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 1st 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!…
Vort'n Vis in the 90s 