In May 2001 the Vort’n Vis crew had to abandon the space at the Kiekenmarkt 7 that they had as their home-base since 1989. The headquartes were relocated to the Sint-Jacobsstraat 3). In 1999 & 2000 the annual fest had already moved to the ‘Stedelijke Academie voor Muziek en Woord’ (Municipal Acadamy for Music and Drama) located d’Hondstraat 59 (a walk of some 500 m from the Kiekenmarkt). In 2001 things were happening at the ‘Jeugdstadion’ (Youth Stadium) at the Leopold III laan 16 (on the outskirts of town). The event was announced as ‘2001: A Hardcore Odyssey’ or ‘Vort’n Vis HC Fest’. In my view, over the years it had grown out of proportion… The national press even gave attention to it…

Here’s what ‘De Standaard’ (one of the biggest Belgian newspapers) wrote about it: >>The well-known Hardcore-festival, an organisation of the not-for-profit association De Vort’n Vis, starts at 1 p.m. In that scene this the festival is known as the biggest underground hardcore-festival in Europe. The foreign interest is massive. The camping at the youth-stadium is completely crowded with tents, motors and hardcore-fans. No surprise because the hardcore-festival is happening in the immediate vicinity. In this way the organisers want to minimise noise in the city-centre. This afternoon the bands performing are Good Clean Fun, Caliban, Unconquered, E-150, Endstand, Severance & Retaliate. Tomorrow, saturday: Children of Fall, Circle, Liar, Man vs Humanity, Juliette & Reproach op. Sunday (a.o.) Maximum Penalty, Leiah, Manifesto Jukebox, Concrete, Bloodsport & Kingpin. The festival-site measures 2.700 square metres and has 2 tents for food and beverages. A ticket for a day costs 600 Belgian franks, for the weekend 1.200 Belgian franks.<<

The poster lists the following bands…

2001-08-17: Good Clean Fun (USA), Caliban (Ger), Unconquered (USA), E-150 (Spa), Children of Fall (Swe), Endstand (Fin), Course Of Action (Bel), The Deal (Bel), Deadbolt (Nl), Severance (Bel), From The Dying Sky (Ita), Retaliate (Bel)

2001-08-18: Catharsis (US), Liar (Bel), Circle (Bel), Stack (Ger), New End Original (USA), Man vs Humanity (Ger); Venerea (Swe), Posession (Spa), The Oath (Nl+USA), Comrades (Ita), Juliette (Pol), Reproach (Bel)

2001-08-19: Maximum Penalty (USA), Facedown (Bel), Leiah (Swe), PN (Bel), Manifesto Jukebox (Fin); Burden (Can), Reliance (Bel), Concrete (Ita), Die My Demon (Bel), Newborn (Hun), Kingpin (Bel)

Man vs Humanity didn’t play because they called it a day a few days before they were supposed to perform…

In the Vort’n Vis guestbook there’s contributions of Brian ‘Catharsis’, Empathy (Bel; not on the poster), Gold Standard Laboratories (San Diego, Ca, USA), New Winds (Por), Newborn (Hun), PN (Bel), Stack (Ger), Striker (Bel; played unanncounced), The Locust (USA), The Oath (Nl+USA), Reliance (Bel), Caliban (Ger), E-150 (Spa), Endstand (Fin), Good Clean Fun (USA), Retaliate (Bel), Severance (Bel), Unconquered (USA), Firestone (Bel; played unanncounced), Circle (Bel), Cornflames (Bel), Liar (Bel), Reproach (Bel), Bloodsport (Nl), Concrete (Ita), Kingpin (Bel), Leiah (Swe), Manifesto Jukebox (Fin)

More on the actual concerts will follow…

Intro: 95-08-18&19&20 Hardcore Festival

The ‘Chokehold’ guys were coming from the train-station with their guitars and bass in hand. Their European tour [with ‘Feeding The Fire’] was a mess (some of the last gigs of their tour got cancelled) and they got robbed if I remember correctly. I felt sorry for them for having such a bad experience over here. They mention it in an interview.

Carsten Pötter, Frankfurt

‘Steadfast’, a band playing “powerful new-school sXe hardcore” from the Osnabrück/Munster region (in Germany), were announced at some timepoint but didn’t play. Their guitarist Stefan Uhe and their bassist Volker Pohlschmidt (R.I.P.) did visit.

‘Churn’ was an emo-core band (Leuven/Limburg) with Raf Gelenne (vocals), Peter Peumans (bass), Raf Gielen (guitar), Jan Beckers (guitar) & Maarten Beckers (drums). The latter 3 went on with ‘Kindred’.

‘Churn’ (courtesy of Peter Peumans)

‘By All Means’ (from Mantua/Modena), was a straight-edge HC band with vocalist Massimo ‘Melo’ Meloni, guitarists Andrea ‘Gallo’ Gallinini & Mario ‘Ringo’ Luppi (he founded the label Insociale recs and was also in various other bands), Adriano Pratissoli (drums) and Matteo Verri (bass; replacing Stefano Bertelli). The members swapped also intsruments in bands such as ‘Society Of Jesus’ and ‘Immortal Majority’… In 1992 they did a tape, a self-titled 7” on Inaudito Dischi and a split-7” with ‘Equality’ on Green recs. In 1993 there was the Blind Side LP (also Green recs) and in the 1998 Fino A Qui… Tutto Bene! LP.

‘Liar’ (Roeselare/Ieper area) rose from the ashes of ‘Wheel Of Progress’ (93-06-13). This was their 1^st appearance at one of the V.V. fests (the had already played some regular concerts late ’94, early ‘95). They would become of the most ardent H8000 promoters. During these early days the band consisted of Hans Verbeke (vocals; also ‘Blindfold’s guitarist), Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitar; also ‘Congress’), Jan ‘UxJx’ Vandekerckhove (bass; also ‘Congress’) and Raf (drums). They played socalled edge-metal (straight-edge metallic hardcore with non-compromising, hard-hitting lyrics). Raf (Raphael) left the band in ‘96 to do other things in life, he turned into a professional snowboarder and played in a punk band called ‘Red Lobster’, together with some ‘Spirit Of Youth’ members. From then on Bert Guillemont (ex ‘Sektor’) would play the drums. The recordings (still with Raf) of their debut Falls Of Torment (released on GoodLife recs in ’96 and announced as “a mix of ‘Unbroken’ & ‘Morbid Angel’…”) happened after some 10 rehearsals and a few shows.

‘Fungus’ (from the Kortrijk area) were Mich Decruyenaere (guitar; later in ‘Blindfold’ & ‘Hitch’), Olivier Wychuyse (drums; later in ‘Hitch’), Carl Lachat (bass) & Tim Nottebaert (vocals – might not have been in the band anymore at that time…). They probably ended up here because Hans (‘Liar’) was a fan… Not really a band fitting in; they played “noisy rock”…

‘Timebomb’ (from Rome) was a communist, vegan and straight-edge band playing metallic HC: Cristiano Suriano (drums; later ‘Opposite Force’), Daniele Marini (guitar), Giorgio Fois (vocals; later replaced by Emiliano), Marco Ciccone (guitar; his first show with the band here; later also ‘Opposite Force’) and Simone Marini (bass; Kill for Love zine). In 1993 they did a demo and a 7” (Fury) released by SOA recs. Paolo Petralia also did their Hymns For A Decaying Empire CD (‘96) and in 1998 The Full Wrath Of The Slave got out on Genet recs (last recordings with Giorgio). They became regulars at the V.V.: they also played the 96, 97 & 98 fests…

‘End In Sight’ (“edge-metal” from Gislaved) were Toni Niskanen (bass), Janne Hanhela (guitar/vocals), Marko K. (drums), Matthias P. (guitar) and Mikke Niskanen (vocals; he was only on the 1^st 7”). Marko Raboldt (Emotion X recs) released that Deep Wound 7” (recorded in Feb). The second (Obiter Dictum; released in ’96 was in another line-up with Andreas ‘Lasse’ Lassus on drums, Daniel on guitar).

‘End In Sight’ (photographed by Steve Lammertyn)

‘Chokehold’ was a vegan straight-edge ‘chugga chugga’ hardcore band from Hamilton, Ontario (Canada). The band was – I believe – Jon ‘Randy Sharronto’ Sharron (bass; also in ‘Union Of Uranus’), Chris(topher) Logan (vocals), Jeff Beckman (guitar), Matt Beckman (drums) and Matt S. (guitar). They had been touring in Germany with ‘Feeding The Fire’ (organised by Mad Mob from Berlin) but that didn’t go too well. 1995 ws the year their Content With Dying LP got out on Scott Beibin’s Bloodlink recs. He’d also done the Instilled 7” (the year before). The band split up in ’96. Here’s the band playing live at the Vort’n Vis. Their last show was in March 1996 at the New Bedford Fest.

Brob

‘Chokehold’ (pics 1+2: Patrick Federli, 3: unkown)

As far as I can remember it was a reasonably good gig for us. I further recall the Italians especially. It was here that we got in contact with the guys of ‘Burning Defeat’. When they toured later, they ended up sleeping on my floor. Great guys! Everyone was there for the Swedish but I’ve never been an X-crew person so they didn’t do much to me. ‘Churn’ started after Jan Beckers and I had a conversation about our mutual musical interest in ‘Rorschach’. He invited me over to his house where I got to know Maarten and Peter. A bit later Raf joined. Bart (Poer zine) [Verelst; of ‘Hopeman Path’, ‘State Of Grace’, ‘Sheen’] also rehearsed with us a certain time… We quit after a gig in Germany (musical theatrical differences).

Raf Gelenne, ‘Churn’ singer

‘Chokehold’ got their by train. That was because they played this fest and we didn’t.

Rob Franssen, ‘Feeding The Fire’ singer

I remember that we finished our set with Firestorm (‘Earth Crisis’ cover) and a guy in the pit broke his collar-bone or something. It was pretty intense!

Toni Niskanen, ‘End In Sight’

I also played in ‘Society Of Jesus’ (guitar) and was the singer of ‘The Immoral Majority’, bassist in ‘Mourn’ & ‘Celestials’, etc. etc. ‘Melo’ played bass in ‘Society Of Jesus’ & ‘No Somos Nada’. Adriano [Pratissoli] also drummed for ‘Society Of Jesus’, ‘Mourn’, ‘Celestials’, etc. ‘Ringo’ was also the singer of ‘Society Of Jesus’ and the guitarist of ‘The Immoral Majority’. Matteo played guitar in ‘Society Of Jesus’ & ‘No Somos Nada’ and bass in ‘The Immoral Majority’.

At that time we all did the fanzine The Legendary Blumergaster (raised from the ashes of my own Monkey Face) together. Nowadays I have a tattoo-shop in Berlin [Out Of Step Tattoo Parlour].

I remember the fest was great, good organisation; there were cool people, record-stalls and distros, decent food. ‘Concrete’ practiced outside the venue acoustically…really really funny. People of ‘Comrades’, ‘Concrete’, ‘Burning Defeat’ were all together on the road from Italy to Belgium. Great tour! We were there the whole weekend; it was awesome. I remember ‘Kosjer D’ as one of the best bands. And ‘Chockehold’!!!

‘Gallo’, ‘By All Means’

I wasn’t there…

‘Ringo’ Luppi

The ‘Kiss’ face I had during the ‘Congress’ show, the day before, didn’t shock people. With ‘Liar’ we did succeed to shock the crowd…

U.J.

U.J.’s arms were all cut up. I had rubbed his blood all over my face. My mother who was standing on the side of the stage, saw everything. Good old ‘Liar’ days. Top. Bounded by blood…

Hans Verbeke

I remember it being the best show we played. And the hell we went through to get there…

Chris Logan, ‘Chokehold’ singer

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

“Con Ogni Mezzo” = By All Means

additions wellcome!…

The VV notes mention that night the bar was manned by Frederik Plets & Nick Rebry (‘Retaliate’ guitarists) and Davy Bauwen… The profits went to Solar recs.

‘Edgecrusher’ was a band that rehearsed in the Vort’n Vis. Their vocalist was Davy Bauwen, a V.V. ‘shitworker’ (volunteer) that organised quite a few gigs there. They wrote something in the guestbook on 2000-04-22 so this one here might not’ve been there first one… They played “melodic death-metal”. Besides Davy, there was Isaac Delahaye (guitar; also singer in ‘Panopticum’), Jo Decaesteker (guitar), Nico ‘Sientje’ Sinnaeve (drums; replaced by Arian Van Weesenbeek), Frederik ‘Freddy’ Vanhee (bass; replaced by Thijs Lanoye). ‘Freddy’ & ‘Sientje were both ex ‘D.S.A.’ and also played in ‘Retaliate’. The first ‘Edgecrusher’ demo Damnatio Memoriae (recorded by Michael ‘Link’ Maes) was available that year and their second demo Impressions Of Mankind (2002), was with Michael ‘Link’ Maes on drums.

Davy and Freddy ran the label Solar Productions (intended to release an ‘Edgecrusher’ CD?) together. Davy also did Arcane Chaldaeus (a “dark zine, dealing with philosophy, occultism, mythology and other magic darkness”) and a newsletter (in Dutch) entitled Youth Against Society (with philosophical/political items).

‘Forcible’ (also previously in the guestbook on 2000-07-26) was a local thrash-metal band. The above-mentioned Isaac Delahaye (a student at the Rotterdam conservatorium) was also in this band. Besides him there was Matthias Baillieuil (bass/vocals), Michiel Cauwelier (drums) and Phil (guitar). Isaac later played for the Ducth death-metal band ‘God Dethroned’ (and a few others). They did a demo (Imprisoned Redemption of Disorder) in ’98.

‘Forcible’

‘Link’; another local band with V.V. shitworkers: Inge Cappoen & her partner Michael Maes (vocals & guitar). They played many times since they started around ‘97… I think bassist Greg ‘Briko’ and drummer ‘Juju’ Julien De Jonckheere had left by then. Their 1^st CD The Last Sacrifice was recorded in 2000, with a drum-computer and Geoffrey Geeraert on bass. Geoffrey & drummer Michiel (both in ‘Abrogate’) had joined the band beginning 2000 but the latter already left  after a few months. The band continued with a drum-computer for a few years… (Read Michael’s ‘history-lesson’: 97-09-12)

‘Link’ (The Last Sacrifice line-up)

Brob

Isaac joined later on. The original line-up was with ‘Sientje’, Jo and myself.

Frederik ‘Freddy’ Vanhee, ‘Edgecrusher’ bassist

Davy Bright, an English guy living in Scotland who moved to Copenhagen for a while, was a correspondent of mine. This Danish band, ‘Jaded’ were friends of his but he didn’t travel with them. As they wrote in the V.V. guestbook: they were on their Towards Extinction tour… This gig was probably organised by Lieve Goemaere (Ugly Duckling zine) who was also friends with Davy.

The band consisted of Morgen Van Buren a.k.a. ‘Dan Bishop’ (bass), Diego Mocci (drums), Rene (guitar), Donovan (guitar) and Lars Berndt Jensen (vocals). Their music was described as “brutal metalcore with engaged lyrics”. They had a track on the Copenhardcore Ungergrund compilation double-LP (1998, on Jan Svejstrup’s label Error recs). The same year they released a self-titled 7”. And in 1999 the 10” End Of The Millennium.

The band signed the guestbook on Sunday Dec 6^th but according to the notes they played on Saturday the 5^th.

Brob

They played in Europe a few times. Did a 7” and a 10”. Good guys. Did a few bands afterwards. One now lives in The Netherlands, was the [Italian] drummer for the popular melodic punk band ‘Bambix’. [Wick ‘Bambix’: “He played for us during a year – around 2010. I’m not in touch with him anymore.”] Kim played bass for a while, he was also in ‘Tourist Trap’ with Lars and Diego [& Emil ‘Sune’ Sunesson?].

Davy Bright

We played Ieper but I’m not sure what other places in Belgium. We did a few gigs in Belgium for every tour we did. Diego probably knows it all a bit better than I do!

Lars Berndt Jensen

We played there both in 98 and 99… Rene and Donovan played guitar, Donovan only played on the first 7”…

Diego Mocci

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

“Don’t mention the war!”… No problem here: Germans and Brits getting along just fine…

‘Scum Of Toytown’ (from Stevenage) played fresh and very danceable but political ska/reggae/dub/punk with female vocals: Craig (drums/vocals), Ni(c)k Hooper (guitar/vocals), Jo(h)n Thurlow (guitar/vocals; ex ‘Chron Gen’), ‘Toad’ (bass/vocals) and Lea (vocals & keyboards). Jon wrote me shortly after this gig that Lea (who wanted to concentrate on other things) was replaced by Georgia ‘G’ Howson. I’d gotten to know them via their 7” Destruction Of Both Houses Of Parliament By Fire that Karl of Words Of Warning (who’s stuff I was distributing) put out in 1993. I recall the 1994 LP Strike (also on Words Of Warning) sold very well via Tilt! distro. The enchanting/empowering anti-fascist anthem Jackboot Crusade gave a lot of people (including me) goosebumps and motivation… The band is still performing! (check www.toytown.org.uk)

‘Scum Of Toytown’ – Nick , Craig, John, Toad & Lea

‘Virtual Reality’ (Bradford) was a project/band that played ‘Black Sabbath’ influenced stuff featuring Brian Talbot (guitarist of ‘Doom’; here on bass). He’d teamed up with Steve Butler (guitar) and Darron ‘Bill’ Ward (vocals), both of ‘The Next World’ (see 90-05-01). The years before they still used a drum-machine but I think they had a real drummer here. They’d done a split-7” with ‘Neuthrone’ on Genet recs in 1994 and released the LP Dreamstate (Genet recs & Flat Earth recs, 1995) – “groovy beats and heavy riffs to techno-based tracks”. This was their 3^rd time here (see: 94-03-19 & 94-05-08).

During ‘Doom’s tour in Scandinavia (Sep. ’95) Scoot had to leave (Tom Croft had already dropped out before). In ’96 the band did their LP (Rush Hour Of The Gods) for Sned’s label Flat Earth with Wayne Southworth (R.I.P.) on vocals, Brian Talbot on guitar, Denis ‘The Deuce’ Boardman also on guitar, Chris ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne (ex ‘Health Hazard’, ‘Suffer’) on bass and Anthony ‘Stick’ Dickens on drums. The Monarchy Zoo 7” was recorded with Denis on bass (Sep. ’95). Michael Kopijn put a video on-line Doom – Live In Europe 1996; but no footage of this show here…

‘Doom’ (photgraphed by Wim De Leersnijder)

‘Pink Flamingos’ (Berlin) played powerviolence; Thought Crime ‘marketed’ them as “highspeed ultraviolence glamrock heroes”. Carsten Kissler (drummer; also ‘Cold War’, ex ‘SM-70’; he’d been at the V.V. when he organised the ‘M.V.D.’/’Suffer’ tour – see 95-04-29), Jens Walter (bass; ex ‘SM-70’) and Lars (guitar/vocals, ex ‘SM-70’). A Slovenian tape-label released a split-tape with recordings of them and ‘Hiatus’ live in Zorro, Leipzig (95-11-18 ‘Pink Flamingos’, 96-03-21 ‘Hiatus’). The years before they did some 7”s (including splits with ‘M.V.D.’ and ‘Man Is The Bastard’) on the Hannover label Farewell recs; and Thought Crime recs (Thomas Franke/Jens Walter) did the Poppin’ Eye Effect 7” in ’96. Their last release was the split-7” Germania Meets Britannica with ‘Substandard’ (UK) in ’97 (on Wicked Witch recs). A lot of all that was on their discography (Crippled Silence).

‘Y’ was a grindcore band from Berlin: Tino Schulz (vocals; replaced ‘Froesi’ Hendrik Froese), Hartmut Barsch (guitar), ‘Keule’ Matthias Franke (drums) & ‘Spremme’ Thomas Franke (bass; Thought Crime recs). First there was their Überall Ist Kotze demo (’94). They also had a split-7” (with ‘Discript’) out on Anomie recs (from Bochum) and just recorded for a 7” (Feb. ‘96). Later had several releases on labels such as Thought Crime recs, Sound Pollution recs, Flowerviolence recs, etc.

‘Y’ (pic from Sascha May’s zine Evilspeak #3)

‘Counter-Attack’ (originally from Alken in Limburg but gradually ‘embedded’ in the anarchist/squat scene in Gent) played anarcho-punk influenced by ‘Crass’, ‘Flux Of Pink Indians’ & ‘Dirt’. ‘Groovy’ Jochen (vocals; replaced the original female singer), Stef ‘Irritant’ Heeren (guitar/vocals), Wim ‘Simsallabim’ De Neve (bass), Jeroen (drums; later replaced by Yvan Meers of ‘Visons Of War’). Stef sent me a letter and their demo (Demonstrate Or Demolition) around that time asking to help/support them with gigs. This was their first time performing at the V.V. They came back 97-02-28 & 98-03-29.

‘Up In Arms’ (from Leipzig) consisted of peolpe who used to be in ‘D.M.B.’, ‘L’Attentat’, ‘Der Schwarze Kanal’: Stefan ‘Schnö’ Beckmann (bass), Thomas ‘Reudnitz’ Henschel (guitar), Jens ‘Jose’ Schossee (drums); Thomas ‘Tommi’ Schliephake (guitar) & ‘York’ (vocals). The Czech label Day After recs released their Up In Arms ‎EP (‘93) and in ’95 they had an LP out entitled Rotation. Their music was described as hardcore/emo and references were made to ‘Quicksand’, ‘Neurosis’ & ‘Prong’.

Brob

I can’t remember this gig but we did that in Greece too. I went over with ‘V.R.’ and then ‘Stick’, ‘Scoot’ & Tom were supposed to fly over and meet me there; except: only ‘Stick’ & ‘Scoot’ made it as Tom couldn’t find his passport (an excuse I think). So we got Gordy (ex ‘Psycho Flowers’) to sing for the Greek gigs as he was just on holiday with ‘V.R.’!

The one & only drummer in ‘V.R.’ was Duncan. He used to drum in ‘Crash’, an old punk band from Hebden Bridge (They did a a split ep with ‘Crux’: Keep On Running). We did a recording too (in Leicester while Darron was at college there). I lost my copy but it sounded dead good.

Brian Talbot

Belgium was definitely the best place to play for ‘V.R.’ Don’t think we ever went down very well though, not many of the regulars were into our style of music (the audience seemed to be more into the noisier bands) but we always were looked after well there and enjoyed it in Ieper.

Darron Ward

Don’t remember much only that it was a good show and I liked the other bands and felt pretty floored to play this. I think I might have a few pics…maybe that will trigger some memories (if I find them)…

Thomas Franke, ‘Y’ bassist

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

‘(The) Mushrooms’ (photo from their split-7″)

(The) Mushrooms – Steve Erauw (vocals/guitar), Chris(tophe) Calmeyn (bass) & Patrick ‘Schimmel’ Gyde (drums) – were a street-punk band from Brugge/Bruges. Thy recorded a rehearsal (demo) tape in their rehearsal-room, at the end of the eighties or beginning of nineties… Probably one of the only excisting recordings of their whole setlist. In 1991 the Belgian punk-label Unity recs released their 7” (entitled Youth Of Today). Later there was a split-7” with Belgian Oi! Band ‘The Pride’ (with ‘Mushroom’-members)…

‘(The) Mushrooms’ (pic courtesy of Leslie Delacauw)

That night they started playing at midnight to make the bridge from New Year’s Eve to New Year’s Day. They probably weren’t the only band that night.

Apparently ‘Sloth’ (see also 91-02-08 & 91-10-05) – a local grindcore band with Dieter ‘Lord Moloch’ Roelstraete doing vocals, David ‘Spans Hrac’ Stubbe (guitar; later drums for ‘Neuthrone’, etc.), Fabrice Baclet (bass) & Jeroen Vanhandsame (drums) – played aswell.

Brob

Ha! My very first performance. First time stoned too, I guess. And I had the flu! Add some booze to that and a bunch of nerves (and the fact that I actually didn’t know how to play the drums)… and that makes a beautiful cocktail ;-). I was unstoppable that night. Usually the others had to turn down their amps to hear me but that night I went full speed ahead. I didn’t even stop in-between songs a few times (the rhythm stayed the same for the biggest part anyway :-). I think there must be a recording of it somwhere. I even know it circulated. Haven’t owned it or lost it afterwards… Would be fun to hear that back…without an audience because it must’ve been terrible!

Very vague memories: crazy enough music was just a side-issue. To me the distributions were very important! [Jeroen later started Tegenstroom (‘counter-current’) in Leuven; together with his brother Stijn & Filip Vandenberghe.] Much more than the music. Looking backwards: I should’ve enjoyed it more. And work harder. Because the music kept attracting. But I never got to it. Pity! The other guys did have a lot of patience with me. Always great meeting up with David… Fabrice was a great guy. Fantastic bassist. Missed him often. His clever humor. His smile.

Don’t have more memories. I do recall a gig later with ‘Sore Threat’ in the 4AD [venue in Diksmuide] ( I think). But that was our last ‘achievement’ if I remember well. The other guys were much better and cooler than me… They were better of without me. Dieter was already living in Ghent, had ‘grown up’ and started his ‘Anus Mundi’, etc. Too much doom/goth for me…

Jeroen Vanhandsame

additions wellcome!…

I believe ‘Strength Of The Will’ was replaced by ‘W.O.P.’: the first aren’t mentioned in the V.V. notes, the latter are… I believed ‘Wheel Of Progress’ played their only show at the V.V. on 93-06-13 but Hans confirms they played here too so this must’ve been their first appearance here. ‘W.O.P.’ consisted of Rob Franssen (vocals; also ‘Feeding The Fire’), Hans Verbeke (drums; guitarist of ‘Blindfold’), Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitar) & ‘Uniform’ Jan (U.J.) Vandekerckhove (who was, together with Joost, also in ‘Dreft’ at that time). They recorded their It’s Alive…7″ a bit after this.

There was an anarchist punk band from the squat-scene in Bern (Switzerland) named ‘Brachland’ but the www tells us these existed from 1998 on… Their bassist informed me there was another band with that name from Germany. These played “powerful, agressive acid punk”.

Some members of the Italian bands ‘Growing Concern’ & ‘Open Season’ had been visiting the V.V. before (92-08-09). The latter (an SxE band from Rome) – even though they weren’t on the bill – were represented by some of their members & friends (see guestbook). Paolo Petralia (SOA recs) did their EP (entitled) 1989-1991. ‘O.S.’ (originally ‘One Step Ahead’) was Davide Mancini (guitar), Riccardo Rottaro (bass), Roberto Marroni (drums) & Steve ‘Ahead’ (vocals).

‘Growing Concern’ (from Rome) played aggressive HC (NY style à la ‘Agnostic Front’, ‘Sick Of It All’, etc.). The band consisted of Andrew Mecoli (guitar), Gianni Pantaloni (drums), Massimiliano ‘Massimo’ Corona (bass) & Paolo Piccini (vocals). This gig was around the time they had the Disconnection EP (recorded May 1992 with Andrew on guitar) out on Paolo Petralia’s SOA recs (also some other releases were on his label). He was roadie-ing for them; together with Davide of ‘One Step Ahead’. The band’s music was also described as “powerful old-school HC à la ‘Y.O.T.’…” They came back on 94-01-08.

This might well have been ‘Congress’ first performance at the Vort’n Vis (or anywhere else for that matter)… That was with their first singer Roy Cappan (R.I.P.). Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitar) & Ilja De Ceuleneire (drums) had been playing together in ‘Burning Fight’ (92-02-22). Jan ‘U.J.’ Vandekerckhove (bass) had played in ‘Dreft’ (together with Joost) for a while…

Brob

We played the first time at the V.V. in January 1993. I remember we met Edward from ‘Nations On Fire’, whom we were in touch with ‘cause we organized a ‘N.O.F.’ gig in Rome, and this scene girl called Saskia [Verbeke, ‘Shortsight’ singer], whom I used to correspond with for a while.

Gianni Pantaloni

I always thought the V.V. was some kind of magic place… ‘Growing Concern’ played there two times, at least with me as a roadie. The first time Davide of ‘One Step Ahead’ / ‘Open Season’ (guitar, a couple of years later also in ‘Growing Concern’) was there too. That time Jana & Cristina (‘Sisterhood’ signature in the V.V. guestbook) were also with us. Both tours happened during winter-time and I do remember how hard the weather was in Northern Europe for our Southern bodies. Both tours were organised by guys from la Bande Bonnot, who released ‘Growing Concern’ records together with me (SOA recs). The 1^st tour – first time I left the Italian borders – was a whole week in France and the only Belgium gig at the V.V. As far as I remember ‘Congress’ played both gigs, with their first singer. Have no positive memories about ‘Congress’ as I had later on with the small ‘classic’ singer. The other bands weren’t that impressive either, as I forgot every single note.

At this first ‘G.C.’ gig Ed [N.O.F.] “wanted to exchange views” and I remember clearly – all packed in our van in front at the V.V., freezing – Ed was asking us things; and after that talk -don’t remember about what – we nicknamed Ed ‘The Judge’, a joke on the ‘Judge No One’ moniker he used on ‘N.O.F.’ records. In between the two Belgian ‘G.C.’ gigs we had ‘N.O.F.’ playing Rome with their classic singer. This led to an long friendship with some of the buddies… After that I came over to the V.V. at least 3 more times, always for the summer fest that’s now called Ieperfest. Even played with one of my band [‘Comrades’] at one of the fest and then failed to play there a second time in 2000 due our van breaking down.

I couldn’t find any V.V. pics at all… I have 2 pics from that first tour: one with Andrew (‘G.C.’ guitarist), Davide ‘One Step’, Paolo SOA, Gianni (‘G.C.’ drummer), Paolo (‘G.C.’ guitarist) – taken by Massimiliano (‘G.C.’ bassist) at the Eiffel tower, the day before the V.V. gig.; an another with me trying to memorise ‘G.C.’ lyrics in the van because the singer lost his voice after first day of the tour (in Torino) – Davide ‘One Step’ did it at the Marseille gig, without knowing any words…

Paolo Petralia

I believe there was a cancellation and since all members of ‘W.O.P.’ where present, we played this show after our very first show in Mulheim (Germany) the week before that…

Hans Verbeke

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

This gig – advertised as ‘Emo In Motion’ – was (probably) organised by Joeri Hoste. Also helping out (more or less) was Guilherme Chalmers (from Portugal) and Jurgen Desmet. Kathy Dejonghe (Genet recs, Pyrrhus store) prepared meals. ‘Symptom Of Isaac’ & ‘Churn’ were announced at one timepoint but aren’t mentioned in the Vort’n Vis notes so I reckon they cancelled.

‘Symptom Of Isaac’ was an emo band from Poitiers (with some members of ‘Milkus’): Alain Vidal (vocals; ex ‘Vanilla’ bassist), Gaël Nicolas (guitar), Fabien Decker (bass) and Antoine Demantké (drums). Weena Pauly did some vocals on a self-titled 7” (also known as Seek Me Out) that they put out on Olivier Lépine’s label Laissez-Nous Jouer (94). Later Alain Vidal formed ‘El Vidal Sonido’ with Yves Maisonneuve (drums, ex ‘Ivich’/’Vanilla’). There was also a split-tape (live ‘95) with ‘Ananda’…

‘Churn’ was also an emo band from Leuven & Limburg with Raf ‘Thrasher’ Gelenne (vocals), Peter Peumans (bass), Raf Gielen (guitar), Maarten Beckers (drums) and Jan Beckers (guitar). (The latter 3 went on as ‘Kindred’ with Walter Beckers and Eric Sefton). They had played at the Hardcore Festival already that year (95-08-20).

‘Merel’ was another emo band from New Jersey, with David A. (Dave) Leto (bass; here replaced by ‘Iconoclast’s Kevin K.; see below) and Gregg Leto (drums) – both later in ‘Rye Coalition’, Jon Ariz (guitar), Mike Solski (guitar) & José Juan Ruiz (vocals). They did a split-7” with Iconoclast on Old Glory and a 7” & LP on Charles Maggio’s label Gern Blandsten.

‘Bob Tilton’, emo-rockers (some said they played “twisted post-hardcore”) from Nottinghman, were Al(l)an Gainey (drums; ex ‘Downfall’), Chay Lawrence (guitar; also ‘Tribute’), Mark Simms (bass; also ‘Baby Harp Seal’), Neil Johnson (guitar) and Si(mon) Feirn (vocals; ex ‘Downfall’). Nick Royles announced them in his newsletter (How We Rock #6) as “similar to ‘Born Against’ & ‘Heroin’…”. The music on their Crescent LP was compared to ‘Promise Ring’ and the ‘Get Up Kids’. Around that time they had the following out, on Subjugation recs: Wake Me When It’s Springtime Again 7” (‘94), Songs Of Penknife And Pocket Watch 7” (‘95). Later there would be the Crescent LP (’96) a split-12” with ‘Reiziger (on Genet recs) and an LP on Southern recs.

‘Bob Tilton’ (pictured by Vique ‘Simba’ Martin)

I had already invited ‘Malva’ to Vort’n Vis before (94-11-05) and they’d played about half a year before this one here too (95-07-02), when they toured with ‘Policy Of 3’. I also planned to interview them for Tilt!… They had recorded the tracks for their 7” (Das Leben Ist Kein Picknick; released on Equality recs) earlier that year (April ‘95). This emo-core band (from Leverkusen) consisted of Christian Schneider (guitar), Alex(ander) Bokelmann (drums), Flo(rian) Reiss (guitar), Martino Palazzo (vocals) and Alex(ander) Jahn (bass).

It wasn’t the first time I could welcome my Parisian friends of ‘Undone’ (drummer Christophe Mora, guitarist Stéphane ‘Scholl’ Brochier, bassist Stéphane ‘Stu’ Joly and singer Sullivan ‘Sully’ Chédanne) at the V.V. either. Steph & Chris released the band’s LP Dark Future (recorded April ‘95) on their respective labels (Kleines Mädchen & Stonehenge recs) that year.

‘Rood Arch’ had played here a couple of times already aswell (94-04-23 & 94-11-19) The guys were from Lille/Dunkerque (just accross the border, in France): Pierre Anne (drums/vocals; ex ‘6 Feet Over’), ‘Tomoy’ (bass; ‘Scraps’, later also in ‘Unhinged’) & Fred (also bass; ex ‘6 Feet Over’). It’s a pity there’s no recordings of them. I only have a vague idea of them sounding emo-ish…

‘Kosjer D’, emo from Limburg, played by Arne Van Petegem (guitar/vocals), Geert Plessers (guitar/vocals), Stijn Persoons (drums; ex ‘Dawn Of Liberty’) and Kristien Hendrix (bass; had replaced Werner by then I believe). They’d performed at the V.V. a couple of times already. Having a female bassplayer in the band, they jokingly said, they could be the Belgian ‘Jawbox’… They had a 7” (True?) and LP out on Genet recs that year. In ‘96 there was the split-7” with ‘Baby Harp Seal’…

A lot of my correspondents came over… E.g. Jeffrey Kroesen visited together with a bunch of mates from the north of The Netherlands (read below). Also Mikaël ‘Mike’ Ramounet (singer of ‘Peu-Être’, and later ‘Alcatraz’) from Poitiers was there. (Don’t remember if his partner Stéphanie Courret – Opale distro – was there also.) Etc.

Brob

I was a member of ‘Tribute’, and ‘Bob Tilton’ (for about 5 years – everything apart from the first 7” and last LP), I wasn’t really in ‘Unborn’ (I only went to one or two practices) although the www seems to think I was. Don’t really have anything to share from that event other than cloudy memories. I do remember a bunch of bands played though and it might have been with ‘Merel’ or ‘Iconoclast’ who we played a bunch of shows with around the UK? Anyway, I do remember it being a good show with a large crowd.

Chay Lawrence

‘Kosjer D’ and ‘Malva’ were playing also that night. Excellent gig in very good company. I remember I was dead-tired on the way back and had to stop because I almost fell asleep behind the wheel. Couldn’t trust on the others in helping me stay awake since they were all sound asleep even before we got to Antwerp. Bastards! This was a fantastic line-up… Also the first drive with my mom’s car all the way from Friesland [North of the Netherlands] to Ieper, with a stop in Hoogeveen to pick up some people from Groningen. Because of the distance I didn’t come to Ieper often, maybe like 10 times (including 4 Ieperfests when they were still at the Vort’n Vis was) in the 90s. The first time I stayed over for the night, it was ice-cold. We kept our clothes on in our sleeping-bags.

Alex Oost

I recall that I was very impressed by ‘Bob Tilton’ and ‘Merel’. Also that it took the 5 of us a very long drive all the way from Groningen….

Mark Hoogvliet, ‘Shikari’ vocalist & Graanrepubliek recs

After the ‘Merel’ show in Ieper, I drove with them to Jaak [‘N.O.F.’ drummer] ‘s vegan store, where they slept…

Martin Schwendemann (personal communication, spring ’96)

We corresponded in the past, Brob! I had a little distro which carried your zine Tilt!. We met a few times. The ‘Bob Tilton’ / ‘Undone’ / ‘Merel’ gig was one occasion…

Jeffrey ‘Jigs Wolfsbane’ Kroesen

Because of the big strike in France, there were no trains and I couldn’t make it over…

Olivier Lacoste, ‘Öpstand’ singer, Chill Out zine (personal communication, January ’96)

I played bass on ‘Merel’s European tour because the original guy, Dave Leto, quit at the last minute to stay with ‘Rye’, later called ‘Rye Coaltion’. I have great memories of the time and I also have to thank that time for my romantic situation now because I met Lluvia in a squat in Madrid where the punks put on a ‘Merel’ show; she was involved in the organization. We became friends back then but we lost touch until 2010 – I was in NYC playing drums or bass in rock-bands but several broke up, I’d gotten fired from my job and then met up with Lluvia and figured I should take a chance. Now I’m the bass-player for ‘No Band’; Lluvia is the singer.

Kevin Kajetzke, ‘Iconoclast’ drummer

I was still in school and had to stay home…

Dave Leto, ‘Merel’s bassist

I can tell you you it was one of my personal favorites to play. I remained friends with ‘Kosjer D’s drummers Stijn and his wife Diane for a couple of years but lost touch…

Jon Ariz, ‘Merel’ guitarist

I don’t have any memories of the show as the tour was a bit of a whirlwind for us. For some reason my most vivid memory of Belgium was taking a walk and encountering people ice-skating around a Christmas-tree while it was snowing. I often think about that.

Gregg Leto, ‘Merel’s drummer

I feel my most interesting V.V. memories are of my first visits – I traveled with ‘Bob Tilton’ that played a gig there. I was (am) good friends with Nick Royles, and Ian [Simpson] and Helene [Keller] of Subjugation – we all travelled to the show.

David Allen (later ‘Voorhees’ drummer)

‘Merel’ had a woman named Lee Quick on the tour as roadie. José’s girlfriend at the time I believe. José lives in Australia nowadays…

Charles Maggio, ‘Rorschach vocalist’ & Gern Blandsten

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Another benefit for Kakak Asuh, the Indonesian education-project that Blindfold’s drummer Sacha Baelen introduced us to (see 93-02-21 & 94-04-23). Organised by Joeri Hoste (and Aaron Vyvial) who had this thing Earthwill? / Earthwell? going… Of course other shitworkers (like myself, and Kurt & David of ‘Shortsight’ e.g.) were helping out.

‘Blindfold’ had played here at the V.V. several times. Sep-Oct ‘94 they went into the studio for the World Of Fools 7” (released on Jeroen ‘Goofy’ Lauwers’ Machination recs in ’95). Also the recordings for the Astreroid 164 LP started then but that one was only mixed in ’95 to be released in ’96 (by SoberMind and GoodLife recs). My interest in the band had disappeared by then because of their distribution-deal with the commercial company GreenHell. Pity ‘cause Wim, Hans, Jan & ‘Chatn’ were mates. Mich Decruyenaere (guitar; later ‘Hitch’) played on the 1996 German tour but wasn’t on the LP; on 95-08-20 he played with his former band ‘Fungus’ at the V.V.

We’d already had ‘Peace Of Mind’ over some months before (94-11-05). The 7” on World Upside Down (Urte Böhm’s label) and Harmony recs (Ralf ‘Ballo’ Ballschmieter) was recorded in June ’96 and that was with Aga singing and Antje S. on bass. In the band here were Jobst Eggert (vocals and guitar), Berti (drums), Jörn Allert (guitar) and Claudia (bass). Jörn left somewhere in ’95 and then Arndt Buck (ex ‘Spit Acid’) played guitar.

‘Liar’ (Roeselare/Ieper area) rose from the ashes of ‘Wheel Of Progress’ (93-01-09 & 93-06-13) and did one of their 1^st gigs of a long series at the V.V. (They’d been announced a couple of times but I think they had to cancel, and this might be the very first time?). They would become of the most ardent H8000 promoters. During these early days the band consisted of Hans Verbeke (vocals; also ‘Blindfold’s guitarist), Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitar), Jan ‘UxJx’ Vandekerckhove (bass) and Raf (drums). They played socalled edge-metal (straight-edge metallic hardcore with non-compromising, hard-hitting lyrics). Raf (Raphael) left the band in ‘96 to do other things in life, he turned into a professional snowboarder and played in a punk band called ‘Red Lobster’, together with some ‘Spirit Of Youth’ members. From then on Bert Guillemont (ex ‘Sektor’) played the drums. The recordings (still with Raf) of their debut Falls Of Torment (released on GoodLife recs in ’96 and announced as “a mix of ‘Unbroken’ & ‘Morbid Angel’…”) happened after some 10 rehearsals and a few shows.

First appearance at the V.V. of ‘Regression’ (Menen/Roeselare) too. H8000 style, crunchy metallic (vegan) straight-edge HC: “Perhaps the most heaviest of all the ‘edge-metal’ bands: uncompromising death-metal mixed with straight-edge hardcore spirit”. They were Bjorn Lescouhier (drums, ex ‘Shortsight’; he replaced Raf -who was in ‘Liar’ too- around July 95), Kristof Taveirne (bass; nowadays in ‘Spoil Engine’), Niek Jacobsen (vocals) and ‘Stuutje’ David Decoutere (guitar). A bit later they took ‘Lookmulle’ (Davy Vanlokeren of ‘Deformity’) as second guitarist. Hans Verbeke wrote about them that they “created their own style of technical hardcore/metal with ‘Carcass’ and ‘Machinehead’ influences”; other people compared them with ‘Earth Crisis’. They recorded a demo in ’95, then did the x-Heartless-x CD on GoodLife recs (‘96) and a split-CD with ‘Breach’ from Sweden ‎followed (also GoodLife recs, ‘97).

Brob

Some info on Kakak Asuh:

from the Vort’n Vis zine Fifi #2

Another show organised by Michael ‘Mike’ Maes…

‘Hellkrusher’ (anarcho-crust-punk from Newcastle) were touring again… They also played Belgian dates in Deurne (Antwerp), Leuven & Tessenderlo. They played a couple of times earlier (93-04-04 & 93-11-21) but the line-up had changed by then. In December ’96 they had recorded for the Doomsday Hour LP (Skuld releases/Profane Existence) with regulars ‘Scotty’ Ian Scott (guitar) & Alastair ‘Ali’ Lynn  (vocals), the old drummer Ian Curry, second guitarist ‘Scoot Gladok Von Stickleback’ (also in ‘Doom’/‘Extinction Of Mankind’) & Rob on bass.

‘‘Hellkrusher’ [1 = Scotty & Curry – 2 = Ali, Rob & Scoot – 3 = Ali & Rob – 4 = Rob] (source unkown)

‘Disbeer’, a crusty metal-punk band from Auch (France), were: Fred ‘Utopia’ Jourdan ‘the bomber’ (drums; ex ‘Enola Gay’ & ‘Vomit Yourself’), ‘the hammer’ (bass) and Michel Cebrian ‘the motherfucker’ (guitar/vocals; ex ‘Enola Gay’, also Reality Of War zine). Fred & Michel had been at the V.V. with ‘Enola Gay’ (95-11-05); ‘Vomit Yourself’ played on 95-02-11 an dthey would come back with ‘Disbeer’ once more (99-09-11). They had recorded for the Beer Drinkers & Hellraisers LP a few months before (March ‘97) that would come out on Panx recs…

‘Boycot’ & ‘Insane Youth’ released a split-7” in 1997…

‘Insane Youth’ were from the Sint-Niklaas area but hung out in Ghent a lot so they became mates. I liked what they were doing (musically and attitude-wise) so I did an interview for Profane Existence with them. It wasn’t their first time at the Vort’n Vis: 94-09-16 & 94-10-22 – in the original line-up: Steve ‘Stiv’ Descamps (vocals), Thomas ‘Tomaz’ Van Rumst (bass), Jan ‘Fons’ Wuytack and Tim De Baere (guitar) – and 95-09-16 & 96-05-19 with Stef De Leersnijder (ex ‘Corpus Christi’) on second guitar. They also played 98-02-13 and continued until about 1999. Steve & Stef did their first recordings with their new band ‘Visions Of War’ in December ’98.

‘Boycot’ from Alkmaar (The Netherlands) – Jeroen Maas (bass), Pim Bakker (vocals; ex ‘C.K.N.’), Lennaert Roomer (guitar), Billy Kuiper (vocals) & Taco Rietveld (drums) – had played here a couple of times already too (96-09-20 & 97-05-18)… They gained my repsect for speakin’ out against commerciality in the HC/punk scene (e.g. with the Only Stupid Bastards Help Epitaph 7” that they released through Axiome prods in 1995).

Brob

I think I remember ‘Disbeer’ actually… I have photos from this tour… We played in a cellar somewhere with ‘Chaos Bastard’. [Clockwork, in Leuven]. Someone from ‘Hiatus’ was there. At the V.V. we taught Stef the Newcastle dialect… Geordie…which he still uses whenever I meet him. My wife came with us on this tour and there are photos of myself/my wife/Stef and Annabel.

‘Scotty’ Scott

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

The V.V. archive notes mention this was a “free show”… I have a vague recollection of having a hand in getting ‘Bedlam Hour’ this gig. It was probably a last-minute arrangement…

‘Bedlam Hour’, from South Carolina, existed already since the early 80s. They did an LP (Rock The Cradle) on Kevin Seconds’ label Positive Force recs in 1987. At the time of this tour the band consisted of (I believe) Chuck Walker (started on guitar in the early 80s, later drums & vocals when drummer Scott Frey left), Adam Kolesar (bass/vocals; replaced the 1^st bassplayer John Leroy) and Scott Kenneally (guitar). They played HC/punk with “catchy hooks and skillful guitar work”. I think it was Adam who contacted me to help out with a few shows when they toured… In the 90s they released Porcupine 7” (Family Fest And Friends recs, 1990), Corn Dances 7” (Manifest Soundworks, 1990) and a split-7” with ‘Stretch Arm Strong’ (Koogle recs, 1993): their song American Technology was recorded July ’93 with Derek ‘Derik’ Roddy on drums and Chuck singing. ‘Bedlam Hour’ was known for their wild live shows in which they sometimes fed the audience freshly-made snacks (made on stage with a small waffle-iron (by Adam the snack-master). Adam also often appeared on stage only wearing an adult-size diaper or dressed in a rubber chicken suit (a jacket with a bunch of rubber chickens attached to it); but in my (very vague) recollection there’s a cow-with-utter-suit…

pic taken from ‘Bedlam Hour’s Porcupine EP

‘Archbishop Kebab’, a Scottish (Edinburgh) collective playing avant-gardesque/ experimental punky stuff… “Their bass heavy sound has developed to embrace elements of dub, afro-beat and ska to their no wave frenetic post jazzcore”. They also held a “confrontational anarcho-punk perspective”. They’d formed in 1986 and did 3 albums: Yinferranodgie in ‘89, Beyond Ma Ken in ’93 and Heeliegoleerie And Scunnered (But Cheerie) in ’95 – the latter was recorded right before this tour but it was only available on tape then. This gig/tour was a while after the recording of the Beyond Ma Ken LP (March ‘92) that got out on Trottel recs (1993). I think the line-up at that time was Karen Jack (vocals/guitar/melodica/sax), Neil Bateman (guitar/mandolin/bass/vocals; also in ‘Badgewearer’), Duncan (drums), Bud (bass/guitar) & Angela (sax). There were various line-up changes; later e.g. a few people from ‘Dog Faced Hermans’ joined…

‘Archbishop Kebab’ – location/source unknown

Brob

I organised our tours. It was a long time ago though and I’ve forgotten various venues all over Europe… Neil Bateman might remember!

Karen Jack

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

‘Bedlam Hour’ – Frankenberry Mosh

unknown visiter…?

Vort’n Vis shitworkers Steph Q. & Jan C. complaining about bar-tender Steve W.

additions wellcome!…

‘Life But How To Live It’, from Oslo (Norway), had done a gig that Smurfpunx organised (89-03-25; with their friends of ‘So Much Hate’) and played a show in Oostende – that I booked (90-10-27) so I was very glad to be able to meet ‘em again. I really liked their rocky tuneful HC and Katja’s f-great singing (and heartfelt lyrics). The band has always been Katja Benneche Osvold (vocals), Geir Petter ‘Dyret’ Jensen (drums), Roger Andreassen (guitar) & Tom Andreassen (bass) – the brothers had been in ‘Barn Av Regnbuen’ in the 80s; later they were in ‘Drunk’ and ‘Danger!Man’. Katja teamed up with some old school punx in the band ‘Castro’.

‘Life But How To Live It’ (photo by Karl Penando)

‘Dubmerge’ reggae/roots/dub/ska collective (travellers-circuit) from the Worcester (UK) area. Their music grew into a cross-over of dub, hiphop, funk, reggae and jungle. I read somewhere there were 8 people in the band but I can ‘t remember so many people being on the tiny V.V. stage… They’d just started out by then so maybe they weren’t all there yet: Paul Knight (drums), Mark ‘Lofty’ Loughman (bass), ‘Bhima’ Steve ‘Kin-1’ McArdle (vocals), Patrick McArdle (keyboards), Jez King (guitar), ‘Cut La Vis’ Dave Lavis (percussion), ‘Powerstepper’ Colin Consterdine (guest percussion), Molara (guest vocals). As a few others that played the V.V. in their starting-period, they now do some of Europe’s biggest festivals. I know of 2 CDs they did – Wake Up! (‘96) & Greed And Glamour (’99) – on their own label Bud Urge recs. Recordings of their show in La Zone (Liège, 93-06-20) are on the tape Flat Out In Skunkland.

‘Dubmerge’

Karl Penando told me this was the day he met his partner Agnes (who he’s till together with…).

Brob

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

First day of the grind/death Bulldozer fest, an “underground meeting with brutal death and bestial grind”, organised by Fred(eric) Driessens. The poster announces ‘Catafalque’, ‘Last Days Of Humanity’, ‘In-quest’… The V.V. notes also make mention of ‘Ectopia’, ‘S.C.D.’, but not ‘Catafalque’…

[Second day: Mastic Scum (Öst), Necrophagist (Ger), Suppository (Nl), Pleurisy (Nl), Mangled (Nl)]

‘Last Days Of Humanity’ was a grindcore band from The Netherlands. They formed in 1989 and split-up in 2006 but reformed in 2010. In 1998 their CD The Sound Of Rancid Juices Sloshing Around Your Coffin was released. The recordings (from 1996) were with Hans Smits (vocals), William Van De Ven (guitar), Anne Van De Burgt (guitar), Glenn Jagers (drums) & Erwin De Wit (bass). They came back to the V.V. with 98-09-25 with Bart Boumans as vocalist & (Rutger-)Rogier Kuzee (bass).

‘In-quest’ was a death-metal band from the Antwerp/Turnhout region. At that time probably Gert Monden (drums; ex ‘System Shit’), Jan Geenen (bass/guitar; ex ‘System Shit’), Wim Roelants (guitar), Laurent Swaan (guitar; ex ‘System Shit’), Manu Van Tichelen (bass) & ‘Noisegrinder’ Ben Adams (vocals; ex ‘System Shit’, later ‘Caducity’ and replaced by Sven De Caluwé of ‘Aborted’). In ’97 they released a CD entitled Extrusion-Battlehymns.

‘Ectopia’ was a grindcore band (from Ronse, Belgium) with Steven ‘Roy’ De Rui (bass; later ‘Leprasy’), Guy (guitar), Kurt ‘Monie’ Termonia (vocals; also ‘Serial Butcher’) & ‘Narre’ Bernard Demeulenaere (drums; ex ‘Dreft’). They did a self-released tape (entitled Necronymphomaniac) in 1997 and later a CD (Sickly Private; with Wesley Carrez on guitar, also ‘Caducity’).

‘Ectopia & friends; L => R: ‘Narre’, Steven De Cracker (nowadays vocalist of ‘Putrid Inbred’, back then ‘Serial Butcher’, Nico Veroeven (‘Serial Butcher’ drummer), Kurt

‘S.C.D.’ or ‘Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition’ is (still active) a grindcore band from France. They recorded a bunch of tracks in February 1997 that appeared on a split-tape with ‘Infected Pussy’. The guys playing these were with Yov (drums), Bruno (guitar/vocals) & Seb (vocals). Nowadyas only Seb remains.

There was a Belgian band named ‘Catafalque’ (from Loppem, near Bruges) that did technical melodic death-metal. Steve Folens (guitar/vocals), Pol Van Tieghem (bass) and Frank Rosseau (drums) recorded the tape Ruins Of A Forgotten Age in 1996. Vocalist Kris Maes (ex ‘Dreft’) joined them for the recording of the Awakening CD (GoodLife recs 1997).

‘Catafalque’ (Nl); courtesy of Kris Maes

Kris tells me that it was probably the Dutch ‘Catafalque’ that played. In 1997: Rutger Noij (drums; also ‘Suppository’, ‘Last Days of Humanity’), Jozef ‘Jupke’ Folkerts (bass/vocals) & Susan Gerl (guitar).

Brob

I was there that friday, it was the first concert of ‘LDOH’ with the new singer, Bart Boumans.

Hans Smits

We were together with the boys of ‘Suppository’… Fantastic times!

Jozef Folkerts

I’m 85% certain that we played there with ‘Catafalque’… An eternity ago!

Rutger Noij

I remember there was a big crowd. We played in the pub, not the barn in the back and that I got of the stage for a moment to release the surplus of beer from my stomach. :-) During our act.

Kurt Termonia, ‘Ectopia’ vocalist

We had already been at the Vort’n Vis to see ‘Dead Infection’ [97-05-31]. There weren’t a lot of grind gigs in France at that time so we used to come to Belgium (the Vort’n Vis in Ieper or the Frontline in Ghent, or the Zichem Open Air of ‘Agathocles’). I recall we came to the V.V. at one time to see bands and that one almost cancelled because of a health-issue so we asked Frederic Driessens to play ‘cause our band was there already. In the end the health-problem wasn’t too bad and it we didn’t get to replace them. But we kept in touch with Fred and soon after he proposed that we would play the Vort’n Vis. We got to play there several times (and slept on upstairs, in the attic). I’m almost sure that the picture of our band in Hard’n’Heavy # 72 was taken at the Vort’n Vis [Brob: Yes, I recognise the V.V. courtyard.]. I also believe we met Nico [Nicolas Foubert] of our first label (Bones Brigade recs) at a gig in the V.V.

L => R: Yov – Bruno – Seb (‘S.C.D.’)

Seb, ‘Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition’ vocalist

I have a recollection of this: 2-day fest and nice weather. I came to the Vort’n Vis often, also when we didn’t play ourselves; always good atmosphere. To me there were a few places that stood out: Groningen, La Zone in Liège and the V.V. Quite far away for us but always worthwhile. Grind or crust or punk, everyone was getting along well (most can learn from that nowadays)…

Erwin De Wit, ‘L.D.O.H.’ bassist

additions wellcome!…

This was the second day of the grind/death Bulldozer fest, an “underground meeting with brutal death and bestial grind”, organised by Fred(eric) Driessens. The poster announces ‘Mastic Scum’, ‘Agathocles’, ‘Cornucopia’, ‘Suppository’, ‘Pleurisy’, ‘Judgement Day’, etc. The V.V. notes also mention ‘Mangled’ (Nl), ‘Necrophagist’ (Ger), ‘Disjunction’ (‘Disjunctor’) (Bel), but no ‘Agathocles’ or ‘Judgement Day’. ‘Cornucopia’ didn’t get to play because the cops shut down the concert.

[First day: Last Days Of Humanity (Nl), Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition (Fra), Catafalque (Nl), In-quest (Bel), Ectopia (Bel)]

‘Mastic Scum’ (from Vienna) was described as an “in-your-face” grindcore bands. The guys in the band: Harry Gandler (guitar), Man Gandler (drums), Steff Moser (bass) and Linga & Jesus (vocals; Will Schett joined later). The bands still exists (masticscum.com)… Thijs Van Der Spank from Katwijk-aan-Zee (The Netherlands) contacted me to arrange a gig for these Austrians. He was involved with Eurodusnie, a collective set up in 1997 (Koppenhinksteeg squat, Leiden) to organise protests against the Euro-summit in Amsterdam… The band didn’t wanna play the Hogepont-squat in Gent so I guess they ended up at the V.V. Thijs came along with them.

‘Mangled’ was a Dutch death-metal band (from Horst) with Erwin Hermsen (guitar), Floris de Jonge (drums), Harold Gielen (guitar), Loek Peeters (bass; also ‘Insult’) and Pepijn Houwen (vocals). Their album Ancient Times was recorded January 1997.

‘Necrophagist’ – a German technical death-metal band – consisted of (at that time) Muhammed Suiçmez (guitar/vocals), Daniel Silva (drums) and Jochen Bittmann on bass. They had 2 self-released tapes out.

‘Pleurisy’ (from Amersfoort, The Netherlands’) also played death-metal. They had a few tapes out and had released a split-12” (with the Germans of ‘Asgaia’) in ’96. Guitarist Alex Seegers had recorded the latter with bassist Bas van den Boogaard, drummer Edwin Nederkoorn, guitarist Axel Becker and “grunter” Mathieu van Hamersveld (or was it Johan Wesdijk mentioned in the guestbook?).

‘Suppository’ played the V.V. already half a year before this (97-05-31). They were a grindcore band from Dutch Limburg. Boris ‘Bastard’ Cornelissen (vocals), Max ‘Goulash’ Duys (bass), Rutger ‘Ragout’ Noij (drums; also ‘Catafalque’) and René (guitar) recorded their first efforts in March ‘97 (released on a split-7” with the Greek ‘Rakitis’ in ’98). The same year there was a CD with ‘Agathocles’ where Matty replaced René on guitar. More releases followed… They also did a German tour that year with ‘Cornucopia’.

‘Judgement Day’ was Dutch metal band with guitarist Theo van Eekelen. Don’t think they actually played here…

No idea who ‘Disjunction’/‘Disjunctor’ were…

In April 1998 ‘Agathocles’ recorded the tracks for the split-LP with the Brazilian ‘Deadmocracy’ in their rehearsalroom in Zichem, Belgium. During that session Vince(nt) Morre played bass, Burt Beyens hit the drums, Matías ‘Matty’ Dupont played guitar and Jan Frederickx growled. The recordings for the split-7” with ‘Abstain’ were done in September 1997 with the same line-up. If the band performed here, it must’ve been with them…

‘Cornucopia’ had already played the V.V. on 96-02-24 & 97-02-28…

Brob

As far as I can remember: no ‘Agathocles’, ‘Cornucopia’ and ‘Judgement Day’, but definitely ‘Necrophagist’ and ‘Pleurisy’!

Erik Minnen, ‘Cornucopia’ vocalist

I remember this show at the Vort’n Vis, as we played the night before in Vienna (we did a small tour called ‘Hang Over tour’ with some more gigs in Belgium and the Netherlands) and drove the whole night to Belgium. We arrived in Ieper in the afternoon and then played. It was aweseome but can ‘t recall anything more, hahaha! ‘Suppository’ from the Netherlands also played.

Harry Gandler, ‘Mastic Scum’ guitarist

Quite some alcohol-conumption that night… Playing there also got us a gig in France (organised by the singer of ‘Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition’)…

Harold Gielen, ‘Mangled’ guitarist

We played our first gig outside Germany in Belgium at the Vort‘n Vis. We were headlining the gig but when we were in as 3rd or 4th, the police ended our gig because of complaints from neighbours regarding the noise-level. Details are very fuzzy. The only two things I can recall were that 1) we had to sleep in one room with all the other bands and their members and that this room was not heated/very cold and 2) the room where we played was a former barn or slaughterhouse and that you still could smell the scent of animal-excrements.

the former ‘Necrophagist’ bassist

I believe I was there but I didn’t play for ‘Agathocles’ yet… I was their ‘roadie’ the years before. To long ago to remember anything about the gig but I think Wim De Leersnijder a.k.a. ‘Herrie Kederrie’ was there…

Vincent Morre

Don’t think I was there. Can’t remember….

Wim De Leersnijder

Too long ago to remember. In retrospect, it’s kinda cool that ‘Necrophagist’ played there and later became very big. One of my all-time favourite bands.

Edwin Nederkoorn, ‘Pleurisy’ drummer

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

‘Panikos’ (from Thessaloniki) was a band with anarchist sympathies. Their lyrics were in Greek. In the beginning they consisted of: Nikos (guitar), Elmer (drums; later replaced by Lakis), Thanos Georgilas (bass; also in ‘Human Lethargy’) and Christos ‘Panther’ (vocals & guitar). On their demo-tape The War Continues (1990; later released on vinyl) they remind me a bit of ‘Antisect’. They were about to release a 7” on Bruno’s Genet recs (All For The Money) which they came to promote here I guess. The music on that one got described as “a heavy mid-paced crust attack” but it’s more elaborated, slower and metal-influenced (not unlike ‘Amebix’). Later they also did a split-LP with German band ‘WWK’…

‘Panikos’

‘EgoTrip’, from Bad Neustadt (Germany), consisted of Ma Raab (guitar), Ralph ‘Otto’ Pöllath (vocals), Thorsten ‘Dosn’ Raab (bass), Dino (drums; he replaced Patrick). Florian Opitz was in the band too later on… I’d gotten to know them through this girl, Alexandra Geier, that I corresponded with. If I remember well she put me in touch with Otto… They played powerful, skilful, varied HC and put out 2 7”s: a self-titled one & Alone. They also had a few tracks on compilation-LPs (Illiterate on Ebullition recs and the compilation by the German zine Plot)…

‘Virtual Reality’ (Bradford) had played here a few months before (94-03-19). A project/band that played ‘Black Sabbath’ influenced stuff featuring Brian Talbot (guitarist of ‘Doom’; here on bass). He’d teamed up with Steve Butler (guitar) and Darron ‘Bill’ Ward (vocals), both of ‘The Next World’ (see 90-05-01). At this time they still used a drum-machine. They did a split-7” with ‘Neuthrone’ on Genet recs in 1994 and would later release the LP Dreamstate (Genet recs & Flat Earth recs, 1995). The band isn’t mentioned in the V.V. notes but they’re in the guestbook…

Stevie Dewar (guitarist of ‘Political Asylum’) had asked me to arrange for this ‘Punkrockfive’. I guess Bruno got in touch with them eventually… ‘Nancy And I’ (from Göttingen) were ‘Hichy’ Jens Hichert (vocals), Gerrit ‘MD’ Schlösser (guitar), ‘Kabob’ (guitar), P-Punk / ‘Little Bee’ ‘Ulli B Lefort’ Ulrich Briese (bass) and ‘Sven No’ Sönke Peters (drums). They had 2 EPs out and did a CD on a subsidiary of a heavy metal label, called All Fall Down (1993).

Brob

My mates from Germany, ‘Nancy And I’ ended up having to pay to get into their own gig in Ieper since the whole town-centre was cut off for a festival. Also they came back to Göttingen, where they come from, with 0 cash somehow. ‘Political Asylum’ also played with the two ‘Nancy And I’ boys on bass and drums at some time-point. I think we played as support for the ‘Instigators’ at the V.V. [Brob: ‘Political Asylum’ played the V.V. on 91-07-07]

Steve Dewar, ‘Political Asylum’ guitarist

As far as I can remember we (‘Nancy and I’) played at the Vort’n Vis in Ieper. I think it was the day the whole city was celebrating, something like cat’s death day??? [Kattenstoet, the cats’ parade, a folkloric parade] We played there together with a band from Greece. Two of us replaced drum and bass for ‘Political Asylum’. It was ‘Little Bee’ on bass and ‘Snök’ on drums. Maybe Steve Dewar could tell you a little bit more of that tour and dates.

Gerrit Schlösser, ‘Nancy And I’ guitarist

I remember that on that day the whole town was like a carnival of cats. People in cats’ cars and costumes. The whole city was surrounded by road-blocks and police, so that one our cars couldn’t get easily in. It was a very chaotic day and I only remember the Greek band playing and a band from the UK. There was no P.A. so we had to improvise a lot. We only had one amplifier for the vocals and a very, very short microphone-cable, no great ‘jumping around’ performance to be expected, haha. We enjoyed it a lot playing that gig in Belgium, in a small club having ourselves “lekker” [tasty] strawberry-beer and freaky people in the crowd. On our way home, we saw yellow lights on the highway in the night, so we gave Belgium a new name: “gelbien” [gelb = yellow]. It was fun and we arrived 9 hours later after a short trip to Brussel, still don’t know why we took the wrong route, haha.

Jens Hichert, ‘Nancy And I’ singer

I can remember this show. As usual it started quite early. Not sure if we have been on tour or if it was a single show. Our singer Otto Pöllath booked the tours. I think there was a kid band practicing [Brob: probably ‘Spirit Of Youth’] when we arrived at the club. We had to wait they to finish before we could set up our equipment. I think… So many shows… Florian Opitz was also in the band. [Brob: I thought that was later when Thorsten had quit…] He also was very active in the scene those days. He did shows in Baden-Baden.

I recall meeting you Brob. I also played guitar in ‘Scraps’ during their ‘94 tour and I was driver, mixer and tour-manager for a lot of bands like ‘Rain Like The Sounds Of Trains’, ‘Texas Is The Reason’, ‘Yuppicide’, … The good old Belgium shows. I always loved the afternoon starts.

Ma Raab

Fantastic, I went back to Greece with ‘Panikos’ because I got along so well with Vagelis (or ‘Vanx’; the drummer of ‘Human Lethargy’ from Athens – who was friends with ‘Panikos’), at a ‘gay punks’ level ;-). Actually I got back in touch with him: I have the impression that after [the squat] Villa Amalia got closed down by the Greek authorities, many old punks suddenly started to appreciate the importance of that place, and that that meeting-spot has been taken away from them out of fear that protests would erupt. Villa Amalia was also a place where actions and concerts were organised, but especially where also friendships were built that still stand 20 year later. That gives it a tremendously important place in the lives of all who lived, rehearsed or stayed there.

‘Human Lethargy’ and ‘Panikos’ were a mixed bunch; I think Thanassis has played in both bands. There was also Thanos from ‘Panikos’ who was good friends with ‘Human Lethary’. Villa Barbara (squat in Thessaloniki) and Villa Amalia had the same intentions and people ‘commuted’ back and forth all the time. ‘Panikos’ was Christos (vocals/guitar), Thanos (bass), then there was this vague guitarist who called himself Ozzy and looked more like a football-hooligan. I never knew Elmer; I only knew ‘Panikos’ when Lakis already drummed for them. Panos (Thanos’ brother) might’ve played in the 1^st line-up (he committed suicide in ’93) but I’m not sure of that.

‘Panikos’ is still playing, they put out a new LP in 2012 and Vagelis also still hits the drums in ‘Atopia’, a DIY punk band.

I carry that whole Greek gang of punks still deep in my heart.

Joris De Buysser

I don’t remember if we played or not… The only things in Belgium I can recall is a concert with ‘Bad Influence’ somewhere… And being live on a radio-station… Nice friends and hospitality there… The last few years we did 3 LPs with all old songs (some remastered and some totally new). The scene today…? Most important I think nowadays is the lack of fresh ideas and the feeling of community plus the spirit of revolution and evolution…

Christos ‘Panther’, ‘Panikos’

I was in ‘Ego Trip’ at that time and do remember just a tiny bit…

Florian Opitz

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Intro: 96-09-20&21&22 8^th Leed festival

‘Strain’ had been at the V.V. before (95-04-09). These Canadians (from Vancouver) played “metallic mosh-core in the vein of ‘Snapcase’ & ‘Chokehold’ with staccato rhythms”: Eric ‘Flexyourhead’ Thorkelsson (bass; ex ‘Fratricide’; does the Flex Your Head radio-show), Jody Taylor (vocals), Chris Rayes (drums; replaced Len Greenblat), John Franco (guitar; replaced Greg Dinardo) and Sean Lande (guitar; seanlande.com). They had put out some 7”s (self-titled on Overkill recs ’94, Cataract & Driven on HeartFirst ’94, Remorse on Pushead’s Bacteria Sour recs ‘95) and later recorded for several more releases on the label ran by Flo(rian) Helmchen (my mate from Berlin; ex ‘Squandered Message’ bassist): HeartFirst recs. In ’96 New Age recs released their CD Here And Now (recorded in January).

‘Strain’

‘Ananda’ came from Parisian suburbia. They’d been at he V.V. before (95-07-02) and earlier that year (February) they’d recorded a demo. Recordings of their show with ‘Policy Of 3’ and ‘Avail’ (95-05-30 in Poitiers, France) were used for a split-tape with ‘Symptom Of Isaac’. The band consisted of Chrystèle Grall & Jean-Yves André (vocals), Thomas Guillanton (guitar; ex ‘Fingerprint’, ‘Jasemine’) & Sylvain Klein (guitar), Jérôme ‘Mizou’ Bessout (drums; ex ‘Fingerprint’, ‘Jasemine’) and Jérôme ‘Gunthar’ Lacombe (bass). (Günthar studio was Jérôme’s the home recording-studio in the 90s.) Their 10” Masqué had been recorded that summer and was released by Olivier Lépine on his label La Libre Expression. Later Stéphane ‘Stu’ Joly (ex ‘Undone’) replaced Sylvain and Michaël Clergeot joined December ’97 (did vocals in stead of Jean-Yves; after the 10” and the Habeas Corpus LP); the sound changed “from screamo to heavy gloomy hardcore sludge”. They would come back to the V.V. on 99-08-21.

‘Elision’, from Würzburg (Germany), were: Christian ‘Mosh’ Ebert (vocals), Franky G (guitar; R.I.P.), Tobias/Toby (bass), Schmitze (drums, ‘Mosh’ drummed on the 7”) & Marco Reuss (guitar). They did a self-titled 7” in 1994 and an LP (Thoughts) in ‘96 on Steffen Rose’s label Navigator productions. He also relesed a double live 7” of the band with ‘Yuppicide’ (who they toured with), ‘Strain’ & ‘Radical Development’ in ‘95. Their music at that time could be described as NY-style, fast new-school hardcore. Navigator HQ organised their tour…

‘Sektor’, a H8000 veg(etari)an straight-edge metalcore band, 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). ‘Lenny’ Wouter Cael (bass), Bert Guillemont (drums; also in ‘Liar’), Piet ‘Pete’ Cardoen (guitar), Vadim Vandekerckhove (guitar) and Jeroen Therry (vocals). The band already played the V.V. pub (96-05-12) and the fest that (96-08-17) that year; and would come back a few times…

‘Vitality’ had also made an appearance on the fest a month before (96-08-16). This “tough-guy edge-metal” outfit, from Oostduinkerke (ODK; Belgian coast), consisted of ‘Chief’ Steve De Clercq (vocals), ‘Noptje De Mens’ Bob Van Lierde (guitar) & ‘Alien King’ Chris Paccou (guitar; nowadays sound-engineer for ‘Carcass’), Olivier ‘Ollie’ Dobbels (drums; also nick-named ‘Simon’ or ‘Original Gangster’) and ‘Switch’ Marc Paccou (bass). In their early days they did one show with Frederic ‘Fre’ Flameygh on drums (ex ‘Burning Fight’, DJ Flameboy see 92-02-22) and also Ilja (‘Congress) played a short while for them… They supposedly recorded a demo that year; and Hans ‘Liar’ released 2 7”s for them on his label Sober Mind: a split with ‘Sektor’ an one entitled Bloodline. They would also play the 1997 fest…

A year before this (95-09-16) ‘Systral’ played in Ieper for the first time. This band (from Bremen) played brutal crust-grind/death-metal with a screamo edge (2 vocalists). The members were Björn Schmidt (vocals; also ‘Carol’/‘Mörser’), Denny Schmidt (vocals; also ‘Mörser’), Dirk Kusche (bass; also ‘Rusty James’; started the Chrome Saint Magnus label with ‘Acme’s drummer Gregor Iwanoff in ‘98), Sönke ‘Sonne’ Gabriel (drums; bassist of ‘Acme’) and Andy Lohmüller (guitar). In 1995 Per Koro did 2 releases (Fever…The Maximum Carnage 10” & Maximum Entertainment 7”) for them. In 1998 a split-7” with ‘Acheborn’ and the Black Smoker CD would follow…

‘Family Of Dog’ were from Deinze (Belgium). Their music often labeled as “death-core” metal. The people in the band was: Bert Walgraeve (bass), Stijn Everaert (drums), Peter Staelens & Wim De Taeye (guitar) and Tom Claus (vocals; also sang for ‘Congress’ on their Angry With The Sun CD). They released a promo-tape in ’96, did a split-7” with ‘Liar’ in ’97 (Genet recs) and a self-titled CD (Midas prods, ’98).

Brob

Things grew very fast at the V.V.; I played there with ‘Rusty James’ a couple of years before and had the impression that it became a fair for labels and distros…

Dirk Kusche

Good memories. Our recollections of the Vort’nVis is that we played as one of the first bands there and somehow we managed to break the stage. It was destroyed before all the other bands got to play… I still have the Vort’nVis T-shirt! We were on tour with ‘Strain’. Don’t remember much about the other bands.

‘Mosh’, ‘Elision’ vocalist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

2^nd day of the 7^th Leed festival

‘D.D.I.’ & co in front of the Vort’n Vis

(top; L=>R) Gio – Mohane – Irith – Piero – Dario – Edo – ‘Mila’; (bottom; L=>R) Mauro – Luca – ‘Gallo’ – Ciccio – ? – ?

‘D.D.I’ – Mauro, Dario, Edo in front of the van; Luca on top

‘D.D.I.’ (‘Degenerazione D’Incubo’) from Pavia were a wonderful anarcho collective/ political HC band who highlighted their lyrics and ideas with ironic/ tongue-in-cheek but smart little theatre/cabaret-pieces; almost comedia dell’arte… They promoted D.I.Y. and cooperation: their 10” Pazzi Da Asporto was co-released (’96) by a bunch of European D.I.Y. labels: Pawel’s Scream recs (Poland), Bob & Seth ‘Active Minds’ Loony Tunes recs (UK), Sned’s Flat Earth recs (UK), Jon Elliott’s Active distribution (UK), Nikt Nic Nie Wie (Pol), Maloka (Fra), etc. chipped in to support it’s release. Even my Tilt! distribution provided some funding… The original cover was a screen-printed envelope and contained 32 page booklet. They also did a self-produced 7”: Fanculo I Suoni Puliti (’94) (from the review in Tilt! #8: “Extremely energizing, straightforward melodic HC. Political/DIY.”). The band at this gig consisted of Dario Quatrini (guitar), ‘Gallo’ Alessandro Garlaschelli (guitar), Gianpiero ‘Mila’ Milani (vocals), Gio(vanni) Lazzaroni (drums) and Edo(ardo) Puglisi (bass) & Daniele ‘Lele’ Malabarba (bass) – yep, 2 bassists but ‘Lele’ didn’t play here… Mila, Irith Davidson, Piero Majocchi & Luca Musso ran AZ Autoproduzioni (distro and label). The band came back to the Vort’n Vis on 96-09-20 and I did an interview in Tilt! #9 with them…

The LP Fight Back with 80s tracks by ‘Oi Polloi’ was out on Campary recs (Armin Heitman & Katja from Düsseldorf). At that time the band consisted (besides vocalist Deek) of guitarist Matt Finch (a.k.a. Keith Chugwin), bassist Calum Mackenzie (nowadays in ‘Phobia’ & ‘Skelptarsis’) and drummer Murray Briggs (who replaced Chris ‘Wheelie’ Willsher).

‘Systral’ (from Bremen) played brutal crust-grind/death-metal with a screamo edge (2 vocalists). The members were Björn Schmidt (vocals; also ‘Carol’/’Mörser’), Denny Schmidt (vocals; also ‘Mörser’), Dirk Kusche (bass; also ‘Rusty James’; started the Chrome Saint Magnus label with ‘Acme’s drummer Gregor Iwanoff in ‘98), Sönke ‘Sonne’ Gabriel (drums; bassist of ‘Acme’) and Andy Lohmüller (guitar). That year they had 2 releases: Fever…The Maximum Carnage 10” (recorded July 95’) & Maximum Entertainment 7” – on the Per Koro label. They came a secon time the next year (96-09-22).

‘Coche Bomba’ (from Lyon) played fast & brutal crusty hardcore-punk. They had 2 vocalists – Ivan Brun & Jean-Pierre ‘J.P.’ Davila – their (political) lyrics were in French, English & Spanish. The other members were André & ‘Gork’ (guitar), Cécile (bass; also ‘Dirt’; she replaced Christoff) and Steph Coi (drums; later ‘Befa’ Fabrice Drevet of ‘Vömit För Breakfast’ joined them, he also did Tranzophobia zine with Sylvain Fayard). They had recorded a demo (95-06-03) and there was a split-7” out with Enola Gay (Fra) on Bad Card recs 1995; Viva La Derelicción 7” (recorded May ’96 with André, Cécile, Ivan, J.P. & Steph) would follow… They kept going well into the noughties and did several tours (also Latin-America, etc.). Ivan Brun works as a cartoonist, comic book writer, painter (sickfuckermagazine.blogspot & http://ivanbrun.tanibis.net)…

‘Coche Bomba’ (photos courtesy of JP Davilla & Ivan Brun) – bottom pic: Yannick ‘PikPik’ & Ludovic Hache [R]

‘Carcer Molochi’ came from the ‘suburbs’ of Ieper and most of them volunteered at the V.V. in way way or another; so they supported quite a few bands at he Vort’n Vis. They were: Erwin Degryse (guitar), Johan Sys (vocals), Michael Maes (guitar; later ‘Link’), Inge Cappoen (vocals; later ‘Link’), David Stubbe (drums; ex ‘Neuthrone’ and later in many other bands), Danny Suffys (bass). David was later replaced by Bram ‘Lawaai’ Calbrecht and Danny by Yannick… Their demo had been recorded mid 1995. Some described their music as metal-crust, ‘Misery’ style (because of the female/male vocals).

‘Carcer Molochi’ (photos courtesy of Michael Maes)

‘Insane Youth’, a crustcore band from the Sint-Niklaas area, were: Jan ‘Fons’ Wuytack (drums), Thomas ‘Tomaz’ Van Rumst (bass), Steve ‘Stiv’ Descamps (vocals) and Tim De Baere (guitar); but here Stef De Leersnijder (also ‘Corpus Christi’ and later in ‘Visions Of War’) played along. Can’t remember at what time Vanessa Hoskens (who was their 2^nd vocalist for a while) was in the band.

‘Insane Youth’ – Stef [L] & Steve [R] (pic by Michael Maes)

‘Rawness’ played catchy melodic HC-punk. Christophe Mora said “NYHC-influenced”… They were from the Dijon/Lyon area. Members of the band: Jean-Marc Moratille (drums & vocals; ex ‘Blighted Area’ – he also did/does the JoliCoeur & Pay No More Than blogs), Michael (bass), Lamy Fumex (guitar & vocals) and Lionel Coing (vocals). They had a demo-tape and did a split with ‘Personal Choice’ on Yann Boislève’s label in 1995.

‘Rawness’ (photo by Ivan Brun)

The Scottish (Glaswegian) ‘Glue’ were compared to ‘Jawbox’, ‘No Means No’ or ‘Fugazi’… Others thought of ‘Black Flag’… It was melodic HC (post-punk?). Their bassist Angus McPhee had contacted me for the distribution of their records. Pete Darlington from ‘Kitchener’ was replacing Stef Sinclair (drums). Their former guitarist Allan McNaughton (nowadays living in California now, wrote a monthly column and record-reviews for MaximumRock’n’Roll; see: allanmcnaughton.blogspot) informs us that himself and Sandy Carson (vocals/guitar) were no longer in the band at the time of this gig. Here the singer/guitarist was ‘Hubby’/RM Hubbert. Our mate Joeri Hoste had already arranged a gig for them in Brugge (Oct 2^nd 1993: ‘Four Walls Falling’, ‘Sofa Head’, Blindfold, ‘Feeding The Fire’, ‘Nations On Fire’ and ‘Glue’). Later Angus came over again, driving for ‘Quarantine’/’Scatha’… (Or was that Angus Quinn?) At that time the band had released (on Angus’ label Feeble recs) an LP ‘Gravel (recorded July ’92; with Ritchie, Allan, Sandy, Stef & Angus) and the 7” From Here To Obscurity (recorded April ’94; with Rispey, Stef, Hubby & Angus)…

Brob

Unfortunately I was out of the band at that time because I was working nightshifts in a mall. Tim did the 2nd guitar. I don’t remember the name of some people but I remember that often some people (from El Paso squat in Torino, an another safe-house called Barocchio) came with us to do the distro and enjoy the gig. I played in Belgium during the 2nd tour…

Some years ago we did a little tour around Italy in squatted houses to promote a book entitled Make Music Not Money, so we played again as in the 90s! Read all about it on paviahc.wordpress.com

Daniele ‘Lele’ Malabarba

AZ was our distro & label from 1990 to 1996, we produced the ‘D.D.I.’ 7” and the 10” with the others labels (and many others records and tapes), then in 1996 we split up as a collective. I went into the techno-rave scene, Luca was bored with people interested only in music and remained in the anarchist political movement (he’s still active), and Mila did Agipunk and started his punk-star career, he later repressed the 10” ‘D.D.I.’ as Agipunk… [Brob: Irith lives near Genova, works in a highschool and has a passion for her vergetable-garden.]

As ‘Lele’ mentioned, the ‘old’ punx from Pavia struck again in 2007: we did a book about the D.I.Y. HC/punk-scene in Pavia and Italy, DDI reformed without Mila and we organised a tour (8 gigs) to sell the book directly. The following years we organised punk gigs in Pavia and in 2015 we started a new band ‘Malabrocca’ [see comment].

Piero Majocchi

It was a great time but too long ago to remember. The hospitality was great, the italian pasta market we made in the courtyard. As far as I remember we made a 30 min heavy metal set (‘Iron Maiden’, ‘Black Sabbath’,…) during a gig there. I’ve been playing with Lele and Giò from the old line-up, and Piero is doing vocals (he was from AZ distributione).

Edoardo Puglisi

Sandy and I were out of the band before the Vort’n Vis gig – by that time the band was a 3-piece with a singer/guitarist called ‘Hubby’/RM Hubbert. He is actually a famous musician in Scotland now, has won some prizes.

Allan McNaughton, ex-guitarist of ‘Glue’

My main recollections: 1. First date of a very long European tour. 2. I had a panic-attack whilst sleeping in the back of the van and fell head first out of the back-door into the Vort’n Vis courtyard. 3. The pastries were excellent. 4. Don’t remember much about our show, which probably means it was average. Pete Darlington from ‘Kitchener’ was playing drums instead of Stef on that tour. Think we had a show the next day so didn’t hang around… One thing I noticed was that Richey Dempsey recorded the album and EP but was never in the band…

RM Hubbert

It was a fun weekend!

Sas, KBaal wholsesale distro (Dordrecht); personal communication Sep ‘95

‘Rawness’ played right before ‘D.D.I.’… We met a lot of French people there, I recall seeing friends from Saint-Etienne and Montbelliard.

Jean-Marc, ‘Rawness’ drummer

I remember seeing ‘Glue’, ‘Rawness’, ‘D.D.I.’,… an drinking Jupiler… There was some sort of open-air festival in the streets of Ieper that evening. [The annual ‘Leet’ festival, the V.V.’s ‘Leed’ fest was meant as an alternative…]

Ivan Brun, ‘Coche Bomba’

I only played in ‘Coche Bomba’ from 99 to 2010 or something…and I played guitar there, not drums like in most of my bands. I think Ivan was just singing at the beginning of the band, he might have started to play bass (plus vocals) when Cécile left the band to play in ‘Dirt’. When a bunch of guitar-players left the bands, they started to do ‘Kuruma Bakudan’ which means ‘Coche Bomba’ in Japanese. That line-up consisted of Stef on drums, JP on vocals, Ivan on bass and Sandy on bass too. I guess they played like that from 96 to 99. After that, they asked Guigui (‘Vomit For Breakfast’, ‘Chaos ZZZ’ guitarist – later he played in ‘Silent Bones’ and ‘Maloko’ in Canada) and myself (‘Vomit For Breakfast’, ‘Chaos ZZZ’, ‘Unlogistic’, ‘State Poison’, ‘Deletär’) to play the guitars and call it ‘Coche Bomba’ again, so we jumped on the occasion. I left the band at the same time as Sandy and Stef in about 2010, but the band kept on going with one South-East Asia tour, a Mexico/U.S.’ tour and another tour in South-America. At some point Ivan came back to complete the dual vocals from the original days, but I’m not sure about the situation right now… [Brob: People also might wanna read this interview from 1997: Coche Bomba (Antipoder #9)]

‘Befa’ Fabrice Drevet

I played guitar with ‘Oi Polloi’ 1994-1997. I think I played 3 gigs at the Vort’n Vis. First was on the tour with ‘Subcaos’ [94-04-02]/ ‘X-Acto’ [94-09-17]. Played a couple of all-day events there… Pretty crust they were; ‘Extinction Of Mankind’ [95-09] & ‘Bad Influence’ [94-09] spring to mind.

Matt Finch

I remember this as one of our first gigs with Stef as an additional member. The stage was built up in the back of the Vort’n Vis garage for this one. I vaguely remember ‘Systral’ and ‘Oi Polloi’ as I was playing a lot of their records around that time. Sharing a stage with them was really exciting for me as a teenager. I’m really grateful to have experienced international communities coming together in magical places such as the Vort’n Vis. Thanks to everyone who made it happen.

Tim De Baere, ‘Insane Youth’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Kirst did the merch on that tour. Pete Darlington from Kitchener was playing drums…

additions wellcome!…

In the Dutch zine Trauma the band ‘Point Of No Return’ (with Roger NBH) had been announced…

At some timepoint, there was also rumours that the Rotterdammers of ‘Anarcrust’ and ‘Aphrodite’s Lawyer’ would play…

In Dorst #1 (written somewhere in ’92 by ‘N.O.F.’s Edward Verhaeghe), there’s mention of the first ever gig of ‘Shortsight’. Here it was with Hans Verbeke singing… A bit later, on 91-12-21, still in its early stages, the band played with with David ‘Mong’ Dumont on vocals (the one and only time; later he started playing guitar), Björn Lescouhier (drums), Jeroen Lauwers (bass; also ‘N.O.F.’) & Kurt Deprez (guitar; later bass). I believe the 1^st time ‘Shortsight’ performed with Saskia singing was 92-09-05. On the first demo (released on Edward Verhaeghe & Jeroen Lauwers’ label Warehouse recs in ‘92) Hans did vocals…

‘Behind The Smile’ were a French (Valenciennes) melodic hardcore/punk band with my mate Arnaud Huftier on bass (he did Uprising Decay zine). They had just recorded their demo-tape (June/July) with Laurent (drums), Rudy (guitar) & Christophe Chojna (vocals). In 1992 they did a split 7” with the Finnish ‘Juggling Jugulars’ called ‘A Wish To Dream’ on Sylvain Vilette’s Bad Card recs (1992) on which Laurent & Christophe were replaced. (They took a second guitarist, Pierre, later). They played a second show on 93-02-21.

‘Behind The Smile’

‘Trottel’ had already played here the year before (90-10-13). The band is also sometimes referred to as ‘Die Trottel’ (German for “the fools/idiots”). In 1991, Armin Hofmann released the double album The Final Salute In The Name Of Human Misery (on his label X-Mist recs). That music was described as “a melancholic variety of punk” or also “jazzy, eclectic, experimental hardcore”. Only bassist Tamás Rupaszov remains of that era of the band (from Budapest, Hungary). I believe the others were Ildi(kó) Asztalos (vocals), György ‘Kaztusz’/‘Kaktusz’ Kakuszi (guitar) and a drummer nicknamed ‘Garfield’ Péter Nagy (drums; or was it Sándor Orosz? Or Csaba Ákos who played on the double-LP?).

‘Billy & The EPs’ was a band from the French-speaking part of Belgium. They did a split-tape with ‘Noise Gate’ (from Brussels) in 1988 (also released as a 7” on the French label On A Faim!), a promo-tape (recorded with a drum-machine, bassist Sylvie Hendrick, guitarist Philippe Boulanger & Philippe Petit and singer Jean Vanesse) and Yves Baudhuin of ‘Noise Gate’ released some of their songs on a 12” EP.

Brob

I left ‘Trottel’ in 1991, September or October. Nobody replaced me. They did a kind of instrumental stuff.

Ildi Asztalos

‘Billy & The EPs’ were more industrial rock than punk… In 1992 they were on the compilation Reunion De La Famille (as ‘The EPs’). The band was from Liège. The drummer is well known in the pop/rock-scene (playing in several bands) but I don’t remember his name…

Marcor Aredje

‘P.O.N.R.’ was the precursor of ‘Feeding The Fire’. The bands overlapped for a while but after a bit I continued with just ‘F.T.F.’ alone. In the beginning ‘P.O.N.R.’ was in: Rob [Franssen], Michel [‘Mike’ Senden] (first ‘F.T.F.’ guitarist/later in ‘Bloodsport’ & ‘Rancor’) & Roy (a guy from Maastricht) and myself. Later Har [Har Brosselt] (‘F.T.F.’/‘No Sense’) took over the drums sometimes… As far as I remember ‘P.O.N.R.’ never played the V.V. ‘G.O.D.’ (‘Gloves Of Destruction’), another project of Rob & myself, did.

Roger NBH

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

One of the (in)famous Vort’n Vis New Year’s Eve gigs…

‘Subcaos’ 3^rd appearance at the Vort’n Vis (after 93-08-01 & 94-04-02). The band came from Lisbon. Their vocalist Diogo Tovar Carvalho (vocals) was the editor of Recognize No Authority zine. In the beginning (’91) they had a bassist named Rui and drummer Hugo Begucho (ex ‘Alcoore’) in their ranks. Their ‘regular’ line-up became Diogo and ‘Xico’ (or Chico or FJ) singing, with guitarists João Abrantes & João Barrelas, bassist Tópê and drummer David.  There was also a female singer (Rita) in the band in 93/94. Slime recs (which existed since 1989) changed it’s name to Ataque Sonoro around 1994/95 (ataquesonoro.blogspot) and released their split-album with ‘Genital Deformities’ in ’94.

‘Subcaos’; photographed by Henk Loobuyck

The first appearance of ‘Carcer Molochi’ in their first line-up, consisting of Erwin Degryse (guitar), David Stubbe (drums), Danny Suffys (bass), Johan Sys (vocals), Michael ‘Mike’ Maes (guitar) and Inge Cappoen (vocals). They were locals and most of them were V.V. ‘shitworkers’ so they performed a bunch of times over the years (95-03-05, 95-09-16, 96-02-24 & 96-09-21). Michael, Danny & Johan had been in ‘As Usual’ before. In ‘96 Bram ‘Lawaai’ Calbrecht (R.I.P.) replaced David. And by autumn that year ‘Mike’ took over, and ‘Gork’ (ex ‘Coche Bomba’ guitarist) became the second vocalist and Yannick ‘PikPik’ Moulière played bass.

‘Chosen Choice’ was a “thrashpunk” band from Lublin with guitarist Piotr(ek) Kowalczyk & drummer Marek (who was also in ‘Amen’). I have a vague idea of one of them living in Amsterdam and being in contact with Afonso (see below) from Cascais. They would come back 95-07-09.

In the V.V. notes there was also mention of a band named ‘Cerebrus’ or ‘Cerberus’. No idea who they were or if they actually played…

Brob

This gig was booked on short notice. I think the ‘Subcaos’ line-up was completely different.

João Abrantes

I met you, Brob! I used to distribute your zine through my mailorder (Freedom – or F.D.M. – Distro; which was done by Roland of ‘No Oppression’ at first). At the moment I’m writing a book on Portuguese punk/HC from 1978-98. When I finish that I can send you material and stories: I still have – I hope – photos from the V.V. and will surely contribute them.

Afonso Cortez Pinto

I couldn’t go to that 3^rd ‘Subcaos’ tour in December ’94. Joao Abrantes didn’t go either I think (in fact he left the band in ’95). That line-up is different from the ’93 one (no Tópê on bass but Ricardo -on the photo- replacing Tópê (Antonio Pedro)… Not sure who’s the drummer on the pic).

I don’t remember the chronology of out line-ups very well anymore. The band recorded sporadically in the 2000s. In fact that was the best time of the band: we (the line-up consisted of metal guys into punk; ‘Libe’ – João Barrelas – also for a while) played a festival and several shows in Portugal; all very brutal and intense, We had a lot of fun.

Francisco ‘FJ’ Dias

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Concert organised by my mate Joeri Hoste (Emotive Impulse zine). He was a volunteer at the V.V. like myself and we’d tried to fuse our distros (also with Bruno VdV’s) but that didn’t work out… The day before (95-01-07) he’d already arranged a show in his hometown, Brugge with ‘Sticks & Stones’, ‘Blindfold’ (Bel), ‘Vanilla’ (Fra) and ‘Kosjer D’ (Bel).

‘Sticks & Stones’ were from Bridgewater, NJ. They had gained our attention when Charles Maggio of ‘Rorschach’ released the Theme Song For Nothing LP (‘92) on his label Gern Blandsten. That record featured bassist Osamu ‘Sam’ Kawahara (on this tour Rob Santello), drummer Chris Calello, Pietro (Peter) Ventantonio (a.k.a. Jack Terricloth) doing vocals & guitar, and guitarist ‘Johnny X’ Mike Cavallero. They’d already done some 7”s on various labels plus a tape that was intended to be released on ‘7 Seconds’ Positive recs (’88). In 1994 they released the LP The Optimist Club ‎(Tinnitus recs) and the EP Cynical (Chunksaah recs, a punk-rock label formed by ‘The Bouncing Souls’). The latter also released their disocragphy on CD (The Strife And Times; in 2003). In the beginning they played punk-rock (sometimes compared with ‘Stiff Little Fingers’) and evolved into “emotional post-hardcore, post straight-edge rock”.

Mike Cavallero claims the band never played Belgium (read below) but Joeri insist “They did! I even organised several gigs for them…” though the last newsletter before this gig mentions “‘Sticks & Stones’ quit their tour one week earlier than expected…”.

‘Autonomia Indigena’ (from the Orléans area) were a “fast political in-your-face hardcore band” with Audrey Lacroix (guitar), Franck Le Poder (vocals; also ‘Sea Shepherd’), José (bass) & Rodrigo (drums). The latter originated from Chile. Political HC (emo-crust) with an interest for Latino issues – some labeled them “the french Los Crudos”. Lyrics were in French and Spanish. They did a 7” on Ape recs in 1994. I believe they also did a split-tape with ‘Sea Shepherd’ in support of a squat. Christophe Mora of Stonehenge recs intended to do a split-7″ ‘Autonomia Indigena’/‘Vomit Yourself’ but it never happened…

At the time of this gig – right after their tour with ‘Blindfold’ – ‘Congress’ (who’d played here already a bunch of times, e.g. 93-04-25, 93-05-22, 94-01-08, etc.; and would return frequently, e.g. 95-04-09) consisted of Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitar), ‘Uniform’ ‘UxJx’ Jan Vandekerckhove (bass), ‘Pitbull’ Pierre Vanrumbeke (vocals) and Ilja ‘Chill Jay’ De Ceuleneire (drums). No idea if their additional guitarist Michael ‘Micha Soprano’ Pintelon (also in ‘Deformity’) already played then. GoodLife’s marketing-strategy (“H8000 vegan edge-metal”) was in full swing. After the ‘release’ of the Euridium 7” (on Warehouse recs – the precursor to GoodLife – GL started officially on Jan 1^st ‘96; a limited edition was handed out at their gig in The Pits, 94-12-23) the band started working on the Blackened Persistance (should actually be ‘Persistence’) album…

‘Sherry’ was meant to be a ‘project’ with Jurgen Desmet, Françoise ‘Hazel’ Lepers (ex ‘Rise Above’, ‘N.O.F.’, ‘Shortsight’; Superfluous zine), Jeroen Lauwers (ex ‘N.O.F.’, Machination recs) and Tom De Pauw (Holy Hardcore zine).

The Germans of ‘Stack’ were also announced early on but then they disappeared from the newsletters so I think their first passage was postponed until 95-04-28…

Brob

Sherry [Sherry Beth Sacks] (see 94-08-21) was a American girl that Marco [Walzel] was with briefly… A friend of ‘Hazel’ too. We tried some stuff out with Tom De Pauw (drummer of ‘Settle For Less’) and Jurgen Desmet but that didn’t work out, and few months later we tried again with Stijn [Persoons] and Arne [Van Petegem] of ‘Kosjer D’ but these guys played way better than us so we forgot about it…

Jeroen Lauwers

Gern Blandsten released our first LP, Theme Song For Nothing, on vinyl only (Skene! was our actual label, and released the same record on CD. So it was a sort of partnership between the two labels.)

There was a German guy who went by the name of Goliath [Brettschneider] who had a business booking bands and renting vehicles and equipment. ‘Goli’ was on vacation with his girlfriend Beata, when they bought our album, Theme Song For Nothing. They liked it and contacted us offering to put a tour together. However, Goliath wanted to get out of the booking side of the business and only rent equipment, so he had a colleague of his named Detlev handle the actual booking. Since ‘Goli’ had instigated the whole thing and because he liked our record, he volunteered to drive us for part of the tour. Other drivers included these two German kids named Carston (Redman, maybe?) and Marcus, who had released our European-only LP, The Optimist Club. By the end of the tour, we drove ourselves.

Things started out very well. It was our 6^th tour and we were unaccustomed to having any help, getting paid, having places to stay, good sized audiences and all those other positive things associated with the European scene. Our U.S. tours were mostly miserable. Unfortunately, as the tour progressed things started to fall apart. Dates in Austria and France were cancelled, or to be more precise, were never confirmed to begin with. We spent Christmas Eve in a post-office lobby because we had no money, food or anywhere to sleep. As things got worse, Detlev disappeared and would not return any phone-calls, leaving us on our own. We were able to replace some shows and sometimes we would just show up somewhere and ask to play. At our last show of the tour in Nuremberg [Nürnberg], Detlev finally showed up. He looked exhausted. It was clear that he felt terrible about how things had worked out but hadn’t known how to deal with it, so he just disappeared on us. I was prepared to be furious but when I saw him I didn’t have the heart to really say what was on my mind. If he had just communicated with us, things would have been better. Anyway, we went home a few days later and we didn’t play again for about 10 years.

‘Sticks & Stones’ may have been booked to play but we had numerous cancelations and I’m fairly certain we did not have any shows in Belgium, unfortunately. The band went to Europe only once. We played in Germany, Italy, Sweden and Denmark.

So… unfortunately Pete and Chris both say they don’t remember whether or not we ever played there, so not very helpful, I’m afraid. For my part, we have photos from every other part of the tour, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden, but nothing from Belgium. As a professional cartoonist, I don’t think I would forget a visit to the centre of European comics. I’m fairly certain we were’t there. Maybe Goliath might be able to shed some light on the question. Of course you can draw whatever conclusion seems best.

During that time, I launched ‘Johnny X And the Conspiracy’ and ‘Zero Zero’ (with members of ‘Lifetime’) and Pete (a.k.a. Jack [Terricloth]) started ‘World Inferno Friendship Society’, which he’s still doing. ‘Sticks & Stones’ have been talking about playing a Christmas show [2014] in New Jersey with ‘The Bouncing Souls’, which seems to be happening.

Mike Cavallero, ‘Sticks & Stones’ guitarist

2 weeks before this (94-12-23), there was the presentation [at ‘The Pits’ in Kortrijk] of ‘Blindfold’s 7” World Of Fools. ‘Congress’ and ‘Blindfold’ started a Euro tour on Dec 25^th. Both bands’ 7”s were free at the entrance. The ‘Congress’ 7” [Euridium] had a comic sleeve and ‘Blindfold’s 7” was available on green vinyl only at this local show. It came with an anti Lost & Found sticker: during that tour we (‘Blindfold’) had a run-in with the L&F boss [Bernd Granz], he came to a show and started an argument about the H8000 scene who were all aginst his label.

Hans Verbeke

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…