94-08-21 Iconoclast – Neckbrace – Feeding The Fire – Hopeman Path – Undone – Vanilla – State Of Grace

Intro: 94-08-19&20&21 Hardcore Festival

see also: 94-08-19&20&21 Hardcore Festival * Italian impressions

The ‘Iconoclast’ tour was organised by Bernd B. (‘Abolotion’/’Stack’/Equality recs/Scorched Earth Policy) who drove the whole time. The band, from New Jersey, played emo hardcore. They were: Kevin Sabarese (guitar), Dan Roberts (guitar), Ian White Williams (vocals; here replaced by ‘Merel’s singer José Juan Ruiz – see below), Kevin Kajetzke (drums) and Pat Kelsey (bass). That year their Groundlessness Of Belief 7” got out on Ebullition recs (after an untitled 7” and some others on Kevin S.’s Old Glory recs). They broke up a few months after this tour (last gig with ‘Avail in Philadelphia on Oct 2^nd). I really liked the band (music and people; we’d already met the week before when they played in Herentals) and I think I planned an interview but that didn’t work out. Their last recordings were released ‘post mortem’ on a split double 7” with ‘Abyss’ (from Germany).

‘Iconoclast’ (pic by Massimo Moscarelli) – Dan Roberts (L), Kevin Sabarese (M), Pat Kelsey (R)

‘Iconoclast’ with ‘Merel’s singer José Juan Ruiz (photographed by Albert Cheong)

‘Neckbrace’, a band from Bradford, played powerful vegan sXe HC (hence there 7” on the German hardline label No Cruelty recs; recorded in April of that year) playing “mid-tempo chugga chugga”. In the band: guitarist Andy/Andrew ‘Bez’ Berry (and James – also in ‘Unborn’ – for a short while), singer Heath Powell/Crosby (previously sang in ‘No Way Out’ & ‘Nailbomb’, later ‘Stampin’ Ground’), drummer Neil Godding and bassist Steve/Stephen Harran. (Andy, Neil and Heath had been in ‘Nailbomb’ together.)

‘Neckbrace’ (pics: 1, by Massimo Moscarelli; 2, by Frédéric Falzon)

A bit before Roger played his last show with ‘Feeding The Fire’s. The bassist here was Kay Roderburg, who was also ‘Backdraft’ with Illona and Rob – another band they had started with already (they played the day before this one)… Check the V.V. concert-list for the several shows they did before this one!

‘Feeding The Fire’ (photos courtesy of Heath Crosby) [1. Rob Franssen – 2. Illona Stephan, Rob & Kay Roderburg – 3. Kay & Har(ald) Brosselt]

‘F.T.F.’ pic by Fred Falzon

‘Hopeman Path’ was the band of my mates Dirk ‘Scum’ (vocals; ex ‘Zero Positives’), Stefan Goos (drums; Empower newsletter and later in the band ‘Vuur’), Bart Verelst (bass; also ‘State Of Grace’) & Gunter Braem (guitar). They were from the Kempen area (Herentals/Geel) and had played here already 93-04-25. They lasted a couple of years and would merge into ‘Vuur’ with members of ‘Deconsume’ and ‘Outrage’… Later some of them and myself engaged ourselves for the Newland collective (zine and concerts).

‘Hopeman Path’ (photo by Miguel Angel Lorca) – Gunter Braem (L) & Bart Verelst (R)

‘State Of Grace’ – Jeroen Vanlaer (guitar), Tom Gabriels (guitar), David Heylen (drums), Jan ‘Jakke’ Geeraerts (bass) and Sven De Backer (vocals) – had played the V.V. on 94-04-09. Later Bart Verelst (ex ‘Hopeman Path’) joined on bass and ‘Jakke’ played guitar; then they became ‘Sheen’ (who played the V.V. 95-11). No recollections of them playing this one here…

My friends from Paris, ‘Undone’ played the V.V. many times. They were announced for this one but can ‘t remember if they actually played…

‘Vanilla’ (an emo band from Paris) did a demo in ’94 and put out their I Can’t Stop Hating This Empty Space 7” on Olivier Lépine’s label Laissez-Nous Jouer (together with Norbert Chomat) in 1995. 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 (’96). Bruno released a self-titled LP of them on Genet recs in 1996. They also played 95-01-29, 96-03-24 & 96-08…

Some people thought ‘Nations On Fire’ played aswell but their bassist ‘Goofy’ explains they didn’t. Jaak had left ‘N.O.F.’ and David of ‘Scraps’ abondonned aswell… The line-up around this time (as on the Death Of The Pro-Lifer album) was with Wim Vandekerckhove (also ‘Blindfold’ vocalist) on guitar and Filip Devolder on drums; besides Ed(ward) Verhaeghe (vocals) and Jeroen ‘Goofy’ Lauwers (bass).

Bruno (Genet recs) had organised a tour for ‘Scraps’ that turned out rather “disastrous” (with disorganised dates in Spain, administrative & van-trouble in France). Can ‘t recall if Ma Raab (‘Egotrip’) toured with them or in ’95… Amanda Trevens, a correspondent of mine, did a tour-diary about it (Looking Back It Doesn’t Seem So Bad). She played in a band called ‘Timmy’, was helping out at Neil Robinson’s Tribal War recs (actually an internship, studying ‘music technology’) and the HC/punk venue ABC No Rio in NYC, also was the guitarist of ‘Huasipungo’. David of ‘Scraps’ had been staying with her in N.Y.C. the month he spent there and she was asked to be in the band as (guitarist) Raph(aël) couldn’t make it. Touring at that time were David (vocals), Pierre (drums), Tomoy (bass), ‘Straw’ & Alex. Later, Amanda was in band called ‘Ex Teenage Rebels’ with Chris (‘Scraps’ roadie)… The ‘Scraps’ tour had ended prematurely so they didn’t play here, she told me.

Brob

Ed and I hadn’t talked for a few months until I heard that he’d gotten seriously ill in July 1994…

Jeroen ‘Goofy’ Lauwers, ‘N.O.F.’ bassist

The Vort’n Vis was pretty rad. I liked it a lot. It’s difficult to tell from one show but it was a nice atmosphere, there weren’t any fights (though I was told it was violent when ‘Oi Polloi’ played). […] I know now why you reacted the way you did when I asked you if you were Bruno when I first got to the V.V. […] Things that were very different at European shows were sound-checking, putting everything through the P.A. at most places, getting fed at shows. This is a rad custom but I still don’t think it should be taken for granted. Most shows are pretty well attended.

Amanda Trevens; personal communication Sep ‘94

In ‘94 I came over in May; practiced for 2 weeks (living in Lille) and toured for 6. I was at the Vort’n Vis for one show – dont remember which one. I’m pretty sure we didn’t play the Vort’n Vis or in Belgium at all. I went there with David or Pierre or both, before the tour started and met you, and maybe Edward. Neil [Robinson] and I were involved in putting on shows at ABC No Rio, and being part of the collective for many years and we were roommates for a bit.

Amanda Trevens

‘Goofy’ (‘Nations On Fire’), Pierre Anne (‘Scraps’) & Amanda Trevens (taken from Fifi #2)

I’m pleased to have been at the Vort’n Vis for the festival. I discussed with a lot of people… But I also was a bit disappointed because of what I saw and heard during these 2 days! I’m talking about the people who, like you said, were showing themselves off. It was incredible. A lot of them were rather superficial, relation-wise. I also have a hard time understanding that thing with the X-s on hands and feet! […] On the other hand, I met a lot of people that I never seen before (Vique [Martin of Simba zine] e.g.). […] It was true what you said about ‘scene-celebrities’: it’s rather strange because when you listen to socalled ‘important’ people, they tell us they’re not doing anything extraordinary and that everyone could do what they do (and that’s true), but then why is there this distance that is being created? […] All this irritates me a bit…

Olivier Lépine, Laissez-Nous Jouer (later ‘L’Invention de Morel’; personal communication Sep ‘94

I found my journal from that time and it says that ‘Iconoclast’ played on Sunday. Sadly I didn’t write about the bands we played with, I only remember that I tried Hoegaarden [beer] for the first time. I have some good memories about the Vort’n Vis and I remember that show especially because José from ‘Merel’ had to sing because Ian went home early to prepare for college. I don’t have so many detailed memories, as we were in a different town every single day, making it a lot of experience in little time. The thing is that the experience of being in that underground scene forever changed me and put me in contact with all kinds of cool people. I met Inge Wynants and [her friend] Judith [Wuytens] that day… I lived in Hoogheultje near Olen [Belgium] for nearly a year back in 1996. That was because I kept in touch with Inge and after seeing her again on the ‘Merel’ tour, I went to visit her and then became romantically involved with her sister Katrine for a few years.

Kevin Kajetzke, ‘Iconoclast’ drummer

Like Kevin K., I also found my journal from that time… It was day 51 of the tour; we were just in from a show in London the previous day and had a rare day off the following. Apparently I was on band-finances at the time, because that’s what the page is about. We made good on 350 DM of expenses to Bernd, took in 6.000 Belgian francs for playing (about $275 in 2017 USD), 2.850 Belgian francs in shirts/records were sold (thanks everyone!), and Kevin K. and I got both into and out of a small amount of debt to the band the following day. Well, it was a hell of a lot better of a time than that dry entry suggests, at the tail end of a good two months to get lost in Europe. I have many very detailed memories from those two months but I have not been able to come up with anything specific from this day – I took the time to look at all the inside/outside photos I could find, and so far…nothing. It is a strange feeling to see yourself in a photo at a place you cannot otherwise remember. It is perhaps not so surprising, as while I feel there are so many things I do remember about that summer, it was an incredible number of people and places in a relatively short amount of time. Maybe exhaustion was setting in by then.

Patrick Kelsey, ‘Iconoclast’ bassist

I visited the Vort’n Vis during a festival in the beginning of the 90s. ‘Iconoclast’, ‘Fabric’, ‘Acme, ‘Vanilla’ and more bands were playing. I’m sure ‘Acme’ and ‘Vanilla’ played. ‘Acme’s set was very short and intense… I travelled together with Carlos Arillo and other friends…. Carlos Arillo was the guy organising gigs at that time in Madrid. He booked shows for many bands: ‘Doom’, ‘Shortsight’, ‘Disrupt’, ‘Iconoclast’, ‘Abolition’, ‘Health Hazard’,…

Miguel Angel Lorca, Madrid

I attended this festival at the Vort’n Vis… Mostly straight-edge bands on the bill who didn’t take too kindly to us lot who were all quite big smokers and drinkers! It said it wasn’t a straight-edge festival but it certainly felt like one! My main recollections of the straight-edge bands were they were very young with very expensive guitars and amps that I didn’t have a hope in hell of having myself at the time. Also I found the bands too be quite serious and self-righteous. I remember really enjoying seeing ‘Iconoclast’; I think they were the stand-out band of the weekend. It sounds like I didn’t enjoy it! But that wasn’t the case; I had a real good laugh with my mates I was with – still see Louis [Warren] now who I went to the festival with; he is now singer in ‘Rotunda’…

Marcus Jones, ‘Marker’ guitarist

That was my first longer tour…been on the road for 8 weeks but it was fun.

Bernd Bohrmann

‘Iconoclast’ on tour – with Bernd B. (squatted), Sherry Beth Sacks & Franziska ‘Franzi’ von Hasselbach

I went to 2 Vort’n Vis festivals. I had a brilliant time at both. During the 2^nd visit I sprained my ankle while dancing to ‘Acme’. I had do go to hospital. ‘Acme’ played in the dark… Simon Johnson organized both the trips. He was a punk/hardcore promoter in Birmingham.

Louis Warren, ‘Rotunda’ vocalist

We were there when ‘Iconoclast’ and ‘Acme’ played but I don’t think we were there the day before…

Karl Penando

Bernd Bohrmann organised that ‘Iconoclast’ tour indeed… There was an American young woman named Sherry [Sherry Beth Sacks; Beehive activist and drummer] on tour with ‘Iconoclast’. [Sherry was a friend of Hazel too. H. named a band that Jeroen L. and her started ‘Sherry’…]

Joeri Hoste

I do have memories of that awesome concert. That was an important first trip to Europe for me. I later returned many times and eventually met my husband Pau (Aina/Barcelona).

Sherry Beth Sacks (sherrybethsacks.tumblr.com)

I remember we hired a small car to travel over to Ieper. Four of us cramped in the car with musical instruments and the boot filled with drum-stuff and a guitar amp-head! Travelling along: myself, ‘Bez’ (Andy) on guitar, Neil on drums and Steve on bass. We were totally blown away to be playing and to be given the opportunity to play such a great festival, with so many other great bands. I would play it one other time doing vocals for ‘Stampin’ Ground’ [96-08] but that’s another story… I remember the car-journey well, crammed, sweaty and suffering from cramp! When we arrived we were amazed so many hardcore kids hanging around, we were like “This is amazing”! The show was great, with lots of people supporting ‘Neckbrace’, with a few people even knowing the tunes. I can’t remember the other bands that played; we were only over for the day. The journey back to England was again with cramps because of the confined space, filled with four sweaty bodies!

Heath Crosby, ‘Neckbrace’ singer

‘Neckbrace’ travels (photos courtesy of Heath Crosby) [1. Andrew ‘Bez’ Berry (L) &  Stephen Harran (R) – 2. Heath (L) & Neil Godding (R)]

I remember playing at the Vort’n Vis. I was the drummer in the band ‘Neckbrace’. The band at that time was Heath Powell [nowadays named Crosby] (vocals), Andrew Berry (guitar), James ‘Bim’ Johnston (guitar), Stephen Harran (bass) and myself on drums… We were crammed in a tiny car with all our gear and we drove from Bradford UK, got the ferry across to France and drove to Ypres [Ieper]. I don’t think Rich Corbridge [Armed With Anger zine and label] came with us, we could only fit 5 people in the car. I remember we arrived at the venue to find that the bass-guitar was broken, so I crafted a new headstock nut from an old dirty comb I found in the street. In the venue I remember seeing all the people, the disturbing PETA videos and some band on stage getting crazy. We were (I think) the very last band of the night and we played at maybe 1 a.m. We gave it our all. I was sweating like crazy, so much so my recently tattooed forearm (‘Neckbrace’ tribal X) cracked, and has scars in it, that always reminds me of Vort’n Vis. At some point during the day I walked to the WW1 memorial and found the name of one of ancestors who died in the war.

Neil Godding

I have no recollections of playing this one with ‘Undone’. Not sure that we played! I don’t remember too much… Not even about playing with all these great bands on the concert-list… I just remember that we were all always so happy to drive up to Belgium and meet our friends up there…

Christophe Mora, ‘Undone’ drummer

additions wellcome!…

96-05-12 Feeding The Fire – Kindred – Sektor (photos)

More on this concert: 96-05-12 Feeding The Fire – Kindred – Shaft – Resist The Pain – Sektor – Voices At The Front

Photos courtesy of Letske M. (these are the ones mentioned in the original post by Steve Lammertyn)

Illona Stephan (‘Feeding The Fire’)

René Natzel (‘Feeding The Fire’)

————————-

‘Kindred’: Jan Beckers (guitar), Maarten Beckers (drums), Eric Sefton (vocals), Walter Beckers (bass) & Raf Gielen (guitar)

————————-

Piet Cardoen (‘Sektor’) + Karen Rolly & Valerie Afschrift

‘Lenny’ Wouter Cael (‘Sektor’)

Bert Guillemont (‘Sektor’)

Jeroen Therry (‘Sektor’)

94-08-19&20&21 Hardcore Festival * Italian impressions

 follow-up to 94-08-19&20&21 Hardcore Festival

I admit that I don’t recall these events very well. I was 24 years old, I’m writing this 20+ years later. I don’t remember which bands played, what I ate, where I slept, and a lot more, but I still have vivid emotions about those days. The Vort’n Vis was the hardcore punk centre of Europe, the place where you had to be. I am very happy to be reminded about it. Yes, I was there and I can’t forget it.

It wasn’t easy to get to Ieper. I didn’t have the money because I didn’t have a job. Mum and dad payed a part, and temp jobs were my income. Air-travel was ruled out immediately, trains were cheaper. Another travel to Belgium after less than a year (after being there on tour with ‘Eversor’). This time a holiday with Interrail, discount-tickets to travel by train in Europe. What I did, is in the following report that was published in my zine Tough Guys Don’t Dance; it was an attempt to say something about things outside the confinement of our Italian boundaries. The English language was a means to communicate outside the country. I could have done more to distribute it though… All was translated by Andrea Marra (the author of The Vort’n Vis Experience). I did the rest (editing – a matrix-printer and a photocopier – and photos).

A fun fact: I remember that the bathrooms were partially out of order (too many people) after a couple of days; and there was a lake of water, piss and shit between the building and the yard…and crusties were wading through it as if it was a normal thing.

I don’t remember much about the bands at all! The concerts were only part of the fun, the main thing was the atmosphere. I liked almost all the bands and knew about them all, so it wasn’t crucial to talk about them in the zine. I still listen to hardcore music, I never quit it.

Massimo Moscarelli (Rome)

Some of Massimo Moscarelli’s photos (grazie mille!) – band-pics will follow in the actual posts on the festival-days:

crowd-shots

upstairs [1: Bruno entertaining the Italians (L => R: Giangiacomo De Stefano (‘Ivory Cage’), Paolo Petralia (S.O.A. recs/’Comrades’/’Colonna Infame’), Andrea ‘Ics’ Ferraris (‘Burning Defeat’/‘One Fine Day’), Andrea Marra (‘Comrades’/’Notorius’/’Bruma’), one of the Marini twins (‘Comrades’/‘Timebomb’); 2: Paolo Petralia, Massimo Moscarelli & one of the Marini twins; 3: Andrea Marra]

in the courtyard [1: Bruno ‘Genet’ & ‘Goofy’ (R); 2: prom-queen & -king Vique ‘Simba’ & Ward ‘N.O.F.’; 3: Bruno’s biz]

walk on by (or not) [2: Pawel ‘Scream’ from Poland selling stuff; 3: ‘Hazel’ (Bernd B. in the background)]

Massimo, the warrior and his aid (Jeroen Lauwers)

additions wellcome!…

92-09-05 Feeding The Fire (photos)

More on this concert:

92-09-05 Ironside – Strong Event – Blindfold – Shortsight – No More – Feeding The Fire – Spirit Of Youth

Here’s some extra photos (taken by Jean-Paul Frijns), courtesy of Jason Fox:

Léon Kleikers (drums; also guitarist of ‘No Sense), Illona Stephan (guitar); co-organiser Hans Verbeke

Rob Franssen (vocals), Roger ‘NBH’ (bass); Tom Chapman (‘Ironside’ guitarist) in the crowd

Illona, Har(ald) Brosselt (guitar; also in ‘No Sense), Rob; Nick Royles (‘Ironside’ drummer) & Jase Fox (‘Step One’) in the crowd

Har, Illona, Rob, Roger; Nathalie D. & Jörg Jacoby in the crowd

Illona, Har, Rob; Edward Verhaghe & Jörg Jacoby in the crowd

Har, Rob, Illona; an astonished Michael Müller (R)

94-08-19&20&21 Hardcore Festival

The first weekend of September 1992 the Vort’n Vis organised what was then called Hardcore ’92. A festival with a mix of punky/crusty bands and straight-egde outfits. The same was intended in September 1993. I wrote about the incident that happened there… Although it was unfortunate, even reprehensible; for myself the motivation to try and bring all sorts of people together stayed. However other people made it so that the 2 ‘factions’ wouldn’t meet so easily anymore. In 1994 an SxE fest (weekend around half of August) and the Leed fest (half of September; the Vort’n Vis’ alternative to the city of Ieper’s mainstream Leet festival) were organised independent from one and other; and caused this ‘split’. One of the protagonists in the aforementioned incident (Hans Verbeke, ‘Blindfold’) obviously was reluctant to see the same thing happening again and set up (with good intentions, I’m sure) a “Positive Festival” – together with his sister Saskia (‘Shortsight’) and Rob Franssen (‘Feeding The Fire’).

This setting would over the years grow into a huge event (not unlike a lot of the commercial summer-festivals) and moved outside of the Vort’n Vis premises. Unfortunately (and that already was from the beginning), it turned out to be a market-place for big/commercial labels and distributions (local and others). I’ve never been able to see what the value of that was and I kept reacting against it. Having SxE and non-SxE friends I also wasn’t keen on the separation.

I wrote about it in a column that appeared in my friend Joeri Hoste’s zine Emotive Impulse (Sep. ’94):

>> We were all very excited about it for months. Myself not in the least; as it came closer it promised to be something wonderful, something that could last a week instead of a weekend. (…) After some shitwork, I wanted to start a bunch of conversations but unfortunately practically all ended up being quite short and superficial (…) consuming seemed like the most important thing again… (…) “I BUY, therfor I am” (actually this goes for the whole capitalist system – ergo: the HCpunk-scene is not so diffrent form the capitalist system nowadays, no?) (…) Another thing: no matter what we all say, there are distinct cliques in our scene. We all pretend they don’t exist but they do… I’m not talking about the obvious devide between SxE and ‘crustpunx’. Also within SxE (as within the crustpunx) there are micro-communities with their own rules, prescriptions, ‘incestuous’ behaviour, etc. How are you ever gonna evolve, learn,… when you never break out these micro-units. You don’t have to know everyone but at least look for different things once and a while; and on the other hand: allow others to get into your group of peers. I try to pick up things from various people, why restrain and stick to one groove? This scene we’re in, this subculture – again – is supposed to offer an alternative to the mainstream, the capitalist/patriarchic system. Let’s all work to create this. Don’t fool yourself and others. (…) <<

The newsletter of March that year started out with announcing a “3-day festival with ‘Scraps’, ‘Blindfold’, ‘Voorhees’, ‘Iconoclast’ and plenty more”. A few months later there was mention of 3 bands on Friday, ‘Blindfold’, ‘Refused’ & 5 or 6 more on Saturday, and ‘Iconoclast’, Scraps’ & ‘Voorhees’ on Sunday. And as you can see on the flyers that were made this expanded/changed gradually.

This is from the newsletter right before the festival:

As far as I can remember this was the actual programme:

19 aug ’94: Spawn (Ger), Congress (Bel), Kosjer D (Bel)

20 aug ’94: Refused (Swe), Abhinanda (Swe), Fabric (UK), Blindfold (Bel), Shortsight (Bel), Acme (Ger), Backdraft (Nl), Nothing Left To Grasp (Ger)

21 aug ’94: Iconoclast (USA), Neckbrace (UK), Feeding The Fire (Nl), Hopeman Path (Bel), Undone (Fra)

Also got on the bill/played: ‘State Of Grace’ (Bel), ‘Vanilla’ (Fra), … But can’t remember which day… Pretty sure ‘Stormwatch’ (Ger) didn’t play.

‘Nations On Fire’ didn’t do a show. Also Steve W. tells me his band ‘Neuthrone’ didn’t play, ‘Scraps’ cancelled and ‘Voorhees’ didn’t show up (read 94-08 [Voorhees])…

Even though this fest attracted a lot of people, it still took place in the pub (and not in the ‘shed’). The distros had a lot of space in the courtyard… So did the people who wanted to ‘socialize’…

L corner: Stéphane Cormary, Ludovic Hache and Agnes (photo by Miguel Angel Lorca); the ‘Abhinanda’ crew on the R

Besides the bands I remember Vique ‘Simba’ Martin was there. So were Nicole ‘Upsi’ Vokrouhlik (from Augsburg) – who was doing a mailorder/label and organised a festival – and her boyfriend Daniel… Volker Pohlschmidt (‘Steadfast’) most likely… Marco Walzel (‘Nothing Left To Grasp’, Speak So That I May See You zine); some of the ‘Doughnuts’ girls signed the guestbook; Albert Cheong from Barcelona (Heartcore zine) took pics… Alan Davis who did Train Of Thought zine (Bristol) was there… Also Nick Royles (Sure Hand recs, How We Rock zine and various bands)… Miguel Angel Lorca from Madrid came over with a friend. My correspondent Amanda Trevens (guitarist of ‘Timmy’ & ‘Huasipungo’) who was helping out Neil Ribonson at Tribal War recs (actually an internship, studying ‘music technology’), and volunteering at ABC No Rio (all in NYC) was in Europe (actually toured with ‘Scraps’) and visited… Some French non-SxE people came over aswell (which was great): Ludovic Hache (Ras l’Bol zine) and Agnes, Karl & Steph (‘6 Feet Over’). And a hell of a lot more… Olivier Lacoste (‘Öpstand’ singer, Bordeaux)?

There were also some people that tried to get to the Vort’n Vis but didn’t make it (unfortunately)… In his zine J’Ai Le Regret A La Joie Mélé #4, Gérome Desmaison (guitarist of ‘Peu-Être’ / ‘Alcatraz’) describes how him and his friend Mickaël ‘Mike’ Ramounet (vocalist in the same bands) took of hitchhiking from Niort/Poitiers (France) to the Vort’n Vis but got stuck (spending the night in gasstation along the highway) before reaching the border, somewhere between Paris and Lille… They returned home but decided to rent a van the next time…

Brob

audience (Wim ‘Blindfold’ centre); pic by Patrick Federli

I was at every ‘fest’ there in the 90s (I guess up until 2001) and all I can say, is that I always had the best of times. The first couple of times at the V.V. were the best. The yard, the stinky toilets, the little shop at the corner, playing football with the Swedish kids… The list is endless… Best of times and always the highlight of every summer!

Patrick Federli

We ended up at the Vort’n Vis because it was basically the place to be for red edge kids like us! ;-). I went from Marseille to Bordeaux to meet up with my mate Manu who was doing a red edge zine called Wolfpack. We took the train all the way to Ieper, that was a long fuckin’ ride! Ah ah and we sure didn’t regret it.

Frédéric Falzon

 

photo courtesy of Heath Crosby (Sherry Beth Sacks in the background)

Marco Walzel

see also: 94-08-19&20&21 Hardcore Festival * Italian impressions

additions wellcome!…

93-05-22 Fingerprint – Feeding The Fire – Congress – Part Of Me

A concert organised in conjunction with P.M.A. (Positive Mental Attitude) recs; the label that Hans Verbeke (‘Rise Above’, ‘Spirit Of Youth’, ‘Blindfold’, ‘Liar’) and U.J. (‘Dreft’, ‘Congress’, ‘Liar) did at that time…

‘Fingerprint’ from Paris were a ‘(scr)e(a)mo’ hardcore band with Nicolas Fisseau (vocals), Christophe Mora (guitar/vocals; also drummer of ‘Undone’), Thomas Guillanton (bass; also ‘Jasemine’ & ‘Ananda’) and Jérome Bessout (drums; also ‘Jasemine’). Their music was described as “intense and nerveous emocore, mixing fast and hectic musical parts with driving mid tempo ones”. They’d just recorded for the Surrender 7” on Christophe’s label Stonehenge recs. He also released the 7” We May Be Brothers the next year (recorded Oct ’93) and their discography on CD in 1996. When Nicolas quit, the other 3 kept playing (with Christophe singing) as ‘Jasemine’.

‘Feeding The Fire’s Roger, Rob, René, Har & Illona were regulars here (91-12-21, 92-04-18, 92-09-05, 92-10-10, …); to some almost like family. As you can read in the guestbook: they were heavily into international socialism… The flyer mentions the possible presenation of their 1^st 7” No Submission. It was recorded January of that year and released by Burt & Michiel from ‘Man Lifting Banner’ on their label Red Wax recs. I reviewed it in Tilt! #8 as follows : >> Mostly superfast and grindy SxE HC; a bit of a mix between ‘Lärm’, ‘Man Lifting Banner’ & ‘Nations On Fire’. Features ‘Metal Molly’ Illona and Har ‘The Clown’ on guitars. This little record rocks like hell. <<

‘Congress’ apparently considered this their 1^st “good gig” (after 93-04-25)… Don’t know if Pierre already did vocals here instead of Roy…

Can ‘t recall what ‘Part Of Me’ sounded like or who they were… Their first gig apparently.

Brob

Might be the first time I ever saw ‘Congress’…? They just had a demo out I think. Not as cult yet as they became later on. ‘Part Of Me’ was a very young band, the new generation from our scene down South in the Netherlands.

Rob Franssen, ‘Feeding The Fire’ vocalist

‘Part Of Me’ was a band from Simpelveld (not far from Kerkrade, in Limburg). Jean-Paul [Frijns; later bass in ‘Birds Of A Feather’] (Value of Strength zine) was their singer, together with 3 kids from Simpelveld. I can vaguely recall they went on as ‘Backdraft’ [see 94-08-20] without J-P but with Rob (‘F.T.F.) as vocalist and Illona (‘F.T.F.’) on guitar…

Roger, F.T.F. bassist

‘Fingerprint’ often played with sXe bands whereas we were not sXe ourselves (2 members were, actually…). I can’t count how many time I’ve seen ‘Shortsight’, ‘Blindfold’ or ‘Congress’ on stage… I never shared a single word with all these dudes… Except when one of them was behind the bar: “A beer please! Thank you!”… And it was always the same… We always spoke with Bruno and … Brob! I was glad to meet you when we played at the Vort’n Vis… We were really excited to play this show with ‘Feeding The Fire’. We really were into their fast, brutal HC. We were glad to share the stage with them. Not that they were a hype or something but they played like no other bands. I remember that we shared equipment with all the bands playing that day. Jérome, our drummer borrowed his double kick pedal to the ‘Feeding The Fire’ drummer… During their set, the singer said something like “This show is for my sXe friends…” and looked at us with ‘the eye of the tiger’ which meant kind of “You’re not one of them.”, while I was with some friends, drinking our beers quietly watching and enjoying their set from the bar. We were kind of upset… and amused; I said to Jérome: “They would deserve that we get on stage and get the double kick pedal back.” with a blink of an eye, then we cheered and sipped our beers again . But the show was great and we had a good time though. To us it was fun to be inside this Belgian sXe thing in a way… It was our ‘New Jersey’. In the mid 90s, Belgium was the centrepoint of the sXe movement, we were OK to be a part of it through this kind of funny events (after all)… I don’t remember the two other sets [93-09-17 & 94-04-23]…

Thomas Guillanton, ‘Fingerprint’ bassist

‘Congress’, I think, was really awful at the show and the demo sounded pretty bad. But they became really tight and powerful especially when their new singer took over the mic. Great band… ‘Feeding The Fire’ was great as usual.

Peter Hoeren, Crucial Response recs

We did our very first show with ‘Part Of Me’ at the V.V. Later I played there with ‘Backdraft’ and ‘Feeding The Fire’.

Kay Roderburg, bassist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

92-09-05 Ironside – Strong Event – Blindfold – Shortsight – No More – Feeding The Fire – Spirit Of Youth

1^st day of the 1^st Ieperfest

(2^nd day: 92-09-06 Abolition – Nations On Fire – Strength Of The Will – Inner Circle – Agent 86 – Punishment Park)

‘Ironside’ were a vegan sXe metalcore outfit from Bradford. Nick Royles (drums; ex ‘Sore Throat’ & ‘No Way Out’ 90-08-25) was in the band; along with Andrew Wright (guitar; later in ‘Unborn’ & ‘Voorhees’; R.I.P.), Doug(las) Dalziel (bass), Tom Chapman (guitar; later in ‘Kito’, ‘Baby Harp Seal’, etc.) and Richard ‘Rich’ Armitage (vocals; later in ‘Voorhees’). They had just recorded for the Neutered Innocence tape that Nick released on his label, Sure Hand recs, and they were about to put out the Fragments Of The Last Judgement 7” (on Ian Simpson/ Helene Keller’s Subjugation recs; 1993). Rich Armitage (somewhere on the internet) wrote: “We played in Belgium in ‘92 and blew away all the ‘88 straight-edge kids there, which laid the foundation for the H8000 thing. No one was doing slow, chugging metal with deep vocals and no recognizable straight-edge lyrics at the time, except ‘Ironside’.”…

‘Ironside’ photos by Helene Keller (Subjugation recs)

Not really sure but I think ‘Strong Event’ (from Mulheim in the Ruhrpott area) was the band of drummer René Natzel (who was also in ‘Inner Circle’ and ‘Feeding The Fire’ – see 92-10-10 – and did Common Goal zine) before he started ‘Spawn’…

I think this was the 1^st time ‘Shortsight’ performed with Saskia singing. Can ‘t recall if guitarist Françoise ‘Hazel’ Lepers was in the band then; the rest was David ‘Mong’ Dumont (guitar), Björn Lescouhier (drums) & Kurt Deprez (bass). There was an incident with smokers when they played… (Dutch-speaking people can read about it on the excerpt from Edward’s zine Dorst #1, below)

Saskia ‘Shortsight’ (on the cover of Dorst #1)

‘Shortsight’ (photo by Christophe Mora)

‘Blindfold’ had just come back from a tour with ‘Onward’ (see 92-08-09)… Their Sober Mind Meditation 7” was recorded right after this fest and was to be released on Warehouse recs (that Edward Verhaeghe did together with Jeroen Lauwers). The band had a steady line-up with Jan Maelfait on bass (meaning he had to perform twice that day)…

‘Blindfold’, photos by Jean-Paul Frijns

With ‘Spirit Of Youth’ playing aswell, there was a total of 4 (more or less) local SxE bands… The month after this, they recorded the 7” The Abyss (released by Crucial Response recs). The line-up (see also 92-08-09) that day was: Jan Maelfait (vocals), Dominiek Denolf (guitar), Frederik Denolf (drums) and Ignace Demeyer (bass).

‘Spirit Of Youth’ – Frederik & Ignace

‘No More’ had already played here (92-05-24). They were from Luxembourg (the country, not the Belgian province). A political HC band consisting of Claude ‘Pattex’ Werer (guitar), Fränz Laureys (bass), Steve ‘Diff’ Differding (vocals) & Mike ‘Schof’ (93) (drums). See also 93-03-28.

‘Feeding The Fire’: Not the first time, nor the last time they were here: 91-12-21, 92-04-18, 92-10-10, 93-05-22, 94-08-21 & 96-05-12. Emphasizing the strong connection between some people… Léon Kleikers (guitarist of ‘No Sense’) stood in on drums here. He also did that for the ‘F.T.F.’/’Man Lifting Banner’ tour…

Brob

‘Strong Event’ were: Frank Fürtjes (vocals), Corinna Pliska (guitar), Uwe Käufer (guitar), René Natzel (drums) and myself (bass). ‘InnerXCircle’ (later ‘Spawn’) started as an project of this band.

Holger Andt

That day I met most of the Bradford guys, like Nick [Royles] and Tom [Chapman], etc. for the first time. ‘Ironside’ were hard as fuck. Their singer looked like a psycho. Turned out to be a real nice guy. They made quite an impression. Heyday of the first generation H8000 scene.

Rob Franssen, ‘Feeding The Fire’ singer

I visited again [92-07-25 & 92-08-09] for the Ieperfest. (Wasn’t that the very first time that fest took place…?) At least for the Saturday: I had school on Monday and couldn’t stay for the Sunday. The feeling on the first day of school after that summer was incredible. I actually just started in fall 1992 with my English lessons and picked up so fast, but not because of the teacher or the lessons but because of what I’d learned reading in lyrics and fanzines, and writing letters. Brob and me kept a somewhat regular correspondence since then until the summer of 1995. We met again for the fest in the summer of 1996, but the atmosphere at the fest was different and I was aswell; that was my last visit to the V.V. I visited the place (which was a pub) in early spring 2008 and early summer 2009 during field-trips with students of the University of Essen & the University of Siegen, respectively. I never saw the new V.V.

Jörg Jacoby, visitor from Saarbrücken

A couple of quick facts… ‘Ironside’ were never explicitly “vegan straight-edge” and certainly not metalcore. ‘Ironside’ was a straight-edge band. I really enjoyed that trip to Ieper, as I knew I was gonna be living in Lille in France in the near future. I was really keen on the whole Euro music scene and so for me it was great to meet people from ‘Nations On Fire’, ‘Spirit Of Youth’, ‘Feeding The Fire’, Jean-Paul [Frijns] from Value of Strength zine, some of the Lille people, etc. The scene was so much bigger than in the UK it seemed although in the UK the straight-edge scene was much smaller and less insular. We had a great time, going to the swimming-pool, watching a lot of bands that weekend…

In 1992 I lived in Lille, France for one year as part of my studies. I spent a lot of time travelling to Belgium, staying with the ‘Spirit Of Youth’ guys, hanging out with Ed, Bruno, Jeroen, UJ, Hans, etc. Also some of the Lille/ Roubaix/ Mouscron guys like Pierre ‘Six Feet Over’, etc.

As I commented [see link on top] I am sure there were plenty of people there whose intentions were misguided – whether it was just to make as much money, or young kids who were full on straight-edge vegan one weekend and turned back to a conservative lifestyle the next, and obviously didn’t look beyond the surface of what was going on…

Tom Chapman, ‘Ironside’ guitarist

>> With my twenty-first birthday looming in September 1992, I was where I always had been: restless and skint, devoid of potential fellow voyagers and lacking the guts and information to go it alone. But then there was Belgium – how hard could it be to travel there, to go to the first hardcore festival in Ieper? Was I just going to give in to my mates who didn’t want to go to it, or in fact go anywhere beyond their crap summer-jobs. So Belgium wasn’t Bolivia but it was a start, and it was a music festival and how cool would it be that I had been while other guys hung about the UK that summer? So I bit the bullet and got in touch with a guy called Jase [‘Step One’ Fox] from Manchester who was going too and together we headed over to Belgium. He had sorted staying with friends in Ieper so I managed to blag myself on to that ticket and got to stay with some lovely people in Belgium who were part of the beating heart of the hardcore scene there.

It is difficult to convey now how boundary-breaking it felt to travel abroad on my own – well at least emotionally on my own, not knowing my travelling companion very well. It all seems a bit silly now what with books and internet resources so readily available, but at the time I didn’t know that things like the Lonely Planet guides existed, which would tell how you how to get to a place and find somewhere cheap to stay. As far as I was concerned you had to buy a ticket for somewhere and hope for the best that you could figure it all out when you got there in your best pigeon version of the local language. All that to me – and to others where I came from – seemed a bit scary in the early nineties. I guess some of us just weren’t destined to be the world’s greatest (budget) explorers! At the time of my little jaunt to Belgium, it was quite a talking-point for the neighbours back home that I had just swanned off to the ‘continent’ on my own when most of us didn’t go much further than Bournemouth or if we did, it was just a touch of Spain on a package!

The Ieperfest was fab. The sun shone, there were loads of new people, bands, distros from right across Europe and of course many records to absorb and vegan food to devour – spaghetti I recall. There we go again, I can remember what I ate nineteen years ago but I’ll struggle to remember which bands played. ‘Shortsight’, ‘Feeding the Fire’, ‘Blindfold’, ‘Ironside’, ‘Spirit Of Youth’, that’s the best I can do! I don’t know if it was in part a consequence of the sun shining, compared to a dour and sour Yorkshire, and there being lots of people from around Europe having lots of super friendly conversations, but the whole event and the community gathered there seemed to simply ooze positivity.

Maybe it was just because it was all new to me but things seemed definitely different to back in the UK. For one thing – and this really stood out for me – there was a mini manifesto on the gig-flyer [perhaps this: Fast music doesn’t mean violent dancing] about violence and violent dancing not being tolerated, and this was something that the guys there really held fast on. I had never been to a gig like this where was so much good natured dancing going on, where everyone felt safe and looked out for with zero posturing. A couple of hundred people were crammed into the café, watching the bands and there was lots of fun stage-diving going on and people hoisting others into the air to surf the crowd. Secondly, the pleasure and openness with which people met each other for the first time, and the thirst for conversation, information-sharing and political discourse. It felt like everyone was bursting with ideas and political perspectives they wanted to share. I met some really brilliant people there, from which I took much inspiration home with me. Also just as exciting was the recurring references by the bands to the tediousness of sexism in life but also closer to home in the scene. But best of all was seeing some of the coolest girls rock out in the bands, and even better was to come in that I would eventually have the privilege of releasing some of their work on the next Subjugation record.

But back to 1992. It was a bit scary being there on my own, a kind of strange British waif and stray amongst large groups of friends who rubbed along with an easy and gentle bonhomie. I am not very good at being the kind of creature who finds it easy to impose themselves upon someone and their circle of friends. I really didn’t know Jase, who I travelled over with, very well and was keen not to be a social burden to him. At this time I didn’t really know the guys from ‘Ironside’ and they always looked a bit scary to me so I was way too shy to barge my way into their gang and they didn’t exactly rush my way either to save me from being the lonesome British girl there! So I just had to get on with it, trying to look nonchalantly cool and OK about being totally on my own, reading zines and killing loads of time between bands while being completely out of my social depth!!

Zines being sold at gigs…to me that was one of the best things ever and probably not for the reasons you think. They saved my social dignity on many occasions! In the early days there weren’t too many girls at gigs and I think most of us felt pretty awkward being a minority – an alien being on the landscape, often finding ourselves behaving like wall-flowers on the periphery of the gathering – even if this was contrary to our ‘normal’ personalities. We often failed to reach out to each other while an easy bonhomie flourished between the boys, powered it seemed to me by talk of record-collecting and being in bands! The boys didn’t seem to want to engage with us very much at gigs. On a lot of occasions the most I could get out of them was a “Hello, how are you…”, without much enthusiasm for any further follow-up and inclusion! My favourite scenario was when I used to go up to a group of guys who weren’t complete strangers to me and say the usual “Hello, how’s it going?…” hoping to join in and hang out and they would all go quiet and look awkward… I can laugh about it now but at the time it was terrible. It was like always being the new kid at school that people are polite to but you can’t be arsed to try with and let into your gang! It meant that there was often a lot of time to be killed on your own and so you needed strategies to help you stop you looking like a total pariah. This is where zines came in and saved me! So three cheers for zine-writers – the unsung heroes and heroines of the socially excluded at gigs!! On several occasions over the years I have tried to fathom why I wasn’t allowed to hang out with the same ease as those guys who were new to our local scene or visiting. The answers generally fell into two categories. Firstly I was someone’s girlfriend and that made people feel weird about approaching and including me. The second category is that they were frightened of me. This was nicely summed up some years ago by one member of ‘Bob Tilton’, confessing that he only had the guts to speak to me freely when he was drunk. There is a possible third category – that is I am tedious, but my friends promise me that I am not and just maybe they are right, as they have at least stuck with me for a decade or two.

Once again, back to 1992….so I probably did a lot of zine-reading at the Ieper festival but I could couldn’t hide away forever. I now ran a record-label and responsibilities to face up to, like shifting the 500 ‘Strength Alone’ records sat in Ian’s house in Darlington and more immediately the ones I had with me. I had to be brave and bold, and try and trade or sell them to the distros at the festival. I dread to think what they thought of this timid little thing trying to thrust my meagre offering on them. I also remember sitting there on my own with my little box of records, next to the big distros trying to sell them… Ah bless me. I totally thought the guys from ‘Ironside’ must be so laughing at me. I felt very small but nothing ventured nothing gained…for me the fight back against the under-valued and minority-status of women in hardcore-punk had to begin with trying to sell 50 ‘Strength Alone’ 7”s! And you know what…I did it, I got rid of them and came back with contacts for the major distributors in Europe. If first base is pressing a record, then second base is working with European distributors and I was on my way.

The Ieper festival was an opportunity to see ‘Shortsight’ and ‘Feeding the Fire’ play, both of which had female members in the band – Saskia, the vocalist in ‘Shortsight’ and Ilona, the bass-player [guitar actually] in ‘Feeding the Fire’. They seemed like warrior-queens, leaders of a tribe that were out numbered twenty to one, shouting “bring it fucking on”. I was in awe, not only of them but the friends they had that had the where with all to help them take their place centre stage. Being in Ieper was also an opportunity to meet Hazel, who was way ahead of the rest of us in breaking the mould, having played bass in the Belgian straight-edge band ‘Nations On Fire’. I also met up with a really cool woman over from Canada called Mel [Melanie Gauthier, from Toronto] who wrote a straight-edge fanzine [Seen Not Heard]. It was pretty exciting to be, for the first time, around other women who were trying to make their presence felt in the straight-edge/hardcore scene and start to share experiences and find common cause. It is very liberating to come to the realisation that what you considered to be personal deficiencies are in fact systemic: you are not totally crap, the environment you are in skews your chances significantly in favour of being perceived as crap! The rush of oxygen to the brain when you finally work this out is quite something. It doesn’t make walking up to a group of guys to try and trade records any less daunting but at least you haven’t beat your self up too much before you try!!

With Jase I was staying at Hans’ house, who was the guitarist in ‘Blindfold’ and ran P.M.A. recs. For those of you that like your band-member facts, he eventually went on to be in ‘Liar’. Also staying over at the house was the ‘Feeding the Fire’ crew (Rob the singer went on to be in ‘Born From Pain’). I remember hanging out with them after the night ‘Ironside’ had played the festival, laughing at the impressions we were all doing of Arm’s, (the singer of ‘Ironside’), slightly scary stage-persona.

I was also probably trying to impress them with my world-domination plans for Subjugation, which frankly boiled down to trying to put together an Animal Rights benefit compilation 7”. We had been in touch with various bands over the summer and it was pretty much coming together. Signed up were ‘Feeding the Fire’ from Holland, ‘Shortsight’ from Belgium and ‘Struggle’ from San Diego, who had just released the most amazing 7” on Ebullition recs, and a track on the compilation 12” Give Me Back which was a benefit for Women’s support-groups. To get them on board was totally brilliant. Again for those of you who like band-member facts, ‘Struggle’ included Justin Pearson who went on to be in ‘Swing Kids’ and ‘The Locust’. […]

Feeling buoyed up and a bit giddy by what I achieved at the Ieperfest I made my way back to the UK. ‘Ironside’ were on the same ferry crossing as me. I said “Hello” without sounding too squeaky and secretly hoped that they would kind of indicate that it was cool for me to hang out with them for the four hour crossing, but sadly they didn’t, so I did my best impression of cool independence and sauntered off to get coffee, hiding my disappointment that I wasn’t getting the chance to hang out with the über-cool Nick Royles, the drummer of ‘Ironside’. Ian Leck (the singer of ‘Steadfast’/’Voorhees’) did find me later in the café and joined me for some chit-chat, which was a welcomed charitable act that I have clearly remembered for the last twenty years! The initial tepid relations between myself and Bradford boys was later in part explained by the unearthing of a snake in our midst’s! Someone was peddling tales and creating general mistrust been the Leeds and Bradford posses. In the following months the perpetrator was unmasked and confronted and the outcome of this was to be some cool collaborations between us all on gigs and record releases, general good times and an enduring friendship between Nick and I. It is shame that the petty power-games of this one individual prevented the cool stuff happening all the sooner, but I guess such games are all part of the rich pageant that is human relationships… <<

Helene Keller, Subjugation recs (subjugationrecords.wordpress.com)

the sisterhood (Helene, Hazel & Saskia)

review in Tom De Pauw’s zine HolyHardcore #2

review in Wim Vandekerckhove’s zine Reminder #2

additions wellcome!…

96-05-12 Feeding The Fire – Kindred – Shaft – Resist The Pain – Sektor – Voices At The Front

That must have been one of the last ‘F.T.F.’ shows ever. ‘Born From Pain’ started a year after that and I know there was almost a year in between.

Rob Franssen, ‘Feeding The Fire’

‘F.T.F.’s trail through the V.V. history is quite impressive: 91-12-21, 92-04-18, 92-09-05, 92-10-10, 93-05-22, 94-08-21 (and perhaps other visits…); illustrating the tight relation between some V.V.-collaborators and the Ducth Limburg HC-scene… A bit before this, they recorded for the Crusade EP on the German label March Through recs. Wouter Alers did the bass on that one (replacing Roger; he played drums for ‘Born From Pain’). The rest of the crew was the usual: René Natzel (drums), Har(ald) & Illona (guitars) and Rob (vocals)…

‘Resist The Pain’ (announced on the flyer as a “local turbo XXX” (on some flyers the XXX was crossed out) – see below) did their first ever show here (though there are pics from 96-04-05, a birthday party). They were Steve Noyelle (bass; later ‘Lifecycle’), Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen (guitar, later ‘Spineless’, ‘Congress’, etc.), Vincent ‘Murph’ Merveillie (vocals; later ‘S.O.Y.’) & Jan Volckaert (drums).

‘Sektor’ (from “Beseloare”; Beselare, a village near Ieper) was a H8000 vegetarian straight-edge metal-core band. They 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). The line-up was ‘Lenny LadyLover’ (bass), Bert ‘BabyNipples’ Guillemont (drums), Piet ‘Pete’ Cardoen (a.k.a. Mousti; guitar), Vadim ‘KarateKip’ Vandekerckhove (guitar) and Jeroen Therry (a.k.a. KungFu Mike; vocals).

‘Voices At The Front’ (from Poperinge) were added to the bill… After ‘Settle For Less’ (with Jurgen Desmet on bass, Tom De Pauw on drums and Jeroen Lauwers & Nathalie D. singing), my mate Vik Bulik (vocals; he played guitar in ‘S.F.L.’) started ‘Voices At The Front’, an SxE band. They’d done a few shows supporting ‘Congress’ (’96-03-03 @ ‘Kompas’ in Sint-Niklaas) and ‘Liar’ (96-04-14 @ ‘Mouterij’ in Deinze) before. So Vik – described as the “ideal straight-edge kid, bleached hair, X -ed up, Youth of Today shirt” was singing. Also in the band: “The coolest drummer from H8000, Gaëtan [Golvet], a coloured guy with incredible skills…”. Vince [Vincent Theeten] on lead-guitar, “new-school influences but with a metal touch; inspirer of the funniest fanzine from that time, Strike One!”. Sim [‘Simtje’ Meersseman] on bass… “Played almost every show in a bright-orange XXX shirt, bleached hair, krishna-beads…” 2^nd guitar: Stefaan ‘Merel’ Merlevede (R.I.P.; Vincent’s cousin). (internet-quotes by ‘Murph’ ‘R.T.P.’)

‘Kindred’ was an SxE outfit from Limburg (metallic style of HC, often compared with ‘Unbroken’) with Jan Beckers (guitar) and Maarten Beckers (drums) – Jan was in ‘Acoustic Grinder’ (see: 93-02-27) & both in ex ‘Strength Of The Will’ (92-09-06, 93-09-19 & 94-08-19); later ‘Facedown’, ‘Enemy Of The Sun’, ‘Kabul Golf Club’) – Eric Sefton (vocals) & Walter Beckers (bass). Raf Gielen still played 2^nd guitar here. They did an LP for GoodLife recs that year (File 01). They would be back for the Ieperfest in summer… A split with ‘Culture’ got out in ’97.

Raf Gielen in One Step Down #3: >>We started from the remains of 2 bands that split up: the one was ‘Churn’ (where I was in together with Jan & Maarten) and the other was ‘Forewarn’. Since we played a few shows with them, we asked their singer Eric. […] The show was kinda cool and we got some reactions of people that supported us.<<

No idea what ‘Shaft’ was about… But ‘Dompie’ got me on track: the members were Miguel De Paula (bass), Adam Borosch (drums), Michael ‘Mike’ Cordas (lead guitar), Arthur Galenziok (guitar) & Dirk Jochums (vocals). There were some flyers where their name was crossed out so perhaps they didn’t even play…?

Brob

‘Shaft’ did a 7” called Taskmaster [Brob: Actually a mini-CD…also a self-titled 7” on Stormstrike and a split-7” on Alveran recs]… We (‘Solid’) played with them in their hometown… They played a brutal H8000 style [“death-metal/metalcore”; the CD was recorded @ Midas studios].

Dominiek ‘Dompie’ Denolf

‘Voices…’ played a cool show, allways had a good response, were cooler than most of the bands that came from the H8000 at that time.

‘Murph’ (somewhere on the internet)

I do remember this as our first or one of our first shows with ‘R.T.P.’. Good line-up… We were incredibly enthusiast to do it because we were rehearsing at the Vort’n Vis and it was a great honour to be able to play there…

Vincent Merveillie

Vincent was vocalist for ‘Spirit Of Youth’ and drummer for ‘Kingpin’ & ‘Man’s Ruin’ later. Myself, I’ve played with ‘Spineless’ afterwards and from ’99 on with ‘Congress’. My last achievements were ‘Trenchfoot’ (cross-over à la ‘D.R.I.’, ‘S.O.D.’). Later Michael Maes joined as our drummer…

This was the first show of ‘Kindred’ in the H8000-area. A year later they were considered as an H8000-band, while they were indeed from Limburg. It was rather unusual then that non-H8000-bands were succesful in our region. It’s funny to see that bands that succeeded in this, were immediately labelled as H8000. The scene was growing exponentially. In order to be omplete I’m obliged to say that a band didn’t stand a chance if they weren’t SxE. I saw a whole bunch of fantastic bands pass by, that hardly anyone cared about, solely because the X on their hands was lacking. As a ‘member of the herd’ I have to plea guilty myself.

‘Feeding The Fire’ stood out because a girl was playing guitar. At the time that was (and still is) a curiosity in hardcore, which was mostly a ‘boys-thing’. The few girls that were present, were mainly there because they were the girlfriend of someone or as ‘trend-queen’… [Brob: ???!!!???; some women would disagree, I’m sure…] I believe that she was playing a BC-Rich ‘metal-model’ guitar – which was (also back then) rather not-done. Anyway, I didn’t like their music too much. Rob, now of ‘Born From Pain’, was singing.

All in all most people attending, came to see the local bands. ‘Voices At The Front’, with Vik, played a home-match and ‘Sektor’ was the new hype. Lyrics were about the meat-industry and drug-abuse; and the songs dedicated to the scene, organisers and … SxE… Very original…

Pedro Fioen

Vincent was replaced by Clovis ‘Vez’ Segers [later ‘Congress’] and Jan by Michael Maes [‘Link’, etc.]…

Steve Noyelle

Unfortunately none of the pictures I took remain: regretably I had to throw them all away, because of water-damage.

Steve Lammertyn

extras:

96-05-12 Voices At The Front – Resist The Pain (photos)

96-05-12 Feeding The Fire – Kindred – Sektor (photos)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

92-04-18 Born Against – Feeding the Fire – No Sense – A.M.D.

artist’s impression of ‘No Sense’

‘Feeding The Fire’ were a political straight-edge band from Dutch Limburg (Kerkrade). Burt & Michiel of ‘Man Lifting Banner’ released their No Submission 7” on their label, Red Wax recs (in 1993). The line-up was (I think) Rob Franssen (vocals), Roger (bass), Dennis ‘Crustbus’ Niesing ? (drums; René Natzel played on the 7″), and guitarists Illona Stephan & Har(ald) Brosselt. (see 91-12-21)

Also ‘No Sense’ were from The Netherlands’ ‘deep south’… Eric Hellebrand’s (bass) favourite bands are ‘No Means No’ & ‘Victims Family’ so you get an idea of how they sounded… Also in the band: Har(ald) Brosselt (vocals; guitar for ‘F.T.F.’), Roy Moonen (drums) and Léon Kleikers (guitar). A few months after this they would record their 7” Ruminating Small Fry.

A month after their 1^st passage ‘Born Against’ was here again… Saying goodbye to their tour-mates (‘Nations On Fire’) and us…. (92-03-08)

‘A.M.D.’ (‘Anti Military Demonstration’) from Budapest, Hungary were (at that time) Sotar (vocals), Lörke (Sandor Fuleki; guitar), Kiskovacs (Zoltan Kovacs; drums) and Sik Endre (bass)… Their music was metal-influenced HC/thrash and the lyrics were in Hungarian. The guys hardly spoke English, only the bassist… I’d gotten to know them via their Sucking Stalin tape in 1988 but they also had an LP out called The Horrors Of War, And Worse! (1991)… (For those who speak Hungarian go to amd-bphc.blogspot.com)

I was really sick and had a fever before the show which was gone afterwards. Bands like ‘Born Against’ and that whole scene marked the beginning for a lot of people (including us). We were being too politically correct for a while, unrealistic and very black and white about things. Obviously not saying people shouldn’t be political but it was a scene being against almost everything. We grew out of it fast luckily. It was a really good show and ‘Born Against’ were at their height back then.

Rob Franssen, ‘F.T.F.’

The second time I was at the V.V. I think for ‘Born Against’ this was the last one of their tour. I don’t recall much of the gig other than ‘B.A.’ were pretty intense. I didn’t know their records until then but was immediately blown away.

Cartsen Pötter, visiter from Frankfurt

The kick-pedal of the drum-kit was totally double-folded by ‘Born Against’s drummer…

Léon Kleikers, ‘No Sense’ guitarist

‘Born Against’ was an emotional wreck on that tour but looking back on most of the videos on YouTube, we played pretty well. And I do think we had a (hypocritical) point about the U.S. musical/style imperialism in Europe at the time that allowed us to tour [Brob: In my view ‘Born Against’ was totally different from the ‘imperialists’…], but also rewarded so many American bands who came over just for being American.

I am still in touch with Sam, saw Jon at a ‘Rorschach’ reunion show and I hear Bret’s doing AOK right now. I am happily living in Richmond, Virginia with my two daughters and wife Alyssa (she sang in ‘Disrupt’ for awhile). I run a jail education-program here and teach adult literacy and English as a Second Language.

Adam Nathanson, ‘Born Against’ guitarist

First of all, many thanks to Brob for persistently inviting us to stroll down memory-lane, a.k.a. harshly confronting us with a long-gone past, which we’ve been carefully moulding and polishing into semi-self-critical historical bliss. If you have young children, you know how often Lightning McQueen says: “Master, this did not happen”… Which leads me to quote Rob Franssen, who said in this blog: “… We grew out of it (being against almost everything) pretty fast”… Oh dear, how I envy your good memory. Mine must be totally distorted. Just like I seem to remember how ‘F.T.F.’ got the VortnVis gig in the first place. After years of lobbying, Bruno VdV and I had signed a contract in triplicate that ‘No Sense’ were going to play at the V.V., together with a German band we knew (seriously, I can’t remember their name right now but they were not straight-edge, they were not well known at all; they were amazing musicians and very nice people though). When Rob F. found out, he insisted that ‘F.T.F.’ deserved to play instead (picture Boris Becker with a tantrum and you get the idea); so that’s what happened. The German band didn’t seem to object very much. They were not political and felt that ‘Born Against’ would tear them to bits because of their apparent lack of political commitment. For those who know German, the phrase he used was “Die werden uns in der Luft zerreissen.”. I think he captured well how ‘B.A.’ were perceived and respected by many at the time. What impressed me most was their explosive sadness-driven (rather than the index-finger-we-know-what’s-good-for-you-lecturing attempts from the imperialist fleet) story-telling. It seemed very real at the time, certainly not hypocritical as Adam Nathanson seems to think. For our band ‘No Sense’, this gig was the absolute pinnacle in terms of crowd-intensity and joy-while-playing. I have fondly accessible rock-star memory snippets of being carried-by-the-crowd-while-playing but according to my V.V. guestbook-entry, I was more concerned with the quality of the sanitary facilities. ‘No Sense’ continued until early 2000s but gradually started to dissolve after I moved to grad school in ‘97. We all have successful careers, abandoned the ideals we never pretended to have and continue to have different opinions about whether ‘Kreator’s Pleasure To Kill is better than ‘Metallica’s Master Of Puppets.

Eric Hellebrand, ‘No Sense’ bassist

From Reminder zine (done by Wim & Chat’n ‘Blindfold’): >>‘Feeding The Fire’ is a communist band and they carry that out on stage. Rumour is they will get a new drummer. They should. The slow parts are heavy and moving, but the fast bits are too fast. ‘No Sense’ is fun-HC. Yes! The music is silly but (most) lyrics are serious. This made us go wild. We’d never heard of ‘A.M.D.’ before. They were good, musically. Social lyrics. Listening-music. But they played too long. ‘Born Against’ played the V.V. for the second time and it was the best. Last show of their Euro-tour and they gave everything they had left. A short but good set. The drummer let out his frustrations on the drum-set in a negative way; the only negative aspect of the show…<<

At first I couldn’t remember where the V.V. was and what happened at the gig; we did so many concerts those days and we did drugs… Later a few things came to my mind because we had only one concert in Belgium during that tour. That whole tour was managed by Esteban [brother of Macario (Alternativnoise)], a friend from France. We came from somewhere Germany and teased him on the way, because we got lost a lot of the time and arrived late, so tired and hungry. Sotar, the singer was disappointed because of the vegetarian food. He was mad about meat. I have good memories of the concert, the place and response. How can I forget playing with ‘Born Against’!? They did a very intensive concert – I listened to it with an open mouth. It was great( By the way, thanks for organising this, it was a real experience for an Eastern-European band that time. In ’87, when we started to play, we got no passports, so we couldn’t play abroad. Two years later things had changed here in Hungary, the borders opened, so we did lots of concerts between ’89 and ’94. Then in 1994 Sotar died, what overwhelmed us. With a new singer (Cséb) we did a new album (Túlélők, meaning Survivers) but it was somehow different than before. My drug-addiction also progressed and ‘A.M.D.’ started to fall apart. The band-members changed a lot. In 2005 – when I had been clean for a while – I was asked to play again. Until that time we just played concerts in our country. The members of ‘A.M.D.’ are the same: Kiskovács (drums), Sík (bass), Lörke (guitar); we asked our old friend Fido to play guitar as well. And we found a good singer: Seza. In 2012 we finished our new album. But because of families and work we have little time to play music. One of us is printer, the other is driver and I’m a social-worker, making music- and theatre-therapy. All ‘A.M.D.’ albums can be downloaded from our blog: http://amd-bphc.blogspot.hu

Lőrke, AMD’s guitar-player

gig-review (Reminder #1)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

92-10-10 Man Lifting Banner – Feeding The Fire – Blindfold – Shortsight

One of the best shows I’ve been to at the V.V. Saskia [Verbeke; ‘Shortsight’ singer] set it up and I helped her. Great concert; with an amazing ‘M.L.B.’!

Rob Franssen, ‘Feeding The Fire’ singer

A year and a half before this one, Smurfpunx already co-organised a benefit for the Anti Fascist Front at Netwerk in Aalst (91-03-03) with ‘Seein’Red’ & ‘Man Lifting Banner’ so I was already acquainted with the latter. The Vandenberg bros (Paul & Olav, guitar & drums for ‘Seein’Red’ but also ‘M.L.B.) and Jos had been mates since I organised ‘Lärm’ gigs around here and interviewed them for my zine (Lärm interview Tilt! #3). I’d gotten to know bassplayer Burt (Griffioen) because of the stickers he did for ‘Lärm’ and the artwork in their Definite Choice zine. I’d exchanged some letters with singer Michiel aswell and I think I already had gotten to know Big at the time I was booking bands at the squatted ‘Bank’ in his hometown Apeldoorn (where he helped Marcel Schilpzand).

‘Feeding The Fire’ were already regulars at the V.V. aswell (91-12-21, 92-04-18, 92-09-05). There was a special connection between the Limburg pack and the H8000 crew… So it was obvious that Saskia’s band ‘Shortsight’ and her brother Hans’ band ‘Blindfold’ played aswell…

‘F.T.F.’ pic courtesy of Jase Fox: Har(ald) Brosselt (guitar), Rob Franssen (vocals), René Natzel (drums), Illona Stephan (guitar)

‘F.T.F.’ photo by Jean-Paul Frijns: Rob Franssen (vocals), Illona Stephan (guitar) & Roger ‘NBH’ (bass)

‘Inner Circle’ (no not the reggae band), a straight-edge band from Germany, were new to me. Rob Franssen tells me they were named ‘Spawn’ by then already. (They changed their name in ’92 but the guestbook still mentions ‘Inner Circle’ and they were still announced like that on the flyer…) ‘Spawn’ did a split 7” with ‘F.T.F’ on Peter Hoeren’s Crucial Response recs. René Natzel (drums), Patrick Uhle (guitar) and Daniel Frankowski (guitar) were also in ‘Spawn’ (with vocalist Chris Van Dornick and bassist Dirk Zeiser). Don’t know anymore who Mike and Holger (probably ‘Inner Circle’s bassist) were who signed the guestbook…

Brob Tilt

‘Inner Circle’ changed their name because of the silly reggae-band connection. They had a different vocalist than ‘Spawn’: Mike Krajewski. If he’s in the guestbook then he was most likely singing. I was at the show but I can’t remember the details. Christoph indeed replaced him later and Dirk Zeiser replaced Holger on bass.

Michael Müller, Counter Clockwise zine

Concerning ‘InnerXCircle’: there was Patrick Uhlemann on second guitar and myself on bass. The guy that replaced me later on was Dirk Zeiser, indeed. Great times!

Holger Andt

Tom De Pauw and myself were stagediving [and others] so much [see pics] that ‘M.L.B. were complaining/ criticizing us!

Vik Bulik

L.S.C., the Last Struggle Crew was a militant leftist, socialist, politically oriented group straight-edgers from various countries; hence also the name Red Edge. It was more a reaction to various op militant straight-edge groups, mainly in the US, that focussed purely on straight-edge. Straight-edge was of course also very important to us but it was a part of a bigger, politcal setting.

Har, ‘F.T.F.’ guitarist

In October, I took Ian [Simpson; Helene and him both ran the Darlington record-label] with me back [Helene had been here on 92-09-05 & 92-09-06] to Ieper to see ‘Man Lifting Banner’ play at the Vort’n Vis. We bumped into Nick Royles, who had also travelled over for the gig. Without the huge amounts of people travelling and sleeping over for the summer festival, this trip was a great opportunity to get more time to talk and hang out with new-found friends in Belgium and from Holland. Although I now wince a little at ‘M.L.B.’ stuff, the gig was really great. I remember myself, Saskia, Hazel and Mel (from Canada who was still over in Europe) all at the front together, screaming “Empire!”. Felt like quite a moment at the time, being up front with a small crew of women, a vivid contrast to standing at the side of gigs in the UK watching men do their pushing and shoving thing!

Helene Keller, Subjugation recs (subjugationrecords.wordpress.com)

‘Man Lifting Banner’ rocked the house… great show! Bart was drawing classic ‘Colt Turkey’ cartoons all the time. ‘Inner Circle’ (pre-‘Spawn’), ‘Feeding the Fire’, ‘Shortsight’ and ‘Blindfold’ were energetic too. In these days the European hardcore scene was blooming. Great memories.

Peter Hoeren, Crucial Response recs

‘Man Lifting Banner’ (photo by Karl Penando): Paul – Olav – Michiel – Burt – Big (spot Françoise ‘Hazel’ Lepers, Jeroen Lauwers, Tom Chapman, Rob Franssen, Jean-Paul Frijns,… in the crowd)

Tom De Pauw crowdsurfing during ‘Blindfold’s set (pic by Vik B.)

Jean-Paul Frijns crowdsurfing… (pic by ?; with Hans Verbeke, Jan Claus, Brob Tilt, etc. – & is that Willy Hiatus in front of the bar?)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…