95-09-16 D.D.I. – Oi Polloi – Glue – Coche Bomba – Insane Youth – Carcer Molochi – Rawness – Systral

2^nd day of the 7^th Leed festival

‘D.D.I.’ & co in front of the Vort’n Vis

(top; L=>R) Gio – Mohane – Irith – Piero – Dario – Edo – ‘Mila’; (bottom; L=>R) Mauro – Luca – ‘Gallo’ – Ciccio – ? – ?

‘D.D.I’ – Mauro, Dario, Edo in front of the van; Luca on top

‘D.D.I.’ (‘Degenerazione D’Incubo’) from Pavia were a wonderful anarcho collective/ political HC band who highlighted their lyrics and ideas with ironic/ tongue-in-cheek but smart little theatre/cabaret-pieces; almost comedia dell’arte… They promoted D.I.Y. and cooperation: their 10” Pazzi Da Asporto was co-released (’96) by a bunch of European D.I.Y. labels: Pawel’s Scream recs (Poland), Bob & Seth ‘Active Minds’ Loony Tunes recs (UK), Sned’s Flat Earth recs (UK), Jon Elliott’s Active distribution (UK), Nikt Nic Nie Wie (Pol), Maloka (Fra), etc. chipped in to support it’s release. Even my Tilt! distribution provided some funding… The original cover was a screen-printed envelope and contained 32 page booklet. They also did a self-produced 7”: Fanculo I Suoni Puliti (’94) (from the review in Tilt! #8: “Extremely energizing, straightforward melodic HC. Political/DIY.”). The band at this gig consisted of Dario Quatrini (guitar), ‘Gallo’ Alessandro Garlaschelli (guitar), Gianpiero ‘Mila’ Milani (vocals), Gio(vanni) Lazzaroni (drums) and Edo(ardo) Puglisi (bass) & Daniele ‘Lele’ Malabarba (bass) – yep, 2 bassists but ‘Lele’ didn’t play here… Mila, Irith Davidson, Piero Majocchi & Luca Musso ran AZ Autoproduzioni (distro and label). The band came back to the Vort’n Vis on 96-09-20 and I did an interview in Tilt! #9 with them…

The LP Fight Back with 80s tracks by ‘Oi Polloi’ was out on Campary recs (Armin Heitman & Katja from Düsseldorf). At that time the band consisted (besides vocalist Deek) of guitarist Matt Finch (a.k.a. Keith Chugwin), bassist Calum Mackenzie (nowadays in ‘Phobia’ & ‘Skelptarsis’) and drummer Murray Briggs (who replaced Chris ‘Wheelie’ Willsher). Here it was Riley Briggs drumming…

‘Oi Polloi’ (photographed by Kerim Gönencer)

‘Systral’ (from Bremen) played brutal crust-grind/death-metal with a screamo edge (2 vocalists). The members were Björn Schmidt (vocals; also ‘Carol’/’Mörser’), Denny Schmidt (vocals; also ‘Mörser’), Dirk Kusche (bass; also ‘Rusty James’; started the Chrome Saint Magnus label with ‘Acme’s drummer Gregor Iwanoff in ‘98), Sönke ‘Sonne’ Gabriel (drums; bassist of ‘Acme’) and Andy Lohmüller (guitar). That year they had 2 releases: Fever…The Maximum Carnage 10” (recorded July 95’) & Maximum Entertainment 7” – on the Per Koro label. They came a secon time the next year (96-09-22).

‘Systral’ – Björn Schmidt & Dirk Kusche (pic by Kerim Gönencer)

‘Coche Bomba’ (from Lyon) played fast & brutal crusty hardcore-punk. They had 2 vocalists – Ivan Brun & Jean-Pierre ‘J.P.’ Davila – their (political) lyrics were in French, English & Spanish. The other members were André & ‘Gork’ (guitar), Cécile (bass; also ‘Dirt’; she replaced Christoff) and Steph Coi (drums; later ‘Befa’ Fabrice Drevet of ‘Vömit För Breakfast’ joined them, he also did Tranzophobia zine with Sylvain Fayard). They had recorded a demo (95-06-03) and there was a split-7” out with Enola Gay (Fra) on Bad Card recs 1995; Viva La Derelicción 7” (recorded May ’96 with André, Cécile, Ivan, J.P. & Steph) would follow… They kept going well into the noughties and did several tours (also Latin-America, etc.). Ivan Brun works as a cartoonist, comic book writer, painter (sickfuckermagazine.blogspot & http://ivanbrun.tanibis.net)…

‘Coche Bomba’ (photos courtesy of JP Davilla & Ivan Brun) – bottom pic: Yannick ‘PikPik’ & Ludovic Hache [R]

‘Coche Bomba’ (photo by Kerim Gönencer)

‘Carcer Molochi’ came from the ‘suburbs’ of Ieper and most of them volunteered at the V.V. in way way or another; so they supported quite a few bands at he Vort’n Vis. They were: Erwin Degryse (guitar), Johan Sys (vocals), Michael Maes (guitar; later ‘Link’), Inge Cappoen (vocals; later ‘Link’), David Stubbe (drums; ex ‘Neuthrone’ and later in many other bands), Danny Suffys (bass). David was later replaced by Bram ‘Lawaai’ Calbrecht and Danny by Yannick… Their demo had been recorded mid 1995. Some described their music as metal-crust, ‘Misery’ style (because of the female/male vocals).

‘Carcer Molochi’ (photos courtesy of Michael Maes)

‘Insane Youth’, a crustcore band from the Sint-Niklaas area, were: Jan ‘Fons’ Wuytack (drums), Thomas ‘Tomaz’ Van Rumst (bass), Steve ‘Stiv’ Descamps (vocals) and Tim De Baere (guitar); but here Stef De Leersnijder (also ‘Corpus Christi’ and later in ‘Visions Of War’) played along. Can’t remember at what time Vanessa Hoskens (who was their 2^nd vocalist for a while) was in the band.

‘Insane Youth’ – Stef [L] & Steve [R] (pic by Michael Maes)

‘Rawness’ played catchy melodic HC-punk. Christophe Mora said “NYHC-influenced”… They were from the Dijon/Lyon area. Members of the band: Jean-Marc Moratille (drums & vocals; ex ‘Blighted Area’ – he also did/does the JoliCoeur & Pay No More Than blogs), Michael (bass), Lamy Fumex (guitar & vocals) and Lionel Coing (vocals). They had a demo-tape and did a split with ‘Personal Choice’ on Yann Boislève’s label in 1995.

‘Rawness’ (photo by Ivan Brun)

The Scottish (Glaswegian) ‘Glue’ were compared to ‘Jawbox’, ‘No Means No’ or ‘Fugazi’… Others thought of ‘Black Flag’… It was melodic HC (post-punk?). Their bassist Angus McPhee had contacted me for the distribution of their records. Pete Darlington from ‘Kitchener’ was replacing Stef Sinclair (drums). Their former guitarist Allan McNaughton (nowadays living in California now, wrote a monthly column and record-reviews for MaximumRock’n’Roll; see: allanmcnaughton.blogspot) informs us that himself and Sandy Carson (vocals/guitar) were no longer in the band at the time of this gig. Here the singer/guitarist was ‘Hubby’/RM Hubbert. Our mate Joeri Hoste had already arranged a gig for them in Brugge (Oct 2^nd 1993: ‘Four Walls Falling’, ‘Sofa Head’, Blindfold, ‘Feeding The Fire’, ‘Nations On Fire’ and ‘Glue’). Later Angus came over again, driving for ‘Quarantine’/’Scatha’… (Or was that Angus Quinn?) At that time the band had released (on Angus’ label Feeble recs) an LP ‘Gravel (recorded July ’92; with Ritchie, Allan, Sandy, Stef & Angus) and the 7” From Here To Obscurity (recorded April ’94; with Rispey, Stef, Hubby & Angus)…

Brob

Unfortunately I was out of the band at that time because I was working nightshifts in a mall. Tim did the 2nd guitar. I don’t remember the name of some people but I remember that often some people (from El Paso squat in Torino, an another safe-house called Barocchio) came with us to do the distro and enjoy the gig. I played in Belgium during the 2nd tour…

Some years ago we did a little tour around Italy in squatted houses to promote a book entitled Make Music Not Money, so we played again as in the 90s! Read all about it on paviahc.wordpress.com

Daniele ‘Lele’ Malabarba

AZ was our distro & label from 1990 to 1996, we produced the ‘D.D.I.’ 7” and the 10” with the others labels (and many others records and tapes), then in 1996 we split up as a collective. I went into the techno-rave scene, Luca was bored with people interested only in music and remained in the anarchist political movement (he’s still active), and Mila did Agipunk and started his punk-star career, he later repressed the 10” ‘D.D.I.’ as Agipunk… [Brob: Irith lives near Genova, works in a highschool and has a passion for her vergetable-garden.]

As ‘Lele’ mentioned, the ‘old’ punx from Pavia struck again in 2007: we did a book about the D.I.Y. HC/punk-scene in Pavia and Italy, DDI reformed without Mila and we organised a tour (8 gigs) to sell the book directly. The following years we organised punk gigs in Pavia and in 2015 we started a new band ‘Malabrocca’ [see comment].

Piero Majocchi

It was a great time but too long ago to remember. The hospitality was great, the italian pasta market we made in the courtyard. As far as I remember we made a 30 min heavy metal set (‘Iron Maiden’, ‘Black Sabbath’,…) during a gig there. I’ve been playing with Lele and Giò from the old line-up, and Piero is doing vocals (he was from AZ distributione).

Edoardo Puglisi

Sandy and I were out of the band before the Vort’n Vis gig – by that time the band was a 3-piece with a singer/guitarist called ‘Hubby’/RM Hubbert. He is actually a famous musician in Scotland now, has won some prizes.

Allan McNaughton, ex-guitarist of ‘Glue’

My main recollections: 1. First date of a very long European tour. 2. I had a panic-attack whilst sleeping in the back of the van and fell head first out of the back-door into the Vort’n Vis courtyard. 3. The pastries were excellent. 4. Don’t remember much about our show, which probably means it was average. Pete Darlington from ‘Kitchener’ was playing drums instead of Stef on that tour. Think we had a show the next day so didn’t hang around… One thing I noticed was that Richey Dempsey recorded the album and EP but was never in the band…

RM Hubbert

It was a fun weekend!

Sas, KBaal wholsesale distro (Dordrecht); personal communication Sep ‘95

‘Rawness’ played right before ‘D.D.I.’… We met a lot of French people there, I recall seeing friends from Saint-Etienne and Montbelliard.

Jean-Marc, ‘Rawness’ drummer

I remember seeing ‘Glue’, ‘Rawness’, ‘D.D.I.’,… an drinking Jupiler… There was some sort of open-air festival in the streets of Ieper that evening. [The annual ‘Leet’ festival, the V.V.’s ‘Leed’ fest was meant as an alternative…]

Ivan Brun, ‘Coche Bomba’

I only played in ‘Coche Bomba’ from 99 to 2010 or something…and I played guitar there, not drums like in most of my bands. I think Ivan was just singing at the beginning of the band, he might have started to play bass (plus vocals) when Cécile left the band to play in ‘Dirt’. When a bunch of guitar-players left the bands, they started to do ‘Kuruma Bakudan’ which means ‘Coche Bomba’ in Japanese. That line-up consisted of Stef on drums, JP on vocals, Ivan on bass and Sandy on bass too. I guess they played like that from 96 to 99. After that, they asked Guigui (‘Vomit For Breakfast’, ‘Chaos ZZZ’ guitarist – later he played in ‘Silent Bones’ and ‘Maloko’ in Canada) and myself (‘Vomit For Breakfast’, ‘Chaos ZZZ’, ‘Unlogistic’, ‘State Poison’, ‘Deletär’) to play the guitars and call it ‘Coche Bomba’ again, so we jumped on the occasion. I left the band at the same time as Sandy and Stef in about 2010, but the band kept on going with one South-East Asia tour, a Mexico/U.S.’ tour and another tour in South-America. At some point Ivan came back to complete the dual vocals from the original days, but I’m not sure about the situation right now… [Brob: People also might wanna read this interview from 1997: Coche Bomba (Antipoder #9)]

‘Befa’ Fabrice Drevet

I played guitar with ‘Oi Polloi’ 1994-1997. I think I played 3 gigs at the Vort’n Vis. First was on the tour with ‘Subcaos’ [94-04-02]/ ‘X-Acto’ [94-09-17]. Played a couple of all-day events there… Pretty crust they were; ‘Extinction Of Mankind’ [95-09] & ‘Bad Influence’ [94-09] spring to mind.

Matt Finch

I remember this as one of our first gigs with Stef as an additional member. The stage was built up in the back of the Vort’n Vis garage for this one. I vaguely remember ‘Systral’ and ‘Oi Polloi’ as I was playing a lot of their records around that time. Sharing a stage with them was really exciting for me as a teenager. I’m really grateful to have experienced international communities coming together in magical places such as the Vort’n Vis. Thanks to everyone who made it happen.

Tim De Baere, ‘Insane Youth’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Kirst did the merch on that tour. Pete Darlington from Kitchener was playing drums…

additions wellcome!…

 

97-10-28 Hellkrusher – [Boycot] – Insane Youth – Disbeer

Another show organised by Michael ‘Mike’ Maes…

‘Hellkrusher’ (anarcho-crust-punk from Newcastle) were touring again… They also played Belgian dates in Deurne (Antwerp), Leuven & Tessenderlo. They played a couple of times earlier (93-04-04 & 93-11-21) but the line-up had changed by then. In December ’96 they had recorded for the Doomsday Hour LP (Skuld releases/Profane Existence) with regulars ‘Scotty’ Ian Scott (guitar) & Alastair ‘Ali’ Lynn  (vocals), the old drummer Ian Curry, second guitarist ‘Scoot Gladok Von Stickleback’ (also in ‘Doom’/‘Extinction Of Mankind’) & Rob on bass.

‘‘Hellkrusher’ [1 = Scotty & Curry – 2 = Ali, Rob & Scoot – 3 = Ali & Rob – 4 = Rob] (source unkown)

‘Disbeer’, a crusty metal-punk band from Auch (France), were: Fred ‘Utopia’ Jourdan ‘the bomber’ (drums; ex ‘Enola Gay’ & ‘Vomit Yourself’), ‘the hammer’ (bass) and Michel Cebrian ‘the motherfucker’ (guitar/vocals; ex ‘Enola Gay’, also Reality Of War zine). Fred & Michel had been at the V.V. with ‘Enola Gay’ (95-11-05); ‘Vomit Yourself’ played on 95-02-11 an dthey would come back with ‘Disbeer’ once more (99-09-11). They had recorded for the Beer Drinkers & Hellraisers LP a few months before (March ‘97) that would come out on Panx recs…

‘Boycot’ & ‘Insane Youth’ released a split-7” in 1997…

‘Insane Youth’ were from the Sint-Niklaas area but hung out in Ghent a lot so they became mates. I liked what they were doing (musically and attitude-wise) so I did an interview for Profane Existence with them. It wasn’t their first time at the Vort’n Vis: 94-09-16 & 94-10-22 – in the original line-up: Steve ‘Stiv’ Descamps (vocals), Thomas ‘Tomaz’ Van Rumst (bass), Jan ‘Fons’ Wuytack and Tim De Baere (guitar) – and 95-09-16 & 96-05-19 with Stef De Leersnijder (ex ‘Corpus Christi’) on second guitar. They also played 98-02-13 and continued until about 1999. Steve & Stef did their first recordings with their new band ‘Visions Of War’ in December ’98.

‘Boycot’ from Alkmaar (The Netherlands) – Jeroen Maas (bass), Pim Bakker (vocals; ex ‘C.K.N.’), Lennaert Roomer (guitar), Billy Kuiper (vocals) & Taco Rietveld (drums) – had played here a couple of times already too (96-09-20 & 97-05-18)… They gained my repsect for speakin’ out against commerciality in the HC/punk scene (e.g. with the Only Stupid Bastards Help Epitaph 7” that they released through Axiome prods in 1995). But apparently they didn’t play that day.

Brob

I think I remember ‘Disbeer’ actually… I have photos from this tour… We played in a cellar somewhere with ‘Chaos Bastard’. [Clockwork, in Leuven]. Someone from ‘Hiatus’ was there. At the V.V. we taught Stef the Newcastle dialect… Geordie…which he still uses whenever I meet him. My wife came with us on this tour and there are photos of myself/my wife/Stef and Annabel.

‘Scotty’ Scott

Billy Kuiper, ‘Boycot’ vocalist: Our archives tell we didn’t play the V.V. that they…

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

96-05-19 Ebola – Rubbish Heap – Insane Youth

‘Ebola’s precursor ‘Spite’ had already played at the V.V. (95-09-17). ‘Ebola’ (from Newcastle) was Karin R. (vocals) & her hubbie Micky McGuinness (guitar) – both ex ‘One By One’, Chris Patterson (drums), Jonny/Jonathan ‘Lobster’ Shaw (vocals; R.I.P.) and Andrew ‘Andy Stick’ Nolan played (bass; also ‘Sawn Off’ & ‘Shank’). The LP Incubation (out on Flat Earth recs in ’96) was recorded Dec ’95 with Andy, Chris, Karin, Mickey & Jonathan. The 7” Imprecation (Flat Earth & Refusenik; recorded Feb ’97 with Andy, Chris, Karin, Mickey & Nick Loaring (Enslaved recs). The latter became the second vocalist and Jon left between these first two records. They played intense, fast, powerful HC with highly intelligent, critical and political lyrics. Apparently Sned organised this tour here (see guestbook). They would be back again later (97-09-12) aswell. Well into the new century they recorded (with Andy Irvine from ‘Disaffect’ on guitar and Set Dixon from ‘Active Minds’ on drums) for a split-LP with Mickey’s new band ‘ Jinn’.

‘Rubbish Heap’, a HC/metal band from Antwerp were Dave Vanderplas (drums), Kim Vandyck (vocals; later guitarist of ‘King Terror’), ‘Peche’ (guitar), Tijs Geerts (bass; later ‘Bad Influence’) and Vincent ‘Vinnie’ Royers (guitar). They were friends of Joris De Buysser (Conspiracy recs) who released their Path Of Lies 7” (“mix of ‘Rorschach’ & ‘Downcast’…”) that year (and their other stuff later). It was recorded at Pat DeLabie’s studio a few months after this gig (August ’96). Before this, they had done a rehearsal-tape and a demo (Slow Defeat; the songs appeared on a split-tape with the Greek band ‘Hibernation’).

‘Insane Youth’ (Sint-Niklaas/Gent) had already played a bunch of shows here (94-09-16, 94-10-22 & 95-09-16) and there would a couple more later. Stef De Leersnijder (guitar; ex ‘Corpus Christi’ and later in ‘Visions Of Change’) had joined Tim De Baere (guitar), Jan ‘Fons’ Wuytack (drums), Thomas ‘Tomaz’ Van Rumst (bass) & Steve ‘Stiv’ Descamps. Don’t know if Vanessa Hoskens (their 2^nd vocalist for a while) was still in the band here. The recordings for the split-7” with ‘Boycot’ were done February ’96 where she’s still mentioned doing “throat chants”…

‘Insane Youth’ (pic by Wim De Leersnijder)

Portugese Guilherme Charters was helping out Bruno & Kathy (of Genet recs) getting things done…

Brob

I was the second vocalist – Jonny would have been in ‘Ebola’ at the first gig, as I didn’t play my first gig with ‘Ebola’ until Autumn 1996. Sadly Jonny died a few years back. Micky & Karin live in Brugge, Chris lives in Newcastle & Andy lives in Canada. The line-up would go on to change a great deal over the years. My first and only time at the V.V. was 97-09-12.

Nick Loaring

We were called ‘Spite’ for our first two shows only. When we changed our name, we discovered there was a bunch of other bands called ‘Ebola’ – big deal, at least we didn’t live in the same country as them. They called me ‘Andy Stick’ because I was in band called ‘Needlestick’ (which eventually became the much better ‘Sawn Off’).

I live in Toronto, working as a manager at a harm-reduction program for homeless alcoholic males. Also did a masters in Environmental Studies, looking at how space informs identity-politics, particularly issues of race, space and post-colonialism. My thesis was on how contemporary paganism is used in North-America to regain a lost sense of meaning in whiteness. I still play(ed) in bands (‘The Endless Blockade’, ‘Column Of Heaven’, ‘Pick Your Side’)…

There was a a posthumous e-book published after Jonathan died: Chemo Diary…

Andrew Nolan (survivalist-deathcult)

We never gigged as ‘Spite’ [Brob: the name is in the Vort’n Vis guestbook (1995) though…]; we were calling ourselves ‘Ebola’ by the time we played our first gig in La Zone [Liège; 96-05-17]. ‘Chrissy’ (Chris Patterson) was our first drummer and played on the first LP and the 1^st 7”. ‘Skater’ (Jake Thurlow) played on the split 7” with ‘Servitude’ [recorded September ‘98]. Andy and Set were both in the 2^nd last line-up of ‘Ebola’; Duane Ager (ex ‘Bloodshot’) played bass. ‘Jinn’ never played in Ieper…

Micky McGuinness (gibboncore.com)

‘Insane Youth’ started out in Sint-Niklaas around 1992-1993 (lo-o-ong ago) with Tomaz (bass), Tim (guitar), Smet (drums) and me (vocals); later ‘Fons’ joined on drums, learning the songs in a few sessions before doing his first gig. Then Vanessa joined briefly on vocals too and Stef on guitar (ex ’Corpus Christi’, now still ‘Visions Of War’, ‘Chaka’). He started ‘Visions Of War’ and I joined him, not leaving ‘Insane Youth’. After 7 years of touring, gigs they called it quits. Releases were the split 7” with ‘Boycot’ and a song on the compilation-LP Europe In Decline’ (Six Week recs).

Luckily ‘Ebola’ helped us out with the P.A.; otherwise we would’ve been ‘mute’…

Steve Descamps

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

98-02-13 Katastrophobia – Insane Youth – Charlie Don’t Surf – [The End Of Ernie] – Bruce

This was a benefit for Dirk Van Alboom (guitarist of ‘Time Out’)’s wife and kid.. He died on stage of the Vort’n Vis during their gig on 97-09-19 (28 years old; °69-02-07). There was a similar event @ Sojo in Leuven on 98-03-14.

‘Katastrophobia’ (“Nihilist Punx Against Better Propsects”) were mates from the Gent squat-scene: ‘Leffe’ (guitar; ex ‘Chronic Disease’, ‘P.J.D.’), Stef ‘Irritant’ Heeren (drums; also ‘Counter-Attack), Gratiën Versypt (vocals) and Nico Van Der Eeken (bass). Leffe’ & Gratiën were also in ‘4 Minute Warning’ before. ‘Kata’ had played the V.V. before (97-02-28). In the summer of ’97 they recorded (at Patrick Delabie’s 195 studio) for a 7” that came out on Nabate. Their next 7” (Homo Morticinus) was released by Morning Star and their LP (Age Of Aqvarius) by both labels.

‘Insane Youth’, a crust-core band from Sint-Niklaas, were: Jan ‘Fons’ Wuytack (drums) [originally a guy named ‘Smet’], Tim De Baere (guitar) (briefly also Stef De Leersnijder), Thomas ‘Tomaz’ Van Rumst (bass) and Steve ‘Stiv’ Descamps (vocals). Vanessa Hoskens was the 2^nd vocalist for a while. They did an auto-produced split-7″ (with the Dutch ‘Boycot’) in 1997. Nice guys with their hearts on the right place. I remember doing an interview for Profane Existence #35 with them in Tomaz’ room in Gent – great afternoon. They played the V.V. a bunch of times: 94-09-16, 94-10-22,95-09-16, 96-05-19, 97-10-28, …

‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ came from Leuven and surroundings. The band consisted of Kurt De Bont (drums), Roberto Gasparini (bass; also did some zines), Gert Goris (vocals), Kurt Van Asselberghs (guitar) and Philippe Anthonis (guitar). They played melodic HC/punk-rock. Their 7” Six Songs To Die For was released by Funtime recs, Kurt DB’s own Hageland Strikes Back and Tim Leten’s Filth-Ear distribution (in ‘98). In 1999 they did a split-CD with ‘End Of Ernie’ (on Funtime recs & Hageland Strikes Back). They played again at the Leed festival (98-09-18).

‘The End Of Ernie’ (Heist-Op-Den-Berg) play(ed) up-tempo, “in-your-face” HC/punk (Some Dutchies described them once as “Flemish frites-punk, fast, hard and not very gentle”.); the band still exists but there were quite a few line-up changes. They had a demo and besides the split-CD mentioned above (‘EO.E.’s line-up on that was: ‘Web’ & Geert – guitar, Johan – drums, Werner – bass), they also had some tracks on a split-7” with ‘D.D.I.’ & some others in 1999, and on the ALF-benefit compilation Hitters And Runners (2002). Their vocalist is Luc Ceulemans (owner of record-store Lost Culture Records).

The (garage-punk band from Aarschot) ‘Bruce’ – with Bart Jozef Robeyns (bass), Wim Asselberghs (guitar/vocals) & Peter Tielemans (drums) – released their first album The Vaticano Trail in 1997. I believe Kurt De Bont invited them because one of the other bands couldn’t make it. On the alternative flyer ‘The End Of Ernie’ is replaced by locals ‘Lifecycle’ but there’s no mentioning of them in the V.V. notes… ‘Bruce’ is still doing concerts nowadays…

Brob

‘Insane Youth’ started out in Sint-Niklaas around 1992-1993 (lo-o-ong ago) with Tomaz (bass), Tim (guitar), Smet (drums) and me (vocals); later ‘Fons’ joined on drums, learning the songs in a few sessions before doing his first gig. Then Vanessa joined briefly on vocals too and Stef on guitar (ex ’Corpus Christi’, now still ‘Visions Of War’, ‘Chaka’). He started ‘Visions Of War’ and I joined him, not leaving ‘Insane Youth’. After 7 years of touring, gigs they called it quits. Releases were the split 7” with ‘Boycot’ and a song on the compilation-LP Europe In Decline’ (Six Week recs).

Steve Descamps

Strange incidences occur and it’s always interesting to notice how different paths of people can cross and intertwine over time. It was actually quite a long time before I spoke with Dirk, although we met regularly. We were from the same area at the time (which is Lochristi, Beervelde…a region not far from Ghent where I grew up and where I “discovered” punk). We had some mutual friends and acquaintances, of course, since the scene is really small. We saw each other from time to time at the local youth-centre where I used to hang out and where they only organised stupid rock-contests for dumb, empty bands who wanted ‘to make it’. But it was a place to hang out, nevertheless; as I was too young to venture too far into the ‘big, unknown city’. So, we met and said “hello”. We kept bumping into each other from time to time and said “hello” again and time went on.

Then I was living in Ghent where we – a group of people – occupied a rather big squatted furniture-factory which had a lot of place [Brob: the Hogepont squat occupied by the Schelderatten]. We started organising gigs and such because the place was massive and open, not too far from the city-centre but nevertheless pretty isolated and because, basically, that’s what we wanted to do for a long time as we felt big, beautiful Ghent was seriously lacking a place where like-minded people could get together, organise themselves on a grass-roots level without the commercial bullshit and state-control and -interference that was going on. We tried to provide people with a place and platform to do things themselves and for others: organising gigs, performances, doing expositions of their art as a means of independent expression and non-mainstream creativity which was much-needed (then and now, of course). Also, a place to relax (as I said, we were pretty isolated, i.e. the premise was fairly big, surrounded by walls, pretty ‘green’ and somehow it breathed an atmosphere of necessary tranquillity). Every week we organised a ‘people’s kitchen’ where we (or others) made cheap, affordable meals. Over time; lotsa people started showing up so we had to move to another part of the building, which, for some reason we always overlooked but was actually fitted quite well as a (small) restaurant/concert-place for smaller gigs.

After a while, Dirk and his family started showing up. I guess he/they met some people from our squat and got invited or they visited us with some friends and decided to come back. I remember him as a really cool guy, a thing I didn’t quite expected him to be as I was pretty apprehensive about meeting people at the time. He was a little bit older than me and I regarded him as somewhat more “serious”, i.e. someone who almost found his place in life and knew what he wanted out of it. I respected that a lot and although we weren’t really into the same kind of music and learned to know him as an intelligent, caring human being. To me, definitely an asset. I wondered why we never talked before. I learned about his band, which was a different style than ours, and I remember seeing them a couple of times. I think they even played at our place [Brob: 97-09-18 ‘Time Out’ & ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’; the day before Dirk died during their gig at the V.V.]. They were fairly ‘new’ but they were making good progress and got appreciated. He told me about the gig they were doing at Vort’n Vis. I couldn’t make it the first day (I guess we had something planned at our place as well… [See above: ‘Time Out’ played…]) but I was planning on going the second day. I can’t remember who broke the news about the tragedy that happened but of course we were all shocked. Really weird when you start to think of how things went: somebody you actually ‘knew’ for some time but never had the time or the balls or the interest to actually talk to and by the time you discover how such a nice person he was, it’s over. ‘Stunned’ is a good word to describe how we all felt at the time. We all felt pretty mortal….

So we got asked to play [this benefit] with ‘Katastrophobia’ of which I don’t remember all that much. Typical…But I seem to remember that it wasn’t the average ‘all-feel-good-gig atmosphere’ and I wasn’t really in the mood either. We, as a band, weren’t exactly celebrating ‘life’ either and most of our songs and attitude was pretty negative and deconstructive (especially mine) so maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to ask us. It wàs all death and destruction at the time (hence the ‘Nihilist Punx Against Better Prospects’-slogan, which sounded cool but wasn’t maybe all too appropriate for such an occasion). Maybe it was because Dirk visited our house a lot in the end and participated quite heavily in social activities in and around Ghent, which often originated from the Ghent-based punk-scene. But I guess he always did, I just didn’t notice it before and it’s strange that you tend to remember people and how they were by the tragedies that befall them…

Gratiën V., ‘Katastrophobia’ vocalist

We still have the same line-up as back then. I remember it was a benefit was for the family of a musician that died during a concert. A few weeks before we had played together with ‘Charlie Don’t surf’ during a festival in Haacht organised by Kurt De Bont.

‘Bruce’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

94-09-16 Força Macabra – Insane Youth – Corpus Christi – Zabloudil

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

This Leed fest started with an evening in the pub.

We knew ‘Força Macabra’ a bit because Bruno (Genet recs) released the split between them & ‘Corpus Christi’ in ’93. I’d hung out with ‘Selfish’s drummer Otto Itkonen in Gent the year before and he was also in this ‘project’: a band with a Portugese name and lyrics, while they’re actually from Finland (Punkaharju, N.E. of Helsinki). The vocalist was ‘Taurus’ (‘Oswaldo’ Otto Luotonen), bassist ‘Chakal’ (‘Jaba’ Jaakko Penttinen), guitarist ‘Porco’ (‘Lalli’ ‘Pedro Anthares’ Petri Niskanen) and Otto was nick-named ‘Antitese’ or ‘Oscar’. The band did numerous records and tapes; too much to mention. Have a look on their website: www.forcamacabra.net. They also did covers of bands such as ‘Ratos De Porão’, ‘Olho Seco’, ‘Cólera’, etc. They would play at the V.V. again in ’97 but I reckon Otto and Petri visited from time to time aswell…

‘Força Macabra’; photo by Wim De Leersnijder

Bram De Cock, guest-vocalist (pic Annabel de Jonghe)

‘Insane Youth’, a crust-core band from the Sint-Niklaas area played at the Vort’n Vis for the 1^st time here… The were back already a month later (94-10-22). The line-up: Steve ‘Stiv’ Descamps (vocals), Thomas ‘Tomaz’ Van Rumst (bass), Jan ‘Fons’ Wuytack and Tim De Baere (guitar). Vanessa Hoskens was the 2^nd vocalist at some timepoint. Stef De Leersnijder would join later.

Koen ‘Siesele’ Lammens (ex ‘Private Jesus Detector’) had joined the ranks of ‘Corpus Christi’ by then. The others were Bram De Cock (drums), ‘Colli’ Peter Vancolen (vocals) & Stef De Leersnijder (guitar). They’d done a wole bunch of gigs at the V.V. (92-11-22, 93-10-31, 93-11-21, 94-02-05) but this was probably their last one here…

‘Corpus Christi’; photos by Wim De Leersnijder

I don’t remember much about ‘Zabloudil’, except that they were from the Czech Republic (Olomouc area ?) and had a CD out on Malarie recs (self-titled). On the www one can read: “The band had a variable line-up, name and sound but during 23 years of its existence earned a reputation of one of the most open-minded experimental bands in the Czech Republic. They shunned away from the mainstream and they always shocked with their uncompromising approach to music and the business.”. Their sound was “original, moving in a broad range between hardcore, free jazz, improvisation and noise”. Don’t knoww if Fifi, the female singer was in the band then… You can find out more about them on this website: http://mujweb.cz/zabloudila/indexen.html

Brob

I played at the Vort’n Vis with ‘Corpus Christi’ twice. The original ‘Corpus’ (on the EP) was Stef on bass and ‘Goemie’ [Bart Goeminne] on guitar – they didn’t do an awful lot of gigs in that line-up. When the guitarist quit [He stayed until Oct ’93 and was then replaced by Tom Vanlaere for a bit.], Stef [ex ‘Warcry’, later in ‘Insane Youth’, nowadays in ‘Visions Of War’ ‘Chaka’] took over guitar and I played bass. Things got off pretty well then and we did some 20 gigs before splitting (in ’95), only in Belgium.

Corpus Christi started in late 1991 when ‘Goemi’, Bram and ‘Colli’ started talking of forming a band. The first rehearsal was early 1992 but they had no bassist and because Bram was good friends with the guys of the melodic HC band ‘Cry For Change’ he asked their guitarist (Johan) if he could join and play bass. They did 1 gig in October 1992 with Johan. After that gig he decided to leave because it wasn’t his style. After a few months with only 3 members (‘Colli’ bass/vocals), they met Stef and his brother Wim who both played in ‘War Cry’ along with the legendary Pedro, and asked Stef to join the band and play bass. At the same time Bruno from Genet recs asked to record songs for a split-EP with ‘Força Macabra’ from Finland. So they recorded 7 tracks at Cats studio in Bruges in May 1993. 4 for the split and 3 unreleased. After the recordings ‘Goemie’ had too little time continue with ‘C.C.’ and left the band but because the EP did well and several gigs were planned, they tried to find another bassist (Stef decided to play guitar) and found ‘Siesele’ (‘Private Jesus Detector’ had called it a day by then). That was around October 1993. This last line-up was the last and also the most important. New songs were made. There were even plans for a split-LP to be released by a French label ??? other band ???… I fogot. But internal fights between some members when the band was at their peak got the band to split up. But nowadays we drink beer together and make fun again. The past is the past. The first pic in the vid is from the first gig with Johan on bass. At the end of the movie you see Wim who was always ready for the band and saw every gig. We consider him a member of the band.

Here’s 2 ‘videos’ of rehearsals (space in Oostrozebeke of the ‘Cry For Change’ brothers [Johan & Peter Maes]): the unreleased track Teveel Is Teveel and Killing For Pleasure. [Brob: The one of a live gig in Brugge in the last line-up seems to have disappeared from the www.]

Koen ‘Siesele’ Lammens

‘Força Macabra’ didn’t tour. The Euro-tour was cancelled last minute… Our vocalist’s Lada broke down before, or something. I think the guys couldn’t get the wheels fixed. ‘Selfish’ had done a European tour in 92, 93 but probably did just one appearance at V.V. in ‘94. The same weekend as ‘Forca Macabra’. On friday we tried to do a gig with ‘F.M.’ but the set was a mess (almost unrecognizable because of our state of drunkenness…) so we played briefly and did a short yet decent set the following day on a different stage… So both ‘F.M.’ and ‘Selfish’ played at this fest.

Otto Itkonen

I was on the festival with ‘Zabloudil’ (Cze). I remember Brob wanted me to pay entrance and was angry with me. I totally understand now – you were doing your best at running the place. At that time everything was also new for us; how the scene was working… I got lot of experiences and inspiration out of it for doing things over here in a similar way.

Martin Valásek, Malarie recs

We played on the Friday of this festival. For us it was the first time we played outside the Czech Republic (arranged by Martin Valásek of Malarie recs).

Zdenek Kobylka Vymlatil, ‘Zabloudil’s “manager”

My memory is hazy but one detail I remember is the ‘Força Macabra’ (or was it ‘Selfish’?) bassist being so drunk he could barely stand on stage [see photo], let alone play his instrument. He eventually gave up trying and the band kept playing without him, if my memory serves me right. That must be the first time I drank ‘Kilju’ too, one of those huge buckets the Finns were carrying around. Kilju kills you, or at least it does kill bassists.

Luk Ardilouze, Scream zine, Bayonne (France)

I guess this was the best gig we ever played at the V.V. but also the best overall. It definitely brings back memories, I wonder if ‘Corpus Christi’ could ever do a reunion ? ;-) It was also fun with the Finnish home-brew brothers, I’ll never forget the friendship we shared. The picture shows Basse, vocalist of ‘Selfish’. I remember he was so drunk, he didn’t even feel that somebody tore out his nipple piercing in front of the stage… It was bleeding like hell but the alcohol was a strong tranquilizer, don’t know if it still was the next day? Thanx Brob, for keeping this in memory alive, even after more than 20 years! Respect dude!

‘Corpus Colli’ Peter Vancolen

Q.E.D.

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

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

Evolution of announcements in the Vort’n Vis newsletters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Piero Majocchi

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

Tomaz Trplan, Papermouth zine (Murska Sobota, Slovenia)

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

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

Gregor Kanitz (A Jour distro, Düsseldorf) visited…

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

Bart Jansen, ‘Deconsume’ guitarist

I was there…

Luc Ardilouze, Scream zine (Bayonne, France)

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

Pawel, Scream recs (Gdansk, Poland)

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

Helena Burbuleta, ‘Inkisiçao’ singer

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Some Portugese stayed the whole weekend…

???

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

95-09-15&16&17 7th Leed festival

Evolution of announcements in the Vort’n Vis newsletters

=> the actual ‘bill’:

15 sep ’95: Undone (Fra), Suffer (UK), Carol (Ger)

16 sep ’95: D.D.I. (Ita), Oi Polloi (UK), Glue (UK), Coche Bomba (Fra), Insane Youth (Bel), Carcer Molochi (Bel), Rawness (Fra), Systral (Ger)

17 sep ’95: Spite (UK), Catweazle (Nl), Extinction Of Mankind (UK), Uutuus (Fin) => Äpärä Kaaos (Fin/Tur) [don’t think Contramenation (Ger) played]

(Quite a few other bands had been announced: Fleas & Lice (Nl) played a couple of months earlier, Brawl (Ire) came over a week before, Defiance (USA) a month later; gigs for Subcaos (Por; Joao Abrantes had left the band) / Sanctus Iuda (Pol) / Dread Messiah (UK) / Meanwhile (Swe) with ‘No Security’s Jallo Lehto & Mattias Kennhed / Kirous (Fin) / Luzifers Mob (Ger) / Third World Disease (Fin) / Warcollapse (Swe) toured Germany, Poland, Czech Republic & Austria with ‘E.O.M.’ in September ‘95 / … fell through for some reason)

* reviewed in Persons Unknown (Luxembourg zine) #2 by Brego *

Brego interviews Piero Majocchi of AZ distro/label (‘D.D.I.’)

There’s some photos of the distro-stalls, visiters and the run-in with the police in In and around the Vort’n Vis …

Some people that visited that weekend: Ilja S. (Yahoo distribution, Berlin) and his girlfriend, Gregor Kanitz & Sascha May (Evilspeak zine, Düsseldorf), Sas (‘Anarcrust’ bassist & Kbaal distribution, Rotterdam), ‘Enco’ Enzo Giurgevich (vocalist of ‘No Limits’, Koper, Slovenia), ‘Bumpy’ of ‘Sea Shepherd’ (Orléans, France), Luc Ardilouze (Scream zine, Bayonne, France), …

‘Suffer’ meets ‘D.D.I.’ (1: Gazza, Mac, Mila, Gio, Sned / 2: Sned, Dario, Mac)

‘Oi Polloi’ & friends

Matt Finch: “Calum Mackenzie (blue top), I’m holding the bottle, next me is Colin Douglas (‘Oi Polloi’ driver). Don’t know who the guy with the dreads is.”.

Colin Douglas: “There is 4 people that I know from Slovenia there. Is that Riley beside me? The person next to Deek is Lea, and Matjaž in front of Deek. The guy behind Calum is Enzo and his partner is in front of Calum.”

‘Enco’ Enzo Giurgevich: “Matjaž, Lea ‘Piercing’, Marija and myself. On the left are two Finnish guys [Jonne & ‘Pedro’ from Äpärä Kaaos]. Matjaž [Lican] used to do the Atomic Fart distro-label [live-tapes of concerts at MKNZ in Ilirska Bistrica, Slovenia]. We traveled from Koper [Slovenia] to Ieper in my old Yugo (car). I did around 20 hours of driving in one direction…”

And fun was had by all… ;-) “dancing king Lalli” dixit Wim De Leersnijder

French visitors at Leed ’95; with Bumpy (white t-shirt) from ‘Sea Shepherd’ (Orléans), died in a car-accident in 1997… [the alley opposite of the V.V.] (photo by Ivan Brun)

Italian cuisine à la ‘D.D.I.’ (with on the left Deek ‘Polloi’ & Kerim Gönencer)

For some pics of the cops getting hassled here: scroll down => In and around the Vort’n Vis

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!…