90-10-13 Trottel – After All – Pietje Roze Konin… – Greenhorns

It was way back in the early 90s when I first came to the Vort’n Vis for the concert of ‘Trottel’, ‘Greenhorns’ (a local rock-band that played in a country-rock style à la Neil Young / ‘Green On Red’); ‘After All’ (which I don’t remember any more)…and ‘Pietje Roze Konin’ (also no remembrance..)

Henk Loobuyck

‘Pietje Roze Konin’ en de Zeven Gèssprietjes’ (Pete the Pink Rabbit & the Seven Grass-blades), from Menen (between Kortrijk en Ieper) were a bunch of lads who just picked up some instruments to make “a mess”: Vincent Windels (drums), Rudy Denis & later Karel Lauwers (guitar), Kurt Deprez (bass), Jeroen Lauwers (screams; later replaced by Wim Vandekerckhove & Sacha Baelen). Some of them would later end up in ‘Shortsight’ and ‘Blindfold’. There’s an interview with them in Jimyh Anti’s zine in the post about their earlier performance (89-07-09).

According to Bruno’s description on the flyer, the ‘Greenhorns’ were “local rock-out blokes in it to break major rock business”… They were Alex(ander) Brackx (guitar/vocals), Carl Vansuyt (bass) & Guido Dieusaert (drums).

‘After All’ were a trash-metal band (The flyer says: “now with a new & extremely expensive drum-riser”) from Brugge, (they were the follow-up to ‘At Last’ that played at the V.V. 90-01-20). Playing in the band: Dries Van Damme (guitar), Christophe Depree (guitar), Chris ‘Hazy’ De Neve (drums), Peter De Meyer (bass on the 7”; also ‘Chronic Disease’ – Yannic Kermarrec did a short stint in the band in ‘92) and ‘Zoef’ Wijnand Desreveaux (vocals). Their first 7” (Dusk) got out in 1992 (recorded in autumn ’91). As of today these still exist (see afterall.be)…

‘After All’ (L => R: ‘Hazy’, Christophe, Dries, ‘Zoef’, Peter)

‘Trottel’ (or ‘Die Trottel’; German for ‘idiots’) was announced as “Hungaria’s punkrocknoise – No shit!”… Others used the words ‘indefinable’ and ‘psychedelic’, ‘spacey’ to describe them. Their lyrics were socio-critical; female vocals. The band at that time consisted of Tamás Rupaszov (bass), Ildi(ko) Asztalos (vocals), Kakuszi ’Kaktusz’ György (guitar) and Péter ‘Garfield’ Nagy (drums; or was it Sándor Orosz?). After some demos in the late 80s, their tape Borderline Syndrome was also released by a French label in 1989. In 1990 Armin Hofmann also put out their Your Sincere Innocence tape out as a 12” EP on X-Mist. They came back 91-10-12. For more info: trottel.hu

Brob

I can only recall that we played that night because ‘Trottel’ used my guitar-amp. Well, it was more like a cage used to breed guinea-pigs. As a naive youngster, I had bought the amplifier from a crook. ‘Trottel’ had a lot of trouble producing a decent sound during the sound-check. the Hungarians did play a tight, convincing set that night. One of my favourite concerts at the Vort’n.

Karel Lauwers

My legendary memory isn’t so legendary anymore. I only remember a Sunday morning when we got locked in at the sleeping-place. Finally I climbed out of the window… and found myself in the streets of Ieper and saw people going to the church… It’s a cloudy picture in my head…don’t even know which year this was. I did over the 1,5 million kilometres since the beginning of the 90s so my brain is quite full I guess :-).

Tamás Rupaszov, ‘Trottel’ bassist

Reading this, I remember the town and the situation – ‘locked in the house’. After climbing down from the first floor, a guy who also slept there came and he let us out. We thought we were alone at the place.

Ildi Asztalos , ‘Trottel’ singer

[continued from 90-01-20] We returned to the Vort’n Vis for our 10^th gig. By that time, we had changed our name from ‘At Last’… to ‘After All’. In fact, that was our first show we played under the new name. Other bands on the bill were ‘Pietje Roze Konin’, ‘The Greenhorns’ and ‘Die Trottel’ from the Czech Republic [Hungaria actually]. I remember ‘The Greenhorns’ put on a ‘professional’ rock show, which was not really the thing to do at the Vort’n Vis. We liked ‘Die Trottel’ a lot. I remember ‘Zoef’ bought the album they sold at the show. I dubbed it on tape. Yes I know, hometaping was already killing music back then… Don’t remember the set we played but I’m quite sure we played Surf Nicaragua by ‘Sacred Reich’ that night. I also remember that the end of the night ended with a huge food-fight backstage [Leffe mentions it 90-01-20].

A quarter of a century, gone in the blink of an eye, or so it seems. The band always persevered, although only Christophe and myself are left from the very first line-up that played those shows in 1990. From those very humble beginnings at the Vort’n to touring Europe, playing Graspop or opening for ‘Judas Priest’ at the Lotto Arena is quite a stretch – but we wouldn’t want to have missed it for all the money in the world!

Dries Van Damme, ‘After All’ guitarist

pics (courtesy of Dries Van Damme):

Wijnand Desreveaux / Chris De Neve / Dries Van Damme

Peter Demeyer / Wijnand Desreveaux (and Vrokker ‘Chronic Disease’ sitting on stage)

Danny Borny (who was with the band as roadie, stage tech & merch guy from 1989 until 2012) / Christophe Depree

additions wellcome!…

90-01-20 Chronic Disease – At Last – Gnuft – Damage Done

A concert, in the very beginning of the Vort’n Vis, illustrating the strong connection between punx from Brugge and seminal Vort’n Vis bands… A non-SxE 8000 connection long before the name H8000 crew surfaced… ;-)

By that time ‘Chronic Disease’ didn’t need an introduction anymore. We had offered them a chance to play already at Smurfpunx shows; first in Netwerk (Aalst) with ‘R.K.L’ but they’d had to cancel that; then (which they did play) in Eeklo with ‘Rose Rose’ (88-11-11). They’d already performed at the V.V. aswell (89-09-16) and they would be back a couple of times more. Bruno (His Master’s Noise; later Genet recs) had helped them release their demo – Trapped Again – ‎in ’89. A few months after this gig (March ’90), they (Leffe, Vrokker, Peter & Sling) went into the studio to record for their 7” (Born To Live In Chains, out on Kurt Horeman’s labele Innerforce).

‘Gnuft’ (actually ‘Gnuft v.z.w.’, the latter being the Belgian term for ‘non-profit organisaton’) were locals David Stubbe (later the drummer for a variety of bands) & Dieter Roelstraete sharing vocals, Wouter playing guitar, Fabrice Baclet (also in ‘Silly Old Fart’, later ‘Neuthrone’) plucking his bass and Pascal “smashing” the drums. I saw them a few months later at the gig with ‘Sore Throat’ (90-05-27); all I can remember was ‘noise’ ;-)

‘At Last’, from Brugge, were: Dries Van Damme (guitar), Christophe Depree (guitar), Chris ‘Hazy’ De Neve (drums), Peter De Meyer (bass; guitarist of ‘Chronic Disease’) and ‘Zoef’ Wijnand Desreveaux (vocals) played fast trash-metal. The demo that Dieter is referring to (in the review) was called Peace On Earth. Later that year the band changed it’s name to ‘After All’ (played at the V.V. as such: 90-10-13) and as of today these still exist…

‘Damage Done’…can’t remember I ever heard/saw them… “Batrock à la ‘Sisters Of Mercy’…”, as Dieter described them.

concert-review by Dieter Roelstraete in his zine Pyrobolum #2

Brob

I was on stage myself that day, with ‘Concortium Musica Perverza’, a choir. We performed right before ‘Chronic Disease’. [Brob: ‘C.M.P.’ also performed during the SxE fest August ’96] Peter Arthur Caesens also did his ‘dance-routine’ that day…

Joost Dierick, BZN productions

Twenty-five odd years ago – 25! – we started gigging in the local hardcore/crossover scene. We had started as ‘At Last’… in the fall of 1988. [line-up above] We rehearsed at an old school-building in the small village of Stalhille (Jabbeke). We shared the rehearsal-space with bands such as ‘Chronic Disease’ and ‘Toespieze’, and later on ‘Private Jesus Detector’ and ‘Rise Above’. We played our first live shows in 1989 and recorded a demo in the summer.

I believe it was our connection with ‘Chronic Disease’ that got us in touch with Bruno Vandevyvere of Genet recs, and he got us this show at the Vort’n Vis. To give an idea of how young and unexperienced we were: I had just turned 17 and it was our 5^th gig. Other bands on the bill were : ‘Chronic Disease’, ‘Gnuft Inc.’, ‘Damage Done’, ‘W.C.P.’ (“speed-trash”) and ‘Masturbating Kangaroes’. [Brob: The latter 2 aren’t mentioned in Dieter’s gig-review. I can ‘t recall them either…]. From what I remember, they were all straightforward hardcore bands, with the exception maybe of ‘Chronic Disease’. That was a truly awesome band. Always thought it was a shame they only did that one EP on Genet.

I remember we got along well with the bands in the scene at the time, although we were definitely a different kind of ‘animal’. In the eyes of the ‘hardcore kid’, we were ‘a metal band’. At that time being called ‘a metal band’ wasn’t exactly cool. Not that we cared: we were wearing our ‘Metallica’ shirts with pride, had guitar-solos in our songs, drank beer, smoked cigarettes and generally didn’t care much about anything, haha. We were totally into the crossover idea. We listened to ‘D.R.I.’, ‘Heresy’ and ‘Doom’, but also ‘Morbid Angel’ and ‘Death’, and more traditional heavy metal like ‘Iron Maiden’, ‘Dio’ and ‘King Diamond’. Not all hardcore kids thought along those same lines. I remember ‘Nuclear Assault’ was labeled ‘satanic’ because of some of the lyrics on their first album. And obviously ‘Slayer’ was seen as downright fascist because of the lyrics on Reign In Blood. A couple of years later, it was rather amusing to see how the H8000 scene that emerged from the Vort’n Vis was based almost exclusively on ‘Slayer’ riffs – but that’s a different story.

To be quite honest, I don’t remember much of that first gig at the Vort’n Vis. I guess we played most of the songs of the demo and – I think – a cover version of ‘Metallica’s The Four Horsemen. Maybe a song by ‘Doom’ also, or one by ‘Terrorizer’. Don’t know why, but I do remember the smoke in the room. From the back of the room, you hardly could see the stage.

[continued on 90-10-13]

Dries Van Damme, ‘At Last’ guitarist

additions wellcome!…