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!…

91-10-05 Rectify – Debiele Eenheid – Neuthrone – Sloth – [Chaos UK] – [Knucklehead]

‘Chaos UK’ didn’t play on Oct 5^th 1991 at the VV. They were announced but the tour-bus broke down (I think) and they didn’t make it. [Brob: Did the ‘Mushrooms – see 90-12-31 – fill in for them…?]

Wim Hollevoet

In 1987 I was visiting John & Baz of ‘Ripcord’ in their hometown Weston-Super-Mare… One day Baz took us to Bristol and we dropped by at the squat (St Michael’s Park) where the Chaos lads – ‘Mower’ (Kieran Moylett), ‘Chaos’ (Adrien Rice), ‘Gabba’ & Chuck – lived (I remember Bear Hackenbusch of the ‘psychedelic’ Skate Muties From the 5^th Dimension zine and Shane Dabinett of Manic Ears recs being there too – and Tim Bennett of Children Of The Revolution recs hung around there aswell I believe…). The band was about to start a ‘rehearsal’ so they pushed all the ‘furniture’ aside and rocked out! I’d seen them a couple of times live but this was even more impressive… In ’91 I was asked to help find them some gigs in the area: they played in Terneuzen (The Netherlands) and were supposed to play here aswell… ‘Chaos UK’, at that time, was (if I remember well) ‘Beckie ‘Beki’ Gibbons on bass, ‘Chaos’ (a.k.a. ‘Lice’) doing the vocals (‘Mower’ wasn’t in the band anymore by then), ‘Gabba’ playing guitar and Chuck hitting the drums. In the end they didn’t show up at the V.V. (They made it here a couple of years later, 93-11-21, though…)

‘Rectify’ (I think these replaced ‘Knucklehead’ – a legendary pioneering ska-punk band from Bristol/Bath, that were planned at first) were a political (anarcho) punk band from Blaina in Wales. I think they were: Wayne ‘Pig(gy)’ Cole (vocals), Mark ‘Wedge’ Wedgebury (drums), Andrew ‘Footy’ Foot (bass) & Michael ‘Mudgie’ Mudge (guitar; R.I.P.)… I thought they only had the20^th Century 7” on Taff Core recs (’88) out at that time. Welly of Artcore zine pointed out there was also a split-LP with ‘Bazzy And The Budgies’ around then…

Later ‘Pig’ and ‘Wedge’ started the band ‘This System Kills’…

‘Debiele Eenheid’ from the Rotterdam Jazzbunker scene were probably introduced by ‘Political Asylum’s Stevie Dewar (who lived in R’dam at that time). Back then the band consisted of Jorem (vocals), Niek Den Braven (bass), Henk Van Schaik (sax), Karel(tje) Dops (drums) and Joop ‘Dops’ De Doelder (guitar). Long Kees played guitar on the Venus Has A Penis tape and on the 7” on Tirana Tunes in 1989 (Here’s some original studio recordings.). Carla (van der Marel; of ‘Bat Attack‘) told me Jorem had the most incredible stage-acts but I can’t recall any of that. There’s some vids out there so you can see the chaotic bunch. I read somewhere Jello Biafra was a big fan…

This was the last ever gig for ‘Sloth’; the line-up (see also 91-02-08) was Dieter Roelstraete (vocals), David Stubbe (guitar), Fabrice Baclet (bass) & Jeroen Vanhandsame (drums).

I thought ‘Neuthrone’s first gig at the V.V. was on 91-12-31 but Steve W. explained it wasn’t. They did a short, un-announced set at the Leet fest (91-09-14) and also played here with ‘Debiele Eenheid’. “That was perhaps our first official 1^st gig as ‘Neuthrone’.”; Steve said: “Fabrice played in the band from August 1991 to June 1992. Then he started a training to become a sailor & was at sea for months and months. In the summer of ‘92 we asked Tim (‘Nutje’) if he was interested. We recorded 5 songs in August ‘92 in Brugge (3 for the 1^st 7” on Genet recs & another 2 for compilations and stuff (but they actually only appeared on a ‘Neuthrone’ LP with unpublished songs in 2004). Because Tim wasn’t ready for recordings yet, I played all the bass-tracks.”

Brob

Bassist ‘Footy’ left ‘Rectify’ years before that. He was only in ‘Classified Protest’…

Dean Jeffery Beddis, ‘Cowboy Killers’ vocalist

I played in ‘Debiele Eenheid’ until ‘89/’90 so I can’t recall anything about the Vort’n Vis in Ieper…

‘Long Tall’ Keesie

I played for ‘Debiele Eenheid’ in the nineties but I can’t remember this concert…The gigs were a bit chaotic yeah… Drummer small Kees (De Greef) played also with ‘Political Asylum’ for a bit and is on the recordings of the last two records. He also played in ‘Budrot’ with members of the ‘Stink Sisters’ and ‘Anarcrust’. Long Kees still plays in ‘Reknub’ – a long-standing psychedelic punk duo. Small Kees played drums when I was in the band between ‘92 and ‘94 I think. Long Kees was before that indeed…

Stevie Dewar, ‘Political Asylum’

I was in ‘Chaos UK’ between the beginning of 1991 to 1993. We toured Europe in October ’91.

Beckie Gibbons

The ‘Chaos UK’ van broke down… ;-)

Your intro sounds right!… I left in 1989. So it was ‘Chaos’ singing in ‘91…

‘Mower’

I played keyboards and trumpet in ‘Knucklehead’. I don’t think we ever played at the Vort’n Vis but I recognise a lot of the band-names of those that did… If you want to update your site with what we’re up to now I can tell you the following:

Jon (singer) went and lived in Bremen (92-95) and sang in ‘A38’. He’s now back in the UK (in Bath I think) fronting a band called ‘Seven Crowns’. They were called ‘Tiny Elvis’ for a few years but changed to ‘Seven Crowns’ a few years ago and regularly tour all over the world I think. Mets (singer/shouter) also went to Bremen and played bass in ‘A38’ and came back the same time as Jon. Back in Bath now. Painter and decorator. Cheesey Coles (singer) stayed in or around Bath. Not sure what he did for years but is now singing in a Northern Soul band called ‘The All Nighters’ (far cry from punk-rock!). Pete’Chopper’ Panton (guitar) – not sure what he did in the years after ‘Knucklehead’ but now lives in London and doing graphics for films and ads or something similar. Si Spoons (bass) stayed in Bath. Still there or thereabouts playing bass in ‘The All Nighters’. No idea what he’s doing for a living… Adrien ‘Ade’ Poole (drums) – drummer in ‘The All Nighters’. Still in Bath (or maybe Trowbridge I think). He’s a teacher I think. ‘Fingers Fourgang’ (keyboards & trumpet) – that’s me – went to Prague for 6 years ‘Knucklehead’ and played in a reggae band called ‘Hermakoute’. Now living in Edinburgh working as a freelance copywriter and penning the odd short-film soundtrack. Alex Hornblower (sax) also went to Bremen and played in a band called ‘Korrupt’. Not sure for how long (think she stayed there longer than Mets & Jon) but now back in the UK, somewhere after a stint living in Holland I think. No idea what she’s up to but she sometimes organises ‘Knucklehead’ reunions (drinking, not playing!). Last one was about 4 or 5 years ago.

I know ‘Knucklehead’ never played in Belgium. We had a tour of various European countries lined up but we split before it came to fruition. The Vort’n Vis may have been one of the venues we were due to play but we all started fighting with each other and it wasn’t fun anymore so we split up!

Toby Morgan (a.k.a. Johnny Despondent)

Vort’n Vis audience getting drunk when ‘Chaos UK’ didn’t show up (guess they would’ve ended up drunk anyway…)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Dirk ‘Scum’ (Zero Positives’)…always hungry… ;-)

‘Zorro’ (Ann Claeys, Dieter Roelstraete’s girlfriend back then), the kitchen-princess of that time…

additions wellcome!…