94-08-19&20&21 Hardcore Festival * Italian impressions

 follow-up to 94-08-19&20&21 Hardcore Festival

I admit that I don’t recall these events very well. I was 24 years old, I’m writing this 20+ years later. I don’t remember which bands played, what I ate, where I slept, and a lot more, but I still have vivid emotions about those days. The Vort’n Vis was the hardcore punk centre of Europe, the place where you had to be. I am very happy to be reminded about it. Yes, I was there and I can’t forget it.

It wasn’t easy to get to Ieper. I didn’t have the money because I didn’t have a job. Mum and dad payed a part, and temp jobs were my income. Air-travel was ruled out immediately, trains were cheaper. Another travel to Belgium after less than a year (after being there on tour with ‘Eversor’). This time a holiday with Interrail, discount-tickets to travel by train in Europe. What I did, is in the following report that was published in my zine Tough Guys Don’t Dance; it was an attempt to say something about things outside the confinement of our Italian boundaries. The English language was a means to communicate outside the country. I could have done more to distribute it though… All was translated by Andrea Marra (the author of The Vort’n Vis Experience). I did the rest (editing – a matrix-printer and a photocopier – and photos).

A fun fact: I remember that the bathrooms were partially out of order (too many people) after a couple of days; and there was a lake of water, piss and shit between the building and the yard…and crusties were wading through it as if it was a normal thing.

I don’t remember much about the bands at all! The concerts were only part of the fun, the main thing was the atmosphere. I liked almost all the bands and knew about them all, so it wasn’t crucial to talk about them in the zine. I still listen to hardcore music, I never quit it.

Massimo Moscarelli (Rome)

Some of Massimo Moscarelli’s photos (grazie mille!) – band-pics will follow in the actual posts on the festival-days:

crowd-shots

upstairs [1: Bruno entertaining the Italians (L => R: Giangiacomo De Stefano (‘Ivory Cage’), Paolo Petralia (S.O.A. recs/’Comrades’/’Colonna Infame’), Andrea ‘Ics’ Ferraris (‘Burning Defeat’/‘One Fine Day’), Andrea Marra (‘Comrades’/’Notorius’/’Bruma’), one of the Marini twins (‘Comrades’/‘Timebomb’); 2: Paolo Petralia, Massimo Moscarelli & one of the Marini twins; 3: Andrea Marra]

in the courtyard [1: Bruno ‘Genet’ & ‘Goofy’ (R); 2: prom-queen & -king Vique ‘Simba’ & Ward ‘N.O.F.’; 3: Bruno’s biz]

walk on by (or not) [2: Pawel ‘Scream’ from Poland selling stuff; 3: ‘Hazel’ (Bernd B. in the background)]

Massimo, the warrior and his aid (Jeroen Lauwers)

additions wellcome!…

94-07-10 Chorus Of Disapproval – Ironside – Baby Harp Seal – Kito – Who Moved the Ground

‘Kito’ and ‘Baby Harp Seal’ toured together; in Belgium they also played in Tongeren (94-07-12 @ Concordia’; with ‘Down By Law’ (& Dave Smalley), ‘Kosjer D’ and ‘Who Moved The Ground’) and in Leuven. They toured in 1995 and ’97 aswell (see 95-07-14).

‘Kito’ (from Middlesbrough) played, as Ian Glasper put it, “gnarly hardcore punk-rock in the vein of ‘Rorschach’…” others described it as anarcho-punk meets sludgecore. There was a definite metal influence. Originals were Rob(ert) Hallowes (vocals), Matt Burke (guitar) and the omnipresent Tom Chapman. The latter played bass for them but when he relocated to Lille by the end of summer 1992, he was replaced by Chris Coulthard. He switched to guitar when Chris Campbell-Lee joined to play bass. Chris Coulthard left in ’93 and was replaced by Stu(art) Smith. Fom Ian Gasper’s book: “1994 saw the band heading out to Europe for the first time with ‘Baby Harp Seal’ before unleashing their debut EP, Johnson, Mary: 188897764. Tom would re-join in March 1995 (read 95-07-14) when Matt Burke had left. So playing here were Rob ‘Kito’, Matt Burke, Chris Campbell & Stu Smith; Matt(hew) Woodward (also ‘Sofa Head’; see 93-03-28) was the drummer (and the photographer)… Besides the aforementioned 7” (out in ’94 on Richard Corbridge’s Armed With Anger recs), they also did a split-7” with ‘Konstrukt’ from Austria (Hammerwerk, ’95) and later (‘98) Sned released an LP on his label Flat Earth recs.

‘Kito’, photographed by Ian Congdon

‘Baby Harp Seal’ (Leeds) played emo “in the vein of ‘Fugazi’/‘Hoover’/‘Heroin’…”. They were: Neil Turpin (drums; also ‘Polaris’), Rob(ert) Holden (guitar/vocals; also ‘Manfat’) and Seth Bennett (bass). Tom Chapman (guitar) left the band when he was moving to Berlin – where he did Now Or Never zine – and was replaced by Andrew Raine in 1995. They did a split-7” with ‘Polaris’ (Kwyjibo ’94), a self-titled 7” (sometimes referred to as Devour; on Helene Keller’s Subjugation recs in‘94) and another self-titled 7” (Chainsaw Safety recs from NY, ’95). In March ’95 they recorded tracks for a split-7” with ‘Kosjer D’ (co-release of Genet recs & Jason Kilvington a.k.a. Jase Kilvo’s label Caught Offside recs) and the LP on Subjugation was recorded in early 1996. Jason also joined them on this tour…

‘Chorus Of Disapproval’ & ‘Ironside’ on tour (source unknown)

Vegan sXe metalcore or hardline? ‘Ironside’ (from Bradford) were here for the 2^nd time (after 92-09-05). This must’ve been around the time their Damn Your Blooded Eyes 7” (recorded April ‘94) was out on Stormstrike. Still in the band were Rich(ard) Michael Armitage and Doug(las) Dalziel (bass). The rest (Nick Royles formed ‘Cracked Cop Skulls’ with ‘Ripcord’s Jim Whitely) had left to be replaced by Shaun (Taylor-)Steels (drums; later in ‘My Dying Bride’, ‘Solstice’ & ‘Anathema’) and guitarists James Rushby (later ‘Geriatric Unit’, ‘Hard To Swallow’, etc.) & Clive Hughes. Armitage wrote about their tour with ‘Chorus of Disapproval’: “The biggest mismatch ever – us listening to ‘[Black] Sabbath’ on the booze, them not.”.

‘Ironside’ (L: Hans Verbeke); courtesy of ‘Sid’ Stovold

I once read someone calling ‘Chorus Of Disapproval’ awesome “two-brain-cell” XXX-mosh… Singer Isaac had a huge ‘X’-tattoo on the calf… They travelled through Europe with ‘Ironside’; a tour organised by Steffen Rose (Navigator). You guessed that they were a straight-edge hardcore band (from Long Beach, California): Isaac Golub (vocals), Jeff Banks (guitar; also briefly in ‘Half Off’), RD Walker Davies (drums, replacing original drummer Jerome ‘Jerry’ P. Hohman) and Regis Guerin (bass). That year New Age recs put out their discography under the title Firm Standing Law.

‘Who Moved the Ground?’ (from Farnborough) were: Rich(ard) Savage (guitar & lead-vocals), Martin ‘Sid’ Stovold (guitar & vocals), Chris Redmond (drums & vocals) and Les Green (bass). Sounded/felt a bit like an indie band to me. They’d sent me some promo-stuff but I wasn‘t really keen or able to help out. Don’t know how they ended up at the V.V. anyway… In their own words they were influenced by ‘Mega City Four’, ‘Bad Religion’, ‘New Model Army’ and ‘The Housemartins’. They had 2 7”s out on Icarus recs by that time: Barneydancing (’93) & The Chase / What’s That? (’94).

Brob

I guess we met a couple of times over the years, Brob – I used to be in several UK bands (‘Ironside’, ‘Kito’, ‘Baby Harp Seal’), then in bands when I lived in Germany (‘Miozan’, ‘Battle Royale’, ‘Cold War’). Now I’m back in the UK playing in a punk band ‘Geoffrey Oi!Cott’. I spent a year living in Lille (France) so I used to go a lot to Ieper, Roeselare, Kortrijk, etc. to hang out and for gigs… I even had a couple of issues of your fanzine Tilt!… ‘B.H.S.’ would have been Neil, Seth, Rob & Andy Raine at that time. Neil left and was replaced by Chris and that was the last line-up. Mark Simms was in ‘Bob Tilton’ but not in ‘B.H.S.’. He might have been a guest or fill in here and there but not a member. He recorded us though…

Tom Chapman

All I remember from that show was that nobody showed up! We played Dunkerque first so the V.V. was the second show on that tour…

Matt Woodward, ‘Kito’ drummer

I was in ‘Manfat’ but only played the Vort’n Vis with ‘Kito’; this one here…

Matt Burke

Indeed, I wasn’t in that ‘Kito’ line-up.

Chris Coulthard

I remember it being really hot. ‘Chorus Of Disapproval’ were all either very tall or very wide. Rob from ‘B.H.S.’ had made shirts out of old pyjama tops for sale.

Jase Kilvo

I only played in the second version of the band, I think they did play this one before I joined.

Andrew Raine, ‘Baby Harp Seal’

I was at that show. Memory sketchy. I drove ‘Kito’ and ‘B.H.S.’ around Europe that summer.

Ian Congdon

I wasn’t there. That’s when ‘Ironside’ went sludge doom.

Nick Royles

I agree wholeheartedly with Rich from ‘Ironside’: it was the biggest mismatch ever. My memory of the Belgium show is not a good one, not because of the venue but because at that point in the tour there was a lot of infighting and we weren’t getting along. I was drinking and getting high and they obviously didn’t. I don’t really remember the show.

RD Walker Davies, ‘Chorus Of Disapproval’ drummer

My band ‘Who Moved The Ground?’ played at the Vort’n Vis. We were a young ska/punk band in the middle of a 6 week European tour that took us to Poland, France, Belgium and Germany. Not sure how we got the gig, we did everything ourselves. I think it may have been me that made contact with someone called Joeri [Hoste?], who had something to do with organising things. He even let us sleep in a tent in his garden after the show.

Being a ska/punk band we were considerably ‘lighter’ than the other bands on the bill. We made friends with ‘Baby Harp Sea’ and ‘Kito’ though, I even ended up with one of their vinyl 7”s (I’m a huge vinyl-collector) in my luggage when we arrived back from the tour. Anyway, the venue was amazing, everyone was really nice and friendly, food and drink supplied to all the bands as they seemed to know how hard it was for touring bands. We played football outside and 4 of our friends came over to see us from England. Our singer even had to dash off after our soundcheck to pick them up from the port. The gig itself flew by, being on nice and early the venue wasn’t over-crowded but that didn’t put us off, although I think the crowd wanted something a lot heavier. We played our hearts out (as we always did), hung around to watch the other bands, made friends and generally had an excellent time. Great place, really great memories.

‘Sid’ Stovold, ‘Who Moved The Ground?’ guitarist

‘Who Moved The Ground?’, pic courtesy of ‘Sid’ Stovold

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

artist’s impression of the Vort’n Vis?

There was a whole anti-women rant in the guestbook aswell (‘C.O.D’? / Brad Hamilton?); I’m leaving that out…obviously.

Who was Tommy?

additions wellcome!…

94-02-05 Varukers – Corpus Christi – Agathocles – 4 Minute Warning

The ‘Varukers’ played a bunch of gigs in Belgium in 1986 but then kinda ‘disappeared’…to re-emerge in the 90s (they’d split and reformed). On their website (www.thevarukers.com) ‘Rat’ wrote: “I think about 2 years or less had past, when ‘Biff’ got in touch with me and mentioned that the ‘Varukers’ should get back together, ‘Biff’ would play guitar; ‘Rat’ on vocals, Kev Frost on drums and ‘Biff’s mate Brian on bass (This was the longest running and most stable line we ever had.). We recorded and released the 7” Nothings Changed (‘cause nothing had, the music, the attitude, the underpants) on Weird recs [in 1994; which indeed featured Anthony ‘Rat’ Martin (vocals; also in ‘Discharge’), Kev Frost (drums), ‘Biff’ Ian Smith (guitar) & Brian Ansell (bass)] and it sold well. Nothing’s Changed let people know we were back and offers for tours came flooding in: the band’s first American tour in 1994, a tour of Japan; the momentum was growing, we signed to We Bite recs from Germany and released Still Bollox But Still Here (1995), new versions of some of the band’s early materials that a lot of people could not get hold of the originals, unless they wanted to get ripped off by record-dealers.”. I guess people know ‘Varukers’ played D-beat à la Discharge… (The year after, 95-07-09, they would be back already)… The line-up changed quite a few times; people that were in the band at certain timepoints include Les Duly (‘Concrete Sox’), Todd (‘Distraught’, USA), ‘Kenko’ (‘No Security’, Swe), ‘Taff’ (‘Chaos UK’), etc. Tony ‘Stick’ Dickens (‘Doom’, etc.) plays drums for them nowadays…

‘Varukers’ (pic courtesy of Annabel de Jonghe)

‘4 Minute Warning’ were a gang of squatters from Gent: Fred ‘Fré’ De Vos (vocals), Leffe (guitar, ex ‘Chronic Disease’), Tom Van Hauwaert (drums) and Gratiën Versypt (bass). There were also some extra vocalists (Bart/Marleen) at a certain timepoint, if I remember well… They just had some tracks on a compilation-tape. Leffe told me he only played at the Vort’n Vis once with ‘4MW’ and Tom revealed that the one on 93-02-06 was indeed without him…

‘Corpus Christi’, by this time a new line-up, were: Bram De Cock (drums), Peter Vancolen (vocals), Stef De Leersnijder (guitar) & Koen ‘Siesele’ Lammens (bass). See also 92-11-22, 93-10-31, 93-11-21, 94-09-16

‘Corpus Christi’: (1-2-3) by Wim De Leersnijder; (4) by Jurgen ‘Spatje’ Fiems; (5) by Annabel de Jonghe

‘Agathocles’ (Jan Fredrickx – bass/vocals, Steve Houtmeyers – guitar/vocals and Burt Beyens – drums). Second show at the V.V.? (91-09-01, 94-09-17, 95-11-05)

Brob

‘Agathocles’ (pic by Wim De Leersnijder)

This was the only gig that Marleen Deneys did with us… We played an anti-XXX song (Middleclass Rebellion) and the PA was briefly turned off (by Ward ‘N.O.F.’???). Our first concert at the V.V. was indeed just Gratiën, Tom and me. The gig in Oldenburg was with ‘Oi Polloi’ and ‘Legal Suffering’ [from Brugge]. We did a gig @ Democrazy (Gent; organised by ‘Zwarte’ Jan) [93-12-03] with Bart ‘Xinix’ singing. He didn’t know our lyrics and had written them on a piece of paper. We did a “cover” of ‘The Dead Kirks’ song Mr. Kirk, Your Son Is Dead. A bit before a bunch of nazi-skins had died in a car-crash so we sang “He died in a car crash.” Instead of “He died of an overdose.”. Stefaan Van Leuven (‘Soulwax’) rehearsed with us a few times (for fun). He was a buddy of mine; he wasn’t into punk but we swapped tapes and he thought ‘Crass’ and ‘Conflict’ were OK.

‘Fré’ De Vos, ‘4 Minute Warning’ vocalist

‘4 Minute Warning’: (1) by Wim De Leersnijder; (2-3-4-5) courtesy of Fré De Vos

Don’t recall much more than being super-psyched about playing with ‘Varukers’… and the healthy rivalry between us and ‘Corpus Christi’… according to some haha…

Tom Van Hauwaert, ‘4 Minute Warning’ drummer

I’d made the banner of Squatter Bart especially for the trip the Germany (our gig in Oldenburg; 93-12)…

Gratiën Versypt, ‘4 Minute Warning’ bassist

I know we played with ‘Varukers’ in Geel [94-05-02] but forgot about this one…

Peter Van Colen, ‘Corpus Christi’ vocalist

This was our first time out for a very long time. Have good memories of this tour & especially this gig in particular. The venue was great & all the bands were in top form. Great crowd too :-) I was surprised that we even played as I though we were going to get deported due to “Mad Andy’s” antics in Ieper. I definitely remember this venue as we slept upstairs & it was bloody freezing!!! The windows were broken and the mattresses were on a concrete floor. We also nearly killed ‘Rat’ as he snored all night! We were very grumpy the next morning! I remember the bassplayer Brian passing out just before we went on stage due to drinking too much. He can always still play notes perfect though. We were well pissed if I remember correctly as we had been out all day. I recall the venue well though. Reminded me of an old café. Small stage & great audience. The ‘Varukers’ line up at that time in my opinion was their best.

I have vague memories of ‘Corpus Christi’ whom I liked. The other bands I’m afraid I have no recollection. Over the years we played with thousands of bands. 99% I have no idea about.

Great venue & we played there again over the coming years (with ‘Chaos UK’) [95-07-09].

Kevin Frost, ‘Varukers’ drummer

Looking at the date of this gig, I guess we played a lot of new songs which we had just recorded for split 7”s with ‘Man Is The Bastard’, ‘Social Genocide’, ‘Audiorrea’, ‘Smash The Brain’…at the end of 1993. A session which was more D-beat/raw punk inspired. As most of the time, it was again very nice to play at V.V. and also to meet people from that time. Great to see these old photos.

Jan Fredrickx, ‘Agathocles’

I remember that we played a ‘Varukers’ cover, as a tribute: Protest To Survive, if I’m right…

Bram De Cock, ‘Corpus Christi’ drummer

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…