91-10-12 Trottel – Behind The Smile – Shortsight – Billy & The EPs

In the Dutch zine Trauma the band ‘Point Of No Return’ (with Roger NBH) had been announced…

At some timepoint, there was also rumours that the Rotterdammers of ‘Anarcrust’ and ‘Aphrodite’s Lawyer’ would play…

In Dorst #1 (written somewhere in ’92 by ‘N.O.F.’s Edward Verhaeghe), there’s mention of the first ever gig of ‘Shortsight’. Here it was with Hans Verbeke singing… A bit later, on 91-12-21, still in its early stages, the band played with with David ‘Mong’ Dumont on vocals (the one and only time; later he started playing guitar), Björn Lescouhier (drums), Jeroen Lauwers (bass; also ‘N.O.F.’) & Kurt Deprez (guitar; later bass). I believe the 1^st time ‘Shortsight’ performed with Saskia singing was 92-09-05. On the first demo (released on Edward Verhaeghe & Jeroen Lauwers’ label Warehouse recs in ‘92) Hans did vocals…

‘Behind The Smile’ were a French (Valenciennes) melodic hardcore/punk band with my mate Arnaud Huftier on bass (he did Uprising Decay zine). They had just recorded their demo-tape (June/July) with Laurent (drums), Rudy (guitar) & Christophe Chojna (vocals). In 1992 they did a split 7” with the Finnish ‘Juggling Jugulars’ called ‘A Wish To Dream’ on Sylvain Vilette’s Bad Card recs (1992) on which Laurent & Christophe were replaced. (They took a second guitarist, Pierre, later). They played a second show on 93-02-21.

‘Behind The Smile’

‘Trottel’ had already played here the year before (90-10-13). The band is also sometimes referred to as ‘Die Trottel’ (German for “the fools/idiots”). In 1991, Armin Hofmann released the double album The Final Salute In The Name Of Human Misery (on his label X-Mist recs). That music was described as “a melancholic variety of punk” or also “jazzy, eclectic, experimental hardcore”. Only bassist Tamás Rupaszov remains of that era of the band (from Budapest, Hungary). I believe the others were Ildi(kó) Asztalos (vocals), György ‘Kaztusz’/‘Kaktusz’ Kakuszi (guitar) and a drummer nicknamed ‘Garfield’ Péter Nagy (drums; or was it Sándor Orosz? Or Csaba Ákos who played on the double-LP?).

‘Billy & The EPs’ was a band from the French-speaking part of Belgium. They did a split-tape with ‘Noise Gate’ (from Brussels) in 1988 (also released as a 7” on the French label On A Faim!), a promo-tape (recorded with a drum-machine, bassist Sylvie Hendrick, guitarist Philippe Boulanger & Philippe Petit and singer Jean Vanesse) and Yves Baudhuin of ‘Noise Gate’ released some of their songs on a 12” EP.

Brob

I left ‘Trottel’ in 1991, September or October. Nobody replaced me. They did a kind of instrumental stuff.

Ildi Asztalos

‘Billy & The EPs’ were more industrial rock than punk… In 1992 they were on the compilation Reunion De La Famille (as ‘The EPs’). The band was from Liège. The drummer is well known in the pop/rock-scene (playing in several bands) but I don’t remember his name…

Marcor Aredje

‘P.O.N.R.’ was the precursor of ‘Feeding The Fire’. The bands overlapped for a while but after a bit I continued with just ‘F.T.F.’ alone. In the beginning ‘P.O.N.R.’ was in: Rob [Franssen], Michel [‘Mike’ Senden] (first ‘F.T.F.’ guitarist/later in ‘Bloodsport’ & ‘Rancor’) & Roy (a guy from Maastricht) and myself. Later Har [Har Brosselt] (‘F.T.F.’/‘No Sense’) took over the drums sometimes… As far as I remember ‘P.O.N.R.’ never played the V.V. ‘G.O.D.’ (‘Gloves Of Destruction’), another project of Rob & myself, did.

Roger NBH

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

 

91-08-18 Oi Polloi (photos)

More on this concert: 91-08-18 Oi Polloi – Upside – One By One

Deek Allan: “In these pictures it’s Chris Orr on guitar (living in London nowadays), me on vocals and ‘Filthy’ Phil (can’t remember his real surname) [Murray; see comment] on bass – he never recorded anything with us but played bass for a while, including the tour with ‘One By One’.”

photos by Eric ‘React’ W.

centrally: Karin R. (with necklace – later ‘One By One’ vocalist), Manu (red T-shirt – Nabate, and later ‘Unhinged vocalist) & ‘Veggie’ Stephane Boens (bowing his head – R.I.P.)

Sacha ‘Chat’n’ Baelen (R corner – later ‘Blindfold’ drummer)

‘Sned’ (in the background)

Chris Orr

‘Dreaming Dan Rhythm’

91-03-16 Nations On Fire – Scraps – Private Jesus Detector (photos)

More on this concert: 91-03-16 N.O.F. – Scraps – P.J.D. – C.F.C.

Here’s a some extra photos, contrbitued by Justin ‘Nunca Mas’ Neumaier:

‘Nations On Fire’  (with a young Hans Verbele in the crowd)

‘Private Jesus Detector’

‘Scraps’

Bruno, the spider in the web ;-)

91-11-23 Headstart – Union Morbide – [Exhaustless Revolt]

(in memory of Hans Engel)

‘Headstart’ was a Glaswegian band playing fast HC. It was the band of my mate Adam Johnston (vocals), who did Go! zine, and Jamie Usher (guitar; ex ‘The Disturbed’, also 1^st incarnation of ‘Sedition’, ‘Quarantine’ & ‘Scatha’ for a while; played in ‘Scraps’ at some time-point…). The others were ‘Jaf’ (the drummer; John Motson) & ‘Schultz’ (Mark Brown, the bassplayer)…

‘Union Morbide’ from Heemskerk/Beverwijk played melodic HC with very recognisable passionate vocals. We’d had them over at a Smurfpunx gig before (89-03-25): Maxim Aafjes was still doing vocals, Dennis Cornelissens had replaced the original bassplayer Eelco Boonacker (who now played guitar), guitarist Philip van Koeveringe & drummer Michel Weijgertse (R.I.P. 2008; Marcel Hommes joined when Michel quit in late 1992). This must’ve been around the time their 7” called 015 came out on Hans Engel’s Let’s Make Our Own recs; it was recorded in June that year. Apparently they also played 91-12-31 but I can’t remember that…

‘Union Morbide’ 015 insert: L=>R: Philip, Dennis, Michel, Eelco & Maxim

This would’ve been ‘Exhaustless Revolt’s 2^nd time after 91-05-03 but apparently they didn’t play… (Can’t remember.)

Brob

Unless any proof pops up, I would doubt that we played with those two bands that day…

Filip Staes, ‘Exhaustless Revolt’ singer/guitarist

Can’t remember if ‘E.R.’ actually played. ‘Union Morbide’ definitely did. I was there…

Joris De Buysser, Bonds Of Friendship zine

I can remember that we were touring around New Year… We bumped into ‘Disturbing Foresights’ [They played at the V.V. 91-12-31] on a lot of places… We were touring almost 2 weeks then: Germany, Switzerland. The attic of the Vort’n Vis was cold/moist. We were all a bit ill, because of little sleep and the booze. We went looking for a warm hotel-room but couldn’t find anything. After the soundcheck the beer went down well. The atmosphere was good and our we felt like playing, just as always. Myself, I was in a miserable state and asked someone for some aspirin. I got some but it was as big as a guilder. Little did I know, I was in Belgium and thought that was OK. I crammed the thing inside and thought to flush it with a few gulps of coke. After two seconds my mouth was filled with foam. Turned out it was one of those fizzy-tablets and I spent the whole concert belching on stage.

Dennis Cornelissens, ‘Union Morbide’ bassist

I think I still have a tape with recordings of ‘Union Morbide’s concert here…

Eric ‘React’ W.

‘Headstart’ was an attempt by 4 Glasgow punks to start a fast-as-hell hardcore band, which was severely lacking in the Scottish scene, in our opinion. It was kind of a straight-edge band, the problem being that 2 of the members seemed to have an alcohol problem! The other problem was the fact that everybody was not playing the instrument they should have: the drummer was actually a bass-player (He’d played in a couple of other bands before ‘Headstart’.), the guitarist was a good drummer, the bass-player was pretty good on all instruments. And the vocalist? Well, this was my first band and the excitement/nervousness didn’t do me any favours.

We somehow managed to persuade a guy from Belgium (Ghilain [Vermeersch, of Be Yourself recs] from Nieuwpoort) to set up a mini-tour (3 gigs!) in Belgium [91-11-24 (‘Volkshuis, Ekeren, a benefit for the non-profit organisation ‘For Mother Earth’] – with ‘Union Morbide’ and all-female band- & in Breda, Holland (where we played a squatted church with a post-punk band called ‘Accidental Youth’, I think… Jaf got in contact with Ghilain after getting the ‘Scraps’ LP (he’d been kinda pals with David, I think) and just asking for a gig or two. We’d only played 1 gig by that point (haha!) so it was a bit cheeky of Jaf to ask. But he went for it anyway. Ghilain picked us up and we stayed at his and he drove us to the gigs.

At the ferryport at Oostende we met an English guy who would end up going to the gig (he was a local to the V.V. [Steve ‘Neuthrone’?]. His stories about the venue and the other stuff I’d read about it made us pretty excited about playing there. A major problem, though, was that we were actually pretty crap. This isn’t me being modest, it’s the absolute truth. I think word got out about this Scottish “straight-edge band” amongst the gig-going Belgian youth and there was a decent crowd expecting ‘Youth Of Today’-type HC. What they got was a rather poor, un-tight mess of a band, with my lyric-book at the front of the stage as I was so nervous about playing in front of people that I’d forget my lyrics. I jumped about a lot, partly to cover up for the fact that we were so bad. The kids seemed to enjoy my enthusiasm and I was able to crowd-surf for a while and look like a real hardcore hero. Either that or one of those bodies you see being carried by a massive crowd at a funeral in Gaza or something. I honestly was enjoying myself and hating it all at the same time as I felt we were conning the crowd (like Johnny Rotten said: Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?!) We should have been arrested for crimes against hardcore and deported on the next boat to the UK from Oostende. Apparently the kids wanted us to go on earlier as a lot of them had school the next morning (I think it was a Sunday night? [It was a Saturday but gigs always started rather early because Ieper is so far away for most who wanted to catch the last train…]), so they missed an actual decent band in ‘Union Morbide’. I’m sorry but I have no memory of ‘Exhaustless Revolt’ at all. ‘Union Morbide’ were proper musicians and I remember the vocalist actually singing, in a kind of ‘Funeral Oration’ way. Oh, and how can I forget meeting up with Mr. Brob who I had been writing to and met briefly before when he visited Glasgow!

I remember having tokens to trade for drink at the bar. Man, I’ve never drank so much orange-juice in my life! Two of the others (Jamie and Schultz) were probably desperate for a beer or 6, but stuck to the non-drinking “policy” for the whole ‘tour’. Oh yeah, I had an It’s OK Not To Drink! t-shirt that I bought and wore at the gig. I was still straight-edge for a few years after this time then gave in to the evil of drink & drugs, not in an addictive way, though. Wish I still had that t-shirt [Brob: I have! ;-)] as I’ve reverted to a non-drinking/drugging lifestyle. Belgium seemed to have a thriving S.E. scene at the time and it was cool to see it for myself.

We stayed upstairs in the band-rooms after the gig and it was not what I was used to. I’m a clean kinda guy and it was a bit on the smelly/dirty side for me, though I certainly appreciate the fact that we were fed, watered and put up at the venue. We had breakfast in the morning which was chocolate cakes and pastries which we found bizarre – cakes for breakfast?! Are you kidding me?! Like I said, bizzare, but nice! We had nothing like the V.V. in Scotland and still don’t…

Jamie played on tour with ‘Scraps’ right after we were here. Him and his girlfriend stayed on at Ghilain’s, then went on tour with ‘Scraps’. I went to Lille when Jamie was asked to play 2^nd guitar with ‘Scraps’ and he went to learn the songs. Only David spoke any English, really, and Jamie was not the best guitarist. I think David fell out with Jamie on the tour as he made quite a few mistakes while playing. But he got to visit a few other places and generally enjoyed himself, I think.

Adam Johnston, ‘Headstart’ singer

[Brob: Adam provided a bunch of pics of ‘Headstart’ playing live but the resolution is just not good enough for publication unfortunately…]

After the Freely Chosen album in 1989 I started playing guitar and Dennis Cornelissens took over on bass. You could hear the new line-up on the 015 single. I played here too…

Eelco Boonacker, ‘Union Morbide’ guitarist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

91-07-21 Systemphobia – Acoustic Grinder

The day before there was a punx picnic. The poster reads “Picknick in the open nature around Ieper. Bring your own gear (tent, food, booze, common sense, guitar, amp, socks, …). We meet up at Ieper railway station at 2.30 pm. In the evening there will be a party at the Vort’n Vis. Of course everybody can sleep over and attend the gig on Sunday.”.

‘Systemphobia’ were from Riemst (Limburg): Mario Liesens (vocals), Kristof Moors (guitar), Erik (bass), Stefan Claesen (drums) and Geert (guitar; later replaced Sam Liesens). Their music was crunchy HC/punk-rock with political lyrics (see their presentation in my zine Tilt!). As far as I can remember they didn’t put out any vinyl. They did a reunion-show in the noughties (check out the vids on the internet). Did they also play the Vort’n Vis on 94-12-10 or was it just 94-04-02 as Mario & Krstof commented?

I read somewhere Kristof also was in an “emo-crust” band with someone of ‘Agathocles’, named ‘Drawback’. Mario also did a blog with his rants for a while (systemphobia.blogspot.be)…

From the same area came ‘Acoustic Grinder’, a grind-/noise-core band. Playing for them were Raf ‘Stevie’ Vandeweyer (vocals; later drummer of ‘Spliff’), Jan ‘Gore’ Beckers (guitar; later ‘Kindred’, etc.), ‘Putrid’ Peter Peumans a.ka. ‘Slebber’ (bass) & Joost Peumans (drums). They’ld play at the V.V again on 93-02-27. They did a demo entitled demo De Pruimen Zijn Rot (The Plums Are Rotten). Eric ‘React’ recorded this gig here and put it out as a split-tape. A Slovenian label did another one with ‘Extinction Of Mankind’. Later there were some split-7”s (with ‘Entrails Massacre’, the Turkish ‘Turmoil’ and ‘Agathocles’) and a solo 7” (Can’t Ignore This Fucking War).

The flyer also mentions the British bands ‘Disaster’ & ‘Thrashed’… No idea who they were or if they turned up…

Brob

I have no memories of that show. I think ‘Oi Polloi’ was there [Brob: In ’91 they were touring with ‘One By One’ and played here a month later…] (what a surprise). One of the people in another band couldn’t understand why we covered ‘Youth Of Today’ but drank beer. I feel that straight-edge sounds at its best when you’re drunk out of your mind…:-)

Mario Liesens, ‘Systemphobia’ singer

I ripped the tape with the live recordings of ‘Acoustic Grinder’ and ‘Systemphobia’ [‘Zyklome-A’ cover!]

Eric ‘React’ Wawr

cover of the split-tape

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

91-10-05 Rectify – Debiele Eenheid – Neuthrone – Sloth – [Chaos UK] – [Knucklehead]

‘Chaos UK’ didn’t play on Oct 5^th 1991 at the VV. They were announced but the tour-bus broke down (I think) and they didn’t make it. [Brob: Did the ‘Mushrooms – see 90-12-31 – fill in for them…?]

Wim Hollevoet

In 1987 I was visiting John & Baz of ‘Ripcord’ in their hometown Weston-Super-Mare… One day Baz took us to Bristol and we dropped by at the squat (St Michael’s Park) where the Chaos lads – ‘Mower’ (Kieran Moylett), ‘Chaos’ (Adrien Rice), ‘Gabba’ & Chuck – lived (I remember Bear Hackenbusch of the ‘psychedelic’ Skate Muties From the 5^th Dimension zine and Shane Dabinett of Manic Ears recs being there too – and Tim Bennett of Children Of The Revolution recs hung around there aswell I believe…). The band was about to start a ‘rehearsal’ so they pushed all the ‘furniture’ aside and rocked out! I’d seen them a couple of times live but this was even more impressive… In ’91 I was asked to help find them some gigs in the area: they played in Terneuzen (The Netherlands) and were supposed to play here aswell… ‘Chaos UK’, at that time, was (if I remember well) ‘Beckie ‘Beki’ Gibbons on bass, ‘Chaos’ (a.k.a. ‘Lice’) doing the vocals (‘Mower’ wasn’t in the band anymore by then), ‘Gabba’ playing guitar and Chuck hitting the drums. In the end they didn’t show up at the V.V. (They made it here a couple of years later, 93-11-21, though…)

‘Rectify’ (I think these replaced ‘Knucklehead’ – a legendary pioneering ska-punk band from Bristol/Bath, that were planned at first) were a political (anarcho) punk band from Blaina in Wales. I think they were: Wayne ‘Pig(gy)’ Cole (vocals), Mark ‘Wedge’ Wedgebury (drums), Andrew ‘Footy’ Foot (bass) & Michael ‘Mudgie’ Mudge (guitar; R.I.P.)… I thought they only had the20^th Century 7” on Taff Core recs (’88) out at that time. Welly of Artcore zine pointed out there was also a split-LP with ‘Bazzy And The Budgies’ around then…

Later ‘Pig’ and ‘Wedge’ started the band ‘This System Kills’…

‘Debiele Eenheid’ from the Rotterdam Jazzbunker scene were probably introduced by ‘Political Asylum’s Stevie Dewar (who lived in R’dam at that time). Back then the band consisted of Jorem (vocals), Niek Den Braven (bass), Henk Van Schaik (sax), Karel(tje) Dops (drums) and Joop ‘Dops’ De Doelder (guitar). Long Kees played guitar on the Venus Has A Penis tape and on the 7” on Tirana Tunes in 1989 (Here’s some original studio recordings.). Carla (van der Marel; of ‘Bat Attack‘) told me Jorem had the most incredible stage-acts but I can’t recall any of that. There’s some vids out there so you can see the chaotic bunch. I read somewhere Jello Biafra was a big fan…

This was the last ever gig for ‘Sloth’; the line-up (see also 91-02-08) was Dieter Roelstraete (vocals), David Stubbe (guitar), Fabrice Baclet (bass) & Jeroen Vanhandsame (drums).

I thought ‘Neuthrone’s first gig at the V.V. was on 91-12-31 but Steve W. explained it wasn’t. They did a short, un-announced set at the Leet fest (91-09-14) and also played here with ‘Debiele Eenheid’. “That was perhaps our first official 1^st gig as ‘Neuthrone’.”; Steve said: “Fabrice played in the band from August 1991 to June 1992. Then he started a training to become a sailor & was at sea for months and months. In the summer of ‘92 we asked Tim (‘Nutje’) if he was interested. We recorded 5 songs in August ‘92 in Brugge (3 for the 1^st 7” on Genet recs & another 2 for compilations and stuff (but they actually only appeared on a ‘Neuthrone’ LP with unpublished songs in 2004). Because Tim wasn’t ready for recordings yet, I played all the bass-tracks.”

Brob

Bassist ‘Footy’ left ‘Rectify’ years before that. He was only in ‘Classified Protest’…

Dean Jeffery Beddis, ‘Cowboy Killers’ vocalist

I played in ‘Debiele Eenheid’ until ‘89/’90 so I can’t recall anything about the Vort’n Vis in Ieper…

‘Long Tall’ Keesie

I played for ‘Debiele Eenheid’ in the nineties but I can’t remember this concert…The gigs were a bit chaotic yeah… Drummer small Kees (De Greef) played also with ‘Political Asylum’ for a bit and is on the recordings of the last two records. He also played in ‘Budrot’ with members of the ‘Stink Sisters’ and ‘Anarcrust’. Long Kees still plays in ‘Reknub’ – a long-standing psychedelic punk duo. Small Kees played drums when I was in the band between ‘92 and ‘94 I think. Long Kees was before that indeed…

Stevie Dewar, ‘Political Asylum’

I was in ‘Chaos UK’ between the beginning of 1991 to 1993. We toured Europe in October ’91.

Beckie Gibbons

The ‘Chaos UK’ van broke down… ;-)

Your intro sounds right!… I left in 1989. So it was ‘Chaos’ singing in ‘91…

‘Mower’

I played keyboards and trumpet in ‘Knucklehead’. I don’t think we ever played at the Vort’n Vis but I recognise a lot of the band-names of those that did… If you want to update your site with what we’re up to now I can tell you the following:

Jon (singer) went and lived in Bremen (92-95) and sang in ‘A38’. He’s now back in the UK (in Bath I think) fronting a band called ‘Seven Crowns’. They were called ‘Tiny Elvis’ for a few years but changed to ‘Seven Crowns’ a few years ago and regularly tour all over the world I think. Mets (singer/shouter) also went to Bremen and played bass in ‘A38’ and came back the same time as Jon. Back in Bath now. Painter and decorator. Cheesey Coles (singer) stayed in or around Bath. Not sure what he did for years but is now singing in a Northern Soul band called ‘The All Nighters’ (far cry from punk-rock!). Pete’Chopper’ Panton (guitar) – not sure what he did in the years after ‘Knucklehead’ but now lives in London and doing graphics for films and ads or something similar. Si Spoons (bass) stayed in Bath. Still there or thereabouts playing bass in ‘The All Nighters’. No idea what he’s doing for a living… Adrien ‘Ade’ Poole (drums) – drummer in ‘The All Nighters’. Still in Bath (or maybe Trowbridge I think). He’s a teacher I think. ‘Fingers Fourgang’ (keyboards & trumpet) – that’s me – went to Prague for 6 years ‘Knucklehead’ and played in a reggae band called ‘Hermakoute’. Now living in Edinburgh working as a freelance copywriter and penning the odd short-film soundtrack. Alex Hornblower (sax) also went to Bremen and played in a band called ‘Korrupt’. Not sure for how long (think she stayed there longer than Mets & Jon) but now back in the UK, somewhere after a stint living in Holland I think. No idea what she’s up to but she sometimes organises ‘Knucklehead’ reunions (drinking, not playing!). Last one was about 4 or 5 years ago.

I know ‘Knucklehead’ never played in Belgium. We had a tour of various European countries lined up but we split before it came to fruition. The Vort’n Vis may have been one of the venues we were due to play but we all started fighting with each other and it wasn’t fun anymore so we split up!

Toby Morgan (a.k.a. Johnny Despondent)

Vort’n Vis audience getting drunk when ‘Chaos UK’ didn’t show up (guess they would’ve ended up drunk anyway…)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Dirk ‘Scum’ (Zero Positives’)…always hungry… ;-)

‘Zorro’ (Ann Claeys, Dieter Roelstraete’s girlfriend back then), the kitchen-princess of that time…

additions wellcome!…

91-03-16 Scraps (photos)

More on this concert: 91-03-16 N.O.F. – Scraps – P.J.D. – C.F.C.

Here’s a some extra photos, donated by Eric ‘React’ W.:

Raphael (guitar) – Xavier (drums) – David (vocals) – Tomoy (bass) [a ‘peeping’ Lord Moloch and an attentive Brob on the R]

91-09-01 [N.O.F.] – Agathocles – Cry For Change – Spirit Of Youth – Scraps

This concert was meant to be the presentation of ‘N.O.F.’s lp but mid August Jaak had an accident with his car (crashed and went upside down) – (together with Jan ‘Blindfold’, U.J. and Hans – while returning from the studio in The Netherlands (where we’d done the final mix): I was suffering from a back-injury (couldn’t move for a few weeks) and Jaak was ‘out’ (in hospital) for a couple of months with some serious fractures and surgery. He didn’t start drumming again a few months later. The concert took place without ‘N.O.F.’ and the record only got released in March 1992. The album wasn’t ready anyway: the recordings had been in May and August; shortly after this gig Ed went to L.A. – beginning of September until end December – to work for his family, and got the record (re-)mixed (Onno [Hesselink]’s original mix was rather questionable) by someone who at that time also mixed ‘Bad Religion’.

Jeroen Lauwers, ‘N.O.F’ bassplayer

I believe all other bands were XXX and a big part of the audience as well, but I’m not really sure. If I remember correctly, everybody left when we got on stage with a tray full of beers and started our noise, haha. Those were the straight-edge heydays :-). Our line-up in ’91…that would probably have been Burt [Beyens, drums], myself [vocals at that time], Erwin [Vandenbergh, bass at that time] & Chris [guitar].

I really liked ‘Spirit Of Youth’ in their early days. Very young guys , full of commitment and energy. Coincidentally, a while ago, I ended up at a bar-counter with one of the members of ‘S.O.Y.’ when he was playing with his new band.

All in all, the end of the 80s/beginning of the 90s were great times at the V.V.

Jan Frederickx, ‘Agathocles’ bassplayer/vocalist/guitarist

I don’t recall ‘Behind The Smile’ playing that day. [Brob: ‘B.T.S.’ was considered to play there at some timepoint…] I think it was ‘Scraps’. [Brob: Could well be ‘cause David & Raph wrote something in the guestbook that day…]. ‘Spirit Of Youth’ was still Hans [Verbeke] drumming, Jan [Maelfait] singing, myself playing guitar and my brother Fré doing the bass.

Dominiek Denolf, ‘S.O.Y.’ guitarist

‘Cry For Change’ had played at the Vort’n Vis before and ‘Scraps’ were no new-comers either of course (with various crossings of the border into I-town; see e.g. 91-03-16).

‘Cry For Change’ (photo courtesy of Johan Maes)

‘Scraps’ vocalist David was technically ‘unemployed’ with ‘N.O.F’ being half handicapped anyway. They kinda replaced ‘N.O.F.’, even did some ‘N.O.F’ covers. Besides the 2 brothers Dutriaux, there was Tomoy on bass and Xavier on drums. I think their show was taped on video for the SCALP-benefit that Wim & Chat’n (‘Blindfold’) did… By then, ‘Scraps’ had their LP Wrapped Up In This Society out on Be Yourself recs (Carl Levecke & Ghilain Vermeersch)…

‘Scraps’ – Raph, Tomoy, Xavier – pics from Wim Vandekerckhoves’s zine Reminder #1

‘Spirit Of Youth’ had just appeared at the V.V. for the 1^st a few months before (91-06-08).

And does ‘Agathocles’ need an introduction…?

This was another organisation of the ‘Touch My Heart Crew’ (see 91-05-03). It would seem like Ed(ward) (‘N.O.F.’ guitarist, later Good Life recs) had adopted some sales-techniques during his stay in L.A.: he even had T-shirts printed of this bill (see picture)…

Brob

In the Vort’n Vis , everybody is taking care: we don’t need bouncers, we don’t need cops, we can decide for ourselves. Today was a good example: people can decide and act for themselves. This is what we’re into…

David Dutriaux, in Reminder zine 1991

pic kindly provided by Rudy ‘Rudee’ Penando

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

The ‘Scraps’ Dutriaux bros expressing their ‘warm’ feelings…

‘Crivits’ guitarist Jeff expressing his wish to play the V.V. That would happen a few months later (91-12-21)…

additions wellcome!…

91-12-31 Disturbing Foresights – Neuthrone – Blindfold – Scraps – Union Morbide – [Negative Stance]

cover of ep entitled 1992

New Year’s Eve at the Vort’n Vis? Of course! Why not!? This is where our friends were and where we could meet likeminded and interesting people from all around…

I had heard the music of ‘Negative Stance’ already on the split album with ‘Kismet HC’ and corresponded with their drummer Bill who did Actions Of Rebirth zine. These guys were also active in the scene around the well-known Villa Amalias squat in Athens. So I was looking forward to meet him/them. Unfortunately, for some reason they didn’t play… Can ‘t remember if they didn’t tour or if they just didn’t make it to the Vort’n Vis. The drummer was Vasilis ‘Bill’ Babouris, bassist/vocalist Makis, later John (Giannis Tzamilis) and guitarist Stamatis Spiliotopoulos. At some timepoint there was also singer Alex…

‘Disturbing Foresights’ played innovative HC. Some of them were organising punk-shows in the Mevr. Latenstaan youth-centre in Zoetermeer (near The Hague) which I visited when my friends’ band ‘Hate Crew’ played there (end of the 80s). The band consisted of Cor Hoogerdijk (drums & vocals; also in ‘The Incredible Softies’), Chiel Schouten (guitar; also in ‘The Incredible Softies’; a bit later replaced by Sebastiaan ‘Bas’ de Neef), Koen Bakker (bass), Iwan P. Vol & Ron Osephius (vocals). Ron had been in Barcelona where he (and his partner, at that time, Rosa) booked quite a few bands from up here. I also wonder if Arni van Driel (one of the guys who arranged things in Latenstaan) came with the band that night… They were on their 1991 X-Mass European tour with Berlin/Hamburg’s ‘Apoplexy’ (but I’m pretty sure these didn’t play at the V.V.). Their EP called 1992 was just out (see cover).

As Jeroen explains ‘Nations On Fire’ (who had been announced) didn’t play. David who was singing for them (and was not involved in the accident) probably played with his original band ‘Scraps’. Living just across the border, they played the V.V. many times. Can ‘t remember if they actually did this one…

‘Neuthrone’s appearance was, I thought; their first (of a whole series in the V.V.) that night (Steve W. explains below it’s not). They were locals and helped out at the Vort’n Vis… Guitarist/vocalist Steve W. had moved back to Ieper from the U.K. and formed this ‘sludgecore’ band together with (ex ‘Silly Old Fart’) David Stubbe (drums) and Fabrice Baclet (bass). Tim ‘Nutje’ Denutte replaced the latter a while later.

Being local and helping out at the Vort’n Vis, ‘Blindfold’ played another set, just shortly after their debut [91-12-21] here…

Apparently ‘Union Morbide’ played here aswell (see below) but I can’t remember that. I do recall them playing 91-11-23.

Brob

I recall that I played bass for ‘Shortsight’ at the V.V. once that X-Mas period [91-12-21] but I’m also certain I spent New Year’s Eve 1991 at La Gare in Lauwe and not at the Vort’n Vis viz. ‘N.O.F. seems unlikely ‘cause Edward hadn’t returned from the U.S. and Jaak still wasn’t recovered from his car-crash injuries. [91-09-01]

Jeroen Lauwers

This is our and my only performance in Belgium…so far. We entered the country through the German-speaking part and got followed after a few kilometres. It appeared to be the cops, who wanted a closer look at the inside of our bus. Yep, we didn’t smell that fresh but we got away quite easily. We had done 12 gigs by then. Every school-holiday we took the opportunity to tour and Ieper became our debut in your beautiful country; it was also the last one of that tour.

About the Vort’n Vis, I can remember that the stage was right next to the entrance; and during our set two bored straight-edge-kids were gazing at us. When I listened back to the recordings (available on-line), it appeared that the public, back in the pub, was rather enthusiastic…

I play in another band now (called ‘Zoikle’) with GW Sok (ex ‘The Ex’) and I’m a part-time music-teacher.

Cor Hoogerdijk, ‘Disturbing Foresights’ drummer

I believe the stage collapsed underneath me…

Chiel Schouten, ‘Disturbing Foresights’ guitarist

‘Apoplexy’ was on tour with us but apparently didn’t play here [Brob: probably because this was the last show before ‘D.F.’ headed home…]. After Sebastiaan de Neef we took another guitarist: Arjan van der Schee (who had been in ‘Brutal Obcenity’). Ron was in the band before me. He had gotten back from Barcelona by then (he’s not with Rosa since a long time). Myself, until recently I played in ‘Possible Suspect’ and nowadays in the ‘Pisnozems’ (and some others). Arni lives in Kopenhagen. I don’t think he was on this tour, but he did come often.

Iwan, ‘Disturbing Foresights’ singer

‘Disturbing Foresights’ (pics by Eric W.)

I recorded ‘Disturbing Foresights’ live that night [link above] (I also have recordings of ‘Scraps’, ‘N.O.F.’). I enjoyed their music, kind of rap-core [???], as well as their ep, full of meaning and good lyrics about the European Fortress, animal-rights, etc.

Eric Wawr, React distro

The first line-up (on the split LP with ‘Kismet HC’) was: Bill drums, Alekos on guitar, Alex ‘Z’ guitar & vocals and Makis on bass. When Alex left the band, the band became a trio: Bill on drums, John bass and vocals and Stamatis guitar. They recorded the second LP Angels Of Deceit.

Alex, ‘Negative Stance’

‘Neuthrone’s 1^st gig was in September 1991 if I remember well, perhaps October. We’d played a short, un-announced set at the Leet fest [91-09-14]. We also did the gig with ‘Debiele Eenheid’, last gig ever by ‘Sloth’ that was [91-10-05]. That was perhaps our first official 1^st gig as ‘Neuthrone’. Fabrice played in the band from August 1991 to June 1992. Then he started a training to become a sailor & was at sea for months and months. In the summer of ‘92 we asked Tim (‘Nutje’) if he was interested. We recorded 5 songs in August ‘92 in Brugge (3 for the 1^st 7” on Genet recs & another 2 for compilations and stuff (but they actually only appeared on a ‘Neuthrone’ LP with unpublished songs in 2004). Because Tim wasn’t ready for recordings yet, I played all the bass-tracks.

Steve W., ‘Neuthrone’ guitarist

‘Neuthrone’, ‘promo-pic’: David – Fabrice – Steve

I’m pretty positive we (‘Union Morbide’) played on 31^st of December 1991 in the Vort’n Vis! We were on tour with the ‘Scraps’ back then and we sort of teamed up with ‘Disturbing Foresights’ the night before when all 3 of us played at a festival in Ransbach-Baumbach in Germany. I remember my surprise about the total absence of fireworks at NewYear because in the Netherlands, Belgium has a reputation when it comes to fireworks: every Dutchman goes to Belgium to buy the ‘heavy stuff’. There was also another band playing that night (don’t remember their name) and the crowd was a mix of straight-edgers and drunk-punks – a little tense at times, but all in all a good spirit.

Philip van Koeveringe, ‘Union Morbide’ guitarist

So we played at the Vort’n Vis on New Year’s Eve… Inside: Flemish punx in hardcore outfit (caps and checkered shirts), also (on the other side of the venue) Walloon punx (spiked hair, tartan pants, boozing until Sid comes and gets them.) This dichotomy was unknown to us in Beverwijk – we didn’t preach punk or hardcore but hardcore-punk. We were ill , not just in our heads but also our bodies. And when we layed down our heads after having played – and underneath us the festivities continued in full swing (with here and there a yell about boozing and not boozing, in French and Flemish – which led to some squabbles) – the astmathic sucking of our drummer Michel on his inhaler provided a cheerful undertone.

Maxim Aafjes, ‘Union Morbide’ vocalist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

visitors

additions wellcome!…

91-12-08 Green Day – Doctor and The Crippens

‘Green Day’ then reminded me most of all of ‘Hüsker Dü’ … ‘Doctor & The Crippens’ were some sort of a punk ‘cabaret’, completely with fireworks and exploding cabbages! The guy who did the fire-spitting almost set the ceiling on fire and the fuel dripped on our heads…

Henk Loobuyck

‘Doctor and The Crippens’ had played a show at Netwerk, Aalst (90-02-03) but this wasn’t organised by Smurfpunx because we thought the promoter was too commercial. For some reason (I guess Bruno didn’t have the same scruples as me) they ended up at the V.V. a year later… The ‘Crippens’ members were Nick Palmer (‘Max Von Rheinheart’; vocals), Tom Myall (guitar), Wayne Elliot (bass) and Dave Ellesmere (‘Jesus van Go(u)gh’; ex ‘Discharge’; drums).

When I was in San Francisco in 1989, I met a lot of people (at Mordam recs, Blacklist mailorder, etc.) and also visited the Maximum Rock’n’Roll house. At that time Lawrence Livermore’s label Lookout recs was also up and coming… Of course I bought a relatively big amount of vinyl. Some was by this young, fresh-sounding band ‘Green Day’. I liked their uptempo melodic punk-rock style. So when Christy Colcord (Lookout Europe) – who, back then, was living in London – contacted me (I think we’d met when she was touring with ‘Inside Out’ earlier that year) to help find some gigs, I didn’t hesitate. (see Brob’s tours: 6th – ‘La Zone’, Liège * 7th – ‘Kalashnikov’, Terneuzen * 8th – ‘Vort’n Vis’, Ieper). Little did I know that they were soon to become ‘major’…

Mike Dirnt (Michael Ryan Pritchard; bass), Tré Cool (Frank Edwin Wright III; drums) and Billie Joe Armstrong acted really ‘cool’. They weren’t really communicative, to say the least. Were they having a ‘green day’? Or were they already expecting some fancy, commercial venue? Never saw any photos of that gig… The only trace of their passage seems to be the entry in the Vort’n Vis guestbook.

Brob

photo by Philippe Klur (published in Uprising Decay #4)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…