92-06-13 Kelly ‘Resist’s extra photos

More on this concert: 92-06-13 Resist – U.F.D. – Zero Positives – Hiatus (Bel)

Here’s a bunch of photographs taken and donated by Kelly Halliburton (‘Resist’ bassist):

‘Hiatus’; alternative line-up with Phill ‘Kill’ on bass

‘Hiatus’

L => R: Azill ‘Hiatus’, Chris Eagan, Chris Eagan’s girlfriend & Bruno Vandevyvere

L => R: some Canadian guy, Ty Smith [R.I.P.] (‘Resist’ drummer), Chris Rainier (a friend from Paris), Chris Eagan’s girlfriend, Chris Eagan & Bruno Vandevyvere

Chris Eagan; Desperate Attempt recs (Louisville, Kentucky)

Vort’n Vis courtyard with Roi (‘U.F.D.’ bassist) saying cheers, and (sitting down) closest to camera: Peter, (‘U.F.D.’ driver), Arno (‘U.F.D.’ guitarist) and Mark Landers (‘Resist’ roadie)

93-02-21 Citizen Fish – Hiatus – Blindfold – Shortsight – Behind The Smile

Benefit for an education-project in Indonesia (Kakak Asuh)… Sacha ‘Chatn’ Baelen (‘Blindfold’s drummer) (helped) organise(d) a couple of benefits for that organisation (also 94-04-23 & 95-03-25).

Brob

A friend of mine worked in Indonesia and supported the project there. That’s how the idea to do something for it grew. For a certain amount of money one could pay for a whole schoolyear for a kid, I remember. [“1.000 BeF (25 Euro) enables 1 kid to go to school for 1 year!”]

Sacha Baelen

When ‘Culture Shock’ (cultureshock.me.uk) folded (we had them playing for Smurfpunx; 88-05-13), Dick Lucas (vocalist; Bluurg recs) got back together with some of his old mates of ‘Subhumans’ to play ska-influenced punk with a touch of reggae: Phil Bryant did guitar and ‘Trotsky’ drummed. Jasper Patterson (who’d also been in ‘Culture Shock’) played the bass (see also 93-10-24) for ‘Citizen Fish’ (citizenfish.com). Getting home they would record the tracks for the split-7” with ‘AOS3’ and the summer of that year they went into the studio for the LP Flinch. Dick also released live recordings from 2 German shows (from Sep ’92). A few years before this I’d arranged a show for them in Liège (when they toured with ‘Cringer’) and I was looking forward to skank to their tunes…

Dick Lucas (photo by Martin Vantomme)

‘Behind The Smile’ were a French (Valenciennes) hardcore/punk band with my mate Arnaud Huftier on bass (he did Uprising Decay zine), Frank (drums; Laurent on the demo), Rudy (guitar) & Laurent (vocals; Christophe on the demo). They had a second guitarist, Pierre, on their 7” (but I don’t know if he was playing here). Their 1^st release was a tape entitled Suburban Wars. In 1992 the did a split 7” with the Fins of ‘Juggling Jugulars’ called A Wish To Dream on Sylvain Vilette’s Bad Card recs. They had played here already before (91-10-12)…

‘Blindfold’ started recording for their 1^st LP (Restrain The Thought) at Cats studio (Brugge) the next month and finished it in September. It was released by Mike Warden on his label Conquer The World recs.

Just as the band of her brother Hans (‘Blindfold’), Saskia Verbeke’s band ‘Shortsight’ played here quite a few times already. Since this was before the summer-tour 93-07 ‘Shortsight’ & ‘Blindfold’, Françoise ‘Hazel’ Lepers (guitar) was still in the band here aswell. All of them (the women plus bassist Kurt Deprez, guitarist David ‘Mong’ Dumont, drummer Bjorn Lescouhier) were also locals and Vort’n Vis ‘shitworkers’. That year their 7” Why Spend Time Learning was released (Conquer The World recs). I did an interview with them briefly after they’d split up (’94).

About a month after this gig ‘Hiatus’ (Ben on drums, Azill & Phil doing guitars, Willy growling and Fred Alabas on bass) were also in Cats Studio for the recordings of their album From Resignation… To Revolt (to be released on Sound Pollution recs). Their live set in Liège a few days later (93-02-26) was recorded and released as a benefit-tape for the ‘Flamands Roses’ by Eric W. ‘React’.

Brob

Did we play with ‘Citizen Fish’? I was a big ska fan at the time. Still like it but I’m more into political/poetic hiphop nowadays… This was probably the first time we met the local SxE-ers. Never has been a problem for me, even if many crusties or “fans” of ‘Hiatus’ had stupid prejudices about it; just as some SxE kids hated crusties. Looking back at it after so many years, one can only laugh about this childish bullshit. Some time later, I had an American girlfriend that lived in Berlin. We went to see ‘Blindfold’ (together with Jeroen ‘N.O.F.’) there and they gave us their crate of beer. Better than throwing it away, isn’t it?

Willy ‘Hiatus’

I recall a great show by ‘Hiatus’…

Kurt Deprez

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Herwin De Winter & Tim ‘Crow’ Shapland (ex ‘Zygote’; played bass in ‘Bad Influence’ around that time) travelled along…

additions wellcome!…

93-09-19 Eversor – Hiatus – Nations On Fire – Strength Of The Will

See: 93-09-17&18&19 5th Leed-festival (Intro & Incident)

After the rave the night before the day started with a breakfast…

Liège crusties (including Willy ‘Hiatus’) & Italian HC/punks (‘Eversor’) sharing the goodies (photo by Massimo Moscarelli)

Then gradually the ‘market’ started…

Probably the very first time that Jon ‘Active’ Elliott came over… / Alain of Nabate looking for trades (pics by Massimo Moscarelli)

This edition of the Leed festival was totally fucked up, the only reason why ‘N.O.F.’ played on Sunday was because Françoise [‘Hazel’ Lepers] and Wim [Vandekerckhove] came to my house to drag me along: I had no intention to come. Apparently a bus-load of Swiss chaos-punks thought it was a good idea to come up to Ieper that weekend and demonstrate the ‘Exploited’ version of anarchy. The whole Saturday they had been nagging about having no money to pay the entrance and that punk had to be free. But they did find it OK to drive their bus-wreck all the way to Ieper at 30 litres per 100 km and buy beer in the grocery-store around the corner. Just say that paying the entrance is not a priority in stead of lying not to have any money. Whatever, each hour things were getting less and less pleasant and by the evening they had picked out a few ‘victims’ to let he whole thing explode… Unfortunately for them, they had chosen Hans Verbeke as their target. Lesson # 1: never choose someone who will fight back without a problem and grew up in the streets… The “punks” started to hassle Chantal (Hans’ girlfriend at that time) so Hans grabs his baseball-bat from UJ’s car and wacks one of those guys over the head. This, of course, sets the whole thing ablaze with all crust-punks hearing that straight-edgers are beating up poor beer-drinking punks: total chaos. Hans and some of us walk in to the pub and barricade the door while some 20 rampaging and drunk crusties shouting murder and fire, trying to break down the door. Luckily the lads of ‘Doom’ were still sober and smarter than their adherents and drove Hans off in their van. Eternal thanks for that because otherwise things could’ve gotten really out of hand. While all this was going most people were in the big hall in the back. What I always disliked about this episode is that Bruno and Jan called this a minor incident, something to forget fast. Apparently it wasn’t necessary to remove the Swiss assholes or address the guys from ‘Hiatus’ who were on their side. It’s all a long time ago but it remains one of the all time lows of all these years at the V.V.

Jeroen Lauwers (see also the interview he did with Willy ‘Hiatus’)

‘N.O.F.’ played in their new line-up (announced in the newsletter). From April 1993 on that was: Wim Vandekerckhove (guitar; also ‘Blindfold’ vocalist’), Filip Devolder (who did the ‘Silent Water’ project/band; drums), Ed(ward) Verhaeghe (vocals) and Jeroen ‘Goofy’ Lauwers (bass).

‘Nations On Fire’ (photo by Massimo Moscarelli)

‘Eversor’, a band from Pesaro, started out as as a thrash metal-band in 1985 but by then they played heartfelt, melodic HC (they were compared with bands such as ‘Sensefield’ and ‘Lifetime’): Marco Morosini (bass), Lele Morosini (guitar & vocals) and Federico Sarti had replaced Enrico ‘Eric Lumen’ Giampaoli (drums). Later the brothers continued to play together in ‘The Miles Apart’. Marco also did a distro, called Cataclysm. The band came over again to play on 96-09-20.

‘Strength Of The Will’ had played here already on 92-09-06. Filip Staes (ex ‘Exhaustless Revolt’) played guitar, Jan Beckers sang, his brother Maarten played the drums. The bros were from the Tongeren area and Filip resisided in Hoboken, near Anwterp. The band disappeared when ‘Kindred’ started. Filip believes ‘S.O.T.W.’ played also with ‘Wheel Of Progress’ at the V.V. but I’ve no memories/indications of that.

After a “makeshift” ‘Hiatus’ (93-07-04), we got the ‘full blast’ treatment again. The set was probably mainly from the LP From Resignation…To Revolt, that was recorded in March (at Cats studio in Brugge) with Azill (guitar), Wills (vocals), Ben (drums), Phil (guitar) and Fred Alabas (bass). I think around that time Eric ‘React’ had the live split-tape (together with ‘Doom’; recordings from the gig at ‘La Zone’ in Liège 93-02-26) available. That was a benefit for the Flamands Roses [LGBTQIF]. The tracks for their split-7” with ‘Subcaos’ were recorded live in Brno (Czech Republic) on 93-06-20. 4 songs from the same gig were used on the Polish Bastards split-7” with ‘Fleas & Lice’ (Polish nazi skinheads attacked the band in Gdansk in June ‘93.) Their gig in Auch (France) on 93-08-17 was also recorded: Fred Jourdan put it out on tape (with live tracks of ‘Health Hazard’) under the name Don’t Think With Your Dick… Around that time there was also the split-7” with ‘Doom’ (Flat Earth recs).

Brob

I was on tour with ‘Eversor’ (‘Lumen’ wasn’t in the band anymore at that time, it was the Morosini brothers -Marco and Lele- and Federico). A rented van was our house. The day before they played near Stuttgart, then we travelled all the night toward Belgium. It was the longest travel of my life, like a journey to the moon. Distances were longer in those times. So we arrived at the place, I changed my T-shirt with an X-Force one (the comic) because of the X (as for SxE). But no one noticed it. I was just a guy with a comic T-shirt in a punk place. Absolutely no memory about the concert. I only remember the breakfast in the morning and the van that took the road towards home…

Massimo Moscarelli (Rome)

Playing at that fest was a big honour for us… At the time we were on our very first small tour abroad and the night before we played in Stuttgart with ‘4 Walls Falling’ so we drove all night to Ieper to be there from the very beginning. I remember many people from all over Europe and we were a bit scared to play after ‘Nations On Fire’ and ‘Hiatus’… Both bands had a killer live reputation. We took the stage to a smaller audience but still “big” for us at the time, and played a very tight set. Very few people knew us, our music back in that days was still crossover/thrash but I was suprpised a couple of people who were coming to see us, approached us. Of course we met Bruno for the first time… He was super nice as usual. I asked if we were supposed to do a soundcheck; he smiled and said “No soundcheck, this is a punkrock fest.”… I still remember it!!!

Marco Morosini, ‘Eversor’

additions wellcome!…

94-10-22 Hiatus – Insane Youth – Totaal Marginaal – Nahende Vernichtung – Skatta – Muffie Puffies – Convicts

Pure Chaos Tour (interview by Henk Loobuyck for Fifi #4)

The people who set this up called it the ‘Pure Kajos Tour’. It was meant to be a ‘benefit’ to gather some money for their ‘organisation’ to try and get an alternative for ‘t Clichée, a pub annex venue (where they’d done gigs for bands such as ‘Citizen Fish’, ‘Contropotere’, etc.) in Sint-Niklaas that got sold so they could no longer use it. The group was a loose collective mainly consisting of the people in the bands ‘Insane Youth’ & ‘Totaal Marginaal’. The bands playing here were all Belgian.

One of ‘Insane Youth’s many appearances at the V.V. First time was a month before at the Leed festival. Being from the Sint-Niklaas area and supporters of ‘t Clichée, they had to play here aswell, of course. The band consisted of Steve ‘Stiv’ Descamps (vocals), Thomas ‘Tomaz’ Van Rumst (bass), Jan ‘Fons’ Wuytack (drums; he replaced this guy named ‘Smet’) and Tim De Baere (guitar). Vanessa Hoskens was the 2^nd vocalist at some timepoint. Stef De Leersnijder (who’s in ‘Visions Of war’ with Steve nowadays) was briefly in the band aswell. Their music could be labeled as crust-core. At that moment they hadn’t released anything yet, I think. Nice guys with their hearts on the right place. Later they did a presentation in my zine Tilt! (#9) and I remember doing an interview for Profane Existence #35 with them…

‘Totaal Marginaal’ – another band from Sint-Niklaas – were Tim Audenaert (vocals), Wouter (guitar), Mieke (bass) and Pim (drums). They played punk-crust and did a tape entitled Abuse Of Music.

‘Nahende Vernichtung’ (“imminent destruction”; from Beernem) played “gruff, heavy, Swedish influenced; crust-core-punk”. Don’t know if the 1^st vocalist ‘Lazy’ was still in the band then. It might’ve been Rik & Paul singing. Second guitarist Wouter had left in ’92… I think the band here must’ve been Paul Lamont (bass, replaced Stefan; later ‘Hitch’, ‘Thee Plague Of Gentlemen’, ‘Waldorf’), Rik Vandenbruwaene (guitar) and William ‘Willie’ Maes (drums). In ’98 (after Paul quit) they recorded for a split-7” with ‘The Barjackers’. On the Vertigo 7” that Tim Leten put out on his label Filth Ear recs in the noughties, there was a new vocalist (Ward).

‘Muffie Puffies’ – from Lokeren – were the band of Christophe De Keukelaere (nowadays in an ambient duo ‘Tantrack’). He recalls: >> ‘Muffie Puffies’ were Klaas Arbyn (vocals); Joris de Fré (guitar); Michael Mauro (drums); Filip Van Pollaert (bass) and myself (guitar/vocals) offered own compositions such as Animals Have The Right To, Artificial World, Nuclear Waste, I’m Free… We also did Police State (a ‘Disorder’ cover). When we split up (around ’96), I started a solo-project – mainly crust/grindcore (some covers like Police Bastard by ‘Doom’ & Warsystem by ‘Anti-Cimex’. I still have rehearsal-recordings (tape) but the sound-quality is not that good… <<

‘Hiatus’ (Liège) line-up here was the one with Jonas on bass, besides Willy (vocals), Ben (drums), Phil (guitar) and Azill (guitar). The period before the release of the El Sueño De La Razon Produce Monstruos LP.

‘Hiatus’; photos by Wim De Leersnijder (1) & Piero Majocchi (2)

At that time ‘Skatta’ (from Antwerp) were Mukti Gabriels (guitar; later ‘Tachyon’, etc.), Zen Deklerk (bass), Mario ‘Junior’ Middendorp (vocals) and ‘Tile’ (bass). They played rough hardcore-punk with rather simple but direct lyrics (e.g. Bont Past Geen Mens; “Fur Doesn’t Fit Anybody”).

‘Skatta’; pics courtesy of Zen Deklerk

Around ’95 Zen & Mukti did a rap-project called ‘Antwerp Attitude’ (see tape-cover):

Can’t remember anymore who ‘Convicts’ were…

Brob

What I can remember from that concert is that we we were not too drunk and played a rather tight set. Later we played the Vort’n Vis on another occasion with ‘Hiatus’ and a band with a female singer (forgot the name, but I recall they did a cover of We’re The Kids In America [Brob: ???] …

Christophe De Keukelaere, ‘Muffie Puppies’

Pure chaos , that gig… Can ‘t remember much about the other bands. Some names sound very familiar though. I believe we regularly shared the stage with some of them. About our performance: that was in our ‘disguise’ period (haha) … Balaclavas and scarfs… Sweating like a horse!!! There was also some pretty ‘violent’ dancing going on… Gregor [‘Terror’ Engelen; plays in the ‘Antwerp Gipsy Ska Orkestra’ with Mukti nowadays] and Mad Fred [who used to be in ‘Brutal Society’, runs the autonomous centre Antifa-brick in Antwerp nowadays] were there, hehe, and that were their wild years! Anyway , we played damn hard and without compromise. The audience (the few that could handle it anyway) were merrily slamming into one and other, much to the dismay of the ‘nice’ fans. We just couldn’t be bothered then… Let’s say we held a pretty radical vision at that time… Perhaps still… ;-) Zen has great pics of ‘Skatta’ on stage (in full action and in full ‘regalia’)…

Mukti Gabriels, ‘Skatta’

I remember that period and that festival as being fantastic but to be honest nothing more than that. :-) Our demo was a DI.Y. release.

Tim Audenaert, ‘Totaal Marginaal’

The only thing I can remember is that we were pretty impressed by ‘Hiatus’, who played right after us. I left my distortion-pedal on stage then, so I think someone in ‘Hiatus’ went home happily. I believe we played in the pub, not in the ‘barn’ in the back. The gig went reasonably okay, even if I had to play on a hideously ugly white five-string bass because my own had gone to smithereens.

Paul Lamont, ‘Nahende Vernichtung’

‘Convicts’ were from Stekene, if I’m not mistaken… One thing I do know, is that Tim and I interviewed Willy ‘Hiatus’ upstairs (for the zine of an American friend of Tim), with wine and beer. Haaa the days ;-)

Steve, ‘Insane Youth’ vocalist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

90-09-15 Scraps – Seein’Red – Trespassers W – Hiatus – Exhaustless Revolt

This was the 2^nd Vort’n Vis Leed festival

“The 5^th band is a surprise!”… The Vort’n Vis notes mention ‘Exhaustless Revolt’. This young posi band from Antwerp – Filip Staes (guitar & vocals), Sven Bossant (drums) & Ivan Marien (bass & vocals) – came back to play on 91-05-03. They recorded their Think Now tape around that time…

‘Exhaustless Revolt’ (courtesy of Filip Staes)

I believe this was the first time my buddies Paul, Olav & Jos (Amersfoort) played at the V.V. but I had arranged gigs for them already with the Smurfpunx collective (89-04-16 & 90-02-17). Their first, self-titled 7” (with the guitar on T-shirt cover) had been recorded Aug/Sep ’89 and their first album (hands tied together with barbed wire on the cover) in June ’90 so I guess they played material from these. I can still imagine me shouting along: … “Shell! Send ‘em to hell”, “We flourish under oppression”, etc. I’m pretty sure their ‘crew’ (driver Emily, photographer Theun Koelemij and allround-nice-bloke Marcel Palijama) came along aswell…

‘Seein’Red’; picture taken by Ben ‘Sicko’ Cooper

‘Trespassers W’ (Rotterdam, NL) were an avant-garde/arty band that consisted then of Ronnie Krepel (bass), Peter Bos (drums), Lukas Simonis (guitar; also ‘Dull Schicksal’, ‘Morzelpronk’, etc.), Frank Van Den Bos (keyboards) and Cor Gout (vocals). Around the end of the 80s I got a few records sent by the Amsterdam label ADM (A Deaf Mute) recs for review. One of which was their LP Potemkin. Here’s what I wrote about it in Tilt! #5: >> Unpredictable is and adjective that fits their music. Both sides also differ quite a bit. Side 1 has 5 songs with still traditional song-patterns but also an unusual use of rhythms and instruments (violin/organ/…). Side 2 tells the story of Sovjet battleship [in their own words: “musically recreating Eisenstein’s classic film”] and is quite experimental … << The record came out in 1989 and was produced by Dolf Planteijdt (‘Morzelpronk’ & Joke’s Koeienverhuur studio). Around the same time they did a 7” entitled Macht Kaputt and in 1990 a French label put out their tape Aimez-Vous Trespassers W? …

‘Scraps’ (Lille, France) had been at the V.V. already eralier that year (90-02-24). The line-up at that time was David & Raph(ael) Dutriaux (vocals & guitar), Xavier (drums) and Tomoy (bass). They had abandonned the nihilistic drunk-punk for a more political/posutive attitude. They were gaining a lot of popularity in our area. The release of their Wrapped Up In This Society LP on Be Yourself recs (ran by 2 local scenesters Carl Levecke and Ghilain Vermeersch) certainly helped with that. The recordings took place a few months before this (May ’90). Lots of ‘locals’ did backing-vocals (most of them present here too, I think): Carl & Ghilain, Ed ‘N.O.F.’, Hans & Hazel (‘Rise Above’), UxJx, Leffe & Vrokker (‘Chronic Disease’), Spatje & Siesele (‘P.J.D.’), etc. The record came with loads of anti-fascist info. As a reaction against the raising fascism (the extreme right ‘Vlaams Blok’ in Belgium – see 91-03-03) and Le Pen and his Front National in France, anti-fascists started to get organised again in various groups. ‘Scraps’ were supporting the SCALP (Section Carrément Anti Le Pen). David & their friend ‘Kalimero’ (Stéphane Ll.) also addressed all this on their radio-show (Écrasons La Vermine; ‘let’s crush the vermin’) on the student-radio (Radio Campus) in their area.

‘Scraps’; photographed by Ben ‘Sicko’ Cooper

 

‘Hiatus’ (photos by Ben ‘Sicko’ Cooper)

The Liège bunch ‘Hiatus’ also performed here for the first time but I’d seen them play already in their hometown with ‘Sore Throat’ (90-05-06). Their demos (The Frightening Men’s Story; and In My Mind…) were recorded Aug ’89 and Apr ’90 (with Phill – Phil – Ben – Raf). Their untitled 7” (blindfolded man on the cover) that was released in 1990 by the French label Urban Alert recs (recorded Aug ’90) would be re-released as I Don’t Scare Easily But… on Nabate in 1991. The line up here would have been Phil (guitar/vocals), Ben Féry (drums), Azill (guitar/vocals; or was it still the other Phill?), Willy Nollomont (bass) and Raf (vocals). Raf disappeared soon after and Willy started doing vocals aswell.

Brob

I’m almost certain I was at this concert but I have no recollections of it… :-/ You mention Écrasons La Vermine – thanks for the compliment – but don’t forget to also mention the programme that David (‘Tonton Charogne’) did himself: Raw Power! The show lasted until ’92 I believe.

Stéphane Ll.

I can ’t recall anything about this. You should ask Cor Gout. Perhaps I wasn’t in the band anymore… However… There are some vague memories…

Lukas Simonis, ‘Trespassers W’

In 1990 I did play for ‘Trespassers W’ but my agenda says I was in Voorburg with my other band that day. No recollections. Cor Gout knows everything!

Frank van den Bos, ‘Trespassers W’

I know we played in a small pub. A street outside the centre? There was no P.A. but a vocal amp, which was sufficient for that space. The audience (twenty people ?) reacted quit well to our music. One individual knew some of our songs and was asking for them. Of the other bands, I only remember ‘Seein’Red’ from Amersfoort. I knew their single and was aware they played pretty fat-sounding anarcho-punk. I thought they were very good in their genre. Later (in 1991) I invited them for a session that we (3 members of ‘Trespassers W’) did for Lokatel in The Hague. I believe we received fl. 350 [€ 175] for the gig at the Vort’n Vis, what isn’t very much for such a long drive, but looking back we didn’t have any regrets to have come over. The atmosphere and welcome were good. And that’s what we were doing it for.

The Potemkin LP & the Aimez-Vous cassette have been released as double-CD (with extra songs) in the re-issue series of Megapop in France. The band stopped now [September ‘14]. Most of us make music with smaller bands. We just released our ‘swansong’ One-Sided Love Affair: 7 new songs on one side and none on the other (written for a concert at the Volkspaleis in The Hague, a year ago).

Cor Gout, ‘Trespassers W’

[They delivered their “swan-song” record autum 2014]

‘Scraps’ pictures; courtesy of Jurgen ‘Spatje’ Fiems [1/5], Françoise ‘Hazel’ Lepers [2/4] & Grégory Smets [3]:

‘Spatje’ quitely at the bar for a moment…

Jeroen Lauwers sporting his ‘Conflict’ T-shirt

crowd (with Edward+Hans ‘Rise Above’, Dirk ‘Scum’ & Leffe+Spatje ‘P.J.D.’) @ Scraps

crowd (with Jeroen+Edward & Pette ‘P.J.D.’, Chatn? shoutin’ loud & Lord Moloch in the back) @ Scraps

“la jeuness dorée” from Liège: Manu & Alain (Nabate) (caught on film by Ben ‘Sicko’)

[There are some photos of ‘Seein’Red’ in Reminder #1, the zine that Wim & Chatn ‘Blindfold’ did, but the resolution is not good enough to put them up here…]

additions wellcome!…

92-11-22 Blechreiz – Neuthrone – Corpus Christi – [Hiatus] – [Farside]

In my notes this gig is listed on November 22^nd but Bruno highlighted (in the guestbook) it was on the 15^th… ‘Hiatus’ didn’t play because the bassplayer had to attend a family-party. Also ‘Farside’ didn’t show up: they didn’t get enough dates, they claimed (!?)… Bruno wasn’t happy with that! They did tour Europe but didn’t come to the Vort’n Vis (see also: 92-10-04). ‘Corpus Christi’ did play. Early 80s anarcho-HC. They sounded OK but they did a bit of a nervous set (quite some little mistakes). ‘Neuthrone’ got the opportunity to present their (“not quite completely succeeded” – their own words) 7”. They got a fantastic sound though (there was a 12-channel P.A.) and there was some pretty vehement head-banging going on. The P.A. was necessary for ‘Blechreiz’, the ska-band from (Kreuzberg) Berlin, who played last. Great music to dance to. The atmosphere was fantastic and everybody went home satisfied.

‘Corpus Christi’ played here for the first time; the start of a whole series: 93-10-31, 93-11-21, 94-02-05 & 94-09-16. They had formed in the summer of this year. Bart ‘Goemie’ Goeminne was the original guitarist (he stayed until Oct ’93 and was then replaced by Tom Vanlaere for a little while; Stefaan – ex ‘Warcry’ – joined in the Winter of ’92 on bass but took over guitar later). The original bassplayer Johan Maes left after 2 months and went on to play for ‘Dogfish’ (he was also in‘Cry For Change’ – see 91-03-16 & 91-09-01). So I guess the line-up her was Peter ‘Coli’ Van Colen (vocals), Bram De Cock (drums) & Tom (guitar); and was this the actual first time with bassist Stef De Leersnijder?

Being locals and having ‘signed’ to Genet recs, ‘Neuthrone’ had already played here a bunch of times. They were the ‘perfect replacement’. In the summer ‘Tim (‘Nutje’) had started playing bass (together with Steve & David) so this was probably his first appearance at the V.V., with the band. They had recorded that summer (see 92-02-09) so I’m guessing the 7” was only just out or about to come out.

‘Blechreiz’ were Christian Prüfer (vocals), Marcus Renner (trumpet/vocals; ex ‘Ceresit’ – who played for Smurfpunx 86-12-19), Matthias Bonjer (bass), J.B. Beat (organ), Michael ‘Mike’ Betz (guitar), Hermann Lamboy (drums), Michael Rühl (tenor sax) and Wolfram Segond von Banchet (alt sax). I can’t recall seeing these all on the tiny V.V. stage?! I think they’d left the horns-section (who also played for ‘P.N.A.T.S.H.’; see: 93-04-04) at home…

From their website (www.blechreiz-berlin.de): >> ‘Blechreiz’ was especially active against the emerging right-wing extremism in the ‘Wild East’ and West in the ‘90s. Because as everyone knows, skinheads also like ska. ‘Blechreiz’ has always been on the side of anti-racist and anti-fascist skinheads, including the international SHARP (skinheads against racial prejudice) movement and the ‘Trojan skins’, who are well aware of the black roots of Jamaican ska. <<

They were around since the mid-80s so they already had a bunch of records under their belt by the time they played here. In 1993 they would release a single (Loving Couple) and an album (Which Side Are You On?) on the Zensor label … If you wanna learn more about Ska in Berlin, watch the documentary by Alexander van Dülmen.

Brob

Can ‘t remember why we cancelled… I did like ‘Corpus Christi’: they reminded me of ‘Mob 47’. Little did I know that so many years later I would be in ‘Visions Of War’ together with Stef [De Leersnijder]…

Willy ‘Hiatus’

It was my first acquaintance with SHARP-skins – I’d never heard of these before. In all my ignorance I didn’t know there were also like anti-racist skinheads. The band consisted of some 10 or 11 people; who were all crammed on that small Vort’n Vis stage. They played very catchy ska! All punks, crusties, metalheads, etc. were convivially skankin’! Great respect for SHARP!

Henk Loobuyck

I’d already left ‘Corpus Chrisiti’ by then. I only played twice with them, in the Tielt area.

Johan Maes

I can’t remember playing here… If we did, then it must’ve been with Goeminne and not Tom Vanlaere. Stef had only joined ‘Corpus Christi’ a month before…

Peter ‘Coli’ Van Colen

Tom Vanlaere replaced Bart Goeminne just this once because the latter wasn’t able to come. We were alle friends anyway; Tom was in different bands and didn’t have trouble with our 2-3 chord songs.

Bram De Cock, ‘Corpus Christi’ drummer

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

93-09-17&18&19 5th Leed-festival (Intro & Incident)

This is a precursory page to the posts on the 5^th Leed-festival. There was quite some commotion and it led to a substantial evaluation of the Vort’n Vis’ policies…

from the preceding V.V. newsletter

 Accounts of the actual festival will be posted later:

17 sep ’93: Fingerprint (Fra), De Kift (Nl), Beerepoot Brothers (Nl)

18 sep ’93: Health Hazard (UK), Bambix (Nl), Witchknot (UK), Doom (UK), 6 Feet Over (Fra), Because (Lux), As Usual (Bel), Plum (Bel)

19 sep ’93: Nations On Fire (Bel), Strength Of The Will (Bel), Eversor (Ita), Hiatus (Bel)

————————-

I don’t think ‘Viktor’s Hofnarren’ actually played… It’s the evening that Hans [Verbeke] needed to be rescued by ‘Doom’!

Bruno Vandevyvere

‘Viktor’s Hofnarren’, squatters (autonomous centre Schrottbar) from Biel/Bienne (Switzerland) played anarchopunk with a crusty edge. (Later on they did a split-LP together with ‘Jobbykrust’ from Belfast out on Maximum Voice.) They were: Steph(ane) Guillet (bass/vocals; Panikeshi zine & distro), Niggu Rimann (drums), Bänz (guitar), Annette Wagener/Suri Dawicki (vocals) and Tez (vocals). Annette later joined the Groninger band ‘P.C.P.’. Steph & Annette were also running Panik Bourgeoise (concerts, zine).

They’d come all the way from their hometown for the fest together with a whole bunch of friends. After all this time it isn’t clear anymore whether they were invited to play or just wanted to see the bands. I guess ‘V.H.’ and their mates got rather drunk pretty fast (or they arrived drunk/stoned). Their friends also didn’t feel like they had to pay entrance… This attitude certainly annoyed most of the V.V. collaborators. There was some friction between them and SxE people (to say the least) but the way I remember it is that the main issue was that they didn’t feel like contributing their share to the organisation of the event and the fees of the bands. The fact they were so wasted and behaving irresponsibly amplified everything…

At some timepoint V.V. collaborator Hans (perhaps provoked by the animosity) supposedly (tried to) hit someone with a baseball-bat (actually it was a table-leg; I didn’t see it happen with my own eyes) for attempting to sneak in for free… He was “physically attacked from various sides”. Things were threatening to go out of control and it was decided it was best for him to leave in order to remove the fuse from the powder-keg… He had to be more or less secretly evacuated from the V.V. premises and was driven out of town in the van of the band ‘Doom’…

The whole incident drove some of the collaborators to tears for realising there were people who didn’t value their hard work and that some (who came from far away) couldn’t care less that there was a huge risk the autonomous centre could collapse (organisationally or as a result of being shut down by the authorities). Personally, I was disappointed and angry because I had already seen it happen when the 1^st venue where I organised – in my hometown (De Marbel) – got shut down…

All this (together with previous) lead to the V.V. ‘shit-workers’ making up some sort of pamphlet calling for mutual respect, and listing some ‘rules’…which on it’s turn raised some questions with certain factions of not being ‘anarchist’ enough, etc.

Some people (squatters) from Gent and Liège even thought they were going to be refused entrance (Willy of ‘Hiatus/‘Unhinged’ wrote me that at that time). Of course that wasn’t the case… The 1^st issue of Fifi (Vort’n Vis zine), May ‘94, states: “The Swiss assholes of Zürich (…) are no longer allowed in the Vort’n Vis. Reason: violence, intimidation and a broken window.”

Brob

————————-

Quite a lot has been published on the matter. Here’s a few bits – not to stir things up after all these years but for history’s sake (so that perhaps a younger generation will learn of it)…

This excerpt from the Swiss zine No Sanctuary #22 gives a rather detailed account …

This is the initial bit by Steph of ‘V.H.’ in No Sanctuary #21.

Another bit from No Sanctuary #22 shows that ‘V.H.’ had caused similar problems in Germany.

Pamphlet issued by the V.V. collaborators after this event.

Letter by Willy ‘Hiatus’ & response by Vort’n Jan

Willy’s intro to his zine Rabougri (March ’94)

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Niggu (‘V.H.’ drummer) sings for ‘Unhaim’ nowadays. They released an excellent LP… [Brob: I tried hard to get in touch with anyone of V.H.’ but didn’t succeed…]

Pablo, Resistance prods, Biel

————————-

Despite all the commotion, numerous people enjoyed themselves (crowd-shot by Karl Penando); in the foreground: Kurt Deprez (‘Shortsight’), Bruno Vandevyvere (Genet recs), Pierre Anne (‘6 Feet Over’) – in the back: Rudy Penando

93-04-25 Hiatus – Congress – Hopeman Path – Agathocles

I remember this one only vaguely… I do recall being tremendously nervous when I had to sing a song myself. Well, wánted to sing. I’m not sure ‘Agathocles’ played though. We did do gigs together but not here, I think…

I also recall people having a discussion outside (or was it some other gig) because someone was selling a ‘Skrewdriver’ LP; the guy claimed it was a stolen one and he was offering it for sale to see the reactions – bullshit off course – Dirk and I were around…

Gunter Braem, ‘Hopeman Path’ guitarist

No, ‘Agathocles’ didn’t show up then…

Dirk ‘Scum’, ‘Hopeman Path’ singer

Steve [Houtmeyers; ‘Agathocles’ guitarist at that time and now in ‘Hypnos 69’, also founder of Intestinal Disease’] couldn’t play then…he had sprained his wrist. We did a few gigs with him doing vocals around that time…

Jan Frederickx, ‘Agathocles’

‘Hopeman Path’ (from the Kempen area) were Dirk ‘Scum’ (vocals; ex ‘Zero Positives’), Stefan Goos (drums), Bart Verelst (bass) and Gunter Braem (guitar). A hardcore band – named after the home-address (in Glasgow) of Stef’s and my pen-pall Adam Johnston (Go! Zine & the band ‘Headstart’) – with a D.I.Y./political attitude. They lasted a couple of years and would merge into ‘Vuur’ with members of ‘Deconsume’ and ‘Outrage’… I have vague recollections of Yannick Daems singing for them too for a while…

Probably the first or one of the very first concerts ‘Congress’ (a “vegan straight-edge metal-core” band) played here; with their first singer (who got replaced a bit later): Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitar) & Ilja De Ceuleneire (drums) – both were also in ‘Burning Fight’ (92-02-22), Roy Cappan (vocals; R.I.P.) and Jan ‘U.J.’ Vandekerckhove (bass) – who played in ‘Dreft’ for a while (together with Joost). As you can read below their 1^st singer wasn’t really an asset. With Pierre things changed for the better until…

One of the many dates ‘Hiatus’ played… This one was about a month after they recorded for the LP From Resignation…To Revolt (out on Sound Pollution). The usual ‘gang’: Azill, Wills, Ben, Phil and Fred Alabas (on bass).

After their gig on 91-09-01, ‘Agathocles’ got invited back. People say (see above) that they didn’t make it but they actually were there: there’s a record of them in the V.V. notes.

Brob

About the incident with ‘Congress’… I expressed my opinion clearly (as always); stuck my neck out. And you can’t imagine how much shit I got over me. I’m not afraid to speak up. I constantly criticize the ‘status quo’ in the HC-scene. I say out loud what people only barely dare to trust onto paper. My harsh reaction towards the singer of ‘Congress’ was a response to his aggressive attitude. My anger only got worse because other V.V.-collaborators came back on their earlier decision… [The group of VV-collaborators had been putting question-marks behind the homophobic statements of one (Roy) -or more?- members of ‘Congress’. On one of the collaborator-meetings there had been a decision that we were not gonna tolerate this and not let them play. For some reason (some collaborators were good friends with them) this happened anyway and I spoke up about it when they started their gig…]

Brob, personal communication ‘94

About Roy, I believe a lot of people didn’t get you (Brob). I didn’t know that the V.V. collaborators had agreed on a meeting the very day of the concert, not to let ‘Congress’ play. Why didn’t ‘Congress’ know about that? Or did they? Why didn’t some sort of representative make a clear statement at the very beginning of the concert, on stage? And explained clearly that the V.V. didn’t want ‘Congress’ to play? If I remember well, Dirk [of ‘Hopeman Path’] started about it first… The audience could’ve decided on yes or no (letting them play), or there could’ve been agreed that the people with ‘Congress’ were to outside. The latter would’ve had a much bigger impact on Roy and the band, I think, then 1 or 2 people announcing the decision… I had the impression that your words didn’t affect Roy; on the contrary: they seemed to convince him he was right – even though your arguments were valid. I think it would’ve been better if we all had sat down without starting a war… Just make it clear to Roy that he stood alone with his opinion. Perhaps let him explain where his ideas were coming from and have a discussion. Or did all of this uncover that more people had ideas similar to Roy’s?

Françoise ‘Hazel’ Lepers, personal communication ‘94

With all respect, but Roy is dead and he was a good friend. Roy will never be able to prove that this was a adolescent mistake because he is no longer among us. Anyway, Roy wasn’t a person that carried hate within him. Politically he can be ‘caught’. His argument was that homosexuality isn’t natural. […] This “it is not natural”-argument stemmed mainly from his religious beliefs… Personally I never saw him hurt or humiliate gays. But I understand your protest… [Brob: I’m not the mouthpiece of the gay community but I didn’t wanna be the guy who said “I’m not gay so I’m not gonna speak up”…]

That gig at the Vort’n Vis was indeed historical, legendary even, for so many reasons… For instance that for once there was no preaching on stage between the songs but true discussion. For many that was an informative dialogue; like with the guys of ‘Hopeman Path’. I loved it because it was HC, and in full effect! Not always fun for everyone but generally fair. I found what happened at that show a positive thing rather than a negative one. Consultation is the solution! So without restraint and with direct access to a decent right to reply, simply by jumping on stage and grabbing the mic. Precisely as it happened. Wonderful, actually.

Didn’t know that show disrupted some things for you. [Brob: Here I got the mark of ‘pain in the arse’ – no pun intended…] But actually it was the same for Roy. He was so impressed by the whole thing because he never made an issue out of it. It wasn’t important. And he didn’t want to have a negative impact on the scene…so shortly after he left ‘Congress’ and the scene.

Anonymous

Read more on the homophobia discussion …

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

93-07-04 Disaffect – Subway Arts – Hiatus – [Badgewearer]

I think this gig at the Vort’n Vis was the best we’ve ever done. The atmosphere was just so brilliant – everybody having a good time, etc. I was just so please to be there that night and experience it. We made many new friends on the tour and it was so great to see our other friends such as your self, mate. Christ, it’s so depressing being back home again – I just want the rest of my life playing gigs in Europe!

‘Badgewearer’ díd eventually turn up at that gig but only after it had long finished and most people had gone home. It turns out that they had been driving all day to try and get to the Vort’n Vis in time but it was so far to travel that they couldn’t make it. It was a shame for them. They looked totally exhausted when they arrived.

Rumours are goin’ around that the Vort’n Vis is SxE? That’s strange. Sure, it’s obvious that a lot of straight-edgers go there but there’s also lots of other kinds of people and punks that go there too, from what I’ve seen. I definitely wouldn’t say that the venue was SxE dominated.

Andy ‘Orchy’ Irvine, bassplayer ‘Disaffect’; personal communication ‘93

‘Disaffect’ (a HC/punk band with political lyrics from Glasgow) had been here the year before (92-10-04)… I’d gotten to know Andy Irvine (bass; later ‘Scatha’, ‘Debris’, etc.) – in the early 90s through his Peace Terrorist distribution (he helped me bring my zine Tilt! to Glaswegian and other Scottish readers) and his DIY label Anonymous recs, so we were writing back and forth a lot. Through him I got to know his band-mates; a bunch of nice, warm-hearted people! They were: Lynne Entwistle (vocals), ‘Joe Fear’ (Jock Deacons; vocals; nowadays in ‘Constant Fear’), ‘IB’ Iain Blue (a.k.a. Debo Williamson; drums, later bass in ‘Scatha’) and Brian Curran (guitar; later ‘Quarantine’, ‘Debris’, etc.). Billy Steele (also in ‘Sedition’; I guess he was driving here…) played second guitar only the last time (94-05-22) they were here…

‘Disaffect’; pics courtesy of Brian Curran

They had a demo out and the 7” An Injury To One Is An Injury To All on Flat Earth & Nabate in ‘92. 1993 was the year of Work As One, the split-7” with ‘Sedition (Nabate & Flat Earth recs) and the Home Of The Slave 7” (Anonymous recs).

The video that Karl Penando did, was most probably from this gig (not the one in ’94). Brian Curran wrote: “Wasn’t Billy [Steele] playing with us on the ‘94 tour? [He’s not in the video.] I think this video is from ‘93, the gig with ‘Subway Arts’ and a makeshift ‘Hiatus’ borrowing our gear and doing a few songs…” The vid captures the amical and warm-hearted atmosphere quit well. Lots of ‘silly dancing’ (‘Fast music doesn’t mean violent dancing!’, remember…) goin’ on, mates from Liège, Lux and France, etc.

‘Badgewearer’s music was complex jazz-punk with quirky guitars and groovy bass-lines. They were also from Glasgow, Scotland. They released their stuff on (‘Dawson’ guitarist) Jer Reid’s label Gruff Wit recs. The band consisted of Tony Kennedy (bass & bugle), Jim Carstairs (vocals), Ross Main (drums) and Neil Bateman (guitar & sax) – but the latter wasn’t on this tour…

‘Subway Arts’ had been here before (93-02-06) and would come back a few times (e.g. 94-04-02), sharing their melodic “anarcho/peace-punk”. Steve ‘Diff’ Differding (guitar), Sabrina D’Aurelio (vocals), Fränz Laureys (bass) and Claude ‘Bourano’ Bour (drums) left their names in the guestbook. I guess guitarist Xavier was also playing; he was on their LP Una Definizione Perveresa Della Pace (I guess that should’ve been ‘Perversa’) that got out that year…

The second bassplayer of ‘Turmoil’ (formerly ‘Moribund Youth’), Tolga Güldal, did an anarchist zine (called 30%; in Turkish) and he’d written about his band (who got a split-tape with ‘Inkisiçao’ released by Resistance productions – Pablo in Switzerland). They were from Istanbul. Besides him there was Taylan/T(a)y Ipek on bass/vocals, Kerim Cönençer on guitar/vocals and Orkun on drums. Bruno announced them in the V.V. newsletter at that time but for some reason ‘Turmoil’ never made it outside of Turkey… The band did some split-releases, e.g. a 7” with ‘Acoustic Grinder (on Boezie’s label Grinding Madness)…

Brob

I’m pretty sure Ross Main was no longer in ‘Badgewearer’ then …but I don’t know who drummed on that tour – they had a few different drummers! … Maybe Duncan Sillars… Mmm could’ve been Duncan on drums … They also had a drummer called Rich but I think that was later on… Neil would know!

Jer Reid

It was nice because we’d started friendship-links with lots of Scottish people and mates. As you know ‘Hiatus’ reformed for 3 gigs in 2009 and we did these with ‘Sedition’. Very good times! ‘Subway Arts’ were very good too; I still have both their records…

Willy ‘Hiatus’

I remember we shook hands in 1993 (or perhaps when I was there in 1995). Lots of memories from those times, all the people and the mighty Vort’n Vis where I slept at least a couple of times… It was Bruno’s good intention to help ‘Turmoil’ with touring Europe and with a (split)LP; which never happened because of hard situations in Turkey. It was a nice dream anyway. I tried my best and with the help of Bruno I showed up alone instead of a tour and had a great time. There was also a great gig with ‘Scraps’; ‘Subway Arts’ & ‘Subcaos’ were touring. [93-08-01]. There were lots of cool people at V.V. like the guy from ‘Neuthrone’, the unknown crusties of ‘War Cry’ and ‘Corpus Christi’, the people of Nabate recs and – I want to mention these names – Boezie, Stevie, Jimyh. I’m still a noise-freak, still enjoy a lot of the same old stuff. I wouldn’t care sounding like ‘Youth Corps’ or ‘Terveet Kadet’…

Tay Ipek, ‘Turmoil’

This was one was with our good friends ‘Hiatus’ and ‘Subway Arts’; we met Diff for the first time. ‘Hiatus’ weren’t on the bill but borrowed our gear and played all the same, and as usual were great.

Brian Curran

All 3 gigs we (‘Disaffect’) played at the Vort’n Vis were brillant. All the people we met, the bands we got to see and play with… Sleeping up in the attic after the gig and getting up next morning to croissants + jam and loads of fruit-juice after a night of boozing and smoking just hit the spot. It was amazing to see this kinds quiet town with this amazing venue and punk-scene, just blew me away. I think the first time we played there me and Andy were looking at gig listing and we had just missed ‘Nausea’ by a couple of weeks, gutted to say the least ;-).

I returned to the Vort’n Vis a couple of years ago with my old band ‘Constant Fear’ and no one told us that the place had moved, so I was arguing with the drummer (as usual) about where the bloody place was. Anyway after travelling for 2 days with 4 hours sleep, we didn’t go down that well, in fact we were shit. But I was disappointed to find that it was not the same place. Didn’t recognise anyone there and I don’t think we will be invited back.

Hard to imagine that the ‘Disaffect’ gigs were all 20 years ago; time just seems to have run away. I don’t remember a lot about the gigs we played as I was pissed but they amazing. So a big thanx to everyone involved with the venue, who put us on, fed and watered us, came to see a band and left as friends. Cheers!

Joe Fear

That was the day we drove from Vienna through Germany at 200km/h to try and get there…

Tony Kennedy, ‘Badgewearer’

 

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

The Slinke Molen squatters from Gent were there…

Olivier Hogie from Toulouse…

Laurent ‘Lorenzo’ from Liège…

Yannick ‘PikPik’ from Lille…

Arnaud Waterblez from Pérenchies…

Pascal Bortzmeyer from Trelon: ” I remember the day when the drummer of ‘Crimpshrine’ & ‘Pinhead Gunpowder’ [Aaron ‘Cometbus’ Elliott], who was travelling around Europe, showed up and we took him to Fourmies [France]…” [Brob: Aaron (who’s zine I’d been distributing) was riding his bike through several European countries; he wrote about it in one of his issues.]

additions wellcome!…

95-02-11 Health Hazard – D’Rotzbouwen – Noise Reduction – Hiatus – Gluebag – Vomit Yourself

‘D’Rotzbouwen’, from Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg (where quite some bands played at the Kulturfabrik) were described as crust-core à la ‘Hiatus’ by some, while others compared their angry polit-core to ‘Born Against’ or ‘Rorschach’ (which I think is closer). They had songs in English, Italian, German and Letzeburgs. A political HC band with members of ‘Subway Arts’ and ‘No More’: Fränz Laureys (bass), Thierry Thill (drums), Sabrina D’Aurelio (vocals), ‘Gull’ Alain Gouleven (guitar/vocals) & Claude ‘Pattex’ Werer (guitar). It seems (see pic) they still had their first singer, Ronnie Riot (later in ‘Bakunin’s Children’), here too… They did a 7” on Skunk recs (the label of Diff of ‘No More’, ‘Subway Arts’, etc.), a split-7” with the Japanses ‘F.I.O.M.’ (on the German label Anomie recs) and a 10” called Aspirine. Thierry & Fränz later formed ‘Lecter MD’…

‘Health Hazard’ had been here a few times before. This time Sned (drums), Alec Mac (guitar) & Gazza (bass) were accompanied by Max (of ‘Headache’) on vocals (in stead of Mandy). “Jap-trash from Bradford”, it said on the flyer ;-)…

When Phil stopped playing guitar for ‘Hiatus’ (somewhere in ’94), he started playing punk à la ‘Disorder’ with Willy and Jonas (also ‘Hiatus’) in a band they called ‘Gluebag’… But that didn’t last very long…

Who was in ‘Hiatus’ at that time then? If you look on the photo, you see Wills (vocals), Jonas (bass), Phil (guitar) and Azill (guitar)… Ben (drums) is hidden… Someone in France put out a tape called Don’t Think With Your Dick… with live tracks of ‘Hiatus’ & ‘Health Hazard’; so it was ‘one big happy family again’…

‘Noise Reduction’ (from Edegem, near Antwerp) played crust-core. They were Kurt van den Eynden (vocals), Stefaan Simons (guitar), Tim Wouters (bass) and Rudy Verhelst (drums). They did a demo and in 1995 they had a split-7” (with ‘Deadlock’) out on a Japanese label.

‘Vomit Yourself’ (from the Toulouse area, I think) were P.P. (vocals), Fred (drums; later ‘Disbeer’) & Pit (bass/guitar/vocals). Their ‘tunes’ were fast, short outbreaks of grind. They did a split-LP with ‘Enola Gay’ (also from France) entitled Exempted Authority / Nihilism… on Panx prods in 1995.

Brob

The were loads of people that evening. Personally I thought it was one of the best concerts I saw there (and there were many) and not just because my band played… ‘Vomit Yourself’ was incredible (they were added to the bill last minute). ‘Health Hazard’ was super too, they are one of my favourite bands. After the gigs all the beer was gone but there were still so many people and no-one wanted to go asleep; they all wanted to party on. Bruno said they were going to close and that they couldn’t give any more booze. Everyone protested and Bruno had to give in: some people went to get drinks in the night-shop and the night could linger on, very cosy…

After ‘Noise Redcution’ we formed ‘Karma’; with Tom Torfs (later in ‘Visions Of War’) on bass, Anja Hermans on vocals, myself on drums/vocals and Tim guitar.

Kurt van den Eynden

The ‘Hazard into Suffer’ tour. We missed Mandy but Max fuckin’ rocked! It was sad for us as ‘Health Hazard’ was a totally fucking great to be part of on all sorts of levels it just worked + was 100% genuinely who we were. Morphing into ‘Suffer’ was tough but this tour was the start of that. Max was great to go on tour with, always had tons of respect for him as a shouty spitting microphonist + human being. Playing the V.V. is always like coming home + meeting a load of friends, strengthening bonds, swapping boxes of records + zines, + making with the party. Seem to remember there being loads of folk to catch up with that night. Don’t remember any of the bands being anything but great. Always loved Hiatus live. Never saw them to a bad gig.

Alec Mac

Super gig! One of many… Pity that ‘Health Hazard’s singer decided to quit right before that tour… :-( [Mandy was still on the split-7” with ‘Sawn Off’ that got out in 1997. These tracks were recorded in ‘95 (3 months after the split)…]

Steve, ‘Insane Youth’ singer

Oooooh, ‘Health Hazard’ were such a powerful band! I don’t remember much of the rest; except for ‘Gluebag’ – I’m sure we did play that day. It was one of our only 2 gigs. I was really surprised when Edward from ‘Nations On Fire’ and someone from ‘Shortsight’ (I think), told us they really liked it. It was a side-project to ‘Hiatus’ with Phil on drums, Jonas on guitar and myself on bass & vocals. We wanted to be worse than ‘Disorder’, and just sing about drugs and booze, shoplifting, etc.

Willy ‘Hiatus’

an ecstatic ‘Health Hazard’… (picture by Wim DL)

Alec Mac (‘Health Hazard’) – pic by Piero Majocchi

Ben & Willy (‘Hiatus’) – pic by Piero Majocchi

More pictures (courtesy of Kurt van den Eynden):

‘Health Hazard’

‘D’Rotzbouwen’

‘Hiatus’

‘Vomit Yourself’ (‘Doomy’ & Bruno VdV minding other business…with Bart ‘Palfest’ Palmans (R.I.P.) and Marc Janssens)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

the ‘Hiatus’ & ‘Gluebag’ chaos front ;-)

additions wellcome!…