93-10-24 Toxic Waste – Citizen Fish – Wounded Knee – Bad Influence

I saw ‘Toxic Waste’ (anarcho-punk band from Ulster) live in 1986 (86-04-05 at the Wolsack in Antwerp). The line-up then was Patsy Preston & Roy ‘Wally’ Wallace singing, Stuart ‘Marty’ Martin (guitar), Phil Coffey (bass) and Glen ‘Grub’ Thompson (drums). I might’ve heard them on the Mortohate’s We Don’t Want Your Fucking War compilation already too then. Bought the split-12” (with ‘Stalag 17′; see 86-05-10) The Truth Will Be Heard (released by the Warzone collective from Belfast, together with Mororhate recs). I was a fan! Especially the opener Traditionally Yours (with the aetheric guitars and Patsy Preston’s fragile singing) always brought me in a rebellious mood! They were also on the We Will Be Free LP (with ‘Asylum’ and ‘Stalag 17’ again). Couldn’t find their Unite to Resist demo (1983) then… In 1987 they put out the Belfast full album (on Belfast recs – NOT (see Marty’s correction below) with Petesy Burns on bass; ex ‘Stalag 17’, also drummer of ‘F.U.A.L.’ and Louanne Martin, singer of ‘F.U.A.L.’ – both visited the V.V. when touring with ‘The Next World’ – see 90-05-01).

The story about how Roy ended up in Antwerp and set up this tour can be read in Ian Glasper’s book The Day The Country Died… The ‘line-up here (the .V.V. was the last gig on this tour…) was: Roy (vocals), Deno ‘Dirt’ (vocals), ‘Marty’ Martin (guitar), Petesy Burns (bass) and Mark ‘Crispo’ Chrsitie (drums; ex ‘Pink Turds In Space’, also in ‘Brawl’ at one time…).

Marty was also in ‘Bleeding Rectum’ (with Wally & Crispo) and ‘Pink Turds In Space’ (with Crispo). Info on these bands can be found on his website.

This is what I wrote on the gig of ‘Culture Shock’ played for Smurfpunx (88-05-13) “an anarcho-punk / reggae-dub-ska band with Dick Lucas (formerly ‘Subhumans’; Bluurg recs)”. Very danceable tunes but socio-political lyrics aswell.”. I could use the same intro but with a couple of different band-members: ‘Citizen Fish’ (from the Bath area) were (at that time) Jasper Patterson (bass), Phil Bryant (guitar), Dick Lucas (vocals) and Trotsky (drums) – can ‘t remember if they had their ‘horns’ on tour. They had been here already before (93-02-21) and would come back later (94-09-17). In 1993 the band had their LP Flinch out (on Dick’s Bluurg recs; recorded right before this tour in August). Live Fish (in Germany)… They also did a split-7” with ‘A.O.S. 3’ a bit earlier. The guys are still playing (citizenfish.com) and so is ‘Subhumans’ (with Dick, Phil & Trotsky).

‘Bad Influence’ were the ‘usual’ support for bands from Bath/Bristol; this time they had Tim ‘Crow’ Shapland (ex ‘Zygote’) on bass (Labie had left the ‘baddies’). The others were ‘Holy’ Herwin (vocals), Joris Rombouts (drums) and Egbert Verheyen (replacing Thomas Noppe on guitar); bringing a new variety of their ‘pagan’ HC. (See also 90-10-27, 91-07-07, 92-11-01 & 93-09-04, etc.). In this line-up they recorded (’92) for a split-7” with ‘Sharon Tate’s Children’ (42 recs) and the Wake Up/Unacceptable 7” (42 recs & Skuld releases). Right after this they started recording for the Afterbirth 10” (with ‘Eggy’ on guitar)…

‘Bad Influence’; photo by Wim De Leersnijder

‘Wounded Knee’, a HC band from Niederkorn were: ‘Schof’ (drums; also ‘No More’), René Penning (bass; does coordination/booking at the Kulturfabrik – kulturfabrik.lu nowadays), Phillippe ‘Phlép’ (vocals), Stéphane Machel (guitar) and Claude ‘Pattex’ Werer (guitar, also ‘No More’). In 1993 they recorded the Not Proud Of My Country/Race tape (February ) & (in October) the Psycho Path 7” (Strive recs). They also had a track on the on the 500 Years Of Genocide 7” compilation (benefit for the Mohawk Nation). At first René also played guitar but he filled on bass when Don left to play for the French band ‘P.R.A.C.H.’; a bit later Claude joined.

Brob

I do remember playing and staying at the V.V. a few times; it was a great venue. I was there when I sang for ‘Toxic Waste’ too.

Deno ‘Dirt’

Deno – Roy – Petesy – Micky Tierney (‘Bleeding Rectum’) – Crispo – Marty

from Deno’s diary (thanks a lot!)

Another great night… Probably played there with ‘Bleeding Rectum’ on another occasion but not sure if it was Vort’n Vis or not. ‘Brawl’ probably played there again with a different drummer as they did a couple more European tours after I departed. Fond memories of this place even though they might be a bit hazy…

Mark ‘Crispo’ Christie

My memories of that tour are all a bit blurred (it was 20 years ago!). What I can say is that we always got one of the warmest welcomes in Belgium, there was an excellent anarcho-punk /alternative scene throughout the 80s and 90s, well organised, friendly and they always took care of us really well. We had played loads of gigs with Dick’s various bands (‘Subhumans’, ‘Culture Shock’ and ‘Citizen Fish’ down through the years and they always “blew us off the stage” which was fine by me because I was a big fan of all those bands. ‘Bad Influence’ organised this tour as they did a few other ones for bands I was in, and they did an excellent job as always. They came to Ireland as well and we tried to return the favour. Great guys all of them. The crowd at that gig, from what the remains of my brain can remember, were excellent, really enthusiastic and completely surprised me that they knew so many of our songs. The venue was brilliant and we were very well looked after. Places like this were alway a real inspiration for us going back to Belfast. Many thanks for having us and maybe we’ll get back sometime in the future…

One correction that probably should be made to your blog is that Petesy and Louanne from FUAL did NOT play on the ‘Toxic Waste’ album Belfast. It was Roy playing bass and singing, Deno from ‘Dirt’ singing, Gary from ‘Dirt’ playing guitar and Grub playing drums.

‘Marty’ Martin

Micky Tierney was also playing guitar. We did some ‘Bleeding Rectum’ songs too and Micky was their lead guitarist. He played all of the set with us at all of the gigs. He’s in a video-clip on the www…

Petesy Burns

‘Toxic Waste’; photo by Wim De Leersnijder (‘Crispo’ drumming in a ‘Brawl’ T-shirt)

‘Eggy’, or Egbert, from Herentals, played with Dirk & Munpie [Manfred Vinck] in ‘Dona Nobis Pacem’ [I think Gerrit played guitar in ‘Dona Nobis Pacem’.]. I never knew his full name, even though we played together in the band for a year or two. After the release of ‘Afterbirth’ he quit, I think.

Joris Rombouts, ‘Bad Influence’ drummer

Can’t really remember anything personally I’m afraid, it’s all a blur. Dick might find something in his diaries… When I see what he comes up with it might bring back some recollections. A Vort’n Vis sticker has resided on our bass-cab since we were there…

Phil, ‘Citizen Fish’ guitarist

Pedro Anthares (‘Selfish’, ‘Uutuus’, ‘Força Macabra’) came especially to see this gig.

Wim De Leersnijder

The day before (Oct 23^rd 1993) we did our last gig with ‘Private Jesus Detector’ in Ternat (Some of the ‘Hiatus’ blokes sang along quite a few songs.). I was seriously ill then but I did go over to the Vort’n Vis on Sunday to go see ‘Toxic Waste’…

Koen ‘Siesele’ Lammens, ‘P.J.D.’ bassist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

‘Munpie’ and baddie Herwin

Dick ?

Canadian visiter on ‘Toxic Waste’

Pawel (Scream recs) from Poland

visiter(s) from Finland

additions wellcome!…

94-01-08 Growing Concern – Congress – Blindfold – Shortsight

January 1994 was our second time [1^st time: 93-01-09] at the V.V. It was with ‘Blindfold’ and ‘Spirit Of Youth’, I think. Even though some band-members were SxE, ‘Growing Concern’ wasn’t a 100% straight-edge band, we were more of a NYHC-influenced positive hardcore band, sometimes with very political lyrics. I guess some people liked us, some others didn’t because we didn’t really fit in the strictly SxE/vegetarian scene that was popular at V.V. at the time.

I have doubts about the bands we played with in ‘94. I remember clearly that one band was pretty much in the 90s emo vein, with mid-tempo and crunchy guitars that sounded a bit like ‘Shelter’… The singer had some sort of metal bar he would hit with a stick during some songs and which produced a very metallic sound [Brob: That was Wim of ‘Blindfold’ allright!]. I also recall we played with one of Hans’ band, so that’s why I thought about Blindfold. I remember there was also another band who was very SxE/ ‘Youth Crew’ influenced, the guys were all wearing band T-shirts and had bleached hair, could that be ‘Spirit Of Youth’?

Gianni Pantaloni, ‘Growing Concern’ drummer

The second time we were there… Stiv Ahead (‘One Step Ahead’ / ‘Open Season’ singer) came with us. I recall we arrived late, just during the gig itself. That’s why I cannot remember that much – we drove from somewhere far way in Germany. I thought there was some friction in the audience due to some discussion with ‘Congress’ singer (about his pro-life ideas) but Brob wrote me this episode happened at some other gigs [93-04-25]; so everything’s not so clear anymore to me (even though I’m still nailed to the X…) I do remember Hans (‘Blindfold’/’Liar’) getting on stage and singing the entire cover of ‘Kiss’ song Hard Times when ‘Growing Concern’ played it. And singing ‘Kiss’ covers seemed a thing he’d always done… We slept at Hans’ house and I remember there was a queue for the bathroom that ended with me not entering at all, keeping the pee for the whole night – the bladder of a 21-year old must be strong…

If I remember correctly ‘S.O.Y.’ didn’t play this one [Brob: I think they’d returned by then…]: we met them together with ‘Nations On Fire’, somewhere in Germany; they were touring and ‘N.O.F.’ had Ed singing already.

Truely loved the V.V., as we came from the squat experience which meant lotsa political issues and hard times. [Brob: But the Vort’n Vis was far from a-political; at least not in the beginning…] Places like this were more open to youth and musical stuff. In Rome we were used to relate with people that ended up being fired to death for their political beliefs, so youth-centres in Germany or like the V.V. were something more fresh; I did like it a lot. Have some nice memories at Bruno’s home and his legendary hospitality or hitting the Belgian/Dutch highways with U.J., the metal-man, and his car, the ‘Millenium Falcon’.

‘Growing Concern’ stopped around 1998 with a different singer and line-up. They did a handful of gigs in 2008 and a one-off in 2013. I still do the label [S.O.A. recs], no longer fulltime, but as a sort of long-lasting hobby. I mainly do a kitchen-job, opening my own veggie restaurant in Rome October 2013.

Paolo Petralia, S.O.A. (Scream Of Anger) recs

‘Growing Concern’ (from Rome) played aggressive HC. They were Andrew Mecoli (guitar), Gianni Pantaloni (drums), Paolo Piccini (vocals) and Massimiliano Carnevale (bass, or was it already his replacement Simone Tripodi here?). This gig was probably around the time they had the Seasons Of War LP out on Banda Bonot & Paolo Petralia’s SOA recs (also most of their other albums were on his label). The latter was roadie-ing for the band.

‘Congress’ had done a couple of shows at the V.V. already. At this timepoint Joost (guitar), Ilja (drums) & Jan ‘UJ’ (bass) had asked ‘Pitbull’ Pieter ‘Pierre’ Vanrumbeke to replace Roy Cappan (who moved to Thailand in 1999 and died there in 2001 “under mysterious circumstances”) to do the vocals.

During the last week of December 1993 ‘Shortsight’ did a few concerts in Spain. ‘Blindfold’s drummer Sacha was driving them. They were back after New Year’s Day. There’s a report on that in the 2^nd issue of Hazel’s zine Superfluous. There’s also a report by Wim (‘Blindfold’s singer) about him being on tour with ‘Nations On Fire’ in Germany (organised by Steffen Rose; driver was Ma Raab of ‘Egotrip’). Wim had joined them (as guitarist) in April 1993. They also had Filip (Devolder) drumming for hem then (replacing Jaak). On Dec 30^th ‘N.O.F.’, ‘S.O.Y.’ and ‘Growing Concern’ played with ‘Egotrip’ in the their hometown… ‘N.O.F.’ did 5-6 shows with ‘S.O.Y.’ (with Hans ‘Blindfold’ on bass, Jan singing, ‘Dompie’ & Fred) in Germany and played their last concert with that line-up on January 2^nd in Köln (Germany). Interesting insights on ‘Nations On Fire’s demise there… Anyway, they were all back to play with ‘Blindfold’ aswell.

In 1993 ‘S.O.Y.’ had recorded Engine/Darkroom that Hans (Sober Mind recs) put out as cassette only. He wrote that the tape got sold out on the ‘S.O.Y.’ winter-tour 93-94 (of which most dates where with ‘Nations On Fire’, mostly Germany and one date in Austria on New Year’s eve)…

The pictures taken by Jean-Paul Frijns prove that ‘Shortsight’ played… The line-up at that time was Saskia Verbeke (vocals), Kurt Deprez (bass), David ‘Mong’ Dumont (guitar), Björn Lescouhier (drums) and Françoise ‘Hazel’ Lepers (guitar, ex ‘Rise Above’ & ‘Nations On Fire’). ‘Hazel’ had been on the band’s ’93 summer-tour with ‘Blindfold’ but wasn’t on the recordings of the Cold Wounds Waking CD that was recorded in July ’94.

‘Blindfold’ had done many a show here already but they were always ready to entertain their (local and international) friends. This could well have been the start of another tour ‘cause a week later they were in Germany (‘Blindfold’ – Germany 94-01-16) – or was this just a one-off? They had recorded the Restrain The Thought LP some months earlier (in September 1993; released on Conquer The World recs).

‘Blindfold’; photographed by Ferry Krop (‘Goofy ‘N.O.F. – R)

Brob

“Thanks to Brob for the dedication to the Sober Mind Hardcore” (on the sleeve of my copy of ‘Blindfold’s Restrain The Thought)

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

Jan & Bruno (Vort’n Vis) interviewed in Bonds Of Friendship

An interview with the Vort’n Vis ‘policy-makers’ Jan Claus & Bruno Vandevyvere, by Joris De Buysser

(Bonds Of Friendship #6; June 1992)