The V.V. newsletter from August ’97 announced a Halloween party (to be organised by Peter V.). This here is a gig from around the same time. Shitworkers that night were Steph Quintens & Inge Cappoen.
The guys playing for ‘D.S.A.’ – an old-school NY Hardcore from the Poperinge/Kortrijk/Roeselare triangle – were Nico ‘Sientje’ Sinnaeve (drums; later in ‘Retaliate’), Frederik ‘Freddy Nostra’ Vanhee (bass; later in ‘Retaliate’), Maarten Verschaeve (vocals on their 2nd demo, replacing Davy Verhoye) and Pieter-Jan Vandenberghe (PJ; guitar). One of the demos was a live recording from a gig in Poperinge (97-11-09), the other at the Vort’n Vis. They had already played the V.V. on 96-12-30, 97-06-27 & 97-07-12, and would play a few times more…
‘Sorehead’ (Ieper) were Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene (vocals; R.I.P.), Dries Verclyte (bass), Pieter Derycke (drums), Jan Lazeure (guitar; he might’ve quit for half a year [According to Dries he’s always been in the band…]) and Pieter Desmyter (guitar). Steve Noyelle describes their music as resembling ‘Sektor’. The music on their demo sounded metal-influenced and the vocals were raw & aggressive. They also had been at the V.V. on 96-12-30, 97-06-27, and would do more shows later on…
‘Eclipse’ (Ieper) was (gothic) doom-metal playing atmospheric, melodic stuff. The members were Mathieu Gadeyne (vocals), Joke Debruyne (vocals), Koen Vanthournout (guitar; nowadays ‘Clockworkman’) Christophe ‘Foekie’ Delplace (bass; V.V. ‘shitworker’; nowadays in ‘Waxflower’), Wouter Keirse (keyboards; also ‘Warcarft’) & Jaan Couvreur (drums; nowadays ‘Clockworkman’). They self-released a demoCD (1999) entitled Extracts From The Book Of Lost One. I believe Wouter & Mathieu started a melodic electro trance project, entitled ‘Deep Blue’ later on…
‘Eclipse’ promo-pic
Brob
This was ‘Eclipse’s very first gig ever. It was kind of a Halloween night if I remember well. Some chrysanthemum was indeed in order :-). A part from that I recall that black-light and candle-light were the only light-sources in the pub that night. And there was a whole lot of smoke because of a tilted smoke-machine. That’s probably the reason why there aren’t any images of that concert (and the fact that cell-phones were only just for phone-calls then, not for making pictures). We compensated that by taking band-photos at the Ypres’ cathedral… Some time later we did indeed play together with Crusader’ & ‘Sengir’. I believe we only played the Vort’n Vis twice.
During my active period (started in ’96) at the Vort’n Vis, I was actually just taking care of ‘logistics’ (bar & P.A. afregelen) and after 2001 it got a bit more intensive with the Ieperfest (but I was never involved with programmering).
Christophe ‘Foekie’ Delplace
The Vort’n Vis played a central rol for ‘Eclipse’. We were all from the Ieper area and there weren’t so many places where we could play our gothic metal. Both ‘Foekie’ and myself did bar-duties at the V.V. and helped out during fests. Our first rehearsal (Jaan, ‘Foekie’ & me) was in of the rehearsal-spaces located above the pub. Our first gig ever was also in the pub. [This was one here was the first; see guestbook…] I believe it was just us? [Nope.] I think it was around All Saints Day [November 1st]: our buddies from the Ieper scouts had ‘decorated’ the stage with chrysanthemum. A weird form of humor… :-) We performed at the pub 2 or 3 times in total. I believe once was with ‘Crusader’ & ‘Sengir’?
Koen Vanthournout, ‘Eclipse’ guitarist
It was a special experience, already because of the rather special nature of the pub… I believe we even put our demo up for sale there: at the counter, next to the soy-milk. Indeed: good times! Besides that gig with ‘Crusader’ and another band band (I’m not so sure it was ‘Sengir’: we played with them in Gent), there was another gig with just us.
Jaan Couvreur, drummer of ‘Eclipse’
Davy Verhoye died unexpectedly early 2016…
Frederik Vanhee, ‘D.S.A.’
excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:
additions wellcome!…
Vort'n Vis in the 90s 