This was the first day of the 10 year anniversary weekend of the Vort’n Vis: 99-06-25&26&27 10 years Vort’n Vis
‘Shank’ from Glasgow played super-fast screaming HC/thrash; influenced by ‘Half Off’ & ‘Stupids’: John ‘Wurzel’ Burridge (vocals), Jamie ‘Lamberta’ Thomson (guitar), Jason Boyce (drums; ex ‘Stretchheads’, also ‘Scatha’), Andrew Nolan a.k.a. ‘Andy Stick’ (bass & vocals; ex ‘Ebola’, also ‘Sawn Off’). At the time of this concert they had 2 split-7”s out: with ‘Minute Manifesto’ (on Nick Loaring’s Enslaved recs, 1998) and with ‘Scalplock’ (Retribution, 1999). Recordings for the 7” with ‘Unholy Grave’ were just finished. Andy once described their music as follows: “We just rip off old Boston and Japanese bands, dropped the tune to B, speed shit up, slow shit down, chuck in a few cheesy breakdowns…” (he didn’t like the term powerviolence).
Andrew Nolan tells me ‘Hernandez’ were Simon Henderson (vocals, guitar, keyboards; ex ‘Curll’; lives in NY), Derek Brown/Sexton (bass, vocals, keyboards; nowadays in ‘Headless Kross’) and ‘Hoppy’ (drums). They were touring with ‘Shank’…
‘Standing 8’ “sounds like ‘The Locust’…” it said on the flyer. This hardcore band from was Pickering, Ontario (Canada): Jesse Frederick Keeler (guitar/vocals), Sean Chamberlain (guitar/vocals), Mark Wallis (drums) & Robin Young (keyboards). They had a (self-titled) 7” out and a split-10” (1998) with ‘This Robot Kills’. The latter was released on Bates recs (that also released the 7” by ‘8 Days Of Nothing’). Scott Henderson became the band’s singer right before their European tour.
‘8 Days Of Nothing’ … “A legendary punk band in Sweden; formed by 4 friends in Gislaved in the spring of 1997. During 3 years they played about 100 shows (including 3 European tours) and released 2 records. The last show was at Kråkenäsryd festival in August 2000.”. Their 7” was entitled The Next Thing That Happened Was A Mind-Mangling Explosion Of Noise & Light, and they did also a 10” (split with ‘Die Kosmo Gesellschaft’). Members of the band were: Daniel ‘Fagge’ Fagerström (guitar), Henrik Grevesmühl (vocals), Janne Hanhela (drums) and Pär Fridholm (bass; Reinforced zine). Their music was described as emo/screamo. The flyer states “ex ‘End In Sight’ (guitarist Janne) (who played at the V.V. 95-08-20)…
One of the many times ‘Lifecycle played at the Vort’n Vis… A couple of months after this (99-08-01) Lieve Goemaere interviewed the band for her zine Ugly Duckling; present there were Sofie Vantomme (vocals), Steve Noyelle (guitar), Karel Deweerdt (guitar), bassist Peter Leuwers & drummer Vincent Tetaert. So I’m guessing that was the line-up here…
Brob
At the show, someone randomly asked if they could play The Trooper by ‘Iron Maiden’ (I think that’s what they said) on my bass in front of everyone as I was setting up. I told them no and they looked really disappointed. Being the person I was back then I told them to get off stage and stop wasting everyone’s time.
The Canadian band that played had a guitarist (Jesse) that went on to be one half of the mildly famous ‘Death From Above’ (bass and drums rock band). They were doing this vaguely ‘The Locust’ inspired thing (i.e. not wearing punk uniforms and having keyboards) and I remember enjoying them live and liked hanging out with them and the Swedes after the show.
‘Hernandez’ were 3 good friends of ours from Glasgow that we took on tour; they were good touring partners, unfortunately nothing ever really came of that band. They played a sort of heavy post-emo but that was probably a few years too early to be fully understood and appreciated by people at the time. ‘Disaffect’s drummer IB was driving. He was a friend of all of ours, bandmate of Jason and co-worker of ‘Wurzel’.
Just before the show started a guy dressed as Jesus Christ (complete with a giant crucifix he was carrying) dramatically dragged himself on stage, said a few words in Flemish, then threw his crucifix to the ground and left. I have no idea what that was about and he didn’t seem to be a part of the event or Vort’n Vis. I may have a photo of him somewhere…
Andrew Nolan (survivalist-deathcult.blogspot)
It was a pretty fun night so I have some good memories of it. But whether anyone else will agree, I can’t say…
Jamie Thomson, ‘Shank’ guitarist
This is what I remember about that show. Fish-shaped construction-paper beer-tickets, playing hacky-sack [circle-kicking with a crocheted foot’ball’] in the courtyard, a guy dressed like Jesus interrupted ‘8 Days Of Nothing’, and half of ‘Standing 8’ went to cause shit at the rival jock bar across the street and ‘Shank’s lead-singer said to me in a thick Glasgow accent “There’s now’t to come of that but tears.”…
‘Standing 8’ relaxing in the Vort’n Vis courtyard
It was our 2nd last show on our 27 day tour that was set up by Johan Lagerlöf and his label Bates recs. We toured for 2½ weeks with ‘8 Days Of Nothing’ from Gislaved. I remember that the space was nice, with a small stage and a little bar. We had fun before the show, hanging out with the friendly staff and the guys from the other bands in the courtyard. There was an audience of around 30 I think which was good for an unknown Canadian band. ‘Shank’ played a heavy set, as did ‘8 Days’ excluding the part where they were interrupted by a random guy dressed like Jesus.
Scott Henderson, ‘Standing 8’ vocalist
excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:
‘Lifecycle’ (Steve, Peter, Sofie) & crew (Brecht Vanderwee, Aline Noyelle)
additions wellcome!…
Vort'n Vis in the 90s 