94-08 [Voorhees]

I was on the ‘Voorhees’ tour. I had a good time even though we had to return early.

Richard Corbridge (Armed With Anger recs; released their 7” Violent… & the LP Spilling Blood Without Reason), personal communication Sep ‘94

>> (22/8) Another massive drive heading to Ieper to sleep the night at the Vort’n Vis. We caught the remnants of people staying from the 3 day HC festival there and were all pretty pissed off that we missed the festival there. Got there late at night and ended up having to climb through a first floor window to get in! <<

‘Voorhees’ European tour diary 1994 (in Richard Corbridge’s zine Armed With Anger #4)

We were travelling home after that disaster tour (financially anyway, cause loads of dates got cancelled) with ‘Voorhees’ in August 94, and needed somewhere to stop, so we went there for one night (we had to break in by climbing in through an upstairs window, haha). It was right at the end of the festival there that month.

Michael John Gillham, ‘Voorhees’ drummer

‘Voorhees’ (from the Bradford area), a band playing manic fast/aggressive thrashcore, were (at that time): Ian ‘Lecky’ Leck (vocals; ex ‘Steadfast’), Sean Readman (guitar; ex ‘Steadfast’), Graeme Nichols (guitar) ‘Bungle’ Paul Rugman-Jones (bass; ex ‘Steadfast’) & Michael John Gillham (drums; also in ‘Embittered’ & ‘Manfat’). They were interviewed for the Vort’n Vis zine Fifi #2 before the tour and I interviewed them afterwards (see Tilt! #8).

Michael did Refused Planet zine and a non-profit distro with the same name; he had written me about a compilation-tape with bands in his area (‘Kito’, ‘Ironside’, ‘Understand’, etc. etc.) and exchanging distro-material. I learned he was drumming for ‘Voorhees’ (but wasn’t on the early records; and ‘Embittered’) and he was telling me that Bruno (Genet recs; with whom I had merged our distros into Fuse! during a short period around that time) had set up a tour for them… (If I remember correctly with ‘Força Macabra’ from Finland.)

Apparently gradually things were going wrong with that. Michael was asking me in another letter: “Is Bruno some ‘top man’ because he does the Vort’n Vis or something?”… He commented the tour was a disaster and almost non-existent so they had to cut it short; and B. was uninterested/careless about the band’s losses; “disorganised & irresponsible”… The polemic was recorded in the V.V.’s guestbook…

They were announced to play on the 1994 Hardcore Festival but didn’t make it.

Brob

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…