92-09-19 Human Lethargy – Embittered – Slum Gang – Exhauster – [Jawbreaker] – [Agent 86] – [Youth Brigade] – [Decadence Within]

guess who…!?

Another great opportunity to see some great bands and meet up with some friends (like Joris De Buysser of Bonds Of Friendship, Anneke Schuurman of Puffy zine, Anthony Palmer of Dingo Baby zine, …).

‘Embittered’ was a grindcore band from Middlesbrough. Their line-up changed quite often: Anthony Palmer (vocals), Brian Puplett (vocals; later also ‘Manfat’) and Ash(ley) Quinn (bass); played this one. ‘Mac’ (drums) and ‘Gus’ (guitar) were replaced. Michael J. Gillham (the drummer of ‘Voorhees’) wasn’t in the band at that time yet… I’d gotten to know them because I was corresponding with Anth who was doing a zine (which I distributed, and vice versa) and Bri had sent me a demo of his former band ‘Catharsis’. Their split with ‘Hiatus’ on Desperate Attempt was about to be released. On this tour they did a live recording of their show (92-09-16), at the Café Fabrik squat in Potsdam (Germany), that got released as a cassette called All Too Human. The year before they’d already done the And You Ask Why? When You’ve Only Got Yourself To Blame cassette (“intense & fast grinding anarcho-core”); and in 1993 Misanthropic recs released a split-LP with ‘Dystopia’. Their last release was the Choked 7” on Ecocentric recs – with a completely different line-up than in the beginning; e.g. Mark Fox on bass, Michael Gillham on drums and Rob ‘Slavery’ Ankers (R.I.P.) doing vocals.

Anth Palmer [R] (‘Embittered’) & friend

‘Human Lethargy’ from Athens were Spiros (vocals), Thanos Georgilas (bass; later in ‘Panikos’), (Evangelos) Va(n)gelis ‘Vanx’ Petropoulos (drums; ex ‘Anabiosis’) and Thanassis (guitar). They released a demo-cassette in 1992 (still with Sakis ex ‘Industrial Suicide’ singing). Their music sounded great, reminiscent of ‘Antisect’ and ‘Contropotere’. Both Genet recs and Joris of Conspiracy recs were planning releases. Here’s a video of them “live in Belgium”; it doesn’t look like the Vort’n Vis so I’m guessing it’s at La Zone in Liège (92-09-11: ‘One By One’, ‘Sedition’, ‘Embittered’, ‘Human Lethargy’)?

‘Slum Gang’, from Nottingham, were: Eddie Greenaway (guitar; bass in ‘Downfall’), Joe Nott (‘Pug Slum’, drums), Tim Cleaver (bass) and Loyd Sims (vocals/guitar; sang for ‘Concrete Sox’ on the split with ‘Nightmare’). This band hadn’t released anything yet; they recorded their 1^st demo in early ‘93. Listen to some of their melodic HC/punk. They came back to the V.V. with their mates/drinking-buddies from Groningen on 98-06-05.

‘Slum Gang’; photos courtesy of Eddie Greenaway

‘Exhauster’ were Ringo Haezebrouck (drums), Vinnie Bonduwe (guitar; also ‘Caducity’), Phillippe Dassonvile (in the Vort’n Vis referred to as “the hard-rocker”), David Verbiest and Laurens Barroo (guitar). Henk Loobuyck reminded me they were “metal-heads” from the Ieper area who played “a trashy ‘Metallica’ style”…

‘Jawbreaker’ had been announced (they were touring – see tourposter) but as explained in the post on 92-10-04 I can ‘t come up with a reason why they didn’t show up (the UK part of the tour was cancelled but they played in France a bit later). They did do a gig here a couple of years later (94-10-01)…

‘Agent 86’ (see 92-09-06 & 92-10-04) had been announced for this one too (probably when their tour-schedule wasn’t completely arranged yet) but were in Yugoslavia at this time…

‘Decadence Within’ were announced at some timepoint but I can ‘t remember why they didn’t come. They had already played in Poperinge on 90-04-08 and would be back at the V.V. on 93-05-16.

(Fom my personal communication oct ’92 =>) >> ‘Youth Brigade’ was supposed to play. I think they just reformed to be able to make a quick buck. They cancelled the show because “it’s too small” (500 people!?). Actually, it’s because they can make more money in a rockstar-club in Germany. Fuck that! I don’t really care to see those big well-known bands, I prefer smaller but truly DIY bands. <<

Brob

It was the last show of a pretty successful/ enjoyable tour and I guess everyone was just out to have a good time. I have a tendency to shout a lot when I’m having a cool time drunk; I hope you didn’t take too much notice of my attacks on certain things (e.g. ‘Political Asylum’ & Ramsey, etc.) – all in good humour.

The Vort’n Vis is a cool/friendly place – in fact our Belgian dates were easily the best! From my one, solitary experience: I have no problem with the place whatsoever; just a percentage of the kids who were there that night. Perhaps I’m upholding stereotypes or maybe I’m talking from experience (not just with the Vort’n Vis). I’m not saying they shouldn’t be there or that they shouldn’t be straight edge… I know some ‘crusties’ are fuckin’ idiots, as are some ‘edgers’…

Anthony Palmer, ‘Embittered’ vocalist; personal communication oct ’92 and later

The line-up was (indeed) Bri & Anth (vocals), Ash (guitar), Saul (bass) & Mac (drums). Darren was the original guitarist. ‘Cockney’ [Darren O’Hara ? – see comment] played guitar following that tour. In 1993 we became a 6-piece with two guitarists. We played 7 shows on this tour, I thought it had been more – Liège, Duisburg, Hannover, Berlin, Potsdam, Groningen & Ieper. The show in Ieper was great; last show, got way drunk I recall. ‘Slum Gang’ from the UK also played, ‘Human Lethargy’ from Greece as well…

Anth Palmer, ‘Embittered’

‘Youth Brigade’ pulled out, ‘Decadence Within’ weren’t there, a metal band called ‘Exhauster’ headlined, the Greek band and ‘Embittered’. ‘Slum Gang’ played instead of ‘Youth Brigade’. We didn’t come with ‘Embittered’, we just played Liège and Ieper; it was the first 2 gigs we did. Lloyd was our songwriter, he was also in ‘Default’ and he did stints in ‘Concrete Sox’. Myself and ‘Pug’ also stood in for ‘Substandard’.

Eddie Greenaway, ‘Slum Gang’

Vagelis still plays in punk-bands (he mailed me the CD of the band ‘Anatopia’). Also ‘Panikos’ [who played on 94-05-08] did a new LP.

Joris De Buysser

I played for ‘Embittered’ a little while, did a few shows and recorded 6 or 7 tracks with them – not sure what they did with them… I was supposed to tour Europe with ‘Embittered’ but I left and joined ‘Hellkrusher’ before it happened.

Gary ‘Gus’ Raine

Can’t remember much of that, too long ago. We also played there with ‘Neuthrone’ and ‘Dreft’. On another occasion I played there also a few times with ‘K.U.N.T’ [‘Krisis Und Neurosis Theater’; with ‘Neuthrone’s David Stubbe] …

Philippe Dassonville [‘Fluppe the Hardrocker’]

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Bruno wonders if it’s a Candian visiter, I reckon it’s ‘Embittered’s bassist

‘Doomy’ wonders if the V.V. food caused the ‘Embittered’ guys to spit bile… ;-)

additions wellcome!…

92-10-04 Downcast – Disaffect – [Farside] – [Jawbreaker] – Faroutski – Agent 86

Besides the bands that actually played (can’t remember if ‘Punishment Park’ were there aswell; I think they abondoned touring with ‘Agent 86’ by then) also ‘Jawbreaker’ was announced (see poster). Can ‘t recall why exactly they didn’t show up (the UK part of the tour was cancelled) but they played here a couple of years later (94-10-01) though… This day was part of a ‘B.L.O.’ weekend (can ‘t remember what that meant) and ‘Naked Lunch’ performed the day before…

This was the first time ‘Disaffact’ played here. They would be back 93-07-04 and 94-05-22. As everyone knows, ‘Disaffect’ (a political HC/punk band from Glasgow) was Andy Irvine (bass; later ‘Scatha’, ‘Debris’, etc.), Lynne Entwistle (vocals), ‘Joe Fear’ (Jock Deacons; vocals; nowadays in ‘Constant Fear’), ‘IB’ Iain Blue (a.k.a. Debo Williamson; drums, later bass in ‘Scatha’) and Brian Curran (guitar; later ‘Quarantine’, ‘Debris’, etc.). Billy Steele (‘Sedition’) played second guitar only the last time they were here… They must have had their 7” An Injury To One Is An Injury To All out (on Flat Earth & Nabate) at that time… Martin Mann (drummer of ‘Sedition’) did the cover. Marc Papito, ‘Agent 86’s driver filmed ‘Disaffect’ live and you can see the video here (It was ‘92 not ’91, as is stated).

‘Agent 86’ were touring but since a few gigs fell through the tour was a bit messy: they’d played here already but not on 92-09-06 as was mentioned on the tour-schedule. Mike Briggs (guitar & vocals), Michelle Orgill (bass) and Rob(ert) Perry (drums)…

‘Downcast’, a political band from Santa Barbara, played metallic hardcore. They were known for their “anti-dancing” stance: an effort to rid the pits of the ‘tough guy’ attitude and allow all women in the hardcore-scene to return to their rightful place up-front or in the crowd (instead of in the back). The band consisted of Brent Stephens (guitar; co-founder of Ebullition), Kevin Doss (vocals; also helping out Kent McClard with distribution of Ebullition releases) and Dave McClure (bass). They had different drummers on their recordings (Lance York, Javier Vasquez & Chris Harvey – RIP 1996). Not 100% sure who did this tour but I believe it was Chris… They released a tape by themselves in 1990 and Kent McClard (whom I’d met in San Francisco a few years before and toured with ‘Downcast’) put out a 7” and an LP (both self-titled, ’90 & ‘91) on his label Ebullition recs. ‘Downcast’ broke up after the tour. Kent reminded me (personal communication ’93) that Sonia Skindrud (Exedra zine and Kent’s partner in Ebullition) started singing for ‘Not For the Lack Of Trying’ (with Kevin & Dave of ‘Downcast’)…

‘Farside’, a Californian band playing melodic HC (reminiscent of ‘Dag Nasty’, consisted of (during this tour): Michael ‘Popeye’ Vogelsang (vocals), Kevin Murphy (guitar; ex ‘Headfirst’ & ‘411’; he replaced Rob(ert) ‘Cubby’ Haworth who went on to play with ‘State Of The Nation’), Bryan Chu (bass) and Robert (Bob) ‘Violence’ Beshear (drums). Zack De La Rocha (‘Inside Out’ & ‘Rage Against the Machine’) had been in the band shortly but left before this tour. Around that time they releases the Rochambeau LP on the straight-edge label Revelation recs. I wonder if ‘Farside’ actually did play? I have no recollection of them. They were announced on 92-11-22 aswell but cancelled that one for sure… ‘Supertouch’ played with ‘Farside’ at the 1 in 12 in Bradford (92-12-19) but they didn’t tour together, they, sort of linked up in the UK.

‘Fireside’, from the Kortrijk area preceded ‘Faroutski’ – see 95-06-18) with guitarist Piet Geldhof (I think). The others were Geert ‘Barney’ Blomme (drums) and Rine Amelynck (bass). They were part of to the scene around the indie club The Pits in Kortrijk.

Zine-editor (and mate of mine) Ben ‘Sicko’ of Raising Hell (or was it You’re So Hideous by then already?) visited that day. Can ‘t remember if he was travelling around on his own or toured with ‘Disaffect’…

Brob

‘B.L.O.’ was the ‘Bond der Langharige Onderdrukten’ [League of Longhaired Suppressed]. Peter Vanthuyne [one of the V.V.’s collaborators] met them on the-university-campus in Brussels. (‘Frank & Freddy’s Fietsenfabriek’ [bicycle-factory] was the sequel.) They did somewhat playful, student-like actions. And they needed a benefit from time to time, it seemed. ‘Naked Lunch’ was a band from Brussels with people from Limburg; if I remember correctly they did a ‘Metallica’-cover and some songs resembling the ‘Butthole Surfers’. They might have become ‘Crossfader’ later on…? I think Peter did the poster…

David Stubbe

‘Downcast’ wasn’t anti-dancing. They were anti-hurting people. They were fine with people dancing but not violent dancing that hurt people. There is a big difference… Sean Sellers was the drummer of ‘Downcast’ on the European tour. No one else was travelling with us. We had some people with us for a few days at a time but it was just ‘Downcast’ and I for most of the trip. I don’t believe ‘Farside played’ here…

Kent McClard

I remember on that tour looking forward to playing at Vort’n Vis due to its cooperative, DIY approach. It had a great reputation and people I had spoken with mentioned the club along with 1 in 12 as their “home away from home”. I sincerely remember feeling the same there. Sean Sellers played drums for us on this tour and he went on to play with ‘Crack’, ‘Manumission’, ‘Shelter’, ‘Good Riddance’, ‘Real Mckenzies’, ‘Authority Zero’, ‘Blink 182’ and ‘The Transplants’. ‘Jawbreaker’ and ‘Farside’ were not there. I remember the ‘Disaffect’ people sharing their food and tales of Glasgow with me. I also vividly remember meeting Mike and Michelle from ‘Agent 86’ (I think we did 2 or 3 shows with them), liking their band instantly and sitting in their van hearing their tour-stories of Yugoslavia (!), cancelled shows, broke and hungry and not knowing how or when they were even getting home. [Mike wrote about all of that in Tremontane #1] ‘Downcast’ was going through our own emotional insecurity issues and I asked to join ‘Agent 86’. They politely declined and kicked me out of their van…

David McClure, ‘Downcast’ bassist

The ‘Downcast’ gig @ Vort’n Vis! Could hardly stand upright…

Vik Bulik

I recall playing with ‘Downcast’ at that gig aswell as ‘Agent 86’ (definitely) but I also know I didn’t play with ‘Jawbreaker’. I’m pretty certain ‘Jawbreaker’ were on the flyer but never played – I‘d been looking forward to seeing them but they had cancelled, I got to see ‘em in Glasgow eventually… :-) We played in Liège the night before [92-10-03 @ La Zone: ‘Disaffect’, ‘Seein’Red’ & ‘Hiatus’]. Joe might have a flyer… I tried fruit-beer for the first time here (and the last time as it happens)…

Brian Curran, ‘Disaffect’ guitarist

The tour was worth it for the experience and the fun. It was good to meet your good self at the Vort’n Vis and I enjoyed our chat. It was a really good gig although a little strange to be playing in the afternoon!

Andy Irvine, ‘Disaffect’ bassplayer; personal communication oct ‘92

I do remember you, Brob, and the Vort’n Vis fondly. I have at least one flyer from the show we played there with ‘Downcast’. I do have some memories from that awesome spot – it was one of my very favourites, you guys did a fantastic job there. One of the best organizations we worked with on either of our tours over there.

I wasn’t especially happy with our set on the day we played with ‘Downcast’ & ‘Disaffect’. We played with ‘Jawbreaker’ in Lyon about a week later – but I have no notes about why they didn’t make it to the Ieper show (I suspect it was Blake’s throat-illness, which I believe he ended up having surgery for). I traded ‘Agent 86’ records (with possibly Kent, or Kevin?) for a ‘Downcast’ LP, and made a note that there were “so many people stuffed in that little showroom” that I spent most of the evening outside! I also remember being struck by how many of the guys at the show were “All X’d up”, referring to the omnipresent straight-edge symbol on their hands, and that they slowly filed out during our set (we had driven from mid-France that day and were, admittedly, flagging in energy by that point of a really chaotic and emotionally draining tour). While I didn’t get a lot of time to talk to ‘Disaffect’ on the night of the show, we did spend the next morning chatting and I do recall our drummer Rob getting on quite well with them – both they and ‘Downcast’ blew the doors off the night in terms of performances. I was, as always, impressed with the organization and what appeared to be cooperation with everyone at the Vort’n Vis, and we stayed/’played almost exclusively at squats all over Europe that tour – so we were experiencing all varieties of squats (and ended up travelling to Serbia as well). I am amused to see the note I left in the guest-book (cannot believe I used the term ‘uberstud’ – apologies to Bruno!) but we did have a nice time there.

The only other real note from that show is that we got a speeding-ticket on our way back to France and ended up spending what little money we had made at the V.V. on that. When the French cop pulled us over telling us we were speeding even though there were no signs to let us know the legal limit, he told us (via Sonja, the girlfriend of our pal Marc): “The speed is 50 km in the city – éveryone knows that.” and it became a talking point for days.

Michelle Orgill, ‘Agent 86’ bassist

The one memory that sticks out is lending my snare-drum to ‘Downcast’ and having it returned covered in the drummer’s blood. That was also the first time I had ever heard ‘Disaffect’. They were amazing!

Robert Perry, ‘Agent 86’ drummer

In reaction to the remarks (by Dario Adamic): How can we be sexist when we’ve had a woman in the band 30 of the 32 years of our existence!? And letters to MRR? Never saw ‘em, never published? If you have copies I’ld like to see… Not DIY? That’s why we’ve never signed a corporate deal and last year self (that’s DIY) -released our 22^nd?, 23^rd? 12”/CD….I’ve lived DIY my entire adult life… And dishonest? This from a guy who demanded to be paid every day he’d travelled with us, even though he knew we didn’t have money to feed ourselves. My Dad ended up footing the bill to rent the van he so comfortably travelled around Italy in… Amazing….

Mike Briggs, ‘Agent 86’

Guitarist of ‘Fireside’ was indeed Piet Geldhof. The band recorded a double live 7” at Democrazy in Gent. ‘Faroutski’ was the same line-up without Piet (who moved to France). ‘Faroutski’ did 2 7”s (1994 Faroutski, 1995 Funarchy) and 3 CDs (1997 Mars, 1999 V8 Powered Punk’n Roll, 2001 Farout Chicken Ride). The rhythm-section continues as ‘Unwanted Tattoo’… I attended this gig. Piet had already left: it was the second gig ever by ‘Faroutski’. It was ‘Barney’ on drums, Rine on bass and Johan [Dekyvere] on guitar. Later they had a second guitarist Dominiek.

Joost Dierick, BZN productions

According the ‘Faroutski’ website it should not have been ‘Fireside’ but ‘Faroutski’ who played here. I suspect that it was ‘Fireside’ however. [They signed as ‘Faroutski’ in the guestbook.] That band was an intermediate between ‘Roadtrain’ and ‘Faroutski’; the core was: ‘Barney’ (drums); Johan (2^nd guitar) and Rine (bass). In ‘Fireside’ Piet G. (lead-guitar) and Nathalie (vocals) invigorated the heavy guitar-rock with influences of US bands from the pre-grunge era (‘Green River’, ‘U-Men’, early ‘Melvins’). In the brief span (1991-’92) that ‘Firside’ was active they release a double split-7” with ‘Party @ Vanzettis’ on their own Rock Labyrinth recs. At the end only the rhythm-section and the rhythm-guitarist remained: they chose the direction of melodic punkrock (‘Leatherface’, ‘D.O.A.’, ‘Snuff’, ‘Bad Religion’) and name was changed to ‘Faroutski’; they played “V8 powered Rock’n’Roll” as they called it themselves.

Dirk ‘Bowy’ Bauwens

Kevin Murphy from ‘Farside’ tells about their 1992 European tour in an interview:

>>It was the first time any of us had been to Europe and the entire thing was a disaster. This guy was tagged with booking it and about 3 weeks before we were supposed to leave he contacted Revelation and announced that he had not booked a single date and was not going to. Now, being dirt broke, we had purchased non-refundable tickets to and from Germany, so we were going, tour or not. Jordan knew this great guy in Bradford, England named Ian [Leck] who had booked some shows for some other touring Rev band before. Ian sang for the HC band called ‘Voorhees’. He agreed to book this tour for us and we left the U.S. without having more than 3 or 4 shows booked. So we’d finish playing in a squat in Freiberg, Germany, go to the pay-phone and call Ian and he’d tell us we were scheduled to play in Italy the next night. It was crazy. I also blew my amp the first night which meant I had to borrow equipment every night of the tour. Plus, we were all cramped inside of this tiny VW Euro van along with all of our gear and merchandise – it was just horrible. And somehow, we walked away from it, after losing tons of money, having had an amazing time. At the time, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be a permanent member of the band but I couldn’t leave after that. It sounds cheesy but it really was a make or break moment for us and it made us. We felt extremely “punk.<<

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

92-09-06 Abolition – Nations On Fire – Strength Of The Will – Inner Circle – Agent 86 – Punishment Park

2^nd day of the 1^st Ieperfest

(1^st day: 92-09-05 Ironside – Strong Event – Blindfold – Shortsight – No More – Feeding The Fire – Spirit Of Youth)

The best ‘N.O.F.’ line-up here: Jaak De Cock (drums; ex ‘C.P.D. & ‘Disorder’), David Dutriaux (vocals; also ‘Scraps’), Jeroen Lauwers (bass) and Ed(ward) Verhaeghe (guitar; ex ‘Midnight Man’ & ‘Rise Above’). Their album Strike The Match was out for a while. Recordings for the Burn Again double-7” were ongoing. Same for the Non Smokers 7”… Actually Jaak played his last show with ‘Nations On Fire’ in Brugge, October 17^th 1992 (a benefit for G.A.I.A.). He was a fervent promoter of veganism (the Belgian Vegan Society and the likes) and would start a vegan/healthfood shop in his hometown Hamme…

‘Nations On Fire’ (pic from Ludovic Hache’s zine Ras l’Bol)

‘Nations On Fire’ (Jeroen – Jaak – David – Ward); photo by Jean-Paul Frijns

‘Abolition’ (at the very beginning named ‘Violent Arrest’) played power-trash from Ludwigshafen and were: Bernd ‘Mr Intolerance’ Bohrmann (vocals; used to do Confrontation zine), Corey ‘The Cat’ Von Villiez (bass), Jens ‘Violent’ Wagner (guitar) and Andreas ‘Huy’ Huyhammer (drums). At that time they had the Jesus Was A Fuckin’ Dick 7” out (a co-release on Bernd & Corey’s Equality recs and Jens’ Homemade recs).

Corey was a pen-pal. We shared a clinical chemistry training and the fact that we were both rather critical towards consumerist attitudes in the HardCore scene. I admired her political stance and intelligent writing. She obtained a PhD in Political Science & Philosophy eventually…

The LP Complaceny (with Miguel Andrade on 2^nd guitar) was recorded end ’93 and got out in 1994… Thesir raging hardcore fitted well with Bernd’s anger and critical attitude. The lyrics were very political (and elaborated into pamphlets that came with their releases). If you wanna know how they sounded, have a look here…: Abolition live @ Nagold (Germany) 1992.

Corey and Bernd formed ‘Stack’, Jens & Huy went on to play with ‘Nothing Remains’ (their bassist Frank Henkelmann actually ran Homemade recs together with Jens) and we’ld see Miguel back with ‘Age’ & ‘Rusty James’…

‘Inner Circle’, from Germany would play here again on 92-10-10. ‘Inner Circle’ They were to become ‘Spawn’ later…

Mike Briggs of ‘Agent 86’ contacted me to help find some gigs for his band ‘Agent 86’ (their tour was mainly arranged by their French label New Wave recs). I quite liked their music, political lyrics and DIY attitude…so I tried to help where I could. Their tour was a bit messy so I believe they played where/when it was possible and I think they ended up at the Vort’n Vis a few times (definitely Oct 4^th). On the tour-poster it’s indicated this day they were due in Ieper (they’re also mentioned in concert-review in Holy Hardcore #2 below)…

‘Agent 86’ played punk-rock, sometimes flavoured with a bit of reggae, and had an LP out that year called Just Say No. The line-up on that record was bassist Michelle Orgill, drummers Billy Ropple & Wes Hambright, and Mike Briggs (guitar & vocals). The drummer on the tour was Robert Perry. Before that they’d already done a whole bunch of 7”s, e.g. Vietnam Generation (also on New Wave recs).

Kjell E. Moberg, the guitarist of the Norwegian band ‘Punishment Park’ (a band from Bergen that played punk-rock, here with a female vocalist, Anja) had asked my help before but for some reason they couldn’t convince me that they had the true D.I.Y. punk spirit so I said no. They eventually ended up touring with ‘Agent 86’ and did turn up to play here… In my review of their CD for Tilt! #7 I wrote “Melodic uptempo punkrock with a touch of reggae sometimes. Good but nothing too special…”

Brob

‘S.O.T.W.’ was called ‘Positive Youth’ at first and I did the vocals then. I think we might’ve played with ‘Sedition’ at one time. A while later I took up second guitar and Jan (brother of Maarten Beckers who was the drummer in the band) started singing. Those 2 later founded bands such as ‘Kindred’ and ‘Enemy Of The Sun’. ‘Positive Youth’ / ‘Strength Of The Will’ were from the Tongeren area (except for myself [from Antwerp]). They were just guys who were in their last year of secondary school, who liked the ‘Exhaustless Revolt’ [Filip’s 1^st band; see 90-10-06, 91-05-03 & 91-11-23] tapes, heard that we’d stopped and called me one day asking to sing for them. :-) Crazy, actually… I didn’t know any of them but took the train tot the other side of Belgium (which I already had gotten used to, travelling to HC concerts; even if we had to play ourselves we went by train) and we started a band. Can’t remember very well how long it lasted, I estimate a year or two… Then the whole thing faded out: things weren’t that easy because of the distance, we rehearsed very little… A bit later ‘Kindred’ started. ‘S.O.T.W.’ played a few times at the V.V., on one occasion with ‘Wheel Of Progress’, a precursor of ‘Congress’, I think.

At a certain time-point there was a song on a GoodLife promo by ‘Ill Balance’, a band that I played in somewhere in the 90s. That was also the period that I (and my grilfriend at that time) worked for GL for 6 months… I played also in another band called ‘Braveyard’ (a mix of hardcore/metal with hiphop/rap) but we didn’t release anything officially. Nowadays [2013] I play in a band called ‘Barricade’. We recorded some tracks in a professional studio. Musically it sounds like death-metal but with hardcore riffs but the themes are more socio-critical.

Filip Staes (ex ‘Exhaustless Revolt’)

Ieperfest [It wasn’t called like that yet back then…] September 1992. ‘Strength Of The Will’ opened in the pub. 3 and a half hours on the train (Tongeren – Ieper), saw 2 bands and had to leave early to get home… Didn’t get to see ‘Nations On Fire’ that time.

Koen Stassen

I can remember that I took some photos of this two day-festival we played… I also have a T-shirt that lists all the bands. I recall meeting a lot of nice and cool people there. And I have recollections of almost having an accident on the way home because I was soooo tired driving…

Jens Wagner, ‘Abolition’ guitarist

We played a ‘Negative Approach’ cover and the singer of ‘Voorhees’ (Ian Leck) went nuts…

Bernd Bohrmann, vocalist for ‘Abolition’

‘InnerXCircle’ was Patrick Uhlemann on second guitar and myself on bass. The guy that replaced me later was Dirk Zeiser [later ‘Spawn’].

Holger Andt

I remember this show really well. ‘Inner Circle’ played an awesome set…It was still with Mike Krajewski. When they changed the name to ‘Spawn’, Chris took over the mic and became their singer. Mike is still into hardcore mostly Power Violence.

Peter Hoeren, Crucial Response recs

I think we played twice at the V.V. and might have been scheduled to play that third time with ‘Jawbreaker’ (we did play with them in Lyon on the same tour)…but it was one of several shows I think that fell through… The Vort’n Vis was a favourite just because it was so wellcoming, and fun. Looking over the show-list on your site was amazing; we played with so many bands in that time-period (since we were there that 2^nd time for over 4 months)…

We played a pretty grunge-y set, though I was happy with it – there were some inter-band squabbles. I have a note that the show was put on by a guy named Edward, though we also met Bruno that night, and scheduled the gig for October. Sadly don’t remember much else about the actual show.

I stay in contact with a lot of my old punk-rock pals, especially Dario Adamic, who has become a cherished friend, which is pretty amazing given all the drama at the time. [Brob: For history’s sake: Dario Adamic (Zips & Chains zine, Rome) had a lot of stories to tell about touring with ‘Agent 86’: according to him they were not DIY, dishonest, sexist, etc. He wrote letters to Maximum Rock’n’Roll about that…]

Michelle Orgill, ‘Agent 86’ bassist

We played in September 1992, I think it was a small festival. We just turned up after a messed up week in Germany as far as I can remember. We came there with ‘Agent 86’ (we were touring together that fall) and we got to play a few songs each. Most likely it was September 6^th since we started the tour late in August that year.

Kjell E. Moberg, ‘Punishment Park’

I want to apologize for letting ‘Punishment Park’ infiltrate in the underground scene. They have nothing to do with the ideas and values of the squats. They buy Shell gas, eat at McDonalds and want to be on MTV.

Mike Briggs, personal communication 1993

My wife, our bass-player at that time, Michelle Orgill and I moved back to the West Coast (Eugene, Oregon) as soon as we got home from the 1992 tour. ‘Agent 86’ is still a thriving entity (www.reverbnation.com/agent86), approaching 30 years. We play mostly in Las Vegas but did our first tour in 17 years in March 2010 – L.A. to Seattle and back. My current wife, Jill, is the bass-player and we have 5 drummers that all know our set that we use. I book, run the door and do sound for shows on Friday-nights at a local bar (Boomers).

Mike Briggs, ‘Agent 86’ guitarist

I played for ‘Agent 86’ for a few years. I joined in ‘91 after the last drummer quit. My roommate was friends with them and hooked us up. I am still in contact with them. I only played on the Riot Girl EP and there is a live record out there somewhere from a show we did in Serbia.

Robert Perry, ‘Agent 86’ drummer

review (by Tineke Hoet) in Tom De Pauw’s zine HolyHardcore #2

review in Wim Vandekerckhove’s zine Reminder #2

additions wellcome!…