93-05-16 Decadence Within – Shutdown – Active Minds – Jughead’s Revenge – 18th Dye

Marc Nierhaus, a correspondent from Germany set up this tour for ‘Decadence Within’ & ‘Shutdown’ but he couldn’t travel with them. I couldn’t help ‘D.W.’ out this time because I was already too busy with helping other bands. One of them was ‘Active Minds’… I’d invited ‘D.W.’ a few times to play for Smurfpunx (88-08-13, 89-03-19 & 90-03-31) and did an interview in my zine (Tilt! #6); they’d also played in Poperingen on a gig co-organised by the V.V. (90-04-08) so they were not unknown over here… In the band at that time were: Richard ‘Rid’ White (vocals), Ian ‘Slug’ Glasper (bass), Antony ‘Mobs’ Mowbray (drums) and Keith ‘Joey’ Blueman. A bit before this tour they had been recording for the Reality Wake-Up Call CD, a fine sample of their progressive metal-core/crossover. A few months later (Jan ’94) M.C.R. released a split-7” with ‘Fearless Vampire Killers’ (from Japan).

‘Decadence Within’: Joey, Mobs, Slug & Rid

‘Decadence Within’ (taken from Ludovic Hache’s zine Ras l’Bol)

‘Shutdown’ were a melodic HC band from Tewkesbury. Good friends with ‘Decadence Within’. Neil is in a band with ‘Slug’ nowadays. They did a demo (’91) and had a record out on the Swiss label Off The Disk recs (ran by ‘Fear Of God’s singer Erich Keller) – I helped distributing that… The band was: Neil Cox (vocals/guitar), Chris(tian) Burton (bass), Rob(ert) PD Chumbley (guitar) and Danny (drums). Their name was taken from a ‘Project X’ song but their music was not exactly NY SxE HC; references were made to ‘Can’t Decide’, ‘Samiam’, ‘Leatherface’, ‘Snuff’, etc. “with a strong DC influence”…

‘Shutdown’ promo

‘Active Minds’ are 2 brothers (Dixon): Simon ‘Set’ (drums) and Jonathan ‘Bobs’ (guitar & vocals) – from Scarborough (ex ‘S.A.S.’ – also with Stu & Ade of ‘Satanic Malfunctions’). The latter had become a pen-pal because I’d started taking interest in their label Loony Tunes recs and their project of getting out compilation-albums where the bands payed upfront for a part of the impression. For some punx ‘A.M.’ sounded too metal, for metals too noisy. What mattered to me is that they were true representatives of D.I.Y. not-for-profit ethic, sincere activists and critical. Just like myself… They also didn’t drink/smoke/do drugs without labeling themselves as SxE… They released tons of vinyl. I think this gig was around the time the Behind The Mask 7” was released.

‘Bobs’ & Set ‘Active Minds ‘ (Ras L’Bol #5)

The music of ‘Jughead’s Revenge’ (Los Angeles) could be described as straightforward HC-punk. On the 1993 tour the were Joe Doherty (vocals), Joe Rimicci (guitar), Brian Preiss (bass), Nenus Givargus (drums; replacing Kevin Heller) and George Snow (2^nd guitar). Their 2^nd LP It’s Lonely at the Bottom (produced by ‘Poison Idea’s ‘Slayer Hippie’) was released in ’92 as a CD on Cash Money recs in the U.S. and pressed on twelve-inch vinyl on Do It! recs in Germany (re-released on BYO in ’95). After this tour George Snow would go on to play in the ‘Bad Samaritans’ full-time.

‘18^th Dye’, from Berlin, played indie/noise-rock – they’ve been compared to ‘Sonic Youth’, ‘Pixies’ and ‘Nirvana’ – and consisted of Sebastian Büttrich (vocals & guitar), Heike Marie Rädeker (vocals & bass) & Dane Piet Bendtsen (drums). The latter 2 with Danish roots…

Brob

‘Active Minds’ were very nice people but I didn’t like their music very much. Too noise and generic for me. I didn’t like the German band very much either, although they were very powerful and bit different. ‘Jughead’s Revenge were ok as people and OK as a band – nothing too special or exciting! Of all the bands we played with that day, I think I enjoyed ‘Shutdown’ the best; but maybe I’m a bit biased as they are close friends… They are a great band…

Ian ‘Slug’ Glasper, personal communication ‘93

It was the last date of our first and only European tour which had also brought us to Holland and Germany. I remember chatting with the singer/guitarist out of ‘Active Minds’ [Bobs] who also played and discussing the talent of the ‘Life But How To Live It’ guitarist. We weren’t sure whether there was going to be a slot to play but thankfully there was once we got there. 20 years of kids, work and beer have addled my brain so I don’t recall the bands too well apart from our friends ‘Decadence Within’ and ‘Active Minds’. I remember ‘18^th Dye’ having a ‘Sonic Youth’ feel and ‘Jughead’s Revenge’ being a bit of ‘Poison Idea’ influenced Fat Wreck band. The main think I remember was a carrier-back of bread and vegan spread in the back of ‘Active Minds’ car, sweating in the sun :-)

Nowadays, I’m in a band with ‘Slug’ and ‘Mobs’ from ‘Decadence Within’ called ‘36 Strategies’… And I have another band with Chris & Rob called ‘Transmissions’, kind of like ‘Hoover’, post HC…

Neil Cox, ‘Shutdown’

To be honest, it was a long time ago and I can’t really remember much about it. We’ve done a lot of touring since then… I don’t remember us ever playing there again though. I seem to recall being impressed by ‘Shutdown’ and I think it may have been the first time I heard them. ‘Decadence Within’ had gone a bit to “chugga metal” for my taste by that time.

My main recollection was of going for a walk in the town and seeing the war memorial with the names of the British soldiers who died during the First World War. Many of them had two surnames listed – their real one and the fake one that they enlisted with because they were underage. That memory has stuck with me – the naive idealism of the youth of the time and the tragic waste of so many young lives that is spelled out so clearly on that memorial.

Bobs, ‘Active Minds’ guitarist/vocalist

We had a reunion in 2005, playing Germany, Denmark and the US. Releasing one more record called Amorine Queen. Broke up again 2009. Now I play in a duo with Piet, the drummer… We’re called ‘Metal Ghost’.

Heike Marie Rädeker, bassist of ‘18^th Dye’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

‘Jughead’s Revenge’

‘Active Minds’

‘Decadence Within’ & ‘Shutdown’

‘18^th Dye’

visiters from France… (the band ‘Constant Summer’ ?)

additions wellcome!…

91-10-05 Rectify – Debiele Eenheid – Neuthrone – Sloth – [Chaos UK] – [Knucklehead]

‘Chaos UK’ didn’t play on Oct 5^th 1991 at the VV. They were announced but the tour-bus broke down (I think) and they didn’t make it. [Brob: Did the ‘Mushrooms – see 90-12-31 – fill in for them…?]

Wim Hollevoet

In 1987 I was visiting John & Baz of ‘Ripcord’ in their hometown Weston-Super-Mare… One day Baz took us to Bristol and we dropped by at the squat (St Michael’s Park) where the Chaos lads – ‘Mower’ (Kieran Moylett), ‘Chaos’ (Adrien Rice), ‘Gabba’ & Chuck – lived (I remember Bear Hackenbusch of the ‘psychedelic’ Skate Muties From the 5^th Dimension zine and Shane Dabinett of Manic Ears recs being there too – and Tim Bennett of Children Of The Revolution recs hung around there aswell I believe…). The band was about to start a ‘rehearsal’ so they pushed all the ‘furniture’ aside and rocked out! I’d seen them a couple of times live but this was even more impressive… In ’91 I was asked to help find them some gigs in the area: they played in Terneuzen (The Netherlands) and were supposed to play here aswell… ‘Chaos UK’, at that time, was (if I remember well) ‘Beckie ‘Beki’ Gibbons on bass, ‘Chaos’ (a.k.a. ‘Lice’) doing the vocals (‘Mower’ wasn’t in the band anymore by then), ‘Gabba’ playing guitar and Chuck hitting the drums. In the end they didn’t show up at the V.V. (They made it here a couple of years later, 93-11-21, though…)

‘Rectify’ (I think these replaced ‘Knucklehead’ – a legendary pioneering ska-punk band from Bristol/Bath, that were planned at first) were a political (anarcho) punk band from Blaina in Wales. I think they were: Wayne ‘Pig(gy)’ Cole (vocals), Mark ‘Wedge’ Wedgebury (drums), Andrew ‘Footy’ Foot (bass) & Michael ‘Mudgie’ Mudge (guitar; R.I.P.)… I thought they only had the20^th Century 7” on Taff Core recs (’88) out at that time. Welly of Artcore zine pointed out there was also a split-LP with ‘Bazzy And The Budgies’ around then…

Later ‘Pig’ and ‘Wedge’ started the band ‘This System Kills’…

‘Debiele Eenheid’ from the Rotterdam Jazzbunker scene were probably introduced by ‘Political Asylum’s Stevie Dewar (who lived in R’dam at that time). Back then the band consisted of Jorem (vocals), Niek Den Braven (bass), Henk Van Schaik (sax), Karel(tje) Dops (drums) and Joop ‘Dops’ De Doelder (guitar). Long Kees played guitar on the Venus Has A Penis tape and on the 7” on Tirana Tunes in 1989 (Here’s some original studio recordings.). Carla (van der Marel; of ‘Bat Attack‘) told me Jorem had the most incredible stage-acts but I can’t recall any of that. There’s some vids out there so you can see the chaotic bunch. I read somewhere Jello Biafra was a big fan…

This was the last ever gig for ‘Sloth’; the line-up (see also 91-02-08) was Dieter Roelstraete (vocals), David Stubbe (guitar), Fabrice Baclet (bass) & Jeroen Vanhandsame (drums).

I thought ‘Neuthrone’s first gig at the V.V. was on 91-12-31 but Steve W. explained it wasn’t. They did a short, un-announced set at the Leet fest (91-09-14) and also played here with ‘Debiele Eenheid’. “That was perhaps our first official 1^st gig as ‘Neuthrone’.”; Steve said: “Fabrice played in the band from August 1991 to June 1992. Then he started a training to become a sailor & was at sea for months and months. In the summer of ‘92 we asked Tim (‘Nutje’) if he was interested. We recorded 5 songs in August ‘92 in Brugge (3 for the 1^st 7” on Genet recs & another 2 for compilations and stuff (but they actually only appeared on a ‘Neuthrone’ LP with unpublished songs in 2004). Because Tim wasn’t ready for recordings yet, I played all the bass-tracks.”

Brob

Bassist ‘Footy’ left ‘Rectify’ years before that. He was only in ‘Classified Protest’…

Dean Jeffery Beddis, ‘Cowboy Killers’ vocalist

I played in ‘Debiele Eenheid’ until ‘89/’90 so I can’t recall anything about the Vort’n Vis in Ieper…

‘Long Tall’ Keesie

I played for ‘Debiele Eenheid’ in the nineties but I can’t remember this concert…The gigs were a bit chaotic yeah… Drummer small Kees (De Greef) played also with ‘Political Asylum’ for a bit and is on the recordings of the last two records. He also played in ‘Budrot’ with members of the ‘Stink Sisters’ and ‘Anarcrust’. Long Kees still plays in ‘Reknub’ – a long-standing psychedelic punk duo. Small Kees played drums when I was in the band between ‘92 and ‘94 I think. Long Kees was before that indeed…

Stevie Dewar, ‘Political Asylum’

I was in ‘Chaos UK’ between the beginning of 1991 to 1993. We toured Europe in October ’91.

Beckie Gibbons

The ‘Chaos UK’ van broke down… ;-)

Your intro sounds right!… I left in 1989. So it was ‘Chaos’ singing in ‘91…

‘Mower’

I played keyboards and trumpet in ‘Knucklehead’. I don’t think we ever played at the Vort’n Vis but I recognise a lot of the band-names of those that did… If you want to update your site with what we’re up to now I can tell you the following:

Jon (singer) went and lived in Bremen (92-95) and sang in ‘A38’. He’s now back in the UK (in Bath I think) fronting a band called ‘Seven Crowns’. They were called ‘Tiny Elvis’ for a few years but changed to ‘Seven Crowns’ a few years ago and regularly tour all over the world I think. Mets (singer/shouter) also went to Bremen and played bass in ‘A38’ and came back the same time as Jon. Back in Bath now. Painter and decorator. Cheesey Coles (singer) stayed in or around Bath. Not sure what he did for years but is now singing in a Northern Soul band called ‘The All Nighters’ (far cry from punk-rock!). Pete’Chopper’ Panton (guitar) – not sure what he did in the years after ‘Knucklehead’ but now lives in London and doing graphics for films and ads or something similar. Si Spoons (bass) stayed in Bath. Still there or thereabouts playing bass in ‘The All Nighters’. No idea what he’s doing for a living… Adrien ‘Ade’ Poole (drums) – drummer in ‘The All Nighters’. Still in Bath (or maybe Trowbridge I think). He’s a teacher I think. ‘Fingers Fourgang’ (keyboards & trumpet) – that’s me – went to Prague for 6 years ‘Knucklehead’ and played in a reggae band called ‘Hermakoute’. Now living in Edinburgh working as a freelance copywriter and penning the odd short-film soundtrack. Alex Hornblower (sax) also went to Bremen and played in a band called ‘Korrupt’. Not sure for how long (think she stayed there longer than Mets & Jon) but now back in the UK, somewhere after a stint living in Holland I think. No idea what she’s up to but she sometimes organises ‘Knucklehead’ reunions (drinking, not playing!). Last one was about 4 or 5 years ago.

I know ‘Knucklehead’ never played in Belgium. We had a tour of various European countries lined up but we split before it came to fruition. The Vort’n Vis may have been one of the venues we were due to play but we all started fighting with each other and it wasn’t fun anymore so we split up!

Toby Morgan (a.k.a. Johnny Despondent)

Vort’n Vis audience getting drunk when ‘Chaos UK’ didn’t show up (guess they would’ve ended up drunk anyway…)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Dirk ‘Scum’ (Zero Positives’)…always hungry… ;-)

‘Zorro’ (Ann Claeys, Dieter Roelstraete’s girlfriend back then), the kitchen-princess of that time…

additions wellcome!…

92-08-09 Onward – Blindfold – Spirit Of Youth – Burning Fight

‘Blindfold’ & ‘Onward’ on tour; with Andreas Grüter, Michael Müller, Peter Hoeren, U.J., etc.

Wim (who sang for ‘Blindfold’) wrote a report on their tour with ‘Onward’ (in his zine Reminder #2) of which this here was the last gig:

>>We arrived in time to see ‘Burning Fight’ and ‘Spirit Of Youth’ (which was our goal). There’s a saying ‘You don’t have to convince a home-crowd’ but I don’t think you can say that for this one… A lot of kids I never saw showed up. This show turned out to be the second best on this tour [8 dates] for both ‘Blindfold’ and ‘Onward’. It felt good to be back.

It was the first tour for everybody involved. When I look back at it, there’s only one thing to say: there couldn’t have been a better band to tour with. A million thanks to Peter Hoeren, Michael Müller, Thomas Baldsovik and Andreas Grüter.<<

‘Blindfold’ did a lot of shows at the V.V. (They rehearsed there if I remember correctly.); even before this one… The (international) attention grew and this one here was during their first European tour. They were ready for it! After this they would record their Sober Mind Meditation 7” (@ CATS Studio in Brugge, Sep ’92; their 2^nd studio-experience), a year after Deprogrammers Do Not Exist (the first official release on P.M.A., Hans & UJ’s label).

‘Blindfold’ photographed by Jean-Paul Frijns

‘Onward’, a straight-edge hardcore band from Oslo were: Arne (Olav) Haabeth (bass), ‘Bhakta’ Ollie Andersen (drums), Peter Amdam (guitar) and Torgny Amdam (vocals; later in ‘Amulet’). In 1991 they had a demo out and did a 7” for Crucial Response recs (Peter Hoeren would also release the LP In A Different Place the next year.). Later some of them formed ‘Sportswear’… Ollie was into Hare Krshna: did Wim ‘Blindfold’ pick up the interest for that kind of spirituality while touring with them…?

‘Burning Fight’, a SxE band from the Belgian coast, had already played here half a year before (92-02-22)…

After the gigs with Hans Verbeke drumming (91-06-08, 91-09-01, 91-12-21), little Fred started hitting the drums in ‘Spirit Of Youth’; Ignace De Meyer played bass and during a short while Edward Verhaeghe was singing (instead of Jan Maelfait, before he came back by the end of this year). That period they did a demo (released by Edward on Warehouse recs) with that line-up. The songs were later re-released on Love, Truth & Honesty (the name that ‘Spirit Of Youth’ took for a while)’s 7” (entitled The Impossible Dream…) on Jeroen’s Machination recs. Their Abyss 7” (Crucial Response recs) was recorded in October 1992 with Jan back on vocals.

Brob

‘Spirit Of Youth’ (with Ward singing; Jörg Jacoby in the red T-shirt) – photos by Jean-Paul Frijns

My band, ‘Growing Concern’ didn’t play -nor did ‘Open Season’- in August ‘92; but some members of GC and OS were there (Steve & Davide -who later joined GC- of OS and Andrew of GC) since they were travelling with Interrail through Europe. [‘Growing Concern’ came over to play twice later on: 93-01-09 & 94-01-08]

Gianni Pantaloni, ‘Growing Concern’ drummer

>>Some members of ‘Ironside’, ‘N.O.F.’, ‘Growing Concern’, ‘Blindfold’, ‘Onward’ and ‘Step One’ + the guy of Enemy’s Voice zine<< (photo courtesy of Jase Fox)

After my 1^st gig at the V.V. [92-07-25], I came back to the V.V. twice that summer, I was completely set alight by the straight-edge scene… I visited again for this one and later for the Ieper-fest (Wasn’t that the very first time that fest took place? [1st ‘Ieperfest’?])…

Jörg Jacoby, visitor from Saarbrücken

L.S.C., the Last Struggle Crew was a militant leftist, socialist, politically oriented group straight-edgers from various countries; hence also the name Red Edge. It was more a reaction to various op militant straight-edge groups, mainly in the US, that focussed purely on straight-edge. Straight-edge was of course also very important to us but it was a part of a bigger, politcal setting.

Har, ‘Feeding The Fire’/’No Sense’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

“Thank you for a pleasant stay. We stayed here for 2 nights and had a great time.” (Catherine Skar & Anne Mette Bergseth, from Norway)

Italian visiters…

Peter Hoeren (Crucial Response recs)

Last Struggle Crew, ‘Gloves Of Destruction’ (see 91-12-21), Jase ‘Step One’, …

additions wellcome!…

93-03-28 Sofa Head – No More – [Alians] – [Pissed]

Bruno, who was the main promoter for the ‘Pissed’ tour (which kinda ‘blew up’, see 93-02-27), decided to invite ‘Alians’ (my mate Rafał ‘Kazi’ Kasprzak & his friends from Poland – they’d been at the V.V. before (see 91-09-21) – to do a part of the tour with the Americans. One day, I got a call from Diff (of the Luxembourg band ‘No More’) – who was driving them – that the Polish got busted at the Swiss border for carrying ‘shit’ (or was some of their ‘mates’ who travelled with them?). They were fined and found themselves unable to continue. Bruno was in Spain (with ‘Doom’) at the moment so it was up to me to try and persuade them but I was unable too…

‘Sofa Head’, from Darlington, played tuneful hardcore-punk with great vocal harmonies by times. Their lyrics were insightful/personal-political but not weaned of some humour. They were: singer Claire Sykes (Chapman nowadays; she married Tom), bassist Ian Armstrong, guitarist ‘Wal’ James Wallis and drummer ‘Woody’ (Matt Woodward – also in ‘Kito’; not Andrew Laing who played on the records). Wal & Ian had been in ‘Dan’ before, Andrew was also in ‘H.D.Q.’ & ‘Leatherface’. Ian Armstrong ran an excellent label called Meantime recs (mostly melodic punk-rock bands) at that time and now runs Hidden Talent Booking (hiddentalentbooking.com) and manages a band called ‘Random Hand’. Nice people (I think I’d already met them in Diksmuide when ‘Inside Out’ played or was it just Ian?) – I also interviewed them for my zine Tilt!)…

‘Sofa Head’; photo courtesy of Benoit Hanssens

‘No More’, from Luxembourg (the country, not the Belgian province) were a political HC band: Claude ‘Pattex’ Werer (guitar), Fränz Laureys (bass), Steve ‘Diff’ Differding (vocals) & Mike ‘Schof’ (93) (drums). This gig was around the time of the How Much Is Enough? 7” on PeaCy recs (ran by Diff and Simone Winandy). Their 3^rd time here (after 92-05-24 & 92-09-05) because they were good mates…

Brob

We had a blast in Europe!

Claire Sykes/Chapman

The line-up on the European dates was Claire, myself, Wal and Woody (Matthew Woodward) on drums, he was in the band for around 2 years but I don’t think we ever recorded with him.

Ian Armstrong

I remember playing at Vort’n Vis with both ‘Sofa Head’ and ‘Kito’ [94-07-10]. I have to admit that I can’t really remember much other than that…

Funny that Ian says I didn’t record with ‘Sofa Head’ because we recorded a live LP at The Square in Harlow, Essex, that came out on vinyl as a US only release. Weird that he forgot that!

Matt Woodward

Claire (‘Sofa Head’) in Brugge (later that year: 2 oct ’93 @ ‘De Kelk’; with ‘Four Walls Falling’, ‘Blindfold’, ‘Feeding The Fire’, ‘Nations On Fire’ & ‘Glue’) – picture by Joeri Hoste

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…