96-09-22 Sektor – Vitality (photos)

More on this concert: 96-09-22 Strain – Ananda – Systral – Elision – Sektor – Vitality – Family Of Dog

photo-shoot by Sarah Van de Mosselaer

‘Sektor’: ‘Lenny’ Wouter Cael (bass), Bert Guillemont (drums), Piet ‘Pete’ Cardoen (guitar), Vadim Vandekerckhove (guitar) & ‘Jerre’ Jeroen Therry (vocals)

‘Vitality’: ‘Chief’ Steve De Clercq (vocals), ‘Noptje De Mens’ Bob Van Lierde (guitar) & ‘Alien King’ Chris Paccou (guitar), Olivier ‘Ollie’ Dobbels (drums) & ‘Switch’ Marc Paccou (bass)

[bottom pic: St-Niklaas crew with Nicolas Malfeyt)]

96-09-22 Strain – Elision (photos)

More on this concert: 96-09-22 Strain – Ananda – Systral – Elision – Sektor – Vitality – Family Of Dog

photo-shoot by Sarah Van de Mosselaer

Eric Thorkelsson, ‘Strain’ bassist

Chris Rayes, ‘Strain’ drummer

Jody Taylor, ‘Strain’ singer

John Franco, ‘Strain’ guitarist

Sean Lande, ‘Strain’ guitarist

‘Strain’ [Jean-François Fleury video-taping]

 

‘Elision’

96-09-22 Strain – Ananda – Systral – Elision – Sektor – Vitality – Family Of Dog

Intro: 96-09-20&21&22 8^th Leed festival

‘Strain’ had been at the V.V. before (95-04-09). These Canadians (from Vancouver) played “metallic mosh-core in the vein of ‘Snapcase’ & ‘Chokehold’ with staccato rhythms”: Eric ‘Flexyourhead’ Thorkelsson (bass; ex ‘Fratricide’; does the Flex Your Head radio-show), Jody Taylor (vocals), Chris Rayes (drums; replaced Len Greenblat), John Franco (guitar; replaced Greg Dinardo) and Sean Lande (guitar; seanlande.com). They had put out some 7”s (self-titled on Overkill recs ’94, Cataract & Driven on HeartFirst ’94, Remorse on Pushead’s Bacteria Sour recs ‘95) and later recorded for several more releases on the label ran by Flo(rian) Helmchen (my mate from Berlin; ex ‘Squandered Message’ bassist): HeartFirst recs. In ’96 New Age recs released their CD Here And Now (recorded in January).

‘Strain’

Some live photos of ‘Strain’ & ‘Elision’ here: 96-09-22 Strain – Elision (photos)

‘Ananda’ came from Parisian suburbia. They’d been at he V.V. before (95-07-02) and earlier that year (February) they’d recorded a demo. Recordings of their show with ‘Policy Of 3’ and ‘Avail’ (95-05-30 in Poitiers, France) were used for a split-tape with ‘Symptom Of Isaac’. The band consisted of Chrystèle Grall & Jean-Yves André (vocals), Thomas Guillanton (guitar; ex ‘Fingerprint’, ‘Jasemine’) & Sylvain Klein (guitar), Jérôme ‘Mizou’ Bessout (drums; ex ‘Fingerprint’, ‘Jasemine’) and Jérôme ‘Gunthar’ Lacombe (bass). (Günthar studio was Jérôme’s the home recording-studio in the 90s.) Their 10” Masqué had been recorded that summer and was released by Olivier Lépine on his label La Libre Expression. Later Stéphane ‘Stu’ Joly (ex ‘Undone’) replaced Sylvain and Michaël Clergeot joined December ’97 (did vocals in stead of Jean-Yves; after the 10” and the Habeas Corpus LP); the sound changed “from screamo to heavy gloomy hardcore sludge”. They would come back to the V.V. on 99-08-21.

‘Elision’, from Würzburg (Germany), were: Christian ‘Mosh’ Ebert (vocals), Franky G (guitar; R.I.P.), Tobias/Toby (bass), Schmitze (drums, ‘Mosh’ drummed on the 7”) & Marco Reuss (guitar). They did a self-titled 7” in 1994 and an LP (Thoughts) in ‘96 on Steffen Rose’s label Navigator productions. He also relesed a double live 7” of the band with ‘Yuppicide’ (who they toured with), ‘Strain’ & ‘Radical Development’ in ‘95. Their music at that time could be described as NY-style, fast new-school hardcore. Navigator HQ organised their tour…

‘Sektor’, a H8000 veg(etari)an straight-edge metalcore band, did 2 7”s on Hans Verbeke’s Sober Mind recs: Ultimate Threat (1995) and a split with Vitality (1996); later there was also a 12”/CD (Human Spots of Rust, ’97). ‘Lenny’ Wouter Cael (bass), Bert Guillemont (drums; also in ‘Liar’), Piet ‘Pete’ Cardoen (guitar), Vadim Vandekerckhove (guitar) and Jeroen Therry (vocals). The band already played the V.V. pub (96-05-12) and the fest that (96-08-17) that year; and would come back a few times…

‘Vitality’ had also made an appearance on the fest a month before (96-08-16). This “tough-guy edge-metal” outfit, from Oostduinkerke (ODK; Belgian coast), consisted of ‘Chief’ Steve De Clercq (vocals), ‘Noptje De Mens’ Bob Van Lierde (guitar) & ‘Alien King’ Chris Paccou (guitar; nowadays sound-engineer for ‘Carcass’), Olivier ‘Ollie’ Dobbels (drums; also nick-named ‘Simon’ or ‘Original Gangster’) and ‘Switch’ Marc Paccou (bass). In their early days they did one show with Frederic ‘Fre’ Flameygh on drums (ex ‘Burning Fight’, DJ Flameboy see 92-02-22) and also Ilja (‘Congress) played a short while for them… They supposedly recorded a demo that year; and Hans ‘Liar’ released 2 7”s for them on his label Sober Mind: a split with ‘Sektor’ an one entitled Bloodline. They would also play the 1997 fest…

Some live photos of ‘Sektor’ & ‘Vitality’ here: 96-09-22 Sektor – Vitality (photos)

A year before this (95-09-16) ‘Systral’ played in Ieper for the first time. This band (from Bremen) played brutal crust-grind/death-metal with a screamo edge (2 vocalists). The members were Björn Schmidt (vocals; also ‘Carol’/‘Mörser’), Denny Schmidt (vocals; also ‘Mörser’), Dirk Kusche (bass; also ‘Rusty James’; started the Chrome Saint Magnus label with ‘Acme’s drummer Gregor Iwanoff in ‘98), Sönke ‘Sonne’ Gabriel (drums; bassist of ‘Acme’) and Andy Lohmüller (guitar). In 1995 Per Koro did 2 releases (Fever…The Maximum Carnage 10” & Maximum Entertainment 7”) for them. In 1998 a split-7” with ‘Acheborn’ and the Black Smoker CD would follow…

‘Family Of Dog’ were from Deinze (Belgium). Their music often labeled as “death-core” metal. The people in the band was: Bert Walgraeve (bass), Stijn Everaert (drums), Peter Staelens & Wim De Taeye (guitar) and Tom Claus (vocals; also sang for ‘Congress’ on their Angry With The Sun CD). They released a promo-tape in ’96, did a split-7” with ‘Liar’ in ’97 (Genet recs) and a self-titled CD (Midas prods, ’98).

Brob

Things grew very fast at the V.V.; I played there with ‘Rusty James’ a couple of years before and had the impression that it became a fair for labels and distros…

Dirk Kusche

Good memories. Our recollections of the Vort’nVis is that we played as one of the first bands there and somehow we managed to break the stage. It was destroyed before all the other bands got to play… I still have the Vort’nVis T-shirt! We were on tour with ‘Strain’. Don’t remember much about the other bands.

‘Mosh’, ‘Elision’ vocalist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

 

 

96-04-27 Scum Of Toytown – Doom – Virtual Reality – Pink Flamingos – Counter-Attack – Y – Up In Arms

“Don’t mention the war!”… No problem here: Germans and Brits getting along just fine…

‘Scum Of Toytown’ (from Stevenage) played fresh and very danceable but political ska/reggae/dub/punk with female vocals: Craig (drums/vocals), Ni(c)k Hooper (guitar/vocals), Jo(h)n Thurlow (guitar/vocals; ex ‘Chron Gen’), ‘Toad’ (bass/vocals) and Lea (vocals & keyboards). Jon wrote me shortly after this gig that Lea (who wanted to concentrate on other things) was replaced by Georgia ‘G’ Howson. I’d gotten to know them via their 7” Destruction Of Both Houses Of Parliament By Fire that Karl of Words Of Warning (who’s stuff I was distributing) put out in 1993. I recall the 1994 LP Strike (also on Words Of Warning) sold very well via Tilt! distro. The enchanting/empowering anti-fascist anthem Jackboot Crusade gave a lot of people (including me) goosebumps and motivation… The band is still performing! (check www.toytown.org.uk)

‘Scum Of Toytown’ – Nick , Craig, John, Toad & Lea

‘Virtual Reality’ (Bradford) was a project/band that played ‘Black Sabbath’ influenced stuff featuring Brian Talbot (guitarist of ‘Doom’; here on bass). He’d teamed up with Steve Butler (guitar) and Darron ‘Bill’ Ward (vocals), both of ‘The Next World’ (see 90-05-01). The years before they still used a drum-machine but I think they had a real drummer here. They’d done a split-7” with ‘Neuthrone’ on Genet recs in 1994 and released the LP Dreamstate (Genet recs & Flat Earth recs, 1995) – “groovy beats and heavy riffs to techno-based tracks”. This was their 3^rd time here (see: 94-03-19 & 94-05-08).

During ‘Doom’s tour in Scandinavia (Sep. ’95) Scoot had to leave (Tom Croft had already dropped out before). In ’96 the band did their LP (Rush Hour Of The Gods) for Sned’s label Flat Earth with Wayne Southworth (R.I.P.) on vocals, Brian Talbot on guitar, Denis ‘The Deuce’ Boardman also on guitar, Chris ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne (ex ‘Health Hazard’, ‘Suffer’) on bass and Anthony ‘Stick’ Dickens on drums. The Monarchy Zoo 7” was recorded with Denis on bass (Sep. ’95). Michael Kopijn put a video on-line Doom – Live In Europe 1996; but no footage of this show here…

‘Doom’ (photgraphed by Wim De Leersnijder)

Brian Talbot & Chris Gascoigne (‘Doom’); pics by Sascha May

‘Pink Flamingos’ (Berlin) played powerviolence; Thought Crime ‘marketed’ them as “highspeed ultraviolence glamrock heroes”. Carsten Kissler (drummer; also ‘Cold War’, ex ‘SM-70’; he’d been at the V.V. when he organised the ‘M.V.D.’/‘Suffer’ tour – see 95-04-29), Jens Walter (bass; ex ‘SM-70’), Stefan Hinsch (guitar) and Lars (guitar/vocals, ex ‘SM-70’). A Slovenian tape-label released a split-tape with recordings of them and ‘Hiatus’ live in Zorro, Leipzig (95-11-18 ‘Pink Flamingos’, 96-03-21 ‘Hiatus’). The years before they did some 7”s (including splits with ‘M.V.D.’ and ‘Man Is The Bastard’) on the Hannover label Farewell recs; and Thought Crime recs (Thomas Franke/Jens Walter) did the Poppin’ Eye Effect 7” in ’96. Their last release was the split-7” Germania Meets Britannica with ‘Substandard’ (UK) in ’97 (on Wicked Witch recs). A lot of all that was on their discography (Crippled Silence).

‘Y’ was a grindcore band from Berlin: Tino Schulz (vocals; replaced ‘Froesi’ Hendrik Froese), Hartmut Barsch (guitar), ‘Keule’ Matthias Franke (drums) & ‘Spremme’ Thomas Franke (bass; Thought Crime recs). First there was their Überall Ist Kotze demo (’94). They also had a split-7” (with ‘Discript’) out on Anomie recs (from Bochum) and just recorded for a 7” (Feb. ‘96). Later had several releases on labels such as Thought Crime recs, Sound Pollution recs, Flowerviolence recs, etc.

‘Y’ (pic from Sascha May’s zine Evilspeak #3)

‘Y’ (courtesy of Thomas Franke)

‘Counter-Attack’ (originally from Alken in Limburg but gradually ‘embedded’ in the anarchist/squat scene in Gent) played anarcho-punk influenced by ‘Crass’, ‘Flux Of Pink Indians’ & ‘Dirt’. ‘Groovy’ Jochen (vocals; replaced the original female singer), Stef ‘Irritant’ Heeren (guitar/vocals), Wim ‘Simsallabim’ De Neve (bass), Jeroen (drums; later replaced by Yvan Meers of ‘Visons Of War’). Stef sent me a letter and their demo (Demonstrate Or Demolition) around that time asking to help/support them with gigs. This was their first time performing at the V.V. They came back 97-02-28 & 98-03-29.

‘Up In Arms’ (from Leipzig) consisted of peolpe who used to be in ‘D.M.B.’, ‘L’Attentat’, ‘Der Schwarze Kanal’: Stefan ‘Schnö’ Beckmann (bass), Thomas ‘Reudnitz’ Henschel (guitar), Jens ‘Jose’ Schossee (drums); Thomas ‘Tommi’ Schliephake (guitar) & ‘York’ (vocals). The Czech label Day After recs released their Up In Arms ‎EP (‘93) and in ’95 they had an LP out entitled Rotation. Their music was described as hardcore/emo and references were made to ‘Quicksand’, ‘Neurosis’ & ‘Prong’.

Brob

I can’t remember this gig but we did that in Greece too. I went over with ‘V.R.’ and then ‘Stick’, ‘Scoot’ & Tom were supposed to fly over and meet me there; except: only ‘Stick’ & ‘Scoot’ made it as Tom couldn’t find his passport (an excuse I think). So we got Gordy (ex ‘Psycho Flowers’) to sing for the Greek gigs as he was just on holiday with ‘V.R.’!

The one & only drummer in ‘V.R.’ was Duncan. He used to drum in ‘Crash’, an old punk band from Hebden Bridge (They did a a split ep with ‘Crux’: Keep On Running). We did a recording too (in Leicester while Darron was at college there). I lost my copy but it sounded dead good.

Brian Talbot

Belgium was definitely the best place to play for ‘V.R.’ Don’t think we ever went down very well though, not many of the regulars were into our style of music (the audience seemed to be more into the noisier bands) but we always were looked after well there and enjoyed it in Ieper.

Darron Ward

Don’t remember much only that it was a good show and I liked the other bands and felt pretty floored to play this. I think I might have a few pics…maybe that will trigger some memories (if I find them)…

It´s a bit hard to recall details now, also because at the time we did experiment with alcohol quite a bit. Especially when ‘Pink Flamingos’ were also part of the action things usually ended with a horrible hangover but also some good stories. I do remember that I felt a bit overwelmed playing with ‘Pink Flamingos’ and ‘Doom’, something that two years before would have been a wet dream at best. Also looking at that picture I must say that we were some good looking brats at the time, looking at us now makes it hard to believe it´s even the same individuals, haha.. It definitely was a very special show to me.

Thomas Franke, ‘Y’ bassist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

96-08-18 Swing Kids (extra photos)

More on this concert: 96-08-18

taken from the Swedish zine Handbook For Revolutionaries

photos by Roel Brals (1: ex ‘6 Foot Over’ & ‘Rood Arch’ Pierre Anne, centrally; 2: Peter Hoeren?, centrally)

pic courtsey of Cathy Bennett, taken by Rudy Penando (the sisterhood – Nathalie D./’Hazel’/Cathy)

photo-shoot by Joeri Hoste (Erwin van Looveren – Saturn distro – holding camera in top and bottom photo)

Swinging kids ? ;-)  Ivonne Davies-Kreye + Marco Walzel (Avocado Booking) & Eric Allen + Justin Pearson (photo taken by Joeri Hoste)

Out on the town: Marco Walzel – Eric Allen – Yvonne Davies-Kreye (pic by Joeri Hoste)

96-08-18 Spineless – Resist The Pain – Stampin’ Ground – Vanilla – Approach To Concrete – Bruma – Separation – Swing Kids – With Love

Introduction => 96-08-16&17&18 Hardcore, The Next Generation

Since I (Brob) was rather disgusted with and had commented on the increasing commercialism, violent/sexist/homophobic attitudes, I spent most of the time I was there (for my literature-distribution) talking to fellow “PC emo-morons who stop everyone from having a good time” (as mentioned in the Hate 8000 Zine) in the courtyard and therefore hardly saw any of the bands, I reprint a review I found on the internet:

>>Last day already; it’s a pity so many people had to leave early, especially since it was the best of the 3 days! ‘Spineless’, just as their name suggests, played uneventful heavy metal. I can’t remember ‘Resist The Pain’ but I think it was just the same… ‘Stampin’ Ground (UK, ex ‘Neckbrace’) played good tight mosh-core. ‘Vanilla’ (France): I’ll never get into them, play boo-hoo style emo, but I think it got heavier than before. ‘Approach To Concrete’ were a good surprise, I thought they were on Lost&Found but I was wrong; they played very fast thrash-core with a couple moshy breaks, and they said many interesting things, I liked it a lot. ‘Bruma’ (Italy) were quite different from the other bands, they play ultra poppy punk with a female singer, I guess I kinda enjoyed it but it’s not the kind of music I’ld listen to all time long. ‘Separation’ were the best band of the fest (together with ‘Saidiwas’). They kicked ass! Just the right band to leave with a positive feeling. And positive was the word here: total old-school punk-ish HC; ‘7 Seconds’ and ‘Minor Threat’ covers, pogo-dance and stagedives all along hooray! I was disappointed by ‘Swing Kids’: I iked their 7” but they were way too emo here. OK, the drummer is good, but I got annoyed rapidly. And then ‘With Love’ (Italy) were added to the bill to close up the fest. Extremely powerful emo. Guess what: I enjoyed it, cool people, cool audience, cool music. Great! Just the kind of music I needed to hear before leaving all my friends… Conclusion: Basically none of the 30 bands that played said anything between songs, apart from “We have CDs for sale, they’re only 20$, it’s so damn cheap, you’ld have to pay 22$ if you’ld buy it from stores” or “We have DIY shirts for sale, we thought about a design and brought it ourselves to a multinational design-company who re-designed it, then we took the film and sent it to the printer ourselves and we chose the colour ourselves and when we got the shirts we sold half the copies ourselves (the other half going to bigger distribution, but we have to make sacrifices, ya know?) and we only charge 18$ each (plus taxes); man we’re so DIY, hardcore rules!”. The audience…well it’s either they kill each other during death-metal outfits or they stand still and apathetic during emo ones, there’s no middle ground. The only unity I could see was in the clothes style: they were ALL wearing baggy pants and chained wallets, how cool. The crowd was as dirty as ever. It’s so funny to see all those kids preaching out about respect for nature and our environment, and then when they leave the place it’s like there’s been a storm or something, it’s just filled with litter. But here again who cares? They’re not the ones who’re cleaning up… And tell me about greed and the consumist mentality of this society! Somenone brought some T-shirts next to my distribution-stall and the kids were literally walking over my zines in order to get the Victory shirt of their dreams. Ever saw kids slam-dance in front of a distro to get a bootleg 7”? We were not that far… Distributors? Well seems like no one had problems selling CDs for 16$ and EPs for 4$, but hey it’s a tough world and we all need to survive you know? Gotta save some money to keep the label going, and who’s gonna buy those baggy pants? Our parents are already paying for private schools and Marshall amplifiers, ya know?…. Anyway. Don’t wanna sound too negative here, I enjoyed the fest ’cause I met so many wonderful people, and Ieper is a very pleasant town too…<<

‘Spineless’ (from Kortrijk) played their first gig at the Vort’n Vis on this fest. They were Kristof Mondy (bass; Yoda zine; later ‘AmenRa’), Colin H. Van Eeckhout (vocals; later ‘AmenRa’), Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen (guitar; also ‘Congress’), Koen Sandra (guitar; replaced by Mathieu Vandekerckhove in ‘97; later ‘AmenRa’) and Stefaan Buyse (drums). They played brutal sXe H8000 metal-core. After their initial demo (’96) Hans ‘Liar’ Verbeke of Sober Mind recs would release the Painfields 7” (1997) and the A Talk Between Me And The Stars album (1998).

Local band ‘Resist The Pain’ had played the V.V. a few months before this (96-05-12). The band didn’t lat very long because the members joined/started other bands. The bassist Steve Noyelle became the guitarist of ‘Lifecycle’, guitarist Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen was also in ‘Spineless’ & ‘Congress’ (etc.), singer Vincent ‘Murph’ Merveillie appeared in later ‘Spirit Of Youth’ and drummer Jan Volckaert was also in ‘Lifecycle’.

The British ‘Stampin’ Ground’ was a HC/thrash-metal band (‘Slayer’-style riffs). They said they were influenced by bands like ‘Earth Crisis’, ‘Snapcase’ & ‘Inside Out’. They formed after ‘Decadence Within’ split up with 3 ex-members – Antony ‘Mobs’ Mowbray (guitar; ‘D.W.’s drummer), Richard ‘Rid’ White (drums; ‘D.W.’s singer) and Ian ‘Slug’ Glasper (bass) – teaming up with guitarist Scott Atkins and vocalist Paul Catten (ex ‘Medulla Nocte’). ‘Rid’ played on the first demo (Feb. ‘95). From the second demo on it was with Adrian ‘Ade’ Stokes (drums). Heath Crosby (vocals; later replaced by Adam of ‘Blood Oath’) sang after the 2 demos: Dawn Of Night 7” on Days Of Fury, Starved 7” on Too Damn Hype recs (from NY) and remastered these for a mini-CD on We Bite recs.

‘Stampin’ Ground’ (photographed by Sergi E. Costa)

‘Stampin’ Ground’ – Ian ‘Slug’ Glasper (courtesy of Heath Crosby)

‘Stampin’ Ground’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek

‘Vanilla’ had already played here a few times. The emo band from Paris put out their 7” (I Can’t Stop Hating This Empty Space) on Olivier Lépine’s label Laissez-Nous Jouer in 1995 (after an initial demo). On that record Jean Lebrun played bass and brothers Yann & Yves Maisonneuve (both ex ‘Ivich’), guitar and drums. Alain Vidal (also in ‘Symptom Of Isaac’ & ‘El Vidal Sonido’) joined them later. Bruno VdV released an untitled LP of them on Genet recs so they were invited back for this.

‘Vanilla’ (pictured by Sergi E. Costa)

‘Approach To Concrete’ (from Köln) consisted of Jörg Schickel (vocals), Jochen Almeida (drums), Thommy (guitar; he replaced Pablo who just played on the 7”) and Seppl (bass). Christian Valk (vocals; later ‘Six Reasons To Kill’) did 2^nd guitars for a very short time during their tour with ‘Battery’. Not sure if he was in the line-up at the Vort’n Vis. They played fast, aggressive HC (and were not really a ‘full’ sXe band). There was a demo and in 1995 they did 2 releases on the Berliner label Mad Mob recs (I think ran by ‘Mad’ Marc, who did Mad Booking with his partner Ute Füsgen): the Drown 7” & the …Failures? CD.

‘Bruma’ was an emo-pop (some say “college rock”) band from Rome with Andrea Marra (‘Comrades’ bassist, nowadays singer of ‘Anti You’), ‘Orco’ Cristiano Fini (‘Comrades’/’Concrete’ guitarist), Valerio Borgianelli (drums) and a female singer (Eva Falomi). There was also a second guiatrist (‘Concrete’s singer Tommaso Garavini ?). They did a self-titled CD on Green recs (ran by Giulio Repetto; same label as ‘With Love’ & ‘Burning Defeat’; nowadays a record- and skate/clothing-store in Padova).

‘Bruma’ (photo by Patrick Federli) – front stage: Andrea Ferraris (‘Burning Defeat’ guitarist), Adriano Pratissoli (‘By All Means’ drummer), ‘Spino’ (bassist of ‘Mourn’), Giovanni Donadini (‘With Love’ bassist ), etc.

‘Separation’ was a Swedish straight-edge hardcore-punk band (from Umeå) with Axel Stattin (bass), Jonas Lyxzén (drums; ex ‘Abinanda’, later ‘Demon System 13’) and Lars Johan Strömberg (guitar/vocals). José Saxlund (‘Abhinanda’) did the vocals from 1994 to 1996; he wasn’t in the band anymore here – he only sang on the 5th Song CD (recorded Dec ’95 and released on his label Desperate Fight recs). The band came back tot the V.V. the next year (97-03-30)…

‘Separation’ (source ?)

John Brady (bass), Justin Pearson (vocals), José Palafox (drums) and Eric Allen (guitar) were the ‘Swing Kids’ (named after resisting youngsters in nazi Germany). They were from San Diego and played emotional HC. The latter 3 had been in ‘Struggle’. Eric Allen was also in the SxE band ‘Unbroken’; he took his own life in 1998. Justin was running the Three One G (31G) label, that released most of their material (a split-7” with ‘Spanakorzo’ in ’95); though their first 7” appeared on Kidney Room recs (’94). Justin’s new power-violence band ‘The Locust’ came over the next year (97-03-30). Roel Brals made a video available from the ‘Swing Kids’ show here. There’s mention of their gig here in Justin’s (first) book: “We had to play this fest in Belgium with tons of really bad bands…” and there’s also a ‘Swing Kids’ tour-report in the Swedish zine Handbook For The Revolutionaries (see additional post on ‘Swing Kids’).

‘Swing Kids’ – photos by Albert Cheong (1) & Patrick Federli (2+3)

Joris Willekens wrote in his zine Forkboy that ‘With Love’ played unannounced as the last band of the last day but “conquered” anyway, leaving the drum-kit and the stage “deconstructed”. They had a demo out (with another line-up), a split(live)-tape with ‘Concrete’ and a split-7” with ‘Mindless Collision’. “They fit anger and rage in a suit of emotional and tempestuous chaos.”. The band (hailing from the Triviso area) was: Paolo Riscica (guitar), Giovanni Donadini (bass), Nico Vascellari (vocals), Edo(ardo) Rossi (guitar) and Simone Gerardo (drums).

‘With Love’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek

Peter Arthur Claesens, one of the “The Pit’s aficionados performing @ Vort’n Vis”, mentioned that he “once did a solo-act where I danced to the music of Bartok’s first concerto for piano, if I remember well… It was on a kind of international festival on a Sunday-afternoon; I believe it was a Straight-Edge concert.” There’s indeed a guestbook-entry of him on 96-08-18…

Brob

I might be wrong but I’m quite certain this was the first show ‘With Love’ played outside of Italy. We left Italy in a caravan my parents borrowed us (which we returned without a window – smashed it with my hand from the outside to scare one of the others that was sitting inside); somehow trying to convince ourselves that we were going on a European tour. As far as I remember the only show confirmed was in Cesena on the last day of the tour and then there was a show to be confirmed in Switzerland the day before. Basically we left hoping that we were going to convince Bruno to let us play the fest since our demo had gotten some good reviews. When we arrived at Vort’n Vis we were shocked. We’d never seen so many people at a HC show before. Boys and girls coming from all over Europe, tons of records and zines. It truly was an inspiring and motivating experience for us. I don’t remember much of the shows ‘cause we were mostly excited, spending time outside talking to people rather than attending shows. We tried to support all the Italian bands playing that year (I remember that ‘Burning Defeat’ delivered a very intense gig and so did ‘Timebomb’) and I have vivid memories of ‘SaidIWas’: their set was intense and they played a cover of ‘Born Against’ which was a favorite band of mine. Their drummer (that later became their singer) played naked. Bruno told us we could play if there was time left after the last band so we were finally announced by Justin of ‘Swing Kids’ (who were also memorable). We were so excited and so nervous to play that I think the shows exploded with energy and emotions. Stage and drum-kit were both broken. We tried our best to introduce some of the songs in our broken English. To these days this was one of the most memorable shows and experiences of ‘With Love’. After the show we left to continue our tour: ten days off before the show in Switzerland and the one in Cesena [Italy]. While going through my archives I’ve found images of ‘With Love’ doing this show at the Vort’n Vis…

Nico Vascellari

At that time ‘With Love’ had been playing for a year or so, and we had only a demo out and maybe the split 7” with ‘Mindless Collision’. I tried to organise some sort of ‘European tour’ using the contacts that Giulio from Green recs gave me. Obviously there was no internet and I tried to arrange some shows by mail and by telephone. We just wanted to have a holiday and tried to play somewhere. We ended up at the Vort’n Vis and immediately asked Bruno if we could play. (‘Ics’ from ‘Burning Defeat’ helped introduced us and Bruno let us play as the last band after ‘Swing Kids’.) I was surprised because I thought that people would have left after the ‘Swing Kids’ but I remember the place was still packed. It was one of our best shows ever, even if nobody (except the Italians) knew us. I still remember it after more than 20 years. Needless to say that all the other shows we should’ve played on that ‘tour’ got cancelled. We played other 2 shows with Adriano [Pratissoli] (‘By All Means’, ‘Society Of Jesus’, ‘Mourn’, etc.) on drums because our drummer left after this show here to go back home. I don’t remember a lot of the bands that played… I was probably busy checking distros and talking to people. I do remember ‘SaidIWas’ did a great show (also saw them in Italy). I didn’t even see ‘Swing Kids’ because I had to prepare the instruments for our own show. We came back to the Vort’n Vis in 2000 [2000-08-18&19&20]…

Paolo Riscica

I was there on Sunday. My friends told me you, Brob, left on Saturday…

Albert Cheong, Barcelona

One of the best shows I saw at the V.V.: ‘Swing Kids’

Cathy Bennett

I was there with Daniel Eberharter and Melanie Friedl (Smart Cookies Collective), also Birgit came with us! I can remember that I enjoyed the bands and the ‘Swing Kids’… I thought that ‘Swing Kids’ were playing naked then but it could also have been another band [Brob: It was ‘Saidiwas’.] at that festival…. Memories fade…

Manuel Harand

I was at the “Ieperfest” in ‘96 (and also in’97). I remember ‘96 very well indeed because it was such a special time, a great line-up and much fun for me and my travelling-party from Vienna. we were loads of people, all sleeping inside the Vort’n Vis too. I have quite a few photos: they’re all on film of course and but haven’t scanned them all yet, it’s a task to do all of that…

Daniel Eberharter

During ‘Swing Kids’s set Joeri Hoste was standing upfront, next to Jürgen Desmet. I can’t remember where I was standing. I saw back them again in Hamburg in 2011. With another guitarist, the original one died. José was one of themost fantastic drummers in HC/punk-land; the only one that can play the ‘swing’ rhythm. Justin remembered this painful concert in Ieper, they split right after. The guys are embarrassed for their behaviour then: they had a raw.

Peter Puype

‘Stampin’ Ground’ was basically inspired into life when we had a night off during the 1994 ‘Decadence Within’ Polish tour and we took a trip across to Leipzig to see ‘Snapcase’, ‘Earth Crisis’ and ‘Refused’… What a show! We knew we wanted to do something much more heavy and intense than ‘D.W.’ that very night!

Ian Glasper

Vique Martin stepped in and really helped save what was, for a variety of reasons, a poorly planned tour for us… And along the way, she snapped quite a few photos. I made some friends there who I am still in contact with today and although it was probably the best show we played of the entire trip, the thing that stands out the most for me is meeting those friends…and there are a couple of others with whom I wish I had not lost contact.

John Brady, ‘Swing Kids’ bassist

My friends Andrea Marra [bass] and Cristiano ‘Orco’ Fini [guitar] (also ‘Concrete’) played for ‘Bruma’… They sucked if you ask me. Eva Falomi was the singer and as far as I can remember there was another girl playing probably second guitar, not so sure about it. I think ‘Concrete’ played probably the same year ‘Comrades’ did [1995]. I do remember Bruno wanted an Italian invasion there for a couple of years…

Paolo Petralia, SOA recs (Rome)

‘Bruma’ was Eva on vocals, Cristiano (‘Concrete’, ‘Comrades’) on guitar, Andrea (‘Comrades’, ‘Anti You’) on bass, Valerio on drums and Olga on second guitar. My band ‘This Side Up’ and ‘Bruma’ toured together in 1996… This here was probably their only appearance outside Italy (in addition to the tour). I think the band disbanded very shortly after our European tour…

Dario Adamic, Zips & Chains zine

Going to the festival (I was the only driver) we totally broke the engine of our car 1.000 km away from Rome, so it seemd like the festival was over for us. But then…

Valerio Borgianelli, drummer of ‘Bruma’

Miss going to the Vort’n Vis fests, sleeping outside by the canal, fun times!

Axel Stattin, ‘Separation’ bassist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

96-08-17 Voices At The Front – Kindred – Sektor – Saidiwas – Regression – Timebomb – Burning Defeat – Congress – Racial Abuse – Despair

Introduction => 96-08-16&17&18 Hardcore, The Next Generation

Since I (Brob) was rather disgusted with and had commented on the increasing commercialism, violent/sexist/homophobic attitudes, I spent most of the time I was there (for my literature-distribution) talking to fellow “PC emo-morons who stop everyone from having a good time” (as mentioned in the Hate 8000 Zine) in the courtyard and therefore hardly saw any of the bands, I reprint a review I found on the internet:

>>The next day started with ‘Voices At The Front’. I didn’t really check them out but what I heard was heavy metal. ‘Kindred’ had a good sound and played OK heavy metal (à la 8000 crew). ‘Sektor’, another local band, played extreme death-metal, the audience was so stupid I left after 2 songs. ‘Saidiwas’ was probably the best band on the festival. Dog knows I dislike emo but they were damn good. (I’ld probably hate them on a record). Very young kids from Sweden playing American style poppy emo with lots of things to say between songs. No more tough guys here and the crowd was just wondeful, pogoing and slamdancing wildely. They were all so cute. Wonderful. Back to heavy metal with ‘Regression’ and their OK but boring brand of New York influenced music. ‘Timebomb’ were powerful but not as good as last year. They have great lyrics but it seems like they thought it was unnecassary to explain any of them on stage. ‘Burning Defeat’ were good too, very melodic and emotional, but the crowd took a long time to get into it and started dancing only on the 2 last songs. ‘Congress’: I liked the music as always, brutal death-metal, it was the kingdom of the bare-to-the-waist (tough) guys (singing along to choruses they didn’t even know what they were about). ‘Racial Abuse (Austria) were funny. I kind of enjoyed the music: modern HC, a drummer who’s only 12 years old is quite impressive. A lot of people were wondering how a band on Lost&Found ended up playing the V.V., and it was funny to see the Austrian crew making fun of them too! Last on were ‘Despair’. I totally loved their ultra powerful metallic HC, excellent sound-quality, but the audience ruined it all and I left in a bad mood…<<

The “H8000 Press” (‘Ringmaster’ Nicholas Malfeyt) highlights that Vik (‘VATF’ vocalist) spent more time in the crowd than on stage, ‘Kindred’ (‘Unbroken’-style SxE heroes) played a nice set, ‘Sektor’ started a fairly modest pit… “While I was outside, I heard the Swedish band ‘Saidiwas’ was playing with a naked – as in ‘no clothes’ – drummer. It was time for the emo-faggot brigade to spread their message of peace, love and animal sex. A friend told me the singer was talking about the day before and mentioned the ‘fucking windmill crew’… Imagine a feminine guy with eye-shadow (!!) saying that… Since these wimps obviously had a thing against violent dancing, we had the bright idea to start a bloody windmill-pit… All the emos were crying their hearts out up-front… When the ‘Saidiwas’ set was over, the drummer – still butt-naked – got from behind his kit and stood there shaking his john in front of the audience. Next thing you know, the singer was giving him a French kiss. [Brob: A case of macho insecurity, Ringmaster?] ‘Regression’ did a very brutal set; too bad their 2^nd guitarist was there. ‘Timebomb’ rocked the stage. When ‘Congress’ played, the place exploded once again… I could hear bones breakin’, everything went almost as violent as the night before. A fantastic show with singalongs and pile-ups… ‘Despair’ got on stage way past midnight. They rocked… Before their final song the singer summoned everybody to do the ‘pizzamaker’…”<<

It wasn’t the first time at the Vort’n Vis for ‘Voices At The Front’ (96-05-12). Vik Bulik (vocals), Stefaan ‘Merel’ Merlevede [R.I.P.] (guitar), Vincent Theeten (guitar), Sim ‘Simtje’ Meersseman (bass) and Gaëtan Golvet (drums) were locals (from Poperinge).

‘Voices At The Front’ (pic taken by Steve Lammertyn)

‘Kindred’, the SxE outfit from Limburg (metallic style of HC, often compared with ‘Unbroken’) were here before too (96-05-12). The guys in the band were Jan Beckers (guitar) and Maarten Beckers (drums) – Jan had been in ‘Acoustic Grinder’ (read: 93-02-27), ‘Strength Of The Will’ (92-09-06, 93-09-19); later, ‘Enemy Of The Sun’, ‘Kabul Golf Club’) – Eric Sefton (vocals) & Walter Beckers (bass). Another pre-‘Kindred’-band was ‘Churn’ (95-08-20) feat. Jan, Maarten, Raf Gielen, Peter (ex ‘Acoustic Grinder’) and Raf ‘Thrasher’ Gelenne… I believe Raf Gielen still played 2^nd guitar here. The recordings for the LP on GoodLife recs (File 01) were done in October ’96 without Raf. They would be playing again 97-08… A split with ‘Culture’ got out in ’97.

‘Kindred’ (photograped by Sarah Van de Mosselaer)

‘Sektor’ had played their 1^st show at the V.V. a few months before (96-05-12). This vegetarian straight-edge metal-core band (from Beselare, near Ieper) was: ‘Lenny’ Wouter Cael (bass), Bert Guillemont (drums), Piet Cardoen (guitar), Vadim Vandekerckhove (guitar) and Jeroen Therry (vocals). They had done 2 7”s on Hans Verbeke’s Sober Mind recs: Ultimate Threat (1995) and a split with ‘Vitality’ (1996); later there was also a 12”/CD (Human Spots of Rust, ’97).

‘Sektor’ (photos 1-2-3 by Valerie Afschrift, 4 by Roel Brals)

‘Saidiwas’ was an “anarchist vegan straight-edge” band from Umeå in Sweden. “They got alot of attention because of their political lyrics and also because their drummer used to play naked.” In 1996 their first self-titled mCD was released By José Saxlund on his label Desperate Fight recs. “They made a big impression on the Belgian kids by refusing to play for a violent crowd.”, one can read on the www… I believe Anders Johansson played bass, Erik Åsell-Johansson hit the drums & sang, Philip Sundberg guitar, Peter Hellqvist guitar, and Michael/Mikael Berg was the vocalist. Sara Almgren (guitar; ex ‘Doughnuts’) also played for them later… “After that, they kicked their singer out, because (according to the rumours) he dropped sXe/veganism. Their former drummer switched to vocals, which left the band without a drummer for the recording of their debut full-length.” (All Punk Cons; released April ‘97, also on Desperate Fight recs. This was described as “art-punk” or “post-hardcore-new-wave-influenced-alternative-rock-with-occasional-emotional-ranting/yelling-but-oh-so-many-keyboard-and-piano-parts-core”.) I think Ludwig Dahlberg became their drummer later…

‘Saidiwas’, photographed by Patrick Federli (1), Sergi E. Costa (2), Philippe Tuffet (3) & Jean-Paul Frijns (4)

‘Regression’ (from Menen/Roeselare) played H8000 style, crunchy metallic (vegan) straight-edge HC: “Perhaps the most heaviest of all the ‘edge-metal’ bands: uncompromising death-metal mixed with straight-edge hardcore spirit.” Hans Verbeke wrote about them that they “created their own style of technical hardcore/metal with ‘Carcass’ and ‘Machinehead’ influences”; other people compared them with ‘Earth Crisis’. They were Bjorn Lescouhier (drums, ex ‘Shortsight’; replaced Raf -who was in ‘Liar’ too- around July 95), Kristof Taveirne (bass; nowadays in ‘Spoil Engine’), Niek Jacobsen (vocals) and ‘Stuutje’ David Decoutere (guitar). It was their second V.V. show (after 95-03-25) They had recorded a demo in ’95, then did the x-Heartless-x CD on GoodLife recs (‘96) and a split-CD with ‘Breach’ from Sweden ‎followed (also GoodLife recs, ‘97). Early ‘96 they had taken ‘Lookmulle’ (Davy Vanlokeren of ‘Deformity’) as second guitarist but he didn’t play here… I read that later he was replaced by Laurent (who used to sing for ‘Deformity’).

‘Regression’ (shot by Sergi E Costa)

‘Timebomb’s second appearance at the V.V. (95-08) They were a Roman communist, vegan sXe band band playing metallic HC. The guys in the band: Cristiano Suriano (drums; later ‘Opposite Force’), Daniele Marini (guitar), Giorgio Fois (vocals; later replaced by Emiliano; also drummer of ‘Comrades’), Marco Ciccone (guitar; later also ‘Opposite Force’) and Simone Marini (bass; Kill For Love zine). In 1993 they did a demo and a 7” (Fury) released by SOA recs. Paolo Petralia also did their Hymns For A Decaying Empire CD (released January ‘96) and in 1998 The Full Wrath Of The Slave got out on Genet recs (last recordings with Giorgio). They also came back for the fest the next year…

‘Timebomb’ (photo by Sergi E. Costa)

‘Burning Defeat’, an emo-core band from Alessandria (Italy), had also played the V.V. already the year before (95-08-18). They were: Diego Cestino (vocals; also ‘Permanent Scar’), Alessandro ‘Alex’ Azzali (bass), Andrea ‘ics’ Ferraris (guitar; also ‘Permanent Scar’) and Umberto Fabbri (drums). ‘They had 2 realease on Green recs: Singlin’ Out The Aims 7” (‘94) & Seldom LP (‘96).

‘Burning Defeat’, pics by Patrick Federli (1) & Sergi E. Costa (2)

In 1996 GoodLife recs released ‘Congress’s LP The Other Cheek. 4 songs come from the 1993 demo (with Roy Cappan on vocals).

‘Congress’ (photos by Sergi E. Costa)

‘Racial Abuse’, an “edge-metal” band (which was compared to ‘Strife’, ‘Unbroken’ and ‘Side By Side’) from Olbendorf, Austria. They were: bassist Sancho Holper, drummer Pascal Holper, guitarist Jürgen Pallisch (he replaced Rainer Paul) and vocalist Aaron Tauss. In 1996 they did a demo (Influence) and 2 CDs (on Lost And Found recs: No Need‎ & Climb). Their CD What Mirrors Conceal ‎was released by GoodLife recs in 1997.

‘Racial Abuse’ – pics by Sergi E. Costa (1) & Sarah Van de Mosselaer (2-3-4)

‘Despair’ (Buffalo, NY) consisted of Brian Fligger (bass), Jesse(y) Muscato (drums; replaced Phil Popielski), Joe Garlipp (guitar), Matt Dente (guitar) and Scott Vogel (vocals). They played metallic mosch-core. There was a demo and a mini-CD (One Thousand Cries) out. That year (‘96) the CD Pattern Life was released on Josh Gabrelle’s Trustkill recs and the CD As We Bleed was recorded right before this tour (I think) with Brian, Jesse, Joe, Matt & Scott.

‘Despair’ (source ?)

Brob

I was at the “Ieperfest” in ‘96 (and also in’97). I remember ‘96 very well indeed because it was such a special time, a great line-up and much fun for me and my travelling-party from Vienna. we were loads of people, all sleeping inside the Vort’n Vis too. I have quite a few photos: they’re all on film of course and but haven’t scanned them all yet, it’s a task to do all of that…

Daniel Eberharter, Eloquence zine (Vienna, Austria)

I have a zine with a ‘Saidiwas’ interview with a funny anecdote about windmillers spoiling their set…

Tijs Schelstraete

It was nice to see all these other Roman people (Paolo, Vegano, Venezuela, Simone, Daniele, Costanza, Cristiano, …) there.

Dario Adamic (in his zine Zips & Chains #10)

I wasn’t a part of ‘Saidiwas’ at that time. I played on the first EP and then they kicked me out! Erik Åsell was the drummer/singer… I’ve seen that their show at the “Ieperfest” was discussed on forums lately here in Sweden. But I don’t know… Mostly people who weren’t there, with their own theories. I remember it as a good show with some nude/male kissing controversy. Not that they (‘Saidiwas’) weren’t going to play because of a violent crowd, as the theories that are going around…

Axel Stattin, ‘Separation’ bassist

I was the drummer on the first 7” of ‘Despair’. I left the band before that tour.

Phil Popielski

I guess I was at this gig… The singer of ‘Timebomb’ was also the drummer for my band ‘Comrades’. He became a sort of nazi… To me he is a nazi. He always denied being one but effectively plays with the same band for the last 12 years and they’re all nazis playing only in their circle.

Paolo Patralia

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

96-08-16 Firestone – Facedown – Vitality – Outrage – Victims Of Society – Down For The Count – Liar – Spawn – Unborn

Introduction => 96-08-16&17&18 Hardcore, The Next Generation

Since I (Brob) was rather disgusted with and had commented on the increasing commercialism, violent/sexist/homophobic attitudes, I spent most of the time I was there (for my literature-distribution) talking to fellow “PC emo-morons who stop everyone from having a good time” (as mentioned in the Hate 8000 Zine) in the courtyard and therefore hardly saw any of the bands, I reprint a review I found on the internet:

>>They had entitled this fest ‘Hardcore; the new generation’, as far as I’m concerned I would have rather called it ‘Hardcore the last generation’ or better yet ‘The demise of the Belgian scene’. It started early on Friday with ‘Firestone’: heavy metal from da neighborhood or something. Then I think it was ‘Facedown’, quite a good surprise, powerful emo-ish metal with quite a few things to say. ‘Vitality’: can’t rermember so I guess it was heavy metal or maybe even death-metal from Belgium. ‘Outrage’: pretty good powerful emo-metal; I was disappointed they didn’t talk much between songs. ‘Victims Of Society’ might have been the best band of the day; raging old-school hardcore punk à la ‘Inkisiçao’; I talked to them a bit and it turned out their lyrics are not serious, just funny or weird. ‘Down For The Count’ from Spain were good modern style HC but the sound-quality wasn’t too hot unfortunately. ‘Liar’: at least the vocalist was honest when he said “If you think it’s too violent get out!”, ‘cause the crowd did act like a bunch of football-supporters. But I enjoyed it, it was very powerful death-metal. ‘Spawn’ disappointed me a bit: at first the sound-quality wasn’t that good, and the band acted like a bunch of musicians. No wonder they went from Crucial Response to New Age… I think they’ve split up now. Oh yeah, it was good old-school though. Late at night ‘Unborn’ came up with their powerful basic death-metal, I totally enjoyed it but the set was short!<<

Here’s what Helene K. of Subjugation recs wrote about this fest on her blog:

>>Alas things were a bit different when I returned to the Ieper festival in 1996 with my friend’s band ‘Unborn’…It was much bigger and people seemed to be more into the idea that the highest echelons of human connectivity was achieved through busting some karate-esque moves, pushing those who weren’t turned on by this to the back of the room, and I guess philosophically speaking out of the way and out of the door to find desultory solace back in the mainstream. This aggressive individualism was in stark contrast to the good humoured communal feeling at the earlier festivals. I have to confess I find all this muscle-flexing a bit dull. I find it executed in a more finessed and meaningful way on the football-terraces and in any northern town on a weekend, and the need for ‘unity’ in this context much more understandable than one where you just watch a band together. But I can be a bit slow to grasp some of the more deeper and progressive philosophical stances about the inter-relationships between people, community and society. But I have to admit it had an effect on me. Some guy in the pit hit me once too often so I punch him in the back of the head, and I offered him out for a fight, which alas he turned down. Funny now to think of Nick from ‘Unborn’ stepping in to separate us. I guess you can take a girl out of the north east, but never the north east out of her!<<

The “H8000 Press” (‘Ringmaster’ Nicholas Malfeyt) wrote about the different nationalities of the visiters, the various ‘crews’ (H8000, Suckcore, ODK, Rennes, Evil Blood, Ruhrpott Posse, UK Vegan Warriors, Roma SxE) and the fact that this was ‘The Year Of The Moshpit’… Interesting ;-).

‘Firestone’ was a H8000 (from Kortrijk, Belgium) metal band. This was probably their first appearance at the Vort’n Vis. Their later singer Iris Walgraeve explained the band’s history in the post on their 97-06-27 show: >>Early on it was Thomas Desimpelaere who sang, then Alexander [Baert?] (who played drums at first), than Pieter-Jan and than me. Mathieu Storms drummed (after Alexander). After him Vincent Tetaert played the drums. In the beginning Matthias Desimpelaere played guitar but in the end Ward Dufraimont replaced him [June ‘99]. Diederik Claes [bass] and Lennart Bossu [guitar; also ‘Liar’, later ‘Janez Detd’, ‘AmenRa’] were the only constant members I think.<< In August 1996 they recorded for their Dark Fantasies demo.

Also a first time for ‘Facedown’ (‘new-school’, metal-influenced, vegan SE-HC band from Kontich, near Antwerp): Thomas Baeken (bass), Youri Baeken (drums), Daniel Mies (vocals), Niko Poortmans (guitar) and Geert Ceuppens (guitar). The Ferket brothers (Evil Twin recs) released the Friendship Is Everything 7” (recorded at Studio 195 in July 1996; Bruno would re-release it – with some additional tracks – on Genet recs in 1997)… “Powerful, brutal, moshing emo-core”…

‘Facedown’, picture by Sergi E. Costa

‘Vitality’ was a “tough-guy edge-metal” band from Oostduinkerke (ODK; Belgian coast): ‘Chief’ Steve De Clercq (vocals), ‘Noptje De Mens’ Bob Van Lierde (guitar) & ‘Alien King’ Chris Paccou (guitar; nowadays sound-engineer for ‘Carcass’), Olivier ‘Ollie’ Dobbels (drums; also nick-named ‘Simon’ or ‘Original Gangster’) and ‘Switch’ Marc Paccou (bass). In their early days they did one show with Frederic ‘Fre’ Flameygh on drums (ex ‘Burning Fight’, DJ Flameboy see 92-02-22) and also Ilja (‘Congress) played a short while for them… They supposedly recorded a demo that year; and Hans ‘Liar’ released 2 7”s for them on his label Sober Mind: a split with ‘Sektor’ an one entitled Bloodline. In 1998 their Crucial Wires CD appeared on the French (from Rennes) label Overcome recs.

‘Vitality’, shot by Sergi E. Costa

‘ODK Crew’, also a band from Oostduinkerke, played a few songs unannounced. They played “Clevo style HC” and got quite some criticism for covering a song by ‘One Life Crew’ (with supposedly fascist inuendo)… The guys had some members of ‘Vitality’ (guitarist Bob Van Lierde & bassist Marc Paccou) and ‘Congress’ (drummer Ilja De Ceuleneire) in their ranks…

‘Outrage’ (friends from the Kempen area in Belgium) had already played the V.V. a few months before this (96-03-24). Sigi Loots (drums), Steven Van Goubergen (guitar), Ringo Van Dingenen (vocals) and Nico Peeters (bass). ‘Outrage’s had recorded their 1^st 7”, Between Brackets (out on Nico’s Day One recs) in April ’96…

Nico ‘Outrage’ (photo by Philippe Tuffet)

‘Victims Of Society’ were a (pretty commercial) band playing old-school HC hailing from Heist-op-den-Berg (Belgium). They recorded the Screams From The Gutter demo at Labie’s Studio 195 that year and did a CD (Way Of Life) on Lost & Found (!) in 1997. They were: Davy Helsen (guitar), Dieter De Backer (drums), Hans Van Keilegom (guitar), Toon Severijns (bass) and Jim (vocals).

‘Down For The Count’, a new school sXe hardcore band from Madrid, were: Gonzalo Ávila (bass), David Fernández (drums), Conrado Isasa (guitar), Francisco Arroyo (Sanchez) (guitar) and Hugo Ortiz (vocals). They recorded for their tape entitled Reflections in April ‘96 (released by Víctimas Del Progreso – Crímenes De Estado).

‘Down For The Count’, photographed by Sergi E. Costa

‘Down For The Count’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek

I guess ‘Liar’ did one of their first shows with Bert Guillemont (also ‘Sektor’; replacing Raf) here since he’d just joined in June. Being locals they played the V.V. several times. The others were Hans Verbeke (vocals; also ‘Blindfold’, etc.), UxJx (bass; also ‘Congress’) and Joost ‘Josh’ Noyelle (guitar; also ‘Congress’). The line-up on the Invictus LP (1997, Genet recs). In August they did a 3 week tour in Europe together with ‘Blindfold’ and ‘Congress’…

‘Liar’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek

Apparently Bert tore down an anti-violenct dancing poster (“hung up by Spanish fruits”)… Trying to prove ‘Liar’s aggressiveness I guess… In the interview with ‘Sektor’ in Slaves Of Mainstream he describes how violend the crowd was during ‘Liar’s set (read below)…

Watch a bit of their set here: ‘Liar’ 96-08, Invictus line-up.

‘Spawn’ was an sXe HC band from the Ruhrpott area (Germany). They performed at the fest 2 years ealier, 94-08-19) played their last concert. After that they still released an album entitled Adrift on the US label New Age recs (’96) and a split-7” with ‘Despair’ (USA) on March Through recs (’97). The guys in the band were Dirk Zeiser (bass), René Natzel (drums), Daniel Frankowski (guitar), Patrick Uhle (guitar) and Chris Van Dornick (vocals).

‘Spawn’ (pics by Sergi E. Costa): 1  – Dirk Zeiser bass  (Andre Hoppe, Two Face distro + Stefan Grabowski, World Eaters distro; in the crowd); 3 – Daniel Frankowski (supported by Peter Hoeren)

‘Spawn’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek

‘Unborn’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek (1) & Sarah Van de Mosselaer (2-3)

On the back of the flyer of the 1996 festival in the 1in12 (Bradford, UK), ‘Unborn’ was announced as “modern straight-edge mixed with Slayer”… The band consisted of Nick Royles (vocals; ex ‘Sore Throat’, ‘No Way Out’, ‘Nailbomb’, ‘Ironside’, ‘Cracked Cop Skulls’; also How We Rock zine), Chris Meadows (drums; Clear Perception zine), Patrick ‘Rat’ Poole (guitar; ex ‘Cracked Cop Skulls’), James (guitar; ex ‘Neckbrace’) and Andy ‘Wrighty’ Wright (bass; ex ‘Ironside’; R.I.P.). At that time they had the Ancestral Pagan Roots 7” out on (Nick’s label) Sure Hand recs (recorded in February 1996).

Brob

It was kinda sad that there were so many labels with a commercial attitude and that so many people bought their records from them (Green Hell, GoodLife, …) That’s why I’m so happy that there were also people showing an alternative way…

Manuel Harand, Smart Cookies Collective, Vienna, Austria (personal communication Sep. ’96)

I was at the “Ieperfest” in ‘96 (and also in’97). I remember ‘96 very well indeed because it was such a special time, a great line-up and much fun for me and my travelling-party from Vienna. we were loads of people, all sleeping inside the Vort’n Vis too. I have quite a few photos: they’re all on film of course and but haven’t scanned them all yet, it’s a task to do all of that…

Daniel Eberharter, Eloquence zine (Vienna, Austria)

People were dancing very violently during ‘Liar’s set. It was very harsh. I saw people coming from everywhere. It was like 5 meter wall of kids laying on top of each other in front of the stage. People have marked ‘Liar’ as “pro-violence, satanic” band but that’s bullshit. ‘Liar’ started out as a side-project of ‘Congress’- and ‘Blindfold’-members. They wanted to play music influenced by aggressive metal. It’s not because we’re anti-religion that we’re satan-worshippers.

Bert Guillemont (‘Liar’ drummer since June ‘96) in Slaves Of Mainstream zine #2

I feel my most interesting V.V. memories are of my first visits – I’d been there with ‘Bob Tilton’ (95-12-03) and also came for the festival in 1996 when ‘Unborn’ played.

David Allen (later ‘Voorhees’ drummer)

source: anonymous (but not ‘Unborn’)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

 

96-03-24 Undone – Vanilla – Carol – Rusty James – Outrage

Probably ‘Undone’s last gig here (their 5^th at the V.V.) as they split up early ’97… ‘Sully’ (vocalist Sullivan Chédanne) had already moved to Italy. Apparently he’s living in Australia nowadays… By the end of ’97 Christophe (Mora; drummer) wrote me he was in a new band with ‘Scholl’ (Stéphane Brochier; guitarist), called ‘Narodnaya Volya’ (The People’s Will) (No idea if that ever happened?) and he did a fanzine entitled Desiderata (with Gérome & Séverine from the band ‘Alcatraz’)… ‘Stu’ (Stéphane Joly; bassist) would re-surface in ‘Ananda’. Their last release (The Other Side 7”) was recorded May that year at Ape studio. An ‘Undone’ discography is planned (since a long time)…

‘Rusty James’ (from Bremen) played melodic/poppy HC (some compared them with ‘Jawbreaker’). They were: Miguel Andrade (guitar/vocals; ex ‘Abolition’) & Rainer Ohst (drums) – who both used to play in the vegan straight-edge emo band ‘Age’ (with singer Hauke Hersinger, guitarist Markus Czymzik & bassist Ramon Lembke). Dirk Kusche (supposedly in the band between 1995 & ‘97; also in ‘Systral’) came over with ‘Rusty James’ but I can’t remember the exact line-up… Perhaps Pascal Heiduk on bass (replacing Hans Joachim Witt) and Kai Bewersdorf on guitar? At that time they had an untitled 7” out and their Save The Last Dance For Me LP (both on Love recs). Someone described them as “Europe’s best pop-punk band ever”… Miguel, Rainer and Hauke were also in the emo band ‘Assay’ (LP out on Love recs in ’97). The Wolfsburger Andre Pawelzick (Refuge mailorder) & Holger Ohst (Summersault mailorder) might have been there aswell…?

‘Outrage’s first performance at the V.V. They recorded their 1^st 7”, Between Brackets (out on Nico’s Day One recs), in April ’96. They were: Sigi Loots (drums; later ‘Crimson Falls’), Steven Van Goubergen (guitar), Ringo Van Dingenen (vocals; later ‘Crimson Falls’) and Nico Peeters (bass; later in ‘Vuur’ & ‘KingTerror’). The latter was a friend from the Newland collective that did shows in Herentals and a zine with the same name. He also ran a distro and label with his partner (at that time) An Caers. The band would be back for the summer-fest on 96-08-16, 97-03-01 & 98-09-19.

‘Carol’ from Bremen had been at the V.V. already (95-09-15). They played brutal, energetic screamo hardcore with a crusty edge…influenced by ‘Acme’. The guys in the band were (I think) Andy Lehmann (guitar), Björn Schmidt (vocals; later in ‘Mörser’ & ‘Systral’), ‘Hajo’ André Wendelken (guitar), Matthias ‘Matze’ Trenne (bass; also ‘Mörser’), ‘Acme’s bassist Sönke Gabriel did drums. That year (January) they had recorded the Prefabricated 7” (Philipp Styra ‘Queerfish’ was the drummer on the 1^st one) that came out on Markus Haas’ label Per Koro. A bit after this gig – summer of ’96 – they recorded (with André or ‘Shitman’ – also in ‘Mörser’ – on drums) a track for the split 7” with ‘Stack’ that was released on my mate Hoger Ohst’s label Summersault. André Wendelken and ‘Mörser’-guitarist Sven ‘Svenion’ Nienaber later formed ‘Minion’…

‘Vanilla’ had already played here 95-01-29 and probably also 94-08. They were an emo band from Paris that put out their I Can’t Stop Hating This Empty Space 7” on Olivier Lépine’s label Laissez-Nous Jouer in 1995 (after an initial demo). On that record Jean Lebrun played bass and brothers Yann & Yves Maisonneuve (both ex ‘Ivich’), guitar and drums. Alain Vidal (also in ‘Symptom Of Isaac’ & ‘El Vidal Sonido’) joined them later. Bruno VdV released an untitled LP of them on Genet recs so they were invited back for 96-08.

Brob

I can’t remember who played in ‘Rusty James’ back then – apart from Miguel (singer/guitarist) and Rainer (drummer). I think ‘Hajo’ [André Wendelken] from ‘Carol’ played bass and I was probably playing guitar (or the other way around?). That was in ‘96, I think. I don’t remember the show, though… It was nice, when I had been there with ‘Carol’ [95-09-15]; they played in a smaller room somehow [the Vort’n Vis pub]. Even more exciting when we played on some other date with ‘Systral’ [95-09-16 & 96-09-22] but that was on a quite big stage in front of a big audience. Exciting, but a bit weird too, since we liked it better to play in small steamy venues that were more personal.

Dirk Kusche, ‘Systral’ bassist & owner of Kuschelrock studios

Rainer Ohst was the drummer of ‘Rusty James’. Kai Bewersdorf was the guitar-player, the first guy to play the other guitar was Dirk Kusche – he also played bass and founded ‘Systral’…

Pascal Heiduk

I played in ‘Rusty James’ but only the last year and I’m pretty sure I’ve never played in Belgium unfortunately.

Kai Bewersdorf

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

96-10-11 Appalling Spawn – [Fleshless]- Rhymes Of Destruction – Slow End – Darkgods

Another night organised by grindcore/ death- & black-metal lover Frederic Driessens…

‘Appalling Spawn’ was a band from the Czech Republic playing “brutal progressive death-metal and grindcore”. They had a demo out entitled Bestial, Mystical & Spiritual. Members were: Ondřej ‘Ondra’ Martínek (guitar/bass), Petr ‘Ptoe’ Tománek (vocals/guitar/bass) and Gabriel ‘Gábin’ Pavlík (drums). They replaced their fellow Czech death-metallers ‘Fleshless’…

‘Rhymes Of Destruction’, a black-metal band (in their own words “symphonic pagan metal”) from Deerlijk/kortrijk, were: Frédéric Caure (bass; later ‘Thee Plague Of Gentlemen’ with ‘Neuthrone’s Steve W.), Martijn ‘Tyne’ Debonnet (guitar), Bart ‘Barre’ Marescaux (vocals) & Christophe Verhaeghe (guitar). The band used a drum-computer until Wouter Debonnet joined. They’d put out a demo in 1995 (Dark Pagan Wartunes Stray Above The Land Of Huarochiri) and 1996 (Under The Spell Of The Mist); and a split-CD with ‘Cosmic Interfluvium of Silence (’96).

‘Slow End’ was described as “gothic rock from West-Flanders”.

‘Darkgods’ was a doom/trashcore band from Poperinge (near Ieper/Ypres).

Brob

‘Darkgods’ was Gwen Buseyne (guitar/vocals), Angelo Santy (drum), Peter Debruyne (guitar) and myself (bass). More noise than thrash…

Noam Sohier

I believe we played the V.V. twice [???] with ‘R.O.D.’ but can’t remember when. Have good memories of the Vort’n. Saw numerous concerts, both in the ‘barn’ and in the pub. Also ice-cold stay-overs upstairs… On that Oct. 11^th there was mini-tour (3 dates that Bart and I set up [96-10-12 @ the Pits in Kortrijk]) planned with ‘Fleshless’ from the Czech Republic, they didn’t show up but their Czech (not German) friends were there: ‘Appalling Spawn’…

Frédéric Caure

I only started to play in ‘R.O.D.’ around ‘99 I believe, so this was before my time. I do recall having attended a few gigs at the Vort’n Vis but it’s too long ago to remember any details… I do know it was a cool place!

Wouter Debonnet

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…