89-06-23 Grand opening of the Vort’n Vis

On Friday June 23rd, 1989 (at noon) the Vort’n Vis was opened. It was on the day of an ‘Ieper rally’. A month before (Sunday May 21st) the association, that has been operating the Vort’n Vis since then, was founded. It was then called Autonoom Jongeren Centrum (AJC) [autonomous youth centre]. A few years later the name was changed into Autonoom TrefCentrum (ATC) [autonomous meeting centre]. After the turn of the century the name became Autonoom Regionaal Trefcentrum (ART) [autonomous regional meeting centre], which remains until today. A few weeks earlier (op May 2nd) the first cracks had appeared in the Iron Curtain; that was the beginning of a new era in which the Vort’n Vis could blossom.

The drawing on the poster of the opening was designed by Patrick Cherchye; the fishbone-logo by Jan Moerman. On June 17th we spread a combative press-release. A minority that wasn’t welcome anywhere else, would no longer hide for the tourists and wanted to be no longer dependent of others, hence establishing its own independent sanctuary, where they could do their own stuff and be their own selves. The founders didn’t want to wait until others did something but wanted to do it themselves. They challenged the dictatorship of the majority, the monopoly of the existing cultural institutions and political parties of those times, and the imposed bland options. They also wanted more diversity in the cultural spectrum, and a more creative and less unimaginative cultural life in Ieper. Even then they criticized the anti-social aspects of tourism at the expense of a part of the own residents.

The times and circumstances have drastically changed since then. Now there’s a Vort’n Vis generation active that wasn’t even born at the time of the foundation of the association, but the spirit and ideals of the Vort’n Vis are still the same. They are just conceived in a more contemporary manner by the younger generations. Whether some like it or not: 30 years on, the Vort’n Vis and IeperFest became a part of the history, the social fabric, an even the identity of Ieper.’

‘Doomy’ Jan Claus (‘president’ of the association at that time)

 

98-08-14 One X More – One Fine Day – Driven – Building – Contrition – Stack – Timebomb – Liar – Culture

Introduction => 98-08-14&15&16 HardCore – The Next Generation festival

Laurent Chopard (from Besançon, France) wrote in his zine Co-existence (that he did with his mate Olivier Bresson): >>We arrived around 18 hours. As usual, I will only give my opinion on the bands that I saw (more or less for a longer time). Know that there were about 25 of them. ‘Driven’ was playing at the time we got there. They’re Dutch and play a new-school HC, unpretentious but not too bad. Then it was up to ‘Stack’ to go loose. A very good powerviolencore gig; spoiled however (as well as the evening) by an individual, fan of windmilling and shouting homophobic slogans. Some people objected and there was a brief confrontation later on. It’s entirely legitimate, in our opinion, to prevent these types of people from spreading their hateful messages in this scene, and it’s even rather surprising to see that very few people in the end reacted to this kind of aggression. The atmosphere was tense from that moment on. The Italians of ‘Timebomb’ unleasehed their devils. I saw them two years ago. There had been some changes in the band; it was less black-metal and very disappointing musically. ‘Liar’ then took over. We see them every year and it seemed a little better than the other times but without convincing me; the nice surprise was that the singer took a stand against homophobia and violent dancing during their set. However, the homophobic individual from Brussels had to get noticed again, on scene. It’s sad to see that this type of people refuses dialogue, has no arguments and hides behind violence. The festival was taking a rather bad turn because of this kind of tension. ‘Culture’ started in difficult conditions (because there were also problems with the material). What could have been a great concert turned into an average one. The band had to stop playing several times. This is where we learned that there was a lot of agitation outside. Guess who was involved? The individual from Brussels in question and his friends who had been at a nearby pub. It’s truly pitiful for a community that claims to be alternative and “better” than society in general. Let’s no longer talk about unity.<<

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‘One X More’ (from Wortel) were Jan Matthé (bass), Tim ‘Petrel’ Van de Plas(-Peeters) (vocals; did Cosy zine), Sis Matthé (guitar) and Krist Torfs (drums). They appeared on a couple of compilations with their “fast, blasting old-school HC with a positive message”. Around the time of this fest Robert Voogt released their debut 7” on his label label Commitment recs. Their 2^nd (They Say That You Sold Out) came out in 1999. Needless to say they were a SxE band. The Matthé brothers were also active on the zine-front: Jan & Sis did X Realm X and Pol did Willow Tree.

‘One Fine Day’ (described as a “post-hardcore” band) were Adriano ‘Baulo’ Fontaneto, Alessio Fornasiero (bass), Andrea ‘ics’ Ferraris (guitar; also ‘Burning Defeat’, ‘Permanent Scar’, etc.), Luca ‘Mouth’ Fontaneto (vocals; editor of the zine Outlet) and Stefano Bosso (drums). In 1998 the Vladimir Illich Ulianov’s Failure 7” (with Matteo Masciaga instead of Andrea) came out on Cycle recs (Stefano’s label) & Tough Guy Anthems CD on Impression recs. They did a demo earlier on.

‘One Fine Day’ (pic by Federico Albertini)

‘Driven’ from Amsterdam were: Bas Sondervan (bass), Nickel van Duijvenboden (drums), Joris Oonk (guitar), Rogier Stevens (guitar) & Vincent Hausman (vocals). Their music was described as “political hardcore metal” (quote by GoodLife). They did a demo in 1996or97 and Ed released the Cowardice Consumer Of The West EP on GoodLife recs in1999.

‘Driven’ (photographed by David Pujol)

‘Building’, a “youth-crew style” SxE HC from Antwerp, were: Olivier ‘Paco’ Packolet (vocals; later ‘True Colors’), Jelle De Cremer (guitar), (P)Andy Van Den Wijngaert (bass; later Werner Boes) & Bruno (drums; replacing Joris). They released material on SoberMind recs: In Time We’ll Grow (1998) & split-7” with ‘Up Front’ (1999). There’s also a live-tape of them playing at the GoodLife 1999 summer-fest.

‘Building’ (pic Martijn Wouters)

‘Contrition’ (a “metallic hate-edge” band from Schleiz/Jena, ex East-Germany) released the following: in ’96 a self-titled mCD on Time For Revolt recs (Rico Majchrzak), a demo recorded live 97-07-30 in Jena, a 3-way split ‎-7” on Threesome recs (’97) and the Transitory CD (’98). They were: Eddy Langner (guitar), Lars Ostermann (vocals), Andreas Ferge (bass), Alex(ander) Fischer (guitar) & Ulli Walther (drums). Some of them went on as ‘Fall Of Serenity’.

‘Stack’, the powerviolence band from Ludwigshafen, had been at the V.V already (95-04-28). They recorded for the Mondonervaktion 7” in September ‘96 (their former bassist Corey released it on Equality recs in ‘97) with Bernd Bohrmann on vocals, Chris(tophe) Klimmer & Marcel ‘Croissant’ Hanneman playing guitars, Ralf Bock on drums and Michael Bergweiler on bass. This resulted in “deranged pissed-off blasts of total mayhem that threaten to split the ear”… The same sessions served for the Selbstfindungsgruppe 6” (Coalition recs), the split-7” with ‘Carol’ (on Holger Ohst’s label Summersault) and the two songs for the A Tradition Of 7″ compilation (on the US label Fall recs). In January 1998 they entered the studio again to record the songs for the split-7” with ‘Narsaak’ (released by Per Koro). After a 3 weeks tour in the summer of 1998 Marcel left the band and they became a four-piece for a few months before they split up for the first time in November 1998 (due to personal difficulties). In June 1999 they reformed with a new bass-player called Steffen Hinkel (the guitarist of ‘Fear Is The Path To The Dark Side’), Ralf on drums, Chris on guitar and Bernd on vocals. In March 2000 Chris decided to leave the band due to personal reasons. Steffen took over the guitar and Michael returned to bass again. In 20001 The Konkret Lichtgeschwindigkeit 10” – fast blasting manic HC – came out on Bernd’s label Scorched Earth Policy and Ralf’s label Flowerviolence recs. This was recorded with Chris doing the guitar-tracks.

‘Stack’ ([1] by ?; [2 & 3] courtesy of Roel Brals)

‘Timebomb’, from Rome, were a communist, vegan and straight-edge band playing metallic HC. They played at the V.V. on 95-08-20 & 96-08-17 aswell. The band consisted of Marco Ciccone (guitar), Daniele Marini (guitar), Simone Marini (bass; Kill For Love zine), Cristiano Suriano (drums) & Giorgio Fois (vocals; replaced by Emiliano). After releases on Paolo Petralia’s SOA recs they did The Full Wrath Of The Slave on Genet recs in in 1998.

‘Liar’ had been playing the V.V. August fests since 1995. The Invictus album was recorded in Spring ’97 with U.J., Josh, Hans and drummer Bert Guillemont. Don’t know if additional guitarist Lennart Bossu played here already (he was on Deathrow Earth that got out in ’99).

‘Culture’ was a vegan straight-edge band from Gainesville, Florida that was active from 1992-1998. If I’m well informed the band conisted of singer Damien Moyal (also ‘Morning Again’ & ‘As Friends Rust’), Rich Thurston (guitar), Stephen ‘Steve’ Looker (guitar), Jason Dooley (drums) and Gordon Tarpely (bass). They had been over here the year before (97-08-16) to promote the split with ‘Kindred’ and the Oath 7” (both on Good Life recs). The latter was – in the spirit of ‘free enterprise’ – extended to the Hetronome CD. Good’ole chugga chugga HC for the H8000 kids.

Brob

I joined ‘Liar in ‘99 so I didn’t play here.

Lennart Bossu

I remember ‘Culture’ and of course ‘Seein’Red’. I left the band to start ‘Prone’ later that year… [Powerviolence trio with Christophe Klimmer (guitar) and Ralf Bock (drums), all ex ‘Stack’]

Michael Bergweiler, ‘Stack’ bassist

I remember that we played second or third, and that we just got back from our first touring-adventure in Spain (together with ‘Between The lines’). Fantastic and fun times!

Tim ‘Petrel’ Van de Plas(-Peeters), ‘One X More’ vocalist

We played our last show on our European tour with ‘Building’ here.

Jan Matthé, One X More

We got there after a trip of more than 20 hours (problem with IDs, gas and various shit)… It has been a great esperience and we hope someone enjoyed our gig; we thank everyone who was there standing in front of us, waiting for us to play even if we were late…

‘One Fine Day’

In a first version of ‘One Fine Day’ we were called ‘XconsciousnessX’ (with Matteo Masciaga).

The V.V. Fest was like our home away from home. Bruno treated us well…

Let me tell you this: looking in retrospective, let alone few humans and few ideas that stuck in life, HC has been a bunch of white guys preaching to the converted; a toxic heterosexual environment where girls where treated like human hangers. The whole emo sucks. I find it equal to the black-hating and the whole way women are treated nowadays. I find the entire hardcore-movement to be a very conservative and old-thinking component of people that are mostly white and male. What’s so interesting? Also a bit jaded and naïve. As of today… I’m the only PUNK I know, including all the people I met during my punk years. I still live up to it.

Luca Fontaneto

I think we played twice at the V.V. I recall spending the night on the camping. And that the mosh-pit was extremely aggressive. I have a recording of the concert in ’98 … It was one of the better shows we played despite the preaching of our frontman Vincent, who was rather preoccupied with expressing his beliefs. There are still people confused if we were a completely vegan straight-edge band. Looking back a rather childish matter. ‘Driven’ was mainly about the music, we were musicians and for the hardcore scene dependent of the ideological passion of our frontman, who maintained all contacts.

I have a lot of memories about ‘Driven’ but nothing specific. The musicianship stayed, the political shifts, the adolescent militancy disappears for a big part. I’m not in touch with the other bandmembers anymore (Vincent is the singer of ‘Howl’ (US); Rogier is a lawyer, Joris is a composer, Bas is a journalist, philospher, musician; Max Porcelijn [the first bassist] is a director (won a Gouden Kalf [prize at the Dutch Film Festival]) and I’m a graphic artist, teacher, writer & classical tenor); we share too little to meet up.

The person in the pic singing along with Vincent is Antje Klaster (who’s running a model-agency, I believe)…

It was awesome to be in the band ‘Driven’. We toured 3 times (twice across Europe, all the way to Spain, Slovenia & Hungary; once across the UK with shows in Leeds, Londen & Manchester). People can watch a movie with footage.

Nickel van Duijvenboden, drummer of ‘Driven’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…