90-05-27 President Fetch – Sore Throat

Already during the existence of Smurfpunx the Vort’n Vis Crew started to organise gis. This one took place in Poperinge (near Ieper; hometown of Bruno VdV – who used to show up at Smurfpunx gigs with his boxes full of records). At that time he was doing a fanzine called Pyrobolum, together with his mate Dieter (who named himself ‘Lord Moloch’ – who did the artwork here).

On the bill was ‘Sore Throat’ from the UK (at that time a bit of a genuine alternative to ‘Napalm Death’; singer/guitarist Rich ‘Militia’ (Richard Walker) was confronting them with their questionable attitudes). I think Sned (‘Generic’, ‘Pleasant Valley Children’, etc.) was also in the band at that time…

Also ‘President Fetch’ played, the band of my mate Anderz Nielsen (concert-organiser at the squatted alternative centre Ungdomshuset in Kopenhagen, previously in ‘Misanthropic Charity’,…). He might’ve been very pleased with this gig, as he left his bass with us. Can ‘t recall how it ever get back to him…

‘Turtle Terror’ where a German band [from Moers] that Bruno was in touch with. Can’t remember much of them… [Bruno, in Pyrobolum #2: “Olli (drums) and Sti (guitar & vocals) create quite a heavy sound. Alternately faster and slower songs.”; in Pyrobolum #3: “Great & openminded people. Listening to them you’ll hear some ‘Doom’ & ‘Active Minds’ (their faves.”]. The duo consisted of Olli & Christian Linden.

Who/what the hell was ‘Gnuft’? Can’t remember them. In Pyrobolum #2 (local zine in the early 90s) it says “ David & me [I reckon that’s Dieter Roelstraete], Wouter plays guitar, Fabrice [Baclet] from ‘Silly Old Fart’ plays bass and Pascal smashes the drums”…

Brob

Spans Hrac was kind of a joke at the time of ‘Anus Mundi’ (Dieter’s little art-club). There was Lord Moloch, Tsar Dwaa, Dominiek Le Freak; and myself as hang-around Spans Hrac – a name that came to me during a fit of absurdism. A bit like certain black-metallers calling themselves Horrgh or Bashyyrk or something…

‘Gnuft v.z.w.’ was Dieter & me on vocals, Pascal drumming, Fabrice & Joeri [David’s brother] bass and/or guitar (whatever the way they felt like)…and sometimes also this guy ‘Fluppe Den Artrokker’…

‘Sore Throat’ was one of the highlights of the many bands I saw at the V.V. By the way: Dieter and me sang along on Pride; I have the recording somewhere under the dust…

David Stubbe

I cannot for the life of me remember ‘Gnuft’. A lot of joke-bands were doing the rounds at the time and I’m afraid I was in most of them (except ‘Rothead’, which I believe was Bruno Vandevyvere and Klaas Hardeman’s band – for one rehearsal…). [‘Rothead’ actually did 2 gigs: in Poperinge (90-03-17) & in Menen.] David ‘Spans Hrac’ Stubbe was in on most of the jokes indeed. We also formed a band called ‘Anal Disobedience’ and recorded one tape with a thousand and one tracks on it, titled Analichrist or something like that. The challenge wasn’t so much in the playing, as it was in the actual titling of the songs. I still have that tape somewhere – it was recorded in the Vort’n Vis rehearsal-space, and David drew a very nice cover for it. By the way, I never knew ‘Spans Hrac’ was a joke-name! ‘Anus Mundi’ however…

Dieter Roelstraete a.k.a. ‘Lord Moloch’

It’s been some years ago but I still remember the show, well not how we played or how the other bands played but I remember the set up and the fact that my bass was left there and that I didn’t notice until a few days after in Berlin. You see: I was dealing with most things on this tour so after our show I was sorting out our payment for the show and the others in the band should pack the van so that we could drive to Berlin after the show, when I had settled and said my goodbyes, we were ready to go and I just jumped in the van and off we drove. Little did I know that the others in the band didn’t pack my bass in the van. The tour had some off days in Berlin so when we came to Berlin. I didn’t check the gear until a few days later when we were to play another show. How I got the bass back? Can’t quite remember exactly how it all came together but someone from some band from Ieper (or just from Belgium) was going to Alborg to play or visit someone there. So I somehow got the message that my bass was going to Alborg and that I could get it from the club 1000 Fryd (fantastic small venue in Alborg, still going strong!!) [Brob: Hiya Jakob! ;-)]. I never made it to Alborg before someone from there came to Copenhagen with my bass. Needless to say that I was real happy to see my bass again after almost over 4-6 months of being without, but the main thing was that I did get my instrument back. ;-)

The band at that time was: ‘Ant’ [Chris Juris] (vocals), Per [Eriksen] (guitar), ‘266’ [Morten Groser] (drums) & Anderz (bass). The tour we did then was mainly booked by me with great help from friends all over Germany, Belgium and Holland. Not long after this tour Ant left the band, and we got Claus on vocals and a second guitarist called Jens, so we went from a 4 piece to a 5 piece band, recorded our second album ‘Harsh’ [The first got our in ’89 and was entitled ‘The Eternal Need Of…’] with this line up…and the rest is history so to speak. ;-)

Anderz Nielsen

(photos of Rich & Sned by ‘Lord Moloch’)

Can’t recall much but yes Sned played guitar aswell. The tour was organised by Arjen from Groningen (the Netherlands). This one was the last gig of maybe 20 or so we played across Germany/Holland/Belgium. All I remember is that after this two of the band became heroin-addicts (bassist and guest-singer) and we ceased all activities pretty much straight after.

Rich Militia

‘Sore Throat’ in Poperinge – probably organized by Bruno Vandevyvere, who more or less introduced me to the whole scene. They were one of my favourite bands at the time, not only because they were loud, fast and abrasive, but also because they were funny(though not a ‘joke’ band); ‘Napalm Death’ were just loud, fast and abrasive – their humorlessness more than anything else would precipitate their downfall. (The often-told anecdote about the violent showdown between ‘Mad’ Mick Harris and Rich Militia does not really consider that this may well have been a battle of the humorists versus the humourless.) In Poperinge, my band-mate David ‘Spans Hrac’ Stubbe and I were invited at some point to mount the stage (a great honour of course: I was not insensitive to the trappings of fandom) to growl along with ‘Horrendous Cut-Throat System’:

>>Mucked about, fucked about /// And generally abused /// Horrendous cut-throat system /// Stabbed in the back /// And kicked in the face /// Horrendous cut-throat system<<

What was this cut-throat system they were going on about anyway? Was it ‘the’ system that everyone was used to hearing about or was this a veiled comment upon the hardcore-punk ‘system’ instead? For this little island off the coast of society that we called our ‘scene’ did resemble ‘society’ in one aspect too many to fully deserve the accolade of being something else, a somewhere else or ‘heterotopia’.

‘Sore Throat’, on this tour, was Rich on guitar (and some vocals), Sned (also guitar), Jimmy on drums, Gibby (also ‘Warfear’) on vocals and some guy on bass…

Dieter ‘Lord Moloch’ Roelstraete [see also ‘Horrendous cut-throat system’]

Yours truly & ‘Lord Moloch’, ‘Sore Throat’ wellcoming-comittee (pic by Sned)

tour-organiser Arjen (picture by Sned)

I think I ended up at the Vort’n Vis for the first time after this one. ‘Sore Throat’ had played in Liège with ‘Hiatus’ (3^rd gig) a short time before and went to see them in Poperinge. We all ended up in Ieper. The people running the V.V. bar let us (‘Sore Throat’ and Liège freaks) alone there. Big mistake! We kind of emptied the bar. We’re not proud of it at all but let’s say…ahum…we were young. I woke up in the morning on the gulf-billiard, having slept there next to a friend.

On another occasion – can ‘t remember when – around 5 a.m. Jan saw Ben [‘Hiatus’ drummer] and myself pissing against the bar [Brob: the same thing happened with ‘Dirty Scums’ Pik at the Gele Limonade in Aalst once…] and kicked us out. We were wasted; Ben freaked out and started to bang the door so hard that he smashed the window. (A few years later Phil smashed the same door during a childish quarrel between some crusties and SxE.) So I started yelling at him and he punched me in the face. Nose-bleeding, we had a fight on the Kiekenmarkt and took the train back to Liège; not talking to each other, even though we used the same Go-Pass. I decided to quit ‘Hiatus’ (I was a new member; the first 3 gigs I was ‘road-crew’). But [as we all know] I stayed till the end and we’re still good friends.

Willy ‘Hiatus’

I travelled with ‘Sore Throat’ for the fun of it. After that I moved to England and played in various bands with in Rich Militia, e.g. ‘Wartorn’ and ‘Solstice’. At the end of the 90s I was back with ‘Boycot’ and ‘Distress’…

Lennaert Roomer, drummer & tattooist (Frostbyte tattoos in Alkmaar, Nl)

extra ‘Sore Throat’ pics by Jeroen L.:

additions wellcome!…