germans of ‘Spit Acid’ & ‘Peace Of Mind’ (they played @ Clockwork in Leuven on Nov 4^th) – Matthias’ letter is below – and helping out the youngsters of ‘Malva’ (Christian had probably send me their demo.). One could say it was a ‘Brob gig’…

That’s how tours were done back then: grassroots, D.I.Y. and with a Network Of Friends!

This was probably when Fuse! (the joint distribution that Bruno (Genet recs), Joeri Hoste and me did some time) got ‘de-fuse-d’; let’s say due to incompatible interests… Bruno wasn’t pleased with my criticism towards his label and distro. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t show interest in this gig… (See my note in the guestbook below.)

Brob

Florian & Angela stayed in Dunkerque with us for a year and half; they played the V.V. once and sometimes came with us to Belgium. Florian remembers you Brob! It’s you who introduced him (and me!) to ‘Guts Pie Earshot’!

Of course I recall this gig: it was my birthday and between two songs ‘Recusant’ gave me a cake !!! Everybody was looking at me, smiling; I was blushing! To cut things short: we had a great time together and on got a long quite well; and the next year we were living together in Drincham.

The members of the band were: Titus, Josy, Angela (vocals), Sisou (who were English) and Florian (bass), Fred (drums), Nilos (French roots).

Karl Penando

‘Recusant’ (Bradford) had a split 7” out (together with ‘Headache’ on Sned & Alec’s Flat Earth recs in 1994. They played rather unique, quirky punky jazz-core-rock with lively/bouncy but passionate female vocals. The lyrics were ultra-political from an anarcho-punk perspective, covering feminism, veganism, animal rights, multinationals, etc. Members (French & British) of the band were Florian and his girlfriend (at that time) Angela, and the others mentioned earlier…

‘Malva’ (started out as ‘Despise’, a 3-piece) were an emo-core from Leverkusen: Christian Schneider (guitar), Alex(ander) Bokelmann (drums), Flo(rian) Reiss (guitar), Martino Palazzo (vocals), Alex(ander) Jahn (bass). They seduced me with their demo. Later (’96) Corey & Bernd released the 7” Das Leben Ist Kein Picknick on their label Equality recs.

‘Spit Acid’ (from Göttingen) described their music as “intense, mosh emo-hardcore; a mixture of ‘Four Walls Falling’ and ‘Downcast’”. They had a 7” out (The Tragedy Of Reality, self-released) and Per Koro released a split 7” (with ‘Step Into Nowhere’) and LP later. I think I’m pretty sure I distributed some of these… They were Niels Bogdan (bass; Daydream recs), Christopher Shaper (drums), Arndt Buck (guitar) & Matthias ‘Madde’ Dowe (vocals). Matthias & Niels had written me before for distro and gigs. They were also friends with Hans Verbeke, if I remember correctly…

‘Peace Of Mind’ were a political melodic HC-punk band from Bovenden (near Göttingen), Germany: They consisted of Jobst Eggert (at first vocals, later also guitar), Jörn Allert (guitar), Claudia (bass; later Judith/Antje), Berti (drums) and later Aga (vocals). They had put out a 7” on Melmac recs (nice hand-sown cover) and the ‘Peace Of Mind’ & ‘Anomie’ split-LP was about to be released by Ape recs. They toured together with ‘Spit Acid’. Later there was also a 7” on World Upside Down (Urte Böhm’s label).

Brob

I remember the first time we played the V.V., we arrived in Alex’ dad’s Mercedes, because we didn’t have – unlike other bands – a van. Brob greeted us with the words: “Ah, the flower guys!” [Brob: ‘Malva’ is a kind of flower…] Afterwards we got to know an American guy, Aaron, who lived in Belgium. [Brob: the editor of Love Child zine; Aaron Vyvial]. He booked a show later in Brugge for us. [Brob: ‘I think it was my friend Joeri Hoste who actually set that up]. [From personal correspondence early ’95:] We had a love fun; the atmosphere and people in Ieper were brilliant…

Christian Schneider, ‘Malva’ guitarist

Playing at at the Vort’n Vis was always great. I’ll bever forget that: I will tell my grandchildren about this crazy and lovely place, and all the nice people there!

Nowadays I work as an illustrator in Cologne (check my sites: useuse.de & useuse.de/uselog) and make some music – with machines – under my alter ego ‘Jacques Wolgast’ (people can download my first 2 LPs for free).

Alex Jahn, ‘Malva’ bassist

The singer (Matthias Dowe) is dead (suicide). Arndt Buck, the guitar-player is into alternative communities – really no idea where he is. Drummer Christopher Schaper is running a club in Berlin as far as I know.

Niels Bogdan, ‘Spit Acid’ bassist

There were 2 periods in the history of ‘Recusant’. The first at the time of the split-tape (and split ep) with ‘Headache’ with guitarist Titus, drummer Danny, singers Angela & Sally [Stone] (who left to play with ‘Witchknot’) and myself on bass. Then later, when we came over, it was me (bass), Angela (vocals), Bouldu (drums), Nilos (keyboards & trumpet) and Titus on guitar. With this line-up we did a split-tape with ‘Porc Bleu’ from Rouen… At the end Josie was singing.

Nowadays I’m in 2 new bands: ‘Shoshu’ & ‘Kre Ke Ke Kex Koax Koax’. I’m living on the countryside, on the plateau de Millevaches. Angela must still be living in Colchester…

Florian N.

My memories are not too positive of that time in ‘Recusant’ but I made some amazing friends; and that still counts for a lot. I found the attitudes of some of the people I spent time with were quite the opposite of freedom and non prejudice. If I didn’t fit into their idea of hardcore alternative punk then they were highly critical and bullying. I also found they were often so ‘them’ and ‘us’ or ‘mainstream society’ vs. ‘anarchist’; they would be very prejudiced and aggressive towards them, without knowing anything about their political opinions. It is only on reflection of that past that I see the restrictive and judgmental opinions that I experienced. I am not sure this is quite the reflection on the past that you were wanting to receive and I know that others experiences were very different than mine.

I can remember that the Vort’n Vis was a great venue and had a good atmosphere to it, people would travel from all over the place to go there. I have a small memory of seeing ‘Oi Polloi’ playing there. It is the down side of drinking too much alcohol and it being so long ago.

Angela Carter

I was only in ‘Recusant’ when they lived in England – the line-up was me, Angela, Florian, Titus and Danny. When they moved to France my sister Josie went with them and took over my vocals and played fiddle. Laurent also joined on keyboard and Fred replaced Danny on drums. I have fond memories of the Vort’n Vis – playing there with ‘Witchknot’ and visiting with ‘Scatha’, ‘Quarantine’, ‘Brawl’, ‘Fleas and Lice’ on different occasions.

Sally Stone

Angela ‘Recusant’ came up to me at the 1 in 12 [Bradford], asking if I still needed contributions for Bullshit Detector IV. I was well surprised! I didn’t know her or the band…

Pablo, Resistance productions, Biel, Switzerland

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

New Year card Kirsten sent me…

‘Propagandhi’ were/are a “Political, yet humorous punk-rock band” from Winnipeg. They were signed to Fat Wreck Chords (a commercial label dealing with majors). That’s why I didn’t want them to play the Vort’n Vis. Bruno had other opinions… The band was: Chris Hannah (guitar & vocals), John K. Samson (bass; replaced by Todd Kowalski in ‘97) and Jordy/Jordan Samolesky (drums). Mike of Bad Food For thought (distro from Propaghandi’s hometown) wrote me (March 96) that Jord, the drummer, got ill with mono(nucleosis) the day they were supposed to leave on tour. Guess they didn’t make it over then… Can’t recall them playing anyway…

Brob

That sounds right. Was either mono or he broke his foot playing hockey. Can’t remember which. We have played Belgium since. Marcus from ‘But Alive’ and Marco [Walzel] from Avocado bookings did the later tours I think.

Chris Hannah

The locals (Ieper and surroundings) of ‘Carcer Molochi’ had done their debut here (94-12-31) and filled in… Most of them were or would become Vort’n Vis shitworkers: Erwin Degryse (guitar), David Stubbe (drums), Danny Suffys (bass), Johan Sys (vocals), Michael Maes (guitar) and Inge Capoen (vocals) played pagan, back-to-nature crust-punk (“a mix of ‘Anisect’, ‘Hiatus’, ‘E.N.T’ & ‘Antischism’…”, I wrote in my ‘zine). A few months after this they recorded their demo. In ’97 Michael and Inge (who are a couple) started ‘Link’…

demo-tape

‘Naked Aggression’, an anarchist classic HC/punk band (originally from Madison, Wisconsin but at the time of this tour they were already living in N. Hollywood) were Kirsten Patches (vocals), (Phillip Emil) Phil Suchomel (guitar; R.I.P. 1998), Ty Smith (drums; he’d been here also with ‘Resist’, R.I.P. 2011) – looks like Greg Watson was the bassist on this tour (he was also on the Bitter Youth 7” & the March March Alive LP). On the ‘Aus-Rotten’/‘Naked Aggression’ split-7” & on the Plastic World 7” (both out in 1994) John/Juan Jiminez (later also in ‘Los Crudos’) played the bass but he didn’t do this tour as he had quit the band… At that time I distributed the They Can’t Get Me Down 7” that was re-released on the German label Campary recs (ran by Armin Heitman and his girlfriend Katia, from-Düsseldorf)…. Kirsten still keeps the band going. Have a look on their website: http://www.nakedaggression.com/main.html

‘Naked Aggression’ photographed by Wim DL:

‘Kurort’, a HardCore band from Bad Ischl (Austria) played here for the 2^nd time (see: 92-05-02). Andreas ‘Andi’ Wimmer (vocals), Florian ‘Flo’ Sedmak (guitar & vocals), Martin Wimmer (bass), Rudi Vogtenhuber (drums). They played strong, powerful HC with personalized political lyrics (sung in Upper Austrian dialect). They already release some stuff themselves but we got to know them trhough the Stachanov LP on Tiberiju’s Sacro Egoismo (Stachanov in ’94; Miss Fitness USA in ‘95). The latter was a co-release with Joris De Buysser’s Conspiracy recs). Joris would also release the Oslo 7” in’96. A fan wrote about them: “The flagship of Austrian 90s moshcore. ‘Kurort’ knew the handicraft of advanced thrash-riffing as no other Austrian band and embedded this in the drag-and-strain-Hardcore (Zerrcore) of the times. Their musical proficiency never resulted in technical hick-hack virtuosity but in well-constructed songs with doomy riffs checked by high impact drumming and driving blast beats. Andreas Wimmer on strained vocals added suffering and memorable choruses, that even showed some pop-sensibility.”…

Brob

‘Kurort’ (Flo – Rudi – Andi – Martin) promo-pic

I remember the Vort’n Vis very well, as it donated a running gag in the ‘Kurort’-conversations: “We have some nice sleeping-places upstairs.”, I think it was when we toured with ‘Naked Aggression’: it was March, it was very cold and it even snowed a bit. There was no heating in the venue except for all the people showing up. When we took a look at the ‘nice sleeping-places’, we decided not to use them, no matter what: What I recall, are empty and ice-cold rooms, broken windows and wet and foul mattresses. After the gig we wanted to sleep the on stage – even there with all the spilt beer, etc., it was cleaner than upstairs. And it was still warm from all the people that had gone then. But whoever was in charge refused because we were suspected to empty all the bottles at the bar overnight. We insisted anyway but our promise that we wouldn’t take anything from the bar was not trusted, so one of the V.V.-collective played the watchdog and slept on the floor behind the bar.

I also remember that the driver in the car riding before our van suffered a heart-attack on the highway and rolled off the road down into a field a few minutes before we came into Ieper – I guess that was in 1995 aswell.

Touring with ‘Naked Aggression’ wasn’t too enjoyable: up to 9 people in a small van… We only made friends with their hired drummer Ty Smith. He ‘who cannot be named’ [Dolf H.] and his network booked the tour…

I don’t remember ‘Propaghandi’ playing.

Florian ‘Flo’ Sedmak (sdmk.at)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

David Carcer’s surreal scriblings are untranslatable, I’m afraid ;-) * Apparently it was Johan’s birthday…

additions wellcome!…

That must have been one of the last ‘F.T.F.’ shows ever. ‘Born From Pain’ started a year after that and I know there was almost a year in between.

Rob Franssen, ‘Feeding The Fire’

‘F.T.F.’s trail through the V.V. history is quite impressive: 91-12-21, 92-04-18, 92-09-05, 92-10-10, 93-05-22, 94-08-21 (and perhaps other visits…); illustrating the tight relation between some V.V.-collaborators and the Ducth Limburg HC-scene… A bit before this, they recorded for the Crusade EP on the German label March Through recs. Wouter Alers did the bass on that one (replacing Roger; he played drums for ‘Born From Pain’). The rest of the crew was the usual: René Natzel (drums), Har(ald) & Illona (guitars) and Rob (vocals)…

‘Resist The Pain’ (announced on the flyer as a “local turbo XXX” – see below) did their first ever show here. They were Steve Noyelle (bass; later ‘Lifecycle’) Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen (guitar, later ‘Spineless’, ‘Congress’, etc.), Vincent ‘Murph’ Merveillie (vocals; later ‘S.O.Y.’) & Jan Volckaert (drums)

‘Sektor’ (from “Beseloare”; Beselare, a village near Ieper) was a H8000 vegetarian straight-edge metal-core band. They did 2 7”s on Hans Verbeke’s Sober Mind recs: Ultimate Threat (1995) and a split with ‘Vitality’ (1996); later there was also a 12”/CD (Human Spots of Rust, ’97). The line-up was Lenny ‘LadyLover’ (bass), Bert ‘BabyNipples’ Guillemont (drums), Piet ‘Pete’ Cardoen (a.k.a. Mousti; guitar), Vadim ‘KarateKip’ Vandekerckhove (guitar) and Jeroen Therry (a.k.a. KungFu Mike; vocals).

‘Voices At The Front’ (from Poperinge) were added to the bill… After ‘Settle For Less’ (with Jurgen Desmet on bass, Tom De Pauw on drums and Jeroen Lauwers & Nathalie Depuydt singing), my mate Vik Bulik (vocals; he played guitar in ‘S.F.L.’) started ‘Voices At The Front’, an SxE band. They’d done a few shows supporting ‘Congress’ (’96-03-03 @ ‘Kompas’ in Sint-Niklaas) and ‘Liar’ (96-04-14 @ ‘Mouterij’ in Deinze) before. So Vik – described as the “ideal straight-edge kid, bleached hair, X -ed up, Youth of Today shirt” was singing. Also in the band: “The coolest drummer from H8000, Gaëtan [Golvet], a coloured guy with incredible skills…”. Vince [Vincent Theeten] on lead-guitar, “new-school influences but with a metal touch; inspirer of the funniest fanzine from that time, Strike One!”. Sim [‘Simtje’ Meersseman] on bass… “Played almost every show in a bright-orange XXX shirt, bleached hair, krishna-beads…” 2^nd guitar: Stefaan ‘Merel’ Merlevede (R.I.P.; Vincent’s cousin). (internet-quotes by ‘Murph’ ‘R.T.P.’)

‘Kindred’ was an SxE outfit from Limburg (metallic style of HC, often compared with ‘Unbroken’) with Jan Beckers (guitar) and Maarten Beckers (drums) – Jan was in ‘Acoustic Grinder’ (see: 93-02-27) & both in ex ‘Strength Of The Will’ (92-09-06, 93-09-19 & 94-08-19); later ‘Facedown’, ‘Enemy Of The Sun’, ‘Kabul Golf Club’) – Eric Sefton (vocals) & Walter Beckers (bass). I read a guy called Raf (Gielen ?) still played 2^nd guitar here. They did an LP for GoodLife recs that year (File 01). They would be back for the Ieperfest in summer… A split with ‘Culture’ got out in ’97.

No idea what ‘Shaft’ was about… But Dompie got me on track: the members were Miguel De Paula (bass), Adam Borosch (drums), Michael ‘Mike’ Cordas (lead guitar), Arthur Galenziok (guitar) & Dirk Jochums (vocals).

Brob

‘Shaft’ did a 7” called Taskmaster [Brob: Actually a mini-CD…also a self-titled 7” on Stormstrike and a split-7” on Alveran recs]… We (‘Solid’) played with them in their hometown… They played a brutal H8000 style [“death-metal/metalcore”; the CD was recorded @ Midas studios].

Dominiek Denolf

‘Voices…’ played a cool show, allways had a good response, were cooler than most of the bands that came from the H8000 at that time.

‘Murph’ (somewhere on the internet)

I do remember this as our first or one of our first shows with ‘R.T.P.’. Good line-up… We were incredibly enthusiast to do it because we were rehearsing at the Vort’n Vis and it was a great honour to be able to play there…

Vincent Merveillie

Vincent was vocalist for ‘Spirit Of Youth’ and drummer for ‘Kingpin’ & ‘Man’s Ruin’ later. Myself, I’ve played with ‘Spineless’ afterwards and from ’99 on with ‘Congress’. My last achievements were ‘Trenchfoot’ (cross-over à la ‘D.R.I.’, ‘S.O.D.’). Later Michael Maes joined as our drummer…

This was the first show of ‘Kindred’ in the H8000-area. A year later they were considered as an H8000-band, while they were indeed from Limburg. It was rather unusual then that non-H8000-bands were succesful in our region. It’s funny to see that bands that succeeded in this, were immediately labelled as H8000. The scene was growing exponentially. In order to be omplete I’m obliged to say that a band didn’t stand a chance if they weren’t SxE. I saw a whole bunch of fantastic bands pass by, that hardly anyone cared about, solely because the X on their hands was lacking. As a ‘member of the herd’ I have to plea guilty myself.

‘Feeding The Fire’ stood out because a girl was playing guitar. At the time that was (and still is) a curiosity in hardcore, which was mostly a ‘boys-thing’. The few girls that were present, were mainly there because they were the girlfriend of someone or as ‘trend-queen’… [Brob: ???!!!???; some women would disagree, I'm sure...] I believe that she was playing a BC-Rich ‘metal-model’ guitar – which was (also back then) rather not-done. Anyway, I didn’t like their music too much. Rob, now of ‘Born From Pain’, was singing.

All in all most people attending, came to see the local bands. ‘Voices At The Front’, with Vik, played a home-match and ‘Sektor’ was the new hype. Lyrics were about the meat-industry and drug-abuse; and the songs dedicated to the scene, organisers and … SxE… Very original…

Pedro Fioen

Vincent was replaced by Clovis ‘Vez’ Segers [later ‘Congress’] and Jan by Michael Maes [‘Link’, etc.]…

Steve Noyelle

Unfortunately none of the pictures I took remain: regrettably I had to throw them all away, because of water-damage.

Steve Lammertyn

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Hardcore ’92… This could be considered as the first Ieperfest… The years before around half of September there had already been a few fests named Leed (the Vort’n Vis’ alternative to the city of Ieper’s mainstream Leet festival). The latter had a more punky/crusty feel to it. The Ieperfest tended to offer more straight-egde bands… It gradually moved towards a weekend around half of August. And eventually turned into a huge event (not unlike a lot of the commercial summer-festivals) outside of the Vort’n Vis premises.

Unfortunately (and that already was from the beginning), it turned out to be a market-place for big/commercial labels and distributions (local and others). I’ve never been able to see what the value of that was and I kept reacting against it…

Brob

The first weekend of September there was the double-day fesitival. It was supposed to be a promo-weekend for vegetarianism (there was 1! stall by GAIA, Global Action in the Interest of Animals) but it was more a promo-weekend for Warehouse recs (Edward’s pre Good Life label) and ‘Nations On Fire’ There was a music (record/CD/zine) -fair on Sunday but also on Saturday there was already a market goin’ on! Awful! I refused to set up my stall between Bernd (Lost & Found) Granz‘s table with bootlegs and other crappy collectioners’ items, and other money-greedy ‘distributors’. Sunday they were there too so I decided to show an alternative with really DIY stuff and fanzines (no-one else was selling any!). Saturday I talked and talked (hardly saw any of the bands – I already saw most of the SxE-bands here 2-5 times; ‘Abolition’ were great, and nice people!) to old friends, new friends and people from everywhere: UK, Germany, Holland, Canada, Portugal, etc. [Peter Hoeren (Crucual Response recs & Michael Müller, Armin Hofmann (X-Mist recs), Moses Arndt (Zap), Big (‘Man Lifting Banner”), David Dutriaux (‘Scraps’ & ‘N.O.F.’) & Belle, Dennis Niesing (‘Crisis Of Society’), Wil Van Straalen (WRF recs)]

Jaak, the drummer for ‘Nations On Fire’ (Vegan Society and GAIA militant) announced that this was a last show with the band for him. Apparently the ‘Positive / Powerful / Political’ slogan had become to empty for him and selling/collecting records (of some of the others in the band) was not fulfilling enough…

Quite some people didn’t want to come because they thought it was too militantly SxE. I thought it was too consumerist. Pity they didn’t show up, we could’ve offered some ‘counterbalance’…

Brob, personal communications Sep/Oct ‘92

More on the bill will follow

5 sep ’92: Ironside (UK), Strong Event (Ger), Blindfold (Bel), Shortsight (Bel), No More (Lux), Feeding The Fire (Nl), Spirit Of Youth (Bel)

6 sep ’92: Abolition (Ger), Nations On Fire (Bel), Strength Of The Will (Bel), Agent 86 (USA), Punishment Park (Nor)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

“Long time ago I saw so much uniformity”; Stef Smits, sociologist

Armin Hofmann

Bernd Granz

tour-promoter (‘Nations On Fire’ e.g.)

“Long time ago I slept so much!” ; Anneke Schuurman, Puffy zine

Corey von Villiez

Patrick Kolb ???

This is an essay that Françoise ‘Hazel’ Lepers wrote in her zine Superfluous #2 (1993) in relation to the discussion about homophobia that occured at ‘Congress’ performance (93-04-25)

‘Kitchener’ (from Hulme, Manchester) were originally Tim H*** (guitar, vox), Pete Osmond (bass, vox), Pete Darlington (drums) and Steveland Minta (guitar, vox). In the beginning they were called ‘Body Bag’ and played fast thrashy hardcore-punk (some people compared them to ‘Born Against’ too…). Then came the name change to ‘Kitchener’ and they slimmed down to a 3-piece after Pete Osmond left to run Land Of Treason distro. Their 7” The Price Of Progression was released by Flat Earth with the help of Nabate & Refusenik in 93/94. Later Steve did a band called ‘Grover’ (together with his brother) and played a more melodic punky style… (Click here for some more info on ‘Kitchener’)

Touring with them was ‘Health Hazard’ (Bradford; Mandy / Sned / Alec / Gazza)… Sned writes on his flatearthrecs.blogspot: “We toured in Europe together, I used to love watching the crowd watching Pete on the drums as the chaos ensued and the jaws dropped.”… It was their 2^nd time here after 93-09-18 and they would be back (2 weeks later 94-03-19, and 95-02-11). Seemed like those lads had a second home here in Europe… Their set in Toulouse (94-02-22) was recorded and Fred Jourdan (‘Ultimate Disorder’) put it out on a split-tape (with ‘Hiatus’). After this tour they recorded (with Bri ‘Doom’ Talbot behind the desk) for their 10” (released on Alec & Sned’s Flat Earth recs). For those who don’t know (?) or can’t remember: “abrasive, thrashing, overpowering blasts of hardcore fury with caustic female vocals”…

‘Ex Cathedra’ were/are an anarcho punk band from Glasgow, Scotland. Another band from Glasgow! But this one played ska-punk… The band consisted of Alex Aiken (guitar & vocals), Andy ‘Andi’ Chalmers (vocals), Isobel ‘Issy’ Craig (bass) and Jim (drums; nót the one who was ‘Fleas & Lice’). Around that time they had a 7” out (Stick Together; their first on their own label Tartan recs) which was rather eye-catching because of the fabric cover with a big ‘X’. More would follow, e.g. Karma Chameleon (with a cover of ‘Culture Club’s hit), an album entitled Tartan Material (produced by Frankie ‘Leatherface’ Stubbs), etc. The morning after the show they did a short interview for the 1^st issue of the Vort’n Vis’ zine (Fifi).

‘Issy’ provided a whole bunch of photos which I’ll post soonish…

‘Nessun Dorma’… Passage #4/4. (see: 92-05-02, 92-11-01, 93-04-25)

‘As Usual’ was the band preceding ‘Carcer Molochi’. Vort’n Vis shitworkers Michael Maes (guitar) and Johan Sys (vocals) played in that band… Vik B. told me once that Pierre (‘Congress’ vocalist) played bass for them at a time… But I have no recollection of that. Mike tells their story below…

Brob

The difference between ‘As Usual’ and ‘Carcer Molochi’? Better musicians to start with/ people that really had the true DIY punk mentality… 6 people all with different tastes that got together at the right moment, not shy to do their own thing and not copying other bands… Unfortunately that feeling was quenched after a few years and ‘Carcer Molochi’ was over! 20 years later it’s just David & me who’re still in bands, playing and touring… Johan (who was our 2^nd vocalist after a while and was also in ‘Carcer M.’) is totally getting into nature-photography (no contact even though he just lives a few km away…). Inge is concentrating on her sculptures (6 years art-academy) and myself, I’m still not bored with touring and recording. ‘As Usual’ were Frederick Wyckaert (drums), Dimitri ‘Dimi’ Loones (vocals), Danny Suffys (bass) and myself on guitar! Danny an myself were the only ones who were in ‘Carcer M.’… People who joined ‘Carcer M.’ [94-12-31, 95-03-05, etc.] later, were: Bram ['Lawaai' Calbrecht] (drums), Yannick [‘PikPik’] (bass) & ‘Gork’ (vocals). And even more later I played drums…

The story of Pierre ‘Congress’ is Vik’s phantasy! Pierre frequently attended our rehearsals together with Vik and probably there will have been some jam-sessions…. ‘As Usual’ started in 1991 and did one demo and a split-demo with ‘Hiatus’….

Michael Maes

I remember the response and enthusiasm from all our audiences were good; which surprised me ‘cause I didn’t think we were that good – haha! Plus it’s hard to remember anything as we were always full of beer and hash… Alex and Andy were always the original members. I quit in 1996; Jim kind of disappeared. The line-up after me was Stiff on bass and Jenny on sax…but various other drummers…

Isobel Craig, bassist of ‘Ex Cathedra’

I recollect there may of been some film-footage of that evening with ‘Health Hazard’… I remember that night at the Vort’n Vis fondly, it was a lot of fun. I was only there once this one time. It was a cool venue. Kinda dark if I remember right. The gig was great, full of energy and I recall members of the crowd were frequently on the stage…

Pete Darlington, drummer of ‘Kitchener’

‘Kitchener’: Steve M. (guitar/vocals) – Pete D. (drums) – Tim H. (bass/vocals)

Pete O. had left the band by this point. Me and Tim used to share the bass and guitar duties…

I used to have the gig on vid but not entirely sure if it still exists, my brother filmed parts of it… Absolutely awesome centre and was proper inspirational to us. The way things worked in Europe and in particular Belgium was a real eye-opener. Thanks for having us! The V.V. was amazing, a great space for bands to come and play. Well organized and nice people. Beer-tokens, etc. haha stand out.

Band of the day for me was ‘Ex Cathedra’… Seen them a few times previous but had never had the opportunity to play along side them. The audience were very accepting of our set even if we did leave them with the usual mouth wide open expression of ‘what the fuck was that’ on their faces. ;-)

It was the last gig of our tour with ‘Health Hazard’, I remember it like it was yesterday, fuckin’ top! The whole thing  came about pretty much off the back of Flat Earth putting out our EP. We were good mates with Sned etc., having already done a mini UK tour with ‘One By One’ and played the 1in12 club a few times. We also had a squat venue called the 125 and we had put on ‘H.H.’, ‘One By One’, ‘Sedition’, etc.

Pete O. left shortly after we became ‘Kitchener’ and played on the early demos and the Headscrew flexi. We were good mates with Steve Hyland [Attitude Problem zine, A Network Of Friends distro, 1 in 12]. He didn’t come on tour with us but was at this gig [Brob: he had been at the V.V. for the 1^st time in Sep 93]

Steve Minta, guitarist of ‘Kitchener’

We were totally blown away, while on tour, by the squats and community-venues we played (an enormous squat in Madrid next to an even more enormous police-station, a squatted alpine villa in Switzerland where they were discussing how to fix the outdoor swimming-pool, to an amazing squatted farm in Spain me & Pete visited), the amazing people we had met who were so interesting (their political commitment, warm-heartedness to take us in feed us and talk for so long) – I remember a snapshot of ‘Kitchener’ and about 5 people somewhere in Spain and a discussion that ranged from using LSD as a potential to shift consciousness in a framework of rebellion to arguments about being pro-choice and so on, and a Venezuelan illegal immigrant in Paris discussing problems with fascists there even infiltrating police & killing migrants but then saying how they were “no more” with the very minimum knowledge of what had happened or being involved in their being gone). Anyway starting to ramble…

Great job you are doing.

Feels strange that so many important bands in that era are just forgotten about while a band today has 3 practices puts it on Bandcamp and everyone knows them. Which do not get me wrong is actually totally amazing in many ways as long as we do not lose our history and voice from that time as well. It certainly would have made life easier back then but then there is something to be said for how it was done aswell.

Tim H***, bassist of ‘Kitchener’

top: Steve M. (thx for the pics) – bottom: Sned

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Did ‘I.B.’ (‘Disaffect’ drummer) drive?

Blanche was Alex Aiken’s girlfriend at the time…

additions wellcome!…

More on this concert: 94-03-05 Health Hazard – Kitchener – Ex Cathedra – Nessun Dorma – As Usual

Pics kindly donated by Isobel ‘Issy’ Craig, unless stated otherwise

Alex (guitar) – Jim (drums) – Issy (bass) – Andi (vocals)

(Alain & Laurent from Liège paing attention…)

pic courtesy of Maynard Schut

Issy in the upstairs room

‘Kitchener’s Tim (‘NoMeansNo’ shirt), Pete (drums) & Steve (bass also; Tim & Steve switched instruments)

‘Yuppicide’ a band from NYC (Brooklyn) played catchy HC with slick riffs that stick to your brain. I can still hum the melodies of Envy or the later Greed. Lyrics were clever too. They were: Steve Karp (guitar), Jes(se) Jones (vocals), John ‘Kid’ Lynch (drums; ex ‘S.F.A.’; left the band after recording their 7”, replaced by Pete Guinan) and Joe Keefe (bass). At that time they had a self-titled 7” on Evacuate (’90) under their belt. Their LP Fear Love (Wreck-Age) was also released around 1992. Martin Valasek released a tape on his label (Malarie recs) of their gig in Brno, Czechoslovakia (92-05-09). They toured through Europe for 7 weeks. Right after this tour (July) they recorded (still with Kid on drums) the You’ve Been Warned! 7” – also on Wreck-Age (who re-released the 1^st 7”). The band came back the next year (93-11-07)…

After a bunch of shows together with other European bands (91-12-21, 91-12-31 & 92-02-22) ‘Blindfold’ got to ‘support’ a U.S. band… All this playing got them ready to go into the studio again for their 7” Sober Mind Meditation 7” in September. (Though they handed  out some copies of a promo-tape before that I think).

In the encyclopaedias the lemma for ‘Blindfold’ will always be “They played a blend of hardcore and emo with smart political and personal lyrics, and lived a drug-free lifestyle.”. This is, of course, true but to me they will be the guys that shared the shitwork with me (and others) at the Vort’n Vis (Chat’n, Wim & Hans) at that time. Friends also. I kinda taught Hans to play bass (over an old amp that was ‘forgotten’ in our rehearsal-space) so he could join us in ‘Yuppies’Death’. He was a fan of my first band ‘Repulsives’ and followed us (together with U.J., and Narre (of ‘Dreft’) – the Westland Hardcore crew, as they called them – if I remember correctly). I went to Kortrijk to pick him and his sis Saskia up to drive to gigs, had chats with his mum over coffee, etc. Wim was a smart guy, I distributed his zine-efforts and when he came to study in Gent a bit later, we discussed what he’d learned during his ethics and other courses (not always agreeing), developed a “post-modern” friendship (as he called it in one of his letters of that time)…

‘Suffocare’ (Brugge) played straightforward hardcore-punk. The guys in the band were Alex Monballiu (bass & vocals), Frederik ‘Bibber’ (guitar), Xavier ‘Stesse’ (drums); later replaced by Koen ‘Siesele’ Lammens). They released a 7” by themselves in 1991, called Shock Perfecta.

Brob

Our first 7” was Deprogrammers Do Not Exist. We recorded that [Brob: At Metropool Studio in Hengelo, NL; where ‘N.O.F.’ also recorded.] around ‘91, I think October.

Hans Verbeke

‘Suffocare’

From Reminder zine (done by Wim & Chat’n ‘Blindfold’):

>>‘Blindfold’ and ‘Yuppicide’ hit the stage that Sunday. ‘Blindfold’ had a very nice sound. The audience wasn’t very active (though they knew the words: ‘It’s a suicide – spiritual suicide”). Almost every song was explained; the deal with ego-tripping, jealousy, drugs, meat. ‘Blindfold’ proves hardcore is more than music. ‘Yuppicide’ is a funny HC formation outa NY. The singer was enjoying himself with his water-gun and his funny steps. Musically: they play pretty original, not very fast (not rough) hardcore (not the typical NY-style).<<

‘Yuppicide’ interviewed (in ’93) in Hazel’s zine Superfluous #1 (U.J. shot some nice pics):

>>The show in ’92 was at the beginning of the tour. The only thing we felt weird about that show was that the crowd seemed to be divided between SxE, ‘clean cut’ people and anarchist punks. Our band has an SxE member, a beer-drinking member, a pot-smoker and a vegetarian – these issues do not divide us – we can respect each others opinions. […] The European tour was great; we had an amazing time. We were treated so well and it was great to know that people from totally different cultures were interested in what we were doing.

I’m pleased you could tell I was enjoying myself. [Jesse toying around with a water-gun and other attributes.] I like to put on ‘a show’; it makes the experience of seeing our band live more exciting and interesting. Also: we are having fun – and stage-antics and props bring a sense of humour tot the whole event.<<

The early tours we came to Europe for 5-7 weeks and play almost every night, so that’s 35-45 shows each tour! So they blend in together for me. Steve Karp’s memory is the best in the band (which could have something to do with him being Straight Edge, but who knows?).

Jesse, ‘Yuppicide’ singer

We in the band were pretty sick and I think a few of us played with fevers because we had some kind of flu. I’m pretty sure we also slept on the stage of the club after the gig. I remember the place a little: not so many people there and I don’t remember any of the other bands we played with.

The tour was set up by Steffen Rose, who ran Navigator Productions. I think at this point of the tour, this guy Peter [Carstens; from Flensburg ?] was driving us – he was from northern Germany and had pink dreads. At another part of the tour (2) German women (and their dog) drove us. Bettina was the tall, pale gal with bleach blonde dreads and glasses. The shorter gal with shorter dark hair was Brigitte. They lived in Flensburg. [Brob: Bettina Geile lives in Bremen nowadays.]

Yes, John Lynch was on drums; he’d been to Europe with ‘S.F.A.’ before ‘Yuppicide’ went. Joe and I had never been to Europe [Brob: Jesse originates from London.], so it was a pretty overwhelming experience for us. Joe (the bassist) and I made the decision to bring our heads and power-converters; we carried them in these custom-crates that Joe made (he’s a carpenter). I had my brother’s Gibson Firebrand guitar and a black SG.

Steve Karp, ‘Yuppicide’ guitarist

Haven’t seen or heard ‘Bibber’ in years. Xavier lives in Kortrijk but not in touch…

‘Siesele’, ‘Suffocare’s later drummer

There was a good scene around the Vort’n Vis, I had been there since it opened (on the Kiekemarkt) and jumped at any chance to play there with ‘Suffocare’. Alltough they attracted an audience that wasn’t always very tolerant towards the likes of me, because of my extensive drinking-habits. I was quite fond of ‘Blindfold’. I stil have their music right here at home. I never part with old vinyl or tapes! ‘Yuppicide’ was quite a creative lot, they played their songs like natural. Their show was put together well. From that moment on, I found that the scene started to change, not better, nor worse, just different. We were still serving the old style concrete hardcore-punk, while audiences required actual musical performance. For me it was more about attitude and that message seemed gone at the time. I’m not sobbing about it, I’m still playing: we’re called ‘The Sillycons’ now. Still in touch with ‘Stesse’ (Xavier Charlet), every so often with ‘Bibber’ (Frederik Couleit) and I wish I would see more of ‘Siesele’ (Koen Lammens) our later drummer. I wouldn’t mind seeing the guys from both ‘Blindfold’ and ‘Yuppicide’ again. I hope they’re all well.

Alex Monballiu

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

An interview with the Vort’n Vis ‘policy-makers’ Jan Claus & Bruno Vandevyvere, by Joris De Buysser

(Bonds Of Friendship #6; June 1992)

January 1994 was our second time [1^st time: 93-01-09] at the V.V. It was with ‘Blindfold’ and ‘Spirit Of Youth’, I think. Even though some band-members were SxE, ‘Growing Concern’ wasn’t a 100% straight-edge band, we were more of a NYHC-influenced positive hardcore band, sometimes with very political lyrics. I guess some people liked us, some others didn’t because we didn’t really fit in the strictly SxE/vegetarian scene that was popular at V.V. at the time.

I have doubts about the bands we played with in ‘94. I remember clearly that one band was pretty much in the 90s emo vein, with mid-tempo and crunchy guitars that sounded a bit like ‘Shelter’… The singer had some sort of metal bar he would hit with a stick during some songs and which produced a very metallic sound [Brob: That was Wim of ‘Blindfold’ allright!]. I also recall we played with one of Hans’ band, so that’s why I thought about Blindfold. I remember there was also another band who was very SxE/ ‘Youth Crew’ influenced, the guys were all wearing band T-shirts and had bleached hair, could that be ‘Spirit Of Youth’?

Gianni Pantaloni, ‘Growing Concern’ drummer

The second time we were there… Stiv Ahead (‘One Step Ahead’ / ‘Open Season’ singer) came with us. I recall we arrived late, just during the gig itself. That’s why I cannot remember that much – we drove from somewhere far way in Germany. I thought there was some friction in the audience due to some discussion with ‘Congress’ singer (about his pro-life ideas) but Brob wrote me this episode happened at some other gigs [93-04-25]; so everything’s not so clear anymore to me (even though I’m still nailed to the X…) I do remember Hans (‘Blindfold’/’Liar’) getting on stage and singing the entire cover of ‘Kiss’ song Hard Times when ‘Growing Concern’ played it. And singing ‘Kiss’ covers seemed a thing he’d always done… We slept at Hans’ house and I remember there was a queue for the bathroom that ended with me not entering at all, keeping the pee for the whole night – the bladder of a 21-year old must be strong…

If I remember correctly ‘S.O.Y.’ didn’t play this one [Brob: I think they’d returned by then…]: we met them together with ‘Nations On Fire’, somewhere in Germany; they were touring and ‘N.O.F.’ had Ed singing already.

Truely loved the V.V., as we came from the squat experience which meant lotsa political issues and hard times. [Brob: But the Vort’n Vis was far from a-political; at least not in the beginning…] Places like this were more open to youth and musical stuff. In Rome we were used to relate with people that ended up being fired to death for their political beliefs, so youth-centres in Germany or like the V.V. were something more fresh; I did like it a lot. Have some nice memories at Bruno’s home and his legendary hospitality or hitting the Belgian/Dutch highways with U.J., the metal-man, and his car, the ‘Millenium Falcon’.

‘Growing Concern’ stopped around 1998 with a different singer and line-up. They did a handful of gigs in 2008 and a one-off in 2013. I still do the label [S.O.A. recs], no longer fulltime, but as a sort of long-lasting hobby. I mainly do a kitchen-job, opening my own veggie restaurant in Rome October 2013.

Paolo Petralia, SOA recs

‘Growing Concern’ (from Rome) played aggressive HC. They were Andrew Mecoli (guitar), Gianni Pantaloni (drums), Paolo Piccini (vocals) and Massimo Corona (bass; later vocals when Paolo left them in the middle of a tour). This gig was probably around the time they had the Seasons Of War LP out on Banda Bonot & Paolo Petralia’s SOA recs (also most of their other albums were on his label). The latter was roadie-ing for the band.

‘Congress’ had done a couple of shows at the V.V. already. At this timepoint Joost (guitar), Ilja (drums) & Jan ‘UJ’ (bass) had asked ‘Pitbull’ Pieter ‘Pierre’ Vanrumbeke to replace Roy Cappan (who moved to Thailand in 1999 and died there in 2001 “under mysterious circumstances”) to do the vocals.

During the last week of December 1993 ‘Shortsight’ did a few concerts in Spain. ‘Blindfold’s drummer Sacha was driving them. They were back after New Year’s Day. There’s a report on that in the 2^nd issue of Hazel’s zine Superfluous. There’s also a report by Wim (‘Blindfold’s singer) about him being on tour with ‘Nations On Fire’ in Germany (organised by Steffen Rose; driver was Ma Raab of ‘Egotrip’). Wim had joined them (as guitarist) in April 1993. They also had Filip (Devolder) drumming for hem then (replacing Jaak). On Dec 30^th ‘N.O.F.’, ‘S.O.Y.’ and ‘Growing Concern’ played with ‘Egotrip’ in the their hometown… ‘N.O.F.’ did 5-6 shows with ‘S.O.Y.’ (with Hans ‘Blindfold’ on bass, Jan singing, ‘Dompie’ & Fred) in Germany and played their last concert with that line-up on January 2^nd in Köln (Germany). Interesting insights on ‘Nations On Fire’s demise there… Anyway, they were all back to play with ‘Blindfold’ aswell.

In 1993 ‘S.O.Y.’ had recorded Engine/Darkroom that Hans (Sober Mind recs) put out as cassette only. He wrote that the tape got sold out on the ‘S.O.Y.’ winter-tour 93-94 (of which most dates where with ‘Nations On Fire’, mostly Germany and one date in Austria on New Year’s eve)…

‘Blindfold’ had done many a show here already but they were always ready to entertain their (local and international) friends. This could well have been the start of another tour ‘cause a week later they were in Germany (‘Blindfold’ – Germany 94-01-16) – or was this just a one-off? They had recorded the Restrain The Thought LP some months earlier (in September 1993; released on Conquer The World recs).

Brob

“Thanks to Brob for the dedication to the Sober Mind Hardcore” (on the sleeve of my copy of ‘Blindfold’s Restrain The Thought)

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

I saw ‘Toxic Waste’ (anarcho-punk band from Ulster) live in 1986 (86-04-05 at the Wolsack in Antwerp). The line-up then was Patsy Preston & Roy ‘Wally’ Wallace singing, Stuart ‘Marty’ Martin (guitar), Phil Coffey (bass) and Glen ‘Grub’ Thompson (drums). I might’ve heard them on the Mortohate’s We Don’t Want Your Fucking War compilation already too then. Bought the split-12” (with ‘Stalag 17′; see 86-05-10) The Truth Will Be Heard (released by the Warzone collective from Belfast, together with Mororhate recs). I was a fan! Especially the opener Traditionally Yours (with the aetheric guitars and Patsy Preston’s fragile singing) always brought me in a rebellious mood! They were also on the We Will Be Free LP (with ‘Asylum’ and ‘Stalag 17’ again). Couldn’t find their Unite to Resist demo (1983) then… In 1987 they put out the Belfast full album (on Belfast recs – NOT (see Marty’s correction below) with Petesy Burns on bass; ex ‘Stalag 17’, also drummer of ‘F.U.A.L.’ and Louanne Martin, singer of ‘F.U.A.L.’ – both visited the V.V. when touring with ‘The Next World’ – see 90-05-01).

The story about how Roy ended up in Antwerp and set up this tour can be read in Ian Glasper’s book The Day The Country Died… The ‘line-up here (the .V.V. was the last gig on this tour…) was: Roy (vocals), Deno ‘Dirt’ (vocals), ‘Marty’ Martin (guitar), Petesy Burns (bass) and Mark ‘Crispo’ Chrsitie (drums; ex ‘Pink Turds In Space’, also in ‘Brawl’ at one time…).

Marty was also in ‘Bleeding Rectum’ (with Wally & Crispo) and ‘Pink Turds In Space’ (with Crispo). Info on these bands can be found on his website.

This is what I wrote on the gig of ‘Culture Shock’ played for Smurfpunx (88-05-13) “an anarcho-punk / reggae-dub-ska band with Dick Lucas (formerly ‘Subhumans’; Bluurg recs)”. Very danceable tunes but socio-political lyrics aswell.”. I could use the same intro but with a couple of different band-members: ‘Citizen Fish’ (from the Bath area) were (at that time) Jasper Patterson (bass), Phil Bryant (guitar), Dick Lucas (vocals) and Trotsky (drums) – can ‘t remember if they had their ‘horns’ on tour. They had been here already before (93-02-21) and would come back later (94-09-17). In 1993 the band had their LP Flinch out (on Dick’s Bluurg recs; recorded right before this tour in August). Live Fish (in Germany)… They also did a split-7” with ‘A.O.S. 3’ a bit earlier. The guys are still playing (citizenfish.com) and so is ‘Subhumans’ (with Dick, Phil & Trotsky).

‘Bad Influence’ were the ‘usual’ support for bands from Bath/Bristol; this time they had Tim ‘Crow’ Shapland (ex ‘Zygote’) on bass (Labie had left the ‘baddies’). The others were Holy Herwin (vocals), Joris Rombouts (drums) and Thomas Noppe (guitar); bringing a new variety of their ‘pagan’ HC. (See also 90-10-27, 91-07-07, 92-11-01 & 93-09-04, etc.). In this line-up they recorded (’92) for a split-7” with ‘Sharon Tate’s Children’ (42 recs) and the Wake Up/Unacceptable 7” (42 recs & Skuld releases). Right after this they started recording for the Afterbirth 10” (with ‘Eggy’ on guitar)…

‘Bad Influence’; photo by Wim De Leersnijder

‘Wounded Knee’, a HC band from Niederkorn were: Schof (drums; also ‘No More’), René Penning (bass; does coordination/booking at the Kulturfabrik – kulturfabrik.lu nowadays), Phillippe ‘Phlép’ (vocals), Stéphan (guitar) and Claude ‘Pattex’ Werer (guitar, also ‘No More’). In 1993 they recorded the Not Proud Of My Country/Race tape (February ) & (in October) the Psycho Path 7” (Strive recs). They also had a track on the on the 500 Years Of Genocide 7” compilation (benefit for the Mohawk Nation).

Brob

I do remember playing and staying at the V.V. a few times; it was a great venue. I was there when I sang for ‘Toxic Waste’ too.

Deno ‘Dirt’

Deno – Roy – Petesy – Micky Tierney (‘Bleeding Rectum’) – Crispo – Marty

from Deno’s diary (thanks a lot!)

Another great night… Probably played there with ‘Bleeding Rectum’ on another occasion but not sure if it was Vort’n Vis or not. ‘Brawl’ probably played there again with a different drummer as they did a couple more European tours after I departed. Fond memories of this place even though they might be a bit hazy…

Mark ‘Crispo’ Christie

My memories of that tour are all a bit blurred (it was 20 years ago!). What I can say is that we always got one of the warmest welcomes in Belgium, there was an excellent anarcho-punk /alternative scene throughout the 80s and 90s, well organised, friendly and they always took care of us really well. We had played loads of gigs with Dick’s various bands (‘Subhumans’, ‘Culture Shock’ and ‘Citizen Fish’ down through the years and they always “blew us off the stage” which was fine by me because I was a big fan of all those bands. ‘Bad Influence’ organised this tour as they did a few other ones for bands I was in, and they did an excellent job as always. They came to Ireland as well and we tried to return the favour. Great guys all of them. The crowd at that gig, from what the remains of my brain can remember, were excellent, really enthusiastic and completely surprised me that they knew so many of our songs. The venue was brilliant and we were very well looked after. Places like this were alway a real inspiration for us going back to Belfast. Many thanks for having us and maybe we’ll get back sometime in the future…

One correction that probably should be made to your blog is that Petesy and Louanne from FUAL did NOT play on the ‘Toxic Waste’ album Belfast. It was Roy playing bass and singing, Deno from ‘Dirt’ singing, Gary from ‘Dirt’ playing guitar and Grub playing drums.

‘Marty’ Martin

Micky Tierney was also playing guitar. We did some ‘Bleeding Rectum’ songs too and Micky was their lead guitarist. He played all of the set with us at all of the gigs. He’s in a video-clip on the www…

Petesy Burns

‘Toxic Waste’; photo by Wim De Leersnijder (‘Crispo’ drumming in a ‘Brawl’ T-shirt)

‘Eggy’, or Egbert, from Herentals, played with Dirk & Munpie [Manfred Vinck] in ‘Dona Nobis Pacem’. I never knew his full name, even though we played together in the band for a year or two. After the release of ‘Afterbirth’ he quit, I think.

Joris Rombouts, ‘Bad Influence’ drummer

Can’t really remember anything personally I’m afraid, it’s all a blur. Dick might find something in his diaries… When I see what he comes up with it might bring back some recollections. A Vort’n Vis sticker has resided on our bass-cab since we were there…

Phil, ‘Citizen Fish’ guitarist

Pedro Anthares (‘Selfish’, ‘Uutus’, ‘Força Macabra’) came especially to see this gig.

Wim De Leersnijder

The day before (Oct 23^rd 1993) we did our last gig with ‘Private Jesus Detector’ in Ternat (Some of the ‘Hiatus’ blokes sang along quite a few songs.). I was seriously ill then but I did go over to the Vort’n Vis on Sunday to go see ‘Toxic Waste’…

Koen ‘Siesele’ Lammens, ‘P.J.D.’ bassist

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

‘Munpie’ and baddie Herwin

Dick ?

Canadian visiter on ‘Toxic Waste’

Pawel (Scream recs) from Poland

visiter(s) from Finland

additions wellcome!…

Bruno, who was the main promoter for the ‘Pissed’ tour (which kinda ‘blew up’, see 93-02-27), decided to invite ‘Alians’ (my mate Rafał ‘Kazi’ Kasprzak & his friends from Poland – they’d been at the V.V. before (see 91-09-21) – to do a part of the tour with the Americans. One day, I got a call from Diff (of the Luxembourg band ‘No More’) – who was driving them – that the Polish got busted at the Swiss border for carrying ‘shit’ (or was some of their ‘mates’ who travelled with them?). They were fined and found themselves unable to continue. Bruno was in Spain (with ‘Doom’) at the moment so it was up to me to try and persuade them but I was unable too…

‘Sofa Head’, from Darlington, played tuneful hardcore-punk with great vocal harmonies by times. Their lyrics were insightful/personal-political but not weaned of some humour. They were: singer Claire Sykes (Chapman nowadays; she married Tom), bassist Ian Armstrong, guitarist ‘Wal’ James Wallis and drummer ‘Woody’ (Matt Woodward – also in ‘Kito’; not Andrew Laing who played on the records). Wal & Ian had been in ‘Dan’ before, Andrew was also in ‘H.D.Q.’ & ‘Leatherface’. Ian Armstrong ran an excellent label called Meantime recs (mostly melodic punk-rock bands) at that time and now runs Hidden Talent Booking (hiddentalentbooking.com) and manages a band called ‘Random Hand’. Nice people (I think I’d already met them in Diksmuide when ‘Inside Out’ played or was it just Ian?) – I also interviewed them for my zine Tilt!)…

‘No More’, from Luxembourg (the country, not the Belgian province) were a political HC band: Claude ‘Pattex’ Werer (guitar), Fränz Laureys (bass), Steve ‘Diff’ Differding (vocals) & Mike ‘Schof’ (93) (drums). This gig was around the time of the How Much Is Enough? 7” on PeaCy recs (ran by Diff and Simone Winandy). Their 3^rd time here (after 92-05-24 & 92-09-05) because they were good mates…

Brob

We had a blast in Europe!

Claire Sykes/Chapman

The line-up on the European dates was Claire, myself, Wal and Woody (Matthew Woodward) on drums, he was in the band for around 2 years but I don’t think we ever recorded with him.

Ian Armstrong

I remember playing at Vort’n Vis with both ‘Sofa Head’ and ‘Kito’ [94-07-10]. I have to admit that I can’t really remember much other than that…

Funny that Ian says I didn’t record with ‘Sofa Head’ because we recorded a live LP at The Square in Harlow, Essex, that came out on vinyl as a US only release. Weird that he forgot that!

Matt Woodward

Claire (‘Sofa Head’) in Brugge (later that year: 2 oct ’93 @ ‘De Kelk’; with ‘Four Walls Falling’, ‘Blindfold’, ‘Feeding The Fire’, ‘Nations On Fire’ & ‘Glue’) – picture by Joeri Hoste

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

‘Blindfold’ & ‘Onward’ on tour; with Andreas Grüter, Michael Müller, Peter Hoeren, U.J., etc.

Wim (who sang for ‘Blindfold’) wrote a report on their tour with ‘Onward’ (in his zine Reminder #2) of which this here was the last gig:

>>We arrived in time to see ‘Burning Fight’ and ‘Spirit Of Youth’ (which was our goal). There’s a saying ‘You don’t have to convince a home-crowd’ but I don’t think you can say that for this one… A lot of kids I never saw showed up. This show turned out to be the second best on this tour [8 dates] for both ‘Blindfold’ and ‘Onward’. It felt good to be back.

It was the first tour for everybody involved. When I look back at it, there’s only one thing to say: there couldn’t have been a better band to tour with. A million thanks to Peter Hoeren, Michael Müller, Thomas Baldsovik and Andreas Grüter.<<

‘Blindfold’ did a lot of shows at the V.V. (They rehearsed there if I remember correctly.); even before this one… The (international) attention grew and this one here was during their first European tour. They were ready for it! After this they would record their Sober Mind Meditation 7” (@ CATS Studio in Brugge, Sep ’92; their 2^nd studio-experience), a year after Deprogrammers Do Not Exist (the first official release on P.M.A., Hans & UJ’s label).

‘Onward’, a straight-edge hardcore band from Oslo were: Arne (Olav) Haabeth (bass), ‘Bhakta’ Ollie Andersen (drums), Peter Amdam (guitar) and Torgny Amdam (vocals; later in ‘Amulet’). In 1991 they had a demo out and did a 7” for Crucial Response recs (Peter Hoeren would also release the LP In A Different Place the next year.). Later some of them formed ‘Sportswear’… Ollie was into Hare Krshna: did Wim ‘Blindfold’ pick up the interest for that kind of spirituality while touring with them…?

‘Burning Fight’, a SxE band from the Belgian coast, had already played here half a year before (92-02-22)…

After the gigs with Hans Verbeke drumming (91-06-08, 91-09-01, 91-12-21), little Fred started hitting the drums in ‘Spirit Of Youth’; Ignace De Meyer played bass and during a short while Edward Verhaeghe was singing (instead of Jan Maelfait, before he came back by the end of this year). That period they did a demo (released by Edward on Warehouse recs) with that line-up. The songs were later re-released on Love, Truth & Honesty (the name that ‘Spirit Of Youth’ took for a while)’s 7” (entitled The Impossible Dream…) on Jeroen’s Machination recs. Their Abyss 7” (Crucial Response recs) was recorded in October 1992 with Jan back on vocals.

Brob

‘Spirit Of Youth’ (Ward addressing Jörg Jacoby)

My band, ‘Growing Concern’ didn’t play; nor did ‘Open Season’, in August ‘92 But some members of GC and OS were there since they were travelling with Interrail through Europe. [‘Growing Concern’ came over to play twice later on: 93-01-09 & 94-01-08]

Gianni Pantaloni, ‘Growing Concern’ drummer

After my 1^st gig at the V.V. [92-07-25], I came back to the V.V. twice that summer, I was completely set alight by the straight-edge scene… I visited again for this one and later for the Ieper-fest (Wasn’t that the very first time that fest took place? [1st ‘Ieperfest’?])…

Jörg Jacoby, visitor from Saarbrücken

L.S.C., the Last Struggle Crew was a militant leftist, socialist, politically oriented group straight-edgers from various countries; hence also the name Red Edge. It was more a reaction to various op militant straight-edge groups, mainly in the US, that focussed purely on straight-edge. Straight-edge was of course also very important to us but it was a part of a bigger, politcal setting.

Har, ‘Feeding The Fire’/’No Sense’

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

“Thank you for a pleasant stay. We stayed here for 2 nights and had a great time.” (Catherine Skar & Anne Mette Bergseth, from Norway)

Italian visiters…

Peter Hoeren (Crucial Response recs)

additions wellcome!…

‘Chaos UK’ didn’t play on Oct 5^th 1991 at the VV. They were announced but the tour-bus broke down (I think) and they didn’t make it.

Wim Hollevoet

In 1987 I was visiting John & Baz of ‘Ripcord’ in their hometown Weston-Super-Mare… One day Baz took us to Bristol and we dropped by at the squat (St Michael’s Park) where the Chaos lads – ‘Mower’ (Kieran Moylett), ‘Chaos’ (Adrien Rice), ‘Gabba’ & Chuck – lived (I remember Bear Hackenbusch of the ‘psychedelic’ Skate Muties From the 5^th Dimension zine and Shane Dabinett of Manic Ears recs being there too – and Tim Bennett of Children Of The Revolution recs hung around there aswell I believe…). The band was about to start a ‘rehearsal’ so they pushed all the ‘furniture’ aside and rocked out! I’d seen them a couple of times live but this was even more impressive… In ’91 I was asked to help find them some gigs in the area: they played in Terneuzen (The Netherlands) and were supposed to play here aswell… ‘Chaos UK’, at that time, was (if I remember well) ‘Beckie ‘Beki’ Gibbons on bass, ‘Chaos’ (a.k.a. ‘Lice’) doing the vocals (‘Mower’ wasn’t in the band anymore by then), ‘Gabba’ playing guitar and Chuck hitting the drums. In the end they didn’t show up at the V.V. (They made it here a couple of years later, 93-11-21, though…)

‘Rectify’ (I think these replaced ‘Knucklehead’ – a legendary pioneering ska-punk band from Bristol/Bath, that were planned at first) were a political (anarcho) punk band from Blaina in Wales. I think they were: Wayne ‘Pig(gy)’ Cole (vocals), Mark ‘Wedge’ Wedgebury (drums), Andrew ‘Footy’ Foot (bass) & Michael ‘Mudgie’ Mudge (guitar; R.I.P.)… I thought they only had the20^th Century 7” on Taff Core recs (’88) out at that time. Welly of Artcore zine pointed out there was also a split-LP with ‘Bazzy And The Budgies’ around then…

Later Pig’ and ‘Wedge’ started the band ‘This System Kills’…

‘Debiele Eenheid’ from the Rotterdam Jazzbunker scene were probably introduced by ‘Political Asylum’s Stevie Dewar (who lived in R’dam at that time). Back then the band consisted of Jorem (vocals), Niek Den Braven (bass), Henk Van Schaik (sax), Karel(tje) Dops (drums) and Joop ‘Dops’ De Doelder (guitar). Long Kees played guitar on the Venus Has A Penis tape and on the 7” on Tirana Tunes in1989 (Here’s some original studio recordings.). Carla (van der Marel; of ‘Bat Attack‘) told me Jorem had the most incredible stage-acts but I can’t recall any of that. There’s some vids out there so you can see the chaotic bunch. I read somewhere Jello Biafra was a big fan…

This was the last ever gig for ‘Sloth’; the line-up (see also 91-02-08) was Dieter Roelstraete (vocals), David Stubbe (guitar), Fabrice Baclet (bass) & Jeroen Vanhandsame (drums).

I thought ‘Neuthrone’s first gig at the V.V. was on 91-12-31 but Steve W. explained it wasn’t. They did a short, un-announced set at the Leet fest (91-09-14) and also played here with ‘Debiele Eenheid’. “That was perhaps our first official 1^st gig as ‘Neuthrone’.”; Steve said: “Fabrice played in the band from August 1991 to June 1992. Then he started a training to become a sailor & was at sea for months and months. In the summer of ‘92 we asked Tim (‘Nutje’) if he was interested. We recorded 5 songs in August ‘92 in Brugge (3 for the 1^st 7” on Genet recs & another 2 for compilations and stuff (but they actually only appeared on a ‘Neuthrone’ LP with unpublished songs in 2004). Because Tim wasn’t ready for recordings yet, I played all the bass-tracks.”

Brob

Bassist ‘Footy’ left ‘Rectify’ years before that. He was only in ‘Classified Protest’…

Dean Jeffery Beddis, ‘Cowboy Killers’ vocalist

I played in ‘Debiele Eenheid’ until ‘89/’90 so I can’t recall anything about the Vort’n Vis in Ieper…

‘Long Tall’ Keesie

I played for ‘Debiele Eenheid’ in the nineties but I can’t remember this concert…The gigs were a bit chaotic yeah… Drummer small Kees (De Greef) played also with ‘Political Asylum’ for a bit and is on the recordings of the last two records. He also played in ‘Budrot’ with members of the ‘Stink Sisters’ and ‘Anarcrust’. Long Kees still plays in ‘Reknub’ – a long-standing psychedelic punk duo. Small Kees played drums when I was in the band between ‘92 and ‘94 I think. Long Kees was before that indeed…

Stevie Dewar, ‘Political Asylum’

I was in ‘Chaos UK’ between the beginning of 1991 to 1993. We toured Europe in October ’91.

Beckie Gibbons

The ‘Chaos UK’ van broke down… ;-)

Your intro sounds right!… I left in 1989. So it was ‘Chaos’ singing in ‘91…

‘Mower’

I played keyboards and trumpet in ‘Knucklehead’. I don’t think we ever played at the Vort’n Vis but I recognise a lot of the band-names of those that did… If you want to update your site with what we’re up to now I can tell you the following:

Jon (singer) went and lived in Bremen (92-95) and sang in ‘A38’. He’s now back in the UK (in Bath I think) fronting a band called ‘Seven Crowns’. They were called ‘Tiny Elvis’ for a few years but changed to ‘Seven Crowns’ a few years ago and regularly tour all over the world I think. Mets (singer/shouter) also went to Bremen and played bass in ‘A38’ and came back the same time as Jon. Back in Bath now. Painter and decorator. Cheesey Coles (singer) stayed in or around Bath. Not sure what he did for years but is now singing in a Northern Soul band called ‘The All Nighters’ (far cry from punk-rock!). Pete’Chopper’ Panton (guitar) – not sure what he did in the years after ‘Knucklehead’ but now lives in London and doing graphics for films and ads or something similar. Si Spoons (bass) stayed in Bath. Still there or thereabouts playing bass in ‘The All Nighters’. No idea what he’s doing for a living… Adrien ‘Ade’ Poole (drums) – drummer in ‘The All Nighters’. Still in Bath (or maybe Trowbridge I think). He’s a teacher I think. ‘Fingers Fourgang’ (keyboards & trumpet) – that’s me – went to Prague for 6 years ‘Knucklehead’ and played in a reggae band called ‘Hermakoute’. Now living in Edinburgh working as a freelance copywriter and penning the odd short-film soundtrack. Alex Hornblower (sax) also went to Bremen and played in a band called ‘Korrupt’. Not sure for how long (think she stayed there longer than Mets & Jon) but now back in the UK, somewhere after a stint living in Holland I think. No idea what she’s up to but she sometimes organises ‘Knucklehead’ reunions (drinking, not playing!). Last one was about 4 or 5 years ago.

I know ‘Knucklehead’ never played in Belgium. We had a tour of various European countries lined up but we split before it came to fruition. The Vort’n Vis may have been one of the venues we were due to play but we all started fighting with each other and it wasn’t fun anymore so we split up!

Toby Morgan (a.k.a. Johnny Despondent)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Dirk ‘Scum’ (Zero Positives’)…always hungry… ;-)

‘Zorro’ (Ann Claeys, Dieter Roelstraete’s girlfriend back then), the kitchen-princess of that time…

additions wellcome!…