98-09-19 Doom – Oi Polloi – Link – Outrage – Sarah – Alcatraz – Filth Of Mankind – Reller

Intro: 98-09-18&19 10^th Leedfestival

[all pics here by Henk Loobuyck; except ‘Link’ courtesy of Michael Maes]

Both ‘Oi Polloi’ (Deek Allan was accompanied by Calum Mackenzie – bass / Ade Crawford – drums / Ricky White – guitar) & ‘Doom’ had been here several times before (The Scots even less than half a year: 98-04-18); no need to introduce them. ‘Oi Polloi’s 7” THC was recorded right after this. ‘Doom’ had recorded for the split-10” with ‘Cress’ (out on Sned & Alec’s Flat Earth recs) in March with Chris Gascoigne (bass), ‘Stick’ (drums), ‘Bri’ & Denis Boardman (guitar) & Wayne Southworth (vocals; R.I.P.).

‘Doom’

‘Oi Polloi’

‘Filth Of Mankind’ (Gdansk, Poland) hadn’t been able to play the year before because of the general cancellation of the festival (see 97-09-20). This time they were invited back…

This is from their website (www.filthofmankind.nsm.pl): >>The organiser of the Leed Festival asked us (and ‘Money Drug’ to come over and do 3-4 shows with ‘Doom’. Unfortunately, a few days before we left, it turned out there were only 2; and when we got to Ieper we were told that there was only going to be this one at the fest. Bummer! Even before the journey it was clear that Maciek [Kowalski; vocals] couldn’t travel along, Milosz [Gassan; guitar] & ‘Balon’ [Paweł Szymański; drums] took the roaring name upon them – off course an enormous mental task. We played early on Saturday; the first part of the V.V. hall started to fill up. Milosz wanted to get things started but – still numb of the night before (alcohol & co) – had to look really hard to find the right strings. Once tuned, it seemed another key than the rest, so he started anew. That took about 10 minutes (if not more)… When we finally managed to get going, things were OK and the audience seemd to like it…<<

I believe the others in the band were Lazej/Anders Storm (later Michał Jędrejek) on bass and Pawel ‘Scream’ Rzóska (guitar). The band did a 7” (Czas Końca Wieku [End Of The Century]; ‘99) and an LP (The Final Chapter; 2000) on Scream recs. Their music was described as “Apocalyptic Crust” (dark, heavy and metal-influenced)…

‘Filth Of Mankind’

The band ‘Link’ had people from the Ieper/Ypres & Lille (France) area: Vort’n Vis ‘shitworkers’ Michael Maes (guitar) & his partner Inge Cappoen (vocals), and Greg ‘Briko’ (bass) & ‘Juju’ Julien Dejonckheere (drums). After a couple of demos their 1^st CD The Last Sacrifice (recorded with a drum-computer) was released in 2000. The music: “brutal metallic HC with a serious crust-punk edge & raging female vocals”. One reviewer actually believed Inge was really from Sweden… They’d played the V.V. a few times already (97-09-12, 97-12-26, 98-04-18; those last 2 times also with ‘Oi Polloi’).

‘Link’

‘Sarah’ were Bretons “fighting for their future, their language”. Their address stated “Breizh via France”. Breizh is the Breton name for Brittany (Bretagne, a region in the North-West of France). They wrote: “The French laws are improper for what is going on in Britttany, e.g. concerning water-pollution, agriculture,…” but they didn’t see themselves as nationalists: “We are communists.”. They were also a SxE band…“to show people that it is possible to live without drugs or alcohol”. They played hardcore/punk and also did a zine named An Eeunded. This was also their second appearance at the V.V. (after 98-04-19). The band consisted of Fabien Lecuyer (vocals/fiddle), Michaël Genevée (drums/accordion/fiddle), Erwan H. (guibasse/mandoline/piano) & Jérôme Bouthier (bass). They did 2 demos (Herzelomp Betek An Trec’h & Latcho Drom) and in 1999 they released Ez Eterninmens (4 track CD).

‘Sarah’

‘Alcatraz’ (from Oulmes/Niort/Poitiers) was the band of Gérome Desmaison (who did the zines Cheval de Troie & J’ai le Regret à la Joie Mélé) and Séverine Rambaud (Acajou zine & Soja Service zine-distribution). She was doing bass/vocals, her brother Thierry ‘Titi’ Rambaud (also ‘Robotnička’) played the drums, Gérome did guitar/vocals, and Laurent ‘Ballon’ Daudin (guitar; ex ‘Peu Être’) & Mickaël ‘Mike’ Ramounet (vocals). Gérome & Laurent were also running a distribution called Le Brun, le Roux Corporation. Mike did Opale distro (together with Stéphanie Courret; nowadays his partner). People called their music emo-core.

‘Alcatraz’

‘Outrage’, from the Herentals area, were Sigi Loots (drums), Steven Van Goubergen (guitar), Ringo Van Dingenen (vocals) and Nico Peeters (bass). This was after their 7” To Terrorize Ear And Mind (“a DIY product distributed by a network of friends”; recorded November ‘97) got out… They had played here a few times before (96-03-24, 96-08-16 & 97-03-01).

‘Outrage’

‘Reller’

‘Reller’ were the guys from ‘Outrage’ (Nico – here vocals, Sigi – drums, Steven – guitar & Ringo – here guitar) with Yannick Daems (vocals; later ‘Vuur’) & An Caers (bass; Nico’s partner at that time).

Brob

‘Peu-être’ have split up but 3 of them and 2 other people have formed an other band: ‘Alcatraz’.

Mike Ramounet, personal communication Dec. ‘96

I was proud to be able to play in that fabulous place that was the V.V. I’d already been there as a spectator and I never thought I’ld play there one day. To me the Vort’n Vis was like ABC No Rio. I remember we were wel recieved by everyone. This was a punk festival so there were a lot of people.

Mickaël ‘Mike’ Ramounet, ‘Alcatraz’ vocalist

I don’t remember much about the festivaI where I played with my band ‘Alcatraz’ except for the ‘Oi Polloi’ and ‘Outrage’ concerts (great!). Nico from ‘Outrage’ was very nice. We stayed at his place and I think it’s him who brought us to a woman whose job was producing great tofu. We had some of course :-).

Séverine Rambaud, ‘Alcatraz bassist’

We were and are always close to Breton and Basque separatist circles. Our bassist has been in prison for 2 years, accused of terrorism (he was acquitted). We did over 100 concerts in various countries…

Fabien Lecuyer; ‘Sarah’

That was my first performance ever! I remember that people from France video-taped the gig but I’ve never seen the footage.

An Caers

We did indeed also play with ‘Reller’… I Recently found back an old demo…trying to digitalise that… I know the ‘Alcatraz’ guys filmed our performance…

Nico Peeters, ‘Outrage’ bassist

The atmosphere was rather relaxed, contrary to HC ’98 in August. Only a few idiotic brawls outside the Vort’n Vis.

Stef Goos; personal communication Oct ‘98

I remember this concert. One of the few posters I kept…with the old ‘Link’ logo I drew…

‘Juju’ organised concerts in Lille for more than 10 years with his association Rock’n’Roll Jihad…

Greg, ‘Link’ bassist

I played there too.

Michał Jędrejek; ‘Filth Of Mankind’

Our line-up here was Miłosz, Michał, ‘Balon’ and myself.

Pawel ‘Scream’ Rzóska/Krzykowski

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

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!…

 

98-04-18 Oi Polloi – Concrete – [Hellkrusher] – Link – Ulrike’s Dream – Hellcorn

Another “Ceaceless Suffocation festival”… The next day (98-04-19) Infekcja (Pol), Sarah (Fra), Enough! (Pol), Cornucopia (Bel) & Muggles (Bel) were on the bill…

Was the fest organised by Wouter Biesemans (the intern who did 97-02-28&03-01 VV Doe-Wat dagen and can be seen on the photo, on the side of the stage)? Probably not… The poster refers to Michael Maes and the other ‘shitworkers’ that day were Jan Claus & Inge Cappoen.

In ‘Oi Polloi’ were – I thought probably the same line-up as a few months before, 97-12-26 – vocalist Deek Allan (of course) & Calum Mackenzie (bass) (which I recognise on the photo), and guitarist Ricky ‘Zodiac’ Olsen; the drummer is not Chris ‘Wheelchair’ Willsher (Ruptured Ambitions distro; also in ‘The Bus Station Loonies’) – as Calum suggests but Chris denies – so I’m guessing it’s ‘The Love Doctor’ Ade Crawford (ex ‘Satanic Malfunctions’).

‘Oi Polloi’ (photo by Michael Maes)

Also a second show with the Scots for ‘Link’ in a few months time (97-12-26)… Michael Maes (guitar), Inge Cappoen (vocals), Greg ‘Briko’ (bass) and a ‘Juju’ Julien De Jonckheere (drums).

‘Concrete’, from Rome, had played the V.V. already on 95-08-19. They played aggressive, dark (post-)HC. They were: Cristiano D’Innocenti (drums; also ‘Comrades’, ‘Los Vaticanos’) a.k.a. ‘Capoccia’ or ‘Nerone 666’, ‘Orko’ Cristiano Fini (guitar; also ‘Comrades’), ‘Fucking Bastard’ Giorgio Gregorio ‘Greg’ Luciani (bass; also ‘Comrades’), Matteo Fadighenti (guitar) and Tommaso ‘Tommy’ Garavini (vocals; tommasogaravini.com). This was just a few months before they recorded the Nunc Scio Tenebris Lux CD (out on Paolo Petralia’s SOA recs). They already had a split-tape out with ‘With Love’, a self-titled 7” & the 10” Patior Ergo Sum (SOA recs; ’94), the Sescenti Sexaginta Sex 7” (on Nicola Olivieri’s Halley recs; ‘96) and a split-7” with ‘Antisgammo’…

‘Ulrike’s Dream’, from Leuven, started February ’97 when ‘Het Preekgestoelte’ split up but bassist-changes held them from gigging a lot. I think here they were: Anton Meeus (drums), vocalists ‘Sapé’ Sebastiaan Putseys (Reflex & Wolfpack recs) & Jeroen Verbeeck – later replaced by Magalie & Saar, Hans (guitar), Daan (guitar; nowadays in ‘The League of MentalMen’) and Erik (bass). They recorded a demo (Burn The European Swastika) a month before this gig and did a DIY 7” (If It Leads… It Bleeds) which was recorded by Bruno ‘Sloef’ Mastyn in July 2000. They played grindcore and sung political lyrics; some compared them with ‘Disaffect’ and early ‘Conflict’…

Some more history: “Somewhere in 1997/1998 Anton and Hans were looking for a new bass-player. They asked Erik to join ‘Ulrikes Dream’. Later Johan sung for a while. After three times or so, ‘Sapé’ and Jeroen came on vox. Daan joined the guitar-squad. We played a couple of gigs: some were brilliant, some were awful. Every band has these kinds of moments. We recorded our first demo-tape in 1998. It was called Burn, Burn, Burn the European Swastika!. The sound-quality wasn’t perfect but it had a cool booklet an it sounded grind. [raw and messy] It *had* to sound grind: it was recorded in a sixteenth century basement under a grotty punk-hole [Clockwork] full of drunks and drop-outs. It was great.”

Anton went on to play for ‘The Usual Suspects’ (anarcho ska-dub-reggae-punk; also with Hans) & ‘Cop On Fire’…

‘Hellcorn’ wasn’t announced on the poster but they were mentioned in the V.V. notes… They might’ve replaced ‘Hellkrusher’? They played their first gig at the V.V. a couple of months before (98-02-28). They was a local band (Poperinge) with guitarist Noam Sohier (nowadays in ‘Netra’), Angelo Santy on drums, Tony Stamper playing bass and Nathan Floor singing…

Brob

We didn’t make the all-dayer with ‘Oi Polloi’. The van broke down before we got out of Newcastle…

Scotty, ‘Hellkrusher’

‘Hellcorn’ replaced ‘Hellkrusher’, indeed…

Noam Sohier

I recall ‘Ulrike’s Dream’ played for 20-25 people (a lot of French crusties) because most didn’t have the money and it was early on a Sunday (I think) [18^th was a Saturday…]. I remember that there was vanilla-flavoured soy-milk that we got into for a while. We just played the old V.V. this one time. I believe that we played with ‘Link’ on Sunday but it’s too long time ago. I do recall that ‘Link’ sounded like ‘Nausea’ at the time. It was also then that we got the appreciated proposal of Saar (R.I.P.) to come and sing for us.

Oh, and we definitely appreciated the french-fries place nearby that carried a variety of vegetarian products thanks to the V.V. visiters.

I also saw ‘Doom’ and ‘Oi Polloi’ play at the V.V. … most probably in 97 and/or 98. But I also missed some great bills, that’s for sure.

Anton Meeus

I especially remember the fanatstic sleeping-attic. And we befriended the ‘Concrete’ guys there. Erik Minnen [‘Cornucopia’] and myself travelled around with them on their following tour. Phil Merckx must’ve been there too at that festival.

I just had gotten into punk/HC and was often just impressed with the the scene; hanging around, meeting new people, laughing,… Sometimes gigs were just a side-issue to the social aspect.

‘Oi Polloi’ was a true dance-party. Always a good atmosphere, non-violent, ladies and gents together on the dance-floor. ‘Concrete’ was also a fantastic band.

Jeroen Verbeeck

Vague recollections about this a concert where ‘Sarah’ (playing bass with a fiddlestick!!!) played the next day… Great atmosphere in the old barn. ‘Disorder’-fans shouting “Fuck Your Nationality” at ‘Oi Polloi’ because they played a song about over the preservation of their celtic heritage. Polish distros sellig tapes and self-made patches. I also remember ‘Concrete’ playing solid metal-like screamo brachten. Took me a step closer to the DIY scene that is still dear to me…

Daan, ‘Ulrike’s Dream’ guitarist

‘Ulrike’s Dream’ is still alive and kicking. The band exists for 20 years in 2017. We recorded an LP – Anarchie In Leuven. Nowadays all our hits are sung in Dutch and when we used to play grindcore, it’s now more of a mix of punk, metal & crust. Our previous record Van 9 Tot 5 came out in 2011. That was still with Kim singing. Nowadays Hans does the vocals.

Hans & Anton gained their first experiences ever regarding the production of noise in ‘Het Preekgestoelte’ [pulpit]. After that they started ‘Ulrike’s Dream’. They also founded ‘The Usual Suspects’. And after that ‘Death Church’, a ‘Rudimentary Peni’ tribute-band. And I have been in ‘Les Baudouins Morts’ and the hiphop-sensation ‘Flahaut’. That covers our side-projects…

Erik, ‘Ulrike’s Dream’ bassist

From the UD20 blog: ‘Concrete’ had played @ JH Clockwork [Leuven] not long before. Some ‘U.D.’ members were big fans and played their 10 inch record on a daily basis. Jeroen had left ‘U.D.’ but he sang a couple of tunes so he could see the other bands for free. Mich came along to sing the ‘Dirt’-cover. People at the entrance noticed the large amount of singers ‘Ulrike’s Dream’ had and told them this was more than enough. The band played over the guitar-amp of Michael, ‘Link’s guitar-player; he was the organiser of this show and the sound-guy. It was the first show with a “big” amplifier. He warned that the guitar was way too loud. But of course the band was convinced that there was no such thing as “too loud” in punk-music. This turned out to be a mistake. The band just blamed the P.A. for the band-sound afterwards but learned from it. ‘Ulrike’s Dream’ line-up here was: ‘Sapé’ (vocals), Jeroen (vocals), Mich (guest-vocals), Hans (guitar), Erik (bass), Anton (drums)

There was a lot of pogoing going on during the ‘Oi Polloi’ set. ‘U.D.’-members demonstrated the art of silly dancing once again.

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

97-12-26 Oi Polloi – Accion Mutante – Link – Holefiller – G.D.B. – D.S.A. – Sorehead

Another gig organised by Michael Maes… With practical help of Inge Cappoen, Jan Claus & Lieve Goemaere.

Besides vocalist and frontman Deek Allan, I believe the band here consisted of bassist Calum Mckenzie (he left to the U.S. in ‘99) and drummer ‘The Love Doctor’ Ade Crawford (ex ‘Satanic Malfunctions’) – see guestbook. Guitarist Ricky ‘Zodiac’ Olsen first appeared on the T.H.C. 7” (Campary recs 1999; with ‘Love Doctor’ – drums, Calum – bass, Deek – vocals, ‘Zodiac’ – guitar), having replaced Matt ‘Keith Chugwin’ Finch in 1997. In 1996 ‘Oi Polloi’ let a French label release their earliest recordings (from ’84) on the Punx’n’Skins EP. They did a lot of touring, which brought them back to the V.V. on 98-04-18 & 98-09-19. And in 1999 a few records – such as the Fuaim Catha LP on Skuld releases (with bassist ‘R. Sole’, drummer Murray Briggs and guitarist ‘Red’ – Brian Tipa ?) & Let the Boots Do the Talking EP (with bassist ‘R. Sole’ drummer ‘Bulbheid’ & guitarist Matt Finch) – came out… Neil Robinson also released the tape It’s Not The Monkey That Need’s It’s Head Examined (Tribal War) to support ‘Oi Polloi’s travels with the Primate Freedom Tour (Summer of ‘99).

‘Accion Mutante’ – from Stuttgart – play aggressive HC/crust-punk (references to ‘Discharge’, ‘Doom’, ‘E.N.T.’). In 1995 they released their 1^st 7” (called Fear) on Skuld releases. The line-up on that was Capde (guitar), Jochen (bass), Frosch & Alexander Rossi (vocals), Dominik (drums, replaced Schmier) and Timo (guitar). In 1998 they did another 7” (Y No Hai Remedio) on the same label: ‘Migge’ (Mike/Michael Schwarz) did the drums and Karsten had replaced Frosch by then. A planned split-7“ with ‘Extinction Of Mankind’ didn´t happen. The band still exist (accion-mutante.com)…

‘Link’ had played their first V.V. gig earlier that year (97-09-12). This local band was (at that time) V.V. ‘shitworker’ Michael Maes (guitar) & his partner Inge Cappoen (vocals) – both had been in ‘Carcer Molochi’ – and the French-men Greg ‘Briko’ on bass and a ‘Juju’ Julien De Jonckheere on drums. They played crust-core-punk and hadn’t really released anything yet…

Around this time ‘Holefiller’ (see 97-02-28) recorded a demo (with the help of Michael Maes, in his attic). These mates (from the Ghent squat-scene) played slow, dark, doom-metal mixed with industrial parts. Sometimes they performed as a combo producing industrial noise, then they’ld call themselves ‘Hellfiller’. The core of the band was Karel Busschop (bass), David Stubbe (drums; ex ‘Neuthrone’) & ‘Leffe’ (guitar; ex ‘Chronic Disease’, ‘Private Jesus Detector’). Their mate Billy did the electronics for ‘Hellfiller’.

Local band ‘Sorehead’ had also performed at the Vort’n Vis before (97-06-27, 97-07-12, 97-10-25) were Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene (vocals; R.I.P.), Dries Verclyte (bass), Pieter Desmyter (guitar), Pieter Derycke (drums) and Jan Lazeure (guitar). Some said their music was metal-influenced, others disagreed. They did a couple more shows at the V.V. after this…

‘D.S.A.’ (see 97-06-27 & 97-10-25) was another local band that played old-school NY Hardcore. The band consited of Nico Synnaeve (drums), Frederik Vanhee (bass), Maarten Verschaeve (vocals) and a guy called Pieter-Jan (PJ; guitar)…

‘G.D.B.’ (or ‘Chargée G.D.B.’) was a punk-rock band from the Maloka (distro) / Les Tanneries (venue) scene (Dijon, France). They had a few tracks on the Autonomy Not Submission compilation-LP (a benefit for Maloka, on Pariah Rules recs). They also did a few tapes… A later gig planned on 98-06-05 got cancelled…. Band-members were ‘NoFun Leouf’ (guitar), ‘Colas’ (vocals/beatbox; and guitar when ‘NoFun’ left) & ‘Kaos Youki’ (bass).

Brob

Ricky had taken over guitar-duties for ‘Oi Polloi’ by December 97…

Matt Finch

I think this was during a short tour with ‘Oi Polloi’ and ‘Boycot’ perhaps? [Brob: That was the days after: 97-12-27 in Leuven & 97-12-28 in Opwijk] I remember the kitchen, the stage and the sleeping-place under the roof ( with some holes) haha…

‘Accion Mutante’

My best memory was playing with ‘Accion Mutante’ and ‘Oi Polloi’ at the Vort’n Vis in Ieper.

‘Kaos Youki’ (gdb.kaosyouki.net/english.html)

‘G.D.B.’ was ‘Nofun’ on guitar and vocals, me on bass and a drum-machine. It wasn’t a serious band, it was kind of a joke. We both played in the band ‘20 Minutes de Chaos’ from Dijon and at that time our female singer went to England for a few months. So we did ‘G.D.B.’ as a side-project. We existed only for a few months. If I remember correctly, Michael from ‘Link’ organised this gig. The previous day we played in Liège, so we arrived rather tired. We left the day after to Paris even more tired. I think it was the best gig we did with ‘G.D.B.’, mostly because a lot of friends from Lille showed up. I also met new people at this gig that are still very good friends nowadays. So the atmosphere was fun. I remember ‘Oi Polloi’ did a good gig but I mostly remember enjoying ‘Accion Mutante’s concert. I don’t recall that much of the other bands. Afterwards, I spent time chatting with some people from ‘Accion Mutante’ at the bar; also with friends from Lille and some people playing for ‘Link’ that are really good friends now. I almost didn’t sleep that night.

Jean-Christophe of Maloka was our driver…

About Vort’n Vis in general: I started hearing about it in the very early 90s from a friend who was going there regularly. It was sounding a bit like a myth to me: all these bands that I was really into who played there, the DIY scene, etc. Unfortunately when I started to go there a few years later, there were already these ‘arguments’ between crusties and straight-edgers. Which 20 years later sounds rather childish on both sides to me…

In fact ‘Colas’ was supposed to sing for us in the beginning but in the end never got to it. His only participation in the band has been to help us write some lyrics. So the band has always been just ‘Nofun’ and me.

‘Kaos Youki’

One of our lesser shows… It was very cool that we could play – we were very grateful to Michael for giving us the chance – but if I remember well the crusties were not that fond of us…

Frederik Vanhee, ‘D.S.A.’ bassist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

94-09-18 Rain Like The Sound Of Trains – Ivich – X-Acto – Oi Polloi

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

There was record/literature fair going in the Vort’n Vis yard. I believe this is where I met Jon Elliott (Active distribution, London) for the first time. Concerts were in the barn…

‘Oi Polloi’ (Matt – Chris – Calum) closely watched by Stef De Leersnijder (pic courtesy Michael Maes)

According to Michael Maes this was the gig ‘Oi Polloi’s Deek had lost his voice… (Their guestbook-entry hints drummer Chris took over.) The other guys that played in the band that day were guitarist Matt(hew) Finch ‘Finchy’ (a.k.a. Keith Chugwin), bassist Calum Mackenzie (nowadays in ‘Phobia’ & ‘Final Conflict’) and drummer Chris ‘Wheelie’ Willsher. In the Luxemburg zine Persons Unknown ‘Oi Polloi’s bassist was referred to as ‘Clive’… After having played with the Portugese ‘Subcaos’ earlier that year (see 94-04-02), they were now on the road with ‘Inkisiçao’ & ‘X-Acto’ (This Is Not Amerikka tour). A guy named Al was their driver.

‘X-Acto’ (from Lisbon) was a vegan straight-edge HC band at the beginning but left the SxE label when a new guitarist joined. João Pedro (guitar), Pedro Mateus (bass), Diogo Mateus (drums), Pedro ‘Dentes’ (vocals; replaced by Rodrigo Barradas -R.I.P.- here?), João Barrelas ‘Libelinha’ (guitar; also in ‘Subcaos’); guitarist Paulo Segadães joined in 1995, later also Ricardo Avelino. In 1992 They appeared on the split-tape Juntos Contra A Tourada (with ‘Inkisição’, ‘Mentes Podres’ & ‘Subcaos’) and in ’93 on Change Now!, a compilation (on Slime recs) with ‘Subcaos’, ‘Corrosão Caótica’, Inkisição’ & ‘Alcoore’. Slime recs (the later Ataque Sonoro) also released their split-CD with ‘Inkisição’ in ’93. The year of this gig they had a 7” (Somos Uma Só Voz; recorded Sept. ‘93) out on Rage Productions (Portugese label from Cacem). The CD Harmony As One (with guitarists ‘Sega’ & ‘Libelinha’ and vocalist Rodrigo) on Ataque Sonoro came out Oct. ’95 and was distributed by Active. They also started S.E.L.F. to organise concerts/benefits…

‘Rain Like The Sound Of Trains’, from Washington DC, (with records out on Dischord) were Bobby Sullivan (vocals, ex ‘Soulside’), Pete Chramaiec (guitar, ex ‘Verbal Assault’), Douglas ‘Dug’ Birdzell (a.k.a. Dug E. Bird, ex ‘Beefeater’ & ‘Fidelity Jones’; bass) and Joshua LaRue (a.k.a. Josh Payne; drums). They played quirky, rhythmic, funky, jazzy “post hardcore”. Their tour was organised by X-Mist…

‘Ivich’ (the Paris suburbs) [interview] played here a couple of times before (92-07-25 & 93-05-01). A correspondent of mine, Eric Mirguet, sang for them. The others were the bros Yves (drums) & Yann (guitar) Maisonneuve (both were in ‘Vanilla’ later on); and Cédric (bass). Their trumpetist named Thierry was also joining them on stage from time to time. They were dubbed ‘emo’ but they were so much more than that. (As they wrote in the guestbook: “A bit of poetry in a world of brutes”.) I mentioned their earlier releases in the other posts. Their album La Mort Heureuse (“noisy, messy and unpredictable, but equally riveting, passionate and sincere”) was released by my mates Olivier Lépine and Nicolas Fisseau on their label La Libre Expression in ‘94.

Brob

I was driving ‘R.L.T.S.O.T.’ but since I was touring constantly back then I can’t recall anything specific… There was Joshua on drums. He was my first connection to the band. Dug on bass. I loved his cooking-style: vegetables, salt and pepper; that’s it. Anything else would kill the taste. I still do it the Dug way… The guys bought a bike in Amsterdam at the tour-start. So we toured with a bike on board through Europe. Funny tour! Armin [Hofmann; X-Mist] booked the tour, my friend drove them around for a week or so and I accompanied them some days. The first half of the tour I was the driver. I picked them up in Amsterdam.

Ma Raab

I was there when ‘Rain Like The Sound Of Trains’ played. I was in Ieper while riding with my bike to France (was wandering Germany and stopped there before I went to the UK).

Phil Jahnke

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’ [here]. Played a couple of all-day events there… Pretty crust they were; ‘Extinction Of Mankind’ [7th Leed festival, 1995] & ‘Bad Influence’ spring to mind. We probably played on Saturday… [The newsletter and the guestbook say Sunday.]

Matt Finch

Don’t think I drove ‘Oi Polloi’ that time; it looks like a guy called Al Shackelton drove that time (he’s no longer with us). My memories are a bit hazy. Can’t really remember watching the bands. I hung out with some people from Portugal who were friends of ‘Subcaos’. 2 Finnish guys got pissed on KillU…

Col(in) Douglas

The members of ‘X-Acto’ are into electronic music nowadays, the same for the ‘Alcoore’ guys; ‘Simbiose’ are still active and they are going to play soon with ‘Ratos de Porão’ [2013]. ‘Corrosao Caótica’ are over but played a reunion-show in 2012, ‘Tropa Morta’ & ‘Fart’ are ‘dead’ and the vocalist of ‘Censurados’ has a successful melodic/pop-punk band named ‘Tara Perdida’.

João (Pedro) Abrantes, guitarist of ‘Subcaos’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Chris Willsher: “Deek’s guestbook entry says I did ‘a Josef Porta’ (singer/drummer with ‘Blyth Power’, and ex-drummer with ‘The Mob’ and ‘Zounds’) – as in drumming and singing. Nice of him to do such a flattering drawing of me too!”

Brob: “The Slovenian mentioned was most probably Tomaz Trplan (editor of Papermouth zine).” * Chris Willsher: “No, it was a guy called Enzo Giurgevich, who was roadie for ‘Inkisiçao’. He’s in a band called ‘No Limits’ these days…”

additions wellcome!…

98-09-18&19 10th Leed festival

(click on the links for full posts with photos of some bands playing …)

18 sep ’98: Money Drug (Pol), Hellfiller (Bel), Charlie Don’t Surf (Bel), King Creole (Bel), Lieselotte (Swi)

19 sep ’98: Doom (UK), Oi Polloi (UK), Link (Bel), Outrage (Bel), Sarah (Fra), Alcatraz (Fra), Filth Of Mankind (Pol), Reller (Bel)

After the prematurely aborted 97 Leed fest, Michael Maes of ‘Link’ took it upon him to organise this one… Bruno was probably too busy running the Pyrrhus record-store in Gent. Of course there was the V.V. crew behind Mike…

Brob

We also played with ‘Reller’… I Recently found back an old demo…trying to digitalise that… I know the ‘Alcatraz’ guys filmed our performance…

Nico Peeters, ‘Outrage’ bassist

The atmosphere was rather relaxed, contrary to HC ’98 in August. Only a few idiotic brawls outside the Vort’n Vis.

Stef Goos; personal communication Oct ‘98

I was proud to be able to play in that fabulous place that was the V.V. I’d already been there as a spectator and I never thought I’ld play there one day. To me the Vort’n Vis was like ABC No Rio. I remember we were wel recieved by everyone. This was a punk festival so there were a lot of people.

Mickaël ‘Mike’ Ramounet, ‘Alcatraz’ vocalist

Everything at Vort’n Vis was fine and well organised.

Selim, ‘Money Drug’ vocalist

announcement in the V.V. newsletter

91-08-18 Oi Polloi (photos)

More on this concert: 91-08-18 Oi Polloi – Upside – One By One

Deek Allan: “In these pictures it’s Chris Orr on guitar (living in London nowadays), me on vocals and ‘Filthy’ Phil (can’t remember his real surname) [Murray; see comment] on bass – he never recorded anything with us but played bass for a while, including the tour with ‘One By One’.”

photos by Eric ‘React’ W.

centrally: Karin R. (with necklace – later ‘One By One’ vocalist), Manu (red T-shirt – Nabate, and later ‘Unhinged vocalist) & ‘Veggie’ Stephane Boens (bowing his head – R.I.P.)

Sacha ‘Chat’n’ Baelen (R corner – later ‘Blindfold’ drummer)

‘Sned’ (in the background)

Chris Orr

‘Dreaming Dan Rhythm’

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

94-04-02 Subcaos – Subway Arts – Oi Polloi – Quite Fresh Phobia – Kulturalis Szemle – Systemphobia

Don’t find the flyer anymore… The newsletter of that time mentioned “7 bands, 7 nationalities” and also announced ‘Apathia’ from Poland and the Belgian ‘Systemphobia’… Can’t remember if these showed up (Mario & Kristof of the latter commented that they did play…).

The Scots of ‘Oi Polloi’ played at the V.V. so many times… Not sure what the line-up was here; I guess Calum MacKenzie (bass), Murray Briggs (drums) – they’re in the guestbook – Deek Allen (vocals) and Matt Finch (guitar) … & Colin Douglas (the driver). The band has had many different configurations: in my friend Michèle’s zine Persons Unknown it’s mentioned that on the tour with ‘Inkisiçao’ & ‘X-Acto’ (a few months after this, Sep ‘94) it was Deek & Matt, and Chris ‘Wheelie’ Willsher (drums) & ‘Clive’ (Calum Mackenzie, bass), and Al was the driver… An interview in Fifi #1 mentions Brian [Tipa] playing guitar…

‘Subcaos’ from Lisbon were Diogo (Tovar) Carvalho (vocals; also did Recognize No Authority zine, and distributed mine), Xico (or Chico or FJ; vocals), João Abrantes (guitar), João Barrelas (guitar; also in ‘X-Acto’), To-Pê (bass) & David (drums). They put out a demo (Genocidio, “chaotic crustcore”) in ’92 and tracks for the split-7” with Hiatus (on Slime recs) were just recorded (raging HC)… Slime recs (which existed since 1989) changed it’s name to Ataque Sonoro around 1994/95 (ataquesonoro.blogspot) and released their split-album with ‘Genital Deformities’ in ’94. Fast crusty HC! ‘Subcaos’ had been here before… (93-08-01)

‘Subway Arts’ were a political hardcore/punk band from Luxembourg. In 1991 the Band released a split-12” titled All Life is Equal together with their mates of ‘No More’ on Markus Haas’ Per Koro recs (actually he ran it together with Tanja Maier). Two years later they released a 12” titled “Una Definizione Perveresa Della Pace” (‘93) – a collaboration of Genet recs and PeaCy recs (ran by Diff and Simone Winandy). They were: Claude ‘Bourano’ Bour (drums; Mike played on the split-LP but left also soon after), Steve ‘Diff’ Differding (guitar), Fränz Laureys (bass), Sabrina D’Aurelio (vocals; David on the split-LP) and Xavier (guitar).

‘Quite Fresh Phobia’ from Eindhoven consisted of Skip Kort (drums), Sander (vocals), Antoine (bass) & Roland ‘Rolansky’ Molegraaf (guitar; ex ‘Incertitude’ & ‘Hund Als Waffe’). They had a track on the Bits Of Noise CD, a compilation of Ducth bands on WRF recs. Roland also booked bands (@ Burgers) and sometimes set up tours… They had been here before (93-03-14)…

‘Kulturalis Szemle’ (“Cultural Review”), a band from Orosháza, South-Eastern Hungary, were: Eörsi (guitar), Kicsi (drums/vocals) & Csiri (bass/vocals). They did two mini-tours in France & Belgium with the French band ‘Constant Summer’ (Don’t think they played this one…). The band had a total of six demos (downloadable via their website kulturalisszemle.mindenkilapja.hu) out. They played punk-rock, “mixed with alternative and indie influences”. Most songs had Hungarian lyrics.

Brob

We were touring with our friends form ‘Subway Arts’ when we arrive at beautiful Ieper. I can remember the church near the V.V. and specially the V.V. bar. In Portugal back in the 90s we used to play for 300/400 people, numbers that are rarely seen nowadays over here. At this gig I remember that Bruno (who organised our Euro tours) talked about +/-1000 people at the festival. Our show was huge. [The bands played in big ‘barn’, not the pub.]

We were touring with an old drummer that learned the songs while driving from Portugal to central Europe and so we couldn’t play many new songs that we had. David was replaced by Hugo Begucho (he was our first drummer and recorded the Genocidio demos back in 1992. He also played for the great Portuguese HC band called ‘Alcoore’.) on this tour. We also did an (self-titled) EP in 1994 on Rage recs with the new songs that we couldn´t play live because our drummer left us one day after we left Portugal to the Euro tour… I still remember that the Belgians really liked us.

I recall that the guitarist of ‘Hiatus’ was chewing my guitar-strings and falling over the drum-kit. The crowd was insane and really liked our heavy sound. Unfortunately our crew didn’t record our show (drunk bastards) but I filmed the entire ‘Oi Polloi’ show. I still have it on 8mm and VHS and I will try to convert it digital. I can only remember the ‘Subway Arts’ gig and ‘Oi Polloi’…the rest of the time I think I spent it drinking beers outside. ;-)

After this crazy show I remember talking and drinking with Wills and the rest of ‘Hiatus’; it was a great great day. The next day we played in Orléans (France) and some French and Belgian guys came with us for that show. Super.

João Pedro of Slime recs also came on tour with us. So were Miguel Crespo and his brother Samuel [Brob: Isn’t this supposed to be his friend Samuel Melro?]. You were asking/searching for Miguel Crespo & Guilherme. João ‘Jonhie Simbiose’ was a close friend of Miguel…

Also some others of us still play and you can check for these bands: vocalist Francisco [FJ] Dias is in ‘Dawnrider’ and sometimes ‘Subcaos’, guitarist João Barrelas played in ‘Danwrider’ and I played for ‘Rolls-Rockers’ and nowadays [2013] for ‘15Freaks’. I still play live (I was 18 at the time) but it was perhaps my best gig ever. Nowadays I’m more into punk rock’n’roll like ‘Supersuckers’, ‘Gluecifer’, ‘Turbonegro’; I really don’t like the new punk-bands but there are some good like ‘Mr. Myagi’ (Check out about the punk-scene on billy-news.blogspot.com). So the ex ‘Subacaos’ members are all active except David, Diogo Tovar (living in Amsterdam) and To-Pê (haven’t heard again from him)…

João (Pedro) Abrantes, guitarist of ‘Subcaos’

Miguel Crespo is not dead, he is very much alive and has been living in Amsterdam for 15 years…

João ‘Jonhie Simbiose’

I was indeed one of the singers from ‘Subcaos’… My memories from those days are not very good, maybe a side-effect from the countless cartons of cheap red wine that we brought with us from Portugal. But I definitely remember that we had a great time and you guys really made us feel at home.

I’m now [2013] living in London but met Miguel frequently when I was in A’dam. I believe Guilherme’s living in Brasil now. He was our driver when we played the V.V. for the 2^nd time. I remember now that there were five of us inside his tiny Renault 5 and we took no instruments with us at all, our only baggage was just this shit-load of cheap red wine. Not very professional I guess… ;-)

Diogo (Tovar)

Our band quit in 1998 but we are still good friends, and meet frequently and talk about the ‘good old times’ then. There’s a special place in our memory about touring with the band and the gigs we played. We got to the V.V. with the help of Manu of ‘Constant Summer’ who organised some other gigs for us in France and Belgium. We were really satisfied about the technical equipment and the stuff at the V.V. The audience was great too, we met a lot of communicative, open-minded people there. We had a nice time.

‘Kulturalis Szemle’

Second gig of ‘Quite Fresh Phobia’ here. Different singer this time: Sander. Maarten had left the band the year before. It was packed, so lucky we played in the hall in the back instead of the tiny pub. Just before we had to play I heard two punks talking that it would be a good time to get food ‘cause the next band (us) was a non-grinding one. True, ‘Q.F.P.’ made punk-rock with some hardcore influences. Anyway there where still a lot of people in front of the stage and they really made this gig one to remember. Very cozy, lot’s of fun & partying with them. The drums where put on the side of the stage so I had good contact with the band as with the public, nice. When ‘Oi Polloi’ started it got really frenzy. The two P.A. speaker-towers where moving (did’nt tip over) and punks hanging in the roof-beams. Great atmosphere that day, had lots of good talks and fun with more than 7 nationalities…

After ‘Quite Fresh Phobia’ split up I went on playing in different bands (‘Bek Hauwe Speule!’, ‘Toad’, ‘Hagridden”). Today still going strong with ‘Kort Door De Bocht’…

Skip Kort, ‘Q.F.P.’ drummer

Now I remember which ‘Oi Polloi’ gig I saw at the barn. It was this one with ‘Subcaos’ in 1994. (I had been on tour with ‘Subcaos’ in the summer of 93 aswell.)

Carsten Pötter, Frankfurt

‘Subcaos’ * João B./ Diogo / To-Pê / Xico / João A. (photo by Michael Maes)

‘Subcaos’ (pictured by Wim DL)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Samuel ‘Ratanza’ / Claudio ‘Simbiose’ / João Pedro (Slime recs)

additions wellcome!…