96-03-24 Undone – Vanilla – Carol – Rusty James – Outrage

Probably ‘Undone’s last gig here (their 5^th at the V.V.) as they split up early ’97… ‘Sully’ (vocalist Sullivan Chédanne) had already moved to Italy. Apparently he’s living in Australia nowadays… By the end of ’97 Christophe (Mora; drummer) wrote me he was in a new band with ‘Scholl’ (Stéphane Brochier; guitarist), called ‘Narodnaya Volya’ (The People’s Will) (No idea if that ever happened?) and he did a fanzine entitled Desiderata (with Gérome & Séverine from the band ‘Alcatraz’)… ‘Stu’ (Stéphane Joly; bassist) would re-surface in ‘Ananda’. Their last release (The Other Side 7”) was recorded May that year at Ape studio. An ‘Undone’ discography is planned (since a long time)…

‘Rusty James’ (from Bremen) played melodic/poppy HC (some compared them with ‘Jawbreaker’). They were: Miguel Andrade (guitar/vocals; ex ‘Abolition’) & Rainer Ohst (drums) – who both used to play in the vegan straight-edge emo band ‘Age’ (with singer Hauke Hersinger, guitarist Markus Czymzik & bassist Ramon Lembke). Dirk Kusche (supposedly in the band between 1995 & ‘97; also in ‘Systral’) came over with ‘Rusty James’ but I can’t remember the exact line-up… Perhaps Pascal Heiduk on bass (replacing Hans Joachim Witt) and Kai Bewersdorf on guitar? At that time they had an untitled 7” out and their Save The Last Dance For Me LP (both on Love recs). Someone described them as “Europe’s best pop-punk band ever”… Miguel, Rainer and Hauke were also in the emo band ‘Assay’ (LP out on Love recs in ’97). The Wolfsburger Andre Pawelzick (Refuge mailorder) & Holger Ohst (Summersault mailorder) might have been there aswell…?

‘Outrage’s first performance at the V.V. They recorded their 1^st 7”, Between Brackets (out on Nico’s Day One recs), in April ’96. They were: Sigi Loots (drums; later ‘Crimson Falls’), Steven Van Goubergen (guitar), Ringo Van Dingenen (vocals; later ‘Crimson Falls’) and Nico Peeters (bass; later in ‘Vuur’ & ‘KingTerror’). The latter was a friend from the Newland collective that did shows in Herentals and a zine with the same name. He also ran a distro and label with his partner (at that time) An Caers. The band would be back for the summer-fest on 96-08-16, 97-03-01 & 98-09-19.

‘Carol’ from Bremen had been at the V.V. already (95-09-15). They played brutal, energetic screamo hardcore with a crusty edge…influenced by ‘Acme’. The guys in the band were (I think) Andy Lehmann (guitar), Björn Schmidt (vocals; later in ‘Mörser’ & ‘Systral’), ‘Hajo’ André Wendelken (guitar), Matthias ‘Matze’ Trenne (bass; also ‘Mörser’), ‘Acme’s bassist Sönke Gabriel did drums. That year (January) they had recorded the Prefabricated 7” (Philipp Styra ‘Queerfish’ was the drummer on the 1^st one) that came out on Markus Haas’ label Per Koro. A bit after this gig – summer of ’96 – they recorded (with André or ‘Shitman’ – also in ‘Mörser’ – on drums) a track for the split 7” with ‘Stack’ that was released on my mate Hoger Ohst’s label Summersault. André Wendelken and ‘Mörser’-guitarist Sven ‘Svenion’ Nienaber later formed ‘Minion’…

‘Vanilla’ had already played here 95-01-29 and probably also 94-08. They were an emo band from Paris that put out their I Can’t Stop Hating This Empty Space 7” on Olivier Lépine’s label Laissez-Nous Jouer in 1995 (after an initial demo). On that record Jean Lebrun played bass and brothers Yann & Yves Maisonneuve (both ex ‘Ivich’), guitar and drums. Alain Vidal (also in ‘Symptom Of Isaac’ & ‘El Vidal Sonido’) joined them later. Bruno VdV released an untitled LP of them on Genet recs so they were invited back for 96-08.

Brob

I can’t remember who played in ‘Rusty James’ back then – apart from Miguel (singer/guitarist) and Rainer (drummer). I think ‘Hajo’ [André Wendelken] from ‘Carol’ played bass and I was probably playing guitar (or the other way around?). That was in ‘96, I think. I don’t remember the show, though… It was nice, when I had been there with ‘Carol’ [95-09-15]; they played in a smaller room somehow [the Vort’n Vis pub]. Even more exciting when we played on some other date with ‘Systral’ [95-09-16 & 96-09-22] but that was on a quite big stage in front of a big audience. Exciting, but a bit weird too, since we liked it better to play in small steamy venues that were more personal.

Dirk Kusche, ‘Systral’ bassist & owner of Kuschelrock studios

Rainer Ohst was the drummer of ‘Rusty James’. Kai Bewersdorf was the guitar-player, the first guy to play the other guitar was Dirk Kusche – he also played bass and founded ‘Systral’…

Pascal Heiduk

I played in ‘Rusty James’ but only the last year and I’m pretty sure I’ve never played in Belgium unfortunately.

Kai Bewersdorf

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…