93-02-21 Citizen Fish – Hiatus – Blindfold – Shortsight – Behind The Smile

Benefit for an education-project in Indonesia (Kakak Asuh)… Sacha ‘Chatn’ Baelen (‘Blindfold’s drummer) (helped) organise(d) a couple of benefits for that organisation (also 94-04-23 & 95-03-25).

Brob

A friend of mine worked in Indonesia and supported the project there. That’s how the idea to do something for it grew. For a certain amount of money one could pay for a whole schoolyear for a kid, I remember. [“1.000 BeF (25 Euro) enables 1 kid to go to school for 1 year!”]

Sacha Baelen

When ‘Culture Shock’ (cultureshock.me.uk) folded (we had them playing for Smurfpunx; 88-05-13), Dick Lucas (vocalist; Bluurg recs) got back together with some of his old mates of ‘Subhumans’ to play ska-influenced punk with a touch of reggae: Phil Bryant did guitar and ‘Trotsky’ drummed. Jasper Patterson (who’d also been in ‘Culture Shock’) played the bass (see also 93-10-24) for ‘Citizen Fish’ (citizenfish.com). Getting home they would record the tracks for the split-7” with ‘AOS3’ and the summer of that year they went into the studio for the LP Flinch. Dick also released live recordings from 2 German shows (from Sep ’92). A few years before this I’d arranged a show for them in Liège (when they toured with ‘Cringer’) and I was looking forward to skank to their tunes…

Dick Lucas (photo by Martin Vantomme)

‘Behind The Smile’ were a French (Valenciennes) hardcore/punk band with my mate Arnaud Huftier on bass (he did Uprising Decay zine), Frank (drums; Laurent on the demo), Rudy (guitar) & Laurent (vocals; Christophe on the demo). They had a second guitarist, Pierre, on their 7” (but I don’t know if he was playing here). Their 1^st release was a tape entitled Suburban Wars. In 1992 the did a split 7” with the Fins of ‘Juggling Jugulars’ called A Wish To Dream on Sylvain Vilette’s Bad Card recs. They had played here already before (91-10-12)…

‘Blindfold’ started recording for their 1^st LP (Restrain The Thought) at Cats studio (Brugge) the next month and finished it in September. It was released by Mike Warden on his label Conquer The World recs.

Just as the band of her brother Hans (‘Blindfold’), Saskia Verbeke’s band ‘Shortsight’ played here quite a few times already. Since this was before the summer-tour 93-07 ‘Shortsight’ & ‘Blindfold’, Françoise ‘Hazel’ Lepers (guitar) was still in the band here aswell. All of them (the women plus bassist Kurt Deprez, guitarist David ‘Mong’ Dumont, drummer Bjorn Lescouhier) were also locals and Vort’n Vis ‘shitworkers’. That year their 7” Why Spend Time Learning was released (Conquer The World recs). I did an interview with them briefly after they’d split up (’94).

About a month after this gig ‘Hiatus’ (Ben on drums, Azill & Phil doing guitars, Willy growling and Fred Alabas on bass) were also in Cats Studio for the recordings of their album From Resignation… To Revolt (to be released on Sound Pollution recs). Their live set in Liège a few days later (93-02-26) was recorded and released as a benefit-tape for the ‘Flamands Roses’ by Eric W. ‘React’.

Brob

Did we play with ‘Citizen Fish’? I was a big ska fan at the time. Still like it but I’m more into political/poetic hiphop nowadays… This was probably the first time we met the local SxE-ers. Never has been a problem for me, even if many crusties or “fans” of ‘Hiatus’ had stupid prejudices about it; just as some SxE kids hated crusties. Looking back at it after so many years, one can only laugh about this childish bullshit. Some time later, I had an American girlfriend that lived in Berlin. We went to see ‘Blindfold’ (together with Jeroen ‘N.O.F.’) there and they gave us their crate of beer. Better than throwing it away, isn’t it?

Willy ‘Hiatus’

I recall a great show by ‘Hiatus’…

Kurt Deprez

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Herwin De Winter & Tim ‘Crow’ Shapland (ex ‘Zygote’; played bass in ‘Bad Influence’ around that time) travelled along…

additions wellcome!…

94-08-19 Spawn – Congress – Kosjer D

Intro: 94-08-19&20&21 Hardcore Festival

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

‘Spawn’ was a sXe HC band from the Ruhrpott area (Germany) that arose from ‘Inner Circle’ in ’92 (see: 92-10-10). They recorded (Jan. ’94) for a split-7” with ‘Feeding The Fire’ (the bands had toured together in the summer of ’93) on Peter Hoeren’s Crucial Response recs. Before that (Aug. ’93) they’d been in the studio for their 1^st 7” (that came out on Chris’ label Emblem recs) with ‘Melly’ Mel (Gauthier, Seen Not Heard zine from Toronto) doin’ backing-vocals. The band consisted of René Natzel (drums; In My Blood fanzine, also in ‘F.T.F.’), Patrick Uhle (guitar), Daniel Frankowski (guitar; Shattering The Silence zine), vocalist Chris(toph) van Dornick and bassist Dirk Zeiser. The tracks for the aforementioned split were done with their original bassist Holger. After this festival they went into the studio again to register for the Redone mini-album. They played at the V.V. again later on (96-08-16).

‘Spawn’ (1&2 by Massimo Moscarelli; 3 ?, 4 by Frédéric Falzon)

‘Congress’ – Joost Noyelle (guitar), Ilja De Ceuleneire (drums), Jan ‘UJ’ Vandekerckhove (bass) & ‘Pitbull’ Pieter ‘Pierre’ Vanrumbeke (vocals) – were regulars at the V.V. by then. Don’t remember if Michael ‘Micha Soprano’ Pintelon (guitar) played here with them already. It was the period between the Euridium 7” and the band working on the Blackened Persistance [sic] LP.

‘‘Congress’ (from Onno van der Velde’s zine Closer Still)

‘Kosjer D’ started out as a 3-some (acoustic guitar, bass & drums) and then Arne Van Petegem (who was in a mainstream pop-band – ‘The Sideburns’ – before) joined. The name was originally ‘Kosjer Dill’ (nickname of the singer’s girlfriend, who was from San Diego). They were an emo band (with personal lyrics) hailing from Limburg (Belgium), with (besides Arne – guitar/vocals), Geert Plessers (guitar/vocals), Stijn Persoons (drums; ex ‘Dawn Of Liberty’) and a guy named Werner (bass – replaced by Kristien Hendrix a few months later, but she wasn’t on the first 7”). The band did some recordings and asked Bruno (Genet recs) to release them as a 7” (entitled True). People can read about how it came about in Reminder (the zine of ‘Blindfold’s Wim Vandekerckhove) #5… The band had played here the first time already a few months before this (94-05-22) and they would be back a few times more. Also when they became ‘Reiziger’…

There’s no indication in the Vort’n Vis notes that ‘Stormwatch’ from Germany (who were announced in the newsletter) actually played.

Brob

Actually this was the first show I played with ‘Spawn’. I still have pictures from that one… New Age recs also did a small teaser-flyer for our album using pictures from that show.

Dirk Zeiser, ‘Spawn’ bassplayer

additions wellcome!…

96-11-02 Chamberlain – Blindfold

‘Chamberlain’ was an American emo/ post-HC/ alternative/ indie rock band, hailing from Indianapolis & Bloomington, Indiana. Previously they were known as ‘Split Lip’; changed the name after opting for a softer musical direction. They had releases on Dirk Hemsath’s label Doghouse recs (distributed in Europe by GreenHell): a 7” in ‘95 (Her Side Of Sundown) / split-7” with ‘Old Pike (’96) / Fate’s Got A Driver LP (’96; orginally for ‘Split Lip’ but remixed). They were: Curtis Mead (bass; ex ‘Endpoint’), Charles ‘Chuck’ Walker (drums, ex ‘Split Lip’), Adam Rubenstein (guitar), Clay(ton) Snyder (guitar) and David Moore (vocals).

‘Blindfold’ were one of the Vort’n Vis’ ‘house-band’s. Hans (who’s first ever performance on a stage was with my/our band ‘Yuppies’ Death!’), Jan, Wim & Sacha were fellow V.V. shitworkers. Their second guitarist Mich(ael) Decruyenaere (ex ‘Fungus’, later in ‘Hitch’) wasn’t on the LP (Astreroid 164) that came out that year but he was on the Steel Against Steel tour (with ‘Liar’ & Congress’) that summer… I consider the guys mates but my interest in the band was disappearing by then because of their distribution-deal with the commercial company GreenHell.

Brob

Tom Hussman [the guy who was in charge of selling merchandise] and Dirk Hemsath (owner of Doghouse recs; ‘Majority Of One’ and several other bands) wanted to come hang out just to have fun! The guy of GreenHell [Burkhard Jünger] recordstore booked the tour.

Clay Snyder

I know we were always treated well in Belgium… Other then that: I’m afraid I have the worst memory ever.

Curtis Mead

I lived in a town called Bierges [south of Brussels; home of the amusement-park Walibi], in Belgium, as a kid. I think I remember the Vort’n Vis but confusing it with a couple other Belgium shows…

Adam Rubenstein

I was the only non-SxEx… A bit the odd one out in our band: I drank, I smoked…but I liked playing in ‘Blindfold’: I’d been fan of them from the early beginning. Also the tours were always fun. Almost unimaginable that all that was possible then, without internet, smartphones, etc. That ‘Blindfold’, ‘Liar’ & Congress tour was something special. The scene was at its apex and it was unseen then that a small local band did a European tour in a nightliner-bus. :-) I remember that we had to flee for skinheads in Germany and there was also a show with ‘Earth Crisis’ that was very sketchy. Basically I always did my own thing, I was interested in the scene but I wasn’t really part of it. I also went to (still go) a lot of shows at The Pits in Kortrijk. It was an era of fights between straight-edgers and punks…

Mich Decruyenaere

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

2000-08-18&19&20 Ieperfest

From the www… >>The Vort’n Vis Festival is one of the biggest underground fests in Europe and can be found in Ieper. It exists a long time already, I think from the eighties. It used to be in the club called Vort’n Vis but since two years it has become an open-air festival at the music-school. The fest offers us a lot of styles of hardcore like old school, NYHC, emo, more metal stuff; and combines big names with lesser known names. The big names this year were Ensign, Good Clean Fun, Stigmata, Grade and As Friends Rust. Convinced, Walls Of Jericho, Out For Blood and Shai Hulud were bands listed on the bill but who couldn’t show up in the end, pity… The weather on this year’s fest really sucked, lotsa rain… But that couldn’t stop the fun. The atmosphere on the fest was good but not as good as last years. There were no fights or something but some people seemed to enjoy fucking things up at the camping. A lot of people showed up. They told me almost 1.500 people on Friday, about 1.700 on Saturday and the same for Sunday. Also a lot of people decided to stay on the camping.<< (author unknown)

Programme (full posts with photos of some bands can be accessed by clicking…):

Friday 18 August: Ensign (USA), Voorhees (UK), Reiziger (Bel), Out For Blood (Bel), Serene (Swe), Cast In Fire (USA), Building (Bel), January Star (Ger), Cataract (Swi), Lvmen (Cze), With Love (Ita), With Love (Ita), Ariel Kill Him (Swe), AmenRa (Bel)

Saturday 19 August: Grade (Can), Good Clean Fun (USA), Leiah (Swe) Sad Origin (Bel), Firestone (Bel), Withdrawn/Evanesce (UK), Knut (Swi), Born From Pain (Nl), Point Of No Return (Bra), Negate (Bel), Dawncore (Hun), Circle (Bel), Posession (Spa), 5 Day GetAway (Bel)

Sunday 20 August: As Friends Rust (USA), Walls Of Jericho (USA), Stigmata (USA), Length Of Time (Bel), Reveal (Nl), Standing Tall (USA), One Fine Day (Ita), Children Of Fall (Swe), Purification (Ita), Chispa (Ger), Inane (Ger), Course Of Action (Bel), Oil (Nl), Bobby Peru (Ger), Severance (Bel)

At least one critical visiter… “What are we all doing ???” ;-)

Some shots of the crowd & distro-stalls (source unknown):

An Caers & Nico Peeters (Day One distribution)

The ‘shit-workers’ in the shadow: