93-09-04 Contropotere & Brawl (extra photos)

More on this concert:  93-09-04 Contropotere – Herb Garden – Brawl – Bad Influence

Here’s a series of photographs taken and donated by Carla Oliveira (a Portugese interrailing through Europe at that time):

‘Contropotere’

‘Brawl’

93-06-13 Spirit Of Youth & Wheel Of Progress (extra photos)

More on this concert: 93-06-13 Bloodline – Transcend – Schizma – Spirit Of Youth – Wheel Of Progress

Here’s a series of photographs taken and donated by Jean-Paul Frijns:

(also present: Bart Van Mulders, Chris Van Dornick, Peter Hoeren, Michael Müller, Nick Royles, Dirk ‘Scum’, Stef Goos, Wim Vandekerckhove, etc.)

SPIRIT OF YOUTH

WHEEL OF PROGRESS

93-06-04 Life But How To Live It – Dubmerge

‘Life But How To Live It’, from Oslo (Norway), had done a gig that Smurfpunx organised (89-03-25; with their friends of ‘So Much Hate’) and played a show in Oostende – that I booked (90-10-27) so I was very glad to be able to meet ‘em again. I really liked their rocky tuneful HC and Katja’s f-great singing (and heartfelt lyrics). The band has always been Katja Benneche Osvold (vocals), Geir Petter ‘Dyret’ Jensen (drums), Roger Andreassen (guitar) & Tom Andreassen (bass) – the brothers had been in ‘Barn Av Regnbuen’ in the 80s; later they were in ‘Drunk’ and ‘Danger!Man’. Katja teamed up with some old school punx in the band ‘Castro’.

‘Life But How To Live It’ (photo by Karl Penando)

‘Dubmerge’ reggae/roots/dub/ska collective (travellers-circuit) from the Worcester (UK) area. Their music grew into a cross-over of dub, hiphop, funk, reggae and jungle. I read somewhere there were 8 people in the band but I can ‘t remember so many people being on the tiny V.V. stage… They’d just started out by then so maybe they weren’t all there yet: Paul Knight (drums), Mark ‘Lofty’ Loughman (bass), ‘Bhima’ Steve ‘Kin-1’ McArdle (vocals), Patrick McArdle (keyboards), Jez King (guitar), ‘Cut La Vis’ Dave Lavis (percussion), ‘Powerstepper’ Colin Consterdine (guest percussion), Molara (guest vocals). As a few others that played the V.V. in their starting-period, they now do some of Europe’s biggest festivals. I know of 2 CDs they did – Wake Up! (‘96) & Greed And Glamour (’99) – on their own label Bud Urge recs. Recordings of their show in La Zone (Liège, 93-06-20) are on the tape Flat Out In Skunkland.

‘Dubmerge’

Karl Penando told me this was the day he met his partner Agnes (who he’s till together with…).

Brob

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

93-01-09 Growing Concern – Brachland – Congress – Wheel Of Progress – [Strength Of The Will]

I believe ‘Strength Of The Will’ was replaced by ‘W.O.P.’: the first aren’t mentioned in the V.V. notes, the latter are… I believed ‘Wheel Of Progress’ played their only show at the V.V. on 93-06-13 but Hans confirms they played here too so this must’ve been their first appearance here. ‘W.O.P.’ consisted of Rob Franssen (vocals; also ‘Feeding The Fire’), Hans Verbeke (drums; guitarist of ‘Blindfold’), Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitar) & ‘Uniform’ Jan (U.J.) Vandekerckhove (who was, together with Joost, also in ‘Dreft’ at that time). They recorded their It’s Alive…7″ a bit after this.

There was an anarchist punk band from the squat-scene in Bern (Switzerland) named ‘Brachland’ but the www tells us these existed from 1998 on… Their bassist informed me there was another band with that name from Germany. These played “powerful, agressive acid punk”.

Some members of the Italian bands ‘Growing Concern’ & ‘Open Season’ had been visiting the V.V. before (92-08-09). The latter (an SxE band from Rome) – even though they weren’t on the bill – were represented by some of their members & friends (see guestbook). Paolo Petralia (SOA recs) did their EP (entitled) 1989-1991. ‘O.S.’ (originally ‘One Step Ahead’) was Davide Mancini (guitar), Riccardo Rottaro (bass), Roberto Marroni (drums) & Steve ‘Ahead’ (vocals).

‘Growing Concern’ (from Rome) played aggressive HC (NY style à la ‘Agnostic Front’, ‘Sick Of It All’, etc.). The band consisted of Andrew Mecoli (guitar), Gianni Pantaloni (drums), Massimiliano Carnevale (bass) & Paolo Piccini (vocals). This gig was around the time they had the Disconnection EP (recorded May 1992 with Andrew on guitar) out on Paolo Petralia’s SOA recs (also some other releases were on his label). He was roadie-ing for them; together with Davide of ‘One Step Ahead’. The band’s music was also described as “powerful old-school HC à la ‘Y.O.T.’…” They came back on 94-01-08.

This might well have been ‘Congress’ first performance at the Vort’n Vis (or anywhere else for that matter)… That was with their first singer Roy Cappan (R.I.P.). Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitar) & Ilja De Ceuleneire (drums) had been playing together in ‘Burning Fight’ (92-02-22). Jan ‘U.J.’ Vandekerckhove (bass) had played in ‘Dreft’ (together with Joost) for a while…

Brob

We played the first time at the V.V. in January 1993. I remember we met Edward from ‘Nations On Fire’, whom we were in touch with ‘cause we organized a ‘N.O.F.’ gig in Rome, and this scene girl called Saskia [Verbeke, ‘Shortsight’ singer], whom I used to correspond with for a while.

Gianni Pantaloni

I always thought the V.V. was some kind of magic place… ‘Growing Concern’ played there two times, at least with me as a roadie. The first time Davide of ‘One Step Ahead’ / ‘Open Season’ (guitar, a couple of years later also in ‘Growing Concern’) was there too. That time Jana & Cristina (‘Sisterhood’ signature in the V.V. guestbook) were also with us. Both tours happened during winter-time and I do remember how hard the weather was in Northern Europe for our Southern bodies. Both tours were organised by guys from la Bande Bonnot, who released ‘Growing Concern’ records together with me (SOA recs). The 1^st tour – first time I left the Italian borders – was a whole week in France and the only Belgium gig at the V.V. As far as I remember ‘Congress’ played both gigs, with their first singer. Have no positive memories about ‘Congress’ as I had later on with the small ‘classic’ singer. The other bands weren’t that impressive either, as I forgot every single note.

At this first ‘G.C.’ gig Ed [N.O.F.] “wanted to exchange views” and I remember clearly – all packed in our van in front at the V.V., freezing – Ed was asking us things; and after that talk -don’t remember about what – we nicknamed Ed ‘The Judge’, a joke on the ‘Judge No One’ moniker he used on ‘N.O.F.’ records. In between the two Belgian ‘G.C.’ gigs we had ‘N.O.F.’ playing Rome with their classic singer. This led to an long friendship with some of the buddies… After that I came over to the V.V. at least 3 more times, always for the summer fest that’s now called Ieperfest. Even played with one of my band [‘Comrades’] at one of the fest and then failed to play there a second time in 2000 due our van breaking down.

I couldn’t find any V.V. pics at all… I have 2 pics from that first tour: one with Andrew (‘G.C.’ guitarist), Davide ‘One Step’, Paolo SOA, Gianni (‘G.C.’ drummer), Paolo (‘G.C.’ guitarist) – taken by Massimiliano (‘G.C.’ bassist) at the Eiffel tower, the day before the V.V. gig.; an another with me trying to memorise ‘G.C.’ lyrics in the van because the singer lost his voice after first day of the tour (in Torino) – Davide ‘One Step’ did it at the Marseille gig, without knowing any words…

Paolo Petralia

I believe there was a cancellation and since all members of ‘W.O.P.’ where present, we played this show after our very first show in Mulheim (Germany) the week before that…

Hans Verbeke

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

93-08-01 Subcaos – Subway Arts – Scraps

This gig was announced as a benefit-gig “in order to be able to finance the reparations needed for the vocal P.A.”. Lots of things, line-up wise, changed during the preparation…

At first another Portugese band, ‘Inkisiçao’ (see 94-09-17) was gonna tour with ‘No More’ but they couldn’t make it because of the singer’s job-duties… Their replacement ‘Corrosão Caótica’ – a hardcore/punk band from Lisbon with vocalist Paulo ‘Piranha’ Baptista, guitarist João(zinho) Morais, drummer Rui Lucena and bassist Miguel ‘Zé Gato’ (later also in ‘Subcaos’), and for a moment they also had a female guitarist called Susana – cancelled the tour aswell in the end. Hence the gig that was announced for July 31^st was abandoned…

‘Subcaos’ from Lisbon were Diogo Tovar Carvalho (vocals; also did Recognize No Authority zine, and distributed mine), Xico (or Chico or FJ; vocals), João Abrantes (guitar; was ‘held up’), João Barrelas (guitar; also in ‘X-Acto’), Tópê (bass) & David (drums). They put out a demo (Genocidio, “chaotic crustcore”) in ’92 and tracks for the split-7” with ‘Hiatus’ (out on Slime recs) were recorded at the gig they played in Bruges the day before … (93-07-31) Slime recs (which existed since 1989) changed it’s name to Ataque Sonoro around 1994/95 (ataquesonoro.blogspot) and released their split-album with ‘Genital Deformities’ in ’94. They came back twice… (94-04-02 & 94-12-31).

‘Subcaos’ photos from Ludovic Hache’s zine Ras L’Bol #3 (top => bottom: Tópê – Diogo – ‘Xico’)

‘No More’ (see 92-05-24, 92-09-05 & 93-03-28) – Claude ‘Pattex’ Werer (guitar), Fränz Laureys (bass), Steve ‘Diff’ Differding (vocals) & Mike ‘Schof’ (drums) – who were supposed to play with ‘Corrosão Caótica’ the day before didn’t come over either (or did they?)… Another band that ‘Diff’ played guitar for, ‘Subway Arts’ (political hardcore/punk from Esch/Alzette), played. The others in the band: Claude ‘Bourano’ Bour (drums; (drums; Mike played on the split-LP but left also soon after), Fränz Laureys (bass), Sabrina D’Aurelio (vocals; David on the split-LP) and Xavier (guitar). It wasn’t their first visit either (92-12-20, 93-02-06, 93-07-04) and it wouldn’t be their last (94-04-02) … The Luxemburgers had released a split 12” (All Life is Equal) together with ‘No More’ in 1991 (on Markus Haas’ Per Koro recs). Around this time here they released a 12” titled “Una Definizione Perveresa Della Pace” (‘93) – a collaboration of Genet recs and PeaCy recs (ran by Diff and Simone Winandy).

‘Subway Arts’; photos by Eric ‘React’ Wawrzynkowski

‘Scraps’ were announced (in the newsletter) with a new line-up and new songs. At their previous passages (90-02-24, 90-09-15, 91-03-16, 91-09-01, 91-12-31) David (vocals) & his brother Raphael Dutriaux (guitar) still had Xavier (drums) in their ranks – besides Tomoy (bass) off course. I guess they might’ve recruted Pierre Anne (ex ‘6 Feet Over’) as drummer by then… He was on the LP Dismantle The Machine One Cog At A Time (recorded April ’94).

‘P.J.D.’ (Private Jesus Detector) was also mentioned in the newsletter but there’s nothing about hem in the V.V. notes for that day… They’d played the Vort’n Vis several times before: 90-08-25, 90-10-27 & 91-03-16.

Brob

We’d split up since a while because we rehearsed very rarely in 1992. We did that last show in Ternat [93-10-23] because it was a benefit. We did a few show in 1993 but ‘Pette’ didn’t feel like it much anymore… Gigging became sporadic but the fun of it was gone by the end of ‘92/beginning of ‘93. Also ‘Spatje’ didn’t feel like it anymore…

Koen ‘Siesele’ Lammens, ‘P.J.D.’ bassist

Since we [‘No More’/’Subway Arts’] were kind of a collective with people switching from here to there and we all had a great relationship witch each other, we might have decided to just play as ‘Subway Arts’…

‘Diff’

I remember ‘Subcaos’: very cool people, the loved to play soccer. We went over to Portugal aswell… I guess ‘Diff’ organised all of that. Portugal, Spain,…

Sabrina D’Aurelio, ‘Subway Arts singer

I definitely think that the V.V. gig was the best of the ‘Subcaos’ tour as everyone talked over and over about it. I really would have liked to be there but it wasn’t possible…

Miguel Crespo (Ratazana Productions [a concert-collective, including with Guilherme Chalmers]), personal communication ‘94

I remember we shook hands in 1993 or the second time I was there in 1995. Lots of memories from those times, all the people and the mighty Vort’n Vis where I slept at least a couple of times… It was Bruno’s good intention to help ‘Turmoil’ with touring Europe and with a (split)LP; which never happened because of hard situations in Turkey. It was a nice dream anyway. I tried my best and with the help of Bruno I showed up alone instead of a tour and had a great time. There was a great gig with ‘Scraps’; ‘Subway Arts’ & ‘Subcaos’ were touring. There were lots of cool people at V.V. like the guy from ‘Neuthrone’, the unknown crusties of ‘War Cry’ and ‘Corpus Christi’, the people of Nabate recs and – I want to mention these names – Boezie, Stevie, Jimyh. I believe I have some photos from those days.

I’m still a noise-freak, still enjoy a lot of the same old stuff. I wouldn’t care sounding like ‘Youth Corps’ or ‘Terveet Kadet’…

Tay(lan) Ipek, ‘Turmoil’

I was on the road with ‘Subcaos’ and the Luxembourgers (I’m not sure if ‘Subway Arts’ played on all days or if they only played in Ieper. I think the other 2 days and probably the entire tour was with ‘No More’.); a tour that Bruno organised in the summer of 1993 (I also attended the 1994 ‘Subcaos’ gig): one gig in Manheim in the Cologne area, so not Mannheim in the south-west of Germany) and two in Belgium (Bruges and Ieper). Originally, I just wanted to attend the Ieper gig but Bruno asked if I was up for two more days. There were also a few other people accompanying ‘Subcaos’, which was nice: chatting, beer. :-). It was a really good experience being on tour (well, 3 or 4 days) with people from rather different backgrounds and countries (Portuguese, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany). Markus of Per Koro recs also attended those gigs.

Carsten Pötter (Frankfurt)

I remember ‘Subway Arts’ very well… First time I heard a band from Luxembourg: ‘bonne pêche’, nice people, etc. Don’t remember much about ‘Subcaos’…

Willy ‘Hiatus’

One thing that I can recall from on of the gigs at the V.V. is that we were playing the smaller room and right in the middle of our set smoke started coming out of one of the amps, not sure if they caught fire or not but it would make a better story if it did… ;-)

Diogo (Tovar), ‘Subcaos’ singer

I couldn’t go on tour at that time because I had a ‘small problem” with the law and could not leave the country :-) I believe the band played in the V.V. bar.

João Abrantes, ‘Subcaos’ guitarist

I toured with ‘Scraps’ once, playing the guitar. As far as I can remember I just played Germany and Austria for five weeks. I replaced the guitarist, Raphael (David’s bro; he used to work with handicapped people and could not get holidays). I think it was ‘93. [Brob: I think that was ’95; and Amanda Trevens was touring with them in ‘94…]

Ma Raab

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

93-11-07 Yuppicide – Sarcasm – Core – Neuthrone

‘Yuppicide’ were here a year before (see 92-03-29) but already some changes had occurred: Pete Guinan (drums) replaced John ‘Kid’ Lynch. The rest remained: Joe Keefe (bass), Steve Karp (guitar) and Jes(se) Jones (vocals). By then the Shinebox LP was released (on Wreck-Age). Ma Raab of ‘Egotrip’ was driving for them…

‘Sarcasm’ was a crust-punk band (“brutal, distorted and totally out of control”) from Leicester. The original line-up was Barney (guitar) – Mark (vocals) – Paul (bass) & Nidge (drums). In ’91 there was Your Funeral, My Party 7” (on a Brazilian label). In ’92 they did The Lowest Form Of Wit 7” ‎(out on Neil Robinson’s Tribal War recs) and there was also a split-tape with the Japanese ‘C.F.U.D.L.’ (tracks from ‘Sarcasm’s unreleased second demo recorded in ‘91). In ’95 Brave New World (recorded with Mark, Paul, Leigh & ‘Brillo’) was released on a label from Paris. The band here was vocalist ‘Mr Wanky’ Mark ‘Gardener’ Gardner (was in ‘Extreme Noise Terror’ for a while; nowadays he’s the guitarist/vocalist for the punkrockers ‘The Wankys’ and also runs Noise Punk recs), bassist Paul Reynolds, drummer ‘Brillo’ Brilleaux & guitarist Ben a.k.a. ‘Bené von Bastard’ (Colin Bennett took up guitar from ’94 on, I think). ‘Sarcasm’ came back to the V.V. 94-04-23.

‘Sarcasm’, photo by Wim De Leersnijder

‘Core’ were a band from London that sent me a demo which I reviewed in Tilt! #8: >>Strong material with a gloomy feel, based on metally riffs reminding me of ‘Prong’ or ‘Metallica’ by times. Slower to mid-tempo but well-structured. Steve ‘Neuthrone’s kinda stuff, I guess…<<. Don’t remember anything else about them… The demo mentioned a guy named Alex as contact and there was a reference to the Norwegian band ‘Punishment Park’…

1993 was the year ‘Neuthrone’s As The Grey Skies Opened / Stough 7” was released. It was recorded with Steve Wackenier (guitar/vocals), David Stubbe (drums), Tim ‘Nutje’ Denutte (bass) & ‘Bako’ (vocals). Phillipe Bakeroot only appeared on Neuthrone’s second 7” and did partake in their live shows from time to time. He was found dead (murdered) at his house in 2003 at the age of 37. The vocalist at this gig here was Jimyh Anti (editor of International Objection zine; from Mouscron). Their music can be descirbed as doom, death-metal, sludge; as influences Steve mentioned old ‘Celtic Frost’, ‘Prong’, ‘Voivod’, ‘Melvins’, ‘Amebix’, etc.

Brob

I have very little memories of our gigs at the V.V. They went well I think, sleeping at the venue was cramped and uncomfortable (L.O.L.)… The singer of ‘Yuppicide’ wasn’t as straight-edge as he was supposed to be (L.O.L.) but -shsss- don’t tell anyone héhé ;-).

‘Brillo’, drummer of ‘Sarcasm’

I remember not being the biggest fan of ‘Yuppicide’s music but brought their…10”? – I think – because I thought they were cool and they gave an absolutely mental performance… They made the place seem absolutely tiny… I remember it not being large anyway but they filled it. I felt welcome and part of an organic whole at every gig in Belgique… I carried the sense of comradely familiarity and a set of values, attitudes and proactiveness that I got from interacting with all kinds of people when we toured… Although I have retired from putting gigs on now from the point of getting back from a tour, I always aspired to follow the European model and also truly considered myself European from then too.

FYI… The original line-up of ‘Sarcasm’ ca. 1984 was Rich Boot (guitar), Paul (bass), Nidge Good (drums), Mark & ‘Bené’ (vocals). Mark and I formed ‘Sarcasm’ after a visit to our town by German punks Cliff and ET… They were as mental as is and we did a drunken performance using pots and pans one evening in the garden of a friend. We decided to form a band and I suggested ‘Sarcasm’ because that was descriptive of us. Barney moved to Scandinavia. Both him and I were in ‘Dirge’ in the 80s but never at the same time…

Ben, ‘Sarcasm’ guitarist

I did 5 concerts as ‘Neuthrone’s vocalist in 1993 (93-10-23 @ JOC in Ypres, 93-10-29 @ the Pits in Kortrijk, 93-11-07 & 93-11-13 at the V.V. and 93-12-18 @ De Kelk in Bruges). In September ’93 when the summer had gone (the last festival I went to was Graspop Dessel, which wasn’t a metal-meeting yet – I saw ‘The Cramps’, ‘Ramones’, etc.), I went over to the V.V. to see ‘Contropotere’, ‘Bad Influence’ & ‘Herb Garden’ (93-09-04) and talked with Steve W. (‘Neuthrone’s guitarist) who told me they were looking for a ‘singer’ so the week after that I was a part ‘Neuthrone’…

Jimyh Anti

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

93-04-11 P.N.A.T.S.H. – Nessun Dorma – Pilgrims – Vais

‘P.N.A.T.S.H.’ (abbreviation for ‘Paice, Nic And The Stringkilling Homosexual’) were a ‘queercore’ band that played a mix of punk & dub-reggae and were quite original! If I’m not mistaken they were from Berlin… Dudes with dreads, seemingly adhering the Rastafari philosophy… They also had a song entitled Ain’t No Jah… Absolutely the counterpart of the sometimes homophobic Rastafarians though; militant punk.

Henk Loobuyck

‘P.N.A.T.S.H.’ were indeed from Berlin (Kreuzberg, I think). They described their music themselves as “masquerade party-rastafari-punk-core”. A whole bunch of people (on their recordings): Paice (vocals, drums/percussion), Nic (vocals, bass, keyboards), Hilde Hendrix (vocals, guitar, sax), and their horns-section Wolfram Föhse (trombone), Wolfram Segond von Banchet (bariton sax) and Markus Renner (trumpet). Party-music, got everybody skankin’… I know of 2 albums that they did: Fetish (1991) and SmashIt (1994).

The ‘Nessun Dorma’ guys toured the continent quite a bit and this was their 3^rd time here (after 92-05-02 & 92-11-01). I had already gotten them a few gigs earlier during the Smurfpunx days (90-09-02). Hardcore punx from Bristol: Seamus Cummins (bass), Paul (vocals), Phil (drums), and Ju & Tony ‘Tone’ (guitarists). They had a 12” out on Mike Foster’s MCR UK: Chew It Over 12” (recorded in Oct ‘91).

‘Nessun Dorma’ s singer Paul (from Ludovic Hache’s zine Ras l’Bol)

The French ‘Pilgrims’ had been at the V.V. before (92-06-13). They were apparently a straight-edge band but my mate Dirk ‘Scum’ (‘Zero Positives’ vocalist; who organised (a part of) the European tour for the ‘Pilgrims’ in 1992, said they were anything but…) Can’t remember anything about them. I was told the guy singing for them (Ian ‘X Man’ Marquand) used to be in the Parisian HC/punk band ‘Flitox’ and he also ran (the label) Jungle Hop International.

‘Vais’ (from Antwerp) consisted of Ingrid Martens (vocals), David (guitar), Danny Van Honsté (bass, ex ‘Bad Influence’) and Alex Meynen (drums; he replaced first drummer Sacha). They recorded a demo (Forever Roaming) in 1992 with Alex. After ‘Vais’ Ingrid, David & Danny started ‘Kin Without The Blood’; later on Ingrid & David formed ‘Hellsonics’ (a “punky/metal psychobilly” band).

Brob

I remember vaguely seeing ‘P.N.A.T.S.H.’ twice. Only the guitarist was gay; he was a bit timid but very winsome. They played a lot of benefits but also wedding-parties. What I do recall from the gig at the V.V.: they were touring with a hearse. It was a very nice concert, especially because there was an openly gay person present. They had a tape, an LP and a CD…

‘P.N.A.T.S.H.’ (Paice, Nick And The Stringkilling Homosexual) – SmashIt. Hardcore, ska, reggae, dub, techno & punk on one CD, it’s possible. Musical resistance without compromise, it’s possible. From Germany, nothing seems impossible. A CD that everybody has to have in their collection; lyrics you just have to know by heart. Against religion, neonazis, narrow-mindedness and bigotry. For feminism, homosexuality, resistance and fun.

Pat D.

No recollections whatsoever… Could well have been our drummer (Alex) or bassist (Danny) in the guestbook.

David, ‘Vais’guitarist

No, that wasn’t me there. Must’ve been our drummer Alex.

Danny Van Honsté, ‘Vais’ bassist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

93-06-13 Bloodline – Transcend – Schizma – Spirit Of Youth – Wheel Of Progress

‘Wheel Of Progress’ consisted of Rob Franssen (also ‘Feeding The Fire’), Hans Verbeke (drums), Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitar) & ‘Uniform’ Jan (U.J.) Vandekerckhove (who was, together with Joost, also in ‘Dreft’ at that time). Hans said somewhere it was the heaviest band in H8000 crew, a brutal mix of death-metal (Josh himself described it as “Slayer meets Ministry”) and the classic H8000 sound (whatever that might be, …‘edge-metal’?). They didn’t last long (did a 7”, It’s Alive…, on a Canadian label) and would move on to become ‘Liar’…

‘Spirit Of Youth’s performance here wasn’t their first, far from it and it wouldn’t be their last either; no need to introduce them: Jan, ‘Dompi’, Fred & Hans (who played bass here) were regulars. In 1993 ‘S.O.Y.’ recorded Engine/Darkroom that Hans (Verbeke; Sober Mind recs) put out as cassette only.

I mentioned ‘Transcend’ already in relation to the gig that ‘Majority Of One’ did at the V.V. (91-05-03): Dirk Hemsath, founder of Doghouse recs, was the vocalist for ‘M.O.O.’ and played bass/guitar in ‘Transcend’. Also in the band were drummer Doug Walker (later Chris Reinstatler who was also in ‘Metroschifter’), Chad Scouten (guitar), Andy Leitner (bass) & Jody Moss (vocals). They were from Toledo (Ohio) and played “powerful posi HC”. They had 3 7”s out (2 on Doghouse – Product Of Greed and a split with ‘Majority Of One’). The album Room 101 was recorded in February ’93 with Ali Moazed (guitarist of ‘M.O.O.’) on bass, Doug Walker on drums and Dirk on guitar.

‘Bloodline’, a HC band (“raging moshcore” it said on the V.V. newsletter) from St. Paul/Minneapolis (Minnesota), also had vinyl out on Doghouse recs. In the beginning the band-members were guitarist Erik Funk (he replaced Bruce Fisher, who was on the 1^st 7”), bassist Chris Lampman (but Erik Fink – ex ‘Gorilla Biscuits’, ‘Uppercut’ – played bass on the tour), vocalist Bill Boulger, guitarist Joe Gerber and drummer Chris Sonterre. They played “chugga-chugga hardcore” and released a 7” entitled The Waiting Game (on Takeover recs, 1991), the Can’t Rest On The Time LP (Nemesis recs, 1992) and a CD called One Thousand Screams (Doghouse recs, 1993). The line-up on the latter was: Chris (bass), Bill (vocals), Erik (guitar), now with Michael ‘Mike’ Paradise on drums & Dustin Perry (ex ‘Libido Boyz’) on guitar. Some of them went on to play for ‘Threadbare’, ‘Snapcase’, ‘Dillinger 4’, etc. So on this tour Bill was the singer, Erik Fink bassist, Dustin Perry & Erik Funk guitarists and Mike was the drummer. A few of the guys were active in the Minneapolis ARA movement (Anti-Racist Action)…

‘Schizma’ (from Bydgoszcz, between Poznan & Gdansk) played old-school HC/punk. At that time they were: Lukasz ‘Luki/Welna/WooKee’ Niedzwiecki (bass & vocals), Jarosław (Jarek) ‘Monter’ Matewski (drums), Mirek ‘Bobas’ Pierzynowski (guitar & vocals) & Salem (vocals). Marcin ‘Eden’ Kornak (R.I.P.; editor of the magazine Never Again and coordinator of campaigns against racism, intolerance & xenophobia, like Music Against Racism) wrote the lyrics (anarchist, anti-fascist, ecologist issues) at that time. His brother, Krzysztof ‘Model’ Kornak, was the band’s manager. 2^nd guitarist Maciej Waclaw joined a few months after this tour I think. By the time of this gig QQRYQ prods (Zbigniew Matera from Warsaw) had released a live-tape (Toruń 91-01-19). They put out the Ostatnia Odslona LP by themselves in ’92. Michal Halabura of Nikt Nic Nie Wie (Nobody Knows Nothing) did the Energia LP (’92) and a split-CD with ‘SKTC’ (‘93). Later on the music evolved towards NY style HC (they did covers of ‘Agnostic Front’ & ‘Cro-Mags’ e.g.). The band still exists but there’s a totally different line-up.

Brob

>> Building on relationships tentatively started the previous year, Rob from ‘Feeding The Fire’ and Saskia from ‘Shortsight’ came over to stay with us in Leeds to experience a dour Yorkshire early summer in a damp terraced house in Leeds 6! We dutifully took them to experience an even more dour day in Bradford at the ‘Ironside’ household! The first shoots of an emerging new hardcore-community were further coaxed along with Ian [Simpson of Subjugation recs], Nick [Royles], myself and some others travelling to Belgium to see ‘Bloodline’ and ‘Transcend’ play the Vort’n Vis. Both bands were pretty terrible but I have fond memories of the camaraderie between us all from the UK, the in-jokes and our revelling in our general lack of sophistication compared to our mainland counterparts! <<

(From Helene Keller’s blog: subjugationrecords.wordpress.com)

I just remember it being an exciting place to play due to it being known via zines and bands like ‘Rise Above’ & ‘Nations On Fire’ who had good distro in the US. As for the show, I don’t remember playing as much as taking it all in. We had Erik Fink (ex ‘Side By Side’, etc.) on bass and I was playing guitar. I have general touring memories – visiting Poland and Italy for the first time, but mostly it was a pretty long grueling tour.

Dustin Perry, ‘Bloodline’ guitarist

I actually kept a journal on that tour…

Michael ‘Mike’ Paradise, ‘Bloodline’ drummer

I was in ‘Bloodline’ on that tour, yes. Unfortunately I don’t have much recollection of that particular show, just a few hazy images. Mostly because…myself and a few of our friends who were traveling with us spent the night before in Amsterdam, doing things we maybe shouldn’t have been doing. At about 5 a.m. we realized our car had been broken into, window smashed, some things stolen. We hadn’t slept and I don’t think I slept on the way to the show, since we drove there with a broken window. I was pretty much a zombie that day. So really other than knowing that we did play there, that’s all I can remember.

There seems to have been a confusing mix-up. I am Erik FUNK. Before ‘Bloodline’, I was in a band called ‘Billingsgate’ and after ‘Bloodline’ I started ‘Dillinger Four’ which is still a band. Just before ‘Bloodline’ was heading to Europe for that tour, we found out we needed a bass-player as Chris Lampman wasn’t going to come. Through a strange series of almost unbelievable chance events, Erik FINK, formerly of ‘Side By Side’ (perhaps ‘Gorilla Biscuits’ for a minute), etc. ended up going to college in Saint-Paul at the same school I was going to. We met, and I invited him to join ‘Bloodline’ to play bass for the tour. Which he did. So on that tour ‘Bloodline’ had both Erik FINK ánd Erik FUNK in the line-up. FINK ended up being a difficult personality and ultimately caused a lot of the stresses that led to the total break-up of the band after that tour. Don’t know where he is now, I don’t think I ever saw him again after the tour.

Erik Funk

I was in ‘Transcend’ at the end of the band’s life, but not when they were in Europe. It was Jody Moss, Dirk Hemsath, Ali Moazed, Doug Walker and one other person whose name I don’t remember. I don’t think Chad Scouten went to Europe but it’s possible. I think it was somebody named Steve who lived in or near Ann Arbor Michigan.

Andy Leitner

‘Transcend’ & ‘Bloodline’ brought a new style of American groove-core at that time; I could describe it as emanating from the ‘Biohazard’ style but they were part of the positive hardcore scene in the States. I was looking forward to see them, being a big fan. They had an influence on the direction that ‘Spirit Of Youth’ took later on. Until this day ‘Bloodline’ is still a band that doesn’t sound outdated, they were quite progressive musically. Their best work is on One Thousand Screams… The line-up of ‘S.O.Y.’ then was without Hans; Fré played the drums instead of Hans; and we had a skate-buddy (Ignace) of ours on bass. Later Hans returned on bass… I can’t remember anything about ‘Schizma’. I was a fan of ‘Wheel Of Progress’, with Hans on drums and Joost on guitar. We played a few shows with them around that time (I have recollections of a trip to Germany, a show with ‘Zero Tolerance’).

Dominiek Denolf

I played bass on the Engine/Darkroom tape and during the ‘S.O.Y.’/’N.O.F.’ 1993 winter-tour. I believe Ignace came in ‘95 somewhere… In the mean time I was also in ‘Wheel Of progress’ and ‘Blindfold’.

Hans Verbeke

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

93-02-21 Citizen Fish – Hiatus – Blindfold – Shortsight – Behind The Smile

Benefit for an education-project in Indonesia (Kakak Asuh)… Sacha ‘Chatn’ Baelen (‘Blindfold’s drummer) (helped) organise(d) a couple of benefits for that organisation (also 94-04-23 & 95-03-25).

Brob

A friend of mine worked in Indonesia and supported the project there. That’s how the idea to do something for it grew. For a certain amount of money one could pay for a whole schoolyear for a kid, I remember. [“1.000 BeF (25 Euro) enables 1 kid to go to school for 1 year!”]

Sacha Baelen

When ‘Culture Shock’ (cultureshock.me.uk) folded (we had them playing for Smurfpunx; 88-05-13), Dick Lucas (vocalist; Bluurg recs) got back together with some of his old mates of ‘Subhumans’ to play ska-influenced punk with a touch of reggae: Phil Bryant did guitar and ‘Trotsky’ drummed. Jasper Patterson (who’d also been in ‘Culture Shock’) played the bass (see also 93-10-24) for ‘Citizen Fish’ (citizenfish.com). Getting home they would record the tracks for the split-7” with ‘AOS3’ and the summer of that year they went into the studio for the LP Flinch. Dick also released live recordings from 2 German shows (from Sep ’92). A few years before this I’d arranged a show for them in Liège (when they toured with ‘Cringer’) and I was looking forward to skank to their tunes…

Dick Lucas (photo by Martin Vantomme)

‘Behind The Smile’ were a French (Valenciennes) hardcore/punk band with my mate Arnaud Huftier on bass (he did Uprising Decay zine), Frank (drums; Laurent on the demo), Rudy (guitar) & Laurent (vocals; Christophe on the demo). They had a second guitarist, Pierre, on their 7” (but I don’t know if he was playing here). Their 1^st release was a tape entitled Suburban Wars. In 1992 the did a split 7” with the Fins of ‘Juggling Jugulars’ called A Wish To Dream on Sylvain Vilette’s Bad Card recs. They had played here already before (91-10-12)…

‘Blindfold’ started recording for their 1^st LP (Restrain The Thought) at Cats studio (Brugge) the next month and finished it in September. It was released by Mike Warden on his label Conquer The World recs.

Just as the band of her brother Hans (‘Blindfold’), Saskia Verbeke’s band ‘Shortsight’ played here quite a few times already. Since this was before the summer-tour 93-07 ‘Shortsight’ & ‘Blindfold’, Françoise ‘Hazel’ Lepers (guitar) was still in the band here aswell. All of them (the women plus bassist Kurt Deprez, guitarist David ‘Mong’ Dumont, drummer Bjorn Lescouhier) were also locals and Vort’n Vis ‘shitworkers’. That year their 7” Why Spend Time Learning was released (Conquer The World recs). I did an interview with them briefly after they’d split up (’94).

About a month after this gig ‘Hiatus’ (Ben on drums, Azill & Phil doing guitars, Willy growling and Fred Alabas on bass) were also in Cats Studio for the recordings of their album From Resignation… To Revolt (to be released on Sound Pollution recs). Their live set in Liège a few days later (93-02-26) was recorded and released as a benefit-tape for the ‘Flamands Roses’ by Eric W. ‘React’.

Brob

Did we play with ‘Citizen Fish’? I was a big ska fan at the time. Still like it but I’m more into political/poetic hiphop nowadays… This was probably the first time we met the local SxE-ers. Never has been a problem for me, even if many crusties or “fans” of ‘Hiatus’ had stupid prejudices about it; just as some SxE kids hated crusties. Looking back at it after so many years, one can only laugh about this childish bullshit. Some time later, I had an American girlfriend that lived in Berlin. We went to see ‘Blindfold’ (together with Jeroen ‘N.O.F.’) there and they gave us their crate of beer. Better than throwing it away, isn’t it?

Willy ‘Hiatus’

I recall a great show by ‘Hiatus’…

Kurt Deprez

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Herwin De Winter & Tim ‘Crow’ Shapland (ex ‘Zygote’; played bass in ‘Bad Influence’ around that time) travelled along…

additions wellcome!…

93-09-19 Eversor – Hiatus – Nations On Fire – Strength Of The Will

See: 93-09-17&18&19 5th Leed-festival (Intro & Incident)

After the rave the night before the day started with a breakfast…

Liège crusties (including Willy ‘Hiatus’) & Italian HC/punks (‘Eversor’) sharing the goodies (photo by Massimo Moscarelli)

Then gradually the ‘market’ started…

Probably the very first time that Jon ‘Active’ Elliott came over… / Alain of Nabate looking for trades (pics by Massimo Moscarelli)

This edition of the Leed festival was totally fucked up, the only reason why ‘N.O.F.’ played on Sunday was because Françoise [‘Hazel’ Lepers] and Wim [Vandekerckhove] came to my house to drag me along: I had no intention to come. Apparently a bus-load of Swiss chaos-punks thought it was a good idea to come up to Ieper that weekend and demonstrate the ‘Exploited’ version of anarchy. The whole Saturday they had been nagging about having no money to pay the entrance and that punk had to be free. But they did find it OK to drive their bus-wreck all the way to Ieper at 30 litres per 100 km and buy beer in the grocery-store around the corner. Just say that paying the entrance is not a priority in stead of lying not to have any money. Whatever, each hour things were getting less and less pleasant and by the evening they had picked out a few ‘victims’ to let he whole thing explode… Unfortunately for them, they had chosen Hans Verbeke as their target. Lesson # 1: never choose someone who will fight back without a problem and grew up in the streets… The “punks” started to hassle Chantal (Hans’ girlfriend at that time) so Hans grabs his baseball-bat from UJ’s car and wacks one of those guys over the head. This, of course, sets the whole thing ablaze with all crust-punks hearing that straight-edgers are beating up poor beer-drinking punks: total chaos. Hans and some of us walk in to the pub and barricade the door while some 20 rampaging and drunk crusties shouting murder and fire, trying to break down the door. Luckily the lads of ‘Doom’ were still sober and smarter than their adherents and drove Hans off in their van. Eternal thanks for that because otherwise things could’ve gotten really out of hand. While all this was going most people were in the big hall in the back. What I always disliked about this episode is that Bruno and Jan called this a minor incident, something to forget fast. Apparently it wasn’t necessary to remove the Swiss assholes or address the guys from ‘Hiatus’ who were on their side. It’s all a long time ago but it remains one of the all time lows of all these years at the V.V.

Jeroen Lauwers (see also the interview he did with Willy ‘Hiatus’)

‘N.O.F.’ played in their new line-up (announced in the newsletter). From April 1993 on that was: Wim Vandekerckhove (guitar; also ‘Blindfold’ vocalist’), Filip Devolder (who did the ‘Silent Water’ project/band; drums), Ed(ward) Verhaeghe (vocals) and Jeroen ‘Goofy’ Lauwers (bass).

‘Nations On Fire’ (photo by Massimo Moscarelli)

‘Eversor’, a band from Pesaro, started out as as a thrash metal-band in 1985 but by then they played heartfelt, melodic HC (they were compared with bands such as ‘Sensefield’ and ‘Lifetime’): Marco Morosini (bass), Lele Morosini (guitar & vocals) and Federico Sarti had replaced Enrico ‘Eric Lumen’ Giampaoli (drums). Later the brothers continued to play together in ‘The Miles Apart’. Marco also did a distro, called Cataclysm. The band came over again to play on 96-09-20.

‘Strength Of The Will’ had played here already on 92-09-06. Filip Staes (ex ‘Exhaustless Revolt’) played guitar, Jan Beckers sang, his brother Maarten played the drums. The bros were from the Tongeren area and Filip resisided in Hoboken, near Anwterp. The band disappeared when ‘Kindred’ started. Filip believes ‘S.O.T.W.’ played also with ‘Wheel Of Progress’ at the V.V. but I’ve no memories/indications of that.

After a “makeshift” ‘Hiatus’ (93-07-04), we got the ‘full blast’ treatment again. The set was probably mainly from the LP From Resignation…To Revolt, that was recorded in March (at Cats studio in Brugge) with Azill (guitar), Wills (vocals), Ben (drums), Phil (guitar) and Fred Alabas (bass). I think around that time Eric ‘React’ had the live split-tape (together with ‘Doom’; recordings from the gig at ‘La Zone’ in Liège 93-02-26) available. That was a benefit for the Flamands Roses [LGBTQIF]. The tracks for their split-7” with ‘Subcaos’ were recorded live in Brno (Czech Republic) on 93-06-20. 4 songs from the same gig were used on the Polish Bastards split-7” with ‘Fleas & Lice’ (Polish nazi skinheads attacked the band in Gdansk in June ‘93.) Their gig in Auch (France) on 93-08-17 was also recorded: Fred Jourdan put it out on tape (with live tracks of ‘Health Hazard’) under the name Don’t Think With Your Dick… Around that time there was also the split-7” with ‘Doom’ (Flat Earth recs).

Brob

I was on tour with ‘Eversor’ (‘Lumen’ wasn’t in the band anymore at that time, it was the Morosini brothers -Marco and Lele- and Federico). A rented van was our house. The day before they played near Stuttgart, then we travelled all the night toward Belgium. It was the longest travel of my life, like a journey to the moon. Distances were longer in those times. So we arrived at the place, I changed my T-shirt with an X-Force one (the comic) because of the X (as for SxE). But no one noticed it. I was just a guy with a comic T-shirt in a punk place. Absolutely no memory about the concert. I only remember the breakfast in the morning and the van that took the road towards home…

Massimo Moscarelli (Rome)

Playing at that fest was a big honour for us… At the time we were on our very first small tour abroad and the night before we played in Stuttgart with ‘4 Walls Falling’ so we drove all night to Ieper to be there from the very beginning. I remember many people from all over Europe and we were a bit scared to play after ‘Nations On Fire’ and ‘Hiatus’… Both bands had a killer live reputation. We took the stage to a smaller audience but still “big” for us at the time, and played a very tight set. Very few people knew us, our music back in that days was still crossover/thrash but I was suprpised a couple of people who were coming to see us, approached us. Of course we met Bruno for the first time… He was super nice as usual. I asked if we were supposed to do a soundcheck; he smiled and said “No soundcheck, this is a punkrock fest.”… I still remember it!!!

Marco Morosini, ‘Eversor’

additions wellcome!…