92-11-22 Blechreiz – Neuthrone – Corpus Christi – [Hiatus] – [Farside]

In my notes this gig is listed on November 22^nd but Bruno highlighted (in the guestbook) it was on the 15^th… ‘Hiatus’ didn’t play because the bassplayer had to attend a family-party. Also ‘Farside’ didn’t show up: they didn’t get enough dates, they claimed (!?)… Bruno wasn’t happy with that! They did tour Europe but didn’t come to the Vort’n Vis (see also: 92-10-04). ‘Corpus Christi’ did play. Early 80s anarcho-HC. They sounded OK but they did a bit of a nervous set (quite some little mistakes). ‘Neuthrone’ got the opportunity to present their (“not quite completely succeeded” – their own words) 7”. They got a fantastic sound though (there was a 12-channel P.A.) and there was some pretty vehement head-banging going on. The P.A. was necessary for ‘Blechreiz’, the ska-band from (Kreuzberg) Berlin, who played last. Great music to dance to. The atmosphere was fantastic and everybody went home satisfied.

‘Corpus Christi’ played here for the first time; the start of a whole series: 93-10-31, 93-11-21, 94-02-05 & 94-09-16. They had formed in the summer of this year. Bart ‘Goemie’ Goeminne was the original guitarist (he stayed until Oct ’93 and was then replaced by Tom Vanlaere for a little while; Stefaan – ex ‘Warcry’ – joined in the Winter of ’92 on bass but took over guitar later). The original bassplayer Johan Maes left after 2 months and went on to play for ‘Dogfish’ (he was also in‘Cry For Change’ – see 91-03-16 & 91-09-01). So I guess the line-up her was Peter ‘Coli’ Van Colen (vocals), Bram De Cock (drums) & Tom (guitar); and was this the actual first time with bassist Stef De Leersnijder?

Being locals and having ‘signed’ to Genet recs, ‘Neuthrone’ had already played here a bunch of times. They were the ‘perfect replacement’. In the summer ‘Tim (‘Nutje’) had started playing bass (together with Steve & David) so this was probably his first appearance at the V.V., with the band. They had recorded that summer (see 92-02-09) so I’m guessing the 7” was only just out or about to come out.

‘Blechreiz’ were Christian Prüfer (vocals), Marcus Renner (trumpet/vocals; ex ‘Ceresit’ – who played for Smurfpunx 86-12-19), Matthias Bonjer (bass), J.B. Beat (organ), Michael ‘Mike’ Betz (guitar), Hermann Lamboy (drums), Michael Rühl (tenor sax) and Wolfram Segond von Banchet (alt sax). I can’t recall seeing these all on the tiny V.V. stage?! I think they’d left the horns-section (who also played for ‘P.N.A.T.S.H.’; see: 93-04-04) at home…

From their website (www.blechreiz-berlin.de): >> ‘Blechreiz’ was especially active against the emerging right-wing extremism in the ‘Wild East’ and West in the ‘90s. Because as everyone knows, skinheads also like ska. ‘Blechreiz’ has always been on the side of anti-racist and anti-fascist skinheads, including the international SHARP (skinheads against racial prejudice) movement and the ‘Trojan skins’, who are well aware of the black roots of Jamaican ska. <<

They were around since the mid-80s so they already had a bunch of records under their belt by the time they played here. In 1993 they would release a single (Loving Couple) and an album (Which Side Are You On?) on the Zensor label … If you wanna learn more about Ska in Berlin, watch the documentary by Alexander van Dülmen.

Brob

Can ‘t remember why we cancelled… I did like ‘Corpus Christi’: they reminded me of ‘Mob 47’. Little did I know that so many years later I would be in ‘Visions Of War’ together with Stef [De Leersnijder]…

Willy ‘Hiatus’

It was my first acquaintance with SHARP-skins – I’d never heard of these before. In all my ignorance I didn’t know there were also like anti-racist skinheads. The band consisted of some 10 or 11 people; who were all crammed on that small Vort’n Vis stage. They played very catchy ska! All punks, crusties, metalheads, etc. were convivially skankin’! Great respect for SHARP!

Henk Loobuyck

I’d already left ‘Corpus Chrisiti’ by then. I only played twice with them, in the Tielt area.

Johan Maes

I can’t remember playing here… If we did, then it must’ve been with Goeminne and not Tom Vanlaere. Stef had only joined ‘Corpus Christi’ a month before…

Peter ‘Coli’ Van Colen

Tom Vanlaere replaced Bart Goeminne just this once because the latter wasn’t able to come. We were alle friends anyway; Tom was in different bands and didn’t have trouble with our 2-3 chord songs.

Bram De Cock, ‘Corpus Christi’ drummer

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

97-05-04 External Menace

gig organised by ‘Foekie’ Christophe Delplace

‘External Menace’, a punk-rock band from Glasgow, was formed in 1979 with Wullie Hamill (then 13 years old) as singer. He died in 1987 when he was hit by a car. Around the time of this gig here the line-up must’ve been Billy Dunn (bass, ex ‘Exploited’), Bobe Copeland (guitar), original member John ‘Sneddy’ Sneddon (guitar), Stu(art) Davis (drums) and ‘Welshy’ Ian/John Welsh (vocals; ex ‘Swine Flu’). A second Euro tour followed in ’98 with Chris ‘Criss Damage’ Baker behind the drums. They did a few 7”s in the 80s, a split-7” with ‘Rectify’ ‎on Suspect Device recs in 1997, the 7” Seize The Day on Negative recs in the same year and The Process Of Elimination LP on Epistrophy (1998).

Brob

pic courtesy of John Welsh: “External Menace & roadies, and 6 punters – the guy in black [2^nd from the left, standing : Jan ‘Doomy’ Claus] that took us for a meal…”

Vort’n Jan enjoying the life… (L: ‘Welshy’, R: driver Keith)

We remember this as the worst attended gig we ever played! Ha ha. I think maybe 4 paying punters turned up! There was 5 of us in the band at that time (+2 roadies), 3 ? bar-staff… BUT it was a great gig!! We had a great time. We just turned it around on its head and had the whole band sitting on bar-stools on the stage, blasting out our version of the punk-rock… Had the roadies and punters stage-diving! We took a request from the bar-staff to play Anarchy In The UK!!! We’d never played this song before (and haven’t since) and never rehearsed it, but we did it, somehow!!! The upstairs sleeping-quarters was the filthiest cess-pit we’d ever seen in our lifes, so we declined that and slept on the stage (which was crawling with insects too) and on various chairs in front of the stage. We got taken for a fantastic meal, by a couple of Belgian guys (can’t remember names) and we got our picture taken at the fountains near the venue… We all stood beside a fountain of water and it looks like were all pissing 15 feet into the air! Wahey!! We used that pic on the insert-booklet of our album Process Of Elimination. It’s also in Ian Glasper’s book Burning Britain. Superb. I also recall our band-name was spelled wrong on the gig flyer… “ExteNDal Menace”!! I still have it somewhere and photos from the gig. No other bands played!!! So it’s a one we will never forget and we loved playing there. Great memories. Our bassplayer at the time – Billy – got a Vort’n Vis T-shirt at the gig and wore it to a few gigs we played.

There was a guy – Xavier??? [Martin Vantomme: “Xavier Benoit, nowadays tour-manager of ‘Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’ and others.”] – who helped me when I was in ‘Swine Flu’ (in 1995) with a gig in Kortrijk – an all-dayer in the town-square with all different kinds of music. I think it was him that I asked to help me get a Belgian gig in 1997 for ‘External Menace’.

John Welsh

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Jan Claus, Jan VDB & Steph Quintens

I thought it was Jan VDB; who was late so they played the set again for him…

Stephen Quintens

If I remember well that lost Sunday-afternoon the telephone rang and 3 hours later they were on stage: a 77 punk band from Great-Britain. They performed twice that evening because I was called away during their show. Great guys, marvellous times!

Jan VDB

 additions wellcome!…

95-09-08 Brawl – Tim De Graeve

After 93-09-04 & 94-03-19 ‘Brawl’ were here for the 3^rd time. Their first release was on Bruno’s Genet recs but they were about to release an ‎EP (Thalidomide) on John Yates’ Allied recs (1996). The band’s vocalist Murt Flynn remained and guitarist was Greg O’Brien. I believe the drummer was named Keri Jones. Don’t know who played bass at thet time (a guy named Dave signed the guestbook). Their music was described as “post-punk-core”.

‘Brawl’; photographed by Henk Loobuyck

Tim De Graeve goes under the moniker ‘Tiny Legs Tim’ (tinylegstim.com) nowadays. He was born in 1978 in the quiet, rural area of the West-Flemish ‘Heuvelland’ (Westouter & Poperinge). “As a kid he listened to Bob Dylan and old blues-maestros. He took lessons classical guitar but quickly started experimenting with the music of his favourites and developped his own style.” — “Back home we didn’t have TV. I played outside a lot with my brother, read books, listened tot the radio and records. I went to music-school. As a little boy I found and old guitar from the 30s in my grandpa’s attic. I got into my dad’s music: Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and the blues- & country-grandmasters. The First CD I bought myself (age 11) by John Lee Hooker.” Tim lives in Gent nowadays… The city of Gent promotes his ‘One Man Blues Band’: “own blues-songs inspirered by the old Delta Blues – uptempo with a lot of slide guitar and a foottap-board”.

There’s also an entry of a metal band (in German) in the guestbook… No idea who that was…

Brob

That’s the later line-up without me. I don’t know the name of the drummer or bass-player off hand. It was still Greg on guitar and Murt on vocals. It’s not me or Crispo in the photos, that’s for sure.

Tommy, ‘Brawl’ bassist in ‘93 & ‘94

1995 must’ve been my early days. I was a teenager then… My entry in the guestbook says it was my second time at the Vort’n Vis so I must’ve been there before…? Later I played there with ‘The Heartfakers’ and also with the ‘Greenhorns’ [played at the V.V. before: 90-10-13 & 91-09-21] – the band of Alex Brackx.

It also says “Anti-Rally-Aktie”. The ‘Ieper Rally’ was always in June but apparantly we also did things in September… I recall recordings once for a radioshow called ‘Piazza’ (with Friedl Lesage on Radio 1). And there’s also been a docu on the ‘Rally’ on the radio where they played one of my songs in the background. That was recorded at the Vort’n Vis.

Tim De Graeve

We’ve done something with ARK [Anti Rally Komitee/Koepel] in September once; that could’ve been ‘95. Three of us skipped a wedding-party because we thought our actions were more important… It was a reaction to the death of a little child during the Rally… We made flyers and probably cycled the the trail of the Rally, ending at the Vort’n Vis. ARK was a group of organisations and individuals that commited to opposing the ‘24 hours of Ieper’. We agitated many years (and were each time administratively arrested and as a group put in jail) against the Rally. We often congregated at the Vort’n Vis.

Mien De Graeve

Tim probably played solo here but I played bass with him as ‘The Heartfakers’ the second time at the Vort’n Vis (no idea about the date, we might have even played twice). It was a funny, sunny lazy sunday-afternoon. Our friend Peter Vanthuyne was the bartender and probably booked us too. He made a last-minute flyer with a bloody ‘Heartfakers’ logo and told us we could play as loud as we want while he was leaving the front-door open. It was the last day of the rally and of course a few rallyfans entered the pub (we were playing some sort of psychedelic blues rock) while Tim played with his ARK stickers on his guitar. To us it was quite amusing.

Korneel Barbry

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

real or spoof?

additions wellcome!…