96-05-12 Feeding The Fire – Kindred – Shaft – Resist The Pain – Sektor – Voices At The Front

That must have been one of the last ‘F.T.F.’ shows ever. ‘Born From Pain’ started a year after that and I know there was almost a year in between.

Rob Franssen, ‘Feeding The Fire’

‘F.T.F.’s trail through the V.V. history is quite impressive: 91-12-21, 92-04-18, 92-09-05, 92-10-10, 93-05-22, 94-08-21 (and perhaps other visits…); illustrating the tight relation between some V.V.-collaborators and the Ducth Limburg HC-scene… A bit before this, they recorded for the Crusade EP on the German label March Through recs. Wouter Alers did the bass on that one (replacing Roger; he played drums for ‘Born From Pain’). The rest of the crew was the usual: René Natzel (drums), Har(ald) & Illona (guitars) and Rob (vocals)…

‘Resist The Pain’ (announced on the flyer as a “local turbo XXX” (on some flyers the XXX was crossed out) – see below) did their first ever show here (though there are pics from 96-04-05, a birthday party). They were Steve Noyelle (bass; later ‘Lifecycle’), Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen (guitar, later ‘Spineless’, ‘Congress’, etc.), Vincent ‘Murph’ Merveillie (vocals; later ‘S.O.Y.’) & Jan Volckaert (drums).

‘Sektor’ (from “Beseloare”; Beselare, a village near Ieper) was a H8000 vegetarian straight-edge metal-core band. They did 2 7”s on Hans Verbeke’s Sober Mind recs: Ultimate Threat (1995) and a split with ‘Vitality’ (1996); later there was also a 12”/CD (Human Spots of Rust, ’97). The line-up was ‘Lenny LadyLover’ (bass), Bert ‘BabyNipples’ Guillemont (drums), Piet ‘Pete’ Cardoen (a.k.a. Mousti; guitar), Vadim ‘KarateKip’ Vandekerckhove (guitar) and Jeroen Therry (a.k.a. KungFu Mike; vocals).

‘Voices At The Front’ (from Poperinge) were added to the bill… After ‘Settle For Less’ (with Jurgen Desmet on bass, Tom De Pauw on drums and Jeroen Lauwers & Nathalie D. singing), my mate Vik Bulik (vocals; he played guitar in ‘S.F.L.’) started ‘Voices At The Front’, an SxE band. They’d done a few shows supporting ‘Congress’ (’96-03-03 @ ‘Kompas’ in Sint-Niklaas) and ‘Liar’ (96-04-14 @ ‘Mouterij’ in Deinze) before. So Vik – described as the “ideal straight-edge kid, bleached hair, X -ed up, Youth of Today shirt” was singing. Also in the band: “The coolest drummer from H8000, Gaëtan [Golvet], a coloured guy with incredible skills…”. Vince [Vincent Theeten] on lead-guitar, “new-school influences but with a metal touch; inspirer of the funniest fanzine from that time, Strike One!”. Sim [‘Simtje’ Meersseman] on bass… “Played almost every show in a bright-orange XXX shirt, bleached hair, krishna-beads…” 2^nd guitar: Stefaan ‘Merel’ Merlevede (R.I.P.; Vincent’s cousin). (internet-quotes by ‘Murph’ ‘R.T.P.’)

‘Kindred’ was an SxE outfit from Limburg (metallic style of HC, often compared with ‘Unbroken’) with Jan Beckers (guitar) and Maarten Beckers (drums) – Jan was in ‘Acoustic Grinder’ (see: 93-02-27) & both in ex ‘Strength Of The Will’ (92-09-06, 93-09-19 & 94-08-19); later ‘Facedown’, ‘Enemy Of The Sun’, ‘Kabul Golf Club’) – Eric Sefton (vocals) & Walter Beckers (bass). Raf Gielen still played 2^nd guitar here. They did an LP for GoodLife recs that year (File 01). They would be back for the Ieperfest in summer… A split with ‘Culture’ got out in ’97.

Raf Gielen in One Step Down #3: >>We started from the remains of 2 bands that split up: the one was ‘Churn’ (where I was in together with Jan & Maarten) and the other was ‘Forewarn’. Since we played a few shows with them, we asked their singer Eric. […] The show was kinda cool and we got some reactions of people that supported us.<<

No idea what ‘Shaft’ was about… But ‘Dompie’ got me on track: the members were Miguel De Paula (bass), Adam Borosch (drums), Michael ‘Mike’ Cordas (lead guitar), Arthur Galenziok (guitar) & Dirk Jochums (vocals). There were some flyers where their name was crossed out so perhaps they didn’t even play…?

Brob

‘Shaft’ did a 7” called Taskmaster [Brob: Actually a mini-CD…also a self-titled 7” on Stormstrike and a split-7” on Alveran recs]… We (‘Solid’) played with them in their hometown… They played a brutal H8000 style [“death-metal/metalcore”; the CD was recorded @ Midas studios].

Dominiek ‘Dompie’ Denolf

‘Voices…’ played a cool show, allways had a good response, were cooler than most of the bands that came from the H8000 at that time.

‘Murph’ (somewhere on the internet)

I do remember this as our first or one of our first shows with ‘R.T.P.’. Good line-up… We were incredibly enthusiast to do it because we were rehearsing at the Vort’n Vis and it was a great honour to be able to play there…

Vincent Merveillie

Vincent was vocalist for ‘Spirit Of Youth’ and drummer for ‘Kingpin’ & ‘Man’s Ruin’ later. Myself, I’ve played with ‘Spineless’ afterwards and from ’99 on with ‘Congress’. My last achievements were ‘Trenchfoot’ (cross-over à la ‘D.R.I.’, ‘S.O.D.’). Later Michael Maes joined as our drummer…

This was the first show of ‘Kindred’ in the H8000-area. A year later they were considered as an H8000-band, while they were indeed from Limburg. It was rather unusual then that non-H8000-bands were succesful in our region. It’s funny to see that bands that succeeded in this, were immediately labelled as H8000. The scene was growing exponentially. In order to be omplete I’m obliged to say that a band didn’t stand a chance if they weren’t SxE. I saw a whole bunch of fantastic bands pass by, that hardly anyone cared about, solely because the X on their hands was lacking. As a ‘member of the herd’ I have to plea guilty myself.

‘Feeding The Fire’ stood out because a girl was playing guitar. At the time that was (and still is) a curiosity in hardcore, which was mostly a ‘boys-thing’. The few girls that were present, were mainly there because they were the girlfriend of someone or as ‘trend-queen’… [Brob: ???!!!???; some women would disagree, I’m sure…] I believe that she was playing a BC-Rich ‘metal-model’ guitar – which was (also back then) rather not-done. Anyway, I didn’t like their music too much. Rob, now of ‘Born From Pain’, was singing.

All in all most people attending, came to see the local bands. ‘Voices At The Front’, with Vik, played a home-match and ‘Sektor’ was the new hype. Lyrics were about the meat-industry and drug-abuse; and the songs dedicated to the scene, organisers and … SxE… Very original…

Pedro Fioen

Vincent was replaced by Clovis ‘Vez’ Segers [later ‘Congress’] and Jan by Michael Maes [‘Link’, etc.]…

Steve Noyelle

Unfortunately none of the pictures I took remain: regretably I had to throw them all away, because of water-damage.

Steve Lammertyn

extras:

96-05-12 Voices At The Front – Resist The Pain (photos)

96-05-12 Feeding The Fire – Kindred – Sektor (photos)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

95-03-05 Naked Aggression – Kurort – Carcer Molochi

New Year card Kirsten sent me…

‘Propagandhi’ were/are a “Political, yet humorous punk-rock band” from Winnipeg. They were signed to Fat Wreck Chords (a commercial label dealing with majors). That’s why I didn’t want them to play the Vort’n Vis. Bruno had other opinions… The band was: Chris Hannah (guitar & vocals), John K. Samson (bass; replaced by Todd Kowalski in ‘97) and Jordy/Jordan Samolesky (drums). Mike of Bad Food For thought (distro from Propaghandi’s hometown) wrote me (March 96) that Jord, the drummer, got ill with mono(nucleosis) the day they were supposed to leave on tour. Guess they didn’t make it over then… Can’t recall them playing anyway…

Brob

That sounds right. Was either mono or he broke his foot playing hockey. Can’t remember which. We have played Belgium since. Marcus from ‘But Alive’ and Marco [Walzel] from Avocado bookings did the later tours I think.

Chris Hannah

The locals (Ieper and surroundings) of ‘Carcer Molochi’ had done their debut here (94-12-31) and filled in… Most of them were or would become Vort’n Vis shitworkers: Erwin Degryse (guitar), David Stubbe (drums), Danny Suffys (bass), Johan Seys (vocals), Michael Maes (guitar) and Inge Capoen (vocals) played pagan, back-to-nature crust-punk (“a mix of ‘Antisect’, ‘Hiatus’, ‘E.N.T’ & ‘Antischism’…”, I wrote in my ‘zine). A few months after this they recorded their demo. In ’97 Michael and Inge (who are a couple) started ‘Link’…

demo-tape

‘Naked Aggression’, an anarchist classic HC/punk band (originally from Madison, Wisconsin but at the time of this tour they were already living in N. Hollywood) were Kirsten Patches (vocals), (Phillip Emil) Phil Suchomel (guitar; R.I.P. 1998), Ty Smith (drums; he’d been here also with ‘Resist’, R.I.P. 2011) – looks like Greg Watson was the bassist on this tour (he was also on the Bitter Youth 7” & the March March Alive LP). On the ‘Aus-Rotten’/‘Naked Aggression’ split-7” & on the Plastic World 7” (both out in 1994) John/Juan Jiminez (later also in ‘Los Crudos’) played the bass but he didn’t do this tour as he had quit the band… At that time I distributed the They Can’t Get Me Down 7” that was re-released on the German label Campary recs (ran by Armin Heitman and his girlfriend Katia, from-Düsseldorf)…. Kirsten still keeps the band going. Have a look on their website: http://www.nakedaggression.com/main.html

‘Naked Aggression’ (photographed by Wim De Leersnijder [1]-[2] & Joeri Hoste [3]-[4])

‘Kurort’, a HardCore band from Bad Ischl (Austria) played here for the 2^nd time (see: 92-05-02). Andreas ‘Andi’ Wimmer (vocals), Florian ‘Flo’ Sedmak (guitar & vocals), Martin Wimmer (bass), Rudi Vogtenhuber (drums). They played strong, powerful HC with personalized political lyrics (sung in Upper Austrian dialect). They already release some stuff themselves but we got to know them through the Stachanov LP on Tiberiju’s Sacro Egoismo (Stachanov in ’94; Miss Fitness USA in ‘95). The latter was a co-release with Joris De Buysser’s Conspiracy recs). Joris would also release the Oslo 7” in’96. A fan wrote about them: “The flagship of Austrian 90s moshcore. ‘Kurort’ knew the handicraft of advanced thrash-riffing as no other Austrian band and embedded this in the drag-and-strain-Hardcore (Zerrcore) of the times. Their musical proficiency never resulted in technical hick-hack virtuosity but in well-constructed songs with doomy riffs checked by high impact drumming and driving blast beats. Andreas Wimmer on strained vocals added suffering and memorable choruses, that even showed some pop-sensibility.”…

Brob

‘Kurort’ (Flo – Rudi – Andi – Martin) promo-pic

I remember the Vort’n Vis very well, as it donated a running gag in the ‘Kurort’-conversations: “We have some nice sleeping-places upstairs.”, I think it was when we toured with ‘Naked Aggression’: it was March, it was very cold and it even snowed a bit. There was no heating in the venue except for all the people showing up. When we took a look at the ‘nice sleeping-places’, we decided not to use them, no matter what: What I recall, are empty and ice-cold rooms, broken windows and wet and foul mattresses. After the gig we wanted to sleep the on stage – even there with all the spilt beer, etc., it was cleaner than upstairs. And it was still warm from all the people that had gone then. But whoever was in charge refused because we were suspected to empty all the bottles at the bar overnight. We insisted anyway but our promise that we wouldn’t take anything from the bar was not trusted, so one of the V.V.-collective played the watchdog and slept on the floor behind the bar.

I also remember that the driver in the car riding before our van suffered a heart-attack on the highway and rolled off the road down into a field a few minutes before we came into Ieper – I guess that was in 1995 aswell.

Touring with ‘Naked Aggression’ wasn’t too enjoyable: up to 9 people in a small van… We only made friends with their hired drummer Ty Smith. He ‘who cannot be named’ [Dolf H.] and his network booked the tour…

I don’t remember ‘Propaghandi’ playing.

Florian ‘Flo’ Sedmak (sdmk.at)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

David Carcer’s surreal scriblings are untranslatable, I’m afraid ;-) * Apparently it was Johan’s birthday…

additions wellcome!…

94-11-05 Malva – Spit Acid – Peace Of Mind – Recusant

I was trying to find ‘Recusant (residing in Bradford, using the 1in12 mail-address) a few gigs. (Florian had asked met to help out.) As usual, an ‘international punk affair’ with Armel Presselin helping in France, Pablo of Resistance productions in Switzerland, etc. Eventually I think I got them to play in Dunkerque (Nov 2^nd), Arnhem (at a place called Babylon, Nov 4^th), and some other places…if I remember correctly… At the same time I was also doing a weekend for the Germans of ‘Spit Acid’ & ‘Peace Of Mind’ (they played @ Clockwork in Leuven on Nov 4^th) – Matthias’ letter is below – and helping out the youngsters of ‘Malva’ (Christian had probably send me their demo.). One could say it was a ‘Brob gig’…

That’s how tours were done back then: grassroots, D.I.Y. and with a Network Of Friends!

This was probably when Fuse! (the joint distribution that Bruno (Genet recs), Joeri Hoste and me did some time) got ‘de-fuse-d’; let’s say due to incompatible interests… Bruno wasn’t pleased with my criticism towards his label and distro. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t show interest in this gig… (See my note in the guestbook below.)

Brob

Florian & Angela stayed in Dunkerque with us for a year and half; they played the V.V. once and sometimes came with us to Belgium. Florian remembers you Brob! It’s you who introduced him (and me!) to ‘Guts Pie Earshot’!

Of course I recall this gig: it was my birthday and between two songs ‘Recusant’ gave me a cake !!! Everybody was looking at me, smiling; I was blushing! To cut things short: we had a great time together and on got a long quite well; and the next year we were living together in Drincham.

The members of the band were: Titus, Josy, Angela (vocals), Sisou (who were English) and Florian (bass), Fred (drums), Nilos (French roots).

Karl Penando

‘Recusant’ (Bradford) had a split 7” out (together with ‘Headache’ on Sned & Alec’s Flat Earth recs in 1994. They played rather unique, quirky punky jazz-core-rock with lively/bouncy but passionate female vocals. The lyrics were ultra-political from an anarcho-punk perspective, covering feminism, veganism, animal rights, multinationals, etc. Members (French & British) of the band were Florian and his girlfriend (at that time) Angela, and the others mentioned earlier…

‘Malva’ (started out as ‘Despise’, a 3-piece) were an emo-core band from Leverkusen: Christian Schneider (guitar), Alex(ander) Bokelmann (drums), Flo(rian) Reiss (guitar), Martino Palazzo (vocals), Alex(ander) Jahn (bass). They seduced me with their demo. Later (’96) Corey & Bernd released the 7” Das Leben Ist Kein Picknick on their label Equality recs.

‘Malva’ (pictures by Joeri Hoste)

‘Spit Acid’ (from Göttingen) described their music as “intense, mosh emo-hardcore; a mixture of ‘Four Walls Falling’ and ‘Downcast’”. They had a 7” out (The Tragedy Of Reality, self-released) and Per Koro released a split 7” (with ‘Step Into Nowhere’) and LP later. I think I’m pretty sure I distributed some of these… They were Niels Bogdan (bass; Daydream recs), Christopher Shaper (drums), Arndt Buck (guitar) & Matthias ‘Madde’ Dowe (vocals). Matthias & Niels had written me before for distro and gigs. They were also friends with Hans Verbeke, if I remember correctly…

‘Peace Of Mind’ were a political melodic HC-punk band from Bovenden (near Göttingen), Germany: They consisted of Jobst Eggert (at first vocals, later also guitar), Jörn Allert (guitar), Claudia (bass; later Judith/Antje), Berti (drums) and later Aga (vocals). They had put out a 7” on Melmac recs (nice hand-sown cover) and the ‘Peace Of Mind’ & ‘Anomie’ split-LP was about to be released by Ape recs. They toured together with ‘Spit Acid’. Later there was also a 7” on World Upside Down (Urte Böhm’s label).

Brob

I remember the first time we played the V.V., we arrived in Alex’ dad’s Mercedes, because we didn’t have – unlike other bands – a van. Brob greeted us with the words: “Ah, the flower guys!” [Brob: ‘Malva’ is a kind of flower…] Afterwards we got to know an American guy, Aaron, who lived in Belgium. [Brob: the editor of Love Child zine; Aaron Vyvial]. He booked a show later in Brugge for us. [Brob: I think it was my friend Joeri Hoste who actually set that up.] [From personal correspondence early ’95:] We had a love fun; the atmosphere and people in Ieper were brilliant…

Christian Schneider, ‘Malva’ guitarist

Playing at at the Vort’n Vis was always great. I’ll bever forget that: I will tell my grandchildren about this crazy and lovely place, and all the nice people there!

Nowadays I work as an illustrator in Cologne (check my sites: useuse.de & useuse.de/uselog) and make some music – with machines – under my alter ego ‘Jacques Wolgast’ (people can download my first 2 LPs for free).

Alex Jahn, ‘Malva’ bassist

The singer (Matthias Dowe) is dead (suicide). Arndt Buck, the guitar-player is into alternative communities – really no idea where he is. Drummer Christopher Schaper is running a club in Berlin as far as I know.

Niels Bogdan, ‘Spit Acid’ bassist

There were 2 periods in the history of ‘Recusant’. The first at the time of the split-tape (and split ep) with ‘Headache’ with guitarist Titus, drummer Danny, singers Angela & Sally [Stone] (who left to play with ‘Witchknot’) and myself on bass. Then later, when we came over, it was me (bass), Angela (vocals), Bouldu (drums), Nilos (keyboards & trumpet) and Titus on guitar. With this line-up we did a split-tape with ‘Porc Bleu’ from Rouen… At the end Josie was singing.

Nowadays I’m in 2 new bands: ‘Shoshu’ & ‘Kre Ke Ke Kex Koax Koax’. I’m living on the countryside, on the plateau de Millevaches. Angela must still be living in Colchester…

Florian N.

My memories are not too positive of that time in ‘Recusant’ but I made some amazing friends; and that still counts for a lot. I found the attitudes of some of the people I spent time with were quite the opposite of freedom and non prejudice. If I didn’t fit into their idea of hardcore alternative punk then they were highly critical and bullying. I also found they were often so ‘them’ and ‘us’ or ‘mainstream society’ vs. ‘anarchist’; they would be very prejudiced and aggressive towards them, without knowing anything about their political opinions. It is only on reflection of that past that I see the restrictive and judgmental opinions that I experienced. I am not sure this is quite the reflection on the past that you were wanting to receive and I know that others experiences were very different than mine.

I can remember that the Vort’n Vis was a great venue and had a good atmosphere to it, people would travel from all over the place to go there. I have a small memory of seeing ‘Oi Polloi’ playing there. It is the down side of drinking too much alcohol and it being so long ago.

Angela Carter

I was only in ‘Recusant’ when they lived in England – the line-up was me, Angela, Florian, Titus and Danny. When they moved to France my sister Josie went with them and took over my vocals and played fiddle. Laurent also joined on keyboard and Fred replaced Danny on drums. I have fond memories of the Vort’n Vis – playing there with ‘Witchknot’ and visiting with ‘Scatha’, ‘Quarantine’, ‘Brawl’, ‘Fleas and Lice’ on different occasions.

Sally Stone

Angela ‘Recusant’ came up to me at the 1 in 12 [Bradford], asking if I still needed contributions for Bullshit Detector IV. I was well surprised! I didn’t know her or the band…

Pablo, Resistance productions, Biel, Switzerland

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…