Vort’n Vis last day of the tour ?

I think I organised that show at the Vort’n Vis! Cut, pasted and wrote the poster! I’m still friends with them ['Catharsis'], met them at Ieperfest 2013. I believe Brian is the one who stuck to the anarchistic roots most – he didn’t feel ‘well’ because the [Ieper]fest was “too manly”. “There are not enough women here”…

Lieve Goemaere

I remember visiting Lieve (Ugly Duckling) at the place where she lived during her studies one sunny day when she said ‘Catharsis’ was playing (98-05-19) at the Frontline (a pub in Gent where Bruno VdV of Genet recs/Pyrrhus often booked bands). I disliked the place (too commercial and a history of extreme-right sympathies) and certainly didn’t want to support Pyrrhus). I knew about the band and of CrimethInc and their publications (Harbinger and Brian’s zine Inside Front)… Lieve (who did an interview with Alexei and Brian for her zine Ugly Duckling #2) said I ought to have a talk with Brian since she knew I was connected with the anarchist scene in Gent, collaborating at the infoshop, and distributing radical literature and pamphlets. So I joined her and had a conversation with Brian in front of the pub. Even though I value his and the collective’s activities, he couldn’t convince me of why they would have to play such a place.

Another reason to go see them that day, was because my pen-pal Eric Boehme (After The Revolution zine) travelled with ‘Catharsis’ and he’d written me to come and say hello…

Because ‘Catharsis’ wasn’t really part of ‘my scene’ (Certain people I knew in the US were shrugging their shoulders when hearing the name ‘Catharsis’: “a jock-band”. I did tape the CDs Lieve borrowed me though so I know what they sounded like), I also didn’t go see them at the V.V. here (they also had connections with the ultra-commercial label GoodLife)…

A few of the guys of ‘Gehenna’ spend some weeks in Gent after the tour…

Some people that were at the gig at the V.V. (I was told): Tom Claus (‘Family Of Dog’), Bjorn Dossche (One Step Down zine); on the pic: Thomas ‘Bieter’ (Bistro distro), ‘Kluze’ (‘Wise Up’ vocalist), ‘Rain’s guitarist, Steve Lammertyn, Carlo Steegen, etc.

Brob

One of those legendary shows one remembers in full detail… I recall that all of us in ‘Spineless’ were big fans of ‘Catharsis’. The persona of front-man Brian will have played a big role in that. Brian was active on many levels and was one of those people that seemed to fill a room with his presence. The fact that they were from ‘Clevo’, the area where ‘Integrity’ originates from, did the rest. [Brob: Cleveland, Ohio is pretty far away from Greensboro or Atlanta…]

This was the first appearance of ‘Catharsis’. ‘Gehenna’ was still unknown to me… I met the band at Pyrrhus in Gent [record-store ran by Bruno of Genet recs], the favourite hang-out for H8000 sect-members [sic]… To be honest they didn’t really make the impression that I had hoped (says maybe more about myself in that period than about ‘Catharsis’ & ‘Gehenna’. Internet didn’t take the form yet that we know today. We had to get by with vague, photocopied pics from fanzines.

That night my preconception disappeared radically. Even more: I can ‘t remember a thing about ‘Sektor’ & ‘Facedown’; something that is significant when you know that H8000 bands were almost worshipped by the audience at that time. ‘Gehenna’ played with so much energy and power that Tsjernobyl seemed like a commonplace. The singer [Mike 'Cheese'] seemed to come straight out of a prehistoric cave, wielding a big bottle of water as a club, furiously swaying it among the crowd. [Supposedly he has Tourette’s Syndrome…] We were all doomed! And then… Booooom! With a hard blow he slammed the bottle amidst the spectators… Such a smack hadn’t been witnessed in Ieper for over 80 years. The audience went beserk. We moshed on the glass; the day after I could still pich the pieces from my sole. After their show – I remember it vividly – Lieve Goemaere [editor of Ugly Duckling zine] was reprimanding the Neanderthal about how irresponsible it is to smash a bottle of water on the ground in and how disrespectful it was towards the collaborators of the Vort’n Vis. As fierce as he was during the show, as quiet afterwards. The man apologised over 10 times and promised to clean things up (not so sure about that anymore ;-) …).

‘Gehenna’ (photo courtesy of Vincent Maes, ‘Instinct’ singer)

And then ‘Catharsis’ still had to take off… Well, what can I say. The show was fantastic. I still don’t understand how a band can play so tight and solid at the same time. And above all, it was so real, no rehearsed ‘Biohazard’ moves or breakdance-steps; pure power, pure emotion. Like a demonic preacher Brian strung the songs together with power-speeches, confronted us with the capitalist robbery; visionary, thinking back. The impression was overwhelming.

I saw ‘Catharsis’ back in Ieper in 2013, Brian still hasn’t lost any of his youthful anger against a system that is rotten to the core. The band played tighter than ever, still blowing an entire Roman legion out of their sandals.

Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen (guitarist of ‘Resist The Pain’, ‘Spineless’, ‘Congress’, etc.)

I don’t remember any of that! But it would’ve been my 2^nd run-in with the singer of ‘Gehenna’ ‘cause I lashed out at him at the Pyrrhus store for treating me like his dog…

Lieve Goemaere

‘Catharsis’ was an “anarchist” hardcore band (metallic with heavy riffs and raw vocals) originating from Greensboro, North Carolina, releasing their albums through the CrimethInc. Collective (Atlanta, Georgia). Their singer, Brian, was editor of the political hardcore punk fanzine Inside Front and later went on (with other ex-members of ‘Catharsis’) to form the band ‘Requiem’. The 7” released in 1996 (by Endless Fight recs) featured Brian ‘Diablodein’ Dingledine (vocals/guitar), Jonathan Raine (bass), Alexei ‘Rasputin’ Rodriguez (drums; later ‘Walls Of Jericho’, ‘Prong’, etc.) and James ‘Jimmy’ Chang (guitar). The same on their 1^st CD (CrimethInc ‘96). According to Lieve the band here was Brian, bassist Ernie Hayes, drummer Alexei and guitarists Matt Miller & Dan Young. The band came back on 99-10-31. They still exist/play…

>>The ‘Catharsis’ guitar-player died after they released the Samsara album. He had psychological problems and took drugs to die says Brian D. (Inside Front #11 mentions Dan Young’s problems).<<

Visit the CrimethInc Ex-Workers’ Collective website: www.crimethinc.com

‘Gehenna’ was a HC/metal band (“blending death, black and thrash metal”), originating from San Diego (California) and Reno (Nevada). The band described their musical style “negative hardcore; an extreme brand of hardcore with raw black metal influences”. On this tour the band consisted of Jensen Ward (drums; later ‘Iron Lung’), ‘Reno’ Dean Christopher ‘DC’ Grave (guitar), Mike ‘Apocalypse’ Cheese (vocals; apocalypsewestcoast.blogspot), Mike Rhodes a.k.a. ‘Mickey Featherstone’ (bass) and original guitarist Justin Holbo.

In 1997 the band was offered to release the War Of The Sons Of Light And The Sons Of Darkness CD (first full-length release; a compilation of the band’s early discography in chronological order, all recorded ‘94-‘96: a 3-song cassette, The Pain Of Life split-7” with ‘Apartment 213’ and The Birth Of Vengeance 7”) on CrimethInc recs. They also did a split-LP (‘Gehenna’ live at CBGB’s) on Wicked Witch recs with ‘Catharsis’ (Live In The Land Of The Dead / Eat, Fight, Fuck). The new drummer (on the Negotium Perambulans In Tenebris album) couldn’t go to Europe so they got a friend from to fill in on drums.

‘Sektor’ was a H8000 veg(etari)an straight-edge metalcore band (from the Ieper area). Heavy stuff! They did 2 7”s on Hans Verbeke’s Sober Mind recs: Ultimate Threat (1995) and a split with Vitality (1996); later there was also a 12”/CD (Human Spots of Rust, ’97). The band consisted of Lenny ‘LadyLover’ (bass), Bert ‘BabyNipples’ Guillemont (drums, also ‘Liar’), Piet ‘Pete’ Cardoen (a.k.a. Mousti; guitar), Vadim ‘KarateKip’ Vandekerckhove (guitar) and Jeroen Therry (a.k.a. KungFu Mike; vocals). See also 96-05-12.

‘Facedown’ (who had already played on the fest 96-08) was a socalled ‘new-school’ (metal-influenced) vegan SE-HC band from Kontich: Thomas Baeken (bass), Youri Baeken (drums), Daniel Mies (vocals), Niko Poortmans (guitar; also ‘Circle’) and Geert Ceuppens (guitar). The Ferket brothers released the Friendship Is Everything 7” (Evil Twin recs in 1996) and Bruno re-released it (with some additional tracks) on Genet recs in 1997). They did also a split with ‘Earthmover‎’ (7” on Moo Cow recs in 1997) and Beyond All Horizons got out on Genet recs in 1998. Some of them formed ‘.Calibre’ (and got a record-deal with a major label)…

‘Lebensreform’ (from Hamburg), a “straight edge thrash/ hardcore / screamo outfit”. At that time they had 2 7”s out on Per Koro (Licht + Luft + Leben & Retor) recorded with his line-up: Christian Wruck (drums), Mark Wehrmann (guitar), Niels Abele (bass; didn’t play Vort’n Vis ‘cause he quit the band before that and was replaced by Dennis Becker) and Sven Christiansen (vocals).

The ‘Lebensreform’ guys with met Mike ‘Gehenna’ (courtesy of Sven Christiansen)

According to Ernie Hayes, at the 1997 show also ‘Sincerity’ and ‘Natural Order’ played [While ‘Sincerity’s vocalist says they didn’t.]…

‘Sincerity’ were a youth-crew / old-school band from Werne (Germany); they had a tape out entitled Positive Hardcore. (A whole bunch of stuff followed in the new century.) The band consisted of: Birte (drums), Salat (bass), Olli (guitar; later Daniel) & Björn ‘Lexi’ Lexius (vocals).

‘Natural Order’ was a vegan sXe hardcore / hardline band (“violent dancers and pro-life” as someone described them once) with Cindy Frey’s brother as singer, hence their track on Animal Truth’s Animal Rights Benefit Sampler (out on Sober Mind recs in 1998). There’s also a live tape recorded in Poperinge 97-11-15.

Brob

We didn’t play the Vort’n Vis.

Björn Lexius, ‘Sincerity’

We played here with ‘Catharsis’, ‘Gehenna’, ‘Sektor’ and a bunch of others. There is a famous photo (amongst others) of me lying under the stage while our bassist kept screaming into the crowd. It was printed in some fanzines, on internet-platforms and in the German music-magazine Visions (which did a feature on the 1990s emo/screamo scene in Germany). Just for the record: we weren’t a Straight Edge band by then anymore; only half of us were and we didn’t play those two/three songs anymore that had ‘those’ lyrics… As for the line-up: Niels wasn’t with us anymore, it was Dennis Becker (also in ‘Loxiran’ at that time) on bass. Myself, I married afterwards and took my (ex-)wife’s name, so to be correct in timeline I was Sven Chojnicki by then…

Sven Christiansen, ‘Lebensreform’ singer (horizonsinc.blogspot)

(pics courtesy of Sven Christiansen)

 A lot of the 1997 tour was done with ‘Lebensreform’.

I have some pictures from ‘97, including a group-shot with ‘Catharsis’ & ‘Gehenna’ and some of you local guys, and some good shots from when we played on Halloween 1999 [99-10-31]…

Ernie Hayes

I remember playing there a few times. Seemed like a great place.

Matt Miller

I didn’t play in ‘Catharsis’ in those years.

James Chang

Members of ‘Catharsis’ & ‘Gehenna’ stayed at my place in Gent after their gig at the Pits in Kortrijk. They asked me if there were people who could offer them a place to sleep for a few days. I’d heard that records got stolen from earlier hospitable concert-visiters that had put them up. I told both bands what I’d heard but they promised me that this was absolutely untrue. Anyway, few days after they’d left I discovered 10 of my LPs were stolen, some very rare. Still they continued to claim it wasn’t them but perhaps a few crusty Americans that toured with them and also stayed at my place (& others). Assholes!

One of the guitarists of ‘Catharsis’ and myself jammed quite a bit. (Dan Young also played my Gibson because his was broken I believe.) Shortly after their tour in Europe he started going totally crazy and committed suicide. The others must’ve been aware of the thefts because those crusties were driving along in their van. So, fuck those ‘scene’ guys if they steal from people who wanna help and support them.

Steve W. (‘Neuthrone’)

I seem to remember that Brian ‘Catharsis’ behaved like the king of the ‘anarchistic realm’ and that Alexei was their damn good drummer. About ‘Gehenna’: the singer was a twisted fuck but the music was reasonable. ‘Facedown’: can’t remember (played together many times)…

Bert Guillemont, ‘Sektor’ drummer

It was October. We drove through the night and slept in the van in the cold. I’d pulled a muscle in my lower back a few days before and couldn’t stand up straight. Our tour was screeching to a halt within the next few days. We were upset with the booking-agents (Drive To Play; they set up the whole tour through Brian D. of ‘Catharsis’.), for not having a backline, doing nothing to promote the tour and adding a band from their label which cut into the already non-existent guarantees. We were upset with our driver, Patrick Federli, who took every opportunity to explain how a hardcore band should be on stage and what we should listen to off stage. We were upset with Brian D. for making us carry his pseudo-political newspaper around and his unending need to use sign-language to preserve his delicate voice for his half hour speeches between songs. We were upset with the double-talk and horse-shit of the music-industry sneaking into punk and hardcore. So we said “fuck it”. We loaded our stuff into the Vort’n Vis while hearing Patrick tell tales of the legends that walked there before us and how lucky we were to stand in a rotted building. He told us the names of bands who had graced the world with a performance on the Vort’n Vis stage (oddly enough all of the bands contained Damien Moyal [‘Culture’, ‘Shai Hulud’, ‘Morning Again’, etc.]. We were underwhelmed to say the least. The ‘magic’ of this room seemed to be another set of typically embellished and fabricated suburban straight-edge lore. I made my mind up that this place was just another shitty club.

But that was before the crowd got there. As kids started to gather and get together inside and outside the club something different happened. It seemed as if everyone who came into contact with one another stopped to say ‘hello’ and exchange some conversation. Between bands it was the same and after the show the same thing. It was then that I realized the Vort’n Vis wasn’t just a venue (because in the end the building didn’t matter). It was a community of folks who did everything and anything they could to help touring bands.

I felt like the truth of the matter is that we were having a shitty tour but in cities like Ieper, Gent and Amsterdam the punk community made things great. What I wrote is all fact. The Vort’n Vis wasn’t just a building where some bands played. It was a community of people that got together to support touring bands. Long after the doors of Vort’n Vis are closed, the bands and the building will never be as important as the community of people who made it all possible.

Mike ‘Apokalypse’

We played the Vort’n Vis on October 12, 1997, and then again on October 31, 1999. Traveling in Europe and being exposed to independent, collectively organized spaces like the Vort’n Vis was tremendously important to my development as a person. As Lieve says about me, that the most lasting result of my involvement with the DIY underground is a lifelong commitment to anarchism, and if I hadn’t seen spaces like that all around the world, it would have been much harder to imagine that a world without capitalism and authority could be possible. I still remember the drink-tickets, a pirate currency proclaiming “Independent Republic of Vort’n Vis”.

Looking back, the main thing that strikes me is how much gratitude I owe to so many people. Lieve, who set up that show, Patrick, who booked our tour, Bruno, who housed us, the members of the bands who made us welcome, everyone whose volunteer efforts kept the spaces open and made the shows happen – most of those people had no particular ideological affinities with us, and none of them ever made any money off us (not even the ones who were trying to make money from hardcore). They helped us out of the kindness of their hearts. In return, we had only our poverty, confusion and self-destructive emotional problems to offer, loosely translated into an obscure form of art. I hope that life has been as kind to all those people as they were to us.

Seeing the entry in the Vort’n Vis guestbook from Dan, my old bandmate and best friend, stops me in my tracks. Please understand, Dan didn’t kill himself because he had psychological problems – he was struggling with depression because he was a beautiful, sensitive and sincere individual in a society that crushes beauty and sincerity. What happened to him could have happened to any of the members of our band, and the rest of us owe our survival to others’ generosity. Let’s make a world that no one would ever want to leave.

There’s a lot more to say but I’ll stop there for now. Thank you, friends.

Brian D., ‘Catharsis’

 excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Continuation of the ‘Ceaseless Suffocation’ festival. The gigs on the previous evening took place in the pub, this part of the festival in the ‘barn’…

‘Dropdead’, a political power-violence outfit from the U.S. East-coast (Providence, Rhode Island), were – during those days – Bob Otis (vocals), Brian Mastrobuono (drums), Ben Barnett (guitar) and Brian’s brother Lee on bass (later Devon Cahill). They were touring with ‘M.V.D.’ and ‘Suffer’ (organised by Carsten Kissler, the drummer of ‘Pink Flamingos’, ‘SM-70’ and later ‘Cold War’). At that time they already had a load of tapes and 7”s under their belt, and even a discography (released as a 12” in 1995 on Flat Earth recs: “Kings of the chainsaw thrash-attack, high-priests of the worship of ‘Siege’ […]. Feast on the savage smoldering legendary accelerathrashcore!”). The band still exists (records and tours).

‘Dropdead’ (photos by Wim De Leersnijder)

‘Final Warning’ (a political band from NY playing metal-influenced crust) were touring with ‘Dirt’. The band here was: Neil Robinson (vocals; Tribal War recs, first vocalist of ‘Nausea’, ex ‘Jesus Chrust’), Steve ‘Distraught’ (bass), Tom Ota (guitar) and Russ (from ‘Dread Messiah’; drums). Their LP Stop Vivisection…By Any Means Necessary was recorded during this European Tour. In 1994 Neil had already released the Eyes Of A Child 7”; featuring Tom Kaz (bass), Paul Kaz (drums), Tom Ota (guitar; R.I.P.) and himself (referred to as ‘Moses; vocals).

‘Final Warning’ (photos by Wim De Leersnijder)

‘Suffer’ was basically ‘Health Hazard’ without Mandy: Alec Mac (guitar & vocals), Chris ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne (bass) and ‘Sned’ (drums). They did 3 7”s on Flat Earth recs: a self-titled 7” one a few months after this tour, and a split with ‘Urko’ and ‘Forest Of Spears’ (both in ’98). From the review in Tilt! #9: “Diabolic, super-fast HC with enraged shouted vocals and tension-building beaks. Breath-taking!”…

‘Dirt’ had been here a couple of times before (93-04-04, 93-05-01 & 93-11-21). Here they were touring with ‘Final Warning’ that done a tour with them in the U.S. As Sned explains below: Stacey from ‘Mankind?’ was doing the vocals for ‘Dirt’. Deno wrote me she ‘s left the band 3 weeks prior…

‘M.V.D.’ (Mundus Vult Decipi (ergo decipiatur); “The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived.”) was a band from Berlin playing brutal crust-punk: Dita (guitar), Henning (vocals), Marco (vocals), Obst (bass; also ‘Ebola’) and Ralf (drums). They’d done a split-LP with ‘Malinheads’ in ’91 and a bunch of (split-) 7”s (e.g. with ‘Pink Flamingos’).

‘M.V.D.’ (photo by Wim De Leersnijder)

‘Miskatonic University’ (from Ravenna) were Emiliano Lanzoni (vocals; Boundless recs – but in 94/95 Alessandro ‘Alle’ Bucci sang), Chris(topher) Angiolini (guitar), Mario Lamargese (bass), Andrea Musetti (drums). Their music was “NY style mosh HC” (metalcore; some compared them to ‘Helmet’), others described it as “Post-Core à la Rollins”. They supported ‘Sick Of It All” in Italy in spring of that year… ’95 was the year of the release of their CD There Will Be Only One (they had already 2 7”s and a demo out). I’m not sure if they actually played. They did tour (even wrote me for gigs as you can see below)…

‘Wordbug’ was a band from Exeter (U.K.) playing melodic post-HC/indie stuff: Adrian Stroud (drums), David Goodchild (bass), Martin ‘Ed’ Edmunds (vocals) and John Tripe (who replaced Steve Craig on guitar). All their releases are available from Boss Tuneage: the 7”s (a split with the Belgian ‘Byetail’ – with my mate ‘Lompie’ on drums, Locked In & Die/Waiting) and the Losing It All LP (with Alex Vann on guitar – ex ‘Hate That Smile’ drummer). ‘Wordbug’ later became ‘Annelise’ (x1984x.com/annalise) – same members. David Goodchild runs The Cavern in Exeter (concert-venue since 1991) nowadays (exetercavern.com). A year earlier ‘Lompie’ had helped them out with a few gigs (also in my hometown). The video on this blog was made at a show at someone’s house.

‘Deconsume’ (a crust band from Hoogstraten) had played at the V.V. a few months before (94-10-09). They were Bart Jansen (guitar; later ‘Vuur’ and nowadays ‘Nervous Mothers’), Koen Luyckx (vocals; later in ‘Vuur’), Michiel Mostmans (bass), Steffen Geypens (vocals; later a short while in ‘Visions Of War’), Pieter Brosens (drums) & Nico Braspenning (guitar).

Brob

Most of the bands were crust, punk or powerviolence oriented. ‘Wordbug’ was different, they played an awesome set; more melodic hardcore, with some emo influences. I bought the 7” but the live show was a 1000 times better. Later on, they changed their name to ‘Annalise’.

I played here with the crust band I formed with my highschool friends: ‘Deconsume’. I am happy to say they all are still friends. We only played 5 or 6 gigs in our existence but we all agree this was by far the best one. There were already quite some people there when we played second. The crowd went quite berserk on our simple, double vocalist crust approach (which really surprised us). Most of the visitors didn’t really expect us, quite clean cut boys (I think our bassplayer even had his ‘Pennywise’ T-shirt on ), to play this kind of music. Regarding crowd-response, I think this is the best gig I ever played and I have done quite some afterwards with my later bands ‘Vuur’ and nowadays ‘Nervous Mothers’…

‘M.V.D.’ was a very ‘Extreme Noise Terror’ influenced crust band, also with dual vocalists; good show. I believe they still play [Brob: their last gig supposedly September 2014] but I haven’t seen them since. ‘Final Warning’ had just released their Eyes Of A Child 7” on Tribal War recs. More metal influenced punk. Must have been their one and only European tour I guess. ‘Suffer’ was the new band of Sned and Alec, who were previously together in ‘Health Hazard’ and ‘One By One’. They were totally great and nice people. This was the first show we saw from them. Like all the bands and shows they did, this was totally awesome. ‘Dirt’ was a more classic punk band with a female vocalist [Deno]. A bit less aggressive than the other bands on the bill, but great singalongs and a really good atmosphere. One band blew the entire shed away though: ‘Dropdead’ (their first European tour; releases on Nabate and Flat Earth); on record they killed it, live they slashed it. There was so much energy. Bob Otis was and still is a great frontman. The politics, lyrics and music is amazing. I still love them, they never stopped and I am totally happy to have played with them in those days. They inspired me a lot.

Bart Jansen, ‘Deconsume’

I organized the continental part of this tour because I wrote with Ben at that time and was a big fan of ‘Dropdead’, so when he asked me to help out for a European Tour, I couldn’t resist. In the beginning I developed the idea that ‘Pink Flamingos’, the band I was playing drums for, could do the support but some of us were not available. So I asked ‘M.V.D.’ for support and backline, and they approved. Meanwhile I was also in contact with Sned, who was doing the UK part of the tour, and his band ‘Suffer’ was going to support ‘Dropdead’ over there. So I came up with the idea to make it three band tour. A lot of work for the promoters, for food, sleeping-places and money, but finally 3 great bands all together. It was just great.

Carsten Kissler, ‘Pink Flamingos’ drummer [96-04-27]

The only reason I remember this gig was because our original bass-player got very drunk and couldn’t play well. Also saw some girls pissing in the street outside the gig. The band was Bob, Ben & me (always has been) and Lee [Mastrobuono] (we’ve had two bass-players since then). I don’t recall anything about the other bands at all. I’d seen ‘Suffer’ and ‘M.V.D.’ for like 2 weeks everyday before this and they were good; I know this much!

Brian Mastrobuono, ‘Dropdead’ drummer

Yeah, I wasn’t in ‘Dropdead’ until ‘96. Wish I had been there!

Davon Cahill

Last gig of the of tour with ‘Dropdead’… I’d been doing all the driving, doing the stall and was pretty fried by this point. Seem to remember it being pretty busy and probably our last gig at the V.V. [‘Suffer’ played again 95-09-15] Sned played for ‘Dirt’ for a bit and Neil from ‘Final Warning’ put us up when we went over there so it was good to catch up…

Alec Mac, ‘Suffer’ guitarist/vocalist

I have some photos from this gig somwehere!… Alec said I played in ‘Dirt’ for a while? That is not correct. I did however play in ‘Final Warning’ on their US tour in 1994. Stacey from ‘Mankind?’ was singing for ‘Dirt’ on this tour in ‘95 as Deno had left (this was most likely one of ‘Dirt’s very last gigs).

Sned, ‘Suffer’ drummer

In Belgium we played at venues like the Pits and the Vort’n Vis; that really formed what I did with my own venue the Cavern which I opened in 1991. We were always treated really well when we played Belgium.

This is some stuff from my diary-notes about the V.V. show:

>> The Vort’n Vis all-dayer was one of the final shows we did as ‘Wordbug’, just before we started our new band ‘Annalise’. We had a lot of good mates in Belgium at the time and had already played a number of shows with local punk-bands like ‘Byetail’ and ‘Faroutski The V.V. show was a real high-point, even though in those days we were completely broke and roughing it every night in squats and round various mates’ houses. We were doing the whole tour in a Nissan Micra that belonged to our drummer’s mum, so you can imagine what a nightmare it was for transporting gear. I couldn’t even fit my hard-case into the front-seat and had to spend the entire time with a ‘77 Fender Jazz Bass on my lap, machine-heads thumping dents in the vinyl roof every time we went over a speed-bump.

We arrived at Stefaan (‘Lompie’) from ‘Byetail’s house at about 5 a.m. and immediately started on cans of Scrumpy Jack [cider] and shots of a Belgian liquor called jenever. ‘Lompie’s hospitality was legendary with UK punk-bands at the time and he was never slow to start the party. He organised punk-shows at venues like The Pits in Kortrijk and also drummed in a bunch of bands. [Brob: We were in ‘Repulsives’ and ‘Yuppies’Death’ together…]

Then we drove up to Vort’n Vis. Apparently the venue had been threatened by neo-nazis earlier on in the week, so everyone was on high alert and a bit suspicious when we rolled up. A bunch of crusties surrounded the car to check our credentials and ‘Tripey’, our guitarist at the time, opened the doors and cranked up the tape he had on: ‘The Wurzels’. Soon a large group of anarcho-punks in unlaced army-boots were dancing round shambolically to Where Be That Blackbird To? and I Am A Cider Drinker, and we were all drinking cans of Special Brew and having a party of our own in the car-park. I remember the whole place stinking of weed and patchouli oil.

It was a great vibe at V.V. that day, U.S. band ‘Dropdead’ being a big draw at the time. There were distros all along one wall selling copies of Maximum Rock’n’Roll, Punk Planet and various other punk zines. This was in the days before the internet, when DIY publications were the punk-scene’s main source of info. Punk wasn’t on TV 24 hours a day like it is now. I think that started in the U.K. with the short lived P-Rock channel, followed by Scuzz and Kerrang! TV, but the upside of having a strong DIY punk-scene was a certain kind of authenticity you got then that is more difficult to find now.

Punks from all around Europe had turned up at Vort’n Vis for the show that day, flogging lots of cool vinyl on their stalls. Eddy, our singer, managed to trade a stack of our Fettered EPs for some rare ‘Queers’ and LookOut recs 7”s. What a deal! I also bought a replacement-copy of Cynthia Connoly’s book Banned In DC which had really influenced my photography.

I met Edward (Ward) Verhaeghe from ‘Nations On Fire’ at one stall – he was a person we knew from our hometown of Exeter after his band turned up and blagged their way onto the opening show for our punk-club, The Cavern. I think they were big fans of the headline band we had booked that day: ‘Quicksand’.

‘Wordbug’ played in the afternoon and I remember Tripey’s JCM 2000 blowing up because we were using the wrong adaptor. I’ve got a feeling we really sucked, which was a shame because it came right after an amazing show in Tielt. Eddy did his normal trick when we were fucking up of getting off the stage and in with the crowd. It didn’t totally make up for our lack of energy but at least gave something for the crowd to react to and a few wasted punters might have enjoyed themselves

‘Dropdead’ played a fantastic set, which made me feel even more inadequate, but I’ll never forget the vibe at Vort’n Vis that day. The memory of shows like that is what keeps me going through a lot of the mundane bullshit you get with some of the so-called alternative bands of today. It felt authentic at V.V., which is something I always hope to recreate in my own venue, The Cavern.<<

David Goodchild, ‘Wordbug’ bassist

‘Wordbug’

Here’s what I remember…Great show! An all-dayer with tons of bands – ‘Dropdead’ and ‘Dirt’. I think. I’d heard of the Vort’n Vis from reading scenereports in MRR so it felt good to be playing there. I thought it was weird playing with ‘Dirt’ – I’d seen them support ‘Crass’ back in 1980/81???

This was the final ‘Wordbug’ tour before we changed our name to ‘Annalise’ and we were having a good time knowing these were the last ‘Wordbug’ shows. I remember it was a hot day and we pulled up into a courtyard outside the venue and left the car there while punks drank and talked around us. John our guitarist had a tape of an old comedy UK band called ‘The Wurzels’ that he played on a loop from the car real loud. They had a hit called I Am A Cider Drinker and he was teaching a load of crusty punks the words while sharing some booze with them. Whatever they were drinking was disgusting!

As for the gig, I can’t remember if there was a stage but ‘Wordbug’ definitely played on the floor. It was a good crowd. We played well and people got into it-it was fun. I was always on the look out for crusty punks (there were a few outside) as we had had bad experiences in the past but it was a good mixed punk crowd and all was cool and friendly. Tons of record and fanzine stalls around the venue which I always loved about punk-shows. We traded a lot of singles and chatted to some great people. We had put ‘Nations On Fire’ on in our hometown Exeter and the main guy of ‘N.O.F.’ was there and came to some other shows we played. We left late afternoon as I think we played somewhere else that evening (I could be wrong – it’s a long time ago). Not sure who organized the show. We played in Belgium 3 times, twice Stefaan from ‘Byetail’ organised the shows and the other time a band called ‘Faroutski’ organised them.

‘Ed’, ‘Wordbug’ singer

A wonderful experience, a bit intimidating because we were rather young and the only Belgian band on the bill… It was the gig with the biggest audience we ever had. I believe someone (from a far away country, Japan?) was filming. Would be nice to see that…

Pieter Brosens, ‘Deconsume’

I’m sure we played at the Vort’n Vis but I don’t remember if it was at this fest.

Chris Angiolini, guitarist of ‘Miskatonic University’

I didn’t play in ‘Final Warning’. Although, I started it with Neil as ‘Warning’.

Todd Ciavarella

I remember ‘Final Warning’ covered Electrodes by ‘Nausea’ at this show… With the female singer [Stacey Scapeccia] of ‘Mankind?’ [political hardcore punk from New Haven, Ct; they did a split-7” on Neil’s label] on guest-vocals if memory serves me right… So good… I also remember ‘M.V.D.’ stole the show that day, they were amazing.

Luc Ardilouze (France), Scream fanzine

‘M.V.D.’ was epic that day!

Michael Maes, V.V. ‘shitworker’

I bought a copy of Soy Not Oi from Brob there…

Lieven Vanhoutte, Deerlijk

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Carsten Kissler

additions wellcome!…

Here’s some extra photos kindly provided by Uncle Sneddie…

see:

95-04-29 Dropdead – Dirt – Deconsume – Wordbug – Final Warning – M.V.D. – Suffer – Miskatonic University

‘Suffer’ & ‘Dropdead’: Alec – Chris – Brian – Bob – Ben – Sned – Lee

Alec Mac – one of the 2 solid, reliable Flat Earth pilars

Neil Robinson (Tribal War recs) & Jon ‘Active’; ‘brothers in arms’

‘Dirt’ with vocalist Stacey

‘Dropdead’

Neil ‘Final Warning’

Bernd ‘Stack’ (apparently ‘Stack’ didn’t play together with ‘Seein’Red’ the evening before)

audience during ‘Final Warning’s gig (with centrally Ludovic Haché of Ras L’Bol zine)

audience during ‘Dropdead’s set (with on the left ’6 Six feet Over’s vocalist Stéphane Cormary)

Somewhere in the second half of the ‘90s, the Vort’n Vis also started organising something called ‘De 100 uren van de Vort’n Vis’. The days before New Year, the pub remained open for 100 hours non-stop. It became a yearly event. Various activities are organised to give the local crowd an opportunity to socialize and give them an alternative during the Winter holidays. Gigs too of course. Most of the time there weren’t many bands touring, so the bands playing were often local (starting). As was the case here…

‘Resist The Pain’ did their first ever show on 96-05-12 with Steve Noyelle on bass (guitar in ‘Lifecycle’), Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen (guitar, ‘Spineless’, ‘Congress’, etc.), Vincent ‘Murph’ Merveillie (vocals; later ‘S.O.Y.’) & Jan Volckaert (drums). According to what’s written in the guestbook Michael (Maes: V.V. shitworker and nowadays in ‘Link’) was the drummer on this occasion.

‘Ex Machina’ – Kurt (drums), Thomas (bass), Joris (guitar), Wouter (guitar); no idea who they were…

‘Sorehead’ (Ieper) were Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene (vocals; R.I.P.), Dries Verclyte (bass), Pieter Derycke (drums), Jan (guitar; Oliver Maes played 97-06-27) and Pieter Desmytter (guitar). Steve Noyelle describes their music as resembling ‘Sektor’.

‘Spineless’ (from Kortrijk) had performed August of that year on the Fest (also on 97-06-27) but I wonder if they actually played on this day?

‘Defence’ apparently were Jeroen, Wim and Virgil. Probably the same guys of what later became the band ‘Warcraft’ (from Ieper) that played on 97-06-12…

Valère & Sofie, 2 “straight-edge girls” also wrote something in the guestbook. I thought that was Sofie Vantomme (singer of ‘Lifecycle’ – but these didn’t play: their 1^st show was a few months later), however Steve Noyelle tells me it wasn’t. They were 2 girls from Rollegem…

Brob

I believe the SxE girls were Sofie Vercaempst (from Moeskroen, near Rollegem; who died in a car-crash in 2004) and Valerie from Rollegem.

Bruno Callens, ‘Turn The Tide’ bassist

Yeah, I did indeed play drums for ‘Resist The Pain’… I also started a band with Edward and the bassist of ‘N.O.F.’ at a certain time: I played drums and no other than Vik sang… The band was called ‘The Jedi’! Never did a show then… [‘The Jedi’ did at least one show: Letske sang...]

Michael Maes

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

19 sep ’97: Money Drug (Pol), Time Out (Bel)

20 & 21 sep ’97: [CANCELLED] Battle Of Disarm (Jap), Filth Of Mankind (Pol), … In a newsletter of that time ‘Rayzor’ and ‘Warcraft’ were also announced…

————————-

>>The Leed Vistival 97 had started pretty good on September 19^th and there was a nice atmosphere. While on stage with his band ‘Time Out’, around midnight Dirk Van Alboom (guitarist) suddenly collapsed on stage. [Under the eyes of his girlfriend, and bassplayer in the band, Tanja Vankerckhoven] He had a cardiac arrest. The bystanders started CPR and an ambulance was called. The efforts (of the bystanders and the paramedics) to reanimate him were unsuccessful. The party was finished immediately and we decided to cancel the rest of the festival. Nobody was in the mood anymore. No-one slept very well that night. Dirk had died while performing.

There was some gossip that Dirk had died of an overdose, even that he was stabbed in the heart during a fight or fell with his head on a plank with a nail, or broke his neck while stagediving… Strange that people who were never inside know everything so much better. Some drunks felt it was interesting to play the fool while he was dying. Idiots… Dirk was not a junkie or alcoholic but someone who lived a rather sober life. He was unfortunate to be suffering of a heart-condition.

Dirk had been attending our gigs for some 6-7 years. He was a friend of the Vort’n Vis. He had his life ahead of him, with his girlfriend Tanja and their son Yenten. Fate decided otherwise. We can only wish them strength.

Farewell Dirk! You were a great guy. Only 28. We wish you could have stayed a while longer with us.<<

Jan Claus (on the Vort’n Vis website at that time)

We cancelled the 2 remaining days of the festival after Dirk of ‘Time Out’ passed away. No-one felt like partying, and the event had left such a big impression on us all that we didn’t want to organise things any more. We did receive all folks that have travelled far and offered them a place for the night. A Japanese band [‘Battle Of Disarm’] that were due to play were given a place to sleep and food.

Jan Claus

I saw the ‘Time Out’ presenation. Great memories! I don’t mind reporting about our last concert at the Vort’n Vis but persoanlly I don’t feel like sharing recollections about it. Dirk lives on in my thoughts and in our son of course; and that’s enough for me.

Tanja Vankerckhoven, ‘Time Out’ bassist

I was at the Vort’n Vis during the show Dirk of ‘Time Out’ passed away. That sure left an impression…

Bart Jansen, ‘Deonsume’ guitarist

It was really sad. We (‘Filth Of Mankind’) were supposed to play on Sep. 20^th, but the day before, after the band we shared some members with (‘Money Drug’) played, the guy from the next band (‘Time Out’) died on stage because of heart-attack… So the rest of the festival was obviously cancelled. Having nowhere to go we had to stay at the empty club for next 2 days (together with ‘Battle Of Disarm’ who came next day with Martin of Malarie recs and Marta Jachimowicz (then from Malarie, now Active distro) until we finally left for a gig in Gent (where we took ‘B.O.D.’ who had yet another day off)… Both ‘Money Drug’ and us played at the V.V. fest the next year [98-09-18] (which was one of the worst gigs we ever played, hahaha!)

Pawel, Scream recs (Gdansk, Poland)

>>20.09.97 Ieper, Belgium @ Vort’n Vis (Leed Vistival) – cancelled due to the on-stage death (heart-attack) of Dirk van Alboom during his band’s (‘Time Out’) set the day before. For the obvious reasons the rest of the festival was cancelled.<<

filthofmankind.nsm.pl

‘Time Out’ were from Lochristi (near Gent): Dirk Van Alboom (guitar & vocals), his partner Tanja Vankerckhoven (bass) and Rudy (drums). They played “political and anarchistic” HC/punk. They had a rehearsal-tape as demo. Here’s the review I wrote in Tilt! #9: >>Melodic HC with an anarcho-punk feel. Simple riffs but varied enough to keep your attention. Lyrics about life’s morality and evolution, violence, barriers in the scene and the religious right. Honest punk.<<

‘Money Drug’ (a crust/grind band from Gdansk) were the only band that played besides ‘Time Out’. They shared some members with ‘Filth Of Mankind’ and consisted of: Filip ‘Kalka’ Kalkowski (vocals; nowadays graphic artist), Maciek Kowalski (guitar), Miłosz Gassan (drums; nowadays in ‘Morne’), Paweł ‘Balon’ Szymański (vocals) and Sławomir ‘Młody’ Białecki (bass). They did a split-7” with ‘Wind Of Pain’ (Finland) on Scream recs (’95) and 2 live tapes (’96 & ’97). They came back the next year (98-09-18)…

‘F.O.M.’ was Miłosz Gassan on guitar, Lazej/Anders Storm (later Michał Jędrejek) on bass, Pawel ‘Scream’ Rzóska (guitar), Paweł ‘Balon’ Szymański on drums and Maciek Kowalski (later Tomasz Pawlak) on vocals. They did a 7” (Czas Końca Wieku; ‘99) and an LP (The Final Chapter; 2000) on Scream recs. Obviously they were also from Gdansk and they describe their music as “Apocalyptic Crust” (dark, heavy and metal-influenced).

‘Battle Of Disarm’ is a crust-punk band (originally from from Ishikawa, West of Tokyo): Ryuji Asada is the vocalist (he runs the label DIY recs, was involved in the Anarcho Punk Federation and used to breed rare insects & sell these through an online shop). Acchi played bass, Yuzi guitar and Chikkara was the drummer on this tour. If you want to know how they sounded like: there’s a 10” with live recordings from their show in Slovenia (97-10-10; entitled Crust Love And Peace Europe Tour 1997 and released by Malarie recs). In ’97 they also put out the Sons Of War! Old Resistance Days on the Portugese label MDC. Their discography is immense and the band is still active…

Brob

Didn’t ‘Battle Of Disarm’ play on Sunday? [Brob: nope!] Or did they play in Gent instead? [Tuesday, Sep 23^rd ’97 (Boma Squat, Gent): Filth Of Mankind (Pol), Money Drug (Pol), Battle Of Disarm (Jap)] I know for sure that Manu & Bruno ‘Sloef’ saw them somewhere in Belgium…

Erik Minnen, ‘Cornucopia’ vocalist

I was there with ‘Battle Of Disarm’.

Martin Valášek, Malarie recs (malarie.eu)

I was at Vort’n Vis for this concert and on many other occasions. I went there mainly for that 3-day festival at the end of September for few years in a row and then visited with various bands. I always had a distribution with me and used to set up a stall with the usual things (records, T-shirts, tapes, patches, etc). I have very fond memories of the V.V., always had a good time there (apart from this one tragic incident), met lots of amazing people (and stayed friends with some) and I can say that the V.V. was hugely influential for me and a significant place.

Dan Koshan

additions wellcome!…

Apparently ‘Müsgüb’ (driver/tour-organiser Martin Fleischner; I already knew him from tours in the 80s as he organised gigs in Göppingen’s venue Remise) had to switch around the schedule a bit… From a review I dó know this gig actually took place on January 20^th.

‘E.O.M.’ (“anarcho crust punk metal” from the Northwest of the U.K.) did their 3^rd tour of Europe, this time with ‘Misery’, with Marvin (Varukers) playing bass because of family-commitments of Ginny. The latter had replaced Fozzy (who left the band after the ’94 tour with ‘Doom’. Their LP Baptised In Shit had been recorded in May ’95 (with Ginny on bass, Dave Foz on drums, Mass Centi on guitar & Ste Dux on vocals) and released on Kleister’s Skuld Releases. They didn’t play here though because their van broke down… On 94-08-06 they also didn’t make it but they did play on 95-09-17. Nowadays ‘E.O.M.’ (extinctionofmankind.wix.com/online) still exists (‘Doom’s Scoot plays guitar).

Dan (Profane Exstence) was back in Europe with ‘Misery’. He had been briefly in the band as bassist early on. They were an anarcho-punk/crust (with references to ‘Amebix’) band from Minneapolis. (Their 1^st show was in Dec ‘88 with ‘Nausea’s Al Long on vocals.) In the band here: Todd ‘Gags’ Gaglione (bass & vocals), Gary Winger (drums), Sid Klingeman (guitar & vocals) and John Greenslit (guitar & vocals). The album Who’s The Fool…? had been relased in ’94 by Profane Existence & Skuld. These also put out an EP entitled Next Time for the tour. Their show in Slovenia (at MKNZ in Ilirska Bistrica, 96-01-19) was released on tape.

‘Carcer Molochi’, local band with V.V. shitworker Michael Maes, had played here a few times already (94-12-31, 95-03-05, 95-09-16)… According to ‘Insane Youth’s singer Steve Michael’s band didn’t play either: ‘Carcer Molochi’ cancelled. ‘Insane Youth’ were asked last minute but guitarist Tim wasn’t available…

Brob

After the record low with ‘Misery’/‘Extinction Of Mankind’, Flo [Helmchen; HeartFirst recs] and I agreed that there’s really no point in booking bands at the V.V. unless it’s emo/mosh…

Ilja Satanowsky, Profane Existence Berlin; personal communication ‘96

When we went for some fries, there were 2 people of ‘Misery’ there, indulging in meat and cokes; rather disappointing… ‘E.O.M.’ didn’t show up because of car-trouble. More disappointment. When we returned home in Gent we met their guitarist who was returning to the U.K.

Steve ‘Insane Youth’ in Kurt Van Den Eynden & Anja Hermans’ zine (Wat Is Er Aan De Hand? #2)

1 out of 3 ain’t bad!? It was good we were still alive… Vort’n Vis was always the last show on the tours…

Mass Centi, ‘E.O.M.’

I remember it being very cold, same weather we get here in Minneapolis at that time of year. Some windows were broken in the upstairs so it made the whole place cold. We didn’t mind though. Also some guy was messing with everyone in ‘Misery’ and ‘E.O.M.’, Steve from ‘E.O.M.’ stood up to him and it almost came to a brawl, The show went well, being such a cold night the crowd was thin but very responsive to the music from all bands. All in all I would not have traded the experience for anything, life kinda is funny in that way, it was a fine time and I have another good memory to share with others due to playing there.

Gary Winger, ‘Misery’ drummer

I was there but don’t really remember any details of that show… We played so many in our 25 years together!

Todd Gaglione, ‘Misery’ bassist

Photographs by Wim De Leersnijder:

Pictures by Michael Maes:

Wim DL (R) enjoying a beer… and the band

Yannick ‘Pikpik’ (R) enjoying a beer… and the band

additions wellcome!…

A concert organised in conjunction with P.M.A. (Positive Mental Attitude) recs; the label that Hans Verbeke (‘Rise Above’, ‘Spirit Of Youth’, ‘Blindfold’, ‘Liar’) and U.J. (‘Dreft’, ‘Congress’, ‘Liar) did at that time…

‘Fingerprint’ from Paris were a ‘(scr)e(a)mo’ hardcore band with Nicolas Fisseau (vocals), Christophe Mora (guitar/vocals; also drummer of ‘Undone’), Thomas Guillanton (bass; also ‘Jasemine’ & ‘Ananda’) and Jérome Bessout (drums; also ‘Jasemine’). Their music was described as “intense and nerveous emocore, mixing fast and hectic musical parts with driving mid tempo ones”. They’d just recorded for the Surrender 7” on Christophe’s label Stonehenge recs. He also released the 7” We May Be Brothers the next year (recorded Oct ’93) and their discography on CD in 1996. When Nicolas quit, the other 3 kept playing (with Christophe singing) as ‘Jasemine’.

‘Feeding The Fire’s Roger, Rob, René, Har & Illona were regulars here (91-12-21, 92-04-18, 92-09-05, 92-10-10, …); to some almost like family. As you can read in the guestbook: they were heavily into international socialism… The flyer mentions the possible presenation of their 1^st 7” No Submission. It was recorded January of that year and released by Burt & Michiel from ‘Man Lifting Banner’ on their label Red Wax recs. I reviewed it in Tilt! #8 as follows : >> Mostly superfast and grindy SxE HC; a bit of a mix between ‘Lärm’, ‘Man Lifting Banner’ & ‘Nations On Fire’. Features ‘Metal Molly’ Illona and Har ‘The Clown’ on guitars. This little record rocks like hell. <<

‘Congress’ apparently considered this their 1^st “good gig” (after 93-04-25)… Don’t know if Pierre already did vocals here instead of Roy…

Can ‘t recall what ‘Part Of Me’ sounded like or who they were… Their first gig apparently.

Brob

Might be the first time I ever saw ‘Congress’…? They just had a demo out I think. Not as cult yet as they became later on. ‘Part Of Me’ was a very young band, the new generation from our scene down South in the Netherlands.

Rob Franssen, ‘Feeding The Fire’ vocalist

‘Part Of Me’ was a band from Simpelveld (not far from Kerkrade, in Limburg). Jean-Paul [Frijns; later bass in ‘Birds Of A Feather’] (Value of Strength zine) was their singer, together with 3 kids from Simpelveld. I can vaguely recall they went on as ‘Backdraft’ [see 94-08-20] without J-P but with Rob (‘F.T.F.) as vocalist and Illona (‘F.T.F.’) on guitar…

Roger, F.T.F. bassist

‘Fingerprint’ often played with sXe bands whereas we were not sXe ourselves (2 members were, actually…). I can’t count how many time I’ve seen ‘Shortsight’, ‘Blindfold’ or ‘Congress’ on stage… I never shared a single word with all these dudes… Except when one of them was behind the bar: “A beer please! Thank you!”… And it was always the same… We always spoke with Bruno and … Brob! I was glad to meet you when we played at the Vort’n Vis… We were really excited to play this show with ‘Feeding The Fire’. We really were into their fast, brutal HC. We were glad to share the stage with them. Not that they were a hype or something but they played like no other bands. I remember that we shared equipment with all the bands playing that day. Jérome, our drummer borrowed his double kick pedal to the ‘Feeding The Fire’ drummer… During their set, the singer said something like “This show is for my sXe friends…” and looked at us with ‘the eye of the tiger’ which meant kind of “You’re not one of them.”, while I was with some friends, drinking our beers quietly watching and enjoying their set from the bar. We were kind of upset… and amused; I said to Jérome: “They would deserve that we get on stage and get the double kick pedal back.” with a blink of an eye, then we cheered and sipped our beers again . But the show was great and we had a good time though. To us it was fun to be inside this Belgian sXe thing in a way… It was our ‘New Jersey’. In the mid 90s, Belgium was the centrepoint of the sXe movement, we were OK to be a part of it through this kind of funny events (after all)… I don’t remember the two other sets [93-09-17 & 94-04-23]…

Thomas Guillanton, ‘Fingerprint’ bassist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

The first weekend of September 1992 the Vort’n Vis organised what was then called Hardcore ’92. A festival with a mix of punky/crusty bands and straight-egde outfits. The same was intended in September 1993. I wrote about the incident that happened there… Although it was unfortunate, even reprehensible; for myself the motivation to try and bring all sorts of people together stayed. However other people made it so that the 2 ‘factions’ wouldn’t meet so easily anymore. In 1994 an SxE fest (weekend around half of August) and the Leed fest (half of September; the Vort’n Vis’ alternative to the city of Ieper’s mainstream Leet festival) were organised independent from one and other; and caused this ‘split’. One of the protagonists in the aforementioned incident (Hans Verbeke, ‘Blindfold’) obviously was reluctant to see the same thing happening again and set up (with good intentions, I’m sure) a “Positive Festival” – together with his sister Saskia (‘Shortsight’) and Rob Franssen (‘Feeding The Fire’).

This setting would over the years grow into a huge event (not unlike a lot of the commercial summer-festivals) and moved outside of the Vort’n Vis premises. Unfortunately (and that already was from the beginning), it turned out to be a market-place for big/commercial labels and distributions (local and others). I’ve never been able to see what the value of that was and I kept reacting against it. Having SxE and non-SxE friends I also wasn’t keen on the separation.

I wrote about it in a column that appeared in my friend Joeri Hoste’s zine Emotive Impulse (Sep. ’94):

>> We were all very excited about it for months. Myself not in the least; as it came closer it promised to be something wonderful, something that could last a week instead of a weekend. (…) After some shitwork, I wanted to start a bunch of conversations but unfortunately practically all ended up being quite short and superficial (…) consuming seemed like the most important thing again… (…) “I BUY, therfor I am” (actually this goes for the whole capitalist system – ergo: the HCpunk-scene is not so diffrent form the capitalist system nowadays, no?) (…) Another thing: no matter what we all say, there are distinct cliques in our scene. We all pretend they don’t exist but they do… I’m not talking about the obvious devide between SxE and ‘crustpunx’. Also within SxE (as within the crustpunx) there are micro-communities with their own rules, prescriptions, ‘incestuous’ behaviour, etc. How are you ever gonna evolve, learn,… when you never break out these micro-units. You don’t have to know everyone but at least look for different things once and a while; and on the other hand: allow others to get into your group of peers. I try to pick up things from various people, why restrain and stick to one groove? This scene we’re in, this subculture – again – is supposed to offer an alternative to the mainstream, the capitalist/patriarchic system. Let’s all work to create this. Don’t fool yourself and others. (…) <<

The newsletter of March that year started out with announcing a “3-day festival with ‘Scraps’, ‘Blindfold’, ‘Voorhees’, ‘Iconoclast’ and plenty more”. A few months later there was mention of 3 bands on Friday, ‘Blindfold’, Refused’ & 5 or 6 more on Saturday, and ‘Iconoclast’, Scraps’ & ‘Voorhees’ on Sunday. And as you can see on the flyers that were made this expanded/changed gradually…

As far as I can remember this was the actual programme:

19 aug ’94: Spawn (Ger), Congress (Bel), Strength Of The Will (Bel)

20 aug ’94: Refused (Swe), Abhinanda (Swe), Fabric (UK), Blindfold (Bel), Shortsight (Bel), Acme (Ger)

21 aug ’94: Iconoclast (USA), Neckbrace (UK), Feeding The Fire (Nl)

Also got on the bill/played: Backdraft (Nl), Hopeman Path (Bel), State Of Grace (Bel), Vanilla (Fra), Nothing Left To Grasp (Ger), Undone (Fra)… But can’t remember which day…

‘Nations On Fire’ didn’t do a show. Also Steve W. tells me his band ‘Neuthrone’ didn’t play, ‘Scraps’ cancelled and ‘Voorhees’ didn’t show up (stories will follow)…

Even though this fest attracted a lot of people, it still took place in the pub (and not in the ‘shed’). The distros had a lot of space in the courtyard… So did the people who wanted to ‘socialize’…

L corner: Stéphane Cormary, Ludovic Haché and Agnes (photo by Miguel Angel Lorca); the ‘Abhinanda’ crew on the R

Besides the bands I remember Vique ‘Simba’ Martin was there. So were Nicole ‘Upsi’ Vokrouhlik (from Augsburg) – who was doing a mailorder/label and organised a festival – and her boyfriend Daniel… Volker Pohlschmidt (‘Steadfast’) most likely… Marco Walzel (‘Nothing Left To Grasp’, Speak So That I May See You zine); some of the ‘Doughnuts’ girls signed the guestbook; Albert Cheong from Barcelona (Heartcore zine) took pics… Alan Davis who did Train Of Thought zine (Bristol) was there… Also Nick Royles (Sure Hand recs, How We Rock zine and various bands)… Miguel Angel Lorca from Madrid came over with a friend. My correspondent Amanda Trevens (guitarist of ‘Timmy’ & ‘Huasipungo’) who was helping out Neil Ribonson at Tribal War recs (actually an internship, studying ‘music technology’), and volunteering at ABC No Rio (all in NYC) was in Europe (actually toured with ‘Scraps’) and visited… Some French non-SxE people came over aswell (which was great): Ludovic Haché (Ras l’Bol zine) and Agnes, Karl & Steph (‘6 Feet Over’). And a hell of a lot more…

Brob

audience (Wim ‘Blindfold’ centre); pic by Patrick Federli

I was at every ‘fest’ there in the 90s (I guess up until 2001) and all I can say, is that I always had the best of times. The first couple of times at the V.V. were the best. The yard, the stinky toilets, the little shop at the corner, playing football with the Swedish kids… The list is endless… Best of times and always the highlight of every summer!

Patrick Federli

guess who…!?

Another great opportunity to see some great bands and meet up with some friends (like Joris De Buysser of Bonds Of Friendship, Anneke Schuurman of Puffy zine, Anthony Palmer of Dingo Baby zine, …).

‘Embittered’ was a grindcore band from Middlesbrough. Their line-up changed quite often: Anthony Palmer (vocals), Brian Puplett (vocals; later also ‘Manfat’) and Ash(ley) Quinn (bass); played this one. ‘Mac’ (drums) and ‘Gus’ (guitar) were replaced.. Michael J. Gillham (the drummer of ‘Voorhees’) wasn’t in the band at that time yet… I’d gotten to know them because I was corresponding with Anth who was doing a zine (which I distributed, and vice versa) and Bri had sent me a demo of his former band ‘Catharsis’. Their split with ‘Hiatus’ on Desperate Attempt was about to be released. On this tour they did a live recording of their show (92-09-16), at the Café Fabrik squat in Potsdam (Germany), that got released as a cassette called All Too Human. The year before they’d already done the And You Ask Why? When You’ve Only Got Yourself To Blame cassette (“intense & fast grinding anarcho-core”); and in 1993 Misanthropic recs released a split-LP with ‘Dystopia’. Their last release was the Choked 7” on Ecocentric recs – with a completely different line-up than in the beginning; e.g. Mark Fox on bass, Michael Gillham on drums and Rob ‘Slavery’ Ankers (R.I.P.) doing vocals.

‘Human Lethargy’ from Athens were Spiros (vocals), Thanos Georgilas (bass; later in ‘Panikos’), (Evangelos) Va(n)gelis ‘Vanx’ Petropoulos (drums; ex ‘Anabiosis’) and Thanassis (guitar). They released a demo-cassette in 1992 (still with Sakis ex ‘Industrial Suicide’ singing). Their music sounded great, reminiscent of ‘Antisect’ and ‘Contropotere’. Both Genet recs and Joris of Conspiracy recs were planning releases. Here’s a video of them “live in Belgium”; it doesn’t look like the Vort’n Vis so I’m guessing it’s at La Zone in Liège (92-09-11: ‘One By One’, ‘Sedition’, ‘Embittered’, ‘Human Lethargy’)?

‘Slum Gang’, from Nottingham, were: Eddie Greenaway (guitar; bass in ‘Downfall’), Joe Nott (‘Pug Slum’, drums), Tim Cleaver (bass) and Loyd Sims (vocals/guitar; sang for ‘Concrete Sox’ on the split with ‘Nightmare’). This band hadn’t released anything yet; they recorded their 1^st demo in early ‘93. Listen to some of their melodic HC/punk. They came back to the V.V. with their mates/drinking-buddies from Groningen on 98-06-05.

‘Exhauster’ were Ringo Haezebrouck (drums), Vinnie Bonduwe (guitar; also ‘Caducity’), Phillippe Dassonvile (in the Vort’n Vis referred to as “the hard-rocker”), David Verbiest and Laurens Barroo (guitar). Henk Loobuyck reminded me they were “metal-heads” from the Ieper area who played “a trashy ‘Metallica’ style”…

‘Jawbreaker’ had been announced (they were touring – see tourposter) but as explained in the post on 92-10-04 I can ‘t come up with a reason why they didn’t show up (the UK part of the tour was cancelled but they played in France a bit later). They did do a gig here a couple of years later (94-10-01)…

‘Agent 86’ (see 92-09-06 & 92-10-04) had been announced for this one too (probably when their tour-schedule wasn’t completely arranged yet) but were in Yugoslavia at this time…

‘Decadence Within’ were announced at some timepoint but I can ‘t remember why they didn’t come. They had already played in Poperinge on 90-04-08 and would be back at the V.V. on 93-05-16.

(Fom my personal communication oct ’92 =>) >> ‘Youth Brigade’ was supposed to play. I think they just reformed to be able to make a quick buck. They cancelled the show because “it’s too small” (500 people!?). Actually, it’s because they can make more money in a rockstar-club in Germany. Fuck that! I don’t really care to see those big well-known bands, I prefer smaller but truly DIY bands. <<

Brob

It was the last show of a pretty successful/ enjoyable tour and I guess everyone was just out to have a good time. I have a tendency to shout a lot when I’m having a cool time drunk; I hope you didn’t take too much notice of my attacks on certain things (e.g. ‘Political Asylum’ & Ramsey, etc.) – all in good humour.

The Vort’n Vis is a cool/friendly place – in fact our Belgian dates were easily the best! From my one, solitary experience: I have no problem with the place whatsoever; just a percentage of the kids who were there that night. Perhaps I’m upholding stereotypes or maybe I’m talking from experience (not just with the Vort’n Vis). I’m not saying they shouldn’t be there or that they shouldn’t be straight edge… I know some ‘crusties’ are fuckin’ idiots, as are some ‘edgers’…

Anthony Palmer, ‘Embittered’ vocalist; personal communication oct ’92 and later

The line-up was (indeed) Bri & Anth (vocals), Ash (guitar), Saul (bass) & Mac (drums). Darren was the original guitarist. ‘Cockney’ [Darren O’Hara ?] played guitar following that tour. In 1993 we became a 6-piece with two guitarists. We played 7 shows on this tour, I thought it had been more – Liège, Duisburg, Hannover, Berlin, Potsdam, Groningen & Ieper. The show in Ieper was great; last show, got way drunk I recall. ‘Slum Gang’ from the UK also played, ‘Human Lethargy’ from Greece as well…

Anth Palmer, ‘Embittered’

‘Youth Brigade’ pulled out, ‘Decadence Within’ weren’t there, a metal band called ‘Exhauster’ headlined, the Greek band and ‘Embittered’. ‘Slum Gang’ played instead of ‘Youth Brigade’. We didn’t come with ‘Embittered’, we just played Liège and Ieper; it was the first 2 gigs we did. Lloyd was our songwriter, he was also in ‘Default’ and he did stints in ‘Concrete Sox’. Myself and ‘Pug’ also stood in for ‘Substandard’.

Eddie Greenaway, ‘Slum Gang’

Vagelis still plays in punk-bands (he mailed me the CD of the band ‘Anatopia’). Also ‘Panikos’ [who played on 94-05-08] did a new LP.

Joris De Buysser

I played for ‘Embittered’ a little while, did a few shows and recorded 6 or 7 tracks with them – not sure what they did with them… I was supposed to tour Europe with ‘Embittered’ but I left and joined ‘Hellkrusher’ before it happened.

Gary ‘Gus’ Raine

Can’t remember much of that, too long ago. We also played there with ‘Neuthrone’ and ‘Dreft’. On another occasion I played there also a few times with ‘K.U.N.T’ [‘Krisis Und Neurosis Theater’; with ‘Neuthrone’s David Stubbe] …

Philippe Dassonville [‘Fluppe the Hardrocker’]

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Bruno wonders if it’s a Candian visiter, I reckon it’s ‘Embittered’s bassist

‘Doomy’ wonders if the V.V. food caused the ‘Embittered’ guys to spit bile… ;-)

additions wellcome!…

‘Words In Season’, from France, were announced in a newsletter but didn’t make it on the actual ‘bill’… No idea who they were…

‘Hellkrusher’ had been at the V.V. earlier that year (93-04-04) with ‘Dirt’. The band had a different line-up because Ian ‘Scotty’ Scott wasn’t in the band between mid ‘93-’96; he only did the earlier show. Also drummer Ian Curry had left (read more below). But they still did the recordings (Sep. ‘93) of the Fields Of Blood 7” out on Skuld Releases (’94). Besides bassist Gary ‘Gus’ Raine and singer Ali Lynn, I’m guessing the temporary replacements Steven ‘Moy’ Morrow (guitar) and Martin ‘Hairy’ Harrison (drums; ex ‘Energetic Krusher’) played here (they also toured the US with ‘Dirt’). (See ‘Hellkrusher’s history) In the French zine Réagir (’93) Ali announced a split-EP with ‘Dirt’ on Fobia recs (Fobia Duros Sentimientos, from Madrid) but I don’t think that ever happened…

Ali ‘Hellkrusher’ (pic by Wim De Leersnijder)

‘Dirt’ were touring extensively. This was their 3^rd time here that year (after 93-04-04 & 93-05-01). As indicated before the line-up was that of the Feast Or Famine demo (recorded Feb. ‘93): ‘Deno’ (vocals), Gary ‘Gaz’ Buckley (guitar), Karen (lead guitar), Mick (bass) and Stef (drums).

photos by Wim De Leersnijder (1-2) & Karl Penando (3)

‘Chaos UK’ (from Bristol) had had to cancel an earlier gig at the V.V. (read my story: 91-10-05). Beckie Gibbons says she was in ‘Chaos UK’ between the beginning of 1991 to 1993. In ’93 the Secret Men 7” was released. The recordings were with Adrian ‘Chaos’ Rice (vocals; taking over from ‘Mower’), ‘Gabba’ (guitar), Pat ‘Devilman’ Evans (drums; replacing Chuck) and ‘RamRaider’ Marvin (bass). The One Hundred Per Cent Two Fingers In The Air Punk album was with Beckie playing bass. She didn’t play here though. Both records also featured ‘Nausea’s guitarist Victor ‘Venom’ Dominicis and he played here aswell…

gnarly bunch ;-)

photos by Kurt Van Den Eynden (1-2) & Wim De Leersnijder (3)

‘Corpus Christi’, who’d just done a surprise-appearance supporting ‘Disrupt’ (93-10-31), presented themselves again: Bram De Cock (drums), Peter ‘Coli’ Vancolen (vocals), Stef De Leersnijder (bass; later guitar when Koen ‘Siesele’ Lammens joined on bass), the very first guitarist Bart ‘Goemie’ Goeminne was replaced here by Tom Van Laere. The tracks for their split-7” (with Força Macabra) – Ecologische Doem on Genet recs – were recorded 93-05-08 and mixed 93-06-22 at Cat’s in Brugge, with Stefaan on bass and ‘Goemie’ on guitar.

photos by Wim De Leersnijder

No recollection of Last Years Youth… There’s some music of them on YouTube (Oi/punk-rock). They have some tapes (The Walls Come Crashing Down – Gobbin On The World – Safety Pins, Black Leather Jackets) and a CD from ’97 entitled Yah Boo Fuck You. An old interview (’99) on the www tells me they were from the Sheffield area and the band consisted of ‘D-Generate’ (guitar), Andy ‘Vacant’ (drums), Owen Money (bass; later replaced by Jake ‘the-man-who-can’) and ‘BP’ (vocals).

Brob

Yep, guitarist Tom Van Laere replaced Bart Goeminne that night.

Bram De Cock, drummer of ‘Corpus Christi’

I played twice at the Vort’n Vis with ‘Corpus Christi’ [94-02-05 & 94-09-16] but not here… It was indeed still with Stef on bass and ‘Goemie’ on guitar (I only saw them once it this configuration).

Koen ‘Siesele’ Lammens

Ali said ‘Hellkrusher’ were shit at this gig as we had a poor drummer at the time, luckily I wasn’t in the line-up to witness but bet it was an awesome gig. Myself and Curry left mid ‘93, we couldn’t do the USA tour so stand-ins were found and we just thought fuck it and formed ‘Aftermath’; I re-joined end of ‘95…Well, basically Ali didn’t have a band so ‘Aftermath’ became ‘Hellkrusher’ with ‘Scoot’… Read all about it in Ian Glasper’s book [Armed With Anger: How UK Punk Survived The Nineties] …

Scotty ‘Hellkrusher’

The show we played with ‘Chaos UK’ was incredible! Absolutely packed, what a great time.

Gary ‘Gus’ Raine, ‘Hellkrusher’

I made that poster! It was one of Stef”s very first gigs… Great memories !!! :-) I think Ali is too hard on the band…. I remember it being a great gig!

Wim De Leersnijder

I was the tour-manager for ‘Chaos UK’ for their 1992 European tour…

Bear Hackenbush

I was at this gig with ‘Hellkrusher’, ‘Last Years Youth’, ‘Dirt’, ‘Corpus Christi’ and ‘Chaos UK’. It was with Chaos on vocals and it sucked harder than a black hole… I didn’t like their silly cider-punk. I have something in my notes about ‘Last Year’s Youth’ at that show… I never heard of that band since then and to be honest, I don’t remember them at all…

Tom Van Hauwaert, ‘4 Minute Warning’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

visiters from Lille (France): Yannick ‘Pikpik’ & Karine (Stop/Réagir zine)

Jan ‘Doomy’ Claus commenting on his sleep-over with ‘Chaos UK’ (PS2: “Damn what are they blowing in the air? I think I was stoned, because I saw a walking flower-garden (or was that Gratiën?”)

additions wellcome!…

After 93-09-04 & 94-03-19 ‘Brawl’ were here for the 3^rd time. Their first release was on Bruno’s Genet recs but they were about to release an ‎EP (Thalidomide) on John Yates’ Allied recs (1996). The band’s vocalist Murt Flynn and guitarist Greg O’Reilly remained. I believe the drummer was named Keri Jones. Don’t know who played bass at thet time (a guy named Dave signed the guestbook). Their music was described as “post-punk-core”.

‘Brawl'; photographed by Henk Loobuyck

Tim De Graeve goes under the moniker ‘Tiny Legs Tim’ (tinylegstim.com) nowadays. He was born in 1978 in the quiet, rural area of the West-Flemish ‘Heuvelland’ (Westouter & Poperinge). “As a kid he listened to Bob Dylan and old blues-maestros. He took lessons classical guitar but quickly started experimenting with the music of his favourites and developped his own style.” — “Back home we didn’t have TV. I played outside a lot with my brother, read books, listened tot the radio and records. I went to music-school. As a little boy I found and old guitar from the 30s in my grandpa’s attic. I got into my dad’s music: Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and the blues- & country-grandmasters. The First CD I bought myself (age 11) by John Lee Hooker.” Tim lives in Gent nowadays… The city of Gent promotes his ‘One Man Blues Band’: “own blues-songs inspirered by the old Delta Blues – uptempo with a lot of slide guitar and a foottap-board”.

There’s also an entry of a metal band (in German) in the guestbook… No idea who that was…

Brob

That’s the later line-up without me. I don’t know the name of the drummer or bass-player off hand. It was still Greg on guitar and Murt on vocals. It’s not me or Crispo in the photos, that’s for sure.

Tommy, ‘Brawl’ bassist in ‘93 & ‘94

1995 must’ve been my early days. I was a teenager then… My entry in the guestbook says it was my second time at the Vort’n Vis so I must’ve been there before…? Later I played there with ‘The Heartfakers’ and also with the ‘Greenhorns’ [played at the V.V. before: 90-10-13 & 91-09-21] – the band of Alex Brackx.

It also says “Anti-Rally-Aktie”. The ‘Ieper Rally’ was always in June but apparantly we also did things in September… I recall recordings once for a radioshow called ‘Piazza’ (with Friedl Lesage on Radio 1). And there’s also been a docu on the ‘Rally’ on the radio where they played one of my songs in the background. That was recorded at the Vort’n Vis.

Tim De Graeve

We’ve done something with ARK [Anti Rally Komitee/Koepel] in September once; that could’ve been ‘95. Three of us skipped a wedding-party because we thought our actions were more important… It was a reaction to the death of a little child during the Rally… We made flyers and probably cycled the the trail of the Rally, ending at the Vort’n Vis. ARK was a group of organisations and individuals that commited to opposing the ‘24 hours of Ieper’. We agitated many years (and were each time administratively arrested and as a group put in jail) against the Rally. We often congregated at the Vort’n Vis.

Mien De Graeve

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

real or spoof?

additions wellcome!…

‘External Menace’, a punk-rock band from Glasgow, was formed in 1979 with Wullie Hamill (then 13 years old) as singer. He died in 1987 when he was hit by a car. Around the time of this gig here the line-up must’ve been Billy Dunn (bass, ex ‘Exploited’), Bobe Copeland (guitar), original member John ‘Sneddy’ Sneddon (guitar), Stu(art) Davis (drums) and ‘Welshy’ Ian/John Welsh (vocals; ex ‘Swine Flu’). A second Euro tour followed in ’98 with Chris ‘Criss Damage’ Baker behind the drums. They did a few 7”s in the 80s, a split-7” with ‘Rectify’ ‎on Suspect Device recs in 1997, the 7” Seize The Day on Negative recs in the same year and The Process Of Elimination LP on Epistrophy (1998).

Brob

pic courtesy of John Welsh: “External Menace & roadies, and 6 punters – the guy in black [2^nd from the left, standing : Jan ‘Doomy’ Claus] that took us for a meal…”

We remember this as the worst attended gig we ever played! Ha ha. I think maybe 4 paying punters turned up! There was 5 of us in the band at that time (+2 roadies), 3 ? bar-staff… BUT it was a great gig!! We had a great time. We just turned it around on its head and had the whole band sitting on bar-stools on the stage, blasting out our version of the punk-rock… Had the roadies and punters stage-diving! We took a request from the bar-staff to play Anarchy In The UK!!! We’d never played this song before (and haven’t since) and never rehearsed it, but we did it, somehow!!! The upstairs sleeping-quarters was the filthiest cess-pit we’d ever seen in our lifes, so we declined that and slept on the stage (which was crawling with insects too) and on various chairs in front of the stage. We got taken for a fantastic meal, by a couple of Belgian guys (can’t remember names) and we got our picture taken at the fountains near the venue… We all stood beside a fountain of water and it looks like were all pissing 15 feet into the air! Wahey!! We used that pic on the insert-booklet of our album Process Of Elimination. It’s also in Ian Glasper’s book Burning Britain. Superb. I also recall our band-name was spelled wrong on the gig flyer… “ExteNDal Menace”!! I still have it somewhere and photos from the gig. No other bands played!!! So it’s a one we will never forget and we loved playing there. Great memories. Our bassplayer at the time – Billy – got a Vort’n Vis T-shirt at the gig and wore it to a few gigs we played.

There was a guy – Xavier??? [Martin Vantomme: “Xavier Benoit, nowadays tour-manager of ‘Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’ and others.”] – who helped me when I was in ‘Swine Flu’ (in 1995) with a gig in Kortrijk – an all-dayer in the town-square with all different kinds of music. I think it was him that I asked to help me get a Belgian gig in 1997 for ‘External Menace’.

John Welsh

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Jan Claus, Jan VDB? & Steph Quintens

I thought it was Jan VDB; who was late so they played the set again for him…

Stephen Quintens

 additions wellcome!…

In my notes this gig is listed on November 22^nd but Bruno highlighted (in the guestbook) it was on the 15^th… ‘Hiatus’ didn’t play because the bassplayer had to attend a family-party. Also ‘Farside’ didn’t show up: they didn’t get enough dates, they claimed (!?)… Bruno wasn’t happy with that! They did tour Europe but didn’t come to the Vort’n Vis (see also: 92-10-04). ‘Corpus Christi’ did play. Early 80s anarcho-HC. They sounded OK but they did a bit of a nervous set (quite some little mistakes). ‘Neuthrone’ got the opportunity to present their (“not quite completely succeeded” – their own words) 7”. They got a fantastic sound though (there was a 12-channel P.A.) and there was some pretty vehement head-banging going on. The P.A. was necessary for ‘Blechreiz’, the ska-band from (Kreuzberg) Berlin, who played last. Great music to dance to. The atmosphere was fantastic and everybody went home satisfied.

‘Corpus Christi’ played here for the first time; the start of a whole series: 93-10-31, 93-11-21, 94-02-05 & 94-09-16. They had formed in the summer of this year. Bart ‘Goemie’ Goeminne was the original guitarist (he stayed until Oct ’93 and was then replaced by Tom Van Laere for a little while; Stefaan – ex ‘Warcry’ – joined in the Winter of ’92 on bass but took over guitar later). The original bassplayer Johan Maes left after 2 months and went on to play for ‘Dogfish’ (he was also in‘Cry For Change’ – see 91-03-16 & 91-09-01). So I guess the line-up her was Peter ‘Coli’ Van Colen (vocals), Bram De Cock (drums) & Tom (guitar); and was this the actual first time with bassist Stef De Leersnijder?

Being locals and having ‘signed’ to Genet recs, ‘Neuthrone’ had already played here a bunch of times. They were the ‘perfect replacement’. In the summer ‘Tim (‘Nutje’) had started playing bass (together with Steve & David) so this was probably his first appearance at the V.V., with the band. They had recorded that summer (see 92-02-09) so I’m guessing the 7” was only just out or about to come out.

‘Blechreiz’ were Christian Prüfer (vocals), Marcus Renner (trumpet/vocals; ex ‘Ceresit’ – who played for Smurfpunx 86-12-19), Matthias Bonjer (bass), J.B. Beat (organ), Michael ‘Mike’ Betz (guitar), Hermann Lamboy (drums), Michael Rühl (tenor sax) and Wolfram Segond von Banchet (alt sax). I can’t recall seeing these all on the tiny V.V. stage?! I think they’d left the horns-section (who also played for ‘P.N.A.T.S.H.’; see: 93-04-04) at home…

From their website (www.blechreiz-berlin.de): >> ‘Blechreiz’ was especially active against the emerging right-wing extremism in the ‘Wild East’ and West in the ‘90s. Because as everyone knows, skinheads also like ska. ‘Blechreiz’ has always been on the side of anti-racist and anti-fascist skinheads, including the international SHARP (skinheads against racial prejudice) movement and the ‘Trojan skins’, who are well aware of the black roots of Jamaican ska. <<

They were around since the mid-80s so they already had a bunch of records under their belt by the time they played here. In 1993 they would release a single (Loving Couple) and an album (Which Side Are You On?) on the Zensor label … If you wanna learn more about Ska in Berlin, watch the documentary by Alexander van Dülmen.

Brob

Can ‘t remember why we cancelled… I did like ‘Corpus Christi’: they reminded me of ‘Mob 47’. Little did I know that so many years later I would be in ‘Visions Of War’ together with Stef [De Leersnijder]…

Willy ‘Hiatus’

It was my first acquaintance with SHARP-skins – I’d never heard of these before. In all my ignorance I didn’t know there were also like anti-racist skinheads. The band consisted of some 10 or 11 people; who were all crammed on that small Vort’n Vis stage. They played very catchy ska! All punks, crusties, metalheads, etc. were convivially skankin’! Great respect for SHARP!

Henk Loobuyck

I’d already left ‘Corpus Chrisiti’ by then. I only played twice with them, in the Tielt area.

Johan Maes

I can’t remember playing here… If we did, then it must’ve been with Goeminne and not Tom Vanlaere. Stef had only joined ‘Corpus Christi’ a month before…

Peter ‘Coli’ Van Colen

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

The Norwegian straight-edgers of ‘Onward’ had been here already during their tour with ‘Blindfold’ (92-08-09). Arne (Olav) Haabeth (bass), ‘Bhakta’ Ollie Andersen (drums), Peter Amdam (guitar; later did Words Carved Into My Head fanzine together with Arne) and Torgny Amdam (vocals; later in ‘Amulet’) were touring with ‘Mainstrike’ now. According to Peter Hoeren (Crucial Respnse recs) it was the first time they supported the In A Different Place album which he released in 1993.

‘Mainstrike’ had played their 1^st show January 3^rd of that year at the Goudvishal in Arnhem (the guys lived in the Arnhem/Nijmegen area) and in March they recorded their demo (Youth Crew 95), and they played the V.V. on 95-04-09 already. After this one here, they’ld also play at the Vort’n Vis festival (95-08-19). Their 7” Times Still Here was out on Peter Hoeren’s Crucial Response recs only a few days before they started touring with ‘Onward’ (recorded early September). In the band at this time were: Jeroen ‘Beertje’ Vrijhoef (guitar; he ran Left Wing recs and later – when he’d moved to Den Haag – Coalition recs, together with Marcel Palijama), Jasper Meijerink (bass; later replaced by Johnny van de Koolwijk), Jonas Moberg (guitar), Roland ‘Big’ ‘Lord Bigma’ Roller (vocals; also guitarist ‘Man Lifting Banner’) and Pepijn Oostenbrink (drums, later also in ‘One Day Closer’).

I knew ‘Big’ from the time he lived in Apeldoorn (late 80s), where he – together with his mate Marcel ‘Gummo’ Schilpzand – helped organise concerts for a few bands that I was helping out. They did these in a local squat (called De Bank)…

Manon Laméris, who I knew from gigs in Terneuzen (The Netherlands) in the late 80s, and by then helped program and organise gigs at the Goudvishal wrote something in the guestbook. I’m pretty sure her friend Diana Boerkamp and colleague at the Goudvishal – also ‘Big’s girlfriend at the time – was there too…

Brob

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Right before this fest Stephane Boens (74-04-17 * 96-08-06) a.k.a. The Famous Vegan (a friend of some collaborators at the V.V.) passed away…

source unknown

This trend that had silently been creeping in during previous years (commercialism, violent/sexist/homophobic attitudes) got even more established here. Earlier in ’96, I had been isolated, denigrated and vilified because of my criticisms (by the H8000 buisnessmen and their disciples). For many I wasn’t wellcome but I tried to be one of the few who offered radical/political literature, and went over to explain to those who wanted to listen and support my few remaing friends. This here below shows there were also still a few people trying to get (part of the) message across…

It was the last time I attended… I refused to pay entrance and hardly saw any of the bands. I believe this was the programme (but some might have been added):

96-08-16: Firestone (Bel), Facedown (Bel), Vitality (Bel), Outrage (Bel), Victims Of Society (Bel), Down For The Count (Spa), Liar (Bel), Spawn (Ger), Unborn (UK)

96-08-17: Voices At The Front (Bel), Kindred (Bel), Sektor (Bel), Saidiwas (Swe), Regression (Bel), Timebomb (Ita), Burning Defeat (Ita), Congress (Bel), Racial Abuse (Aus), Despair (USA)

96-08-18: Spineless (Bel), Resist The Pain (Bel), Stampin’ Ground (UK), Vanilla (Fra), Approach To Concrete (Ger), Bruma (Ita) , Separation (Swe), Swing Kids (USA), With Love (Ita)

the marketplace… :-(

courtesy of Karel Deweerdt (Wim ‘Blindfold’ & UJ ‘Liar’ on the left)

photo by Joeri Hoste (central: Eric Allen, Marco Walzel, Justin Pearson)

the international crowd… :-)

even the local girl-scouts visited…

…and a little British kitten named Vique… (photo courtesy of Joeri Hoste)

photos by Sergi E. Costa (unless where otherwise mentioned)

additions wellcome!…

The baddies of ‘Bad Influence’ had a way of showing up with a lot of great bands and interesting people: 90-10-27 (with ‘Zygote’), 92-11-01 (with Steve Ignorant), here with ‘Contropotere’, 93-10-24 (with ‘Toxic Waste’), 94-09-17 (with ‘Citizen Fish’) and 96-09-21 (with ‘P.A.I.N.’)… Hard-working lads eh! ;-) This here was at the time when Tim ‘Crow’ Shapland (ex ‘Zygote’) played bass for them and Thomas Noppe did the guitar-work…

‘Herb Garden’ was a 5-piece band from Bristol: David ‘Dave’ Crook (bass), Ben(edict) Wallis (drums), Phil(ip) Marsden (guitar), Richard Charles ‘Rat’ Crook (guitar) & Carl (Benedict) Graves (vocals). Their music was sometimes described as power-punk-pop and others labeled them as a “psych-thrash, absurdist funky-punk outfit”. Their 1^st release was a 12” entitled Bulldozer Jones (’89). Then there was the Destructive Natural Agent LP (’92). Karl Horton (Words Of Warning) put out the H.M.S. Disaster LP in ’93 out. And in between there were a few 7”s; e.g. Forever on Ralf Sander (Stuttgart) ‘s 42 recs.

‘Herb Garden’

‘Brawl’ were a hardcore/punk band with great, fast, singalong tunes; from Wexford county, Ireland. The band consisted of Murt Flynn (vocals), Mark ‘Crispo’ Christie (drums; ex ‘Pink Turds In Space’ & ‘F.U.A.L.’, also ‘Bleeding Rectum’), Thomas Maguire a.k.a. ‘Tommy Trousers’ (bass; replaced Alan) and Greg O’Reilly (guitar). The band had a demo (called Barney) out around that time and and a few tracks on compilation-LPs. Their tour had started with a disaster because their van and gear got stolen on the second day. The van was retreived but not their material. They got help (and some money) from the people of ‘Sedition’ & ‘Disaffect’. (Read Tommy’s contribution). This here was ‘Brawl’s first appearance at the V.V. They came back 2 times: 94-03-19 & 95-09-08.

‘Contropotere’ was an Italian anarcho-punk collective (not a real ‘band’ with a steady line-up; they called it a “laboratory” themselves…) that started in the squat-scene of Naples but there were people from various places involved: Lucia ‘Lucy’ V. (vocals), ‘Bostik’ Adriano C. (keyboards), ‘Alli’ Alessandro P. (drums), Andrea de M. (guitar), Andrea S.-H. (bass), Valeria M. (bass/vocals), Cesare ‘Cjzj’ M. (bass, guitar). Ben Sicko interviewed them during their UK tour for Raising Hell #22 (‘90): he mentions Ciro Greco as guitarplayer & Ciccia as bassist. They used to tour with sound-mixer Riccardo and ‘performer’ Anja M. Their ‘songs’ were sometimes quite lengthy and their approach could be described as D.I.Y. ‘hardcore-punk’ ideologically but their music was influenced by various styles. It was referred to as “a seething cauldron, dark and sinister with grating guitars, thin arabesques, eastern melodies and echos, sharp riffs… Lyrics were desperate, poetic, …; carried by screamy voice. It balanced from gothic to punk, from hardcore-thrash to industrial and techno-tribal.”. It all started with the E’ Arrivato Ah Pook! Demo in 1986. In ’88 they did the Nessuna Speranza Nessuna Paura LP. A bit later Oliver ‘Kleister’ Schmid (and his partner Andrea) – who ran the label Skuld releases – put out the Il Seme Della Devianza LP (’91) and the Solo Selvaggi 7” (’92). There’s also a live tape from 2 German shows: Nagold (93-05-21) & Münich (93-05-22). In 1994 ‘Contropotere’ changed their name in ‘CP/01’ and recorded the Cyborg 100% CD (experymental electro-industrial stuff).

‘Contropotere’

I remember their show left quite an impression. Not in the least because of Lucia’s expressive vocals and theatrical performance that grabbed us by the throat. Unfortunately it was difficult to communicate as they only spoke little English and most of us didn’t master Italian…

Here’s some live footage of them in Bremen & Frankfurt in 1990; and a full concert (Höfingen, Germany, 1992).

Brob

We were indeed an Italian anarcho-punk collective-tribe-family and not a standard band but it’s difficult to explain about this anarchism because there are many anarchist ways. We started with an anarcho-punk spirit in the hardcore scene in Italy but we were all different persons with different experiences, different ages. Our anarchism resembled to that of ‘Crass’, something more like spirit than ideology. We didn’t read that much books about anarchism and we all had different visions about it: someone more individual-nihilist, some more mystic and deep. We started (’86) in the squat-scenes in Padova & Venezia. Bostik and Lucia came back from Berlin. After one year we decided to go to Napoli and live all together in a big house (called Stella). We squatted a place called Tienament for concerts. ‘Contropotere’ was together for 10 years, our concept and philosophy transformed. Around the time of this concert (1993-94) the band was: Lucia (vocals) – Bostik (keyboards) – Alli (drums) – Valeria (bass) – Cesare Cjsj (bass) – Andrea D (guitar) – Lavinia (second voice & performer) – Riccardo Serpenta (mixer) – Anja (performer & driver).

‘Alli’, ‘Contropotere’ drummer

I got the call to fill in on bass for ‘Brawl’ from some old friends in Ireland who recommended me for the gig. I was living in London at the time playing in the band ‘Stockwell’ with some stalwarts from the Welsh anarcho-bands ‘Shrapnel’ and ‘Symbol Of Freedom’, in a more post-HC and melodic direction than all of us previously played. I heard that ‘Brawl’s bassplayer couldn’t do the tour and they needed a stand in. I was only too pleased to accept. It was my first time to get the opportunity to gig outside of Britain and Ireland, and I was delighted. ‘Brawl’s sound was fairly standard mid-tempo punk but the vocalist Murt had a distinctive Irish voice and great stage-presence. At this time ‘Crispo’ (legendary Irish drummer from innumerable bands [‘Pink Turds In Space’] over the years) handled the sticks, so I knew we would be a really tight musical unit. We rehearsed in Ireland for a week or so then started our tour in Glasgow. A great gig with ‘Disaffect’, and a great session that evening led to us being a bit hung-over and naïve in our parking-choice for our van in central Glasgow and it was stolen! All our gear and clothes were gone – including my Rickenbacker – we were snookered. Luckily I had my passport and money on my person. Anyway we thought of cancelling the tour but the rest of the guys had put too much time and effort into organising things so the decision was made to carry on. We got the van back from the police as luckily the thieves had not done too much damage to it. We borrowed guitars and drum-stuff from the fabulous people of ‘Sedition’ and ‘Disaffect’, and we picked up two amps from my house in London and carried on to the continent.

The whole tour was amazing but the gig in Ieper was one of the highlights. This was actually my first day ever in Belgium. We were struck by the WWI history of the town and were surprised to see they still play the ‘Last Post’ on the trumpet in the evening at the Menin Gate. It only dawned on us at that moment that we were in Ypres – we never knew the Flemish name of the town before as our history-books only ever used the French version and is referred to as ‘wipers’! But to be more accurate the thing that amazed us all the most was our first trip to a Belgian supermarket. Alcohol is relatively expensive in Ireland and in these pre-€ times the exchange-rate was around 50 Belgian Francs to the Irish Pound. We saw some beer on the shelves and it appeared that the deposit on the bottles was more than the cost of the beer inside – we looked like idiots standing in the supermarket trying to do the exchange-rate maths, giggling like children at the realisation that you could theoretically drink forever from buying one crate of beer. We got back to the venue and I reckon we came across to people as the worst bumpkins ever to hit town, telling anyone who would listen about our supermarket beer-adventure. However, we had a gig to play and what a line up it was!

I had never seen ‘Bad Influence’ before but I was aware they were ‘Amebix’ influenced and I knew I would enjoy them. I got talking to Herwin, their singer, and struck up a good rapport with him, a great guy who knew a lot of mutual friends from the scene. I was glad to make his acquaintance again in later years when the Baddies toured Ireland and for a period we broadcasted each others radio-shows that we exchanged on cassette through the mail – his show from the Antwerp [local] radio [Radio Centraal] and my show from pirate radio-station DLR in Dublin. It’s great to see they are still going.

‘Herb Garden’ I had met from playing around the UK, nice guys and a solid band, we swapped some small talk about how great the set-up at the venue was and had the typical chat everyone had at that time about how few DIY venues of the calibre of the V.V. existed in Britain or Ireland.

‘Contropotere’ were simply incredible, one of the greatest drummers in a band I have seen to this day, and amazing vocals and stage-presence. We tried to chat but very few of their crew spoke English – and Irish people are really terrible at other languages; we are lazy monoglots like all of the English speaking world…

Anyway we got to use our beer-tokens on trying fancy Belgian fruit-flavoured beers as we had our own stock of ‘free’ beer and really enjoyed our set. For a small room the sound was really great and I think the crowd enjoyed it. Across all of this tour ‘Brawl’ got a good reception, a lot of the time we were the light relief on bills shared with heavier bands and the contrast in styles seemed to work well with most crowds. After the gig we got to stay in the place upstairs and as far as I remember this was without incident – I was probably blacked out from the ‘free’ beer and still telling anyone who would listen about the beer in the supermarket in town…. My other abiding memory of the venue was the drinkers vs straight-edge graffiti wars. It struck me at the time as idiotic and so pointless in a town so small to have such hostility within the scene, especially as it was plain to see how hard people were working to keep the venue operating, some people don’t realise a good thing when they see it..

Thomas Maguire a.k.a. ‘Tommy Trousers’

First time I played at the Vort’n Vis was here with ‘Brawl’. I remember it was on a Saturday and the supermarket was shutting early enough. We and a few mates that were tagging along (Conor, Bengy, etc.) bought a couple a crates of beer and realised that the supermarket would not be open the next day, at least not before we were leaving; so we had less than an hour to drink all the beer to be able to get the bottles-deposit back. No place better than outside the supermarket where one or two of us spewed up much to the disgust of some of the people there. But hey that was punk and we got our deposit back which was probably all the money we had between us at the time and then off to the gig.

I saw one of the best drummers ever at this gig playing for ‘Contropetere’ from Naples They were such a good band. I think we played OK, it was all a bit blurry after the supermarket. We stayed there that night and there was some weird sleepwalking incident involving a friend, Helen. Again very blurry.

I drummed for ‘Toxic Waste’ (93-10-24) at another gig there, within the next month or so, featuring Dino from ‘Dirt’ on vocals.

Mark ‘Crispo’ Christie

I was there, I was just in the van…

Conor Koresh, driver/roadie for ‘Brawl’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Tommy T: “There was a guy Benjy with us too – I presume he is talking about black moroccan hashish?? cryptic and stupid all at the same time!”

Brego and friends of the Luxemburger band ‘Because’ announcing their concert on 93-09-18

additions wellcome!…

More on this concert: 93-10-03 Four Walls Falling – Blindfold – Dawson – Shortsight

Photos courtesy of Jase Fox (‘Step One’)

‘Four Walls Falling':

Taylor Steele (vocals), Robert ‘Bo’ Steele (guitar), John H. White (guitar), William ‘Bill’ Thideman (bass) & Tommy Anthony (drums)

[3] Björn Lescouhier, ‘Shortsight’ drummer (kneeled)

[5] Philippe Klur, Uprising Decay zine (glasses) * Michael Müller, Counter Clockwise zine (baseball cap)

[6] Ed ‘N.O.F.’ & Saskia ‘Shortsight’ (L) * Françoise Lepers, Superfluous zine (M)

This was the 2^nd Vort’n Vis Leed festival

(“The 5^th band is a surprise!” ???)

I believe this was the first time my buddies Paul, Olav & Jos (Amersfoort) played at the V.V. but I had arranged gigs for them already with the Smurfpunx collective (89-04-16 & 90-02-17). Their first, self-titled 7” (with the guitar on T-shirt cover) had been recorded Aug/Sep ’89 and their first album (hands tied together with barbed wire on the cover) in June ’90 so I guess they played material from these. I can still imagine me shouting along: … “Shell! Send ‘em to hell”, “We flourish under oppression”, etc. I’m pretty sure their ‘crew’ (driver Emily, photographer Theun Koelemij and allround-nice-bloke Marcel Palijama) came along aswell…

‘Trespassers W’ (Rotterdam, NL) were an avant-garde/arty band that consisted then of Ronnie Krepel (bass), Peter Bos (drums), Lukas Simonis (guitar; also ‘Dull Schicksal’, ‘Morzelpronk’, etc.), Frank Van Den Bos (keyboards) and Cor Gout (vocals). Around the end of the 80s I got a few records sent by the Amsterdam label ADM (A Deaf Mute) recs for review. One of which was their LP Potemkin. Here’s what I wrote about it in Tilt! #5: >> Unpredictable is and adjective that fits their music. Both sides also differ quite a bit. Side 1 has 5 songs with still traditional song-patterns but also an unusual use of rhythms and instruments (violin/organ/…). Side 2 tells the story of Sovjet battleship [in their own words: “musically recreating Eisenstein’s classic film”] and is quite experimental … << The record came out in 1989 and was produced by Dolf Planteijdt (‘Morzelpronk’ & Joke’s Koeienverhuur studio). Around the same time they did a 7” entitled Macht Kaputt and in 1990 a French label put out their tape Aimez-Vous Trespassers W? …

‘Scraps’ (Lille, France) had been at the V.V. already eralier that year (90-02-24). The line-up at that time was David & Raph(ael) Dutriaux (vocals & guitar), Xavier (drums) and Tomoy (bass). They had abandonned the nihilistic drunk-punk for a more political/posutive attitude. They were gaining a lot of popularity in our area. The release of their Wrapped Up In This Society LP on Be Yourself recs (ran by 2 local scenesters Carl Levecke and Ghilain Vermeersch) certainly helped with that. The recordings took place a few months before this (May ’90). Lots of ‘locals’ did backing-vocals (most of them present here too, I think): Carl & Ghilain, Ed ‘N.O.F.’, Hans & Hazel (‘Rise Above’), UxJx, Leffe & Vrokker (‘Chronic Disease’), Spatje & Siesele (‘P.J.D.’), etc. The record came with loads of anti-fascist info. As a reaction against the raising fascism (the extreme right ‘Vlaams Blok’ in Belgium – see 91-03-03) and Le Pen and his Front National in France, anti-fascists started to get organised again in various groups. ‘Scraps’ were supporting the SCALP (Section Carrément Anti Le Pen). David & their friend ‘Kalimero’ (Stéphane Ll.) also addressed all this on their radio-show (Écrasons La Vermine; ‘let’s crush the vermin’) on the student-radio (Radio Campus) in their area.

The Liège bunch ‘Hiatus’ also performed here for the first time but I’d seen them play already in their hometown with ‘Sore Throat’ (90-05-06). Their demos (The Frightening Men’s Story; and In My Mind…) were recorded Aug ’89 and Apr ’90 (with Phill – Phil – Ben – Raf). Their untitled 7” (blindfolded man on the cover) that was released in 1990 by the French label Urban Alert recs (recorded Aug ’90) would be re-released as I Don’t Scare Easily But… on Nabate in 1991. The line up here would have been Phil (guitar/vocals), Ben Féry (drums), Azill (guitar/vocals; or was it still the other Phill?), Willy Nollomont (bass) and Raf (vocals). Raf disappeared soon after and Willy started doing vocals aswell.

Brob

I’m almost certain I was at this concert but I have no recollections of it… :-/ You mention Écrasons La Vermine – thanks for the compliment – but don’t forget to also mention the programme that David (‘Tonton Charogne’) did himself: Raw Power! The show lasted until ’92 I believe.

Stéphane Ll.

I can ’t recall anything about this. You should ask Cor Gout. Perhaps I wasn’t in the band anymore… However… There are some vague memories…

Lukas Simonis, ‘Trespassers W’

In 1990 I did play for ‘Trespassers W’ but my agenda says I was in Voorburg with my other band that day. No recollections. Cor Gout knows everything!

Frank van den Bos, ‘Trespassers W’

I know we played in a small pub. A street outside the centre? There was no P.A. but a vocal amp, which was sufficient for that space. The audience (twenty people ?) reacted quit well to our music. One individual knew some of our songs and was asking for them. Of the other bands, I only remember ‘Seein’Red’ from Amersfoort. I knew their single and was aware they played pretty fat-sounding anarcho-punk. I thought they were very good in their genre. Later (in 1991) I invited them for a session that we (3 members of ‘Trespassers W’) did for Lokatel in The Hague. I believe we received fl. 350 [€ 175] for the gig at the Vort’n Vis, what isn’t very much for such a long drive, but looking back we didn’t have any regrets to have come over. The atmosphere and welcome were good. And that’s what we were doing it for.

The Potemkin LP & the Aimez-Vous cassette have been released as double-CD (with extra songs) in the re-issue series of Megapop in France. The band stopped now [September ‘14]. Most of us make music with smaller bands. We just released our ‘swansong’ One-Sided Love Affair: 7 new songs on one side and none on the other (written for a concert at the Volkspaleis in The Hague, a year ago).

Cor Gout, ‘Trespassers W’

[They delivered their “swan-song” record autum 2014]

‘Scraps’ pictures; courtesy of Jurgen ‘Spatje’ Fiems [1/5], Françoise ‘Hazel’ Lepers [2/4] & Grégory Smets [3]:

‘Spatje’ quitely at the bar for a moment…

Jeroen Lauwers sporting his ‘Conflict’ T-shirt

crowd (with Edward+Hans ‘Rise Above’, Dirk ‘Scum’ & Leffe+Spatje ‘P.J.D.’) @ Scraps

crowd (with Jeroen+Edward & Pette ‘P.J.D.’, Chatn? shoutin’ loud & Lord Moloch in the back) @ Scraps

[There are some photos of 'Seein'Red' in Reminder #1, the zine that Wim & Chatn 'Blindfold' did, but the resolution is not good enough to put them up here...]

additions wellcome!…

interviews: Kristof Mondy, Vincent Tetaert / camera: Bert Degraeve

put on-line by Vincent Tetaert

(in West-Flemish, no subtitles)

1/ interview with Hans Verbeke (includes ‘Blindfold’ @ Vort’n Vis ’97)

2/ interview with Hans Verbeke (includes ‘Spirit Of Youth’ @ Vort’n Vis ’91 * ‘Spineless’ @ Ieperfest ’99)

3/ interview with Hans Verbeke (includes ‘Liar’ @ Vort’n Vis ’98?)

4/ interview with Joost Noyelle (includes ‘Congress’ & ‘Wheel Of Progress’ @ Joost’s bakery, Langemark ’92-93?)

5/ interview with Joost Noyelle (includes ‘Congress’ @ Dilsen ’95)

6/ interview with Dominiek Denolf (includes ‘Shortsight’ @ Joost’s bakery, Langemark ’92-93? * ‘Spirit Of Youth’ @ Vort’n Vis 92-12-20)

7/ interview with Dominiek Denolf (includes ‘Solid’ @ Beselare ’95? * ‘Spirit Of Youth’ @ Pedro’s garage ’97 * ‘Spirit Of Youth’ @ Vort’n Vis ’97)

8/ interview with Dominiek Denolf (includes ‘Nations On Fire’ @ Bissegem ’98 * ‘Spirit Of Youth’ @ Vort’n Vis ’97)

(in memory of Hans Engel)

‘Headstart’ was a Glaswegian band playing fast HC. It was the band of my mate Adam Johnston (vocals), who did Go! zine, and Jamie Usher (guitar; ex ‘The Disturbed’, also 1^st incarnation of ‘Sedition’, ‘Quarantine’ & ‘Scatha’ for a while; played in ‘Scraps’ at some time-point…). The others were ‘Jaf’ (the drummer; John Motson) & ‘Schultz’ (Mark Brown, the bassplayer)…

‘Union Morbide’ from Heemskerk/Beverwijk played melodic HC with very recognisable passionate vocals. We’d had them over at a Smurfpunx gig before (89-03-25): Maxim Aafjes was still doing vocals, Dennis Cornelissens had replaced the original bassplayer Eelco Boonacker (who now played guitar), guitarist Philip van Koeveringe & drummer Michel Weijgertse (R.I.P. 2008; Marcel Hommes joined when Michel quit in late 1992). This must’ve been around the time their 7” called 015 came out on Hans Engel’s Let’s Make Our Own recs; it was recorded in June that year.

‘Union Morbide’ 015 insert: L=>R: Philip, Dennis, Michel, Eelco & Maxim

This would’ve been ‘Exhaustless Revolt’s 2^nd time after 91-05-03 but apparently they didn’t play… (Can’t remember.)

Brob

Unless any proof pops up, I would doubt that we played with those two bands that day…

Filip Staes, ‘Exhaustless Revolt’ singer/guitarist

Can’t remember if ‘E.R.’ actually played. ‘Union Morbide’ definitely did. I was there…

Joris De Buysser, Bonds Of Friendship zine

I can remember that we were touring around New Year… We bumped into ‘Disturbing Foresights’ [They played at the V.V. 91-12-31] on a lot of places… We were touring almost 2 weeks then: Germany, Switzerland. The attic of the Vort’n Vis was cold/moist. We were all a bit ill, because of little sleep and the booze. We went looking for a warm hotel-room but couldn’t find anything. After the soundcheck the beer went down well. The atmosphere was good and our we felt like playing, just as always. Myself, I was in a miserable state and asked someone for some aspirin. I got some but it was as big as a guilder. Little did I know, I was in Belgium and thought that was OK. I crammed the thing inside and thought to flush it with a few gulps of coke. After two seconds my mouth was filled with foam. Turned out it was one of those fizzy-tablets and I spent the whole concert belching on stage.

Dennis Cornelissens, ‘Union Morbide’ bassist

I think I still have a tape with recordings of ‘Union Morbide’s concert here…

Eric ‘React’ W.

‘Headstart’ was an attempt by 4 Glasgow punks to start a fast-as-hell hardcore band, which was severely lacking in the Scottish scene, in our opinion. It was kind of a straight-edge band, the problem being that 2 of the members seemed to have an alcohol problem! The other problem was the fact that everybody was not playing the instrument they should have: the drummer was actually a bass-player (He’d played in a couple of other bands before ‘Headstart’.), the guitarist was a good drummer, the bass-player was pretty good on all instruments. And the vocalist? Well, this was my first band and the excitement/nervousness didn’t do me any favours.

We somehow managed to persuade a guy from Belgium (Ghilain [Vermeersch, of Be Yourself recs] from Nieuwpoort) to set up a mini-tour (3 gigs!) in Belgium [91-11-24 (‘Volkshuis, Ekeren, a benefit for the non-profit organisation 'For Mother Earth'] – with ‘Union Morbide’ and all-female band- & in Breda, Holland (where we played a squatted church with a post-punk band called ‘Accidental Youth’, I think… Jaf got in contact with Ghilain after getting the ‘Scraps’ LP (he’d been kinda pals with David, I think) and just asking for a gig or two. We’d only played 1 gig by that point (haha!) so it was a bit cheeky of Jaf to ask. But he went for it anyway. Ghilain picked us up and we stayed at his and he drove us to the gigs.

At the ferryport at Oostende we met an English guy who would end up going to the gig (he was a local to the V.V. [Steve ‘Neuthrone’?]. His stories about the venue and the other stuff I’d read about it made us pretty excited about playing there. A major problem, though, was that we were actually pretty crap. This isn’t me being modest, it’s the absolute truth. I think word got out about this Scottish “straight-edge band” amongst the gig-going Belgian youth and there was a decent crowd expecting ‘Youth Of Today’-type HC. What they got was a rather poor, un-tight mess of a band, with my lyric-book at the front of the stage as I was so nervous about playing in front of people that I’d forget my lyrics. I jumped about a lot, partly to cover up for the fact that we were so bad. The kids seemed to enjoy my enthusiasm and I was able to crowd-surf for a while and look like a real hardcore hero. Either that or one of those bodies you see being carried by a massive crowd at a funeral in Gaza or something. I honestly was enjoying myself and hating it all at the same time as I felt we were conning the crowd (like Johnny Rotten said: Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?!) We should have been arrested for crimes against hardcore and deported on the next boat to the UK from Oostende. Apparently the kids wanted us to go on earlier as a lot of them had school the next morning (I think it was a Sunday night? [It was a Saturday but gigs always started rather early because Ieper is so far away for most who wanted to catch the last train…]), so they missed an actual decent band in ‘Union Morbide’. I’m sorry but I have no memory of ‘Exhaustless Revolt’ at all. ‘Union Morbide’ were proper musicians and I remember the vocalist actually singing, in a kind of ‘Funeral Oration’ way. Oh, and how can I forget meeting up with Mr. Brob who I had been writing to and met briefly before when he visited Glasgow!

I remember having tokens to trade for drink at the bar. Man, I’ve never drank so much orange-juice in my life! Two of the others (Jamie and Schultz) were probably desperate for a beer or 6, but stuck to the non-drinking “policy” for the whole ‘tour’. Oh yeah, I had an It’s OK Not To Drink! t-shirt that I bought and wore at the gig. I was still straight-edge for a few years after this time then gave in to the evil of drink & drugs, not in an addictive way, though. Wish I still had that t-shirt [Brob: I have! ;-)] as I’ve reverted to a non-drinking/drugging lifestyle. Belgium seemed to have a thriving S.E. scene at the time and it was cool to see it for myself.

We stayed upstairs in the band-rooms after the gig and it was not what I was used to. I’m a clean kinda guy and it was a bit on the smelly/dirty side for me, though I certainly appreciate the fact that we were fed, watered and put up at the venue. We had breakfast in the morning which was chocolate cakes and pastries which we found bizarre – cakes for breakfast?! Are you kidding me?! Like I said, bizzare, but nice! We had nothing like the V.V. in Scotland and still don’t…

Jamie played on tour with ‘Scraps’ right after we were here. Him and his girlfriend stayed on at Ghilain’s, then went on tour with ‘Scraps’. I went to Lille when Jamie was asked to play 2^nd guitar with ‘Scraps’ and he went to learn the songs. Only David spoke any English, really, and Jamie was not the best guitarist. I think David fell out with Jamie on the tour as he made quite a few mistakes while playing. But he got to visit a few other places and generally enjoyed himself, I think.

Adam Johnston, ‘Headstart’ singer

[Brob: Adam provided a bunch of pics of 'Headstart' playing live but the resolution is just not good enough for publication unfortunately...]

After the Freely Chosen album in 1989 I started playing guitar and Dennis Cornelissens took over on bass. You could hear the new line-up on the 015 single. I played here too…

Eelco Boonacker, ‘Union Morbide’ guitarist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…