See: 93-09-17&18&19 5th Leed-festival (Intro & Incident)

After the rave the night before the day started with a breakfast…

Liège crusties (including Willy ‘Hiatus’) & Italian HC/punks (‘Eversor’) sharing the goodies (photo by Massimo Moscarelli)

Then gradually the ‘market’ started…

Probably the very first time that Jon ‘Active’ Elliott came over… / Alain of Nabate looking for trades (pics by Massimo Moscarelli)

This edition of the Leed festival was totally fucked up, the only reason why ‘N.O.F.’ played on Sunday was because Françoise [‘Hazel’ Lepers] and Wim [Vandekerckhove] came to my house to drag me along: I had no intention to come. Apparently a bus-load of Swiss chaos-punks thought it was a good idea to come up to Ieper that weekend and demonstrate the ‘Exploited’ version of anarchy. The whole Saturday they had been nagging about having no money to pay the entrance and that punk had to be free. But they did find it OK to drive their bus-wreck all the way to Ieper at 30 litres per 100 km and buy beer in the grocery-store around the corner. Just say that paying the entrance is not a priority in stead of lying not to have any money. Whatever, each hour things were getting less and less pleasant and by the evening they had picked out a few ‘victims’ to let he whole thing explode… Unfortunately for them, they had chosen Hans Verbeke as their target. Lesson # 1: never choose someone who will fight back without a problem and grew up in the streets… The “punks” started to hassle Chantal (Hans’ girlfriend at that time) so Hans grabs his baseball-bat from UJ’s car and wacks one of those guys over the head. This, of course, sets the whole thing ablaze with all crust-punks hearing that straight-edgers are beating up poor beer-drinking punks: total chaos. Hans and some of us walk in to the pub and barricade the door while some 20 rampaging and drunk crusties shouting murder and fire, trying to break down the door. Luckily the lads of ‘Doom’ were still sober and smarter than their adherents and drove Hans off in their van. Eternal thanks for that because otherwise things could’ve gotten really out of hand. While all this was going most people were in the big hall in the back. What I always disliked about this episode is that Bruno and Jan called this a minor incident, something to forget fast. Apparently it wasn’t necessary to remove the Swiss assholes or address the guys from ‘Hiatus’ who were on their side. It’s all a long time ago but it remains one of the all time lows of all these years at the V.V.

Jeroen Lauwers (see also the interview he did with Willy ‘Hiatus’)

‘N.O.F.’ played in their new line-up (announced in the newsletter). From April 1993 on that was: Wim Vandekerckhove (guitar; also ‘Blindfold’ vocalist’), Filip Devolder (who did the ‘Silent Water’ project/band; drums), Ed(ward) Verhaeghe (vocals) and Jeroen ‘Goofy’ Lauwers (bass).

‘Nations On Fire’ (photo by Massimo Moscarelli)

‘Eversor’, a band from Pesaro, started out as as a thrash metal-band in 1985 but by then they played heartfelt, melodic HC (they were compared with bands such as ‘Sensefield’ and ‘Lifetime’): Marco Morosini (bass), Lele Morosini (guitar & vocals) and Federico Sarti had replaced Enrico ‘Eric Lumen’ Giampaoli (drums). Later the brothers continued to play together in ‘The Miles Apart’. Marco also did a distro, called Cataclysm. The band came over again to play on 96-09-20.

‘Strength Of The Will’ had played here already on 92-09-06. Filip Staes (ex ‘Exhaustless Revolt’) played guitar, Jan Beckers sang, his brother Maarten played the drums. The bros were from the Tongeren area and Filip resisided in Hoboken, near Anwterp. The band disappeared when ‘Kindred’ started. Filip believes ‘S.O.T.W.’ played also with ‘Wheel Of Progress’ at the V.V. but I’ve no memories/indications of that.

After a “makeshift” ‘Hiatus’ (93-07-04), we got the ‘full blast’ treatment again. The set was probably mainly from the LP From Resignation…To Revolt, that was recorded in March (at Cats studio in Brugge) with Azill (guitar), Wills (vocals), Ben (drums), Phil (guitar) and Fred Alabas (bass). I think around that time Eric ‘React’ had the live split-tape (together with ‘Doom’; recordings from the gig at ‘La Zone’ in Liège 93-02-26) available. That was a benefit les Flamands Roses [LGBTQIF]. The tracks for their split-7” with ‘Subcaos’ were recorded live in Brno (Czech Republic) on 93-06-20. 4 songs from the same gig were used on the Polish Bastards split-7” with ‘Fleas & Lice’ (Polish nazi skinheads attacked the band in Gdansk in June ‘93.) Their gig in Auch (France) on 93-08-17 was also recorded: Fred Jourdan put it out on tape (with live tracks of ‘Health Hazard’) under the name Don’t Think With Your Dick… Around that time there was also the split-7” with ‘Doom’ (Flat Earth recs).

Brob

I was on tour with ‘Eversor’ (‘Lumen’ wasn’t in the band anymore at that time, it was the Morosini brothers -Marco and Lele- and Federico). A rented van was our house. The day before they played near Stuttgart, then we travelled all the night toward Belgium. It was the longest travel of my life, like a journey to the moon. Distances were longer in those times. So we arrived at the place, I changed my T-shirt with an X-Force one (the comic) because of the X (as for SxE). But no one noticed it. I was just a guy with a comic T-shirt in a punk place. Absolutely no memory about the concert. I only remember the breakfast in the morning and the van that took the road towards home…

Massimo Moscarelli (Rome)

additions wellcome!…

‘Blindfold’ was supposed to play their “last show ever” but they still did shows, even toured during the summer, in ’98, their drummer Chatn informs. According to Hans their last gig was at ‘t Molentje in Kuurne. They recorded their live-LP (with 2 new songs only to be heard there) at the V.V.

Brob

I ended up there with some SxE friends from Vienna (Daniel Eberharter of Eloquence zine), from Vienna (Austria), that were going to the fest. I was also friends with ‘By The Grace Of God’ (ex-members of the Louisville band ‘Endpoint’ [BTGOG had been touring earlier. They were already back in the states by August.]) who I think played the fest. They were on tour in Europe and I dragged along as van-duty, slacker, bad jokester for some shows. I toured with them on and off throughout the tour. We had a blast at Ieper and met great people. It was a nice meet-up of us all. I slept in the ‘loft’-area on an old couch. I had a giant necklace with a cock-ring on it. Good times! The venue was pretty unique in what I’ve seen around the world. It was impressive seeing the show set-up and so successful, especially with so many bands. The diversity in the punk-styles was evident and it was great to be apart of. There were New York style harcore, crust-punk and metal bands; and kids all hanging out.

Kevin Zelko; Wellfair? zine (also helped putting out ‘The Get Up Kids’ record)

Kevin Zelko & friends (Daniel Eberharter and Henrik from Stockholm)

I was at the Vort’n Vis with ‘Acheborn’… I have very good memories of sleeping in the park nearby in the festival. It was only us and another two people the first time The next year it was pretty full in there. The groundkeeper was actually so friendly that he almost didn’t let us go. A bit like in the movie Misery ;-) (Where a nurse takes care of an author that had a car-accident, in her house; and at the beginning she is all caring but then becomes this psycho who doesn’t let him leave her house, etc. We thought maybe he is all nice and then he won’t let us leave anymore…)

Here’s a few random memories:

There were 2 guys sleeping in the middle of the main square close to the venue because it was super-packed with people occupying every inch on the floor. We were walking past the main square when they were waking up and they were surrounded by market-stalls and people shopping. I guess they were too polite to wake them up to tell them that there is a market going on in their new bedroom….

There was this guy selling rare test-pressings of ‘Infest’, etc. for big bucks and American bands were spending a lot of money on it. I was sleeping at this guy’s house once on tour and he had hundreds of sleeves left and was making a test-pressing every once in a while. Power-violence hardcore capitalism…

And once I hitchhiked half way and was picked up by two guys from Munich at a highway-stop along the way but didn’t have a seat to get back. I didn’t really find anyone and at the last night there were four guys with a tiny car from Frankfurt that didn’t have any space as it was loaded with records that they were selling… Either way they squeezed me in and we all had records literally up to our nose driving for 6 hours or so. I think that was in the top 10 of the worst car-drives I ever had. but I guess that was the price to pay for going to the Vort’n Vis.

Christian Mix-Linzer (Outlet recs)

I was here aswell: I drove ‘Acheborn’. That was my first time at the V.V.

Marc Hartmann (Scorched Earth Policy, ‘Man vs Humanity’ drummer)

(full posts with photos of some bands playing are planned…)

97-08-15: Purification (Ita), Starmarket (Swe), Abhinanda (Swe), Instinct (Bel), Facedown (Bel), Reiziger (Bel), Veil (Ger), Timebomb (Ita), Clouded (Bel), Spineless (Bel)

97-08-16: Culture (USA), Kindred (Bel), Serene (Swe), Blindfold (Bel), Liar (Bel), Intensity (Swe), ODK Crew (Bel), Spirit Of Youth (Bel), Metroschifter (USA), Sektor (Bel)

97-08-17: Morning Again (USA), Congress (Bel), Vitality (Bel), Deformity (Bel), Rubbish Heap (Bel), Acheborn (Ger), Thumbs Down (Bel), Endstand (Fin), Mainstrike (Nl)

[‘Natural Order’ was not listed on the poster but they signed the guestbook. No clue if they played…]

crowdshots by Sergi E. Costa

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

visiters from the Czech republic

all sorts of visiters…

additions wellcome!…

‘Four Walls Falling’ (also from Richmond) were here for the 2^nd time (see 93-10-03): Taylor Steele (vocals) left his brother (Robert ‘Bo’) at home this time. He was replaced by Cam DiNunzio (guitar). The other guitarist was John (Stuart) Peters, John Papazoglou played bass (Bill Thidemann who played in ‘93 wasn’t on this tour) and Jared Srsic did drums. In 1994 they had recorded for the Food for Worms LP that came out on Day After recs (from the Czech Republic) with David Milton Tunkel playing bass. Thomas Crawley (‘Ipecac’) roadied on this 1995 tour. Rob(ert) Vlcek was the road-manager from the tour. The band broke up while being on tour in Europe that year but played a reunion-show later on…

Taylor Steele (with Vique Martin in the background) – source: ?

‘Sensefield’ (from Redondo Beach – near Los Angeles, California) were a Revelation recs band (at that time). Their LPs Killed For Less (’94) & Building (’96) were released on Jordan Cooper’s label. The band then consisted of Chris Evenson & Rodney Sellars (guitar), John ‘Slow Johnny’ Stockberger (bass), Jon(athan) Bunch (vocals) and Scott McPherson (drums). Their music could be described as emotive, passionate ‘posi’ HC based on rocking guitars. They were touring together with ‘Four Walls Falling’.

‘Avail’ from Richmond (Virginia) were: ‘Beau’ Beau Butler (cheerleader/dancer), Joe Banks (guitar), Tim Barry (vocals – drums on the 1^st EP), Erik Larson (drums; later replaced by Ed Trask of ‘Holy Rollers’ & ‘Kepone’) and Rob(ert) Kelshian (bass; ex ‘Ipecac’ – who replaced Charles ‘Chuck’ McCauley). ‘Avail’ released their first LP, Satiate, on Catheter-Assembly recs in 1992. It was re-issued on Old Glory recs (who also released Live At The King’s Head Inn) and on CD by LookOut! Recs, in 1994. C-A also put out the Attempt To Regress EP (recorded in ’92). They also put out the Dixie CD after that… 4AM Friday was recorded with Rob on bass (LookOut! ’96). The later records were with bassist Justin ‘Gwomper’ Burdick. I believed that the ‘Avail’ tour was organized by Lookout! Europe (Christy Colcord and/or Mary-Jane Weatherby and/or Aidan Taylor)…

‘Faroutski’ (from the Kortrijk area) was started after ‘Fireside’ (92-10-04) split up. They called their music punkrock’n’roll and stated they were “a DIY band in the tradition of old punk-bands”. They released their material on their own Funarchy label (previously Rocklabyrinth recs). The band consisted of people of the scene aroudn the Pits (small rock/indie venue): Barney Blomme (drums), ‘Kyvie’ Luc Dekyvere (guitar) and Rine Amelynck (bass).

I think Maximum Rock’n’Roll columnist and singer of the band ‘Siren’, Brian Zero, was there too. Perhaps with some other members of his band (drummer Kevin McCracken, bassist Joe Carr & guitarist Adam Glidewell)? ‘Siren’ would put a record (Becoming Wheels) out on the Czech label Day After recs (who also did the European version of the ‘Four Walls Falling’ LP)… I recall getting along with Brian quite well: he’d written an article on Corporate Punk for M.R.R. If I remember well he also wrote about the Vort’n Vis in a column for M.R.R. He got ‘stuck’ in Europe, it seems, as he’s now a teacher in Prague.

I’m not really sure but I think there was some commotion at this gig because ‘Avail’s Beau Beau was dancing rather violently and I addressed that because the V.V. had a policy against it. Don’t remember exactly but this might have stirred things up a bit? Unfortunately not everyone could appreciate it… ‘Avail’s drummer responded in a kinda awkward way – over-reacted. Jaak ‘N.O.F.’ wrote me afterwards that I had “spoiled” it because the audience was really enjoying the concert and some people (3!) left! There’s supposed to be a picture of Beau in Aaron Vyvial’s zine Love Child zine stating “Brob broke Beau’s nose”…!!??

Brob

The reaction of the ‘Avail’ drummer and dancer were simply wrong. But your response to that…!? You spoiled things for the band and for the few in the audience that were really enjoying them. (Perhaps you didn’t notice but besides myself there were 3 others that went outside.).

Jaak ‘Nations On Fire’, personal communication June 95

I was at Vort’n Vis during this show. I think. I was there a couple times more, maybe with ‘Lifetime’? I cant recall…

Miroslav ‘Mira’ Pátý, Day After recs

I booked the ‘4 Walls Falling’ / ‘Sensefield’ tour… Also was at the V.V. a month later with ‘Lifetime’…

Robert ‘Veg’ Vlček, ‘Clean Slate’

I had a great time. The journey back only took 7 hours (as opposed to 9 hours coming!)… I’m coming back to see ‘Sensefield’ on July 5^th [That was in Leuven.]. [Vique was here with her fellow Brighton-ian with Mark ‘Macca’ Wilkinson]

Vique ‘Simba’ Martin; personal communication June ‘95

I was in ‘Avail’ from ‘91 to ‘94 and never played outside of the States.

Charles ‘Chuck’ McCauley

I remember enjoying playing in Belgium – we had two shows there. That was the first time we had toured Europe and, while people had told us that it was a little different than touring in the U.S., I don’t think we really knew what to expect. That’s not to say that we had a bad time but Belgium (and particularly the show in Ieper) was where things kind of picked up and got us feeling better about our overall experience – so I will always remember that. Pete the Roadie (he roadied for ‘Citizen Fish’) ‘s wife Paula [Hibbs-Rines, ex ‘Spitboy’] organized the tour for us and our driver was a guy named Dave who played in a band called ‘Maggot Slayer Overdrive’ [band from Bristol] – hope that helps!

Robert Kelshian, ‘Avail bassist’

Yup, I booked, drove & tour-managed ‘Avail’s first Europe tour – great!! Peter from the Lintfabriek was promoter for the show…

Paula Hibbs-Rines

John Papazoglou was a friend of ours. He played in ‘Lucy Brown’ before ‘4WF’. Actually it was him or Dave on that tour. I can’t remember for sure but he was the last bass-player in the band.

William Thidemann

I was indeed drumming for ‘4WF’ in 1995. Tommy Anthony was our substitute drummer for the first European tour that occurred in 1993. I remember the Ieper show only in that it was towards the end of our tour and the sets where getting better sounding and tighter in performance. I remember the stage being quite shallow but the sound-system and crowd being great!!

Jared Srsic

Actually we had parted ways with Dave right after we recorded Food For Worms. I don’t remember much: we played 50 shows in 53 days, things tend to blur. I lived in the same house in Richmond with Tim, Beau, ‘Gwomper’ & Erik.

Taylor Steele, ‘4 Walls Falling’

Rob Kelshan played on the 4AM Friday record and did two tours with ‘Avail’. I joined on the last tour… That guy Rob tried to sue the band for money. So he’s not the most loved person. We refer to him as “he who will not be named”…

‘Gwomper’

I wish I had more memories, I remember very small bottles of strong beer in Belgium. I wish I could remember more, Europeans are too generous with the beer. Did someone tag the wall there with “It’s Avail not Awail!”?

Rodney Sellars, ‘Sensefield’

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Joost Dierick (The Pits / Bang Zoom Noise productions) wrote me ‘Toespieze’ played at the Vort’n Vis on 90-03-10 but the gig-review in Pyrobolum #3 tells another story…

‘Scraps’ had cancelled for 89-09-16 but they made up for that here. It was the start of a whole series of gigs. Later that year they would also play for Smurfpunx (90-10-06). The members at that time were David Dutriaux (vocals) Tomoy (bass), Xavier (drums) and Raphael Dutriaux (guitar). They had abandonned their rather nihilist 80s drunk-punk image and became a more politically aware ans positive combo. That year the album Wrapped Up In This Society was released on Be Yourself recs (Carl Levecke & Ghilain Vermeersch). They came back to the V.V. later that year (90-09-15) and a few times more…

I’d seen ‘Ear Damage’ quite a few times already. Bassist Marc (Verbeeck) and drummer ‘Bie’ (Robin Puttemans) were friends since the ‘Zyklome-A’ days and I knew guitarist Dirk (Ceustermans) from gigs in Leuven and from D.R.O.L. zine. They’d played 3 times for Smurfpunx already too… (86-09-07, 87-06-27 & 89-02-25). This gig here was about a year after their second LP (The Hangover Of Loneliness) was finished. Summer of ’89 they had done a small tour in the Basque Country (with ‘Heibel’) and the summer after this gig they travelled to Poland for a bunch of shows (together with the Reynders brothers’ new band ‘Triptych’). They played another Vort’n Vis show in Poperinge (90-04-08) and as far as I know their last Belgian gig ever was in Leuven, 90-07-11.

‘Toespieze’ from the are around Bruges started in May ’87. When the original drummer left Steve ‘Sling’ Slingeneyer of ‘Chronic Disease’ joined; the others were ‘Meyer’ Peter Demeyer (guitar, also ‘Chronic Disease’), Jeroen ‘Jerre’ Callewaert (vocals and guitar) & Rik De Jaegher (bass). ‘Leffe’ describes their music as “rock”. There was a demo with 5 songs by them and 18 songs by ‘Chronic Disease’.

No idea anymore who or what ‘Just Us’ was…

Brob

‘Roxy’ sang for a while when ‘Jerre’ got tired of that in the end.

Rik De Jaegher, ‘Toespieze’

Was ‘Just Us’ a band??? Definitely not from Bruges… ‘Toespieze’ was also not really a punk-band. I was at their first gig in the theatre-room of a school in Bruges in 1987. I hung out with ‘Roxy’ (vocals) well into the 90s.

Koen ‘Siesele’ Lammens

additions wellcome!…

Since the early days the activities of the Autonoom Jongeren Centrum (AJC; autonomous youth-centre) were taking place in the pub (and the ‘barn’) located at Kiekenmarkt 7 (Ieper/Ypres). The name would later be changed into Autonoom Regionaal Trefcentrum (ART; autonomous meeting-centre). In the spring of 2001 (April/May) the non-profit organisation was forced to move because the brewery that they rented the pub from, didn’t wanna continue the lease.

The (concert-)history we’re trying to give here is from the early beginnings to the moment of this move. As Jan Claus, co-founder, puts it: it spans the period of right before the fall of the Berlin Wall (89-11-09; the Iron Curtain was opened 89-05-02 in Hungary) until a bit before 9-11 (which was in 2001)… The foundation of the association was 89-05-21 and a month before that, the opening of the pub.

the ‘second’ generation saying goodbye to Kiekenmarkt 7

They moved to a new location (which they bought June 2003) at Sint-Jacobsstraat 3, a small kilometre away. That building was in a poor condition so they decided to tear it down and rebuild it. There’s a main building and a multi-functional (concert-) venue (and rehearsal-space) in the back. They got some subsidy from the Flemish government but a lot of the costs of the reconstruction (which the collaborators are doing themselves) is payed for by donations and benefits. During this, activities were taking place in a TAZ (Temporary Autonomous Zone) @ Diksmuidseweg 59, where they’d moved to December 2012.

Read more on the Vort’n Vis today!

some images (courtesy of Steve Noyelle) of the ‘rehousing-procession’:

We need all possible help from anyone who was involved to complete the history – please get in touch!

‘Abstain’ was a grindcore band from Cerritos, California. They had toured Europe already in 1997… Bryan MacNamara (guitar) & (Guy) Jay Farihi (drums & vocals). Rob M played bass on the records. They brought “growling vocals, distorted guitars and blasting drums” and had quite afew 7”s out (e.g. Defy on Profane Existence Far East, and a split with ‘Agathocles’ on Burt Beyens’ label Uxicon recs). In 2000 Paolo Petralia (SOA recs) released the World Full Of Zombies album, so they toured with his band ‘Comrades’… Because ‘Abstain’ had problems with their tour-bus (the one of ‘Comrades’) and had to pay extra train-fares, the Belgian bands donated their amends to the Americans. The Americans spent the night in the Ieper ‘Jeugdstadion’ (camping-site)…

‘Firestone’ was an H8000 metalcore band from the Kortrijk area. They had already performed on the 1996 Next Generation Festival, in the pub (97-06-27), the 1998 Vort’n Vis Hardcore Festival and also played on the Ieperfest this year. Early on the band consisted of Thomas Desimpelaere who sang, then Alexander Baert (who played drums at first), than Pieter-Jan ‘PJ’ (his first show was 97-10-04) and then Iris Walgraeve. Mathieu Storms drummed (after Alex). After him Vincent Tetaert played the drums. In the beginning Matthias Desimpelaere played guitar but later on Ward Dufraimont (also ‘Liar’) replaced him. Diederik Claes (bass) and Lennart Bossu (guitar; also ‘Liar’, later ‘Janez Detd’, ‘AmenRa’) seemed to have been the only constant members. Recordings of them playing at the Animal Truth Benefit Festival at De Warande, Kuurne (97-10-04) were released as a split-tape with ‘Spineless’. August 1996 they recorded for their Dark Fantasies demo. Sober Mind recs released an EP entitled Element in ’98 and they did an LP Aim For A New Tomorrow on Genet recs in 2000 (with Iris on vocals).

‘Lifecycle’ were locals and played here many times… From the post of their gig on 99-10-31 the reader might remember the core of the band was singer Sofie Vantomme and guitarists Karel Deweerdt & Steve Noyelle (guitar). Steve explained that they had a few switches on bass (Jurgen Degryse – Maarten Kinet – Peter Leuwers – Céline Delqueux – Jelle Dobbelaere) and drums (Jan Verhelst – Vincent Tetaert – Tim Jult).

Brob

I believe the rhythm-section here was Peter on bass and Vincent on drums…

Karel Deweerdt, ‘Lifecycle’

I played bass for ‘Lifecycle’ here. I believe I did from ‘99 to 2000 but I was only 16 then and remember very little. It was a fun time but as I grew older, I discovered another world outside HC & sXe. I quite liked ‘messing about’ at gigs, something I would still wanna do. I rarely listen to real hardcore music but solid rock is on daily!

Peter Leuwers

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

From the www… >>The Vort’n Vis Festival is one of the biggest underground fests in Europe and can be found in Ieper. It exists a long time already, I think from the eighties. It used to be in the club called Vort’n Vis but since two years it has become an open-air festival at the music-school. The fest offers us a lot of styles of hardcore like old school, NYHC, emo, more metal stuff; and combines big names with lesser known names. The big names this year were Ensign, Good Clean Fun, Stigmata, Grade and As Friends Rust. Convinced, Walls Of Jericho, Out For Blood and Shai Hulud were bands listed on the bill but who couldn’t show up in the end, pity… The weather on this year’s fest really sucked, lotsa rain… But that couldn’t stop the fun. The atmosphere on the fest was good but not as good as last years. There were no fights or something but some people seemed to enjoy fucking things up at the camping. A lot of people showed up. They told me almost 1.500 people on Friday, about 1.700 on Saturday and the same for Sunday. Also a lot of people decided to stay on the camping.<< (author unknown)

Programme (full posts with photos of some bands playing are planned…):

Friday 18 August: Ensign (USA), Voorhees (UK), Reiziger (Bel), Out For Blood (Bel), Serene (Swe), Cast In Fire (USA), Building (Bel), January Star (Ger), Cataract (Swi), Lvmen (Cze), With Love (Ita), With Love (Ita), Ariel Kill Him (Swe), AmenRa (Bel)

Saturday 19 August: Grade (Can), Good Clean Fun (USA), Leiah (Swe) Sad Origin (Bel), Firestone (Bel), Withdrawn/Evanesce (UK), Knut (Swi), Born From Pain (Nl), Point Of No Return (Bra), Negate (Bel), Dawncore (Hun), Circle (Bel), Posession (Spa), 5 Day Get Away (Bel)

Sunday 20 August: As Friends Rust (USA), Walls Of Jericho (USA), Stigmata (USA), Length Of Time (Bel), Reveal (Nl), Standing Tall (USA), One Fine Day (Ita), Children Of Fall (Swe), Purification (Ita), Chispa (Ger), Inane (Ger), Course Of Action (Bel), Oil (Nl), Bobby Peru (Ger), Severance (Bel)

At least one critical visiter… “What are we all doing ???” ;-)

Some shots of the crowd & distro-stalls (source unknown):

The ‘shit-workers’ in the shadow:

‘Chamberlain’ was an American emo/ post-HC/ alternative/ indie rock band, hailing from Indianapolis & Bloomington, Indiana. Previously they were known as ‘Split Lip’; changed the name after opting for a softer musical direction. They had releases on Dirk Hemsath’s label Doghouse recs (distributed in Europe by GreenHell): a 7” in ‘95 (Her Side Of Sundown) / split-7” with ‘Old Pike (’96) / Fate’s Got A Driver LP (’96; orginally for ‘Split Lip’ but remixed). They were: Curtis Mead (bass; ex ‘Endpoint’), Charles ‘Chuck’ Walker (drums, ex ‘Samiam’), Adam Rubenstein (guitar), Clay(ton) Snyder (guitar) and David Moore (vocals).

‘Blindfold’ were one of the Vort’n Vis’ ‘house-band’s. Hans (who’s first ever performance on a stage was with my/our band ‘Yuppies’ Death!’), Jan, Wim & Sacha were fellow V.V. shitworkers. Their second guitarist Mich(ael) Decruyenaere (ex ‘Fungus’, later in ‘Hitch’) wasn’t on the LP (Astreroid 164) that came out that year but he was on the Steel Against Steel tour (with ‘Liar’ & Congress’) that summer… I consider the guys mates but my interest in the band was disappearing by then because of their distribution-deal with the commercial company GreenHell.

Brob

Tom Hussman [the guy who was in charge of selling merchandise] and Dirk Hemsath (owner of Doghouse recs; ‘Majority Of One’ and several other bands) wanted to come hang out just to have fun! The guy of GreenHell [Burkhard Jünger] recordstore booked the tour.

Clay Snyder

I know we were always treated well in Belgium… Other then that: I’m afraid I have the worst memory ever.

Curtis Mead

I lived in a town called Bierges [south of Brussels; home of the amusement-park Walibi], in Belgium, as a kid. I think I remember the Vort’n Vis but confusing it with a couple other Belgium shows…

Adam Rubenstein

I was the only non-SxEx… A bit the odd one out in our band: I drank, I smoked…but I liked playing in ‘Blindfold’: I’d been fan of them from the early beginning. Also the tours were always fun. Almost unimaginable that all that was possible then, without internet, smartphones, etc. That ‘Blindfold’, ‘Liar’ & Congress tour was something special. The scene was at its apex and it was unseen then that a small local band did a European tour in a nightliner-bus. :-) I remember that we had to flee for skinheads in Germany and there was also a show with ‘Earth Crisis’ that was very sketchy. Basically I always did my own thing, I was interested in the scene but I wasn’t really part of it. I also went to (still go) a lot of shows at The Pits in Kortrijk. It was an era of fights between straight-edgers and punks…

Mich Decruyenaere

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Intro: 94-08-19&20&21 Hardcore Festival

‘Spawn’ was a sXe HC band from the Ruhrpott area (Germany) that arose from ‘Inner Circle’ in ’92 (see: 92-10-10). They recorded (Jan. ’94) for a split-7” with ‘Feeding The Fire’ (the bands had toured together in the summer of ’93) on Peter Hoeren’s Crucial Response recs. Before that (Aug. ’93) they’d been in the studio for their 1^st 7” (that came out on Chris’ label Emblem recs) with ‘Melly’ Mel (Gauthier, Seen Not Heard zine from Toronto) doin’ backing-vocals. The band consisted of René Natzel (drums; In My Blood fanzine, also in ‘F.T.F.’), Patrick Uhle (guitar), Daniel Frankowski (guitar; Shattering The Silence zine), vocalist Chris(toph) van Dornick and bassist Dirk Zeiser. The tracks for the aforementioned split were done with their original bassist Holger. After this festival they went into the studio again to register for the Redone mini-album. They played at the V.V. again later on (96-08-16).

‘Spawn’ (1&2 by Massimo Moscarelli; 3 ?)

‘Congress’ – Joost Noyelle (guitar), Ilja De Ceuleneire (drums), Jan ‘UJ’ Vandekerckhove (bass) & ‘Pitbull’ Pieter ‘Pierre’ Vanrumbeke (vocals) – were regulars at the V.V. by then. Don’t remember if Michael ‘Micha Soprano’ Pintelon (guitar) played here with them already. It was the period between the Euridium 7” and the band working on the Blackened Persistance [sic] LP.

‘Kosjer D’ started out as a 3-some (acoustic guitar, bass & drums) and then Arne Van Petegem (who was in a mainstream pop-band – ‘The Sideburns’ – before) joined. The name was originally ‘Kosjer Dill’ (nickname of the singer’s girlfriend, who was from San Diego). They were an emo band (with personal lyrics) hailing from Limburg (Belgium), with (besides Arne – guitar/vocals), Geert Plessers (guitar/vocals), Stijn Persoons (drums; ex ‘Dawn Of Liberty’) and a guy named Werner (bass – replaced by Kristien Hendrix a few months later, but she wasn’t on the first 7”). The band did some recordings and asked Bruno (Genet recs) to release them as a 7” (entitled True). People can read about how it came about in Reminder (the zine of ‘Blindfold’s Wim Vandekerckhove) #5… The band had played here the first time already a few months before this (94-05-22) and they would be back a few times more. Also when they became ‘Reiziger’…

There’s no indication in the Vort’n Vis notes that ‘Stormwatch’ from Germany (who were announced in the newsletter) actually played.

Brob

Actually this was the first show I played with ‘Spawn’. I still have pictures from that one… New Age recs also did a small teaser-flyer for our album using pictures from that show.

Dirk Zeiser, ‘Spawn’ bassplayer

additions wellcome!…

Benefit for an education-project in Indonesia (Kakak Asuh)… Sacha ‘Chatn’ Baelen (‘Blindfold’s drummer) (helped) organise(d) a couple of benefits for that organisation (also 94-04-23 & 95-03-25).

Brob

A friend of mine worked in Indonesia and supported the project there. That’s how the idea to do something for it grew. For a certain amount of money one could pay for a whole schoolyear for a kid, I remember. [“1.000 BeF (25 Euro) enables 1 kid to go to school for 1 year!”]

Sacha Baelen

When ‘Culture Shock’ (cultureshock.me.uk) folded (we had them playing for Smurfpunx; 88-05-13), Dick Lucas (vocalist; Bluurg recs) got back together with some of his old mates of ‘Subhumans’ to play ska-influenced punk with a touch of reggae: Phil Bryant did guitar and ‘Trotsky’ drummed. Jasper Patterson (who’d also been in ‘Culture Shock’) played the bass. (see also 93-10-24) for ‘Citizen Fish’ (citizenfish.com). Getting home they would record the tracks for the split-7” with ‘AOS3’ and the summer of that year they went into the studio for the LP Flinch. Dick also released live recordings from 2 German shows (from Sep ’92). A few years before this I’d arranged a show for them in Liège (when they toured with ‘Cringer’) and I was looking forward to skank to their tunes…

Dick Lucas (photo by Martin Vantomme)

‘Behind The Smile’ were a French (Valenciennes) hardcore/punk band with my mate Arnaud Huftier on bass (he did Uprising Decay zine), Frank (drums; Laurent on the demo), Rudy (guitar) & Laurent (vocals; Christophe on the demo). They had a second guitarist, Pierre, on their 7” (but I don’t know if he was playing here). Their 1^st release was a tape entitled Suburban Wars. In 1992 the did a split 7” with the Fins of ‘Juggling Jugulars’ called A Wish To Dream on Sylvain Vilette’s Bad Card recs. They had played here already before (91-10-12)…

‘Blindfold’ started recording for their 1^st LP (Restrain The Thought) at Cats studio (Brugge) the next month and finished it in September. It was released by Mike Warden on his label Conquer The World recs.

Just as the band of her brother Hans (‘Blindfold’), Saskia Verbeke’s band ‘Shortsight’ played here quite a few times already. Since this was before the summer-tour 93-07 ‘Shortsight’ & ‘Blindfold’, Françoise ‘Hazel’ Lepers (guitar) was still in the band here aswell. All of them (the women plus bassist Kurt Deprez, guitarist David ‘Mong’ Dumont, drummer Bjorn Lescouhier) were also locals and Vort’n Vis ‘shitworkers’. That year their 7” Why Spend Time Learning was released (Conquer The World recs). I did an interview with them briefly after they’d split up (’94).

About a month after this gig ‘Hiatus’ (Ben on drums, Azill & Phil doing guitars, Willy growling and Fred Alabas on bass) were also in Cats Studio for the recordings of their album From Resignation… To Revolt (to be released on Sound Pollution recs). Their live set in Liège a few days later (93-02-26) was recorded and released as a benefit-tape for the ‘Flamands Roses’ by Eric W. ‘React’.

Brob

Did we play with ‘Citizen Fish’? I was a big ska fan at the time. Still like it but I’m more into political/poetic hiphop nowadays… This was probably the first time we met the local SxE-ers. Never has been a problem for me, even if many crusties or “fans” of ‘Hiatus’ had stupid prejudices about it; just as some SxE kids hated crusties. Looking back at it after so many years, one can only laugh about this childish bullshit. Some time later, I had an American girlfriend that lived in Berlin. We went to see ‘Blindfold’ (together with Jeroen ‘N.O.F.’) there and they gave us their crate of beer. Better than throwing it away, isn’t it?

Willy ‘Hiatus’

I recall a great show by ‘Hiatus’…

Kurt Deprez

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Herwin De Winter & Tim ‘Crow’ Shapland (ex ‘Zygote’; played bass in ‘Bad Influence’ around that time) travelled along…

additions wellcome!…

‘Wheel Of Progress’ consisted of Rob Franssen (also ‘Feeding The Fire’), Hans Verbeke (drums), Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitar) & ‘Uniform’ Jan (U.J.) Vandekerckhove (who was, together with Joost, also in ‘Dreft’ at that time). Hans said somewhere it was the heaviest band in H8000 crew, a brutal mix of death-metal (Josh himself described it as “Slayer meets Ministry”) and the classic H8000 sound (whatever that might be, …‘edge-metal’?). They didn’t last long (did a 7”, It’s Alive…, on a Canadian label) and would move on to become ‘Liar’…

‘Spirit Of Youth’s performance here wasn’t their first, far from it and it would,’t be their last either; no need to introduce them: Jan, ‘Dompi’, Fred & Ignace Demeyer were regulars. In 1993 ‘S.O.Y.’ recorded Engine/Darkroom that Hans (Verbeke; Sober Mind recs) put out as cassette only.

I mentioned ‘Transcend’ already in relation to the gig that ‘Majority Of One’ did at the V.V. (91-05-03): Dirk Hemsath, founder of Doghouse recs, was the vocalist for ‘M.O.O.’ and played bass/guitar in ‘Transcend’. Also in the band were drummer Doug Walker (later Chris Reinstatler who was also in ‘Metroschifter’), Chad Scouten (guitar), Andy Leitner (bass) & Jody Moss (vocals). They were from Toledo (Ohio) and played “powerful posi HC”. They had 3 7”s out (2 on Doghouse – Product Of Greed and a split with ‘Majority Of One’). The album Room 101 was recorded in February ’93 with Ali Moazed (guitarist of ‘M.O.O.’) on bass, Doug Walker on drums and Dirk on guitar.

‘Bloodline’, a HC band (“raging moshcore” it said on the V.V. newsletter) from St. Paul/Minneapolis (Minnesota), also had vinyl out on Doghouse recs. In the beginning the band-members were guitarist Erik Fink (ex ‘Gorilla Biscuits’, ‘Uppercut’; he replaced Bruce Fisher, who was on the 1^st 7”), bassist Chris Lampman (but Erik played bass on the tour), vocalist Bill Boulger, guitarist Joe Gerber and drummer Chris Sonterre. They played “chugga-chugga hardcore” and released a 7” entitled The Waiting Game (on Takeover recs, 1991), the Can’t Rest On The Time LP (Nemesis recs, 1992) and a CD called One Thousand Screams (Doghouse recs, 1993). The line-up on the latter was: Chris (bass), Bill (vocals), Erik (guitar), now with Michael ‘Mike’ Paradise on drums & Dustin Perry (ex ‘Libido Boyz’) on guitar. Some of them went on to play for ‘Threadbare’, ‘Snapcase’, ‘Dillinger 4’, etc. So on this tour Bill was the singer, Erik bassist, Dustin Perry guitarist and Mike was the drummer. A few of the guys were active in the Minneapolis ARA movement (Anti-Racist Action)…

‘Schizma’ (from Bydgoszcz, between Poznan & Gdansk) played old-school HC/punk. At that time they were: Lukasz ‘Luki/Welna/WooKee’ Niedzwiecki (bass & vocals), Jarosław (Jarek) ‘Monter’ Matewski (drums), Mirek ‘Bobas’ Pierzynowski (guitar & vocals) & Salem (vocals). Marcin ‘Eden’ Kornak (R.I.P.; editor of the magazine Never Again and coordinator of campaigns against racism, intolerance & xenophobia, like Music Against Racism) wrote the lyrics (anarchist, anti-fascist, ecologist issues) at that time. His brother, Krzysztof ‘Model’ Kornak, was the band’s manager. 2^nd guitarist Maciej Waclaw joined a few months after this tour I think. By the time of this gig QQRYQ prods (Zbigniew Matera from Warsaw) had released a live-tape (Toruń 91-01-19). They put out the Ostatnia Odslona LP by themselves in ’92. Michal Halabura of Nikt Nic Nie Wie (Nobody Knows Nothing) did the Energia LP (’92) and a split-CD with ‘SKTC’ (‘93). Later on the music evolved towards NY style HC (they did covers of ‘Agnostic Front’ & ‘Cro-Mags’ e.g.). The band still exists but there’s a totally different line-up.

Brob

>> Building on relationships tentatively started the previous year, Rob from ‘Feeding The Fire’ and Saskia from ‘Shortsight’ came over to stay with us in Leeds to experience a dour Yorkshire early summer in a damp terraced house in Leeds 6! We dutifully took them to experience an even more dour day in Bradford at the ‘Ironside’ household! The first shoots of an emerging new hardcore-community were further coaxed along with Ian [Simpson of Subjugation recs], Nick [Royles], myself and some others travelling to Belgium to see ‘Bloodline’ and ‘Transcend’ play the Vort’n Vis. Both bands were pretty terrible but I have fond memories of the camaraderie between us all from the UK, the in-jokes and our revelling in our general lack of sophistication compared to our mainland counterparts! <<

(From Helene Keller’s blog: subjugationrecords.wordpress.com)

I just remember it being an exciting place to play due to it being known via zines and bands like ‘Rise Above’ & ‘Nations On Fire’ who had good distro in the US. As for the show, I don’t remember playing as much as taking it all in. We had Erik Fink (ex ‘Side By Side’, etc.) on bass and I was playing guitar. I have general touring memories – visiting Poland and Italy for the first time, but mostly it was a pretty long grueling tour.

Dustin Perry, ‘Bloodline’ guitarist

I actually kept a journal on that tour…

Michael ‘Mike’ Paradise, ‘Bloodline’ drummer

I was in ‘Bloodline’ on that tour, yes. Unfortunately I don’t have much recollection of that particular show, just a few hazy images. Mostly because…myself and a few of our friends who were traveling with us spent the night before in Amsterdam, doing things we maybe shouldn’t have been doing. At about 5 a.m. we realized our car had been broken into, window smashed, some things stolen. We hadn’t slept and I don’t think I slept on the way to the show, since we drove there with a broken window. I was pretty much a zombie that day. So really other than knowing that we did play there, that’s all I can remember.

Erik Fink, ‘Bloodline’ bassist

‘Transcend’ & ‘Bloodline’ brought a new style of American groove-core at that time; I could describe it as emanating from the ‘Biohazard’ style but they were part of the positive hardcore scene in the States. I was looking forward to see them, being a big fan. They had an influence on the direction that ‘Spirit Of Youth’ took later on. Until this day ‘Bloodline’ is still a band that doesn’t sound outdated, they were quite progressive musically. Their best work is on One Thousand Screams… The line-up of ‘S.O.Y.’ then was without Hans; Fré played the drums instead of Hans; and we had a skate-buddy (Ignace) of ours on bass. Later Hans returned on bass… I can’t remember anything about ‘Schizma’. I was a fan of ‘Wheel Of Progress’, with Hans on drums and Joost on guitar. We played a few shows with them around that time (I have recollections of a trip to Germany, a show with ‘Zero Tolerance’).

Dominiek Denolf

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

(full posts with photos of some bands playing are planned…)

18 sep ’98: Money Drug (Pol), Hellfiller (Bel), Charlie Don’t Surf (Bel), King Creole (Bel), Lieselotte (Swi)

19 sep ’98: Doom (UK), Oi Polloi (UK), Link (Bel), Outrage (Bel), Sarah (Fra), Alcatraz (Fra), Filth Of Mankind (Pol), Reller (Bel)

After the prematurely aborted 97 Leed fest, Michael Maes of ‘Link’ took it upon him to organise this one… Bruno was probably too busy running the Pyrrhus record-store in Gent. Of course there was the V.V. crew behind Mike…

Brob

We also played with ‘Reller’… I Recently found back an old demo…trying to digitalise that… I know the ‘Alcatraz’ guys filmed our performance…

Nico Peeters, ‘Outrage’ bassist

The atmosphere was rather relaxed, contrary to HC ’98 in August. Only a few idiotic brawls outside the Vort’n Vis.

Stef Goos; personal communication Oct ‘98

I was proud to be able to play in that fabulous place that was the V.V. I’d already been there as a spectator and I never thought I’ld play there one day. To me the Vort’n Vis was like ABC No Rio. I remember we were wel recieved by everyone. This was a punk festival so there were a lot of people.

Michaël ‘Mike’ Ramounet, ‘Alcatraz’ vocalist

Everything at Vort’n Vis was fine and well organised.

Selim, ‘Money Drug’ vocalist

announcement in the V.V. newsletter

According to the Vort’n Vis notes Frederic Driessens (local grind/death/noise fanatic; did a series of compilation-tapes under the name Possessed By Death) arranged for these bands to come to the Vort’n Vis. Practically speaking, things were organised by Davy Bauwen (‘Edgecrusher’ vocalist) – who had to go rent mikes in the local municipal youthcentre e.g. Tom Bordeaux (‘Striker’ guitarist) and some other shitworkers attended the bar…

‘Impiety’ is a black/death metal band from Singapore. They state ‘Bathory’, ‘Possessed’, ‘Morbid Angel’, ‘Venom’, etc. as their influences. On their website, one can read that they “desecrated the Vort’n Vis with Dutch desecrators ‘Pentacle’ and French BM supremacist ‘Celestia’!”: Skullfucking Euro Armageddon Tour 2000 => 27 May – Vort’n Vis HellPub, Ieper, Belgium. Frontbeast ‘Shyaithan’ (Muhammad Ariffeen Deen) (bass/vocals) is the constant factor. On the CD Skullfucking Armageddon, recorded spring ’99, the guitarist was ‘Fyraun’ and the drummer ‘Dajjal’. Judging from the photos, they had a seperate vocalist here…

‘Pentacle’ play black/death metal from Bladel (near Eindhoven, The Netherlands) recorded their album …Rides The Moonstorm in April ’98 with Wannes Gubbels (bass/vocals), Marc Nelissen (drums) & Mike Verhoeven (guitar).

‘Celestia’ (black metal), from Avignon (France), were ‘Fureïss’ a.k.a. Franck (guitar), ‘Noctu Geiistmortt’ (bass/vocals; runs the label Drakkar prods) & a drummer. A tape, entitled A Cave Full Of Bats (their mini-album from ’99) / Live Vort’n Vis – 27/05/00 was released in Portugal and Brazil (2001); “limited to 666 copies”…

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Disaster… [The ‘Kort Prosess’ tour or this gig…?]

Ilja S., Profane Existence Berlin; personal communication ‘96

‘Kort Prosess’, a band from Horten (south of Oslo), consisted of Alf Almén (vocals), Dag(gers) Halvorsen (drums), Dan (Mikael) Bjerkan (bass) and Robin Hagen (guitar). Their music was heavy, brutal, powerful hardcore with gruff vocals. They had 3 7”s out (on Florian Helmchen’s HeartFirst recs; the first one recorded in the autonomous centre Blitz in Oslo) and Filip M. put their discography out on tape (on his label Trujaça Fala).

‘Kurort’ had been here before (see 92-05-02 & 95-03-05): Andreas ‘Andi’ Wimmer (vocals), Florian ‘Flo’ Sedmak (guitar & vocals), Martin Wimmer (bass) and Rudi Vogtenhuber (drums). They played strong, powerful HC with personalized political lyrics (sung in Upper Austrian dialect). Joris De De Buysser (Conspiracy recs) released the Oslo 7” in ’96. The music on that one was described as “DC punk-rock”. Later Rudi & Florian played together in ‘Trailerpark Playboys’…

‘Seein’Red’ played here aswell. This was a few months after the recordings of their Marinus 7” (out on Ebullition recs).

According to the Vort’n Vis archive-notes a show ‘organised’ by Joeri Hoste. Other ‘shitworkers’ were Vincent Merveille, Bert Verschoot, Steve Noyelle & Steve Lammertyn.

Brob

I remember the gig but have no info other than it was a great place to play. Being very exhausted. Been almost 3 weeks on tour. We had 3 days off in Karlsrhuhe with nothing to do beside using money on food and beer we couldn’t afford. Then we left to Zürich only to find out the guy who managed the tour fucked up the dates. So everyone was there the day before and just wondering why the band didn`t show up. That fucked up the whole economy with the tour. Raimo, our merch guy, got most of the flyers/pictures.

Dan (Mikael) Bjerkan, ‘Kort Prosess’ bassist

Dan did bass and Alf vocals. I have no photos or posters from that time. I do have a lot of photos from ‘Kort Prosess’ but none from Belgium. I do remember that we where gonna play in Hannover (Germany) the day after Belgium but we were very late, since one of the cylinders of the car’s engine failed. It started to glow and we had to get out of the car, in the hills…

Dag Halvorsen, ‘Kort Prosess’ drummer

Can’t remember anything about that. We played so many concerts. It was also the year that we did our first US tour…

Paul Vandenberg, ‘Seein’Red’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Sas ‘Anarcrust’: ‘Tibi’s [Tiberiju Nikolic of Sacro Egoismo] weird humor; just a joke from a band on the road; he probably thought that we would get to see that one day…

additions wellcome!…

from Marco Walzel’s zine (Speak So That I May See You #3); 94-05-14 Zwijnzicht Ultimate Punk Festival (NL)

This was a benefit for the Anne Frank Foundation. I believe it was organised by Saskia Verbeke, Kurt Deprez and David ‘Mong’ Dumont of ‘Shortsight’; but Wim & Chatn ‘Blindfold’ and myself helped out aswell.

The night before ‘Acme’ had played at De Gilde in Moorsele (the pub owned by Nathalie D.’s parents) – together with ‘Shortsight’. Since that is close to Ypres/Ieper, I took care of (some of) the ‘Acme’ transportation… The band (from Bremen) played metal-core with ‘screamo’ vocals with references to ‘Born Against’ & ‘Rorschach’. Heavy stuff! Hannes Stang did the vocals, Gregor Iwanoff drummed, Sönke played bass (he also hit the drums for ‘Systral’ and was in ‘Mörser’ for a while) and Sven von Thülen was the guitarist. They had a demo out (Menschenmaschine) and ‘Goofy’ Jeroen Lauwers was about to release a 7” on his label Machination recs (hence the invation for these shows). They also came over to play on the fest in August that year.

‘Scraps’ hopped across the border from Lille again. They’ve been at the Vort’n Vis many times, as a band and as visiters… Who was in the band at that times? The brothers David (vocals) & Raphael (guitar) Dutriaux, for sure… This was around the time they recorded their LP Dismantle The Machine One Cog At A Time (X-Mist recs), so Pierre was the drummer and Tomoy played the bass. They played inspiring angry, political HC… Their cover of ‘Pink Floyd’s The Wall was sung along by all!

‘State Of Grace’ (Kempen area) were Jeroen Vanlaer (guitar), Tom Gabriels (guitar), David Heylen (drums), Gaby (guitar), Jan ‘Jakke’ Geeraerts (bass) and Sven De Backer (vocals). Later Bart Verelst (ex ‘Hopeman Path’) joined on bass and ‘Jakke’ played guitar; then they became ‘Sheen’ (who were planned to play the V.V. 95-11-11 with ‘Starkweather’ but the latter had difficulties with thei tour-booker)… ‘S.O.G.’ put together a reharsal-tape around that time. When playing locally, they were announced as playing “fierce jumpcore”.

Brob

‘Abyss’ never played the V.V., unfortunately. But I was on tour with ‘Acme’ when they played there. Such a legendary place back then. I wish we could have played there.

Sven von Thülen

I have very little recollections of that gig. I do remember that the guys of ‘Acme’ wanted to borrow our instruments. We did so (reluctantly) but they were broken when we got them back: a dent in my bassdrum-skin and the neck of the bassguitar broken… And we didn’t get compensated. I also remember buying a ‘Bloodline’ t-shirt there…

David Heylen

I remember going to the Vort’n Vis – I was there when my friends ‘Acme’ played. I am still in loose touch with some of the guys from Bremen (e.g. Holger Ohst’s brother Rainer) and most of the crew from back then lives in Berlin today.

Franziska ‘Franzi’ von Hasselbach

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Saskia’s call for attention for gender-roles (supported by Tom DP & Vik B.; unfortunately one dickhead had to flaunt his stupidity)

additions wellcome!…

Bruno arranged the bands for this one; shitworkers were David ‘Mong’ Dumont & Kurt Deprez (‘Shortsight’) and yours truely.

This was the last time ‘Disaffect’ (from Glasgow) played here. The 3^rd time after 92-10-04 & 93-07-04. Lynne Entwistle (vocals), ‘Joe Fear’ Jock Deacons (vocals; nowadays in ‘Constant Fear’), ‘IB’ Iain Blue (drums, later bass in ‘Scatha’), Andy ‘Orchy’ Irvine (bass; later ‘Scatha’, ‘Debris’, etc.) and Brian Curran (guitar; later ‘Quarantine’, ‘Debris’, etc.) were joined by Billy Steele (also in ‘Sedition’) on 2^nd guitar here. After the 2 7”s (An Injury To One Is An Injury To All in ’92, the split with ‘Sedition in ’93; both on Flat Earth & Nabate), in 1994 they appeared on Boezie’s compilation An Insult To Our Freedom (Grinding Madness) and Uge of Don’t Belong Productions (Gijon, Spain) put all their songs on tape. Somewhere around that time, Gilles & Kathleen of Ape recs also released a benefit live tape of ‘Disaffect’ in support for The Indian Lesbian Movement SAKHI. On the occasion of this gig Andy (who also ran Peace Terrorist distribution and Anonymous recs) was interviewed for the first issue of the Vort’n Vis zine Fifi. There are also some photos of this show in Reality fanzine #1 (done by Dominique Beubry from Dunkerque, France) but unfortunately the quality of the half-tones is very poor…

from Fifi #2

‘Sleeper’, a melodic emo-influenced hardcore band (from Staten Island, New York), were: Anthony ‘T.J.’ Quatrone (drums), Michael Thomas DeLorenzo (guitar), Marc Treboschi (bass), John Lisa (guitar & vocals) and John ‘Apples’ Telenko (vocals; who didn’t get to tour Europe). Jeremy Weiss did vocals on this tour (see guestbook)… After 2 7”s on American labels, Marianne Hofstetter (Mugglewump recs) put out their 7” More Or Less in ‘92. Nov. ’93 the band recorded for the Splinter 7” on John Yates’ label Allied recs. The album Preparing Today For Tomorrow’s Breakdown (recorded Dec. ’93) with John Lisa doing vocals was released under the name ‘Serpico’ (the new name they would take). In the guestbook they still signed as ‘Sleeper’. ‘Neuthrone’s guitarist Steve W. did an interview (that appeared in the V.V.’s zine Fifi # 2) with them at his house (where they spent the night), while watching ‘Spinal Tap’… Steffen Rose (Navigator) organised their tour. Not really sure if they played as ‘Serpico’ on 95-11-05?

‘Kosjer D’ started out as a 3-some (acoustic guitar, bass & drums) and then Arne (Van Petegem; who was in a mainstream pop-band before) joined. The name was originally ‘Kosjer Dill’ (nickname of the singer’s girlfriend, who was from San Diego). They were an emo band (with personal lyrics) hailing from Limburg, with (besides Arne – guitar/vocals), Geert Plessers (guitar/vocals), Stijn Persoons (drums; ex ‘Dawn Of Liberty’) and Werner (bass – replaced by Kristien Hendrix a few months later). The band did some recordings and asked Bruno (Genet recs) to release them as a 7” (entitled True). People can read about how it came about in Reminder #5… It was their 1^st appearance at the V.V.

‘Rectify’, from Wales, were here for the 2^nd time (see 91-10-05). They were a political (anarcho) punk band from Blaina in Wales. Wayne ‘Pig(gy)’ Cole sang, Mark ‘Wedge’ Wedgebury played drums, Andrew ‘Footy’ Foot was the orginal bassist but apparently had already left he band by ‘91 & Michael ‘Mudgie’ Mudge played guitar (R.I.P.)… In 1990 they did a tape entitled Ebullition and the recordings for the Virtual Reality tape were in Dec. ’95. Nowadays ‘Pig’ and ‘Wedge’ are in ‘This System Kills’…

‘B.B.C.’ (from Germany) … anyone ??? They were announced in the newsletter but there was no mention of them in the V.V. notes so they probably didn’t show up.

Brob

This one was with ‘Rectify’ and no doubt some others… I remember arriving early from the overnight ferry and some American guy not wanting to let us into the place. [???] ‘94 was the year of our Spain tour. Billy (who drove for us on the ‘92 & ‘93 tours) joined us on second guitar that year. Done the usual: played the gig, drank the beer and danced to disco into the early hours with the ‘Rectify’ folks. All in all, I’ve got good memories…

Brian Curran, ‘Disaffect’ guitarist

We had just released the Chained [To Morality] LP and were doing a 3 week tour. The Vort’n Vis was always a high point for us. We had so many friends come to see us there.

‘Joe Fear’, ‘Disaffect’ vocalist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

The poster indicates this was the release-party of the ‘Spineless’ CD. ‘Fifi’ had a hand in setting this up. There’s no mentioning of ‘Voices At The Front’ in the V.V. notes, but ‘Instinct’ is mentioned. Did they replace them?

Some of the bands also played here: 96-12-30 SxE @ 100 hours

‘Spineless’ (from Kortrijk) played their first gig at the Vort’n Vis on the fest in August ’96. They were Kristof Mondy (bass; Yoda zine; later ‘AmenRa’), Colin H. Van Eeckhout (vocals; later ‘AmenRa’), Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen (guitar; also ‘Congress’), Mathieu Vandekerckhove (guitar; replaced Koen Sandra – ex ‘The Jedi’ – in ‘97; later ‘AmenRa’) and Stefaan Buyse (drums). They played brutal sXe H8000 metal-core. After their initial demo (’96), Hans Verbeke of SoberMind recs released the Painfields 7”/CD (presented here). The album A Talk Between Me And The Stars album would follow the next year (Presentation at the V.V., 98-04-26). They also performed on the Fest in August that year.

‘Lifecycle’, a ‘new-school’ HC band from the Ieper/Kortijk region (H8000 but not with that typical sound), had done their first gig the previous month. Here the line-up was: Sofie Vantomme (vocals; co-founder Vincent Merveillie soon went on to sing for ‘Spirit Of Youth’), Karel Deweerdt (guitar), Steve Noyelle (guitar), Jan Volckaert (drummer of ‘Resist The Pain’; was stand-in a few times for Jan ‘Relle’ Verhelst ex ‘Convict’) and Jurgen Degryse (bass; later there were a few others). They did a demo (There Is Hope Again!; recorded by Michael Maes) and a mini-album (CD) Forever… Until… on Sober Mind recs. When Sofie gave up SxE but still wanted to continue ‘Lifecycle’, Steve decided to quit the band… Because of that, the band split-up, they couldn’t continue without him… He formed ‘Eliot Ness’ (together with Saskia Verbeke). Vincent Tetaert, who used to play drums with the band for a while went on to join ‘AmenRa’…

‘Lifecycle’ (Jurgen Degryse – Steve Noyelle – Jan Volckaert)

Not realy sure if ‘Voices At The Front’ actually played… But they’d been here before (96-05-12 & 96-08-17). You can find some history there. ‘V.A.T.F’ was a local straight-edge band (Poperinge) with Gaëtan Golvet (drums), Vincent ‘Vince’ Theeten (guitar; also Strike One fanzine) Sim ‘Simtje’ Meersseman (bass) and Stefaan ‘Merel’ Merlevede (guitar; R.I.P. Vincent’s cousin). A H8000 band that didn’t follow the trend. Metal-influenced but self-willed (thanks to vocalist Vik) HC; they did some ‘Inside Out’ covers. They had a demo (’96) but didn’t release any vinyl… Some of them were part of the New Skate Generation posse (which included Kobe Desramaults, chef of Michelin-starred restaurant In De Wulf). A while after Vik had moved to Gent he started the Smart Art Movement collective, that organised all kind of activities/parties/gigs. Later he started to squat and got even more politically active…

‘V.A.T.F’ was probably replaced by ‘Instinct’, a band my hometown Tielt (and Deinze). They were mentioned in the V.V. notes. ‘Instinct’ had played here before (97-03-01) and would play a couple of times more that summer (97-07-12 & 97-08-15). A “positive old-school” (Steve Noyelle’s words) band. Alex Dierickx & Thomas Hauttekeete played guitar (both were also playing in the new school metal band ‘Eulogy’ with Tom of ‘Family Of Dog’), Vincent ‘Pit’ Maes sang (he was also in ‘Hundred Years Of Forgetting’, later ‘Rise And Fall’), Pedro Tallieu did the bass and the drummer was Tuur Delodder. Later they released a 7” on Marc Decaigny’s label Braveheart recs, entitled Friendship, A Lifetime Commitment. There’s also mentioning of a live-demo at the Vort’n Vis…

‘Spirit Of Youth’ (Roeselare/Poperinge area) played in there new line-up (more new-school metal-HC). Dominiek ‘Dompi’ Denolf (guitar) & Frederik ‘Fré’ Denolf (drums), bassist Kris Casier of ‘Solid’ (who played on Source – replaced by Sim Meersseman of Strike One zine; later ‘Kingpin’), guitarist Vincent ‘Vince’ Theeten (also Strike One zine) and Vincent Merveillie (vocals; also ‘Resist In Pain’, ‘Lifecycle’). The start of their “second phase”… During which they did 3 LPs: Source on Sober Mind recs (1998), a split with ‘One King Down’ ‎on GoodLife recs (1998) & Colors That Bleed on GoodLife recs (1998).

promo-pic (GoodLife): Vincent Merveillie / Frederik Denolf / Sim Meersseman / Dominiek Denolf / Vincent Theeten

‘Firestone’ (Kortrijk) had already performed at Hardcore, The Next Generation (96-08-16). They were a H8000-metal band. Their later singer Iris explains the early history below. In August 1996 they had recorded for their Dark Fantasies demo.

Steve Noyelle informs me: >>‘Sorehead’ was a band from Ieper with Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene (vocals; R.I.P.), Dries Verclyte (bass), Pieter Desmyter (guitar) and Pieter Derycke (drums); their music resembled that of ‘Sektor’. [The music on their demo sounded metal-influenced and the vocals were raw & aggressive.] ‘D.S.A.’ – old-school NY Hardcore – was the band of Nico ‘Sientje’ Sinnaeve (drums; later ‘Retaliate’), Frederik Vanhee (bass; later ‘Retaliate’), Maarten Verschaeve (vocals) and a guy called Pieter-Jan (PJ; guitar)…<< (see 96-12-30 & …) I believe the vocalist of ‘D.S.A.’ (who were from the Ieper area) was Davy Verhoye (on the 1^st demo) and Maarten (2^nd demo); guitarist was Pieter-Jan Vandenberghe.

‘Warcraft’ (from Ieper) was with Wouter Keirse… The same guys of what was the band ‘Defence’, that played on 96-12-30…?

Brob

The V.V. was and still is very inspiring to me. We played there 2 or 3 times I think. Once there was a last minute improvised line-up on the top floor (this one here with ‘D.S.A.’ and others). I believe that a band played alternately in the pub and then on the first floor. ‘Warcraft’ was a band with Wouter Keirse (living in France nowadays), which I think performed only once. ‘D.S.A. was with Fré, Sientje & ‘PJ’. ‘Lifecycle’ with Steve, Karel & Jurgen. ‘Voices’ with Vik, ‘Spirit’ with Vincent & Kris. ‘Firestone’ was -I think- with Lennart (who shortly after moved to ‘Janez Detd’ for big money and now plays for ‘AmenRa’. ‘Spineless’ was also with Colin ‘AmenRa’ (I believe ?) and with Pedro Fioen. All very fine shows. I think there were photos taken of everyone at the front-door. ‘Sorehead’ quit when we were all about 18 and not long after our vocalist Laurent Peene died. Sometimes the V.V. organises an in memoriam for him; what I appreciate a lot.

Pieter Desmyter, ‘Sorehead’ guitarist

I wasn’t in ‘Firestone’ at that time. Early on it was Thomas Desimpelaere who sang, then Alexander (who played drums at first), than Pieter-Jan and than me. Mathieu Storms drummed (after Alexander). After him Vincent Tetaert played the drums. In the beginning Matthias Desimpelaere played guitar but in the end Ward Dufraimont replaced him. Diederik Claes and Lennart Bossu were the only constant members I think.

Iris Walgraeve

I joined ‘Firestone’ later, in June ’99. I only played the Fests in 2000 & 2001. In ‘99 & 2000 I helped out in ‘Liar’ quite a number of times (e.g. 99-10-31); from the summer of 2002 until Octobere of 2006 I was a permanent member of ‘Liar’ (with a number of passages at the Fests).

Ward Dufraimont

The Vort’n Vis was ‘a way out’, a place where anyone got a chance and where (20 years ago [and still]) those going against the grain gathered. A bit of a gloomy, shabby place. But great fun. We had a rehearsal-space on the first floor; sharing with Steve Noyelle, Karel Deweerdt, Lieve Goemaere, Vincent Tetaert, etc. ‘Warcraft’ consisted of myself, Kurt Deramoudt [drums ?], Wim Eggermont [bass ?] and Olivier Maes [guitar ?]. Or was it indeed Virgil & the Ryckebosch brothers? After that we messed about a bit with Vincent Tetaert and David Lernout: ‘Lizard…’ something…? At no timepoint we were a macth with ‘Lifecycle’ or our other heroes from the Westhoek. We could make a racket, hairless teenagers on stage het, light a spliff, have a beer to many and stay as long as we wanted. I always felt a gentle little guy amongst all those hardcore togh guys. I was at the first hardcore Fests during the straight-edge era. ‘Morning Again’, ‘Liar’,… Jeez, what a fantastic time!

Wouter ‘Wally’ Keirse (“Searching for autonomy in the hills of the Limousin [France]. Permaculture fanatic and plant-grower.”)

Not sure if we actually played there. If so, then we came by train. That happened quite frequently. I often had to beg the other bands for a bass-amp. Always annoying and stressful. I do remember that about a month before this ‘Spirit of Youth’ & ‘Lifecycle’ played at my parents’ garage for my birthday: ‘S.O.Y.’ wasn’t announced and did a try-out.

Pedro Tallieu, ‘Instinct’ bassist

There were so many bands that we ended up playing at 1 a.m. Headlining was no laughin’ matter back in the days. ;-) We almost took of in anger but Eward convinced us because there were some people from New-Zealand that had come over especially to see us. ;-)

Dominiek Denolf, ‘Spirit Of Youth’ guitarist

If ‘S.O.Y.’ played there with their new line-up, then I’m certain that ‘V.A.T.F.’ didn’t play…because I’ve never seen play in that configuration!

Vik B., singer of ‘Voices At The Front’

additions wellcome!…

2 more “brand-new” bands were announced. On the poster there were 3 extra. The person who organised this was ‘xSchmitterSx’ (Stijn Desmyter from Oostnieuwkerke).

H8000 metalcore band ‘Striker’ consisted of Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene (vocals; ex ‘Sorehead, R.I.P.), ‘Gerre’ Gerald Goedhart (guitar; later ‘Core of Anger’), ‘Tomme’ Tom Bordeaux (guitar; later ‘One Outta Six’), PJ Vandamme (bass; later guitarist of ‘Retaliate’) & David ‘Terre’ Termote (drums). They released a demo entitled High Hopes For Nothing in 1999. I believe they had already played the V.V. on 98-04-11 and came over a few times more…

‘Solid’ had already played the V.V. 95-08-18 with Dominiek ‘Dompie’ Denolf (guitar) and Frederik Denolf (drums), Kris Casier (bass) and ‘Sid’ Giovanni Debruyne (vocals). Their CD Darkside Moments (released in ’97 by the Danish label Diehard Music Worldwide) was recorded with Jim (from Limburg) singing. It was described as death-metal. I believe at some point they also had ‘Wulf’, ‘Deformity’s bassist, doing vocals. ‘Sid’ returned to the band after the turn of the century…

Being a local band ‘Lifecycle’ played the V.V. quite a few times (97-06-27 / 98-05-10 /98-08 / 99-06-25 / 99-10-31). They had quite a few different drummers and bassists over the years. Sofie Vantomme was the steady vocalist by then and together with guitarists Karel Deweerdt & Steve Noyelle she formed the core of the band.

‘Congress’ recorded Angry With The Sun (released in ‘98) with Michael Pintelon as second guitarist. Stake Through The Heart (2000) was with Clovis ‘Vez’ Segers (bass; ‘Natural Order’), Pedro Fioen (2^nd guitar; ‘Spineless’) and Tom Claus (vocals; ‘Family Of Dog’ – he played the first time live with Congress on the GoodLife Fest in July 2000). The split-CD with ‘Mindsnare’ (99) featured the original line-up (UxJx – Ilja – ‘Josh’ – Pierre).

‘Kalashnikov’ was a “H8000 metalcore” band from Diksmuide.

All I know about ‘Archai is that they were featured on the Overdrive 20 Year Tribute Compilation (Midas productions 2002). Metal, I guess… The poster mentions they were from the H8000 area.

‘New Innocence’… anyone?

Brob

Jim was the 2^nd singer of ‘Solid’. Actually not a story to be proud of… We got the offer from the guy of the studio where all H8000 bands were reording (Tony [De Block] of Midas studios). He asked us if we were interested in releasing our first full CD on a sub-label of Nuclear Blast called Diehard (from Denemark), who had already approached ‘Liar’ before (but they didn’t do it). When they did the proposal to us, we were promised a decent promotion, wide distribution, a big studio-budget, etc. so of course we were impressed. When the recordings were finished the boss of the label didn’t approve of the vocals: if we weren’t going to do anything about it, the CD wasn’t goinng to be released. Then we chose for Jim, a guy from the Limburg scene who was touring with ‘Shaft’ as a roadie. The vocals for all songs were re-recorded and the CD got released: Darkside Moments. Jim was studying psychology in Gent so we would rehearse in West-Flanders. When he his studies didn’t work out, it became impossible to rehearse (him living on the other side of the country). So that ended. We continued ‘Solid’ with ‘Deformity’s bassist ‘Wulf’ [Kristof Dewulf] doing vocals and a second full CD was recorded. The guy of Midas studios was gonna release it himself but he suddenly blew the deal and ‘Solid’ broke up. Later we re-started the band with our original singer Sid and released that CD Total Rush on a hardcore label (RPP, Released Power Productions, ran by Alain [Herszaft] (singer of ‘Out For Blood’ [and of ‘Mental Disturbance’ in the 80s] from Brussels). That CD has 5 new songs who sounded ‘stoner meets New York hardcore’. Quite a lot of gigs followed but we had to quit after a year (because of my hearing-problems after 15 years without earplugs in front of loud amps). When I got used to playing with professional earplugs, we started ‘Blood Redemption’…

Dominiek ‘Dompie’ Denolf

‘Kalashnikov’ was started around 1995 by 4 schoolmates (Thijs Plovie – guitar, Dave Willaert – bass, Bart Gouwy – drums, Tom Verheecke – vocals), influenced by H8000-bands. A few months later we did our first gig supporting ‘Jigsaw’ and ‘Congress’ at the 4AD (Diksmuide). The following years we played together with bands such as ‘Congress’, ‘Liar’, ‘Vitality’, ‘Solid’,’ Sektor’, etc. At the Langemark Hardcore event in 1998 we got to know ‘Lorre’ of ‘Sorehead’ and ended up at the Vort’n Vis. A small venue and a super-enthusiastic audience, that’s what we remember. ‘Lorre’ sang along during our cover of ‘Liar’s Blade and there was some serious mosging going on (on stage and in the pit). ‘Striker’, ‘Lifecycle’ and ‘Solid’ also played, but ‘Congress’ ruled that day! We returned to the V.V. 2000-09-16. because we were still young and didn’t have a driver’s licence, we never made it to the Vort’n Vis to see other bands.

Thijs Plovie

 additions wellcome!…

The V.V. newsletter from August ’97 announced a Halloween party (to be organised by Peter V.). This here is a gig from around the same time. Shitworkers that night were Steph Quintens & Inge Cappoen.

The guys playing for ‘D.S.A.’ – an old-school NY Hardcore from the Poperinge/Kortrijk/Roeselare triangle – were Nico ‘Sientje’ Sinnaeve (drums; later in ‘Retaliate’), Frederik ‘Freddy Nostra’ Vanhee (bass; later in ‘Retaliate’), Maarten Verschaeve (vocals on their 2^nd demo, replacing Davy Verhoye) and Pieter-Jan Vandenberghe (PJ; guitar). One of the demos was a live recording from a gig in Poperinge (97-11-09), the other at the Vort’n Vis. They had already played the V.V. on 96-12-30, 97-06-27 & 97-07-12, and would play a few times more…

‘Sorehead’ (Ieper) were Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene (vocals; R.I.P.), Dries Verclyte (bass), Pieter Derycke (drums), Jan Lazeure (guitar; he might’ve quit for half a year [According to Dries he’s always been in the band…]) and Pieter Desmyter (guitar). Steve Noyelle describes their music as resembling ‘Sektor’. The music on their demo sounded metal-influenced and the vocals were raw & aggressive. They also had been at the V.V. on 96-12-30, 97-06-27, and would do more shows later on…

‘Eclipse’ (Ieper) was (gothic) doom-metal playing atmospheric, melodic stuff. The members were Mathieu Gadeyne (vocals), Joke Debruyne (vocals), Koen Vanthournout (guitar; nowadays ‘Clockworkman’) Christophe ‘Foekie’ Delplace (bass; V.V. ‘shitworker’; nowadays in ‘Waxflower’), Wouter Keirse (keyboards; also ‘Warcarft’) & Jaan Couvreur (drums; nowadays ‘Clockworkman’). They self-released a demoCD (1999) entitled Extracts From The Book Of Lost One. I believe Wouter & Mathieu started a melodic electro trance project, entitled ‘Deep Blue’ later on…

‘Eclipse’ promo-pic

Brob

This was ‘Eclipse’s very first gig ever. It was kind of a Halloween night if I remember well. Some chrysanthemum was indeed in order :-). A part from that I recall that black-light and candle-light were the only light-sources in the pub that night. And there was a whole lot of smoke because of a tilted smoke-machine. That’s probably the reason why there aren’t any images of that concert (and the fact that cell-phones were only just for phone-calls then, not for making pictures). We compensated that by taking band-photos at the Ypres’ cathedral… Some time later we did indeed play together with Crusader’ & ‘Sengir’. I believe we only played the Vort’n Vis twice.

During my active period (started in ’96) at the Vort’n Vis, I was actually just taking care of ‘logistics’ (bar & P.A. afregelen) and after 2001 it got a bit more intensive with the Ieperfest (but I was never involved with programmering).

Christophe ‘Foekie’ Delplace

The Vort’n Vis played a central rol for ‘Eclipse’. We were all from the Ieper area and there weren’t so many places where we could play our gothic metal. Both ‘Foekie’ and myself did bar-duties at the V.V. and helped out during fests. Our first rehearsal (Jaan, ‘Foekie’ & me) was in of the rehearsal-spaces located above the pub. Our first gig ever was also in the pub. [This was one here was the first; see guestbook…] I believe it was just us? [Nope.] I think it was around All Saints Day [November 1^st]: our buddies from the Ieper scouts had ‘decorated’ the stage with chrysanthemum. A weird form of humor… :-) We performed at the pub 2 or 3 times in total. I believe once was with ‘Crusader’ & ‘Sengir’?

Koen Vanthournout, ‘Eclipse’ guitarist

It was a special experience, already because of the rather special nature of the pub… I believe we even put our demo up for sale there: at the counter, next to the soy-milk. Indeed: good times! Besides that gig with ‘Crusader’ and another band band (I’m not so sure it was ‘Sengir’: we played with them in Gent), there was another gig with just us.

Jaan Couvreur, drummer of ‘Eclipse’

Davy Verhoye died unexpectedly early 2016…

Frederik Vanhee, ‘D.S.A.’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Another gig organised by Frederic Driessens (with practical help Christophe Delplace & Koen Vanthournout); presenting 5 Belgian bands…

‘Intestinal Disease’ had played at the V.V. before (94-01-30). The guys in this grind/noise-core band from the Diest area were: Philippe ‘Boezie’ Buze (vocals), Dave Houtmeyers (drums), Kris ‘Hazie’ Hazenbosch (vocals) and Rudy Pans (guitar/bass). Bruno ‘Sloef’ Mastyn had joined to play guitar – his first gig with the band. They did a few 7”s: Raped Inside Your Fault, a split with ‘Brutal Mutilation’ (93) and another split with ‘Violent Headache’ (94).

‘Intestinal Disease’ (photo courtesy of Erik Minnen)

‘Cornucopia’ (a grindcore band from Mol) were Bert Dexters (bass; sometimes Dennis ‘Tyfus’ Faes), Erik ‘Smerik’ Minnen (vocals), Jim Faes (guitar; later drums) & ? (drums). Jim ran the Ear Smear tape-label. Erik and Bert also did a distro and tape-label called Moshi Moshi that released a bunch of ‘Cornucopia’ split-tapes (e.g. with ‘Karma’, ‘Rubbish Heap’, etc.) and -7”s (e.g. with ‘Intestinal Disease’ – the idea for this one grew here; ‘Cornucopia’ recorded their tracks with Jim on drums, Robin doin’ guitar and Filip for extra vocals). They did some more shows the following years…

‘Cornucopia’ (photo courtesy of Erik Minnen)

The first line-up of ‘Carcer Molochi’ (94-12-31) consisted of Erwin Degryse (guitar), David Stubbe (drums; ex ‘Neuthrone’), Danny Suffys (bass), Johan Sys (vocals), Michael Maes (guitar) and Inge Cappoen (vocals). They did their debut at the V.V. on 94-12-31. Since they were locals and some of them volunteerd at the Vort’n, they we regularly asked to do gigs (95-03-05, 95-09-16, 96-01-20) They played pagan, back-to-nature crust-punk (“a mix of ‘Anisect’, ‘Hiatus’, ‘E.N.T’ & ‘Antischism’…”, I wrote in my ‘zine). They had recorded their demo somewhere in 1995. At the time of this gig here Bram ‘Lawaai’ Calbrecht (R.I.P.) had replaced David on drums.

‘Carcer Molochi’ with drummer Bram Calbrecht (Yannick Molière on the L) (photo courtesy of Erik Minnen)

‘Les Schtroumpfs Alcooliques’ (‘L.S.A.’; “the alcoholic smurfs”): were a band from Merchtem (where bassist Gerd Van Hoof helped organise gigs at the local youth-centre Ifigineia); the others in the band were Mike Du Bois (drums & vocals), Raf Du Bois (guitar; R.I.P.). They played (poppy/melodic) punk and had a demo out. In ’97 Tim Leten of Filth Ear distribution (also in the band ‘Karma’) released Screams From Belgium, a 4-way split with ‘Les Schtroumpfs Alcooliques’, ‘Muggles’, ‘Hirudo’ & ‘Honey Honey’. They also played on 97-02-28. Later Gerd & Mike started ‘Sunpower’.

‘Noise Reduction’ had already done a show at the V.V. (95-02-11) They came from Edegem, near Antwerp, and played crust-core. The band consisted of Kurt van den Eynden (vocals; also drummer of ‘Karma’), Stefaan Simons (guitar), Tim Wouters (bass) and Rudy Verhelst (drums). They did a demo and in 1995 they had a split-7” (with ‘Deadlock’) out on a Japanese label.

Brob

‘Cornucopia’ still had their first drummer – who couldn’t keep the pace… ;-) But that was a requirement for this musical genre! I remember Erik literally throwing himself…

Wouter Biesemans

‘Intestinal Disease’s first guitarist, Tom Peels, was more of a metal-man. Rudy en Dave started the band in ’92. ‘Hazie’ and I joined. Steve Houtmeyers (Dave’s older brother; who was in ‘Agathocles’ & ‘Hypnos 69’) also played guitar at one timepoint. Dave himself never played for ‘Agathocles’. I quit late ‘96 or early ‘97…

‘Boezie’, ‘Intestinal Disease’ vocalist

At that moment we had indeed a few EPs out. Later we did a split-LP with ‘Rot’ and in 2000 Counting The Damage. That one is best known to the audience (3000 pressed both in Belgium and Brazil).

‘Hazie’, ‘Intestinal Disease’ vocalist

additions wellcome!…