94-09-17 Citizen Fish – AOS3 – Bender – Inkisiçao – Bad Influence – Selfish – Agathocles – Der Machinisten

Intro: 94-09-16&17&18 6^th Leed festival

Helena ‘Inkisiçao’ – This Is Not Amerikka tour

In 1993 ‘Inkisição’ (from Aveiro), a HC/punk band singing in Portugese, consisted of Miguel [Helena: Miguel Angelo Marques Tavares] (vocals), Rui Maia (drums), Oliviera (guitar) and Píncaro (bass). At the time of this gig Helena ‘Lena’ Paula Burbuleta (Rui’s girlfriend/later wife) had joined the band as extra vocalist. Píncaro then played guitar (also in ‘Mentes Podres’) and Sérgio bass. The latter 2 died in the summer of 1995 [Helena: 1996; in a bicycle-acident]. Lena, Miguel & Rui formed ‘Intervenzione’ then… I think I started corresponding with Rui because he distributed DIY tapes & vinyl (Fuck Off And Act!) and did a zine, Diabo No Corpo (DNC). He put out a compilation taped entitled When The Punks Go Marching In!!! (with live tracks of ‘Inkisição’). I also interviewed Helena for the Women in HC section of my zine Tilt! #8. They did a demo called 2”Arroto (2^nd Burp) with the original line-up (Oliveira, Píncaro, Rui and Zé Vilao) and in ’92 they released a tape called Alternativa. Slime recs (Ataque Sonoro) put out the ‘X-Acto’/ ‘Inkisição’ split-CD in ’93 and a few years later a spit-7” with ‘Battle Of Disarm’. Their music was sometimes melodic, sometimes thrashy HC/punk… They toured with ‘Oi Polloi’ but these played on the Sunday…

Rui & Helena ‘Inkisiçao’ (band live pics will follow)

Third appearance of ‘Citizen Fish’ at the Vort’n Vis (after 93-02-21 & 93-10-24). Singer Dick Lucas had released a split-7” with ‘A.O.S. 3’ in 1993, hence the touring together, I reckon…? In March 1994 ‘C.F.’ recorded a couple tracks for a split-7” with the Japanese ‘Nukey Pikes’.

‘Citizen Fish’ Dick Lucas (pictured by Joeri Hoste)

Paula ‘Spitboy’ & Pete ‘The Roadie’ (wife & husband) were mentioned in guestbook… Pete was roadie-ing for many a band a that time. Nowadays he sings in the Californian band ‘Kicker’ (with ‘Mauz’ from ‘Dystopia).

‘Citizen Fish’ Jasper, Phil & Pete The Roadie

One of the umptieth gigs ‘Bad Influence’ played here. About a year before they already supported ‘Citizen Fish’ – they were the ‘usual’ support for bands from Bath/Bristol area. I reckon this was the Afterbirth (10”) era with bassist Tim ‘Crow’ Shapland (ex ‘Zygote’) on bass and guitarist Egbert ‘Eggy’ Verheyen…

‘AOS3’, now touring with ‘Citizen Fish’ and ‘Bender’, had been here earlier in the year (94-01-30). They were from Sunderland and played reggae-rock-ska-dub-punk. They state they were part of the anarcho-punk movement and that their “lyrics reflect the band’s political stance”. The band consisted of Bill Radford (bass), Colin Cumpson (guitar), Erl R. (drums) and John Horabin (vocals). By the time they played here, they’d already a a couple of 7”s out: one entitled Tottenham 3 (Words Of Warning ’92) and a split with ‘Citizens Fish’ (Bluurg recs ’93); the LP God’s Secret Agent would be released later that year (also on W.O.W.). They also put out a live+studio tape entitled Apparently We Had A Great Time (1992). When they split up (their last gig was December ‘94), singer John relocated to London and formed ‘P.A.I.N.’ (with Phil from ‘Radical Dance Faction’). ‘AOS3’ reformed in 2007.

‘AOS3’; photographed by Helena ‘Lena’ Paula Burbuleta

‘AOS3’ (Colin – John – Bill); photographer unknown (more band live pics will follow)

‘Bender’ (UK; reggae-dub-punk) also came along with ‘AOS3’ & ‘C.F.’ (see guestbook-entry). The band consisted of Alex Gordon (guitar/vocals), Jim Friedlander (bass) & Crum Hall (drums; he replaced Paolo). They had some tapes out and did a 7” & 2 LPs on Words Of Warning (94-96).

The Finnish ‘Selfish’, another band on Genet recs, performed for the 3^rd time (after 92-07-25 & 93-10-31). October 1993 they had recorded for the split-LP with ‘Doom’ (out on Matthias Weigand’s label Ecocentric recs) with Otto Itkonen (drums), ‘Basse’ Sebastian Särekallio (vocals, R.I.P.), ‘Jaba’ Jaakko Penttinen (bass) and ‘Vikke’ (guitar; later also ‘Wind Of Pain’). In 1994 there was also the release of their split-7” with ‘Disclose’ (‘Selfish’ recordings from September 1993). This photo shows Sebastian, Otto & ‘Pedro Anthares’ (Petri Niskanen; on bass!?).

‘Selfish’ (pics by Wim De Leersnijder & Kurt van den Eynden)

‘Agathocles’ played too… [unannounced; read below] Another appearance of the ‘masters of mincecore’)… I was never a big fan and questioned some of their dealings in the past but I must admit, now that they’re still going, that I admire especially Jan’s perseverance and dedication. With the many line-up changes, I can ‘t really recall who played when. Burt was kind of a constant factor to me; having known him from the Hageland Hardcore days and the gigs in his hometown Scherpenheuvel. In my brain guitarist Steve Houtmeyers doesn’t trigger any neurons and Rudy Pans is connected to ‘Intestinal Disease’…

Forgot who ‘Der Machinisten’ were…

Brob

‘Der Machinisten’… I did backing-vocals for them with my sister Benedicte in Ieper. Didier Volckaert, Matthias Cruyssaert, Ludovic Colpaert was the singer and someone else I forgot… They didn’t use any ‘real’ instruments. All industrial stuff.

Caroline Rouseré

‘Agathocles’ played on this day as well…

Rui Maia, ‘Inkisiçao’ drummer

Yeah, we played there! Around 1993 it was me, Rudy (ex ‘Intestinal Disease’ and nowadays ‘League Of Mental Men’- with an old Australian punk singing) on bass, Burt [Beyens] on drums and Steve [Houtmeyers; also founder of Intestinal Disease’, now in ‘Hypnos 69’]. On the photo below ‘Agathocles’ guitarist Steve is doing the vocals. He couldn’t play then…he had sprained his wrist. We did a few gigs with that line-up then, no recordings. It was in the “hall” of the V.V., not in the pub… Can’t remember much else though…

Jan Frederickx, ‘Agathocles’

‘Agathocles’; pic by Wim De Leersnijder

I used to play guitar for ‘Inkisiçao’ before this. I came over just for the concert because I live in Brussels and caught up with them.

Rui Ferreira

[After their first appearance 94-01-30] We came back to a completely contrasting event – hundreds of punks, a great gig in the bigger space which ended another great tour-run, and many tales from the road-crew of grandads who’d escaped death at Ieper by being seconded to the catering-crew just before the ‘big push’ – both under-age too – weird! The festival was fantastic and we were treated very well, then off to bed – with the biological experiment mattresses and still the same underwear nailed up.

‘AOS3’

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!…

94-09-16&17&18 6th Leed festival

Evolution of announcements in the Vort’n Vis newsletters

=> the actual ‘bill’ (???) – Accounts of the actual festival-days can be accessed by clicking on the links below…:

16 sep ’94: Força Macabra (Fin), Insane Youth (Bel), Corpus Christi (Bel), Zabloudil (Cze)

17 sep ’94: Citizen Fish (UK), AOS3 (UK), Bender (UK), Inkisiçao (Por), Bad Influence (Bel), Selfish (Fin), Agathocles (Bel), Der Machinisten (Bel)

18 sep ’94: Rain Like The Sound Of Trains (USA), Ivich (Fra), Oi Polloi (UK), X-Acto (Por)

‘Inkisicao’, ‘X-Acto’ & ‘Oi Polloi’ toured together:

This Is Not Amerikka tour (somewhere along the road) – ‘Oi Polloi’s Matt Finch, Deek, Chris ‘Wheelie’ Willsher, Calum Mackenzie; plus Joao Barrelas ‘Libelinha’ (‘X-Acto’) & Guilherme Charters

Helena (‘Inkisiçao’) & Chris (‘Oi Polloi’) at the Vort’n Vis

‘Citizen Fish’, ‘AOS 3’ & ‘Bender’ were also touring together: the No World Order tour.

Since 1989 I was running a fanzine-distro-label in my hometown in Italy, Pavia, called AZ – DIY anarcho-punk hardcore crust stuff… In September 1994 I arrived in Belgium (Leuven, on a university-exchange program Erasmus) to stay there 8 months. I was already in contact with Brob (Tilt!, legendary epic mythological ‘zine) and Alain (Nabate, legendary epic mythological label), and I knew that the 2 places in Belgium to go were Vort’n Vis in Ieper and La Zone in Liège. My first gig was this festival in Ieper, and then for the following 8 months I was in Ieper or Liège in the pit at gigs, almost every weekend. At the time the mainstream in the Italian HC/punk-scene was US S.E. (not for me, I didn’t like the music and the stupid macho attitude and I’ve never been S.E.; my religion doesn’t allow me to be S.E. – I’ve always drunk, smoked, etc.) and Californian melo-punk (OK, the first 2 LPs of ‘Bad Religion’ are good but please give me something more powerful and political). I was into English anarcho-punk (‘Conflict’, ‘Amebix’, ‘Antisect’) and crust (‘Doom’, ‘Sore Throat’, ‘Nausea’) and Italian HC (‘Contropotere’, ‘Wretched’, ‘C.C.M.’). So Belgium in 1994 was simply fuckin’ heaven: the best beer of Europe at ridicolously ultra-cheap price, endless pubs with no closing-time, open all night long, just a few kilometers away from the Dutch border coffee-shops with the best weed of Europe and a lot of gigs to go see the best touring bands of Europe and US, and finally – my favourite band at that times – ‘Hiatus’.

I got to the Leed festival by train, it was my first punk-gig outside Italy and I immediatly felt surprised in a positive way: no people asking for money and cigarettes all the time, no drunk people getting aggressive and creating trouble, lots of distros (I remember the ultra big stall John of Active distro did, it was wonderful to find so many things that I could not find in Italy brought to me directly from London!), very good and cheap beer, lots of people to talk with (many of which I was already in contact with by mail; and it was great to talk directly with people!) and, last but not least, a fuckin’ great gig, with a lot of my favourite bands at the time, especially from England: ‘Citizen Fish’, ‘AOS3’ and ‘Oi Polloi’; and then ‘Selfish’ – skandicrust at its best!! Sincerely: after 20 years, I remember mostly the atmosphere – angry but positive, “We’re fuckin’ tired of this shit but we don’t destroy ourselves, we want to create something different and alternative, something better…” And I remember on the way back to Leuven: alone on the train, exhausted and with a hang-over (“kater”, the only word I remember in Dutch…), looking at my new records and reading the Situationist books I got from Active distro, thinking “Holy shit! Great gig! I’ll go back to the next!”.

Piero Majocchi

I was at the ‘Citizen Fish’/’AOS3’ concert! It’s possible that Sammy [‘Soyhead’ Schneider, from Switzerland] was with me on that occasion, although I don’t remember exactly. I was travelling with him to North England and back, and we stopped in Belgium, but I don’t have very clear memories of us going to the Vort’n Vis concert together. What I do remember is being there with you, Brob. I also remember losing my glasses in front of the stage when everyone, me included, went crazy; and finding them while everyone around me was dancing.

Tomaz Trplan, Papermouth zine (Murska Sobota, Slovenia)

I’ll come to Ypres for the concert of ‘Inkisição’ & ‘X-Acto’. I’m so pleased they play at your place. I’m very much looking forward to see them again, especially Helena.

Michèle Marnach, Persons Unknown zine (Lux), personal communication Sep ‘94

Gregor Kanitz (A Jour distro, Düsseldorf) visited…

Was at this gig too, don’t remember too much of it I am afraid.

Bart Jansen, ‘Deconsume’ guitarist

I was there…

Luc Ardilouze, Scream zine (Bayonne, France)

I was there too, already my second Leed Fest at the V.V. Some great bands and amazing atmosphere. I kept coming to this fest for a few more years, always a pleasure!

Pawel, Scream recs (Gdansk, Poland)

I really don’t remenber how long we stayed in Belgium but I can recall that I really loved it and I talk about that tour-experience as the experience of my life :-)))) Unforgettable!

Helena Burbuleta, ‘Inkisiçao’ singer

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Some Portugese stayed the whole weekend…

???

One of the S.F. movies that were shown?

93-10-24 Toxic Waste – Citizen Fish – Wounded Knee – Bad Influence

I saw ‘Toxic Waste’ (anarcho-punk band from Ulster) live in 1986 (86-04-05 at the Wolsack in Antwerp). The line-up then was Patsy Preston & Roy ‘Wally’ Wallace singing, Stuart ‘Marty’ Martin (guitar), Phil Coffey (bass) and Glen ‘Grub’ Thompson (drums). I might’ve heard them on the Mortohate’s We Don’t Want Your Fucking War compilation already too then. Bought the split-12” (with ‘Stalag 17′; see 86-05-10) The Truth Will Be Heard (released by the Warzone collective from Belfast, together with Mororhate recs). I was a fan! Especially the opener Traditionally Yours (with the aetheric guitars and Patsy Preston’s fragile singing) always brought me in a rebellious mood! They were also on the We Will Be Free LP (with ‘Asylum’ and ‘Stalag 17’ again). Couldn’t find their Unite to Resist demo (1983) then… In 1987 they put out the Belfast full album (on Belfast recs – NOT (see Marty’s correction below) with Petesy Burns on bass; ex ‘Stalag 17’, also drummer of ‘F.U.A.L.’ and Louanne Martin, singer of ‘F.U.A.L.’ – both visited the V.V. when touring with ‘The Next World’ – see 90-05-01).

The story about how Roy ended up in Antwerp and set up this tour can be read in Ian Glasper’s book The Day The Country Died… The ‘line-up here (the .V.V. was the last gig on this tour…) was: Roy (vocals), Deno ‘Dirt’ (vocals), ‘Marty’ Martin (guitar), Petesy Burns (bass) and Mark ‘Crispo’ Chrsitie (drums; ex ‘Pink Turds In Space’, also in ‘Brawl’ at one time…).

Marty was also in ‘Bleeding Rectum’ (with Wally & Crispo) and ‘Pink Turds In Space’ (with Crispo). Info on these bands can be found on his website.

This is what I wrote on the gig of ‘Culture Shock’ played for Smurfpunx (88-05-13) “an anarcho-punk / reggae-dub-ska band with Dick Lucas (formerly ‘Subhumans’; Bluurg recs)”. Very danceable tunes but socio-political lyrics aswell.”. I could use the same intro but with a couple of different band-members: ‘Citizen Fish’ (from the Bath area) were (at that time) Jasper Patterson (bass), Phil Bryant (guitar), Dick Lucas (vocals) and Trotsky (drums) – can ‘t remember if they had their ‘horns’ on tour. They had been here already before (93-02-21) and would come back later (94-09-17). In 1993 the band had their LP Flinch out (on Dick’s Bluurg recs; recorded right before this tour in August). Live Fish (in Germany)… They also did a split-7” with ‘A.O.S. 3’ a bit earlier. The guys are still playing (citizenfish.com) and so is ‘Subhumans’ (with Dick, Phil & Trotsky).

‘Bad Influence’ were the ‘usual’ support for bands from Bath/Bristol; this time they had Tim ‘Crow’ Shapland (ex ‘Zygote’) on bass (Labie had left the ‘baddies’). The others were ‘Holy’ Herwin (vocals), Joris Rombouts (drums) and Egbert Verheyen (replacing Thomas Noppe on guitar); bringing a new variety of their ‘pagan’ HC. (See also 90-10-27, 91-07-07, 92-11-01 & 93-09-04, etc.). In this line-up they recorded (’92) for a split-7” with ‘Sharon Tate’s Children’ (42 recs) and the Wake Up/Unacceptable 7” (42 recs & Skuld releases). Right after this they started recording for the Afterbirth 10” (with ‘Eggy’ on guitar)…

‘Bad Influence’; photo by Wim De Leersnijder

‘Wounded Knee’, a HC band from Niederkorn were: ‘Schof’ (drums; also ‘No More’), René Penning (bass; does coordination/booking at the Kulturfabrik – kulturfabrik.lu nowadays), Phillippe ‘Phlép’ (vocals), Stéphane Machel (guitar) and Claude ‘Pattex’ Werer (guitar, also ‘No More’). In 1993 they recorded the Not Proud Of My Country/Race tape (February ) & (in October) the Psycho Path 7” (Strive recs). They also had a track on the on the 500 Years Of Genocide 7” compilation (benefit for the Mohawk Nation). At first René also played guitar but he filled on bass when Don left to play for the French band ‘P.R.A.C.H.’; a bit later Claude joined.

Brob

I do remember playing and staying at the V.V. a few times; it was a great venue. I was there when I sang for ‘Toxic Waste’ too.

Deno ‘Dirt’

Deno – Roy – Petesy – Micky Tierney (‘Bleeding Rectum’) – Crispo – Marty

from Deno’s diary (thanks a lot!)

Another great night… Probably played there with ‘Bleeding Rectum’ on another occasion but not sure if it was Vort’n Vis or not. ‘Brawl’ probably played there again with a different drummer as they did a couple more European tours after I departed. Fond memories of this place even though they might be a bit hazy…

Mark ‘Crispo’ Christie

My memories of that tour are all a bit blurred (it was 20 years ago!). What I can say is that we always got one of the warmest welcomes in Belgium, there was an excellent anarcho-punk /alternative scene throughout the 80s and 90s, well organised, friendly and they always took care of us really well. We had played loads of gigs with Dick’s various bands (‘Subhumans’, ‘Culture Shock’ and ‘Citizen Fish’ down through the years and they always “blew us off the stage” which was fine by me because I was a big fan of all those bands. ‘Bad Influence’ organised this tour as they did a few other ones for bands I was in, and they did an excellent job as always. They came to Ireland as well and we tried to return the favour. Great guys all of them. The crowd at that gig, from what the remains of my brain can remember, were excellent, really enthusiastic and completely surprised me that they knew so many of our songs. The venue was brilliant and we were very well looked after. Places like this were alway a real inspiration for us going back to Belfast. Many thanks for having us and maybe we’ll get back sometime in the future…

One correction that probably should be made to your blog is that Petesy and Louanne from FUAL did NOT play on the ‘Toxic Waste’ album Belfast. It was Roy playing bass and singing, Deno from ‘Dirt’ singing, Gary from ‘Dirt’ playing guitar and Grub playing drums.

‘Marty’ Martin

Micky Tierney was also playing guitar. We did some ‘Bleeding Rectum’ songs too and Micky was their lead guitarist. He played all of the set with us at all of the gigs. He’s in a video-clip on the www…

Petesy Burns

‘Toxic Waste’; photo by Wim De Leersnijder (‘Crispo’ drumming in a ‘Brawl’ T-shirt)

‘Eggy’, or Egbert, from Herentals, played with Dirk & Munpie [Manfred Vinck] in ‘Dona Nobis Pacem’ [I think Gerrit played guitar in ‘Dona Nobis Pacem’.]. I never knew his full name, even though we played together in the band for a year or two. After the release of ‘Afterbirth’ he quit, I think.

Joris Rombouts, ‘Bad Influence’ drummer

Can’t really remember anything personally I’m afraid, it’s all a blur. Dick might find something in his diaries… When I see what he comes up with it might bring back some recollections. A Vort’n Vis sticker has resided on our bass-cab since we were there…

Phil, ‘Citizen Fish’ guitarist

Pedro Anthares (‘Selfish’, ‘Uutuus’, ‘Força Macabra’) came especially to see this gig.

Wim De Leersnijder

The day before (Oct 23^rd 1993) we did our last gig with ‘Private Jesus Detector’ in Ternat (Some of the ‘Hiatus’ blokes sang along quite a few songs.). I was seriously ill then but I did go over to the Vort’n Vis on Sunday to go see ‘Toxic Waste’…

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

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

‘Munpie’ and baddie Herwin

Dick ?

Canadian visiter on ‘Toxic Waste’

Pawel (Scream recs) from Poland

visiter(s) from Finland

additions wellcome!…