‘Hundred Years Of Forgetting’ was a project of Vincent ‘Pit’ Maes with a few people from Deinze. They only did a few shows. [Brob: They are in the guestbook but not really sure if they played. ‘Pit’ was the singer of ‘Instinct’. ‘Hundred Years Of Forgetting’ also played at the 1999 Ieperfest and their music was described as “rocking slomo emo HC”…]

Pedro Tallieu, ‘Instinct’

According to the V.V. notes this gig was again arranged by ‘xSchmitterSx’ (Stijn Desmyter from Oostnieuwkerke)…

‘Thumbs Down’ had played already on 97-08-17 (The Next Generation festival). They were from Antwerp and played “youth crew hardcore”. I believe in the band at that time were Roeland (bass; later replaced by Andries Beckers of ‘Diablo Blvd’), Ken (drums; since ’99 Benjamin Buschgens – later ‘The Setup’), Raf(aël) Balrak (guitar; later ‘The Setup’) and Steven Tuffin (vocals). They were also signed to Genet recs (Going For Gold 7” – with bassplayer Roeland – in ’97, No Retreat No Surrender 7” and Crossroads LP in ’99). They also performed at the ’98 & ’99 fests….

‘Clouded’, a metal-core band from Antwerp (Kontich), were: Björn Van Loy (bass), Jeroen Verelst (vocals), Serge ‘Serch’ Carriere (drums) and Wout Bosschaert (guitar; replaced Kurt). Their 7” Inheritance was released by Genet recs in 1998. They also played at the ’97, ’98 & ’99 fests…

‘Rain’ (from Antwerpen/Edegem) played post-rock, emo metalcore, with sluggish guitar-riffs and manic vocals: Mark Kram (vocals), Joris Van Haute (bass), Sven Leys (guitar) & Jeroen Taeymans (drums). They had self-released their album Redeem The Monsters ‎(1997) under the name Redeem The Monsters And Kill The Beast recs…

Locals ‘Lifecycle’ had been on the V.V. stage a bunch of times before and it wouldn’t be their last. In a letter from May ’98, Sofie (‘Lifecycle’s vocalist) mentions that their bassist Jurgen Degryse had quit the band. His last show was May ’98. He was replaced by Maarten Kinet (who later played for ‘AmenRa’)… When he left Peter Leuwers joined… And later there was Céline Delqueux and then Jelle Dobbelaere…

‘Sorehead’ (from Ieper) had already played the V.V. several times. They were Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene (vocals; R.I.P.), Dries Verclyte (bass), Pieter Derycke (drums), Jan Lazeure (guitar; he’s not in the guestbook and 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.

‘Symbiont’ and ‘Mindfist’ were Belgian bands but I’ve got no recollections of them…

Brob

I’ve also played at the V.V. with ‘Before Machine’ (with Serge ‘Serch’ Carriere of ‘Clouded’ / ‘The Setup’ / ‘Bear’)… The excerpt in the guestbook was done by our singer Mark. Our CD was released on the 1997 Ieperfest. [Brob: It was still called HardCore – The Next Generation festival; no trace of ‘Rain playing there…]

Sven Leys, ‘Rain’ guitarist

I joined ‘Thumbs Down’ in ‘99! I replaced Roeland De Keulenaer.

Andries Beckers

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Probably ‘Undone’s last gig here (their 5^th at the V.V.) as they split up early ’97… ‘Sully’ (vocalist Sullivan Chédanne) had already moved to Italy. Apparently he’s living in Australia nowadays… By the end of ’97 Christophe (Mora; drummer) wrote me he was in a new band with ‘Scholl’ (Stéphane Brochier; guitarist), called ‘Narodnaya Volya’ (The People’s Will) (No idea if that ever happened?) and he did a fanzine entitled Desiderata (with Gérome & Séverine from the band ‘Alcatraz’)… ‘Stu’ (Stéphane Joly; bassist) would re-surface in ‘Ananda’. Their last release (The Other Side 7”) was recorded May that year at Ape studio. An ‘Undone’ discography is planned (since a long time)…

‘Rusty James’ (from Bremen) played melodic/poppy HC (some compared them with ‘Jawbreaker’). They were: Miguel Andrade (guitar/vocals; ex ‘Abolition’) & Rainer Ohst (drums) – who both used to play in the vegan straight-edge emo band ‘Age’ (with singer Hauke Hersinger, guitarist Markus Czymzik & bassist Ramon Lembke). Dirk Kusche (supposedly in the band between 1995 & ‘97; also in ‘Systral’) came over with ‘Rusty James’ but I can’t remember the exact line-up… Perhaps Pascal Heiduk on bass (replacing Hans Joachim Witt) and Kai Bewersdorf on guitar? At that time they had an untitled 7” out and their Save The Last Dance For Me LP (both on Love recs). Someone described them as “Europe’s best pop-punk band ever”… Miguel, Rainer and Hauke were also in the emo band ‘Assay’ (LP out on Love recs in ’97). The Wolfsburger Andre Pawelzick (Refuge mailorder) & Holger Ohst (Summersault mailorder) might have been there aswell…?

‘Outrage’s first performance at the V.V. They recorded their 1^st 7”, Between Brackets (out on Nico’s Day One recs), in April ’96. They were: Sigi Loots (drums; later ‘Crimson Falls’), Steven Van Goubergen (guitar), Ringo Van Dingenen (vocals; later ‘Crimson Falls’) and Nico Peeters (bass; later in ‘Vuur’ & ‘KingTerror’). The latter was a friend from the Newland collective that did shows in Herentals and a zine with the same name. He also ran a distro and label with his partner (at that time) An Caers. The band would be back for the summer-fest on 96-08-16, 97-03-01 & 98-09-19.

‘Carol’ from Bremen had been at the V.V. already (95-09-15). They played brutal, energetic screamo hardcore with a crusty edge…influenced by ‘Acme’. The guys in the band were (I think) Andy Lehmann (guitar), Björn Schmidt (vocals; later in ‘Mörser’ & ‘Systral’), ‘Hajo’ André Wendelken (guitar), Matthias ‘Matze’ Trenne (bass; also ‘Mörser’), ‘Acme’s bassist Sönke Gabriel did drums. That year (January) they had recorded the Prefabricated 7” (Philipp Styra ‘Queerfish’ was the drummer on the 1^st one) that came out on Markus Haas’ label Per Koro. A bit after this gig – summer of ’96 – they recorded (with André or ‘Shitman’ – also in ‘Mörser’ – on drums) a track for the split 7” with ‘Stack’ that was released on my mate Hoger Ohst’s label Summersault. André Wendelken and ‘Mörser’-guitarist Sven ‘Svenion’ Nienaber later formed ‘Minion’…

‘Vanilla’ had already played here 95-01-29 and probably also 94-08. They were an emo band from Paris that put out their I Can’t Stop Hating This Empty Space 7” on Olivier Lépine’s label Laissez-Nous Jouer in 1995 (after an initial demo). On that record Jean Lebrun played bass and brothers Yann & Yves Maisonneuve (both ex ‘Ivich’), guitar and drums. Alain Vidal (also in ‘Symptom Of Isaac’ & ‘El Vidal Sonido’) joined them later. Bruno VdV released an untitled LP of them on Genet recs so they were invited back for 96-08.

Brob

I can’t remember who played in ‘Rusty James’ back then – apart from Miguel (singer/guitarist) and Rainer (drummer). I think ‘Hajo’ [André Wendelken] from ‘Carol’ played bass and I was probably playing guitar (or the other way around?). That was in ‘96, I think. I don’t remember the show, though… It was nice, when I had been there with ‘Carol’ [95-09-15]; they played in a smaller room somehow [the Vort’n Vis pub]. Even more exciting when we played on some other date with ‘Systral’ [95-09-16 & 96-09-22] but that was on a quite big stage in front of a big audience. Exciting, but a bit weird too, since we liked it better to play in small steamy venues that were more personal.

Dirk Kusche, ‘Systral’ bassist & owner of Kuschelrock studios

Rainer Ohst was the drummer of ‘Rusty James’. Kai Bewersdorf was the guitar-player, the first guy to play the other guitar was Dirk Kusche – he also played bass and founded ‘Systral’…

Pascal Heiduk

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

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

see also: 94-08-19&20&21 Hardcore Festival * Italian impressions

The ‘Iconoclast’ tour was organised by Bernd B. (‘Abolotion’/’Stack’/Equality recs/Scorched Earth Policy) who drove the whole time. The band, from New Jersey, played emo hardcore. They were: Kevin Sabarese (guitar), Dan Roberts (guitar), Ian White Williams (vocals; here replaced by ‘Merel’s singer José Juan Ruiz – see below), Kevin Kajetzke (drums) and Pat Kelsey (bass). That year their Groundlessness Of Belief 7” got out on Ebullition recs (after an untitled 7” and some others on Kevin S.’s Old Glory recs). They broke up a few months after this tour (last gig with ‘Avail in Philadelphia on Oct 2^nd). I really liked the band (music and people; we’d already met the week before when they played in Herentals) and I think I planned an interview but that didn’t work out. Their last recordings were released ‘post mortem’ on a split double 7” with ‘Abyss’ (from Germany).

‘Iconoclast’ (pic by Massimo Moscarelli) – Dan Roberts (L), Kevin Sabarese (M), Pat Kelsey (R)

‘Iconoclast’ with ‘Merel’s singer José Juan Ruiz (photographed by Albert Cheong)

‘Neckbrace’, a band from Bradford, played powerful vegan sXe HC (hence there 7” on the German hardline label No Cruelty recs; recorded in April of that year) playing “mid-tempo chugga chugga”. In the band: guitarist Andy/Andrew ‘Bez’ Berry (and James – also in ‘Unborn’ – for a short while), singer Heath Powell/Crosby (previously sang in ‘No Way Out’ & ‘Nailbomb’, later ‘Stampin’ Ground’), drummer Neil Godding and bassist Steve/Stephen Harran. (Andy, Neil and Heath had been in ‘Nailbomb’ together.)

‘Neckbrace’ (pic by Massimo Moscarelli)

A bit before Roger played his last show with ‘Feeding The Fire’s. The bassist here was Kay Roderburg, who was also ‘Backdraft’ with Illona and Rob – another band they had started with already (they played the day before this one)… Check the V.V. concert-list for the several shows they did before this one!

‘Feeding The Fire’ (photos courtesy of Heath Crosby) [1. Rob Franssen – 2. Illona Stephan, Rob & Kay Roderburg – 3. Kay & Har(ald) Brosselt]

‘Hopeman Path’ was the band of my mates Dirk ‘Scum’ (vocals; ex ‘Zero Positives’), Stefan Goos (drums; Empower newsletter and later in the band ‘Vuur’), Bart Verelst (bass; also ‘State Of Grace’) & Gunter Braem (guitar). They were from the Kempen area (Herentals/Geel) and had played here already 93-04-25. They lasted a couple of years and would merge into ‘Vuur’ with members of ‘Deconsume’ and ‘Outrage’… Later some of them and myself engaged ourselves for the Newland collective (zine and concerts).

‘Hopeman Path’ (photo by Miguel Angel Lorca) – Gunter Braem (L) & Bart Verelst (R)

‘State Of Grace’ – Jeroen Vanlaer (guitar), Tom Gabriels (guitar), David Heylen (drums), Jan ‘Jakke’ Geeraerts (bass) and Sven De Backer (vocals) – had played the V.V. on 94-04-09. Later Bart Verelst (ex ‘Hopeman Path’) joined on bass and ‘Jakke’ played guitar; then they became ‘Sheen’ (who played the V.V. 95-11). No recollections of them playing this one here…

My friends from Paris, ‘Undone’ played the V.V. many times. They were announced for this one but can ‘t remember if they actually played…

‘Vanilla’ (an emo band from Paris) did a demo in ’94 and put out their I Can’t Stop Hating This Empty Space 7” on Olivier Lépine’s label Laissez-Nous Jouer (together with Norbert Chomat) in 1995. On that record Jean Lebrun played bass and brothers Yann & Yves Maisonneuve (both ex ‘Ivich’), guitar and drums. Alain Vidal (also in ‘Symptom Of Isaac’ & ‘El Vidal Sonido’) joined them later (’96). Bruno released a self-titled LP of them on Genet recs in 1996. They also played 95-01-29, 96-03-24 & 96-08…

Some people thought ‘Nations On Fire’ played aswell but their bassist ‘Goofy’ explains they didn’t. Jaak had left ‘N.O.F.’ and David of ‘Scraps’ abondonned aswell… The line-up around this time (as on the Death Of The Pro-Lifer album) was with Wim Vandekerckhove (also ‘Blindfold’ vocalist) on guitar and Filip Devolder on drums; besides Ed(ward) Verhaeghe (vocals) and Jeroen ‘Goofy’ Lauwers (bass).

Bruno (Genet recs) had organised a tour for ‘Scraps’ that turned out rather “disastrous” (with disorganised dates in Spain, administrative & van-trouble in France). Can ‘t recall if Ma Raab (‘Egotrip’) toured with them or in ’95… Amanda Trevens, a correspondent of mine, did a tour-diary about it (Looking Back It Doesn’t Seem So Bad). She played in a band called ‘Timmy’, was helping out at Neil Robinson’s Tribal War recs (actually an internship, studying ‘music technology’) and the HC/punk venue ABC No Rio in NYC, also was the guitarist of ‘Huasipungo’. David of ‘Scraps’ had been staying with her in N.Y.C. the month he spent there and she was asked to be in the band as (guitarist) Raph(aël) couldn’t make it. Touring at that time were David (vocals), Pierre (drums), Tomoy (bass), ‘Straw’ & Alex. Later, Amanda was in band called ‘Ex Teenage Rebels’ with Chris (‘Scraps’ roadie)… The ‘Scraps’ tour had ended prematurely so they didn’t play here, she told me.

Brob

Ed and I hadn’t talked for a few months until I heard that he’d gotten seriously ill in July 1994…

Jeroen ‘Goofy’ Lauwers, ‘N.O.F.’ bassist

The Vort’n Vis was pretty rad. I liked it a lot. It’s difficult to tell from one show but it was a nice atmosphere, there weren’t any fights (though I was told it was violent when ‘Oi Polloi’ played). […] I know now why you reacted the way you did when I asked you if you were Bruno when I first got to the V.V. […] Things that were very different at European shows were sound-checking, putting everything through the P.A. at most places, getting fed at shows. This is a rad custom but I still don’t think it should be taken for granted. Most shows are pretty well attended.

Amanda Trevens; personal communication Sep ‘94

In ‘94 I came over in May; practiced for 2 weeks (living in Lille) and toured for 6. I was at the Vort’n Vis for one show – dont remember which one. I’m pretty sure we didn’t play the Vort’n Vis or in Belgium at all. I went there with David or Pierre or both, before the tour started and met you, and maybe Edward. Neil [Robinson] and I were involved in putting on shows at ABC No Rio, and being part of the collective for many years and we were roommates for a bit.

Amanda Trevens

‘Goofy’ (‘Nations On Fire’), Pierre Anne (‘Scraps’) & Amanda Trevens (taken from Fifi #2)

I’m pleased to have been at the Vort’n Vis for the festival. I discussed with a lot of people… But I also was a bit disappointed because of what I saw and heard during these 2 days! I’m talking about the people who, like you said, were showing themselves off. It was incredible. A lot of them were rather superficial, relation-wise. I also have a hard time understanding that thing with the X-s on hands and feet! […] On the other hand, I met a lot of people that I never seen before (Vique [Martin of Simba zine] e.g.). […] It was true what you said about ‘scene-celebrities’: it’s rather strange because when you listen to socalled ‘important’ people, they tell us they’re not doing anything extraordinary and that everyone could do what they do (and that’s true), but then why is there this distance that is being created? […] All this irritates me a bit…

Olivier Lépine, Laissez-Nous Jouer (later ‘L’Invention de Morel’; personal communication Sep ‘94

I found my journal from that time and it says that ‘Iconoclast’ played on Sunday. Sadly I didn’t write about the bands we played with, I only remember that I tried Hoegaarden [beer] for the first time. I have some good memories about the Vort’n Vis and I remember that show especially because José from ‘Merel’ had to sing because Ian went home early to prepare for college. I don’t have so many detailed memories, as we were in a different town every single day, making it a lot of experience in little time. The thing is that the experience of being in that underground scene forever changed me and put me in contact with all kinds of cool people. I met Inge Wynants and [her friend] Judith [Wuytens] that day… I lived in Hoogheultje near Olen [Belgium] for nearly a year back in 1996. That was because I kept in touch with Inge and after seeing her again on the ‘Merel’ tour, I went to visit her and then became romantically involved with her sister Katrine for a few years.

Kevin Kajetzke, ‘Iconoclast’ drummer

I visited the Vort’n Vis during a festival in the beginning of the 90s. ‘Iconoclast’, ‘Fabric’, ‘Acme, ‘Vanilla’ and more bands were playing. I’m sure ‘Acme’ and ‘Vanilla’ played. ‘Acme’s set was very short and intense… I travelled together with Carlos Arillo and other friends…. Carlos Arillo was the guy organising gigs at that time in Madrid. He booked shows for many bands: ‘Doom’, ‘Shortsight’, ‘Disrupt’, ‘Iconoclast’, ‘Abolition’, ‘Health Hazard’,…

Miguel Angel Lorca, Madrid

I attended this festival at the Vort’n Vis… Mostly straight-edge bands on the bill who didn’t take too kindly to us lot who were all quite big smokers and drinkers! It said it wasn’t a straight-edge festival but it certainly felt like one! My main recollections of the straight-edge bands were they were very young with very expensive guitars and amps that I didn’t have a hope in hell of having myself at the time. Also I found the bands too be quite serious and self-righteous. I remember really enjoying seeing ‘Iconoclast’; I think they were the stand-out band of the weekend. It sounds like I didn’t enjoy it! But that wasn’t the case; I had a real good laugh with my mates I was with – still see Louis [Warren] now who I went to the festival with; he is now singer in ‘Rotunda’…

Marcus Jones, ‘Marker’ guitarist

That was my first longer tour…been on the road for 8 weeks but it was fun.

Bernd Bohrmann

‘Iconoclast’ on tour – with Bernd B. (squatted), Sherry Beth Sacks & Franziska ‘Franzi’ von Hasselbach

I went to 2 Vort’n Vis festivals. I had a brilliant time at both. During the 2^nd visit I sprained my ankle while dancing to ‘Acme’. I had do go to hospital. ‘Acme’ played in the dark… Simon Johnson organized both the trips. He was a punk/hardcore promoter in Birmingham.

Louis Warren, ‘Rotunda’ vocalist

We were there when ‘Iconoclast’ and ‘Acme’ played but I don’t think we were there the day before…

Karl Penando

Bernd Bohrmann organised that ‘Iconoclast’ tour indeed… There was an American young woman named Sherry [Sherry Beth Sacks; Beehive activist and drummer] on tour with ‘Iconoclast’. [Sherry was a friend of Hazel too. H. named a band that Jeroen L. and her started ‘Sherry’…]

Joeri Hoste

I do have memories of that awesome concert. That was an important first trip to Europe for me. I later returned many times and eventually met my husband Pau (Aina/Barcelona).

Sherry Beth Sacks (sherrybethsacks.tumblr.com)

I remember we hired a small car to travel over to Ieper. Four of us cramped in the car with musical instruments and the boot filled with drum-stuff and a guitar amp-head! Travelling along: myself, ‘Bez’ (Andy) on guitar, Neil on drums and Steve on bass. We were totally blown away to be playing and to be given the opportunity to play such a great festival, with so many other great bands. I would play it one other time doing vocals for ‘Stampin’ Ground’ [96-08] but that’s another story… I remember the car-journey well, crammed, sweaty and suffering from cramp! When we arrived we were amazed so many hardcore kids hanging around, we were like “This is amazing”! The show was great, with lots of people supporting ‘Neckbrace’, with a few people even knowing the tunes. I can’t remember the other bands that played; we were only over for the day. The journey back to England was again with cramps because of the confined space, filled with four sweaty bodies!

Heath Crosby, ‘Neckbrace’ singer

‘Neckbrace’ travels (photos courtesy of Heath Crosby) [1. Andrew ‘Bez’ Berry (L) &  Stephen Harran (R) – 2. Heath (L) & Neil Godding (R)]

I remember playing at the Vort’n Vis. I was the drummer in the band ‘Neckbrace’. The band at that time was Heath Powell [nowadays named Crosby] (vocals), Andrew Berry (guitar), James ‘Bim’ Johnston (guitar), Stephen Harran (bass) and myself on drums… We were crammed in a tiny car with all our gear and we drove from Bradford UK, got the ferry across to France and drove to Ypres [Ieper]. I don’t think Rich Corbridge [Armed With Anger zine and label] came with us, we could only fit 5 people in the car. I remember we arrived at the venue to find that the bass-guitar was broken, so I crafted a new headstock nut from an old dirty comb I found in the street. In the venue I remember seeing all the people, the disturbing PETA videos and some band on stage getting crazy. We were (I think) the very last band of the night and we played at maybe 1 a.m. We gave it our all. I was sweating like crazy, so much so my recently tattooed forearm (‘Neckbrace’ tribal X) cracked, and has scars in it, that always reminds me of Vort’n Vis. At some point during the day I walked to the WW1 memorial and found the name of one of ancestors who died in the war.

Neil Godding

I have no recollections of playing this one with ‘Undone’. Not sure that we played! I don’t remember too much… Not even about playing with all these great bands on the concert-list… I just remember that we were all always so happy to drive up to Belgium and meet our friends up there…

Christophe Mora, ‘Undone’ drummer

additions wellcome!…

Another gig organised by Michael Maes… With practical help of Inge Cappoen, Jan Claus & Lieve Goemaere.

Besides vocalist and frontman Deek Allan, I believe the band here consisted of bassist Calum Mckenzie (he left to the U.S. in ‘99) and drummer ‘The Love Doctor’ Ade Crawford (ex ‘Satanic Malfunctions’) – see guestbook. Guitarist Ricky ‘Zodiac’ Olsen first appeared on the T.H.C. 7” (Campary recs 1999; with ‘Love Doctor’ – drums, Calum – bass, Deek – vocals, ‘Zodiac’ – guitar), having replaced Matt ‘Keith Chugwin’ Finch in 1997. In 1996 ‘Oi Polloi’ let a French label release their earliest recordings (from ’84) on the Punx’n’Skins EP. They did a lot of touring, which brought them back to the V.V. on 98-04-18 & 98-09-19. And in 1999 a few records – such as the Fuaim Catha LP on Skuld releases (with bassist ‘R. Sole’, drummer Murray Briggs and guitarist ‘Red’ – Brian Tipa ?) & Let the Boots Do the Talking EP (with bassist ‘R. Sole’ drummer ‘Bulbheid’ & guitarist Matt Finch) – came out… Neil Robinson also released the tape It’s Not The Monkey That Need’s It’s Head Examined (Tribal War) to support ‘Oi Polloi’s travels with the Primate Freedom Tour (Summer of ‘99).

‘Accion Mutante’ – from Stuttgart – play aggressive HC/crust-punk (references to ‘Discharge’, ‘Doom’, ‘E.N.T.’). In 1995 they released their 1^st 7” (called Fear) on Skuld releases. The line-up on that was Capde (guitar), Jochen (bass), Frosch & Alexander Rossi (vocals), Dominik (drums, replaced Schmier) and Timo (guitar). In 1998 they did another 7” (Y No Hai Remedio) on the same label: ‘Migge’ (Mike/Michael Schwarz) did the drums and Karsten had replaced Frosch by then. A planned split-7“ with ‘Extinction Of Mankind’ didn´t happen. The band still exist (accion-mutante.com)…

‘Link’ had played their first V.V. gig earlier that year (97-09-12). This local band was (at that time) V.V. ‘shitworker’ Michael Maes (guitar) & his partner Inge Cappoen (vocals) – both had been in ‘Carcer Molochi’ – and the French-men Greg ‘Briko’ on bass and a ‘Juju’ Julien De Jonckheere on drums. They played crust-core-punk and hadn’t really released anything yet…

Around this time ‘Holefiller’ (see 97-02-28) recorded a demo (with the help of Michael Maes, in his attic). These mates (from the Ghent squat-scene) played slow, dark, doom-metal mixed with industrial parts. Sometimes they performed as a combo producing industrial noise, then they’ld call themselves ‘Hellfiller’. The core of the band was Karel Busschop (bass), David Stubbe (drums; ex ‘Neuthrone’) & ‘Leffe’ (guitar; ex ‘Chronic Disease’, ‘Private Jesus Detector’). Their mate Billy did the electronics for ‘Hellfiller’.

Local band ‘Sorehead’ had also performed at the Vort’n Vis before (97-06-27, 97-07-12, 97-10-25) were Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene (vocals; R.I.P.), Dries Verclyte (bass), Pieter Desmyter (guitar), Pieter Derycke (drums) and Jan Lazeure (guitar). Some said their music was metal-influenced, others disagreed. They did a couple more shows at the V.V. after this…

‘D.S.A.’ (see 97-06-27 & 97-10-25) was another local band that played old-school NY Hardcore. The band consited of Nico Synnaeve (drums), Frederik Vanhee (bass), Maarten Verschaeve (vocals) and a guy called Pieter-Jan (PJ; guitar)…

‘G.D.B.’ (or ‘Chargée G.D.B.’) was a punk-rock band from the Maloka (distro) / Les Tanneries (venue) scene (Dijon, France). They had a few tracks on the Autonomy Not Submission compilation-LP (a benefit for Maloka, on Pariah Rules recs). They also did a few tapes… A later gig planned on 98-06-05 got cancelled…. Band-members were ‘NoFun Leouf’ (guitar), ‘Colas’ (vocals/beatbox; and guitar when ‘NoFun’ left) & ‘Kaos Youki’ (bass).

Brob

Ricky had taken over guitar-duties for ‘Oi Polloi’ by December 97…

Matt Finch

I think this was during a short tour with ‘Oi Polloi’ and ‘Boycot’ perhaps? [Brob: That was the days after: 97-12-27 in Leuven & 97-12-28 in Opwijk] I remember the kitchen, the stage and the sleeping-place under the roof ( with some holes) haha…

‘Accion Mutante’

My best memory was playing with ‘Accion Mutante’ and ‘Oi Polloi’ at the Vort’n Vis in Ieper.

‘Kaos Youki’ (gdb.kaosyouki.net/english.html)

‘G.D.B.’ was ‘Nofun’ on guitar and vocals, me on bass and a drum-machine. It wasn’t a serious band, it was kind of a joke. We both played in the band ‘20 Minutes de Chaos’ from Dijon and at that time our female singer went to England for a few months. So we did ‘G.D.B.’ as a side-project. We existed only for a few months. If I remember correctly, Michael from ‘Link’ organised this gig. The previous day we played in Liège, so we arrived rather tired. We left the day after to Paris even more tired. I think it was the best gig we did with ‘G.D.B.’, mostly because a lot of friends from Lille showed up. I also met new people at this gig that are still very good friends nowadays. So the atmosphere was fun. I remember ‘Oi Polloi’ did a good gig but I mostly remember enjoying ‘Accion Mutante’s concert. I don’t recall that much of the other bands. Afterwards, I spent time chatting with some people from ‘Accion Mutante’ at the bar; also with friends from Lille and some people playing for ‘Link’ that are really good friends now. I almost didn’t sleep that night.

Jean-Christophe of Maloka was our driver…

About Vort’n Vis in general: I started hearing about it in the very early 90s from a friend who was going there regularly. It was sounding a bit like a myth to me: all these bands that I was really into who played there, the DIY scene, etc. Unfortunately when I started to go there a few years later, there were already these ‘arguments’ between crusties and straight-edgers. Which 20 years later sounds rather childish on both sides to me…

‘Kaos Youki’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

I was on the ‘Voorhees’ tour. I had a good time even though we had to return early.

Richard Corbridge (Armed With Anger recs; released their 7” Violent… & the LP Spilling Blood Without Reason), personal communication Sep ‘94

>> (22/8) Another massive drive heading to Ieper to sleep the night at the Vort’n Vis. We caught the remnants of people staying from the 3 day HC festival there and were all pretty pissed off that we missed the festival there. Got there late at night and ended up having to climb through a first floor window to get in! <<

‘Voorhees’ European tour diary 1994 (in Richard Corbridge’s zine Armed With Anger #4)

We were travelling home after that disaster tour (financially anyway, cause loads of dates got cancelled) with ‘Voorhees’ in August 94, and needed somewhere to stop, so we went there for one night (we had to break in by climbing in through an upstairs window, haha). It was right at the end of the festival there that month.

Michael John Gillham, ‘Voorhees’ drummer

‘Voorhees’ (from the Bradford area), a band playing manic fast/aggressive thrashcore, were (at that time): Ian ‘Lecky’ Leck (vocals; ex ‘Steadfast’), Sean Readman (guitar; ex ‘Steadfast’), Graeme Nichols (guitar) ‘Bungle’ Paul Rugman-Jones (bass; ex ‘Steadfast’) & Michael John Gillham (drums; also in ‘Embittered’ & ‘Manfat’). They were interviewed for the Vort’n Vis zine Fifi #2 before the tour and I interviewed them afterwards (see Tilt! #8).

Michael did Refused Planet zine and a non-profit distro with the same name; he had written me about a compilation-tape with bands in his area (‘Kito’, ‘Ironside’, ‘Understand’, etc. etc.) and exchanging distro-material. I learned he was drumming for ‘Voorhees’ (but wasn’t on the early records; and ‘Embittered’) and he was telling me that Bruno (Genet recs; with whom I had merged our distros into Fuse! during a short period around that time) had set up a tour for them… (If I remember correctly with ‘Força Macabra’ from Finland.)

Apparently gradually things were going wrong with that. Michael was asking me in another letter: “Is Bruno some ‘top man’ because he does the Vort’n Vis or something?”… He commented the tour was a disaster and almost non-existent so they had to cut it short; and B. was uninterested/careless about the band’s losses; “disorganised & irresponsible”… The polemic was recorded in the V.V.’s guestbook…

They were announced to play on the 1994 Hardcore Festival but didn’t make it.

Brob

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

‘Fourhundred Years’, an emo/hardcore (references to ‘Rites of Spring’ & ‘Fugazi’) band (originally from Tucson, Arizona) who moved to Richmond, Virginia. There Eric ‘Bull’ Gervasi (bass; ex ‘Policy Of 3’ – see 95-07-02) joined them (replacing Erin Housholder). The others were Ash Bruce (drums), Dave Jackson (guitar/vocals) and Daron Hollowell (guitar/vocals). They had a split-7” out with ‘Sleepytime Trio’ – who they were touring with – besides their own 7” and the Suture LP. Later they would also do a split-7” with ‘Seein’Red’.

On the www one can read: >>Intelligent and intricate with a perfect blend of melody and dissonance in all the right places, ‘Fourhundred Years’ had unparalleled abilities to captivate their listeners and turn them loose on an unsuspecting music world. Combined with the weight of their political views, the tension of ‘Fourhundred Years’ music is simultaneously a catharsis and a call to arms. They toured Europe, Japan, and America numerous times.<<

‘Sleepytime Trio’, from Harrisonburg (Virginia), were Ben Davis (bass/vocals), David Nesmith (guitar/vocals; ex ‘Maximillian Colby’), Drew Ringo (guitar/vocals; ex ‘Maximillian Colby’) and Jonathan Fuller (drums; also ‘Young Pioneers’). They had the split-7” (mentioned above) under their belt, along with the Songs & Stories 7” and the Plus 6000 12” (recorded a few months before this tour). Their discography ‘Memory-Minus’ contains all their recorded tracks as well as live songs from their 1997 Europe tour (Wermelskirchen, Germany). Musically they were described as screamo post-hardcore…

‘Reiziger’ evolved from ‘Kosjer D’ (see 94-05-22, 94-08-19, 95-07-02, 95-08-19, 95-12-03); their music was labeled as “post hardcore” and “emocore”. I think they were an ‘indie’ band on the edge of the DIY scene… The band consisted of Sven Gielen (drums), Pascal Hens (guitar), Kristien Hendrix (bass) & Geert Plessers (guitar/vocals). At this time I think they were about to release their 1^st (12”) EP Don’t Bind My Hands (Genet recs)… They would also play the 1997 & ’98 Fests…

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Another “Ceaceless Suffocation festival”… The next day (98-04-19) Infekcja (Pol), Sarah (Fra), Enough! (Pol), Cornucopia (Bel) & Muggles (Bel) were on the bill…

Was the fest organised by Wouter Biesemans (the intern who did 97-02-28&03-01 VV Doe-Wat dagen and can be seen on the photo, on the side of the stage)? Probably not… The poster refers to Michael Maes and the other ‘shitworkers’ that day were Jan Claus & Inge Cappoen.

In ‘Oi Polloi’ were – I thought probably the same line-up as a few months before, 97-12-26 – vocalist Deek Allan (of course) & Calum Mackenzie (bass) (which I recognise on the photo), and guitarist Ricky ‘Zodiac’ Olsen; the drummer is not Chris ‘Wheelchair’ Willsher (Ruptured Ambitions distro; also in ‘The Bus Station Loonies’) – as Calum suggests but Chris denies – so I’m guessing it’s ‘The Love Doctor’ Ade Crawford (ex ‘Satanic Malfunctions’).

‘Oi Polloi’ (photo by Michael Maes)

Also a second show with the Scots for ‘Link’ in a few months time (97-12-26)… Michael Maes (guitar), Inge Cappoen (vocals), Greg ‘Briko’ (bass) and a ‘Juju’ Julien De Jonckheere (drums).

‘Concrete’, from Rome, had played the V.V. already on 95-08-19. They played aggressive, dark (post-)HC. They were: Cristiano D’Innocenti (drums; also ‘Comrades’, ‘Los Vaticanos’) a.k.a. ‘Capoccia’ or ‘Nerone 666’, ‘Orko’ Cristiano Fini (guitar; also ‘Comrades’), ‘Fucking Bastard’ Giorgio Gregorio ‘Greg’ Luciani (bass; also ‘Comrades’), Matteo Fadighenti (guitar) and Tommaso ‘Tommy’ Garavini (vocals; tommasogaravini.com). This was just a few months before they recorded the Nunc Scio Tenebris Lux CD (out on Paolo Petralia’s SOA recs). They already had a split-tape out with ‘With Love’, a self-titled 7” & the 10” Patior Ergo Sum (SOA recs; ’94), the Sescenti Sexaginta Sex 7” (on Nicola Olivieri’s Halley recs; ‘96) and a split-7” with ‘Antisgammo’…

‘Ulrike’s Dream’, from Leuven, started February ’97 when ‘Het Preekgestoelte’ split up but bassist-changes held them from gigging a lot. I think here they were: Anton Meeus (drums), vocalists ‘Sapé’ Sebastiaan Putseys (Reflex & Wolfpack recs) & Jeroen Verbeeck – later replaced by Magalie & Saar, Hans (guitar), Daan (guitar; nowadays in ‘The League of MentalMen’) and Erik (bass). They recorded a demo (Burn The European Swastika) a month before this gig and did a DIY 7” (If It Leads… It Bleeds) which was recorded by Bruno ‘Sloef’ Mastyn in July 2000. They played grindcore and sung political lyrics; some compared them with ‘Disaffect’ and early ‘Conflict’…

Some more history: “Somewhere in 1997/1998 Anton and Hans were looking for a new bass-player. They asked Erik to join ‘Ulrikes Dream’. Later Johan sung for a while. After three times or so, ‘Sapé’ and Jeroen came on vox. Daan joined the guitar-squad. We played a couple of gigs: some were brilliant, some were awful. Every band has these kinds of moments. We recorded our first demo-tape in 1998. It was called Burn, Burn, Burn the European Swastika!. The sound-quality wasn’t perfect but it had a cool booklet an it sounded grind. [raw and messy] It *had* to sound grind: it was recorded in a sixteenth century basement under a grotty punk-hole [Clockwork] full of drunks and drop-outs. It was great.”

Anton went on to play for ‘The Usual Suspects’ (anarcho ska-dub-reggae-punk; also with Hans) & ‘Cop On Fire’…

‘Hellcorn’ wasn’t announced on the poster but they were mentioned in the V.V. notes… They might’ve replaced ‘Hellkrusher’? They played their first gig at the V.V. a couple of months before (98-02-28). They was a local band (Poperinge) with guitarist Noam Sohier (nowadays in ‘Netra’) and probably Angelo Vanhoucke on drums…

Brob

We didn’t make the all-dayer with ‘Oi Polloi’. The van broke down before we got out of Newcastle…

Scotty, ‘Hellkrusher’

‘Hellcorn’ replaced ‘Hellkrusher’, indeed…

Noam Sohier

I recall ‘Ulrike’s Dream’ played for 20-25 people (a lot of French crusties) because most didn’t have the money and it was early on a Sunday (I think) [18^th was a Saturday…]. I remember that there was vanilla-flavoured soy-milk that we got into for a while. We just played the old V.V. this one time. I believe that we played with ‘Link’ on Sunday but it’s too long time ago. I do recall that ‘Link’ sounded like ‘Nausea’ at the time. It was also then that we got the appreciated proposal of Saar (R.I.P.) to come and sing for us.

Oh, and we definitely appreciated the french-fries place nearby that carried a variety of vegetarian products thanks to the V.V. visiters.

I also saw ‘Doom’ and ‘Oi Polloi’ play at the V.V. … most probably in 97 and/or 98. But I also missed some great bills, that’s for sure.

Anton Meeus

I especially remember the fanatstic sleeping-attic. And we befriended the ‘Concrete’ guys there. Erik Minnen [‘Cornucopia’] and myself travelled around with them on their following tour. Phil Merckx must’ve been there too at that festival.

I just had gotten into punk/HC and was often just impressed with the the scene; hanging around, meeting new people, laughing,… Sometimes gigs were just a side-issue to the social aspect.

‘Oi Polloi’ was a true dance-party. Always a good atmosphere, non-violent, ladies and gents together on the dance-floor. ‘Concrete’ was also a fantastic band.

Jeroen Verbeeck

‘Ulrike’s Dream’ is still alive and kicking. The band exists for 20 years in 2017. We recorded an LP – Anarchie In Leuven. Nowadays all our hits are sung in Dutch and when we used to play grindcore, it’s now more of a mix of punk, metal & crust. Our previous record Van 9 Tot 5 came out in 2011. That was still with Kim singing. Nowadays Hans does the vocals.

Hans & Anton gained their first experiences ever regarding the production of noise in ‘Het Preekgestoelte’ [pulpit]. After that they started ‘Ulrike’s Dream’. They also founded ‘The Usual Suspects’. And after that ‘Death Church’, a ‘Rudimentary Peni’ tribute-band. And I have been in ‘Les Baudouins Morts’ and the hiphop-sensation ‘Flahaut’. That covers our side-projects…

Erik, ‘Ulrike’s Dream’ bassist

From the UD20 blog: ‘Concrete’ had played @ JH Clockwork [Leuven] not long before. Some ‘U.D.’ members were big fans and played their 10 inch record on a daily basis. Jeroen had left ‘U.D.’ but he sang a couple of tunes so he could see the other bands for free. Mich came along to sing the ‘Dirt’-cover. People at the entrance noticed the large amount of singers ‘Ulrike’s Dream’ had and told them this was more than enough. The band played over the guitar-amp of Michael, ‘Link’s guitar-player; he was the organiser of this show and the sound-guy. It was the first show with a “big” amplifier. He warned that the guitar was way too loud. But of course the band was convinced that there was no such thing as “too loud” in punk-music. This turned out to be a mistake. The band just blamed the P.A. for the band-sound afterwards but learned from it. ‘Ulrike’s Dream’ line-up here was: ‘Sapé’ (vocals), Jeroen (vocals), Mich (guest-vocals), Hans (guitar), Erik (bass), Anton (drums)

There was a lot of pogoing going on during the ‘Oi Polloi’ set. ‘U.D.’-members demonstrated the art of silly dancing once again.

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

The second day of the Ceaseless Suffocation weekend that Michel ‘Link’ Maes organised (with the help of other V.V. shitworkers of course). Read about the first day (98-04-18 with ‘Oi Polloi’, ‘Concrete’, ‘Link’, ‘Ulrike’s Dream’ & ‘Hellcorn’).

‘Infekcja’ was an anarcho-crust band from Wrocław (Poland) playing passionate, angry, pissed-off scandi-punk. The guestbook-entry mentions: Biały (bass), Słoma (guitar), Biki (drums), Mokry (vocals) & Mosiek (guitar). I believe their tour was organised by Filip Majchrzakowski from Sopoł. The latter ran the label Trujaca Fala, that did the band’s first releases (Kazdy Robotnik… tape in ’96, a self-titled 7” in ’97 and the split-tape with ‘Juggling Jugulars’ in ’98). If you understand Polish, check infekcja.blogspot.

‘Enough!’ from Gdansk (Poland) were touring together with ‘Infekcja’. They played “crust ‘Misery’ style”. Band-members were Piotr (bass; replaced by Adam Musiał on the 7”), Beata Stefanowicz (vocals; not on the 7”), Ewa (Eva) Pawlak (guitar), Jacek (drums) & Tomasz ‘Tomek’ Pawlak (vocals/guitar; later ‘Filth Of Mankind’). Michał ‘Flondra’ Jędrejek (later ‘Filth Of Mankind’ aswell) also played in the band at one time… They did a self-released tape – Darkside – in ’96, a split-7” with ‘Juggling Jugulars’ (Trujaca Fala ‘97) and a split-10” with the Croatian ‘Nula’ (Trujaca Fala & Malarie recs ‘98).

‘Sarah’ were from Rennes; Bretons “fighting for their future, their language”. Their address stated “Breizh via France”. Breizh is the Breton name for Brittany (Bretagne, a region in the North-West of France). They wrote: “The French laws are improper for what is going on in Brittany, e.g. concerning water-pollution, agriculture,…” but they didn’t see themselves as nationalists: “We are communists.”. They were also a SxE band…“to show people that it is possible to live without drugs or alcohol”. They played (post-)hardcore (sometimes industrial or metal sounding, also use of accoustic instruments; some compared them with ‘Neurosis’), sang lyrics in Breton, Gaelic & French, and also did a zine named An Eeunded. If I remember well the people in the band were Fabien Lecuyer (vocals/fiddle), Michaël Genevée (drums/accordion/fiddle), Erwan H. (guibasse/mandoline/piano) & Jérôme Bouthier (bass). Thierry Jolivet and Stéphane Hardy (who’re mentioned on the tape-insert) were their friends. They would be back for the Leed festival later that year (98-09-19)… They did 2 demos (Herzelomp Betek An Trec’h & Latcho Drom) and in 1999 they released Ez Eterninmens (4 track CD).

This was supposed to be ‘Cornucopia’s 4^th passage at the V.V. (after 96-02-24, 97-02-28 & 97-10-04) but they didn’t get to play. This grindcore band from Mol consisted of Bert Dexters (bass; sometimes Dennis ‘Tyfus’ Faes), Erik ‘Smerik’ Minnen (vocals), Jim Faes (who probably played the drums by then) & the (new?) guitarist Robin. 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.). As for vinyl… In ’96 there was the 7” Lawaat…In De Maat (Liberty Collective, USA) and in ’97 a split-7”s with ‘Intestinal Disease’ (on Moshi Moshi).

‘Muggles’ had played the V.V. already on 95-07-09. The band (from the Mechelen area) played chaos-punk: Frédéric/Fred ‘Baskie’ Vandersype (vocals; Gnome zine & distro) was apparently replaced by Erik Minnen (‘Cornucopia’), Bruno ‘Sloef’ Mastyn (guitar; also ‘Intestinal Disease’), his brother Geert & his partner Manuella ‘Manu’ De Roover (drums). They had released a split-7” with ‘Blindspot A.D.’ (Germany) on T.V.G. recs in 1996, and together with 3 other Belgian bands (‘Les Schtroumpfs Alcooliques’, ‘Hirudo’ and ‘Honey Honey’) they appeared on the Screams From Belgium ‎LP that Tim Leten (Filth-Ear distribution) put out in 1997.

Brob

‘Muggles’ & ‘Cornucopia’ didn’t play… [They were indeed nót mentioned in the V.V. notes.] I don’t know why. I was also singing for the ‘Muggles’ aound that time and I just recall that we didn’t play that day…

Erik Minnen

I wasn’t in the band at that time anymore, don’t know if Erik sang or Kurt (‘Noise Reduction’). But I was there when we played with ‘Intestinal Disease’…

Fred Vandersype, ‘Muggles’

In 98 Dennis ‘Tyfus’ took over the bass. I couldn’t combine the band with sport and studies anymore…

Bert Dexters, ex ‘Cornucopia’

I wasn’t there but I travelled with both bands for a part (well, actually 2 parts) of that tour – but not including Ieper. Filip ‘Fala’ booked the tour and drove one of the cars (both bands were split between a van and Filip’s car). At that time it was already the second drummer playing for ‘Enough!’ on that tour: Michał Jędrejek. He was bassist for ‘F.O.M.’ (where he later switched to guitar) but drummer in the last line-up of ‘Enough!’. He had joined the band before that tour and they didn’t last much longer (their second bassplayer left right after the tour and they stopped playing some time later).

Pawel ‘Scream’

I was the drummer of ‘Enough!’ for about a year…

Michał Jędrejek

We were and still are close to the Breton and Basque independence circles. We were and are militant Bretons. Our bassist has also spent 2 years in prison on the accusation of terrorism (he was acquitted). We have done over a hundred concerts in a number of countries (Slovenia, Croatia, etc.).

There was a great atmosphere at the Vort’n Vis. But we felt a bit distant from the usual HC/punk topics (also being SxE). That scene was an amazing, wonderful world but it wasn’t our trip. We were more metal-heads. I don’t remember anything about the other bands. It’s possible that we got there the day before – can’t remember, we toured a lot around that time – but after that we did a memorable Scottish tour with ‘Oi Polloi’ and ‘Bastard Sons Of Fuds’ [?]…

Fabien Lecuyer, ‘Sarah’ vocalist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Bassist Beckie Gibbons had left ‘Chaos UK’ (from Bristol) before their 1994 US tour and ‘RamRaider’ Marv(in) replaced her. ‘Nausea’s guitarist Vic(tor) ‘Venom’ Dominicis (also ex ‘Reagan Youth’) had joined as second guitarist (he had been at the V.V. already during their first passage 93-11-21). Pat ‘Devilman’ Evans had replaced Chuck on drums. Their album Floggin’ The Corpse (some new recordings but mostly stuff recorded live in 1983) was released in 1995, after which all members left the band except Adrian ‘Chaos’ Rice (vocals; taking over from Kieran ‘Mower’ Moylett) and guitarist ‘Gabba’; the new bassist was J. Cloth and new drummer Phil Thudd… Their CD The Morning After The Night Before was recorded with that line-up in April 1996… The EP King For A Day was also released in ’96.

It was the ‘Varukers’ (Leamington Spa) 2^nd time at the V.V. (see: 94-02-05) and they’d played Belgium in the 80s before… So their D-beat à la ‘Discharge’ was not new… In July ’94 they had recorded the Nothing’s Changed EP (released on Weird recs) with Anthony ‘Rat’ Martin doing vocals (also sang for ‘Discharge’ later on), drummer Kev(in) Frost, guitarist ‘Biff’ Ian Smith and bassist Brian Ansell. In 1995 We Bite recs did the Still Bollox But Still Here LP for them.

‘Varukers’ (photo by Wim De Leersnijder)

Some ‘Fleas & Lice’ history… In the beginning of 1995 Oene Brandsma (ex ‘Chronicore’) had joined the band (see 93-02-06 & 94-03-19) on bass (Joshua Lagerwerf had left). In 1996 Esther took a break for half a year and Willy ‘Wills’ Nollomont (‘Hiatus’) replaced her for a while. In 1997 Piet (Pierre Erickson) got hit by a taxi-cab and couldn’t play guitar for 14 months. In 1998 Pelle replaced Maynard Schut on drums. In December 2002 Oene leaves the band and gets replaced by Stiff from Scotland. Jim got added in early 2004 as a second guitarplayer.

‘Fleas & Lice’ (photo from Ludovic Haché’s zine Ras L’Bol #5)

‘Muggles’ (from the Mechelen area) played chaos-punk: Frédéric/Fred ‘Baskie’ Vandersype (vocals; Gnome zine & distro), Bruno ‘Sloef’ Mastyn (guitar; also ‘Intestinal Disease’), his brother Geert & his partner Manuella ‘Manu’ De Roover (drums). They did a split-7” with ‘Blindspot A.D.’ (Germany) on T.V.G. recs in 1996, and together with 3 other Belgian bands (‘Les Schtroumpfs Alcooliques’, ‘Hirudo’ and ‘Honey Honey’) they appeared on the Screams From Belgium ‎LP) that Tim Leten (Filth-Ear distribution) put out in 1997. They were invited back to the V.V. for a second gig on 98-04-19…

‘Chosen Choice’ was a “thrashpunk” band from Lublin with guitarist Piotr(ek) Kowalczyk & drummer Marek (who was also in ‘Amen’). They had been playing at the V.V. already half a year eralier (94-12-31). Their tape, entitled Think For Yourself, was released by Lagart Factory (formerly Lagart Tapes; ran by Dariusz ‘Pała’ Palinowski, Paweł ‘Bocian’ Sikora & Tomasz ‘Mrówa’ Komorek of ‘Amen’ & Kultura Nędzy zine).

Brob

Michael [Maes] and myself were doing the entrance on this one, I think…

Henk Loobuyck

I started the band together with Geert & ‘Manu’ in 1991. We had several singers: Frédéric, Steve, Tom Jonckheere (later ‘Wizards Of Oi’), Erik Minnen (‘Cornucopia’) & Kurt van den Eynden (‘Noise Reduction’ & ‘Karma’)…

Bruno ‘Sloef’ Mastyn, ‘Muggles’ guitarist

I remember that we all took our wives/girlfriends at the time on this weekend-gig. They decided never to come again afterwards. ;-) I liked the venue and we always had a good crowd. Didn’t like sleeping upstairs though in February [the year before]… ‘Chaos UK’ were always fun to play with and are good friends. ‘Fleas & Lice’ were an excellent band also and great people. Again: we played with them a few times over the years…

Kevin Frost, ‘Varukers’ drummer

I recall that the English all had brought their girlfriends and slept in hotels, except for Brian, the ‘Varukers’ bassist. He stayed behind by himself and had to party all night in the V.V. with us…

Maynard Schut, ‘Fleas & Lice’ drummer

‘Chosen Choice’ was a two-piece and I believe they both dropped out years ago…

Pawel ‘Scream’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Paolo M. informs us of a new place that has been squatted in Ghent (May ’95). A building at the Hogepontstraat. Together with the adjoint (even bigger building) at the Scheldekaai (on the riverside) – squatted in February 1996 – that would be come the residence of a big bunch of ‘Schelderatten’ …

additions wellcome!…

‘Svart Snö’ (meaning “black snow”), a band playing aggressive HC/punk – references to ‘Poison Idea’, ‘Discharge’ & ‘M.D.C.’ – from Stockholm, were: ‘Fabbe’ Fabian Hansson Bernstone (vocals), Peter ‘Peken’ Hirseland (guitar/vocals), ‘Piffen’ Joakim Hammenstig (drums), Tomii ‘Tonken’/‘Tompa’ Johannesson (bass). The band had already toured with ‘Hiatus’ in ’92 so this was their 2^nd one (here with their fellow countrymen ‘Greenscab’)… They had already some vinyl out by then. Beginning of that year they had finished the recordings for the Besserwisser LP (out on Really Fast recs).

‘Svart Snö’ (photo by Wim De Leersnijder)

‘Svart Snö’ drummer (photo from Ludovic Haché’s zine Ras L’Bol #3)

‘Greenscab’, a crust band from Malmö/Göteborg (Sweden), were Johnny Christiansen (Christensson?) (bass), ‘Sniff’ Ola Persson (drums), Ola Püschel (guitar) and ‘Mud’ (vocals). Their music was described as “killer fast HC with a touch of ‘Slayer’…” They did an LP called Left The End Behind on ElderBerry recs (the label of ‘Steve’- Stefan Hakeskog – ‘G-Anx’) in 1995 and a year later the 7” Kill Precede Rampage on Hepatit D (label ran by Johnny and Peter Jandreus) in ’96 (they’d split up by then). The band also did a track for the Tribute To Poison Idea CD.

On 94-04-23 ‘Rood Arch’ (from Lille/Dunkerque) played the V.V. for the first time. Pierre Anne (drums/vocals), ‘Tomoy’ (bass; ex ‘Scraps, later also in ‘Unhinged’) & Fred (also bass; ex ‘6 Feet Over’) were also regular visiters since they were living just across the border.

‘Abyss’ (an emo band from Rastede – Oldenburg/Bremen area – playing metallic HC) had been announced but split up. The “European ‘Downcast’” (as some called them) released a 7” on André Pawelzick’s label Love (and my penpal Holger Ohst’s Summersault distro) that year and later there would be a split double 7” with ‘Iconoclast’ on Old Glory recs (recorded Nov ’94). The band was Willi Wahnbeck (bass), Ralf ‘Kerni’ Kerncke (drums), Maurice Grassau (guitar), Niklas ‘Nick’ Hinsch (guitar) and Sven von Thülen (vocals) & Jörg (vocals).

Brob

I run a software-company now with Benjamin Straude (guitarist of ‘Queerfish’). And Niklas Hinsch is working with us… I’m the partner of Franziska von Hasselbach.

Maurice Grassau, ‘Abyss’

We were dead tired of each other as it was in the end of the tour. Touring with ‘Svart Snö’ was good: hey were already friends of our’s so…

Johnny ‘Greenscab’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

“Vindicating emo matinee”, Bruno wrote on the flyer & VV newsletter of that time… ‘Shitworkers’ that day: ‘Hazel’, Joeri H, Vik B, Wim ‘ Blindfold’, Hans Verbeke & yours truly.

Corey von Villiez & Bernd Bohrmann (Equality recs, ‘Abolition’, Stack’) organised the tour for ‘Policy Of 3’.

I had invited ‘Malva’ to play at the V.V. before (see: 94-11-05); here they supported the ‘PO3’ tour for 3 weeks. They were an emo-core band from Leverkusen with Christian Schneider (guitar), Alex(ander) Bokelmann (drums), Flo(rian) Reiss (guitar), Martino Palazzo (vocals) & Alex(ander) Jahn (bass). I really liked their demo. Later (’96) Corey & Bernd released the 7” Das Leben Ist Kein Picknick on their label Equality recs.

‘Policy Of 3’, a political SxE emo band from New Jersey, were: Adam Goldstein (guitar/vocals), Chris(topher) Fry (drums), Eric ‘Bull’ Gervasi (bass; later ‘400 Years’ – see 97-06-14) and Jeff Fisher (guitar/vocals). At this time they had a self-titled 7” out on Scott Beibin’s Bloodlink recs (recorde March ‘93), and the Dead Dog Summer LP (recorded Sep. ‘93) & the American Woodworking 7” (out in ‘95) both on on Old Glory recs. They were part of the Cabbage Collective in Philadelphia that put up shows in the basement of a church. Bull also distributed records at a local anarchist bookstore.

‘Ananda’ came from Parisian suburbia. A few months before (February) they had recorded a demo. Recordings of their show with ‘Policy Of 3’ and ‘Avail’ (95-05-30 in Poitiers, France) were used for a split-tape with ‘Symptom Of Isaac’. The band consisted of Chrystèle Grall & Jean-Yves André (vocals), Thomas Guillanton (guitar; ex ‘Fingerprint’, ‘Jasemine’) & Sylvain Klein (guitar), Jérôme ‘Mizou’ Bessout (drums; ex ‘Fingerprint’, ‘Jasemine’) and Jérôme ‘Gunthar’ Lacombe (bass). (Günthar studio was Jérôme’s the home recording-studio in the 90s.) Their 10” Masqué was recorded that summer and released by Olivier Lépine on his label La Libre Expression. Later Stéphane ‘Stu’ Joly (ex ‘Undone’) replaced Sylvain and Michaël Clergeot did vocals in stead of Jean-Yves (after the 10” and the Habeas Corpus LP); the sound changed “from screamo to heavy gloomy hardcore sludge”. They would come back to the V.V. on 96-09-22 & 99-08-21.

‘Kosjer D’ (previous appearances: 94-05-22 & 94-08-19) started out as a 3-some (acoustic guitar, bass & drums) and then Arne (Van Petegem; who was in a mainstream pop-band before and nowadays known as the electronic/dance producer ‘Styrofoam’) 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 Kristien Hendrix (bass). The band did some recordings and asked Bruno (Genet recs) to release them as a 7” (entitled True). Musically they were compared to ‘Jawbox’ & ‘Fugazi’. People can read about how it came about in Reminder #5… They had finished recordings in spring that year so they presented their untitled LP (also out on Genet recs) here. They would come back a few times more and evolved into ‘Reiziger’…

‘Nothing Left To Grasp’, an emo band from Augsburg (Germany), had already played on 94-08-20 but I believe they didn’t show up here, there’s no mention of them in the V.V. notes…

Brob

We toured with ‘Policy of 3’ and when we got back from Great-Britain, we stopped at the V.V. to do a show there; together with the fantastic ‘Kosjer D’. We split up around 1996 but Alex J, Alex B and me have been doing music under the name ‘Malva’ until 2010. Then we stopped because I was moving to Berlin.

Christian Schneider, ‘Malva’ guitarist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

This article (by Laura W. in Synthesis #5) talks about the pros en cons of the organisation of the 1998/99 Vort’n Vis Ieperfest, in a comparison with the More Than Music festival (in Columbus, Ohio, USA). It reflects some of the criticisms a bunch of people had and the author gives a few hints of what and how to try to improve certain things…

All Belgian bands here…

‘Gwyllions’ (a melodic skate-punk band – in the vein of ‘NoFX’, ‘Lagwagon’, ‘Pennywise’ – from the Lintfabriek scene in Kontich) were Dimi(tri) Vinck (vocals/guitar; ‘Jakke’ sang when they started out as a 5-piece), Kris Willems (bass), Redg(y) Peeters (drums) & Tom(my) Willemijns (guitar). GreenLeaf recs (a subsidiary of GoodLife recs) released two albums of them: Facedown… ‎(’96) & Idiosyncracy ‎(’97).

‘Lunatic Society’ (from Merchtem) started out as an old-school English punk-rock (“beer-punk”) band. They had a demo out and appeared on the compilation On The Streets (We Bite recs ’97). The music evolved into ska-punk (even adding a horn-section). The line-up back then was Erik De Smedt (drums), Mich(ael) De Neve (vocals; later Hans Bogaerts), Herman Bastelé (guitar) and Wim De Neve (bass; later replaced by Ludwig De Wolf). They split up but reformed and did a few albums in the new century.

‘Little White Feet’ was a local outfit (Wervik) that started out as a cover-band. Melodic pop & rock. They mention in the guestbook it was their second show here. No idea when the first one was…

‘Primal Urge’ were also mentioned in the Vort’n Vis notes…

Don’t think there was a big attendance: there were 3 other gigs elsewhere that day (‘State Of Fear’, etc. in Liège; ‘Veil’, etc. in Sint-Niklaas & ‘Deformity’, etc. in Tielt)…

Brob

I recall that I’ve been admitted that night (40°C fever) [see guestbook].

Dimi Vinck, ‘Gwyllions’

I was in ‘Lunatic Society’ (as 2^nd guitarist) from around ‘96 (did a gig with them in Herzele 96-06-29, supporting ‘G.B.H.’ & ‘UK Subs’) and I read in the biography (‘cause I don’t know anymore myself) that in ‘98 a few members quit… The first line-up was Mich(ael) doing vocals, his brother Wim on bass, Herman playing guitar and Erik De Smedt drumming. The demo was still with Mich & Wim De Neve (also ‘Counter-Attack’). I’ve been at the Vort’n Vis but I can’t recall that gig anymore…

Ben Notaert

‘Lunatic Society’ was indeed my first band (I was about 14/15 then). I can’t remember the gig at the Vort’n Vis. Probably I didn’t play for them anymore at that timepoint…

Wim De Neve

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

‘Primal Urge’?

additions wellcome!…

Michael ‘Link’ Maes & Inge Cappoen were listed as ‘shitworkers’ that day… Both of them were in ‘Link’ (guitar & vocals). They were locals so they acted as ‘surprise-act’… See also 97-09-12, 97-12-26 & 98-04-18.

‘Detestation’, an anarcho-punk/crust band (from Portland, Oregon), started in July 1995 with Kelly Halliburton (bass; ex ‘Resist’ [92-06-13], ‘Defiance’ [95-10-14], ‘Masskontrol’ [95-11-05], etc.), Ty Smith (drums; ex ‘Resist’), Adam (guitar) and Saira M. Huff (vocals). Later Andy joined to play the drums and Brian Hopper (also ‘Defiance’) guitar. They were supposed to tour in August-September 1996 but that didn’t happen because of mis-communication between the band and Martin Valasek (Malarie recs). On the 1998 tour (organised by Kelly) the band consisted of Saira, Kelly, Brian and drummer Dominic Nigro (later in ‘War Machine’ with Brian & Kelly).

There is a rare recording of ‘Detestation’ from a gig in Malmö, Sweden (98-09-21). Their set lasts for 29 minutes. It was bootleged by Punk Art Riot on tape… There’s also a live split-tape benefit for the Kopi squat in Berlin with ‘Detestation’ (recorded in Karlsruhe in 1998) and ‘6000 Crazy’ (with ex ‘So Much Hate’ vocalist Gunnar Nuven, recorded in Duisburg in 1998). That was done by Trująca Fala from Poland. The Europe 98 7” on Consensus Reality (Kelly’s own label) contained a live and a studio-recording on one side. It was meant to be a flexi-disc but the company who was supposed the press it, refused because of “blasphemy”.

Kelly – Saira – Dominic – Brian

In 1996 they’d put out (on Consensus Reality) the Unheard Cries tape and a 7” entitled The Inhuman Condition. A bunch more vinyl followed (mostly split’s; some on the A’dam label Wicked Witch recs ran by Edwin Feenstra). In ’98 Skuld releases & Profane Existence released the self-titled LP (recorded June ’97 with Andy) and a 7” called Blood Of The Gods (recorded June ’98 with Dominic)…

Nowadays Saira is a fashion-designer. She played bass in the shock punk band ‘Faggot’ and was in some others. Read this interview with Saira in MRR.

Since ‘Detestation’ did part of their tour with ‘Cress’ (from Lowton/Warrington, south of Wigan), I had the idea they played here too. But no… They played ‘K13’ squat in Ghent (98-10-22). Just to let you know what some missed: The band evolved out of the 80s punk band ‘The Deformed’. Members were: Adrian ‘Joe’ Oakes (vocals), David/Dave Bloor (bass), Nev Shaw (guitar), Pete(r) Bloor (guitar & vocals), Ste(ve) (keyboards & vocals. They used a drum-machine (Hal2000). Chris Kpa did lighting & tapes. ‘Sned’& Alec put some of their stuff out on Flat Earth recs: the Monuments LP (1997) and a split-10” with ‘Doom’ (1998; a benefit for the McLibel campaign). QQRYQ prods also put out a tape with the Polish ‘Post Regiment’ that year… And in August ’98 the band recorded for the From Violence To Consumerism 7” (released on Worried Sheep recs). There’s also a benefit-tape circulating with their demo-recordings and live material from a gig in Leuven (97-10-31).

‘Hellcorn’ (from Poperinge, near Ieper) were Noam Sohier (guitarist; ‘nowadays Netra’), Angelo Santy (drums), Tony Stamper (bass) & Nathan Floor (vocals)… They had been on a V.V. bill already (98-02-28) and also played on 98-04-18.

Brob

I don’t remember if ‘Detestation’ actually played there??? It was so long ago and that ‘98 tour was over 10 weeks long…. I would love to contribute but I can’t recollect the show, sadly (and I wasn’t drinking at the time!!! haha). I think I was just there for a show with ‘Masskontrol’ in ‘95…but maybe we did play there… I honestly don’t remember…

Saira M. Huff, ‘Detestation’ vocalist (also did Diminutive Rage zine)

I think another band, called ‘Link’, played as well that night, according to my records. I remember the gig, mostly because there was almost nobody there! It was totally empty and we were so bored that we actually played an extra set from our side band with our roadie, Frank, called ‘Final Massakre’. That was me playing drums, Hopper playing guitar, Frank singing and Saira playing bass. This was the last show of our 10 week tour in Europe (and the last show that ‘Detestation’ ever did…ever!), so we had a lot of fun just messing around and dancing to the bad disco music that someone put on. The next day Saira and I dropped off the rest of the guys (drummer Dominic + guitarist Brian) at the ferry in Calais to catch their flights home from London, while we went back to Germany. We were planning on traveling in Europe for the next six months but we ended up staying at Köpi squat in Berlin, ending our 5½ years relationship with each other, and I started a new life in Germany…but that’s a history and adventure story for another time! Ha, ha…

‘Cress’ didn’t play. We toured with them from October 12 until October 21, mainly Germany and the Czech Republic, but we took separate ways when we went to Italy/Greece and they went home to England.

Kelly Halliburton, ‘Detestation’ bassist

Yes, it was the last gig of a 10 week tour for ‘Detestation’. We got insanely tight despite our best efforts to play shitty. This one came a couple weeks after a 6 week tour of the US and Canada… Back to the Belgium show. I don’t remember much either: it was dusty ‘n dark, and I didn’t have my glasses. The set was flawless I’m sure.

Frank, Kelly & Saira all had these studded jackets. I remember Frank putting a studded coat on me and I drummed for what?… ‘Atrocious Madness’ or ‘Final Massacre’ or someone’s project. I just faked it. We were goofing around with people who wanted us to keep playing music. We played ‘Black Sabbath’ too. It was loose for some reason

I don’t remember it – being empty but goofy. There were folks but they were spread out. I remember the stage being loose and it was fun ‘cause it was our last show. The last one I wrote about in my journal was Torino, then we played Dijon then Ieper We were all happy to be going home but also extremely grateful for how nice folks were. I learned so much and passed it on. Started doin’ lots of political work after that, did an info-shop/venue that lasted for 14 years. Taught radical hers & history…

My friend [roadie?] Chris Friedman probably has video-footage…

Dominic Nigro, ‘Detestation’ drummer

Yeah… ‘Link’ also played… Unexpectedely… And we were very drunk… What I recall about this gig is that it took place in the ‘barn’. Not too many people but the sets were great. ‘Hellcorn’ played first; followed by ‘Detestation’. There was a high alcohol-consumption that night: by myself and others. And after they pushed us [‘Link’] on stage do play a set. I could hardly hold my guitar. And when that was over, there was an ‘after-party’ where ‘Detestation’s singer played a few tapes with 80s stuff and disco. Everyone was dancing and had fun. Even Kelly (bassist of ‘Detestation’) took a chance on the dance-floor. According to Saira it was the first time he did something like that…

Michael Maes, ‘Link’

additions wellcome!…

This gig was announced as a benefit-gig “in order to be able to finance the reparations needed for the vocal P.A.”. Lots of things, line-up wise, changed during the preparation…

At first another Portugese band, ‘Inkisiçao’ (see 94-09-17) was gonna tour with ‘No More’ but they couldn’t make it because of the singer’s job-duties… Their replacement ‘Corrosão Caótica’ – a hardcore/punk band from Lisbon with vocalist Paulo ‘Piranha’ Baptista, guitarist João(zinho) Morais, drummer Rui Lucena and bassist Miguel ‘Zé Gato’ (later also in ‘Subcaos’), and for a moment they also had a female guitarist called Susana – cancelled the tour aswell in the end. Hence the gig that was announced for July 31^st was abandoned…

‘Subcaos’ from Lisbon were Diogo Tovar Carvalho (vocals; also did Recognize No Authority zine, and distributed mine), Xico (or Chico or FJ; vocals), João Abrantes (guitar; was ‘held up’), João Barrelas (guitar; also in ‘X-Acto’), Tópê (bass) & David (drums). They put out a demo (Genocidio, “chaotic crustcore”) in ’92 and tracks for the split-7” with ‘Hiatus’ (out on Slime recs) were recorded at the gig they played in Bruges the day before … (93-07-31) Slime recs (which existed since 1989) changed it’s name to Ataque Sonoro around 1994/95 (ataquesonoro.blogspot) and released their split-album with ‘Genital Deformities’ in ’94. They came back twice… (94-04-02 & 94-12-31).

‘Subcaos’ photographed by Henk Loobuyck

‘No More’ (see 92-05-24, 92-09-05 & 93-03-28) – Claude ‘Pattex’ Werer (guitar), Fränz Laureys (bass), Steve ‘Diff’ Differding (vocals) & Mike ‘Schof’ (drums) – who were supposed to play with ‘Corrosão Caótica’ the day before didn’t come over either (or did they?)… Another band that ‘Diff’ played guitar for, ‘Subway Arts’ (political hardcore/punk from Esch/Alzette), played. The others in the band: Claude ‘Bourano’ Bour (drums; (drums; Mike played on the split-LP but left also soon after), Fränz Laureys (bass), Sabrina D’Aurelio (vocals; David on the split-LP) and Xavier (guitar). It wasn’t their first visit either (92-12-20, 93-02-06, 93-07-04) and it wouldn’t be their last (94-04-02) … The Luxemburgers had released a split 12” (All Life is Equal) together with ‘No More’ in 1991 (on Markus Haas’ Per Koro recs). Around this time here they released a 12” titled “Una Definizione Perveresa Della Pace” (‘93) – a collaboration of Genet recs and PeaCy recs (ran by Diff and Simone Winandy).

‘Subway Arts’; photos by Eric ‘React’ Wawrzynkowski

‘Scraps’ were announced (in the newsletter) with a new line-up and new songs. At their previous passages (90-02-24, 90-09-15, 91-03-16, 91-09-01, 91-12-31) David (vocals) & his brother Raphael Dutriaux (guitar) still had Xavier (drums) in their ranks – besides Tomoy (bass) off course. I guess they might’ve recruted Pierre Anne (ex ‘6 Feet Over’) as drummer by then… He was on the LP Dismantle The Machine One Cog At A Time (recorded April ’94).

‘P.J.D.’ (Private Jesus Detector) was also mentioned in the newsletter but there’s nothing about hem in the V.V. notes for that day… They’d played the Vort’n Vis several times before: 90-08-25, 90-10-27 & 91-03-16.

Brob

We’d split up since a while because we rehearsed very rarely in 1992. We did that last show in Ternat [93-10-23] because it was a benefit. We did a few show in 1993 but ‘Pette’ didn’t feel like it much anymore… Gigging became sporadic but the fun of it was gone by the end of ‘92/beginning of ‘93. Also ‘Spatje’ didn’t feel like it anymore…

Koen ‘Siesele lammens, ‘P.J.D. bassist

Since we [‘No More’/’Subway Arts’] were kind of a collective with people switching from here to there and we all had a great relationship witch each other, we might have decided to just play as ‘Subway Arts’…

‘Diff’

I remember ‘Subcaos’: very cool people, the loved to play soccer. We went over to Portugal aswell… I guess ‘Diff’ organised all of that. Portugal, Spain,…

Sabrina D’Aurelio, ‘Subway Arts singer

I definitely think that the V.V. gig was the best of the ‘Subcaos’ tour as everyone talked over and over about it. I really would have liked to be there but it wasn’t possible…

Miguel Crespo (Ratazana Productions [a concert-collective, including with Guilherme Chalmers]), personal communication ‘94

I remember we shook hands in 1993 or the second time I was there in 1995. Lots of memories from those times, all the people and the mighty Vort’n Vis where I slept at least a couple of times… It was Bruno’s good intention to help ‘Turmoil’ with touring Europe and with a (split)LP; which never happened because of hard situations in Turkey. It was a nice dream anyway. I tried my best and with the help of Bruno I showed up alone instead of a tour and had a great time. There was a great gig with ‘Scraps’; ‘Subway Arts’ & ‘Subcaos’ were touring. There were lots of cool people at V.V. like the guy from ‘Neuthrone’, the unknown crusties of ‘War Cry’ and ‘Corpus Christi’, the people of Nabate recs and – I want to mention these names – Boezie, Stevie, Jimyh. I believe I have some photos from those days.

I’m still a noise-freak, still enjoy a lot of the same old stuff. I wouldn’t care sounding like ‘Youth Corps’ or ‘Terveet Kadet’…

Tay(lan) Ipek, ‘Turmoil’

I was on the road with ‘Subcaos’ and the Luxembourgers (I’m not sure if ‘Subway Arts’ played on all days or if they only played in Ieper. I think the other 2 days and probably the entire tour was with ‘No More’.); a tour that Bruno organised in the summer of 1993 (I also attended the 1994 ‘Subcaos’ gig): one gig in Manheim in the Cologne area, so not Mannheim in the south-west of Germany) and two in Belgium (Bruges and Ieper). Originally, I just wanted to attend the Ieper gig but Bruno asked if I was up for two more days. There were also a few other people accompanying ‘Subcaos’, which was nice: chatting, beer. :-). It was a really good experience being on tour (well, 3 or 4 days) with people from rather different backgrounds and countries (Portuguese, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany). Markus of Per Koro recs also attended those gigs.

Carsten Pötter (Frankfurt)

I remember ‘Subway Arts’ very well… First time I heard a band from Luxembourg: ‘bonne pêche’, nice people, etc. Don’t remember much about ‘Subcaos’…

Willy ‘Hiatus’

One thing that I can recall from on of the gigs at the V.V. is that we were playing the smaller room and right in the middle of our set smoke started coming out of one of the amps, not sure if they caught fire or not but it would make a better story if it did… ;-)

Diogo (Tovar), ‘Subcaos’ singer

I couldn’t go on tour at that time because I had a ‘small problem” with the law and could not leave the country :-) I believe the band played in the V.V. bar.

João Abrantes, ‘Subcaos’ guitarist

I toured with ‘Scraps’ once, playing the guitar. As far as I can remember I just played Germany and Austria for five weeks. I replaced the guitarist, Raphael (David’s bro; he used to work with handicapped people and could not get holidays). I think it was ‘93. [Brob: I think that was ’95; and Amanda Trevens was touring with them in ‘94…]

Ma Raab

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

More on this concert: 92-06-13 Resist – U.F.D. – Zero Positives – Hiatus (Bel)

Here’s a bunch of photographs taken and donated by Kelly Halliburton (‘Resist’ bassist):

‘Hiatus’; alternative line-up with Phill ‘Kill’ on bass

‘Hiatus’

L => R: Azill ‘Hiatus’, Chris Eagan, Chris Eagan’s girlfriend & Bruno Vandevyvere

L => R: some Canadian guy, Ty Smith [R.I.P.] (‘Resist’ drummer), Chris Rainier (a friend from Paris), Chris Eagan’s girlfriend, Chris Eagan & Bruno Vandevyvere

Chris Eagan; Desperate Attempt recs (Louisville, Kentucky)

Vort’n Vis courtyard with Roi (‘U.F.D.’ bassist) saying cheers, and (sitting down) closest to camera: Peter, (‘U.F.D.’ driver), Arno (‘U.F.D.’ guitarist) and Mark Landers (‘Resist’ roadie)

Introduction => 96-08-16&17&18 Hardcore, The Next Generation

Since I (Brob) was rather disgusted with and had commented on the increasing commercialism, violent/sexist/homophobic attitudes, I spent most of the time I was there (for my literature-distribution) talking to fellow “PC emo-morons who stop everyone from having a good time” (as mentioned in the Hate 8000 Zine) in the courtyard and therefore hardly saw any of the bands, I reprint a review I found on the internet:

>>They had entitled this fest ‘Hardcore; the new generation’, as far as I’m concerned I would have rather called it ‘Hardcore the last generation’ or better yet ‘The demise of the Belgian scene’. It started early on Friday with ‘Firestone’: heavy metal from da neighborhood or something. Then I think it was ‘Facedown’, quite a good surprise, powerful emo-ish metal with quite a few things to say. ‘Vitality’: can’t rermember so I guess it was heavy metal or maybe even death-metal from Belgium. ‘Outrage’: pretty good powerful emo-metal; I was disappointed they didn’t talk much between songs. ‘Victims Of Society’ might have been the best band of the day; raging old-school hardcore punk à la ‘Inkisiçao’; I talked to them a bit and it turned out their lyrics are not serious, just funny or weird. ‘Down For The Count’ from Spain were good modern style HC but the sound-quality wasn’t too hot unfortunately. ‘Liar’: at least the vocalist was honest when he said “If you think it’s too violent get out!”, ‘cause the crowd did act like a bunch of football-supporters. But I enjoyed it, it was very powerful death-metal. ‘Spawn’ disappointed me a bit: at first the sound-quality wasn’t that good, and the band acted like a bunch of musicians. No wonder they went from Crucial Response to New Age… I think they’ve split up now. Oh yeah, it was good old-school though. Late at night ‘Unborn’ came up with their powerful basic death-metal, I totally enjoyed it but the set was short!<<

Here’s what Helene K. of Subjugation recs wrote about this fest on her blog:

>>Alas things were a bit different when I returned to the Ieper festival in 1996 with my friend’s band ‘Unborn’…It was much bigger and people seemed to be more into the idea that the highest echelons of human connectivity was achieved through busting some karate-esque moves, pushing those who weren’t turned on by this to the back of the room, and I guess philosophically speaking out of the way and out of the door to find desultory solace back in the mainstream. This aggressive individualism was in stark contrast to the good humoured communal feeling at the earlier festivals. I have to confess I find all this muscle-flexing a bit dull. I find it executed in a more finessed and meaningful way on the football-terraces and in any northern town on a weekend, and the need for ‘unity’ in this context much more understandable than one where you just watch a band together. But I can be a bit slow to grasp some of the more deeper and progressive philosophical stances about the inter-relationships between people, community and society. But I have to admit it had an effect on me. Some guy in the pit hit me once too often so I punch him in the back of the head, and I offered him out for a fight, which alas he turned down. Funny now to think of Nick from ‘Unborn’ stepping in to separate us. I guess you can take a girl out of the north east, but never the north east out of her!<<

The “H8000 Press” (‘Ringmaster’ Nicholas Malfeyt) wrote about the different nationalities of the visiters, the various ‘crews’ (H8000, Suckcore, ODK, Rennes, Evil Blood, Ruhrpott Posse, UK Vegan Warriors, Roma SxE) and the fact that this was ‘The Year Of The Moshpit’… Interesting ;-).

‘Firestone’ was a H8000 (from Kortrijk, Belgium) metal band. This was probably their first appearance at the Vort’n Vis. Their later singer Iris Walgraeve explained the band’s history in the post on their 97-06-27 show: >>Early on it was Thomas Desimpelaere who sang, then Alexander [Baert?] (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 [June ‘99]. Diederik Claes [bass] and Lennart Bossu [guitar; also ‘Liar’, later ‘Janez Detd’, ‘AmenRa’] were the only constant members I think.<< In August 1996 they recorded for their Dark Fantasies demo.

Also a first time for ‘Facedown’ (‘new-school’, metal-influenced, vegan SE-HC band from Kontich, near Antwerp): Thomas Baeken (bass), Youri Baeken (drums), Daniel Mies (vocals), Niko Poortmans (guitar) and Geert Ceuppens (guitar). The Ferket brothers (Evil Twin recs) released the Friendship Is Everything 7” (recorded at Studio 195 in July 1996; Bruno would re-release it – with some additional tracks – on Genet recs in 1997)… “Powerful, brutal, moshing emo-core”…

‘Vitality’ was a “tough-guy edge-metal” band from Oostduinkerke (ODK; Belgian coast): ‘Chief’ Steve De Clercq (vocals), ‘Noptje De Mens’ Bob Van Lierde (guitar) & ‘Alien King’ Chris Paccou (guitar; nowadays sound-engineer for ‘Carcass’), Olivier ‘Ollie’ Dobbels (drums; also nick-named ‘Simon’ or ‘Original Gangster’) and ‘Switch’ Marc Paccou (bass). In their early days they did one show with Frederic ‘Fre’ Flameygh on drums (ex ‘Burning Fight’, DJ Flameboy see 92-02-22) and also Ilja (‘Congress) played a short while for them… They supposedly recorded a demo that year; and Hans ‘Liar’ released 2 7”s for them on his label Sober Mind: a split with ‘Sektor’ an one entitled Bloodline. In 1998 their Crucial Wires CD appeared on the French (from Rennes) label Overcome recs.

‘ODK Crew’, also a band from Oostduinkerke, played a few songs unannounced. They played “Clevo style HC” and got quite some criticism for covering a song by ‘One Life Crew’ (with supposedly fascist inuendo)… The guys had some members of ‘Vitality’ (guitarist Bob Van Lierde & bassist Marc Paccou) and ‘Congress’ (drummer Ilja De Ceuleneire) in their ranks…

‘Outrage’ (friends from the Kempen area in Belgium) had already played the V.V. a few months before this (96-03-24). Sigi Loots (drums), Steven Van Goubergen (guitar), Ringo Van Dingenen (vocals) and Nico Peeters (bass). ‘Outrage’s had recorded their 1^st 7”, Between Brackets (out on Nico’s Day One recs) in April ’96…

‘Victims Of Society’ were a (pretty commercial) band playing old-school HC hailing from Heist-op-den-Berg (Belgium). They recorded the Screams From The Gutter demo at Labie’s Studio 195 that year and did a CD (Way Of Life) on Lost & Found (!) in 1997. They were: Davy Helsen (guitar), Dieter De Backer (drums), Hans Van Keilegom (guitar), Toon Severijns (bass) and Jim (vocals).

‘Down For The Count’, a new school sXe hardcore band from Madrid, were: Gonzalo Ávila (bass), David Fernández (drums), Conrado Isasa (guitar), Francisco Arroyo (Sanchez) (guitar) and Hugo Ortiz (vocals). They recorded for their tape entitled Reflections in April ‘96 (released by Víctimas Del Progreso – Crímenes De Estado).

‘Down For The Count’, photographed by Sergi E. Costa

I guess ‘Liar’ did one of their first shows with Bert Guillemont (also ‘Sektor’; replacing Raf) here since he’d just joined in June. Being locals they played the V.V. several times. The others were Hans Verbeke (vocals; also ‘Blindfold’, etc.), UxJx (bass; also ‘Congress’) and Joost ‘Josh’ Noyelle (guitar; also ‘Congress’). The line-up on the Invictus LP (1997, Genet recs). In August they did a 3 week tour in Europe together with ‘Blindfold’ and ‘Congress’…

Apparently Bert tore down an anti-violenct dancing poster (“hung up by Spanish fruits”)… Trying to prove ‘Liar’s aggressiveness I guess… In the interview with ‘Sektor’ in Slaves Of Mainstream he describes how violend the crowd was during ‘Liar’s set (read below)…

Watch a bit of their set here: ‘Liar’ 96-08, Invictus line-up.

‘Spawn’ was an sXe HC band from the Ruhrpott area (Germany). They performed at the fest 2 years ealier, 94-08-19) played their last concert. After that they still released an album entitled Adrift on the US label New Age recs (’96) and a split-7” with ‘Despair’ (USA) on March Through recs (’97). The guys in the band were Dirk Zeiser (bass), René Natzel (drums), Daniel Frankowski (guitar), Patrick Uhle (guitar) and Chris Van Dornick (vocals).

‘Spawn’ (pics by Sergi E. Costa): 1  – Dirk Zeiser bass  (Andre Hoppe, Two Face distro + Stefan Grabowski, World Eaters distro; in the crowd); 3 – Daniel Frankowski (supported by Peter Hoeren)

On the back of the flyer of the 1996 festival in the 1in12 (Bradford, UK), ‘Unborn’ was announced as “modern straight-edge mixed with Slayer”… The band consisted of Nick Royles (vocals; ex ‘Sore Throat’, ‘No Way Out’, ‘Nailbomb’, ‘Ironside’, ‘Cracked Cop Skulls’; also How We Rock zine), Chris Meadows (drums; Clear Perception zine), Patrick ‘Rat’ Poole (guitar; ex ‘Cracked Cop Skulls’), James (guitar; ex ‘Neckbrace’) and Andy ‘Wrighty’ Wright (bass; ex ‘Ironside’; R.I.P.). At that time they had the Ancestral Pagan Roots 7” out on (Nick’s label) Sure Hand recs (recorded in February 1996).

Brob

It was kinda sad that there were so many labels with a commercial attitude and that so many people bought their records from them (Green Hell, GoodLife, …) That’s why I’m so happy that there were also people showing an alternative way…

Manuel Harand, Smart Cookies Collective, Vienna, Austria (personal communication Sep. ’96)

I was at the “Ieperfest” in ‘96 (and also in’97). I remember ‘96 very well indeed because it was such a special time, a great line-up and much fun for me and my travelling-party from Vienna. we were loads of people, all sleeping inside the Vort’n Vis too. I have quite a few photos: they’re all on film of course and but haven’t scanned them all yet, it’s a task to do all of that…

Daniel Eberharter, Eloquence zine (Vienna, Austria)

People were dancing very violently during ‘Liar’s set. It was very harsh. I saw people coming from everywhere. It was like 5 meter wall of kids laying on top of each other in front of the stage. People have marked ‘Liar’ as “pro-violence, satanic” band but that’s bullshit. ‘Liar’ started out as a side-project of ‘Congress’- and ‘Blindfold’-members. They wanted to play music influenced by aggressive metal. It’s not because we’re anti-religion that we’re satan-worshippers.

Bert Guillemont (‘Liar’ drummer since June ‘96) in Slaves Of Mainstream zine #2

I feel my most interesting V.V. memories are of my first visits – I’d been there with ‘Bob Tilton’ (95-12-03) and also came for the festival in 1996 when ‘Unborn’ played.

David Allen (later ‘Voorhees’ drummer)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Introduction => 96-08-16&17&18 Hardcore, The Next Generation

Since I (Brob) was rather disgusted with and had commented on the increasing commercialism, violent/sexist/homophobic attitudes, I spent most of the time I was there (for my literature-distribution) talking to fellow “PC emo-morons who stop everyone from having a good time” (as mentioned in the Hate 8000 Zine) in the courtyard and therefore hardly saw any of the bands, I reprint a review I found on the internet:

>>The next day started with ‘Voices At The Front’. I didn’t really check them out but what I heard was heavy metal. ‘Kindred’ had a good sound and played OK heavy metal (à la 8000 crew). ‘Sektor’, another local band, played extreme death-metal, the audience was so stupid I left after 2 songs. ‘Saidiwas’ was probably the best band on the festival. Dog knows I dislike emo but they were damn good. (I’ld probably hate them on a record). Very young kids from Sweden playing American style poppy emo with lots of things to say between songs. No more tough guys here and the crowd was just wondeful, pogoing and slamdancing wildely. They were all so cute. Wonderful. Back to heavy metal with ‘Regression’ and their OK but boring brand of New York influenced music. ‘Timebomb’ were powerful but not as good as last year. They have great lyrics but it seems like they thought it was unnecassary to explain any of them on stage. ‘Burning Defeat’ were good too, very melodic and emotional, but the crowd took a long time to get into it and started dancing only on the 2 last songs. ‘Congress’: I liked the music as always, brutal death-metal, it was the kingdom of the bare-to-the-waist (tough) guys (singing along to choruses they didn’t even know what they were about). ‘Racial Abuse (Austria) were funny. I kind of enjoyed the music: modern HC, a drummer who’s only 12 years old is quite impressive. A lot of people were wondering how a band on Lost&Found ended up playing the V.V., and it was funny to see the Austrian crew making fun of them too! Last on were ‘Despair’. I totally loved their ultra powerful metallic HC, excellent sound-quality, but the audience ruined it all and I left in a bad mood…<<

The “H8000 Press” (‘Ringmaster’ Nicholas Malfeyt) highlights that Vik (‘VATF’ vocalist) spent more time in the crowd than on stage, ‘Kindred’ (‘Unbroken’-style SxE heroes) played a nice set, ‘Sektor’ started a fairly modest pit… “While I was outside, I heard the Swedish band ‘Saidiwas’ was playing wit a naked – as in ‘no clothes’ – drummer. It was time for the emo-faggot brigade to spread their message of peace, love and animal sex. A friend told me the singer was talking about the day before and mentioned the ‘fucking windmill crew’… Imagine a feminine guy with eye-shadow (!!) saying that… Since these wimps obviously had a thing against violent dancing, we had the bright idea to start a bloody windmill-pit… All the emos were crying their hearts out up-front… When the ‘Saidiwas’ set was over, the drummer – still butt-naked – got from behind his kit and stood there shaking his john in front of the audience. Next thing you know, the singer was giving him a French kiss. [Brob: A case of macho insecurity, Ringmaster?] ‘Regression’ did a very brutal set; too bad their 2^nd guitarist was there. ‘Timebomb’ rocked the stage. When ‘Congress’ played, the place exploded once again… I could hear bones breakin’, everything went almost as violent as the night before. A fantastic show with singalongs and pile-ups… ‘Despair’ got on stage way past midnight. They rocked… Before their final song the singer summoned everybody to do the ‘pizzamaker’…”<<

It wasn’t the first time at the Vort’n Vis for ‘Voices At The Front’ (96-05-12). Vik Bulik (vocals), Stefaan ‘Merel’ Merlevede [R.I.P.] (guitar), Vincent Theeten (guitar), Sim ‘Simtje’ Meersseman (bass) and Gaëtan Golvet (drums) were locals (from Poperinge).

‘Voices At The Front’ (source ?)

‘Kindred’, the SxE outfit from Limburg (metallic style of HC, often compared with ‘Unbroken’) were here before too (96-05-12). The guys in the band were Jan Beckers (guitar) and Maarten Beckers (drums) – Jan had been in ‘Acoustic Grinder’ (read: 93-02-27), ‘Strength Of The Will’ (92-09-06, 93-09-19); later, ‘Enemy Of The Sun’, ‘Kabul Golf Club’) – Eric Sefton (vocals) & Walter Beckers (bass). Another pre-‘Kindred’-band was ‘Churn’ (95-08-20) feat. Jan, Maarten, Raf Gielen, Peter (ex ‘Acoustic Grinder’) and Raf ‘Thrasher’ Gelenne… I believe Raf Gielen still played 2^nd guitar here. The recordings for the LP on GoodLife recs (File 01) were done in October ’96 without Raf. They would be playing again 97-08… A split with ‘Culture’ got out in ’97.

‘Kindred’ images; (1) courtesy of Jan Beckers, (2) source ?

‘Sektor’ had played their 1^st show at the V.V. a few months before (96-05-12). This vegetarian straight-edge metal-core band (from Beselare, near Ieper) was: ‘Lenny’ Wouter Cael (bass), Bert Guillemont (drums), Piet Cardoen (guitar), Vadim Vandekerckhove (guitar) and Jeroen Therry (vocals). They had done 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).

‘Sektor’ (photos 1-2-3 by Valerie Afschrift, 4 by Roel Brals)

‘Saidiwas’ was an “anarchist vegan straight-edge” band from Umeå in Sweden. “They got alot of attention because of their political lyrics and also because their drummer used to play naked.” In 1996 their first self-titled mCD was released By José Saxlund on his label Desperate Fight recs. “They made a big impression on the Belgian kids by refusing to play for a violent crowd.”, one can read on the www… I believe Anders Johansson played bass, Erik Åsell-Johansson hit the drums & sang, Philip Sundberg guitar, Peter Hellqvist guitar, and Michael/Mikael Berg was the vocalist. Sara Almgren (guitar; ex ‘Doughnuts’) also played for them later… “After that, they kicked their singer out, because (according to the rumours) he dropped sXe/veganism. Their former drummer switched to vocals, which left the band without a drummer for the recording of their debut full-length.” (All Punk Cons; released April ‘97, also on Desperate Fight recs. This was described as “art-punk” or “post-hardcore-new-wave-influenced-alternative-rock-with-occasional-emotional-ranting/yelling-but-oh-so-many-keyboard-and-piano-parts-core”.) I think Ludwig Dahlberg became their drummer later…

‘Saidiwas’, photographed by Patrick Federli (1) & Sergi E. Costa (2)

‘Regression’ (from Menen/Roeselare) played H8000 style, crunchy metallic (vegan) straight-edge HC: “Perhaps the most heaviest of all the ‘edge-metal’ bands: uncompromising death-metal mixed with straight-edge hardcore spirit.” Hans Verbeke wrote about them that they “created their own style of technical hardcore/metal with ‘Carcass’ and ‘Machinehead’ influences”; other people compared them with ‘Earth Crisis’. They were Bjorn Lescouhier (drums, ex ‘Shortsight’; replaced Raf -who was in ‘Liar’ too- around July 95), Kristof Taveirne (bass; nowadays in ‘Spoil Engine’), Niek Jacobsen (vocals) and ‘Stuutje’ David Decoutere (guitar). It was their second V.V. show (after 95-03-25) They had recorded a demo in ’95, then did the x-Heartless-x CD on GoodLife recs (‘96) and a split-CD with ‘Breach’ from Sweden ‎followed (also GoodLife recs, ‘97). Early ‘96 they had taken ‘Lookmulle’ (Davy Vanlokeren of ‘Deformity’) as second guitarist but he didn’t play here… I read that later he was replaced by Laurent (who used to sing for ‘Deformity’).

‘Regression’ (shot by Sergi E Costa)

‘Timebomb’s second appearance at the V.V. (95-08) They were a Roman communist, vegan sXe band band playing metallic HC. The guys in the band: Cristiano Suriano (drums; later ‘Opposite Force’), Daniele Marini (guitar), Giorgio Fois (vocals; later replaced by Emiliano; also drummer of ‘Comrades’), Marco Ciccone (guitar; later also ‘Opposite Force’) and Simone Marini (bass; Kill For Love zine). In 1993 they did a demo and a 7” (Fury) released by SOA recs. Paolo Petralia also did their Hymns For A Decaying Empire CD (released January ‘96) and in 1998 The Full Wrath Of The Slave got out on Genet recs (last recordings with Giorgio). They also came back for the fest the next year…

‘Timebomb’ (photo by Sergi E. Costa)

‘Burning Defeat’, an emo-core band from Alessandria (Italy), had also played the V.V. already the year before (95-08-18). They were: Diego Cestino (vocals; also ‘Permanent Scar’), Alessandro ‘Alex’ Azzali (bass), Andrea ‘ics’ Ferraris (guitar; also ‘Permanent Scar’) and Umberto Fabbri (drums). ‘They had 2 realease on Green recs: Singlin’ Out The Aims 7” (‘94) & Seldom LP (‘96).

‘Burning Defeat’, pics by Patrick Federli (1) & Sergi E. Costa (2)

In 1996 GoodLife recs released ‘Congress’s LP The Other Cheek. 4 songs come from the 1993 demo (with Roy Cappan on vocals).

‘Congress’ (photos by Sergi E. Costa)

‘Racial Abuse’, an “edge-metal” band (which was compared to ‘Strife’, ‘Unbroken’ and ‘Side By Side’) from Olbendorf, Austria. They were: bassist Sancho Holper, drummer Pascal Holper, guitarist Jürgen Pallisch (he replaced Rainer Paul) and vocalist Aaron Tauss. In 1996 they did a demo (Influence) and 2 CDs (on Lost And Found recs: No Need‎ & Climb). Their CD What Mirrors Conceal ‎was released by GoodLife recs in 1997.

‘Racial Abuse’ (pic by Sergi E. Costa)

‘Despair’ (Buffalo, NY) consisted of Brian Fligger (bass), Jesse(y) Muscato (drums; replaced Phil Popielski), Joe Garlipp (guitar), Matt Dente (guitar) and Scott Vogel (vocals). They played metallic mosch-core. There was a demo and a mini-CD (One Thousand Cries) out. That year (‘96) the CD Pattern Life was released on Josh Gabrelle’s Trustkill recs and the CD As We Bleed was recorded right before this tour (I think) with Brian, Jesse, Joe, Matt & Scott.

‘Despair’ (source ?)

Brob

I was at the “Ieperfest” in ‘96 (and also in’97). I remember ‘96 very well indeed because it was such a special time, a great line-up and much fun for me and my travelling-party from Vienna. we were loads of people, all sleeping inside the Vort’n Vis too. I have quite a few photos: they’re all on film of course and but haven’t scanned them all yet, it’s a task to do all of that…

Daniel Eberharter, Eloquence zine (Vienna, Austria)

I have a zine with a ‘Saidiwas’ interview with a funny anecdote about windmillers spoiling their set…

Tijs Schelstraete

It was nice to see all these other Roman people (Paolo, Vegano, Venezuela, Simone, Daniele, Costanza, Cristiano, …) there.

Dario Adamic (in his zine Zips & Chains #10)

I wasn’t a part of ‘Saidiwas’ at that time. I played on the first EP and then they kicked me out! Erik Åsell was the drummer/singer… I’ve seen that their show at the “Ieperfest” was discussed on forums lately here in Sweden. But I don’t know… Mostly people who weren’t there, with their own theories. I remember it as a good show with some nude/male kissing controversy. Not that they (‘Saidiwas’) weren’t going to play because of a violent crowd, as the theories that are going around…

Axel Stattin, ‘Separation’ bassist

I was the drummer on the first 7” of ‘Despair’. I left the band before that tour.

Phil Popielski

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Introduction => 96-08-16&17&18 Hardcore, The Next Generation

Since I (Brob) was rather disgusted with and had commented on the increasing commercialism, violent/sexist/homophobic attitudes, I spent most of the time I was there (for my literature-distribution) talking to fellow “PC emo-morons who stop everyone from having a good time” (as mentioned in the Hate 8000 Zine) in the courtyard and therefore hardly saw any of the bands, I reprint a review I found on the internet:

>>Last day already; it’s a pity so many people had to leave early, especially since it was the best of the 3 days! ‘Spineless’, just as their name suggests, played uneventful heavy metal. I can’t remember ‘Resist The Pain’ but I think it was just the same… ‘Stampin’ Ground (UK, ex ‘Neckbrace’) played good tight mosh-core. ‘Vanilla’ (France): I’ll never get into them, play boo-hoo style emo, but I think it got heavier than before. ‘Approach To Concrete’ were a good surprise, I thought they were on Lost&Found but I was wrong; they played very fast thrash-core with a couple moshy breaks, and they said many interesting things, I liked it a lot. ‘Bruma’ (Italy) were quite different from the other bands, they play ultra poppy punk with a female singer, I guess I kinda enjoyed it but it’s not the kind of music I’ld listen to all time long. ‘Separation’ were the best band of the fest (together with ‘Saidiwas’). They kicked ass! Just the right band to leave with a positive feeling. And positive was the word here: total old-school punk-ish HC; ‘7 Seconds’ and ‘Minor Threat’ covers, pogo-dance and stagedives all along hooray! I was disappointed by ‘Swing Kids’: I iked their 7” but they were way too emo here. OK, the drummer is good, but I got annoyed rapidly. And then ‘With Love’ (Italy) were added to the bill to close up the fest. Extremely powerful emo. Guess what: I enjoyed it, cool people, cool audience, cool music. Great! Just the kind of music I needed to hear before leaving all my friends… Conclusion: Basically none of the 30 bands that played said anything between songs, apart from “We have CDs for sale, they’re only 20$, it’s so damn cheap, you’ld have to pay 22$ if you’ld buy it from stores” or “We have DIY shirts for sale, we thought about a design and brought it ourselves to a multinational design-company who re-designed it, then we took the film and sent it to the printer ourselves and we chose the colour ourselves and when we got the shirts we sold half the copies ourselves (the other half going to bigger distribution, but we have to make sacrifices, ya know?) and we only charge 18$ each (plus taxes); man we’re so DIY, hardcore rules!”. The audience…well it’s either they kill each other during death-metal outfits or they stand still and apathetic during emo ones, there’s no middle ground. The only unity I could see was in the clothes style: they were ALL wearing baggy pants and chained wallets, how cool. The crowd was as dirty as ever. It’s so funny to see all those kids preaching out about respect for nature and our environment, and then when they leave the place it’s like there’s been a storm or something, it’s just filled with litter. But here again who cares? They’re not the ones who’re cleaning up… And tell me about greed and the consumist mentality of this society! Somenone brought some T-shirts next to my distribution-stall and the kids were literally walking over my zines in order to get the Victory shirt of their dreams. Ever saw kids slam-dance in front of a distro to get a bootleg 7”? We were not that far… Distributors? Well seems like no one had problems selling CDs for 16$ and EPs for 4$, but hey it’s a tough world and we all need to survive you know? Gotta save some money to keep the label going, and who’s gonna buy those baggy pants? Our parents are already paying for private schools and Marshall amplifiers, ya know?…. Anyway. Don’t wanna sound too negative here, I enjoyed the fest ’cause I met so many wonderful people, and Ieper is a very pleasant town too…<<

‘Spineless’ (from Kortrijk) played their first gig at the Vort’n Vis on this fest. They were Kristof Mondy (bass; Yoda zine; later ‘AmenRa’), Colin H. Van Eeckhout (vocals; later ‘AmenRa’), Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen (guitar; also ‘Congress’), Koen Sandra (guitar; replaced by Mathieu Vandekerckhove in ‘97; later ‘AmenRa’) and Stefaan Buyse (drums). They played brutal sXe H8000 metal-core. After their initial demo (’96) Hans ‘Liar’ Verbeke of Sober Mind recs would release the Painfields 7” (1997) and the A Talk Between Me And The Stars album (1998).

Local band ‘Resist The Pain’ had played the V.V. a few months before this (96-05-12). The band didn’t lat very long because the members joined/started other bands. The bassist Steve Noyelle became the guitarist of ‘Lifecycle’, guitarist Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen was also in ‘Spineless’ & ‘Congress’ (etc.), singer Vincent ‘Murph’ Merveillie appeared in later ‘Spirit Of Youth’ and drummer Jan Volckaert was also in ‘Lifecycle’.

The British ‘Stampin’ Ground’ was a HC/thrash-metal band (‘Slayer’-style riffs). They said they were influenced by bands like ‘Earth Crisis’, ‘Snapcase’ & ‘Inside Out’. They formed after ‘Decadence Within’ split up with 3 ex-members – Antony ‘Mobs’ Mowbray (guitar; ‘D.W.’s drummer), Richard ‘Rid’ White (drums; ‘D.W.’s singer) and Ian ‘Slug’ Glasper (bass) – teaming up with guitarist Scott Atkins and vocalist Paul Catten (ex ‘Medulla Nocte’). ‘Rid’ played on the first demo (Feb. ‘95). From the second demo on it was with Adrian ‘Ade’ Stokes (drums). Heath Crosby (vocals; later replaced by Adam of ‘Blood Oath’) sang after the 2 demos: Dawn Of Night 7” on Days Of Fury, Starved 7” on Too Damn Hype recs (from NY) and remastered these for a mini-CD on We Bite recs.

‘Stampin’ Ground’ (photographed by by Sergi E. Costa)

‘Stampin’ Ground’ – Ian ‘Slug’ Glasper (courtesy of Heath Crosby)

‘Vanilla’ had already played here a few times. The emo band from Paris put out their 7” (I Can’t Stop Hating This Empty Space) on Olivier Lépine’s label Laissez-Nous Jouer in 1995 (after an initial demo). On that record Jean Lebrun played bass and brothers Yann & Yves Maisonneuve (both ex ‘Ivich’), guitar and drums. Alain Vidal (also in ‘Symptom Of Isaac’ & ‘El Vidal Sonido’) joined them later. Bruno VdV released an untitled LP of them on Genet recs so they were invited back for this.

‘Vanilla’ (pictured by Sergi E. Costa)

‘Approach To Concrete’ (from Köln) consisted of Jörg Schickel (vocals), Jochen Almeida (drums), Thommy (guitar; he replaced Pablo who just played on the 7”) and Seppl (bass). Christian Valk (vocals; later ‘Six Reasons To Kill’) did 2^nd guitars for a very short time during their tour with ‘Battery’. Not sure if he was in the line-up at the Vort’n Vis. They played fast, aggressive HC (and were not really a ‘full’ sXe band). There was a demo and in 1995 they did 2 releases on the Berliner label Mad Mob recs (I think ran by ‘Mad’ Marc, who did Mad Booking with his partner Ute Füsgen): the Drown 7” & the …Failures? CD.

‘Bruma’ was an emo-pop (some say “college rock”) band from Rome with Andrea Marra (‘Comrades’ bassist, nowadays singer of ‘Anti You’), ‘Orco’ Cristiano Fini (‘Comrades’/’Concrete’ guitarist), Valerio Borgianelli (drums) and a female singer (Eva Falomi). There was also a second guiatrist (‘Concrete’s singer Tommaso Garavini ?). They did a self-titled CD on Green recs (ran by Giulio Repetto; same label as ‘With Love’ & ‘Burning Defeat’; nowadays a record- and skate/clothing-store in Padova).

‘Bruma’ (photo by Patrick Federli) – front stage: Andrea Ferraris (‘Burning Defeat’ guitarist), Adriano Pratissoli (‘By All Means’ drummer), ‘Spino’ (bassist of ‘Mourn’), Giovanni Donadini (‘With Love’ bassist ), etc.

‘Separation’ was a Swedish straight-edge hardcore-punk band (from Umeå) with Axel Stattin (bass), Jonas Lyxzén (drums; ex ‘Abinanda’, later ‘Demon System 13’) and Lars Johan Strömberg (guitar/vocals). José Saxlund (‘Abhinanda’) did the vocals from 1994 to 1996; he wasn’t in the band anymore here – he only sang on the 5th Song CD (recorded Dec ’95 and released on his label Desperate Fight recs). The band came back tot the V.V. the next year (97-03-30)…

‘Separation’ (source ?)

John Brady (bass), Justin Pearson (vocals), José Palafox (drums) and Eric Allen (guitar) were the ‘Swing Kids’ (named after resisting youngsters in nazi Germany). They were from San Diego and played emotional HC. The latter 3 had been in ‘Struggle’. Eric Allen was also in the SxE band ‘Unbroken’; he took his own life in 1998. Justin was running the Three One G (31G) label, that released most of their material (a split-7” with ‘Spanakorzo’ in ’95); though their first 7” appeared on Kidney Room recs (’94). Justin’s new power-violence band ‘The Locust’ came over the next year (97-03-30). Roel Brals made a video available from the ‘Swing Kids’ show here. There’s mention of their gig here in Justin’s (first) book: “We had to play this fest in Belgium with tons of really bad bands…” and there’s also a ‘Swing Kids’ tour-report in the Swedish zine Handbook For The Revolutionaries (see additional post on ‘Swing Kids’).

‘Swing Kids’ – photos by Albert Cheong (1) & Patrick Federli (2+3)

Joris Willekens wrote in his zine Forkboy that ‘With Love’ played unannounced as the last band of the last day but “conquered” anyway, leaving the drum-kit and the stage “deconstructed”. They had a demo out (with another line-up), a split(live)-tape with ‘Concrete’ and a split-7” with ‘Mindless Collision’. “They fit anger and rage in a suit of emotional and tempestuous chaos.”. The band (hailing from the Triviso area) was: Paolo Riscica (guitar), Giovanni Donadini (bass), Nico Vascellari (vocals), Edo(ardo) Rossi (guitar) and Simone Gerardo (drums).

Peter Arthur Claesens, one of the “The Pit’s aficionados performing @ Vort’n Vis”, mentioned that he “once did a solo-act where I danced to the music of Bartok’s first concerto for piano, if I remember well… It was on a kind of international festival on a Sunday-afternoon; I believe it was a Straight-Edge concert.” There’s indeed a guestbook-entry of him on 96-08-18…

Brob

I might be wrong but I’m quite certain this was the first show ‘With Love’ played outside of Italy. We left Italy in a caravan my parents borrowed us (which we returned without a window – smashed it with my hand from the outside to scare one of the others that was sitting inside); somehow trying to convince ourselves that we were going on a European tour. As far as I remember the only show confirmed was in Cesena on the last day of the tour and then there was a show to be confirmed in Switzerland the day before. Basically we left hoping that we were going to convince Bruno to let us play the fest since our demo had gotten some good reviews. When we arrived at Vort’n Vis we were shocked. We’d never seen so many people at a HC show before. Boys and girls coming from all over Europe, tons of records and zines. It truly was an inspiring and motivating experience for us. I don’t remember much of the shows ‘cause we were mostly excited, spending time outside talking to people rather than attending shows. We tried to support all the Italian bands playing that year (I remember that ‘Burning Defeat’ delivered a very intense gig and so did ‘Timebomb’) and I have vivid memories of ‘SaidIWas’: their set was intense and they played a cover of ‘Born Against’ which was a favorite band of mine. Their drummer (that later became their singer) played naked. Bruno told us we could play if there was time left after the last band so we were finally announced by Justin of ‘Swing Kids’ (who were also memorable). We were so excited and so nervous to play that I think the shows exploded with energy and emotions. Stage and drum-kit were both broken. We tried our best to introduce some of the songs in our broken English. To these days this was one of the most memorable shows and experiences of ‘With Love’. After the show we left to continue our tour: ten days off before the show in Switzerland and the one in Cesena [Italy]. While going through my archives I’ve found images of ‘With Love’ doing this show at the Vort’n Vis…

Nico Vascellari

At that time ‘With Love’ had been playing for a year or so, and we had only a demo out and maybe the split 7” with ‘Mindless Collision’. I tried to organise some sort of ‘European tour’ using the contacts that Giulio from Green recs gave me. Obviously there was no internet and I tried to arrange some shows by mail and by telephone. We just wanted to have a holiday and tried to play somewhere. We ended up at the Vort’n Vis and immediately asked Bruno if we could play. (‘Ics’ from ‘Burning Defeat’ helped introduced us and Bruno let us play as the last band after ‘Swing Kids’.) I was surprised because I thought that people would have left after the ‘Swing Kids’ but I remember the place was still packed. It was one of our best shows ever, even if nobody (except the Italians) knew us. I still remember it after more than 20 years. Needless to say that all the other shows we should’ve played on that ‘tour’ got cancelled. We played other 2 shows with Adriano [Pratissoli] (‘By All Means’, ‘Society Of Jesus’, ‘Mourn’, etc.) on drums because our drummer left after this show here to go back home. I don’t remember a lot of the bands that played… I was probably busy checking distros and talking to people. I do remember ‘SaidIWas’ did a great show (also saw them in Italy). I didn’t even see ‘Swing Kids’ because I had to prepare the instruments for our own show. We came back to the Vort’n Vis in 2000 [2000-08-18&19&20]…

Paolo Riscica

I was there on Sunday. My friends told me you, Brob, left on Saturday…

Albert Cheong, Barcelona

One of the best shows I saw at the V.V.: ‘Swing Kids’

Cathy Bennett

I was there with Daniel Eberharter and Melanie Friedl (Smart Cookies Collective), also Birgit came with us! I can remember that I enjoyed the bands and the ‘Swing Kids’… I thought that ‘Swing Kids’ were playing naked then but it could also have been another band [Brob: It was ‘Saidiwas’.] at that festival…. Memories fade…

Manuel Harand

I was at the “Ieperfest” in ‘96 (and also in’97). I remember ‘96 very well indeed because it was such a special time, a great line-up and much fun for me and my travelling-party from Vienna. we were loads of people, all sleeping inside the Vort’n Vis too. I have quite a few photos: they’re all on film of course and but haven’t scanned them all yet, it’s a task to do all of that…

Daniel Eberharter

During ‘Swing Kids’s set Joeri Hoste was standing upfront, next to Jürgen Desmet. I can’t remember where I was standing. I saw back them again in Hamburg in 2011. With another guitarist, the original one died. José was one of themost fantastic drummers in HC/punk-land; the only one that can play the ‘swing’ rhythm. Justin remembered this painful concert in Ieper, they split right after. The guys are embarrassed for their behaviour then: they had a raw.

Peter Puype

‘Stampin’ Ground’ was basically inspired into life when we had a night off during the 1994 ‘Decadence Within’ Polish tour and we took a trip across to Leipzig to see ‘Snapcase’, ‘Earth Crisis’ and ‘Refused’… What a show! We knew we wanted to do something much more heavy and intense than ‘D.W.’ that very night!

Ian Glasper

Vique Martin stepped in and really helped save what was, for a variety of reasons, a poorly planned tour for us… And along the way, she snapped quite a few photos. I made some friends there who I am still in contact with today and although it was probably the best show we played of the entire trip, the thing that stands out the most for me is meeting those friends…and there are a couple of others with whom I wish I had not lost contact.

John Brady, ‘Swing Kids’ bassist

My friends Andrea Marra [bass] and Cristiano ‘Orco’ Fini [guitar] (also ‘Concrete’) played for ‘Bruma’… They sucked if you ask me. Eva Falomi was the singer and as far as I can remember there was another girl playing probably second guitar, not so sure about it. I think ‘Concrete’ played probably the same year ‘Comrades’ did [1995]. I do remember Bruno wanted an Italian invasion there for a couple of years…

Paolo Petralia, SOA recs (Rome)

‘Bruma’ was Eva on vocals, Cristiano (‘Concrete’, ‘Comrades’) on guitar, Andrea (‘Comrades’, ‘Anti You’) on bass, Valerio on drums and Olga on second guitar. My band ‘This Side Up’ and ‘Bruma’ toured together in 1996… This here was probably their only appearance outside Italy (in addition to the tour). I think the band disbanded very shortly after our European tour…

Dario Adamic, Zips & Chains zine

Going to the festival (I was the only driver) we totally broke the engine of our car 1.000 km away from Rome, so it seemd like the festival was over for us. But then…

Valerio Borgianelli, drummer of ‘Bruma’

Miss going to the Vort’n Vis fests, sleeping outside by the canal, fun times!

Axel Stattin, ‘Separation’ bassist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

More on this concert: 96-08-18

taken from the Swedish zine Handbook For Revolutionaries

photos by Roel Brals (1: ex ‘6 Foot Over’ & ‘Rood Arch’ Pierre Anne, centrally; 2: Peter Hoeren?, centrally)

pic courtsey of Cathy Bennett, taken by Rudy Penando (the sisterhood – Nathalie D./’Hazel’/Cathy)

photo-shoot by Joeri Hoste (Erwin van Looveren – Saturn distro – holding camera in top and bottom photo)

Swinging kids ? ;-)  Ivonne Davies-Kreye + Marco Walzel (Avocado Booking) & Eric Allen + Justin Pearson (photo taken by Joeri Hoste)

Out on the town: Marco Walzel – Eric Allen – Yvonne Davies-Kreye (pic by Joeri Hoste)