94-09-16 Força Macabra – Insane Youth – Corpus Christi – Zabloudil

Intro: 94-09-16&17&18 6^th Leed festival

This Leed fest started with an evening in the pub.

We knew ‘Força Macabra’ a bit because Bruno (Genet recs) released the split between them & ‘Corpus Christi’ in ’93. I’d hung out with ‘Selfish’s drummer Otto Itkonen in Gent the year before and he was also in this ‘project’: a band with a Portugese name and lyrics, while they’re actually from Finland (Punkaharju, N.E. of Helsinki). The vocalist was ‘Taurus’ (‘Oswaldo’ Otto Luotonen), bassist ‘Chakal’ (‘Jaba’ Jaakko Penttinen), guitarist ‘Porco’ (‘Lalli’ ‘Pedro Anthares’ Petri Niskanen) and Otto was nick-named ‘Antitese’ or ‘Oscar’. The band did numerous records and tapes; too much to mention. Have a look on their website: www.forcamacabra.net. They also did covers of bands such as ‘Ratos De Porão’, ‘Olho Seco’, ‘Cólera’, etc. They would play at the V.V. again in ’97 but I reckon Otto and Petri visited from time to time aswell…

‘Força Macabra’; photo by Wim De Leersnijder

Bram De Cock, guest-vocalist (pic Annabel de Jonghe)

‘Insane Youth’, a crust-core band from the Sint-Niklaas area played at the Vort’n Vis for the 1^st time here… The were back already a month later (94-10-22). The line-up: Steve ‘Stiv’ Descamps (vocals), Thomas ‘Tomaz’ Van Rumst (bass), Jan ‘Fons’ Wuytack and Tim De Baere (guitar). Vanessa Hoskens was the 2^nd vocalist at some timepoint. Stef De Leersnijder would join later.

Koen ‘Siesele’ Lammens (ex ‘Private Jesus Detector’) had joined the ranks of ‘Corpus Christi’ by then. The others were Bram De Cock (drums), ‘Colli’ Peter Vancolen (vocals) & Stef De Leersnijder (guitar). They’d done a wole bunch of gigs at the V.V. (92-11-22, 93-10-31, 93-11-21, 94-02-05) but this was probably their last one here…

‘Corpus Christi’; photos by Wim De Leersnijder

I don’t remember much about ‘Zabloudil’, except that they were from the Czech Republic (Olomouc area ?) and had a CD out on Malarie recs (self-titled). On the www one can read: “The band had a variable line-up, name and sound but during 23 years of its existence earned a reputation of one of the most open-minded experimental bands in the Czech Republic. They shunned away from the mainstream and they always shocked with their uncompromising approach to music and the business.”. Their sound was “original, moving in a broad range between hardcore, free jazz, improvisation and noise”. Don’t knoww if Fifi, the female singer was in the band then… You can find out more about them on this website: http://mujweb.cz/zabloudila/indexen.html

Brob

I played at the Vort’n Vis with ‘Corpus Christi’ twice. The original ‘Corpus’ (on the EP) was Stef on bass and ‘Goemie’ [Bart Goeminne] on guitar – they didn’t do an awful lot of gigs in that line-up. When the guitarist quit [He stayed until Oct ’93 and was then replaced by Tom Vanlaere for a bit.], Stef [ex ‘Warcry’, later in ‘Insane Youth’, nowadays in ‘Visions Of War’ ‘Chaka’] took over guitar and I played bass. Things got off pretty well then and we did some 20 gigs before splitting (in ’95), only in Belgium.

Corpus Christi started in late 1991 when ‘Goemi’, Bram and ‘Colli’ started talking of forming a band. The first rehearsal was early 1992 but they had no bassist and because Bram was good friends with the guys of the melodic HC band ‘Cry For Change’ he asked their guitarist (Johan) if he could join and play bass. They did 1 gig in October 1992 with Johan. After that gig he decided to leave because it wasn’t his style. After a few months with only 3 members (‘Colli’ bass/vocals), they met Stef and his brother Wim who both played in ‘War Cry’ along with the legendary Pedro, and asked Stef to join the band and play bass. At the same time Bruno from Genet recs asked to record songs for a split-EP with ‘Força Macabra’ from Finland. So they recorded 7 tracks at Cats studio in Bruges in May 1993. 4 for the split and 3 unreleased. After the recordings ‘Goemie’ had too little time continue with ‘C.C.’ and left the band but because the EP did well and several gigs were planned, they tried to find another bassist (Stef decided to play guitar) and found ‘Siesele’ (‘Private Jesus Detector’ had called it a day by then). That was around October 1993. This last line-up was the last and also the most important. New songs were made. There were even plans for a split-LP to be released by a French label ??? other band ???… I fogot. But internal fights between some members when the band was at their peak got the band to split up. But nowadays we drink beer together and make fun again. The past is the past. The first pic in the vid is from the first gig with Johan on bass. At the end of the movie you see Wim who was always ready for the band and saw every gig. We consider him a member of the band.

Here’s 2 ‘videos’ of rehearsals (space in Oostrozebeke of the ‘Cry For Change’ brothers [Johan & Peter Maes]): the unreleased track Teveel Is Teveel and Killing For Pleasure. [Brob: The one of a live gig in Brugge in the last line-up seems to have disappeared from the www.]

Koen ‘Siesele’ Lammens

‘Força Macabra’ didn’t tour. The Euro-tour was cancelled last minute… Our vocalist’s Lada broke down before, or something. I think the guys couldn’t get the wheels fixed. ‘Selfish’ had done a European tour in 92, 93 but probably did just one appearance at V.V. in ‘94. The same weekend as ‘Forca Macabra’. On friday we tried to do a gig with ‘F.M.’ but the set was a mess (almost unrecognizable because of our state of drunkenness…) so we played briefly and did a short yet decent set the following day on a different stage… So both ‘F.M.’ and ‘Selfish’ played at this fest.

Otto Itkonen

I was on the festival with ‘Zabloudil’ (Cze). I remember Brob wanted me to pay entrance and was angry with me. I totally understand now – you were doing your best at running the place. At that time everything was also new for us; how the scene was working… I got lot of experiences and inspiration out of it for doing things over here in a similar way.

Martin Valásek, Malarie recs

We played on the Friday of this festival. For us it was the first time we played outside the Czech Republic (arranged by Martin Valásek of Malarie recs).

Zdenek Kobylka Vymlatil, ‘Zabloudil’s “manager”

My memory is hazy but one detail I remember is the ‘Força Macabra’ (or was it ‘Selfish’?) bassist being so drunk he could barely stand on stage [see photo], let alone play his instrument. He eventually gave up trying and the band kept playing without him, if my memory serves me right. That must be the first time I drank ‘Kilju’ too, one of those huge buckets the Finns were carrying around. Kilju kills you, or at least it does kill bassists.

Luk Ardilouze, Scream zine, Bayonne (France)

I guess this was the best gig we ever played at the V.V. but also the best overall. It definitely brings back memories, I wonder if ‘Corpus Christi’ could ever do a reunion ? ;-) It was also fun with the Finnish home-brew brothers, I’ll never forget the friendship we shared. The picture shows Basse, vocalist of ‘Selfish’. I remember he was so drunk, he didn’t even feel that somebody tore out his nipple piercing in front of the stage… It was bleeding like hell but the alcohol was a strong tranquilizer, don’t know if it still was the next day? Thanx Brob, for keeping this in memory alive, even after more than 20 years! Respect dude!

‘Corpus Colli’ Peter Vancolen

Q.E.D.

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

94-09-16&17&18 6th Leed festival

Evolution of announcements in the Vort’n Vis newsletters

=> the actual ‘bill’ (???) – Accounts of the actual festival-days can be accessed by clicking on the links below…:

16 sep ’94: Força Macabra (Fin), Insane Youth (Bel), Corpus Christi (Bel), Zabloudil (Cze)

17 sep ’94: Citizen Fish (UK), AOS3 (UK), Bender (UK), Inkisiçao (Por), Bad Influence (Bel), Selfish (Fin), Agathocles (Bel), Der Machinisten (Bel)

18 sep ’94: Rain Like The Sound Of Trains (USA), Ivich (Fra), Oi Polloi (UK), X-Acto (Por)

‘Inkisicao’, ‘X-Acto’ & ‘Oi Polloi’ toured together:

This Is Not Amerikka tour (somewhere along the road) – ‘Oi Polloi’s Matt Finch, Deek, Chris ‘Wheelie’ Willsher, Calum Mackenzie; plus Joao Barrelas ‘Libelinha’ (‘X-Acto’) & Guilherme Charters

Helena (‘Inkisiçao’) & Chris (‘Oi Polloi’) at the Vort’n Vis

‘Citizen Fish’, ‘AOS 3’ & ‘Bender’ were also touring together: the No World Order tour.

Since 1989 I was running a fanzine-distro-label in my hometown in Italy, Pavia, called AZ – DIY anarcho-punk hardcore crust stuff… In September 1994 I arrived in Belgium (Leuven, on a university-exchange program Erasmus) to stay there 8 months. I was already in contact with Brob (Tilt!, legendary epic mythological ‘zine) and Alain (Nabate, legendary epic mythological label), and I knew that the 2 places in Belgium to go were Vort’n Vis in Ieper and La Zone in Liège. My first gig was this festival in Ieper, and then for the following 8 months I was in Ieper or Liège in the pit at gigs, almost every weekend. At the time the mainstream in the Italian HC/punk-scene was US S.E. (not for me, I didn’t like the music and the stupid macho attitude and I’ve never been S.E.; my religion doesn’t allow me to be S.E. – I’ve always drunk, smoked, etc.) and Californian melo-punk (OK, the first 2 LPs of ‘Bad Religion’ are good but please give me something more powerful and political). I was into English anarcho-punk (‘Conflict’, ‘Amebix’, ‘Antisect’) and crust (‘Doom’, ‘Sore Throat’, ‘Nausea’) and Italian HC (‘Contropotere’, ‘Wretched’, ‘C.C.M.’). So Belgium in 1994 was simply fuckin’ heaven: the best beer of Europe at ridicolously ultra-cheap price, endless pubs with no closing-time, open all night long, just a few kilometers away from the Dutch border coffee-shops with the best weed of Europe and a lot of gigs to go see the best touring bands of Europe and US, and finally – my favourite band at that times – ‘Hiatus’.

I got to the Leed festival by train, it was my first punk-gig outside Italy and I immediatly felt surprised in a positive way: no people asking for money and cigarettes all the time, no drunk people getting aggressive and creating trouble, lots of distros (I remember the ultra big stall John of Active distro did, it was wonderful to find so many things that I could not find in Italy brought to me directly from London!), very good and cheap beer, lots of people to talk with (many of which I was already in contact with by mail; and it was great to talk directly with people!) and, last but not least, a fuckin’ great gig, with a lot of my favourite bands at the time, especially from England: ‘Citizen Fish’, ‘AOS3’ and ‘Oi Polloi’; and then ‘Selfish’ – skandicrust at its best!! Sincerely: after 20 years, I remember mostly the atmosphere – angry but positive, “We’re fuckin’ tired of this shit but we don’t destroy ourselves, we want to create something different and alternative, something better…” And I remember on the way back to Leuven: alone on the train, exhausted and with a hang-over (“kater”, the only word I remember in Dutch…), looking at my new records and reading the Situationist books I got from Active distro, thinking “Holy shit! Great gig! I’ll go back to the next!”.

Piero Majocchi

I was at the ‘Citizen Fish’/’AOS3’ concert! It’s possible that Sammy [‘Soyhead’ Schneider, from Switzerland] was with me on that occasion, although I don’t remember exactly. I was travelling with him to North England and back, and we stopped in Belgium, but I don’t have very clear memories of us going to the Vort’n Vis concert together. What I do remember is being there with you, Brob. I also remember losing my glasses in front of the stage when everyone, me included, went crazy; and finding them while everyone around me was dancing.

Tomaz Trplan, Papermouth zine (Murska Sobota, Slovenia)

I’ll come to Ypres for the concert of ‘Inkisição’ & ‘X-Acto’. I’m so pleased they play at your place. I’m very much looking forward to see them again, especially Helena.

Michèle Marnach, Persons Unknown zine (Lux), personal communication Sep ‘94

Gregor Kanitz (A Jour distro, Düsseldorf) visited…

Was at this gig too, don’t remember too much of it I am afraid.

Bart Jansen, ‘Deconsume’ guitarist

I was there…

Luc Ardilouze, Scream zine (Bayonne, France)

I was there too, already my second Leed Fest at the V.V. Some great bands and amazing atmosphere. I kept coming to this fest for a few more years, always a pleasure!

Pawel, Scream recs (Gdansk, Poland)

I really don’t remenber how long we stayed in Belgium but I can recall that I really loved it and I talk about that tour-experience as the experience of my life :-)))) Unforgettable!

Helena Burbuleta, ‘Inkisiçao’ singer

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Some Portugese stayed the whole weekend…

???

One of the S.F. movies that were shown?

96-09-20 D.D.I. – Boycot – Eversor

Intro: 96-09-20&21&22 8^th Leed festival

‘Eversor’, a band from Pesaro, played heartfelt, melodic HC (their music was described as a mix of bands such as ‘Sensefield’, ‘Lifetime’, ‘Farside’and ‘Dag Nasty’). The backbone of the band was Marco Morosini (bass) & his brother Lele Morosini (guitar & vocals). I think Federico Sarti who played the drums during their first visit (93-09-19) was replaced by Valentino Benvenuti by then: someone named ‘Vale’ signed the guestbook. Valentino was on the recordings of the 7”s World Of Illusions & Time Goes By (both Jan. ‘95) and also on the (June 1996) recordings of the September LP. Marco also did a distro, called Cataclysm. Later the brothers continued to play together in ‘The Miles Apart’.

‘D.D.I.’s second appearance at the Vort’n Vis (after 95-09-16). The band consisted of the 2 bassists – Edo(ardo) Puglisi & Daniele ‘Lele’ Malabarba, Alessandro ‘Gallo’ (guitar; nowadays ‘Gallo’ works for Twilight Tattoo), Dario Quatrini (guitar), Gianpiero ‘Mila’ Milani (vocals) and Gio(vanni) Lazzaroni (drums). Edo left later because of civil service and Lenin of ‘Los Crudos’ joined (read below). The recordings of their 10” Pazzi Da Asporto (finished spring ’96) feautured Edo, Lele, Gio, Mila, Dario & Gallo. It was co-released by a bunch of European D.I.Y. labels & distros (even Tilt! contributed some funding). The original cover was a screen-printed envelope that contained a huge booklet. Great political fast HC with a playful twist! Extremely inspiring and super-energetic!

‘Boycot’ (from Alkmaar) started in ’95 with Jeroen Maas (bass) Eric-Jan (guitar) & Taco Rietveld (drums). Billy Kuiper (later also drums for ‘Distress’ and vocals for ‘Betercore’) was asked to do vocals and Pim Bakker (vocals; ex ‘C.K.N.’) joined a bit later. Most of them were also active (one way or another) in the ‘punk’ venue Parkhof. By the end of 1995 they had released their 1^st 7” called Only Stupid Bastards Help Epitaph (on Axiome prods – review in Tilt! #9: “Superfast HCpunk with a slight metal edge and biting vocals.”). During the spring of ’96 Lennaert Roomer (who played drums in Rich Militia’s ‘Wartorn’ earlier and later bass in ‘Distress’) replaced Eric-Jan on guitar. A bunch of split-7”s would follow (e.g. with our mates of ‘Insane Youth’ in 1997). Pim left in ’98 for personal reasons.

Brob

I was in ‘D.D.I.’ from the start (1992) until 1998. I didn’t play on the last LP (though most of the songs on that album were mine). I played the V.V. in ’95. We always played with 2 basses from 1993 until the end (’99). We had 4 bassists over the years. Edo left the band at the end of ‘96 or in the early ‘97…after our tour in Germany tour. Lenin joined us after touring with ‘Los Crudos’. We were in Belgium two times in 1996 (04-30 [Brob: I invited them for a concert at the Hogepont squat in Gent.] to 05-01), and Sep. 18/19/20). The tour in Germany was in 1997. When Dario left ‘D.D.I.’ he continued to be the band’s grapic designer. All our flyers were done by Dario (and also the book Make Music Not Money – A few years ago we did a little tour around Italy in squatted houses to promote that, so we played again as in the 90s!). ‘Gallo’s real name is Alessandro; he was called ‘Gallo’ (rooster) because he was a psychobilly in the late 80s, his hair was styled like Elvis Presley!!!

Daniele ‘Lele’ Malabarba

Pics courtesy of Dario Quatrini (‘D.D.I.’): ‘Gallo’ (1) – ‘Lele’ (2) – ‘Mila’ (3) [Sascha ‘Evilspeak’ May going beserk next to Edo] – Edo & Dario (4)

I started playing with ‘D.D.I.’ in 1993, when I was 16 and in highschool. At the time I was in the ‘Astro Zombie’s anarcho-collective/distro, which produced the band first 7” Fanculo I Suoni Puliti (Clear Sounds Fuck Off). I joined as a second bassist; the band was already playing in squats around Italy, so it was really like joining in the middle of the action. Soon we recorded the album Pazzi Da Asporto and also started our first gigs outside Italy. It may be that the first time at the V.V. [the year before this; 95-09-16] was also our first gig abroad, but maybe not. We then did also a tour in Germany and one in Spain, which was also my last with the band. At the time I was at university and it had become difficult to have enough time for both things. I have great memories of the concert and festivals at the Vort’n Vis but I can’t exactly distinguish memories from the two times we played there. What I remember most was the courtyard in the middle, with the vans and the sofas and the distro. I also remember when we cooked and sold pasta to everybody (Damn Italian Pastards [see photos below]) and I’m pretty sure that one concert we did more than half of the set playing hardrock classics (‘Black Sabbath’, ‘Iron Maiden’, …). For me these gigs were a great example of the sense of solidarity, passion and community that we shared in many squats around Europe, and they’re among my best memories of life with ‘D.D.I.’. This experience was a great moment of formation for me and even now that I do different things, these ideals are still with me; and I try as much as possible to put them into action also in very different situations.

Edoardo Puglisi

‘D.D.I.’s drummer Gio advertising their pasta…

graffiti somewhere at the V.V.

I joined ‘D.D.I.’ in the last year of the band (97-98) and we always played with 2 bassists. If I’m not mistaken we played at the V.V. in the winter of ‘97… [Brob: I have no record of that…]. I played there with ‘Los Crudos’ in 96.

Lenin Montes De Oca

I visited various gigs at the V.V., also the Leed festival in Sep. ‘94 & Sep. ’95 but not at this one in ’96… Patty Cracolici was the female singer in ‘D.D.I.’ on the last album (split with ‘Stalker’, 1998), together with Dimitri (guitar), Carlo (guitar) & Gigi (bass). That was the last line-up of the band (with some original members – but I don’t remember exactly who, it changed every 2 months…)

Piero Majocchi

When we got to the V.V. ‘Terror Tom’ (from Gent; with a Riot in a Nike-logo tattoo on his head), was standing outside because they wouldn’t let him in. He asked us if we couldn’t put him on the guest-list… Which we did and what the people of the V.V. didn’t like. Within 10 minutes there was a big fist-fight with ‘Terror Tom’ as the centre-piece… Not very clever? At one timepoint the V.V. stage collapsed underneath me…but I don’t remember if it was that night.

Bill ‘Boycot’

[Early on it looked like ‘Frammenti’ (from Torino) would tour with ‘D.D.I.’] I was the guitar-player in ‘Frammenti’. We never played in Belgium, we’ve been in Switzerland twice, in Germany, in France and Spain. The rest was Italy only… I remember I heard ‘Mila’ and Irith from ‘D.D.I.’ talking about you, Brob. The ‘D.D.I.’ – ‘Frammenti’ tour you mentioned, was – I think – in Switzerland and Germany during April 1997. It was organised by the band ‘Peace Of Mind’ from Göttingen. I do remember ‘D.D.I.’ playing in Belgium but never with us.

Pietro Cardona

My memories about the show we played at this fest are pretty confused due to the fact that Bruno (Genet recs) booked us 2 shows the same day (we were supposed to play another city with ‘Blindfold’ the day before but show was cancelled just 10 days before we left for the tour), the first one in Ieper and the second one in Gent @ the Frontline so we couldn’t enjoy the atmosphere at the Vort’n Vis fest, we played late afternoon opening the shows and there were only a few people – including the guys of ‘D.D.I.’, that we never met before that occasion. As usual everyone was very gentle with us, we had meal and drinks, but right after we finished our set, we just had the time to sell a couple of 7”s, have a beer and drive to Gent (where we had a fantastic gig maybe one of the best of that tour). I play in ‘Mannaia’ nowadays…

Marco Morosini (marcomorosini.com), ‘Eversor’ bassist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

96-09-20&21&22 8th Leed festival

Accounts of the actual festival-days can be accessed by clicking on the links below… My descent into hell had commenced a bit before this, I don‘t think I attended this fest (or not all of it); so not really sure about the playing-order…:

96-09-20: D.D.I. (Ita), Boycot (Nl), Eversor (Ita)

96-09-21: P.A.I.N. (UK), Witchknot (UK), Quarantine (UK), Bad Influence (Bel), State Of Filth (UK), Kirous (Fin), Carcer Molochi (Bel)

– Clutch Assembly (Bel) was invited to set of a techno night/party

96-09-22: Strain (Can), Ananda (Fra), Systral (Ger), Elision (Ger), Sektor (Bel), Vitality (Bel), Family Of Dog (Bel)

‘Portobello Bones’ (from France) were announced at some timepoint but I think they didn’t come… There was a photo of the Berliner band ‘Y’ playing in the V.V. barn in Sascha May’s zine Evilspeak or was that from a gig earlier that year…?

Some pics courtesy of Dario Quatrini (‘D.D.I.’) – taken by the members of the band:

distro-stalls in the pub (first evening) – Joeri Hoste, Jeroen Lauwers, etc.

AZ distro from Pavia (with the charming Irith Davidzon on the left)

The ‘D.D.I.’ gang cooking dinner in the yard, DIY-style (L => R: Mila – Luca – Gio)

‘D.D.I.’s Gallo taking a break in front of the famous corner-shop…