[The gig that never was…]
‘Earth Citizens’ toured Europe in May of 1991 and after a surprise gig in Paris we headed to the legendary Vort’n Vis, totally curious what it will be like to play there. Quite a few of our penpals had said they’d be there, so we were looking forward to it! Total bummer as we arrived and the place was closed with a note from our organiser Bruno Genet. It said we should call him, which we did. For some reason he cancelled the gig!!! And made us drive all the way to Sliedrecht (The Netherlands). The big dinner he offered us was french fries – yaaay! We were suspicious of him and in the end thought he cancelled the gig to see ‘Concrete Sox’ (who were great!) and ‘Private Jesus Detector’ (great too). We then drove back to Gent for the night, only to have Bruno offering us his student-room to crash – 4 of us plus 3 of ‘Systemphobia’ who we’d picked up at the Vort’nVis. On top of that he asked us to pay for the gas…strange. Good thing was to see the two bands and meet the great guys of ‘Systemphobia’ who organized us a breakfast! Forever thankful for that!!! So in the end we only ever saw the closed door of the Vort’n Vis. Too bad!
The tour in May 1991 included: ‘Schrein’n’hart’ (vocals & driver), ‘Furz The System’ (guitar & backing-vocals), ‘The Prophet’ (drums & backing-vocals) and Oli (driver). ‘Earth Citizens’ was an anarcho-punk band trying to set the world free of all the bad things. We had different views though, which we learnt at the first gig in Lyon when our singer went to actually ask for more money than we agreed to with the organisers of the tour. We then dropped our anti-capitalist song Money from the set ‘cause the rest of us thought we couldn’t sing “Money doesn’t guard our doors” when one of us actually cared about these things. In hindsight he was probably right. It was his van we used on the tour and of course the van needed gas. Anyway, the tour was organized by various people and yes I think Brob helped us with the gig in Terneuzen. I remember somewhere in between the Dutch gigs we made it to Gent and visited our good old friend :-) (Brob)…
Pablo
Aside from being in this band and keeping a busy correspondence going (also with myself), Pablo was the editor of several zines around that time (No Sanctuary, Alternative, Brain Death). Have no idea why Bruno cancelled this gig after I’d asked him… I believe I did get them another gig the next day in Kalashnikov (Terneuzen, The Netherlands)…
Brob
cover of ‘Earth Citizens’ ep
some artwork from the insert
pics from ‘Private Jesus Detector’ in Sliedrecht (offered by their vocalist Spatje):
Siesele (bass), Leffe (drums), Spatje (vocals), Petter (guitar)
additions wellcome!…
Vort'n Vis in the 90s 
We had Patrice of New Wave recs helping us out to get a gig in Paris on our day off. And of course all the nice folks in Lyon, Paris, Sliedrecht, Terneuzen, London, Bradford, Stoke-On-Trent, Scarborough, Scunthorpe and Middlesborough. We mailed out quite a few tapes with booklets to find gigs but ended up with only 9 (and the surprise gig in Paris) and not one single gig in Germany on the way back home. That was pretty much a shame. Anyway, here’s the tour-listing and bands we played with: 3.5.1991 Lyon, France at the Volnitza. Sorry, don’t remember the other band(s) that played, there was only us on the flyer * 8.5.1991 Paris, France at the New Moon. with ‘Thrashpop Band’ and more… * 10.5.1991 Sliedrecht, The Netherlands at the Elektra with ‘Concrete Sox’ and ‘Private Jesus Detector’ * 11.5.1991 Terneuzen, The Netherlands at the Kalashnikov with ‘Disturbing Foresights’ * 15.5.1991 London U.K. at the New Pegasus Pub with ‘Nation Of Bigots’ and ‘Juice’ * 18.5.1991 Bradford, U.K. at the 1 in 12 Club with ‘Disaster’, ‘Sundance’, ‘Kismet HC’, ‘Active Minds’, ‘Indian Dream’ and the ‘Blaggers’ * 21.5.1991 Stoke-On-Trent, U.K. at the Talbot Hotel with ‘Internecine’ * 23.5.1991 Scarborough, U.K. at the Stage Door – the other band pulled out to go and see the ‘Pixies’!!! so we played all our songs in 2 sets! * 25.5.1991 Scunthorpe, U.K. at the Queens Hotel with ‘Duckwind and the Beadles’ * 26.5.1991 Middlesborough, U.K. at St.Mary’s Centre with ‘Embittered’, ‘Hellkrusher’ & ‘Roadkill’.
On the England leg of the tour we were supposed to be joined by our friends of ‘Pszychisz Terôr’ but for some reason they only ever made it to Dover and were sent straight back! They were just two guys with a guitar and a drum-computer! Whereas we travelled in a small van, with my drum kit, guitar, amps, nd a huge box of vinyl! Custom-officers asked me what our band-name was; I just said ‘Earth Citizens’ and told him we don’t play for profit – I think he believed me when he saw all the “Pay no more than” tags on our releases. So yeah, we were wellcome, didn’t qualify as a ‘band’ and our friends were officially a ‘band’ – strange.
I remember ‘Mushroom Attack’ being on the London and Bradford flyers as well but for some reason they didn’t play. Neither did ‘Sanctions’ (ex-‘Satanic Malfunctions’) ‘cause some of them left the 1in 12 Club to go and play soccer. When they came back (too late for their set), they were informed that their gig time was already over; so that made 3 bands not playing that were on that flyer in Bradford. On our days off we were invited to stay at places from bands & friends like ‘Flagrants D’Eli’, ‘Suicidal Supermarket Trolleys’, ‘Kismet HC’, ‘Terminus’ and Sned. I remember we got well fed in France and The Netherlands (well at the Kalashnikov anyway!) and partly in England – ace dinner at one of the ‘Terminus’ guys (who even wellcomed us in almost perfect German!) and also at ‘Embittered’s home. Good memories and I’m still thankful to all the people who helped to organize a gig, cooked food, let us crash on our days off, etc.
‘Earth Citizens’ (interview 1992)