95-12-03 Merel – Bob Tilton – Undone – Malva – Rood Arch – Kosjer D – [Symptom Of Isaac] – [Churn]

This gig – advertised as ‘Emo In Motion’ – was (probably) organised by Joeri Hoste. Also helping out (more or less) was Guilherme Chalmers (from Portugal) and Jurgen Desmet. Kathy Dejonghe (Genet recs, Pyrrhus store) prepared meals. ‘Symptom Of Isaac’ & ‘Churn’ were announced at one timepoint but aren’t mentioned in the Vort’n Vis notes so I reckon they cancelled.

‘Symptom Of Isaac’ was an emo band from Poitiers (with some members of ‘Milkus’): Alain Vidal (vocals; ex ‘Vanilla’ bassist), Gaël Nicolas (guitar), Fabien Decker (bass) and Antoine Demantké (drums). Weena Pauly did some vocals on a self-titled 7” (also known as Seek Me Out) that they put out on Olivier Lépine’s label Laissez-Nous Jouer (94). Later Alain Vidal formed ‘El Vidal Sonido’ with Yves Maisonneuve (drums, ex ‘Ivich’/’Vanilla’). There was also a split-tape (live ‘95) with ‘Ananda’…

‘Churn’ was also an emo band from Leuven & Limburg with Raf ‘Thrasher’ Gelenne (vocals), Peter Peumans (bass), Raf Gielen (guitar), Maarten Beckers (drums) and Jan Beckers (guitar). (The latter 3 went on as ‘Kindred’ with Walter Beckers and Eric Sefton). They had played at the Hardcore Festival already that year (95-08-20).

‘Merel’ was another emo band from New Jersey, with David A. (Dave) Leto (bass; here replaced by ‘Iconoclast’s Kevin K.; see below) and Gregg Leto (drums) – both later in ‘Rye Coalition’, Jon Ariz (guitar), Mike Solski (guitar) & José Juan Ruiz (vocals). They did a split-7” with Iconoclast on Old Glory and a 7” & LP on Charles Maggio’s label Gern Blandsten.

‘Bob Tilton’, emo-rockers (some said they played “twisted post-hardcore”) from Nottinghman, were Al(l)an Gainey (drums; ex ‘Downfall’), Chay Lawrence (guitar; also ‘Tribute’), Mark Simms (bass; also ‘Baby Harp Seal’), Neil Johnson (guitar) and Si(mon) Feirn (vocals; ex ‘Downfall’). Nick Royles announced them in his newsletter (How We Rock #6) as “similar to ‘Born Against’ & ‘Heroin’…”. The music on their Crescent LP was compared to ‘Promise Ring’ and the ‘Get Up Kids’. Around that time they had the following out, on Subjugation recs: Wake Me When It’s Springtime Again 7” (‘94), Songs Of Penknife And Pocket Watch 7” (‘95). Later there would be the Crescent LP (’96) a split-12” with ‘Reiziger (on Genet recs) and an LP on Southern recs.

‘Bob Tilton’ (pictured by Vique ‘Simba’ Martin)

I had already invited ‘Malva’ to Vort’n Vis before (94-11-05) and they’d played about half a year before this one here too (95-07-02), when they toured with ‘Policy Of 3’. I also planned to interview them for Tilt!… They had recorded the tracks for their 7” (Das Leben Ist Kein Picknick; released on Equality recs) earlier that year (April ‘95). This emo-core band (from Leverkusen) consisted of Christian Schneider (guitar), Alex(ander) Bokelmann (drums), Flo(rian) Reiss (guitar), Martino Palazzo (vocals) and Alex(ander) Jahn (bass).

It wasn’t the first time I could welcome my Parisian friends of ‘Undone’ (drummer Christophe Mora, guitarist Stéphane ‘Scholl’ Brochier, bassist Stéphane ‘Stu’ Joly and singer Sullivan ‘Sully’ Chédanne) at the V.V. either. Steph & Chris released the band’s LP Dark Future (recorded April ‘95) on their respective labels (Kleines Mädchen & Stonehenge recs) that year.

‘Rood Arch’ had played here a couple of times already aswell (94-04-23 & 94-11-19) The guys were from Lille/Dunkerque (just accross the border, in France): Pierre Anne (drums/vocals; ex ‘6 Feet Over’), ‘Tomoy’ (bass; ‘Scraps’, later also in ‘Unhinged’) & Fred (also bass; ex ‘6 Feet Over’). It’s a pity there’s no recordings of them. I only have a vague idea of them sounding emo-ish…

‘Kosjer D’, emo from Limburg, played by Arne Van Petegem (guitar/vocals), Geert Plessers (guitar/vocals), Stijn Persoons (drums; ex ‘Dawn Of Liberty’) and Kristien Hendrix (bass; had replaced Werner by then I believe). They’d performed at the V.V. a couple of times already. Having a female bassplayer in the band, they jokingly said, they could be the Belgian ‘Jawbox’… They had a 7” (True?) and LP out on Genet recs that year. In ‘96 there was the split-7” with ‘Baby Harp Seal’…

A lot of my correspondents came over… E.g. Jeffrey Kroesen visited together with a bunch of mates from the north of The Netherlands (read below). Also Mickaël ‘Mike’ Ramounet (singer of ‘Peu-Être’, and later ‘Alcatraz’) from Poitiers was there. (Don’t remember if his partner Stéphanie Courret – Opale distro – was there also.) Etc.

Brob

I was a member of ‘Tribute’, and ‘Bob Tilton’ (for about 5 years – everything apart from the first 7” and last LP), I wasn’t really in ‘Unborn’ (I only went to one or two practices) although the www seems to think I was. Don’t really have anything to share from that event other than cloudy memories. I do remember a bunch of bands played though and it might have been with ‘Merel’ or ‘Iconoclast’ who we played a bunch of shows with around the UK? Anyway, I do remember it being a good show with a large crowd.

Chay Lawrence

‘Kosjer D’ and ‘Malva’ were playing also that night. Excellent gig in very good company. I remember I was dead-tired on the way back and had to stop because I almost fell asleep behind the wheel. Couldn’t trust on the others in helping me stay awake since they were all sound asleep even before we got to Antwerp. Bastards! This was a fantastic line-up… Also the first drive with my mom’s car all the way from Friesland [North of the Netherlands] to Ieper, with a stop in Hoogeveen to pick up some people from Groningen. Because of the distance I didn’t come to Ieper often, maybe like 10 times (including 4 Ieperfests when they were still at the Vort’n Vis was) in the 90s. The first time I stayed over for the night, it was ice-cold. We kept our clothes on in our sleeping-bags.

Alex Oost

I recall that I was very impressed by ‘Bob Tilton’ and ‘Merel’. Also that it took the 5 of us a very long drive all the way from Groningen….

Mark Hoogvliet, ‘Shikari’ vocalist & Graanrepubliek recs

After the ‘Merel’ show in Ieper, I drove with them to Jaak [‘N.O.F.’ drummer] ‘s vegan store, where they slept…

Martin Schwendemann (personal communication, spring ’96)

We corresponded in the past, Brob! I had a little distro which carried your zine Tilt!. We met a few times. The ‘Bob Tilton’ / ‘Undone’ / ‘Merel’ gig was one occasion…

Jeffrey ‘Jigs Wolfsbane’ Kroesen

Because of the big strike in France, there were no trains and I couldn’t make it over…

Olivier Lacoste, ‘Öpstand’ singer, Chill Out zine (personal communication, January ’96)

I played bass on ‘Merel’s European tour because the original guy, Dave Leto, quit at the last minute to stay with ‘Rye’, later called ‘Rye Coaltion’. I have great memories of the time and I also have to thank that time for my romantic situation now because I met Lluvia in a squat in Madrid where the punks put on a ‘Merel’ show; she was involved in the organization. We became friends back then but we lost touch until 2010 – I was in NYC playing drums or bass in rock-bands but several broke up, I’d gotten fired from my job and then met up with Lluvia and figured I should take a chance. Now I’m the bass-player for ‘No Band’; Lluvia is the singer.

Kevin Kajetzke, ‘Iconoclast’ drummer

I was still in school and had to stay home…

Dave Leto, ‘Merel’s bassist

I can tell you you it was one of my personal favorites to play. I remained friends with ‘Kosjer D’s drummers Stijn and his wife Diane for a couple of years but lost touch…

Jon Ariz, ‘Merel’ guitarist

I don’t have any memories of the show as the tour was a bit of a whirlwind for us. For some reason my most vivid memory of Belgium was taking a walk and encountering people ice-skating around a Christmas-tree while it was snowing. I often think about that.

Gregg Leto, ‘Merel’s drummer

I feel my most interesting V.V. memories are of my first visits – I traveled with ‘Bob Tilton’ that played a gig there. I was (am) good friends with Nick Royles, and Ian [Simpson] and Helene [Keller] of Subjugation – we all travelled to the show.

David Allen (later ‘Voorhees’ drummer)

‘Merel’ had a woman named Lee Quick on the tour as roadie. José’s girlfriend at the time I believe. José lives in Australia nowadays…

Charles Maggio, ‘Rorschach vocalist’ & Gern Blandsten

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

95-07-02 Policy Of 3 – Malva – Kosjer D – Ananda – [Nothing Left To Grasp]

“Vindicating emo matinee”, Bruno wrote on the flyer & VV newsletter of that time… ‘Shitworkers’ that day: ‘Hazel’, Joeri H, Vik B, Wim ‘ Blindfold’, Hans Verbeke & yours truly.

Corey von Villiez & Bernd Bohrmann (Equality recs, ‘Abolition’, Stack’) organised the tour for ‘Policy Of 3’.

I had invited ‘Malva’ to play at the V.V. before (see: 94-11-05); here they supported the ‘PO3’ tour for 3 weeks. They were an emo-core band from Leverkusen with Christian Schneider (guitar), Alex(ander) Bokelmann (drums), Flo(rian) Reiss (guitar), Martino Palazzo (vocals) & Alex(ander) Jahn (bass). I really liked their demo. Later (’96) Corey & Bernd released the 7” Das Leben Ist Kein Picknick on their label Equality recs.

‘Policy Of 3’, a political SxE emo band from New Jersey, were: Adam Goldstein (guitar/vocals), Chris(topher) Fry (drums), Eric ‘Bull’ Gervasi (bass; later ‘400 Years’ – see 97-06-14) and Jeff Fisher (guitar/vocals). At this time they had a self-titled 7” out on Scott Beibin’s Bloodlink recs (recorde March ‘93), and the Dead Dog Summer LP (recorded Sep. ‘93) & the American Woodworking 7” (out in ‘95) both on on Old Glory recs. They were part of the Cabbage Collective in Philadelphia that put up shows in the basement of a church. Bull also distributed records at a local anarchist bookstore.

‘Ananda’ came from Parisian suburbia. A few months before (February) they had recorded a demo. Recordings of their show with ‘Policy Of 3’ and ‘Avail’ (95-05-30 in Poitiers, France) were used for a split-tape with ‘Symptom Of Isaac’. The band consisted of Chrystèle Grall & Jean-Yves André (vocals), Thomas Guillanton (guitar; ex ‘Fingerprint’, ‘Jasemine’) & Sylvain Klein (guitar), Jérôme ‘Mizou’ Bessout (drums; ex ‘Fingerprint’, ‘Jasemine’) and Jérôme ‘Gunthar’ Lacombe (bass). (Günthar studio was Jérôme’s the home recording-studio in the 90s.) Their 10” Masqué was recorded that summer and released by Olivier Lépine on his label La Libre Expression. Later Stéphane ‘Stu’ Joly (ex ‘Undone’) replaced Sylvain and Michaël Clergeot did vocals in stead of Jean-Yves (after the 10” and the Habeas Corpus LP); the sound changed “from screamo to heavy gloomy hardcore sludge”. They would come back to the V.V. on 96-09-22 & 99-08-21.

‘Kosjer D’ (previous appearances: 94-05-22 & 94-08-19) started out as a 3-some (acoustic guitar, bass & drums) and then Arne (Van Petegem; who was in a mainstream pop-band before and nowadays known as the electronic/dance producer ‘Styrofoam’) joined. The name was originally ‘Kosjer Dill’ (nickname of the singer’s girlfriend, who was from San Diego). They were an emo band (with personal lyrics) hailing from Limburg, with (besides Arne – guitar/vocals), Geert Plessers (guitar/vocals), Stijn Persoons (drums; ex ‘Dawn Of Liberty’) and Kristien Hendrix (bass). The band did some recordings and asked Bruno (Genet recs) to release them as a 7” (entitled True). Musically they were compared to ‘Jawbox’ & ‘Fugazi’. People can read about how it came about in Reminder #5… They had finished recordings in spring that year so they presented their untitled LP (also out on Genet recs) here. They would come back a few times more and evolved into ‘Reiziger’…

‘Nothing Left To Grasp’, an emo band from Augsburg (Germany), had already played on 94-08-20 but I believe they didn’t show up here, there’s no mention of them in the V.V. notes…

Brob

We toured with ‘Policy of 3’ and when we got back from Great-Britain, we stopped at the V.V. to do a show there; together with the fantastic ‘Kosjer D’. We split up around 1996 but Alex J, Alex B and me have been doing music under the name ‘Malva’ until 2010. Then we stopped because I was moving to Berlin.

Christian Schneider, ‘Malva’ guitarist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

95-08-19 Veil – Concrete – Doughnuts – Rancor – Mainstrike – Blindfold – Comrades – Kosjer D – Congress – Abhinanda

Intro: 95-08-18&19&20 Hardcore Festival

Vik B. crowdsurfing + Letske M. (L) smiling – during ‘Veil’s set?  (pic by Patrick Federli)

‘Veil’ (from the Hannover area) were: Jens Lauterbach (bass), Florian Schul (drums), Raoul Festante (vocals) and Nils Nordmann (guitar). They played metallic hardcore. Around that time they the Dutch (Sittard) label Threesome recs (Ferry Krop of ‘Crisis Of Society’) put a self-titled 7” our (recorded in April). In 1996 Ferry did another one entitled Time Will Tell… and their LP The Burden Of Life was released by Frontline. The band was also on the bill of the 1997 HardCore – The Next Generation festival…

‘Veil’, photographed by Steve Lammertyn

‘Concrete’ was a (screamo) “chunky” hardcore band from Rome. Their line-up: Cristiano ‘Capoccia’/‘Nerone’ D’Innocenti (drums; later ‘Comrades, ‘Los Vaticanos’), Cristiano Fini (guitar; also ‘Comrades’), Giorgio Gregorio ‘Greg’ Luciani (bass; also ‘Comrades’), Matteo Fadighenti (guitar), Tommaso ‘Tommy’ Garavini (vocals; tommasogaravini.com). At that time I think they had released, a demo (’93), The Sound Of Rome 7” (’94; mentioned on cristianodinnocenti.blogspot) and the Patior Ergo Sum 10” (recorded Nov ‘94) on Paolo Petralia’s SOA recs. Their next release was the Sescenti Sexaginta Sex 7” (recorded Feb ‘96) on Hailey recs.

‘Concrete’, pic by Steve Lammertyn

‘Doughnuts’ was an all-women vegan SxE (metal-influenced) hardcore band from Umeå (Sweden): Asa Forsberg (vocals), Linda Lundberg (drums), Sara Almgren (guitar; later in ‘Saidiwas’ & ‘International Noise Conspiracy’, and a bunch of mainstream acts), Sara Sjögren (guitar; on the 1994 CD) and – I think – Jenny Johansson (bass; replacing Helena Löfgren). In 1994 Desperate Fight recs put out their 1^st CD called Equalize Nature (recorded March ’94). The following years Victory recs did their albums The Age Of The Circle (1995) and Feel Me Bleed (1996). They had just come back from a US tour with ‘Snapcase’ when they played here.

‘Doughnuts’, pictured by Patrick Federli [1-2] & Sarah Van de Mosselaer [3]

The Dutch ‘Rancor’ had played the V.V. a couple of months before (with ‘Strain’, see 95-04-09). They were Michel ‘Mike’ Senden (guitar; also ‘Bloodsport’), Fabrice Zander (bass), ‘R2D2’ (drum-computer) and Pascal Crombach (vocals). Later it was intended that Armand ‘Persecution’ would take over the bass so Fabrice could play guitar… They recorded a CD entitled Distinguish, released in ’97 by Lifeforce recs (Leipzig). Mike & Fabrice had the idea to do a label, One Solution recs…

‘Mainstrike’ (The Netherlands) also played the above-mentioned gig (95-04-09). Jeroen ‘Beertje’ Vrijhoef (guitar), Jasper Meijerink (bass), Jonas Moberg (guitar), Roland ‘Big’ Roller (vocals) and Pepijn Oostenbrink (drums) had this ‘practice’ a few weeks before they recorded for their 7” (Times Still Here). On the back-cover there’s a photo of the pit during ‘Mainstrike’s performance here… (also on the insert there’s pics from the V.V.). I read somewhere that “When the microphone broke down during their set, they played a three-song cover-set with a crowd of hundreds singing along.”… Later that year they would do a brief tour with ‘Onward’ (95-10-20).

‘Mainstrike’, shots by Steve Lammertyn

‘Blindfold’ were one of the Vort’n Vis’ ‘house-band’s. Hans, Wim & Sascha were also volunteers at the autonomous centre. Hans and and his sis Saskia also had a big hand in the ‘organising’ of this fest. The band came back from a summer-tour. Mike Warden (Conquer The World) traveled with them but I can ‘t recall if he was here. Mich Decruyenaere (guitar; also in ‘Fungus’ and later vocals for ‘Hitch’) played on their German tour but wasn’t on the LP (Astreroid 164) that had been recorded..

‘Blindfold’, stills by Patrick Federli [1 (with an admiring Vique Martin) + 2 (with an enthusiastic Joeri Hoste)] & Steve Lammertyn [3-4]

‘Comrades’ (Rome) was the band of Paolo Petralia (vocals; SOA recs). He told me that at that time the others in the band were, Cristiano Fini (guitar; also ‘Concrete’, ‘Bruma’), Andrea Marra (bass), Giorgio Fois (drums; singer of ‘Timebomb’) and Greg of ‘Concrete’ was the other singer. This was one of their last shows, I guess, ‘cause they split up in September 1995 (to re-form later). Their music was harsh, crusty grindcore with dual vocals. Their early work was released on SOA recs (a self-titled 7” in ’97 and a split with ‘Eversor’ in ‘98). Later they did a few splits (with e.g. ‘Agathocles’, and ‘Cripple Bastards’; there is also one with ‘Los Vaticanos’ – Cristiano’s other band – on Fulvio Dogliotti’s label Angry recs).

‘Comrades’ (from Ludovic Hache’s zine Ras L’Bol #5)

‘Kosjer D’ had played here a couple of times before, even a month before this fest (95-07-02) and their last would be 95-12-03. They started out as a 3-some (acoustic guitar, bass & drums) and then Arne (Van Petegem; who was in a mainstream pop-band before and nowadays known as the person behind the indie/electronic/dance project ‘Styrofoam’) joined. The name was originally ‘Kosjer Dill’ (nickname of the singer’s girlfriend, who was from San Diego). They were an emo band (personal lyrics) hailing from Limburg, with (besides Arne – guitar/vocals), Geert Plessers (guitar/vocals), Stijn Persoons (drums; ex ‘Dawn Of Liberty’) and Kristien Hendrix (bass). The band did some recordings and asked Bruno (Genet recs) to release them as a 7” (entitled True?). People can read about how it came about in Wim ‘Blindfold’s zine Reminder #5…

‘Congress’ were regulars… Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitar), ‘Uniform’ ‘UxJx’ Jan Vandekerckhove (bass), ‘Pitbull’ Pierre Vanrumbeke (vocals), Ilja ‘Chill Jay’ De Ceuleneire (drums) and guitarist Michael ‘Micha Soprano’ Pintelon. This was the Blackened Persistance (should actually be ‘Persistence’) period. The album is supposed to be released in ‘95 on GoodLife but actually the label started officially on Jan 1^st ‘96…

some material from Steve Lammertyn’s ‘Congress’ collection… [J-F Fleury was video-taping the show but unfortunately the footage got lost… According to U.J. the bassplayer in the 2nd pic was Fabrice from ‘Rancor’, he did the soundcheck because “no one could see me before I got on stage”]

UxJx ‘Kiss’ Simmons ;-) (pic by Roel Brals)

‘Congress’ (UxJx & a constipated Pierre) (pic by Jean-Paul Frijns)

Another Euro tour for ‘Abhinanda’ (named Ever Increasing Bliss) and the second time at the V.V. (since 94-08-20). The EP Neverending Well Of Bliss was recorded in April 1995 with Mattias ‘Abris’ Abrahamsson (bass), Jonas Lyxzén (drums), Adam Nilsson (guitar), Pär Hansson (who had replaced Kris(tofer) ‘Stone’ Steen) and José Saxlund (vocals). There’s a video of their performance at this fest.

the ‘Abhinanda’ show, documented by Steve Lammertyn [1], Roel Brals [2] (‘porter’ Hans Verbeke with Adam Nilsson on his shoulders; Raoul Festante upper R-corner white T-shirt) & Sarah Van de Mosselaer [3] (Mattias Abrahamsson)

Brob

We had arranged a gig for ‘Blindfold’ in Haldensleben [Germany] but a few day before we got a phonecall from Marko Raboldt (Emotion X recs; who was arranging their tour) that it was cancelled because M.A.D. tour-agency [Ute Füsgen & her partner Marc Nickel from Berlin] had promised them more money elsewhere…

Kirsten Klatt; personal communication ‘95

Man, I miss those days! Such a great time at both festivals we played. A very special place for me. On the pic of ‘Mainstrike’s 7” you can see Big in the middle and the guy with the ‘108’ shirt that’s me… Peter Hoeren is also there… Man, that show was magic!!! I remember quite a lot about this event. There was a was very good fanzine called Statue and we got an interview in it. Then I remember that I slept on that stage because there was no free place anywhere else. It was pretty interesting to wake up and then perform on the same spot. I remember meeting the guys from ‘Mainstrike’ and how great they were and I wish someone took a picture of that super packed sleeping-place on the second floor of Vort’n Vis where all the band-members and friends slept and had farting-contests.

Raoul Festante, ‘Veil’

Probably it wasn’t the best line-up we had. Bad show as far as I can remember. It was the year full of Italian & Swedish bands. We were probably the only semi-grind ultra-core band and we were playing for Italians only. It was still at the V.V. but in that bigger place. We share a song on the first GoodLife compilation too: at that time all in the band were sXe. The other guys [e.g. Cristiano D’Innocenti (‘Concrete’, ‘Los Vaticanos’), Andrea ‘Monster’ Campanelli (‘Opposite Force’, ‘Bruma’)] joined later. We’re all still in bands even if we’re all over 40.

Paolo Petralia, ‘Comrades’ vocalist

I remember sleeping in the cold attic without a sleeping-bag, but we had immense fun. There was a Swedish invasion. I saw a green Straight Edge/Go Vegetarian shirt for sale there. I wanted it so desperately that I instantly threw away my sandwiches with salami…

Pascal, ‘Rancor’

About us wearing identical T-shirts: we might have found those on tour. Just a gimmick…

Wim, ‘Blindfold’

Indeed: halfway our set the mic got fucked up so we couldn’t play all those new songs. I was pretty pissed. But the fest was great!

Jonas Moberg, ‘Mainstrike’

The ‘Kiss’ face was done by Catherine Cabeza; good job – she did it without an example.

U.J., ‘Congress’ bassist

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

“Hello! This festival is completely cool!! Hope we will be back next year!!”

additions wellcome!…

94-05-22 Sleeper – Disaffect – Rectify – Kosjer D

Bruno arranged the bands for this one; shitworkers were David ‘Mong’ Dumont & Kurt Deprez (‘Shortsight’) and yours truely.

This was the last time ‘Disaffect’ (from Glasgow) played here. The 3^rd time after 92-10-04 & 93-07-04. Lynne Entwistle (vocals), ‘Joe Fear’ Jock Deacons (vocals; nowadays in ‘Constant Fear’), ‘IB’ Iain Blue (drums, later bass in ‘Scatha’), Andy ‘Orchy’ Irvine (bass; later ‘Scatha’, ‘Debris’, etc.) and Brian Curran (guitar; later ‘Quarantine’, ‘Debris’, etc.) were joined by Billy Steele (also in ‘Sedition’) on 2^nd guitar here. After the 2 7”s (An Injury To One Is An Injury To All in ’92, the split with ‘Sedition in ’93; both on Flat Earth & Nabate), in 1994 they appeared on Boezie’s compilation An Insult To Our Freedom (Grinding Madness) and Uge of Don’t Belong Productions (Gijon, Spain) put all their songs on tape. Somewhere around that time, Gilles & Kathleen of Ape recs also released a benefit live tape of ‘Disaffect’ in support for The Indian Lesbian Movement SAKHI. On the occasion of this gig Andy (who also ran Peace Terrorist distribution and Anonymous recs) was interviewed for the first issue of the Vort’n Vis zine Fifi. There are also some photos of this show in Reality fanzine #1 (done by Dominique Beubry from Dunkerque, France) but unfortunately the quality of the half-tones is very poor…

from Fifi #2

‘Sleeper’, a melodic emo-influenced hardcore band (from Staten Island, New York), were: Anthony ‘T.J.’ Quatrone (drums), Michael Thomas DeLorenzo (guitar), Marc Treboschi (bass), John Lisa (guitar & vocals) and John ‘Apples’ Telenko (vocals; who didn’t get to tour Europe). Jeremy Weiss did vocals on this tour (see guestbook)… After 2 7”s on American labels, Marianne Hofstetter (Mugglewump recs) put out their 7” More Or Less in ‘92. Nov. ’93 the band recorded for the Splinter 7” on John Yates’ label Allied recs. The album Preparing Today For Tomorrow’s Breakdown (recorded Dec. ’93) with John Lisa doing vocals was released under the name ‘Serpico’ (the new name they would take). In the guestbook they still signed as ‘Sleeper’. ‘Neuthrone’s guitarist Steve W. did an interview (that appeared in the V.V.’s zine Fifi # 2) with them at his house (where they spent the night), while watching ‘Spinal Tap’… Steffen Rose (Navigator) organised their tour. Not really sure if they played as ‘Serpico’ on 95-11-05?

‘Kosjer D’ started out as a 3-some (acoustic guitar, bass & drums) and then Arne (Van Petegem; who was in a mainstream pop-band before) joined. The name was originally ‘Kosjer Dill’ (nickname of the singer’s girlfriend, who was from San Diego). They were an emo band (with personal lyrics) hailing from Limburg, with (besides Arne – guitar/vocals), Geert Plessers (guitar/vocals), Stijn Persoons (drums; ex ‘Dawn Of Liberty’) and Werner (bass – replaced by Kristien Hendrix a few months later). The band did some recordings and asked Bruno (Genet recs) to release them as a 7” (entitled True). People can read about how it came about in Reminder #5… It was their 1^st appearance at the V.V.

‘Rectify’, from Wales, were here for the 2^nd time (see 91-10-05). They were a political (anarcho) punk band from Blaina in Wales. Wayne ‘Pig(gy)’ Cole sang, Mark ‘Wedge’ Wedgebury played drums, Andrew ‘Footy’ Foot was the orginal bassist but apparently had already left he band by ‘91 & Michael ‘Mudgie’ Mudge played guitar (R.I.P.)… In 1990 they did a tape entitled Ebullition and the recordings for the Virtual Reality tape were in Dec. ’95. Nowadays ‘Pig’, ‘Wedge’ & ‘Newt’ are in ‘This System Kills’…

‘B.B.C.’ (from Germany) … anyone ??? They were announced in the newsletter but there was no mention of them in the V.V. notes so they probably didn’t show up.

Brob

This one was with ‘Rectify’ and no doubt some others… I remember arriving early from the overnight ferry and some American guy not wanting to let us into the place. [???] ‘94 was the year of our Spain tour. Billy (who drove for us on the ‘92 & ‘93 tours) joined us on second guitar that year. Done the usual: played the gig, drank the beer and danced to disco into the early hours with the ‘Rectify’ folks. All in all, I’ve got good memories…

Brian Curran, ‘Disaffect’ guitarist

We had just released the Chained [To Morality] LP and were doing a 3 week tour. The Vort’n Vis was always a high point for us. We had so many friends come to see us there.

‘Joe Fear’, ‘Disaffect’ vocalist

I was playing bass at the time of this gig. It was the Order Of The Age tour. I also play bass for ‘This System Kills’. Can’t remember much about this tour as it was 22 years ago, however I do recall the food was lovely and went for 2nds aswel, and also passed out with tiredness. If I remember well the sun was out when we played and it was quite hot in there. ‘Mudgey’ had left the band and a Greg Comber was on guitar (he still plays for some local band)…

Rob ‘Newt’ Newport, ‘Rectify’ bassist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

94-08-19 Spawn – Congress – Kosjer D

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

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

‘Spawn’ was a sXe HC band from the Ruhrpott area (Germany) that arose from ‘Inner Circle’ in ’92 (see: 92-10-10). They recorded (Jan. ’94) for a split-7” with ‘Feeding The Fire’ (the bands had toured together in the summer of ’93) on Peter Hoeren’s Crucial Response recs. Before that (Aug. ’93) they’d been in the studio for their 1^st 7” (that came out on Chris’ label Emblem recs) with ‘Melly’ Mel (Gauthier, Seen Not Heard zine from Toronto) doin’ backing-vocals. The band consisted of René Natzel (drums; In My Blood fanzine, also in ‘F.T.F.’), Patrick Uhle (guitar), Daniel Frankowski (guitar; Shattering The Silence zine), vocalist Chris(toph) van Dornick and bassist Dirk Zeiser. The tracks for the aforementioned split were done with their original bassist Holger. After this festival they went into the studio again to register for the Redone mini-album. They played at the V.V. again later on (96-08-16).

‘Spawn’ (1&2 by Massimo Moscarelli; 3 ?, 4 by Frédéric Falzon)

‘Congress’ – Joost Noyelle (guitar), Ilja De Ceuleneire (drums), Jan ‘UJ’ Vandekerckhove (bass) & ‘Pitbull’ Pieter ‘Pierre’ Vanrumbeke (vocals) – were regulars at the V.V. by then. Don’t remember if Michael ‘Micha Soprano’ Pintelon (guitar) played here with them already. It was the period between the Euridium 7” and the band working on the Blackened Persistance [sic] LP.

‘‘Congress’ (from Onno van der Velde’s zine Closer Still)

‘Kosjer D’ started out as a 3-some (acoustic guitar, bass & drums) and then Arne Van Petegem (who was in a mainstream pop-band – ‘The Sideburns’ – before) joined. The name was originally ‘Kosjer Dill’ (nickname of the singer’s girlfriend, who was from San Diego). They were an emo band (with personal lyrics) hailing from Limburg (Belgium), with (besides Arne – guitar/vocals), Geert Plessers (guitar/vocals), Stijn Persoons (drums; ex ‘Dawn Of Liberty’) and a guy named Werner (bass – replaced by Kristien Hendrix a few months later, but she wasn’t on the first 7”). The band did some recordings and asked Bruno (Genet recs) to release them as a 7” (entitled True). People can read about how it came about in Reminder (the zine of ‘Blindfold’s Wim Vandekerckhove) #5… The band had played here the first time already a few months before this (94-05-22) and they would be back a few times more. Also when they became ‘Reiziger’…

There’s no indication in the Vort’n Vis notes that ‘Stormwatch’ from Germany (who were announced in the newsletter) actually played.

Brob

Actually this was the first show I played with ‘Spawn’. I still have pictures from that one… New Age recs also did a small teaser-flyer for our album using pictures from that show.

Dirk Zeiser, ‘Spawn’ bassplayer

additions wellcome!…

95-08-18&19&20 Hardcore Festival

Local (Menen/Roeselare) straight-edge hardcore band ‘Regression’ was announced but didn’t play. Perhaps because they just switched drummers? (Bjorn Lescouhier, ex ‘Shortsight’ replaced Raf – who played in ‘Liar’.)

‘Steadfast’, a band playing “powerful new-school sXe hardcore” from the Osnabrück/Munster region, didn’t play either. Their guitarist Stefan Uhe and bassist Volker Pohlschmidt (R.I.P.) did visit.

‘Chokehold’ wasn’t announced but they showed up anyway; read the story below. Also ‘Solid’, ‘Concrete’ and ‘End In Sight’ were added to the bill…

18 aug ’95: The Jedi (Bel), Solid (Bel), Burning Defeat (Ita)

19 aug ’95: Veil (Ger), Concrete (Ita), Doughnuts (Swe), Rancor (Nl), Mainstrike (Nl), Blindfold (Bel), Comrades (Ita), Kosjer D (Bel), Congress (Bel), Abhinanda (Swe)

20 aug ’95: Churn (Bel), By All Means (Ita), Liar (Bel), Fungus (Bel), Timebomb (Ita), End In Sight (Swe), Chokehold (Can)

If I remember correctly Christophe Mora (‘Undone’, Stonehenge recs) was there. Henk Smit (Kangaroo recs) was selling records. Patrick Federli took photos… Yann Boislève from Rennes wrote a review about this fest in his SxE newsletter #13.

Brob

Mathias Hartmann and I attended together. The V.V. was too full, the weather nice, so we slept a few hundred metres away on some nice grass in front of a church, I think. People strolling by the next morning were not amused about us. ;-)

This summer-festival in the bigger ‘hall’ in the back of the V.V. I remember ‘Kosjer D’ and ‘Chokehold’ from Canada played there. The ‘Chokehold’ guys were coming from the train-station with their guitars and bass in hand. Their European tour [with ‘Feeding The Fire’] was a mess (some of the last gigs of their tour got cancelled) and they got robbed if I remember correctly. I felt sorry for them for having such a bad experience over here. They mention it in an interview.

Carsten Pötter, Frankfurt

If my memory serves me right, this was my first Ieper HardCore Fest. I turned 18 just a few months earlier, I had a very broad musical taste ranging from simple hardrock to the most extreme black/death metal, but it was just a year or so that I really started to appreciate the HC-scene and started to attend a lot more HC shows than metal. Because of the music and especially the very metallic sound of the H8000 bands, but also because the HC-scene was – in my eyes and at the time – a much more interesting scene with a lot more open-minded people (that was of course, pure bullshit, but it was a nice smoke-screen that got me fooled for a while :-) …). You soon learn that assholes are everywhere but so are nice people really… You just need to know who to avoid, that’s all. :-)

Anyway, I remember this fest as the most underground thing I had ever seen or been to… I just took a backpack with some basic ‘go-away’-stuff and just headed to Ieper… There was not really a camping back in those days. I remember people sleeping in the bar, the barn, on the upper floors. I remember those funny Hare-Krishna kids that seemed to attend every show in the whole Benelux (bands like ‘Abhinanda’ and other Umea-area bands were kinda the big thing then… So a lot of people became Krishna all of a sudden – LOL).

All the bands I have seen then performed legendary sets… I was just blasted away by the atmosphere … The barn was as full as it could get and then some more, people were flying all over the place, the pictures I have of that HC fest are still some of my favourite ones. It was pure madness!!! HC the way it should be! Massive mosh-pits, pile-ups, sing-alongs, circle-pits, you name it… From morning till evening, all day long. If I were to attend now, I probably would see 1 band and need 2 other sets to catch my breath… Yeah, we were young and unstoppable then :-).

I remember also ‘taking a shower’ on the Ieper market, in the fountains with a lot of people… It was a ‘group-shower’ (at least 30 people, strength in numbers huh?) in the morning. With all the soap we used, the market was quickly transformed into a big foamy place. :-) Lotsa fun, but not appreciated by the police… Ah well…what’s new???

Also, we met some nice gothic kids and had a very cool evening in their bar ‘Den Donkeren Helft’ [The Dark Half]… After an afternoon of HC-metal, nothing better than some wave/EBM/gothic to relax a little. :-). Since that day, I always go to that bar when I go to Ieper (I think it’s gone now…).

I have very fond memories of ‘Liar’, ‘Congress’, ‘Veil’, ‘Comrades’, ‘Mainstrike’, ‘Abhinanda’ and ‘End In Sight’. You can see me going nuts on the back of the H8000 The Way It Is – European SxE HC compilation-CD (GoodLife recs)… I’m in the picture with ‘Mainstrike’ playing in the barn at that fest. [Brob: There was also a pic ont the ‘Mainstrike’ 7”?] A lot of bands that played that summer in Ieper are on the CD.

After that weekend I got home with sooooo many adresses and phone-numbers, I didn’t know where to start… I made a lot of friends, had wonderfull conversations,… good times in general! From then on until 2005 I attended every single HC fest… but none were so memorable than my first one… And for me, the Vort’n Vis became an icon of underground DIY music.

Greg ‘DragonBreath’ (90s zine; Bruxel)

I’ve only been to Vort’n Vis once, back in the summer of 1995. I went there for, what we called then, the Vort’n Vis festival. I remember a lot of Italian bands were playing, so it felt like I knew half of the people at the fest. [Brob: Dario is Croatian but lived in Rome at that time…] It was almost 20 years ago, so my memory is a bit fading, but I believe ‘Concrete’, ‘Timebomb’, ‘Comrades’, ‘Burning Defeat’ and ‘By All Means’, all from Italy (the first three from Rome), played at the festival and it was bands whose members I knew very well. I remember spending most of the time with ‘Sardo’ from ‘Tear Me Down’ [Massimo ‘Il Sardo’ Leonardi, vocalist], and I recall the sleeping-place was upstairs and there were dozens of bodies and arms+legs everywhere – it was almost impossible to find a free spot to lie down.

Everything was very DIY and there were several small distros, as well as bigger ones ran by Edward of GoodLife and Burkhard [Jünger] of GreenHell [label, record-store & mailorder in Münster, Germany]. I remember meeting one of the Boislève brothers [Yann & Pierre] for the first time at the festival, and that kid [Aaron Vyvial?] that used to make a really nice fanzine and later moved back to the US with ‘Hazel’ of ‘Rise Above’. ‘Mainstrike’ played one of their first shows and the crowd went pretty wild. I’ld see them later both in Italy and the USA. ‘Kosjer D’ were solid. I liked their first 7” a lot. I wasn’t impressed by ‘Doughnuts’ and I think I missed ‘Abhinanda’. I checked both ‘Liar’ and ‘Congress’, but that wasn’t really my cup of tea. I remember the ‘Congress’ bass-player was nice to us, but musically it’s nothing I would listen to at home…

Dario Adamic, Zips & Chains zine

I was there with Christophe (Mora). Brob, you were screaming against the business during the ‘Abhinanda’ show. I found your attitude so cool; I totally agreed with you!

Fabien Charlot, later vocals for ‘JeanxSEberg’, Bordeaux; personal communication spring ‘96

I only went to the festival on Saturday. I couldn’t stand it very long. Firstly: I felt very lonely; I didn’t feel like communicating. It didn’t feel right…the people that were attending, all that typical sXe fuss. I had the feeling that a lot of these girls and boys were just there to be seen. It seemed like a competition: who has the newest T-shirt, who can dance the hardest, who knows the most lyrics by heart? It all seemed so fake. I don’t want to generalise though: there were also kids that seemed sincere…

Dirk De Vriendt, Introverted Outlet zine; personal communication August ‘95

I was seriously annoyed: everybody’s speaking out against pollution, using big words; but for perhaps half of them it remains just that: words. Have you seen the public road? Simply outrageous! Do people still understand what HC is about? The ‘scene’ has grown enormously but the ideals haven’t evolved. I think it’s sick!

Nico Peeters, ‘Outrage’ bassist/Day One distro; personal communication August ‘95

I thought there were only few really good bands. ‘Kosjer D’, ‘Mainstrike’ & ‘Burning Defeat’ were cool though. I saw a video of the fest and it was cosy. There was a bit of a fight between ‘Rancor’s guitarist and someone. What struck me was that flirting with satanism seems to become popular…Scary, because it equals extreme rightist ideas (egoism, fascism, war, etc.).

Peter Kroes, Ruinerwold (NL); personal communication December ‘95

I’ve been at the Vort’n Vis once in 1995. I was young, my first festival abroad I think…travelling alone by train, by the way. I remember enjoying the concerts of ‘Abhinanda’, ‘Doughnuts’, ‘Congress’ a lot. There were many Italians there! ‘By All Means’ played a crazy show, ‘Timebomb’ were great. I remember buying the ‘Rorschach’ discography CD, great vegan food, soy-milk in stores (I was stoked: in Italy nobody knew what that was). I recall hanging out with several country-mates but also with the guys from ‘Abhinanda’ in some kind of disco. It was fun and I keep great memories of that weekend. I also think some of the Italian bands being pissed off for not being treated like the Swedish bands but I’m not totally sure about that, haha!!!

Borys Catelani, Montorsoli/Sesto Fiorentino (Ita), Agipunk recs

I have the worst memory so details are very sketchy! I had some amazing times at Vort’n Vis… Vique always drove and I spent a lot of time at the festivals (I was there in ’94 as well) helping out with her distro and checking out everyone else’s. In the pre-download/-streaming days it was amazing to be able to get hold of so much great stuff all in one place. My strongest memory from Vort’n Vis was ‘Kosjer D’ playing here… One of my favourite gigs ever. I think it may have been their last show… Anyway, it was so much fun – great band (totally under-rated) and an incredible moving joyous set.

Mark ‘Macca’ Wilkinson, Brighton

I think Ieperfest 1995 was my first time at the V.V. Jenni wasn’t there, I think ’96 was the first time for her.

Robert Matusiak, Refuse recs (at that time Warsaw, nowadays Berlin)

I was there to support ‘Veil’ (who had a 7″ on my label Thressome recs)

Ferry Krop, Sittard (NL)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

organisers Saskia & Hans Verbeke (of course together with a whole bunch of other Vort’n Vis collaborators…)

additions wellcome!…

94-08-19&20&21 Hardcore Festival

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

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

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

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

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

This is from the newsletter right before the festival:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brob

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

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

Patrick Federli

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

Frédéric Falzon

 

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

Marco Walzel

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

additions wellcome!…