97-08-17 Morning Again – Congress – Vitality – Rubbish Heap – Mainstrike – Deformity – Starmarket – Acheborn – Lifecycle

Introduction => 97-08-15&16&17 HardCore – The Next Generation festival

The Czech zine Barricada #2 mentions ‘Starmarket’ switched places with ‘Endstand’…

The last day started earlier – right after lunch – so that it all could be finished by 9 o’clock.

‘Lifecycle’ had played the V.V. their 1^st gigs a bit before (97-06-27 & 97-07-12) and they would become one of the ‘house bands’ in the future… I believe here they played in the early line-up: Sofie Vantomme (vocals; co-founder Vincent Merveillie had joined ‘Spirit Of Youth’), Karel Deweerdt (guitar), Steve Noyelle (guitar), Jan Volckaert (drummer of ‘Resist The Pain’; was stand-in a few times for Jan ‘Relle’ Verhelst ex ‘Convict’) and Jurgen Degryse (bass; later there were a few others).

‘Lifecycle’ (from the video shot by Steve Lammertyn?)

Barricada #2: “A young band with a metal sound and a girl singing; a lot like ‘Shortsight’. The guitarist mentioned how terrible the garbage was around the concert-venue and that Hardcore should go all the way and not make a mess in the city. I tought wasn’t that bad with the waste last year though.”

‘Acheborn’s music was “raw, heavy, violent and brutal: thick guitars, hard-pounding rhythm-section and screaming vocals building a wall of metallic crust”; some compared them with ‘Unbroken’. They came from the Darmstadt area: André Liegl (bass), Heikki Eiden (vocals), Sascha Salipurovic (drums), Steffen Heller (guitar) and Jens Wucherpfennig (guitar). At that time I believe they just had the Demon Love (7”) out (Defiance recs). The split-7” with ‘Systral’ (on Trans Solar; Christian Mix-Linzer’s label) came in 1998. The LP Tuesday Is Dead LP (also released by Trans Solar) in ’99. Sascha Franzen of Alveran recs (vocalist of ‘Nyari’ – from Bochum) intended to release a split-7” with ‘Upset’ but that didn’t work out.

Barricada #2: “Next up were the Germans of ‘Acheborn’, an enjoyable thrashing of the ears.”

‘Starmarket’, an indie-rock band from Sweden Piteå (north of Umeå), were: Fredrik Brändström (guitar/vocals), Patrik Bergman (bass; later Jesper Löfroth), Johan Sellman (guitar), Magnus Öberg(-Egerbladh) (drums). They did a bunch of records on the Swedish alternative/indie label Dolores recs. Around this time their album Sunday’s Worst Enemy was out…

Barricada #2: “Melodic punk, but they played for a minority of the people attending (everyone seemed to load up power for the evening).”

The band ‘Deformity’ played death-core/metal and were from the H8000-area (Menen/Houthulst/Roeselare). They had started in the summer of ‘95, with ‘Bolle’ (Dominiek Defrancq, drums), ‘Wulf’ (Kristof Dewulf a.k.a. ‘Christopher D. Wolff’, bass; also sang for ‘Solid’ for a little while), ‘Lookmulle’ Davy Vanlokeren (guitar; also in ‘Regression’, later bass in ‘Spoil Engine’) and ‘Gaze’ Steven Sanders (guitar; later ‘Spoil Engine’). A “power-throat” was found in the person of ‘Becque’ (Laurent Delbecque; later in the blues-band ‘Smoking General’ with Bjorn Lescouhier of ‘Shortsight’ & ‘Regression’). After a few months ‘Becque’ and ‘Lookmulle’ switched places (the latter sang on ‘Misanthrope’ & ‘Murder’…). Around the end of ’96 they recruted Michael (‘Micha Soprano’ Pintelon; also ‘Congress’) as second guitarist because “they sounded a bit too empty for your average metal-outfit”. Their 1^st release was the Beyond live demo (in Dadizele, ‘96; with Dave/y Vanlokeren on guitar and Laurent Delbecque doing vocals). The CD Misanthrope and the split-7” with ‘Congress’ followed (GoodLife ‘97)…

Barricada #2: “After a lengthy tuning and sound-check, and even longer intro, they started playing. The second guitarist of ‘Congress’ was in the band. Just metal, nothing more. This didn’t have much to do with hardcore.”

‘Mainstrike had played here a few times already (95-04-09, 95-08-19 & 95-10-20. At some point they split with bassist Jasper Meijerink and Johnny van de Koolwijk of ‘Reaching Forward’ became the new bassplayer. In March 1997 ‘Mainstrike’ recorded the Quest For The Answers album. Here the line-up was Roland ‘Big’ Roller (vocals), Jeroen ‘Beertje’ Vrijhoef (guitar), Johnny (bass), Jonas Moberg (guitar) & Pepijn Oostenbrink (drums). Their set here was recorded on video…

‘Mainstrike’ (photoshoot by Sergi E. Costa)

posi crew crowd; pics by Sergi E. Costa

Barricada #2: “The Dutch ‘Mainstrike’ started of with the words ‘Do you remember real hardcore?’. Somewhat older people playing classic old-school sXe, similar to bands such as ‘Wide Awake’, ‘Youth Of Today’ and others of those acient times. There was a great atmosphere and especially during the last covers of ‘Y.O.T.’ and ‘Chain Of Strength’, the crowd gathered on stage again.”

‘Rubbish Heap’ had been hear already on 96-05-19. They were a HC/metal band from Antwerp with Dave Vanderplas (drums), Kim Vandyck (vocals; later guitarist of ‘KingTerror’), ‘Peche’ (guitar), Tijs Geerts (bass; later ‘Bad Influence’) and Vincent ‘Vinnie’ Royers (guitar). They were friends of Joris De Buysser (Conspiracy recs) who released their Path Of Lies 7” (“mix of ‘Rorschach’ & ‘Downcast’…”), and their other stuff later. Early on they had done a rehearsal-tape and a demo (Slow Defeat). Here Kim was injured and had to be replaced… (read his comment) Was their set also video-taped?

Barricada #2: “This gave me power; emo with a metal sound!”

Not new (96-08-16, 96-09-22) for the V.V. each either: ‘Vitality’s “tough-guy edge-metal”. By that time the band, from Oostduinkerke (ODK; Belgian coast), consisted ‘Chief’ Steve De Clercq (vocals), ‘Noptje De Mens’ Bob Van Lierde (guitar) & ‘Alien King’ Chris Paccou (guitar; nowadays sound-engineer for ‘Carcass’), Olivier ‘Ollie’ Dobbels (drums; also nick-named ‘Simon’ or ‘Original Gangster’) and ‘Switch’ Marc Paccou (bass). Hans ‘Liar’ released 2 7”s for them on his label Sober Mind: a split with ‘Sektor’ an one entitled Bloodline. In 1998 their Crucial Wires CD appeared on the French (from Rennes) label Overcome recs.

Barricada #2: “Crazy Belgians again, H-8000 power! I prefered to leave…”

In 1997 ‘Congress’ put out a split-7” with ‘Deformity’ (Exhume The Truth / God Defined; on GoodLife recs). Angry With The Sun (released in ‘98) was with Michael Pintelon as second guitarist.

‘Congress’ (photographed by Sergi E. Costa)

Barricada #2: “With the exit of the moon, ‘Congress’ path of immortality conquered the stage. They started with the old songs Lifting The Ban & Prayers [from Blackened Persistance], and finished with new songs. During the concert, the bassist sang more than the singer, who climbed in the ceiling-beams and jumped down on people’s heads. The Belgian fans got angry; I expected the worst. At that moment the hall was about to burst with people.”

‘Morning Again’ toured with ‘Congress’. They were a vegan straight-edge metal-core band from Fort Lauderdale, Forida. The line-up here was Kevin Ray Byers (vocals, bassist of ‘Outcast’; he replaced Damien Moyal, who was “asked to leave the band”), Joseph Lee ‘Joe’ Simmons (guitar; also ‘As Friends Rust’, ‘Culture’), Matt Thomas (drums; replaced Louis Ogburn Long), John Michael Wylie (guitar; ex ‘Culture’) and Gerardo ‘Jerry’ Villarroel (bass). In the guestbook there’s mention of Kevin, Joe, Matt and Jerry; Jordan Leitner did the merch… They’d done a few 7”s on various US labels in ’96 and in ’97 GoodLife recs released the album Martyr (recorded in February).

‘Morning Again’; by JanCoert Toerse

Barricada #2: “Then the last band (also from Florida) was on! I was curious: ‘M.A.’ & ‘Culture’ are some of the American bands that are widely recognised in Belgium; thanks to GoodLife recs. (I noticed almost every girl in the scene wears a ‘Morning Again’ T-shirt!) So I was curious about what would happen on the ‘home ground’. Although the sound wasn’t excellent, they melted the crowd. The stage was packed with 100 people all singing along; the vocalist couldn’t even sing because they were all-over, he stumbled all the time. There were several moshpits. I was pleased with the sympathetic behavior of ‘M.A.’: it didn’t matter a lot how they were playing; it didn’t exactly work out because the crowd had such a power and the whole stage was rocking! After back-breaking hits such as Turning Over, America On Line, Puppet And Soldier, and Martyr, the whole crowd joined in for the finale: Remedy. The bomb exploded! Count the victims! On the brink of collapse, we crawled out of the hall into the courtyard, where we could take a bit of breath. After regaining my senses, I had to start thinking about heading home, and with tears in our eyes we left the nightly city.”

Brob

Finally, a brief evaluation… Compared to last year, there were fewer that were breath-taking, we probably also already knew what was going to happen and the Belgian bands didn’t seem that dangerous anymore. But where else can you see so many wonderful bands and people together, find things that you don’t have at home, and especially meet new friends and learn about European scenes. Beautiful memories, which we won’t forget… That was Ieper ‘97 … Goodbye Belgium!!!

Jan and Jakub, the bros. of Barricada zine and ‘Balaclava’

I remember playing football with a huge bunch of festival-visiters. There’s a photo of that somewhere at home.

Johan Sellman, ‘Starmarket’ guitarist

I toured with ‘Morning Again’. I did merch for them for a number of years.

Jordan Leitner

>> I didn’t like touring Europe. I did pretty much everything for the band so it wasn’t really fun anymore. I think I just reached my breaking point. […] We all agreed to finish off the tour for financial reasons, and also because we were in Europe and we wanted to enjoy it one more time. Everyone had different reasons for wanting to finish the tour. <<

John Wylie, ‘Morning Again’ guitarist (interviewed on xstuckinthepastx.blogspot)

At that time I had a dislocated hip from skateboarding. Kris Delacourt (‘S.Y.C.’, ‘Stifled Cries’, …) replaced me and sang.

Kim Vandyck, ‘Rubbish Heap’ vocalist

I remember spending more time in our van than in the venue. Not everyone was into ‘Rubbish Heap’ back then, I believe. Not really SxE (guess what the cloud hanging over the van was). I also recall that a lot more people than I expected were shouting along, and that eventually made it into a good show. ‘Rubbish Heap’ were my local (from the same village as myself) heroes at that the time and it was honour for me to this replacement (a series of 3 concerts, if I’m not mistaken). We also played an encore at the V.V. (which we didn’t expect): the song Broken (which we didn’t rehearse and I fucked up big time). The sound-engineer recorded that concert so if he still has them, I would like to hear it…

Kris Delacourt

When ‘Deformity’ first came out, they were called ‘Race Deformity’. I told them to change their name, which they did ‘cause HC isn’t about race…

Edward Verhaeghe, GoodLife recs (on the www)

There was a report on the regional TV-station (WTV) about this. I still have it on tape…

‘Bolle’ Dominiek Defrancq, ‘Deformity’

review in the Belgian zine Beyond Perfection #2

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

 

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

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

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

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

‘Insane Youth’ (pic by Wim De Leersnijder)

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

Brob

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

Nick Loaring

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

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

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

Andrew Nolan (survivalist-deathcult)

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

Micky McGuinness (gibboncore.com)

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

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

Steve Descamps

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

97-08-15&16&17 HardCore – The Next Generation festival

‘Blindfold’ was supposed to play their “last show ever” but they still did shows, even toured during the summer, in ’98, their drummer Chatn informs. According to Hans their last gig was at ‘t Molentje in Kuurne. They recorded their live-LP (with 2 new songs only to be heard there) at the V.V.

Brob

We released our CD [Redeem The Monsters] at this fest but we didn’t actually play… Our singer Mark arrived with the first 500 copies, straight from the prsssing-plant and they were practically all gone in a day (sold to people attending and on consignment to various distros. We had to order a second pressing immediately. Crazy!

Sven Leys, ‘Rain’s guitarist

I ended up there with some SxE friends from Vienna (Daniel Eberharter of Eloquence zine), from Vienna (Austria), that were going to the fest. I was also friends with ‘By The Grace Of God’ (ex-members of the Louisville band ‘Endpoint’ [BTGOG had been touring earlier. They were already back in the states by August.]) who I think played the fest. They were on tour in Europe and I dragged along as van-duty, slacker, bad jokester for some shows. I toured with them on and off throughout the tour. We had a blast at Ieper and met great people. It was a nice meet-up of us all. I slept in the ‘loft’-area on an old couch. I had a giant necklace with a cock-ring on it. Good times! The venue was pretty unique in what I’ve seen around the world. It was impressive seeing the show set-up and so successful, especially with so many bands. The diversity in the punk-styles was evident and it was great to be apart of. There were New York style harcore, crust-punk and metal bands; and kids all hanging out.

Kevin Zelko; Wellfair? zine (also helped putting out ‘The Get Up Kids’ record)

Kevin Zelko & friends (Daniel Eberharter and Henrik from Stockholm)

I was at the Vort’n Vis with ‘Acheborn’… I have very good memories of sleeping in the park nearby in the festival. It was only us and another two people the first time The next year it was pretty full in there. The groundkeeper was actually so friendly that he almost didn’t let us go. A bit like in the movie Misery ;-) (Where a nurse takes care of an author that had a car-accident, in her house; and at the beginning she is all caring but then becomes this psycho who doesn’t let him leave her house, etc. We thought maybe he is all nice and then he won’t let us leave anymore…)

Here’s a few random memories:

There were 2 guys sleeping in the middle of the main square close to the venue because it was super-packed with people occupying every inch on the floor. We were walking past the main square when they were waking up and they were surrounded by market-stalls and people shopping. I guess they were too polite to wake them up to tell them that there is a market going on in their new bedroom….

There was this guy selling rare test-pressings of ‘Infest’, etc. for big bucks and American bands were spending a lot of money on it. I was sleeping at this guy’s house once on tour and he had hundreds of sleeves left and was making a test-pressing every once in a while. Power-violence hardcore capitalism…

And once I hitchhiked half way and was picked up by two guys from Munich at a highway-stop along the way but didn’t have a seat to get back. I didn’t really find anyone and at the last night there were four guys with a tiny car from Frankfurt that didn’t have any space as it was loaded with records that they were selling… Either way they squeezed me in and we all had records literally up to our nose driving for 6 hours or so. I think that was in the top 10 of the worst car-drives I ever had. but I guess that was the price to pay for going to the Vort’n Vis.

Christian Mix-Linzer (Outlet recs)

I was here aswell: I drove ‘Acheborn’. That was my first time at the V.V.

Marc Hartmann (Scorched Earth Policy, ‘Man vs Humanity’ drummer)

The persons (Jan & Jakub ‘Kuba’ Dušek of the sXe band ‘Balaclava’) that wrote a report in the Czech zine Barricada #2 mentioned that they got a discount on the admission-fee (a ticket for all three days costed 40 DM [20 Euro] – which was too much for them). The first day “of the three-day marathon” started about half past three. They spent the first (hot) night on the sand near the shore, and in the morning went skipping in the sea. They came back to the city and after lunch got ready for “the next round”. After day 2 they they left the hall “soaking in sweat and with torn earrings”, looking for a place to sleep in town. But there was hardly a place to lie down? “It’s not easy at all in this part of Belgium: there’s either cow-pastures and corn-fields surrounded by wire, or villages everywhere; but no forests where one can lay down one’s head.” After straying around for a long time, they found that single one place in the whole state and “slept the sleep of the righteous”. The last day started early right after lunch to get everything finished by nine o’clock… “Compared to the year before, there were fewer bands that took our breath. We probably also knew what was coming and the Belgian bands weren’t that big of a risk. But where else can you see so many wonderful bands and people together, find things you don’t know about, and especially to meet new friends and learn about European scenes. Beautiful memories…”

(full posts with photos of some bands playing are planned…)

[‘Natural Order’ & ‘Timebomb’ were not listed on the poster but they signed the guestbook. They didn’t play… Some bands got switched around… ‘Lifecycle’ was added to the bill last-minute.]

97-08-15: Instinct (Bel), Purification (Ita), Clouded (Bel), Endstand (Fin), Reiziger (Bel), Spineless (Bel), Facedown (Bel), Abhinanda (Swe), Veil (Ger)

97-08-16: Thumbs Down (Bel), ODK Crew (Bel), Metroschifter (USA), Intensity (Swe), Spirit Of Youth (Bel), Serene (Swe), Sektor (Bel), Blindfold (Bel), Kindred (Bel), Liar (Bel), Culture (USA)

97-08-17: Lifecycle (Bel), Acheborn (Ger), Starmarket (Swe), Deformity (Bel), Mainstrike (Nl), Rubbish Heap (Bel), Vitality (Bel), Congress (Bel), Morning Again (USA)

crowdshots by Sergi E. Costa

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

visiters from the Czech republic; some of them wrote a review in Barricada #2

‘Roman vegan sXe legion’

militant… or hardline…?

all sorts of visiters…

additions wellcome!…