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

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

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

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

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

‘Behind The Smile’

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

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

Brob

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

Ildi Asztalos

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

Marcor Aredje

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

Roger NBH

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

 

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!…

92-01-12 That’s It – Behind The Smile – Chronic Disease – Parkinson Square

‘That’s It’ was a melodic pop-punk-rock band (they’re influences – as they stated themselves – being ‘The Pixies’, ‘Fugazi’, ‘Gang Of Four’, ‘The Jam’, etc.) with ex ‘Youth Brigade’ guitarist/vocalist (and Better Youth Organization founder) Shawn Stern. Bassist Greta (replacing Andy Hadel on this tour) wrote something in the V.V. guestbook. Besides them there was Mark Phillips (guitar, vocals) and Tom(my) ‘Stupid’ Withers (drums). But the latter left or was kicked out somewhere along the line… I didn’t go and see them because I had the impression the whole thing was rather hyped. Bruno, in his well-known marketing style announced this as some kind of hardcore all-star band…

‘That’s It’ put out a 7” on Frank Babel’s Blasting Youth recs in 1992 featuring David Andler (drums & vocals), Shawn Stern (vocals & guitar) and Mark Phillips (guitar, bass + vocals). The recordings were done at Southern Studios in London (January ‘92). There was also a 12” on Shawn’s B.Y.O. recs the year before (entitled Really?!; with Tommy Stupid on drums)…

In the guestbook Shawn writes this was the 2^nd to last show but there’s another entry in the guestbook on 92-05-24…

Nowadays Tom Withers is a DJ & he produces drum’n’bass under the alias ‘Klute’…

‘Behind The Smile’ vocalist Christophe Chojna ensures me his band played aswell. They’d performed at the Vort’n Vis before (91-10-12) when they had their demo-tape out. My mate Arnaud Huftier (who did Uprising Decay zine) played bass; Laurent did drums and Rudy guitar. In 1992 they did a split 7” with the Finnish ‘Juggling Jugulars’ called ‘A Wish To Dream’ on Sylvain Vilette’s Bad Card recs (1992) on which Laurent & Christophe were replaced. (They took a second guitarist, Pierre, later). ‘B.T.S.’ played another show on 93-02-21.

‘Parkinson Square’ was a HC band from Lyon (France) with Gilles Laval (guitar), Laurent Frick (vocals), Lucien Mingoia (drums; replacing Hugo Maimone) & Richard Gaultier (bass; replacing Akis Amprazis). Don’t remember much about them, except that they seemed to aim to become mainstream and were just using the D.I.Y. scene as a stepping-stone… Not sure if they actually played?

Probably the last ever show of ‘Chronic Disease’…? ‘Leffe’ (vocals), ‘Sling’ (drums), ‘Meyer’ (guitar) and ‘Vrokker’ (bass) were about to call it quits. The following years they would start a string of bands.

Brob

<<I don’t talk to any of the guys that I recorded with. Tommy Stupid left in the middle of the tour, which was really screwed because we were on the East-coast and were about to leave for a 7 week tour. I think he’s an asshole and he’s lucky I didn’t beat the crap out of him. He would be wise to stay the hell away from me! Mark Phillips is a great guitar-player, just a strange person and I don’t talk to him. He was in ‘Down By Law’ and ‘Joykiller’, but I guess that didn’t work out either. David Andler, who played on the European tour and on the German 7”, still keeps in contact. He lives in Maryland and has played in various bands and now runs a small label/distro called Morphius. He’s a really cool guy, we had fun touring Europe.>> (interview with Shawn in Enough fanzine 1999)

I was the 1^st bassplayer of ‘Four Walls Falling’ but I didn’t tour with them in Europe; but I did tour with ‘That’s It’. The singer/guitarist was Shawn Stern from ‘Youth Brigade’, the drummer was named Dave [David Andler] and the other guitarist was Mark [Phillips] who also played in ‘Down By Law’. We toured with a lovely bunch of English guys called ‘Frogs Of War’, among them was bassist Kieran Heneghan and drummer Tim Green.

Greta Brinkman, ‘That’s It’ bassplayer

I do remember the gig; it was around December of 1991. I think there were a few other bands on the bill; one of them was kind of a crust-core type band from Belgium and the guitar-player spoke English with an accent from south London which seemed odd because most Europeans speak American English.

Mark Phillips, guitarist ‘That’s It’

The ‘Frogs of War’s part of the tour with ‘That’s It’ had come to an end by the time they played your venue. We’d been their support for around 5 weeks, from November ‘91 to January ‘92. Great memories – the ones I can actually remember! Never made it to Belgium unfortunately…

Kieran Heneghan, ‘Frogs of War’s bassplayer

We played with ‘That’s It’ but didn’t play the Belgium leg of the tour I think… 100% sure (ok – 99% sure) that we didn’t have the pleasure of playing there (unfortunately)…

Tommy Withers (ex ‘Stupids’) left ‘That’s It’ for the following reason: he met a girl after a show and just refused to get in the van and leave for the next show…just refused to leave her…

Tom Cockcroft, ‘Frogs of War’s guitarist

That’s not true. I was there.

Andy Turner, Full Circle recs label-boss & tour-manager [released their LP All Said And Done in 1990]

‘Frogs Of War’ hailed from Huddersfield (also hometown of Andy Turner and his ‘Instigators’). They were supposed to be influenced by the likes of ‘H.D.Q.’, ‘Snuff’ and ‘Instigators’: UK melodic hardcore punk. The band was: Tim Green on drums, Adrian Day – rhythm-guitar, Tom Cockcroft – lead-guitar, Kieran Heneghan on bass and guy called ‘Digby’ singing…

Brob

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…