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!…