H8000 DVD

interviews: Kristof Mondy, Vincent Tetaert / camera: Bert Degraeve

put on-line by Vincent Tetaert

(in West-Flemish, no subtitles)

1/ interview with Hans Verbeke (includes ‘Blindfold’ @ Vort’n Vis ’97)

2/ interview with Hans Verbeke (includes ‘Spirit Of Youth’ @ Vort’n Vis ’91 * ‘Spineless’ @ Ieperfest ’99)

3/ interview with Hans Verbeke (includes ‘Liar’ @ Vort’n Vis ’98?)

4/ interview with Joost Noyelle (includes ‘Congress’ & ‘Wheel Of Progress’ @ Joost’s bakery, Langemark ’92-93?)

5/ interview with Joost Noyelle (includes ‘Congress’ @ Dilsen ’95)

6/ interview with Dominiek Denolf (includes ‘Shortsight’ @ Joost’s bakery, Langemark ’92-93? * ‘Spirit Of Youth’ @ Vort’n Vis 92-12-20)

7/ interview with Dominiek Denolf (includes ‘Solid’ @ Beselare ’95? * ‘Spirit Of Youth’ @ Pedro’s garage ’97 * ‘Spirit Of Youth’ @ Vort’n Vis ’97)

8/ interview with Dominiek Denolf (includes ‘Nations On Fire’ @ Bissegem ’98 * ‘Spirit Of Youth’ @ Vort’n Vis ’97)

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!…

92-02-22 Blindfold – Right Direction – 6 Feet Over – Burning Fight

Another gig with a mix of locals/regulars (‘Blindfold’ from Menen/Kortrijk & ‘6FO’ from Duncercque; just across the border in France) and ‘newer’ bands… Organised by the Touch My Heart Crew (basically an invention of Ed of ‘Nations On Fire’; more or less the forerunner of the H8000 Crew); who were promoting smoke-free shows.

Karl and his mates (Steph Cormary, Pierre Anne & Fred) were regulars, yes: this was their 3^rd gig and they’d just been here (92-02-09) and their 1^st appearance (91-06-08) was only half a year before this one here. It must’ve been the time their tape was available and right before they recorded their 7” (in Brussels) to be released on Panx recs…

‘Blindfold’s members Wim, Hans & Chat’n were V.V. shitworkers at that time… The band steadily became a established value. They’d done a few gigs here already (91-12-21 & 91-12-31), recorded the Deprogrammers 7” and some months later they would go into the studio for another 7”: Sober Mind Meditation released on Edward’s label Warehouse recs.

‘Burning Fight’ (from Oostende/Koksijde) was a SxE band (with connotations to hardline & Hare Krshna). I remember this young kid (at that time) – from the Oostende area – who used to write me – Keith Hioco – was their bassist. On the pic I also recognise Ilja De Ceuleneire (later drummer of ‘Congress’; nowadays a.k.a. Ill Jay) on vocals and Joost ‘Josh’ Noyelle playing guitar… In an interview in Wim Vandekerckhove’s Reminder zine, there’s mentioning of a gig which was their very first one (they “only had 2 songs” and were “all a bit nervous”). That was with Yoeri ‘TMC’ (vocals), Frederic ‘Fre’ (Flameygh) (drums; later ‘Vitality’) and Ilja ‘DAC’ (guitar)… In an other interview I read somewhere (blog.rwhaf.net) Joost (‘Congress’) says: “I knew Fre ([techno] DJ Flameboy) and Keith Hioco from the ‘Burning Fight’ period. I was in that band, which also had Ilja on vocals (!). Their bassplayer quit so I asked UxJ to join. He said yes but didn’t like the drummer, so Ilja switched from mike to drums and we had to find ourselves a singer to move on.”.

‘Right Direction’ from Maastricht played metal-influenced hardcore. The band soon outgrew the DIY scene… In 1991 they put out 2 7”s: The Struggle Continues, and No Reason To Laugh (with Daniel Immekeppel on bass, Richard Bruinen (a.k.a. ‘Ritchie Backfire’ – R.I.P.) on drums, guitarists Chris Immekeppel & Maurice Gijsbers, and Dave Reumers doing vocals. Their album How Many More Lies would appear on Old World recs the next year; it featured Dominique Katjili on lead-guitar and Chris Immekeppel on drums. After that they released stuff on labels such as Lost & Found and Victory recs…

Brob

Photos (kind donation of Bart Verelst):

‘6 Feet Over’ (Karl – Pierre – Steph)

‘Right Direction’ (UxJx bottom L)

‘Burning Fight’ (Joost – Ilja – Fré – Keith)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

91-12-21 Crivits – Feeding The Fire – Shortsight – Blindfold – S.O.Y.

‘Crivit’s guitarist Jeff had visited the Vort’n Vis a while before and his wish (here expressed in the guestbook) was apparently readily granted…

A straight-edge matinee organised by P.M.A. recs (‘Positive Mental Attitude’; Hans Verbeke’s label) & ‘Above The Crowd’ (A.T.C.; Wim Vandekerckhove’s zine/project), and their friends/band-mates (most of them were also volunteers at the V.V.).

This was probably ‘Blindfold’s 1^st show at the Vort’n Vis. Wim Vandekerckhove (vocals), Sacha ‘Chatn’ Baelen (drums), Hans Verbeke (guitar) & Jan Maelfait (bass).

‘S.O.Y.’ played still with the ‘early line-up [see 91-06-08]: guitarist Dominiek ‘Dompi’ & bassist Frederik Denolf, Jan Maelfait (vocals) and Hans Verbeke (drums).

Also in their early stages were ‘Shortsight’; with David ‘Mong’ Dumont singing (the one and only time; later he started playing guitar), Björn Lescouhier (drums), Jeroen Lauwers (bass; also ‘N.O.F.’) & Kurt Deprez (guitar; later bass).

‘Shortsight’ (picture kindly donated by Bart Van Mulders, source unknown)

Besides these (more-or-less) locals, there were also bands from The Netherlands…

‘Feeding The Fire’ were friends with some people of the H8000 Crew (although I don’t think they were calling themselves like that yet). They came from Kerkrade (Limburg). Rob Franssen (nowadays in ‘Born From Pain’) was the singer, Roger (Connection X zine; together with Rob) played the bass, Dennis ‘Crustbus’ Niesing was still hitting the drums, and guitarists here were Illona Stephan & Michel Senden (also in ‘Point Of No Return’ with Rob & Roger) – Har(ald) Brosselt (also in ‘No Sense’) joined later.

‘Crivits’ from Rotterdam were Jeff van der Wal (guitar), Koen Westphal (drums), Dennis Verhiest (vocals), Edwin Verhiest (bass) & Marco (Mark) van Schouwen (guitar). They played energetic old-school straight-edge hardcore, in the vein of ‘Youth of Today’ and ‘Gorilla Biscuits’.

‘Gloves Of Destruction’ was kind of a project (don’t think they lasted long as a real band) with people from ‘F.T.F.’: Roger played guitar here, Rob bass and Har drummed. The other 2 guys in the band were named Joël and Angelo. Their ‘crew’ wore workmen’s gloves marked with big fat X-s. They were also mirroring themselves with ‘Seein’Red’ and ‘Man Lifting Banner’, hence the communist flag as backdrop…

Brob

Hans Verbeke also sang for a little while but I don’t think we did any shows with him. When he didn’t feel much like going on, he introduced [his sister] Saskia. Françoise ‘Hazel’ Lepers also joined on guitar later but she wasn’t on any of the recordings.

David ‘Mong’ Dumont, ‘Shortsight’

I did one show as the singer for ‘Shortsight’, and that was the legendary show at the Pits [Kortrijk] with ‘S.O.Y.’, ‘N.O.F., ‘Blindfold’ and ‘Shortsight’… [92-01-19] After that show I wanted to focus on one band instead of 3. So I quit both S.O.Y.’ and ‘Shortsight’, and we did a shitload of shows, tours and records with ‘Blindfold’ after that.

Hans Verbeke

Indeed I was in ‘Feeding The Fire’ (guitar) and ‘Gloves Of Destruction’ (drums). I remember that we (G.O.D.) handed out quite some construction-gloves with fat X-s to the audience [see photo]. These flew through the venue the entire concert. We even wore them while playing, what obviously wasn’t such a success…

Har, ‘F.T.F.’ & ‘G.O.D.’

This was one of the first times we played Belgium I think. ‘G.O.D.’, in which I played bass, was just a fun-project and this might even have been the only real show we ever played haha. I still remember that we were impressed by all the very young kids in the bands, especially ‘S.O.Y.’ which to us seemed 12 year-olds at the time (they might have been). It was a good time and the start of long and deep friendships with a good amount of new people out there.

Rob Franssen, ‘F.T.F.’ & ‘G.O.D.’

When ‘Shortsight’ started, I attended rehearsals every now and then but after a short while Kurt played guitar and Stephane Boens (‘Veggie’) on bass. In the mean time Jaak and I had gotten in a car-accident, and Edward was in L.A. for a couple of months; so ‘N.O.F.’ was in a quiescent phase. When Veggie left the band and I was up and about again, I filled in on bass for them; this here was the only gig. The week before this gig, Edward came back from L.A. and ‘N.O.F.’ was revived because the first lp was about to come out (myself I started my civil service). ‘Shortsight’ got rearranged: Mong picked up the guitar and Kurt the bass; Hans joined as vocalist. When things became too busy for him, Saskia joined for what would become the classic line-up. There was, however, a recording with Hans (4 songs, released as a demo on Warehouse recs and one song on the Regress No Way compilation 7”). Don’t know when Hazel joined but during the short summer-tour of 1993 (with ‘Blindfold’) she was in the band. Hazel didn’t stay that very long: on the tour with ‘Acme’ (summer of 1994) she wasn’t part of ‘Shortsight’ anymore. Björn has always been the drummer. ‘Shortsight’s last concert was in November 1994 (in Poperinge with ‘Blindfold’ & ‘Congress’ (organised by Vik).

The rest of this gig here brings up very little memories: very calm and all bands sounded the same… ‘Gloves Of Destruction’ was ‘Feeding The Fire’ plus friends, kind of a ‘Project X’ rough SxE outfit. ‘Crivits’ were nice people but unfortunately played very boring, typical SxE hardcore.

Jeroen Lauwers

Yep, I remember that show… A first cooperation with ‘Feeding The Fire’ singer Rob. I also remember that girl Illona on guitar… ‘Crivits’ was totally into ‘Gorilla Biscuits’; so obvious: the melodies and vocals were so much alike. Hans and me were smiling about how resembling they were :-). Don’t recall much of our own gig but I do about ‘Shortsight’ and ‘Blindfold’: they were excellent.

Dominiek Denolf, guitarist ‘Spirit Of Youth’

After playing a succesful gig at The Pits in Kortrijk we (‘Crivits’) thought we could take the Vort’n Vis by storm… We played this gig one day before recording our first ep but it wasn’t very good hahaha. I still remember this show as a day with lots of fun, lots of friends and a wise lesson learned… We bonded well with many people from the region, a day like that is always fun…nice people, good conversations, great gigs. What I also recall well, is that there was a tremendous hole in the stage… Great memories!!!

Dennis Verhiest, ‘Crivits’ vocalist

the bands were photographed by Bart Verelst (thanx a lot!):

‘Blindfold’

‘Shortsight’ (with ‘Veggie’ [R.I.P.] watching Jeroen’s every move attentively…)

‘Spirit Of Youth’

‘Crivits’

‘Feeding The Fire’

‘Gloves Of Destruction’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…