89-07-09 Pietje Roze Konin… – Dreft – Silly Old Fart

As far as I know, this was the very first gig at the Vort’n Vis…

‘Pietje Roze Konin’ en de Zeven Gèssprietjes’ (Pete the Pink Rabbit & the Seven Grass-blades), from Menen (between Kortrijk en Ieper) were A bunch of lads who just picked up some instruments to make “a mess”: Vincent Windels (drums), Rudy Denis & later Karel Lauwers (guitar), Kurt Deprez (bass), Jeroen Lauwers (screams; later replaced by Wim Vandekerckhove & Sacha Baelen). Some of them would later end up in ‘Shortsight’ and ‘Blindfold’. I found an interview with them in Jimyh Anti’s zine (see below)…

‘Dreft’, from the Izegem-Kortrijk area, started out as a grindcore band. They were: Dominik ‘Nolf’ Denolf (vocals), Pascal ‘Scalle’ Desplancke (vocals), Sammy (guitar), ‘Mosh’ (bass), ‘Narre’ (drums). Gradually they evolved towards a death-metal sound. Later Erwin took over the guitar, and in an even later stage ‘U.J.’ played bass and ‘Josh’ Joost Noyelle guitar. ‘Scalle’ was a mate of Hans Verbeke and ‘U.J.’. I got to know them when my band ‘Repulsives’ played in Harelbeke. They sold these Westland stickers – in analogy with Hageland Hardcore. But some people incorrectly linked the name with Westland New Post… But that’s another story… I think the singer of my second band (‘Yuppies’ Death’), Joost, also hung out with them in places like pubs Het Rond Vierkant and De Reflex in Kortrijk.

‘Silly Old Fart’ were a rather noisy gang from Ieper: David Stubbe (later ‘Neuthrone’, etc.) & Fabrice Baclet (‘Neuthrone’) on bass, along with Vinnie & Davy Letiere both on vocals. See also 89-09-16.

Brob

I was the drummer of ‘Silly Old Fart’ (and the band-logo designer) at the time. Vinnie was the singer, I’m not sure of the other name mentioned…

Jan Moerman

The line-up with ‘Nolf’ & ‘Scalle’ (Sammy, Kris M. & ‘Narre’) was from 85 to 88…With Erwin (without ‘Nolf’ & ‘Scalle’) was from 88 to 92. ‘Josh’ & ‘U.J.’ joined in 92.

Kris ‘Mosh’(terd)

‘Dreft’ promo-pic ’89: Erwin – Narre – Mosh – Sammy

Davy Letiere who used to sing for ‘S.O.F.’ now runs a pub opposite of the Vort’n Vis, called The Old Bill (aiming at catering English tourists).

Tim ‘Nutje’ Denutte, ‘Neuthrone’ bassplayer

‘Pietje Roze Konin’, ‘Dreft’ and ‘Silly Old Fart’ together on a bill: it is clear that finding a silly band-name was a must when you wanted to start a band by the end of the 80s. It was summer so the concert took place in the yard. I don’t think that a band such as ‘Pietje Roze Konin’ would be able to get a gig anywhere nowadays, not even at the Vort’n Vis. Let’s say that that was the charm of that period. It would take a few years until teenagers would lock themselves up in rehearsal-spaces to produce technically better music, but until then there was indeed space for messy bands such as ‘Pietje’. We also still had to wait a bit for the straight-edge and corresponding posterboy-bands.

What I recall of this day is e.g. that a few members of ‘Pietje Roze Konin’ (that would later play in ‘Blindfold’) had an airy discussion about vegetarianism, which they didn’t seem to like. A few years later they would however spread a totally different message with their new band.

‘Dreft’ was quite a sensation to us. Sometimes a lighter was pulled to set something on fire. But eventually the hooligan-rhetoric only brings oblivion; I can ‘t remember what kind of things they pulled of that afternoon in the Vort’n Vis yard. The hypnotising, affable smile of drummer ‘Narre’ still lingers after all these years. I was indeed a fan of ‘Silly Old Fart’ back then, saw a few good pub-shows by them. I don’t think that they lasted long after this: it was rather clear that the musical preferences within the band were rather divergent.

Karel Lauwers

I wasn’t there, no idea why actually… I co-founded ‘Pietje’, did a gig at Het Rond Vierkant in Kortrijk (August 1988); after that some time on guitar for a few weeks (one gig, Sep/Oct 1990).

Jeroen Lauwers

89-09-16 Belgian Asociality – [Scraps] – Dirty Scums – Chronic Disease

This fest was an alternative to the Leet festival organised by the city-council of Ieper and would later be organised yearly and named the Vort’n Vis Leed festival.

As can be read in the gig-review that appeared in the 1^st issue of Pyrobolum zine (written by Dieter / Klaas / Bruno), ‘Scraps’ cancelled…

‘Chronic Disease’ were up and coming; Smurfpunx had offered them a chance to play already; first in Netwerk (Aalst) with ‘R.K.L’ but they’d had to cancel that; then (which they did play) in Eeklo with ‘Rose Rose’ (88-11-11). This one here was the 1^st of a whole series of gigs at the V.V.

Same for ‘Belgian Asociality’ (88-06-25). At that time the band consisted of Mark Vosté (vocals), Patrick ‘Vlie’ Van Looy (guitar), Tom Lumbeeck (bass) & Chris Raffo (drums).

‘Brainless’ were, if I remember correctly, from Vlissingen, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen (the Netherlands)…

‘Silly Old Fart’ were a local, rather noisy combo of people hanging ‘round the Vort’n Vis…

‘Dirty Scums’ – from my hometown – don’t need an introduction, I guess… These dinosaurs of punk had been going for some years already and who would’ve thought they would still exist today. At that time Bart ‘Pik’ D’Ooghe (guitar & vocals) and Jan ‘Zjantie’ Den Baes (drums) still had the original bassist Chris ‘Jenz’ Lannoo with them.

Brob

Yep, ‘Silly Old Fart’ (David & Fabrice, along with Vinnie & Davy Letiere both on vocals – the latter now runs a pub for English tourists (‘The Old Bill’), opposite to the Vort’n Vis!) also played this gig…

Tim ‘Nutje’ Denutte; ‘Neuthrone’ bassist

Before ‘Sloth’, I played bass in a band with David Stubbe (on guitar): ‘Silly Old Fart’. The singer was Vinnie (Vincent something), the drummer Jan Moerman. My nickname at that time ‘Basswhan’…

Fabrice Baclet, ‘Silly Old Fart’ bass-man

I was 14 when I first asked Vinny, Fabrice and Jan (Moerman) to start a hardcore-band. We were full of absurdist teenage humour and a lust for noisy and fast music. Jan was the oldest, into speed- and thrash-metal for a while already, trying to master those double bass-drum techniques and that new thing called ‘blast-beat’. Vinnie (the singer) liked hair-gel, ‘Front 242’ and ‘Big Black’. Fabrice was an excellent guitarist but became the bass-player, infusing our ‘sound’ with some ‘Birthday Party’ / ‘Rita Mitsuko’ open-mindedness. I was the ‘E.N.T.’ / ‘Doom’ / ‘Napalm Death’ -freak on guitar, things couln’t get fast and noisy enough for me. I had no distortion but a wahwah pedal that, once pressed down to the end, made the tiny amp that I borrowed from Peter sound like a mix between a hairdryer and a stopping train. Kicks guaranteed. The band-name came from Jan who explicitly wanted us to be a ‘spun-core’ band, nothing to do with spunk but rather a contraction of ‘speed’ and ‘fun’. Mind you: there was no sign of the drug speed in our lives back then. Hell, we hardly even had a beer or two. Oh yes: Fabrice had an older brother who smoked joints but that was another level of existence to me. We practiced in an abandoned church in Zillebeke every sunday, hitch-hiking there with amps, guitars and everything every week. Much against all logic we played live quite a lot, together with bands like ‘Dreft’ (a very grinding 5-piece back then) and ‘C.O.D.A.’ (“the band with no guitar”, who wrote timeless classics like ‘Popeye Was a Nazi, He Ate Too Much Spinazi’) and ‘Belgian Asociality’ (Hilarious: the gig at de Kreun [venue in Bissegem, near Kortrijk], when Fabrice forgot his bass at the church and Jan decided he had to get to Kortrijk before the gig to buy a new cymbal and stand, which didn’t fit on the stage in the end.).

One of the more memorable moments was the gig at the very first V.V.-fest (September 16^th, 1989) with ‘Brainless’, ‘Dirty Scums’ and ‘Chronic Disease’, where we kept playing even when the cops shut down the P.A.-system. We addressed the audience to choose between pizza or Barabas (“Choose Barabas!”, we were young indeed.) or to convince them that their tinnitus was in fact a U.F.O. landing.

We disbanded after about 2-3 years due to growing discrepancies and different opinions. I discovered the ‘Swans’, ‘Gore’, ‘Foetus’, ‘Einsturzende Neubauten’ and wanted to experiment more. Jan wanted us to become a full-on metal-band, Fabrice got really very sick of the hardcore/noise tag and felt trapped in the ‘scene’, and Vinnie completely disappeared into ‘Cat Rapes Dog’ and ‘Borghesia’-styled industrial EBM [electro body music]. Right now I can’t even remember when or where I saw Vinnie or Jan for the last time. Fabrice showed up at the Rode Lijvekens squat [in Gent] where I was living 10 years ago, to drink some beers, and disappeared again. I doubt those days were really as great as I remember them to be but who cares.

David ‘Farty’ Stubbe

I recall a letter David wrote me…also that ‘Belgian Asociality’ asked for quite some money which resulted in the other bands getting rather disadvantaged. I think that I also had lost my voice the night after our gig. It was out in the an open-air, in the yard next to the pub. David’s band (‘Silly Old Fart’) also played.

Leffe, singer of ‘Chronic Disease’

It’s a long time ago but I can remember shreds of it… I know things were rather wild with lots of pogoing and stage-diving. A full house too. Can’t recall exactly who, but I think it was ‘Pik’ of the ‘Dirty Scums’ that took a good run-up during our performance to dive from the stage into the crowd podium and got stuck to a mike with his ear, an ear-ring was torn out and everything got covered in blood.. Another enthusiastic stage-diver that night was Herr Seele [famous Belgian cartoonist], who went into the crowd full length… I’m afraid (due to the excess of alcoholic beverages and such) that this is all my memory can come up with, but I’m glad it’s at least something.

Mark Vosté, ‘Belgian Asociality’ vocalist

‘Belgian Asociality’

I seem to have very little recollections on this… On our ‘blog’ on 1989 it says that it was one of our less brilliant gigs: “We played with ‘Belgian Asociality’ again, and also with ‘Chronic Disease’ and some other bands. It was an open-air gig next to the pub the Vort’n Vis in Ieper. Our gig was rather mediocre. There was a substantial amount of people but after the concerts a bunch of cops came to throw us out without a single reason. Cozy.”. (http://www.thedirtyscums.com/Biography/AllBiographies/Biography1990-1.htm) I never wore an ear-ring (always thought I was handsome enough the way I was ) but that could’ve been Jenz.

‘Pik’, guitar & vocals for ‘Dirty Scums’

additions wellcome!…