93-08-01 Subcaos – Subway Arts – Scraps

This gig was announced as a benefit-gig “in order to be able to finance the reparations needed for the vocal P.A.”. Lots of things, line-up wise, changed during the preparation…

At first another Portugese band, ‘Inkisiçao’ (see 94-09-17) was gonna tour with ‘No More’ but they couldn’t make it because of the singer’s job-duties… Their replacement ‘Corrosão Caótica’ – a hardcore/punk band from Lisbon with vocalist Paulo ‘Piranha’ Baptista, guitarist João(zinho) Morais, drummer Rui Lucena and bassist Miguel ‘Zé Gato’ (later also in ‘Subcaos’), and for a moment they also had a female guitarist called Susana – cancelled the tour aswell in the end. Hence the gig that was announced for July 31^st was abandoned…

‘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; was ‘held up’), João Barrelas (guitar; also in ‘X-Acto’), Tópê (bass) & David (drums). They put out a demo (Genocidio, “chaotic crustcore”) in ’92 and tracks for the split-7” with ‘Hiatus’ (out on Slime recs) were recorded at the gig they played in Bruges the day before … (93-07-31) 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. They came back twice… (94-04-02 & 94-12-31).

‘Subcaos’ photos from Ludovic Hache’s zine Ras L’Bol #3 (top => bottom: Tópê – Diogo – ‘Xico’)

‘No More’ (see 92-05-24, 92-09-05 & 93-03-28) – Claude ‘Pattex’ Werer (guitar), Fränz Laureys (bass), Steve ‘Diff’ Differding (vocals) & Mike ‘Schof’ (drums) – who were supposed to play with ‘Corrosão Caótica’ the day before didn’t come over either (or did they?)… Another band that ‘Diff’ played guitar for, ‘Subway Arts’ (political hardcore/punk from Esch/Alzette), played. The others in the band: Claude ‘Bourano’ Bour (drums; (drums; Mike played on the split-LP but left also soon after), Fränz Laureys (bass), Sabrina D’Aurelio (vocals; David on the split-LP) and Xavier (guitar). It wasn’t their first visit either (92-12-20, 93-02-06, 93-07-04) and it wouldn’t be their last (94-04-02) … The Luxemburgers had released a split 12” (All Life is Equal) together with ‘No More’ in 1991 (on Markus Haas’ Per Koro recs). Around this time here 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).

‘Subway Arts’; photos by Eric ‘React’ Wawrzynkowski

‘Scraps’ were announced (in the newsletter) with a new line-up and new songs. At their previous passages (90-02-24, 90-09-15, 91-03-16, 91-09-01, 91-12-31) David (vocals) & his brother Raphael Dutriaux (guitar) still had Xavier (drums) in their ranks – besides Tomoy (bass) off course. I guess they might’ve recruted Pierre Anne (ex ‘6 Feet Over’) as drummer by then… He was on the LP Dismantle The Machine One Cog At A Time (recorded April ’94).

‘P.J.D.’ (Private Jesus Detector) was also mentioned in the newsletter but there’s nothing about hem in the V.V. notes for that day… They’d played the Vort’n Vis several times before: 90-08-25, 90-10-27 & 91-03-16.

Brob

We’d split up since a while because we rehearsed very rarely in 1992. We did that last show in Ternat [93-10-23] because it was a benefit. We did a few show in 1993 but ‘Pette’ didn’t feel like it much anymore… Gigging became sporadic but the fun of it was gone by the end of ‘92/beginning of ‘93. Also ‘Spatje’ didn’t feel like it anymore…

Koen ‘Siesele’ Lammens, ‘P.J.D.’ bassist

Since we [‘No More’/’Subway Arts’] were kind of a collective with people switching from here to there and we all had a great relationship witch each other, we might have decided to just play as ‘Subway Arts’…

‘Diff’

I remember ‘Subcaos’: very cool people, the loved to play soccer. We went over to Portugal aswell… I guess ‘Diff’ organised all of that. Portugal, Spain,…

Sabrina D’Aurelio, ‘Subway Arts singer

I definitely think that the V.V. gig was the best of the ‘Subcaos’ tour as everyone talked over and over about it. I really would have liked to be there but it wasn’t possible…

Miguel Crespo (Ratazana Productions [a concert-collective, including with Guilherme Chalmers]), personal communication ‘94

I remember we shook hands in 1993 or the second time I was there in 1995. Lots of memories from those times, all the people and the mighty Vort’n Vis where I slept at least a couple of times… It was Bruno’s good intention to help ‘Turmoil’ with touring Europe and with a (split)LP; which never happened because of hard situations in Turkey. It was a nice dream anyway. I tried my best and with the help of Bruno I showed up alone instead of a tour and had a great time. There was a great gig with ‘Scraps’; ‘Subway Arts’ & ‘Subcaos’ were touring. There were lots of cool people at V.V. like the guy from ‘Neuthrone’, the unknown crusties of ‘War Cry’ and ‘Corpus Christi’, the people of Nabate recs and – I want to mention these names – Boezie, Stevie, Jimyh. I believe I have some photos from those days.

I’m still a noise-freak, still enjoy a lot of the same old stuff. I wouldn’t care sounding like ‘Youth Corps’ or ‘Terveet Kadet’…

Tay(lan) Ipek, ‘Turmoil’

I was on the road with ‘Subcaos’ and the Luxembourgers (I’m not sure if ‘Subway Arts’ played on all days or if they only played in Ieper. I think the other 2 days and probably the entire tour was with ‘No More’.); a tour that Bruno organised in the summer of 1993 (I also attended the 1994 ‘Subcaos’ gig): one gig in Manheim in the Cologne area, so not Mannheim in the south-west of Germany) and two in Belgium (Bruges and Ieper). Originally, I just wanted to attend the Ieper gig but Bruno asked if I was up for two more days. There were also a few other people accompanying ‘Subcaos’, which was nice: chatting, beer. :-). It was a really good experience being on tour (well, 3 or 4 days) with people from rather different backgrounds and countries (Portuguese, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany). Markus of Per Koro recs also attended those gigs.

Carsten Pötter (Frankfurt)

I remember ‘Subway Arts’ very well… First time I heard a band from Luxembourg: ‘bonne pêche’, nice people, etc. Don’t remember much about ‘Subcaos’…

Willy ‘Hiatus’

One thing that I can recall from on of the gigs at the V.V. is that we were playing the smaller room and right in the middle of our set smoke started coming out of one of the amps, not sure if they caught fire or not but it would make a better story if it did… ;-)

Diogo (Tovar), ‘Subcaos’ singer

I couldn’t go on tour at that time because I had a ‘small problem” with the law and could not leave the country :-) I believe the band played in the V.V. bar.

João Abrantes, ‘Subcaos’ guitarist

I toured with ‘Scraps’ once, playing the guitar. As far as I can remember I just played Germany and Austria for five weeks. I replaced the guitarist, Raphael (David’s bro; he used to work with handicapped people and could not get holidays). I think it was ‘93. [Brob: I think that was ’95; and Amanda Trevens was touring with them in ‘94…]

Ma Raab

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

94-04-09 Acme – Scraps – State Of Grace

from Marco Walzel’s zine (Speak So That I May See You #3); 94-05-14 Zwijnzicht Ultimate Punk Festival (NL)

This was a benefit for the Anne Frank Foundation. I believe it was organised by Saskia Verbeke, Kurt Deprez and David ‘Mong’ Dumont of ‘Shortsight’; but Wim & Chatn ‘Blindfold’ and myself helped out aswell.

The night before ‘Acme’ had played at De Gilde in Moorsele (the pub owned by Nathalie D.’s parents) – together with ‘Shortsight’. Since that is close to Ypres/Ieper, I took care of (some of) the ‘Acme’ transportation… The band (from Bremen) played metal-core with ‘screamo’ vocals with references to ‘Born Against’ & ‘Rorschach’. Heavy stuff! Hannes Stang did the vocals, Gregor Iwanoff drummed, Sönke played bass (he also hit the drums for ‘Systral’ and was in ‘Mörser’ for a while) and Sven Thora was the guitarist. They had a demo out (Menschenmaschine) and ‘Goofy’ Jeroen Lauwers was about to release a 7” on his label Machination recs (hence the invation for these shows). They also came over to play on the fest in August that year.

‘Scraps’ hopped across the border from Lille again. They’ve been at the Vort’n Vis many times, as a band and as visiters… Who was in the band at that times? The brothers David (vocals) & Raphael (guitar) Dutriaux, for sure… This was around the time they recorded their LP Dismantle The Machine One Cog At A Time (X-Mist recs), so Pierre was the drummer and Tomoy played the bass. They played inspiring angry, political HC… Their cover of ‘Pink Floyd’s The Wall was sung along by all!

‘State Of Grace’ (Kempen area) were Jeroen Vanlaer (guitar), Tom Gabriels (guitar), David Heylen (drums), Gaby (guitar), Jan ‘Jakke’ Geeraerts (bass) and Sven De Backer (vocals). Later Bart Verelst (ex ‘Hopeman Path’) joined on bass and ‘Jakke’ played guitar; then they became ‘Sheen’ (who were planned to play the V.V. 95-11-11 with ‘Starkweather’ but the latter had difficulties with thei tour-booker)… ‘S.O.G.’ put together a reharsal-tape around that time. When playing locally, they were announced as playing “fierce jumpcore”.

Brob

‘Abyss’ never played the V.V., unfortunately. But I was on tour with ‘Acme’ when they played there. Such a legendary place back then. I wish we could have played there.

Sven von Thülen, ‘Abyss’

I have very little recollections of that gig. I do remember that the guys of ‘Acme’ wanted to borrow our instruments. We did so (reluctantly) but they were broken when we got them back: a dent in my bassdrum-skin and the neck of the bassguitar broken… And we didn’t get compensated. I also remember buying a ‘Bloodline’ t-shirt there…

David Heylen

I remember going to the Vort’n Vis – I was there when my friends ‘Acme’ played. I am still in loose touch with some of the guys from Bremen (e.g. Holger Ohst’s brother Rainer) and most of the crew from back then lives in Berlin today.

Franziska ‘Franzi’ von Hasselbach

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Saskia’s call for attention for gender-roles (supported by Tom DP & Vik B.; unfortunately one dickhead had to flaunt his stupidity)

additions wellcome!…

90-02-24 Scraps – Ear Damage – Toespieze – Just Us

Joost Dierick (The Pits / Bang Zoom Noise productions) wrote me ‘Toespieze’ played at the Vort’n Vis on 90-03-10 but the gig-review in Pyrobolum #3 tells another story…

‘Scraps’ had cancelled for 89-09-16 but they made up for that here. It was the start of a whole series of gigs. Later that year they would also play for Smurfpunx (90-10-06). The members at that time were David Dutriaux (vocals) Tomoy (bass), Xavier (drums) and Raphael Dutriaux (guitar). They had abandonned their rather nihilist 80s drunk-punk image and became a more politically aware ans positive combo. That year the album Wrapped Up In This Society was released on Be Yourself recs (Carl Levecke & Ghilain Vermeersch). They came back to the V.V. later that year (90-09-15) and a few times more…

I’d seen ‘Ear Damage’ quite a few times already. Bassist Marc (Verbeeck) and drummer ‘Bie’ (Robin Puttemans) were friends since the ‘Zyklome-A’ days and I knew guitarist Dirk (Ceustermans) from gigs in Leuven and from D.R.O.L. zine. They’d played 3 times for Smurfpunx already too… (86-09-07, 87-06-27 & 89-02-25). This gig here was about a year after their second LP (The Hangover Of Loneliness) was finished. Summer of ’89 they had done a small tour in the Basque Country (with ‘Heibel’) and the summer after this gig they travelled to Poland for a bunch of shows (together with the Reynders brothers’ new band ‘Triptych’). They played another Vort’n Vis show in Poperinge (90-04-08) and as far as I know their last Belgian gig ever was in Leuven, 90-07-11.

‘Toespieze’ from the are around Bruges started in May ’87. When the original drummer left Steve ‘Sling’ Slingeneyer of ‘Chronic Disease’ joined; the others were ‘Meyer’ Peter Demeyer (guitar, also ‘Chronic Disease’), Jeroen ‘Jerre’ Callewaert (vocals and guitar) & Rik De Jaegher (bass). ‘Leffe’ describes their music as “rock”. There was a demo with 5 songs by them and 18 songs by ‘Chronic Disease’.

No idea anymore who or what ‘Just Us’ was…

Brob

‘Roxy’ sang for a while when ‘Jerre’ got tired of that in the end.

Rik De Jaegher, ‘Toespieze’

Was ‘Just Us’ a band??? Definitely not from Bruges… ‘Toespieze’ was also not really a punk-band. I was at their first gig in the theatre-room of a school in Bruges in 1987. I hung out with ‘Roxy’ (vocals) well into the 90s.

Koen ‘Siesele’ Lammens

additions wellcome!…

91-03-16 Nations On Fire – Scraps – Private Jesus Detector (photos)

More on this concert: 91-03-16 N.O.F. – Scraps – P.J.D. – C.F.C.

Here’s a some extra photos, contrbitued by Justin ‘Nunca Mas’ Neumaier:

‘Nations On Fire’  (with a young Hans Verbele in the crowd)

‘Private Jesus Detector’

‘Scraps’

Bruno, the spider in the web ;-)

90-09-15 Scraps – Seein’Red – Trespassers W – Hiatus – Exhaustless Revolt

This was the 2^nd Vort’n Vis Leed festival

“The 5^th band is a surprise!”… The Vort’n Vis notes mention ‘Exhaustless Revolt’. This young posi band from Antwerp – Filip Staes (guitar & vocals), Sven Bossant (drums) & Ivan Marien (bass & vocals) – came back to play on 91-05-03. They recorded their Think Now tape around that time…

‘Exhaustless Revolt’ (courtesy of Filip Staes)

I believe this was the first time my buddies Paul, Olav & Jos (Amersfoort) played at the V.V. but I had arranged gigs for them already with the Smurfpunx collective (89-04-16 & 90-02-17). Their first, self-titled 7” (with the guitar on T-shirt cover) had been recorded Aug/Sep ’89 and their first album (hands tied together with barbed wire on the cover) in June ’90 so I guess they played material from these. I can still imagine me shouting along: … “Shell! Send ‘em to hell”, “We flourish under oppression”, etc. I’m pretty sure their ‘crew’ (driver Emily, photographer Theun Koelemij and allround-nice-bloke Marcel Palijama) came along aswell…

‘Seein’Red’; picture taken by Ben ‘Sicko’ Cooper

‘Trespassers W’ (Rotterdam, NL) were an avant-garde/arty band that consisted then of Ronnie Krepel (bass), Peter Bos (drums), Lukas Simonis (guitar; also ‘Dull Schicksal’, ‘Morzelpronk’, etc.), Frank Van Den Bos (keyboards) and Cor Gout (vocals). Around the end of the 80s I got a few records sent by the Amsterdam label ADM (A Deaf Mute) recs for review. One of which was their LP Potemkin. Here’s what I wrote about it in Tilt! #5: >> Unpredictable is and adjective that fits their music. Both sides also differ quite a bit. Side 1 has 5 songs with still traditional song-patterns but also an unusual use of rhythms and instruments (violin/organ/…). Side 2 tells the story of Sovjet battleship [in their own words: “musically recreating Eisenstein’s classic film”] and is quite experimental … << The record came out in 1989 and was produced by Dolf Planteijdt (‘Morzelpronk’ & Joke’s Koeienverhuur studio). Around the same time they did a 7” entitled Macht Kaputt and in 1990 a French label put out their tape Aimez-Vous Trespassers W? …

‘Scraps’ (Lille, France) had been at the V.V. already eralier that year (90-02-24). The line-up at that time was David & Raph(ael) Dutriaux (vocals & guitar), Xavier (drums) and Tomoy (bass). They had abandonned the nihilistic drunk-punk for a more political/posutive attitude. They were gaining a lot of popularity in our area. The release of their Wrapped Up In This Society LP on Be Yourself recs (ran by 2 local scenesters Carl Levecke and Ghilain Vermeersch) certainly helped with that. The recordings took place a few months before this (May ’90). Lots of ‘locals’ did backing-vocals (most of them present here too, I think): Carl & Ghilain, Ed ‘N.O.F.’, Hans & Hazel (‘Rise Above’), UxJx, Leffe & Vrokker (‘Chronic Disease’), Spatje & Siesele (‘P.J.D.’), etc. The record came with loads of anti-fascist info. As a reaction against the raising fascism (the extreme right ‘Vlaams Blok’ in Belgium – see 91-03-03) and Le Pen and his Front National in France, anti-fascists started to get organised again in various groups. ‘Scraps’ were supporting the SCALP (Section Carrément Anti Le Pen). David & their friend ‘Kalimero’ (Stéphane Ll.) also addressed all this on their radio-show (Écrasons La Vermine; ‘let’s crush the vermin’) on the student-radio (Radio Campus) in their area.

‘Scraps’; photographed by Ben ‘Sicko’ Cooper

 

‘Hiatus’ (photos by Ben ‘Sicko’ Cooper)

The Liège bunch ‘Hiatus’ also performed here for the first time but I’d seen them play already in their hometown with ‘Sore Throat’ (90-05-06). Their demos (The Frightening Men’s Story; and In My Mind…) were recorded Aug ’89 and Apr ’90 (with Phill – Phil – Ben – Raf). Their untitled 7” (blindfolded man on the cover) that was released in 1990 by the French label Urban Alert recs (recorded Aug ’90) would be re-released as I Don’t Scare Easily But… on Nabate in 1991. The line up here would have been Phil (guitar/vocals), Ben Féry (drums), Azill (guitar/vocals; or was it still the other Phill?), Willy Nollomont (bass) and Raf (vocals). Raf disappeared soon after and Willy started doing vocals aswell.

Brob

I’m almost certain I was at this concert but I have no recollections of it… :-/ You mention Écrasons La Vermine – thanks for the compliment – but don’t forget to also mention the programme that David (‘Tonton Charogne’) did himself: Raw Power! The show lasted until ’92 I believe.

Stéphane Ll.

I can ’t recall anything about this. You should ask Cor Gout. Perhaps I wasn’t in the band anymore… However… There are some vague memories…

Lukas Simonis, ‘Trespassers W’

In 1990 I did play for ‘Trespassers W’ but my agenda says I was in Voorburg with my other band that day. No recollections. Cor Gout knows everything!

Frank van den Bos, ‘Trespassers W’

I know we played in a small pub. A street outside the centre? There was no P.A. but a vocal amp, which was sufficient for that space. The audience (twenty people ?) reacted quit well to our music. One individual knew some of our songs and was asking for them. Of the other bands, I only remember ‘Seein’Red’ from Amersfoort. I knew their single and was aware they played pretty fat-sounding anarcho-punk. I thought they were very good in their genre. Later (in 1991) I invited them for a session that we (3 members of ‘Trespassers W’) did for Lokatel in The Hague. I believe we received fl. 350 [€ 175] for the gig at the Vort’n Vis, what isn’t very much for such a long drive, but looking back we didn’t have any regrets to have come over. The atmosphere and welcome were good. And that’s what we were doing it for.

The Potemkin LP & the Aimez-Vous cassette have been released as double-CD (with extra songs) in the re-issue series of Megapop in France. The band stopped now [September ‘14]. Most of us make music with smaller bands. We just released our ‘swansong’ One-Sided Love Affair: 7 new songs on one side and none on the other (written for a concert at the Volkspaleis in The Hague, a year ago).

Cor Gout, ‘Trespassers W’

[They delivered their “swan-song” record autum 2014]

‘Scraps’ pictures; courtesy of Jurgen ‘Spatje’ Fiems [1/5], Françoise ‘Hazel’ Lepers [2/4] & Grégory Smets [3]:

‘Spatje’ quitely at the bar for a moment…

Jeroen Lauwers sporting his ‘Conflict’ T-shirt

crowd (with Edward+Hans ‘Rise Above’, Dirk ‘Scum’ & Leffe+Spatje ‘P.J.D.’) @ Scraps

crowd (with Jeroen+Edward & Pette ‘P.J.D.’, Chatn? shoutin’ loud & Lord Moloch in the back) @ Scraps

“la jeuness dorée” from Liège: Manu & Alain (Nabate) (caught on film by Ben ‘Sicko’)

[There are some photos of ‘Seein’Red’ in Reminder #1, the zine that Wim & Chatn ‘Blindfold’ did, but the resolution is not good enough to put them up here…]

additions wellcome!…

94-08-19&20&21 Hardcore Festival

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

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

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

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

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

This is from the newsletter right before the festival:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brob

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

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

Patrick Federli

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

Frédéric Falzon

 

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

Marco Walzel

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

additions wellcome!…

91-03-16 Scraps (photos)

More on this concert: 91-03-16 N.O.F. – Scraps – P.J.D. – C.F.C.

Here’s a some extra photos, donated by Eric ‘React’ W.:

Raphael (guitar) – Xavier (drums) – David (vocals) – Tomoy (bass) [a ‘peeping’ Lord Moloch and an attentive Brob on the R]

91-09-01 [N.O.F.] – Agathocles – Cry For Change – Spirit Of Youth – Scraps

This concert was meant to be the presentation of ‘N.O.F.’s lp but mid August Jaak had an accident with his car (crashed and went upside down) – (together with Jan ‘Blindfold’, U.J. and Hans – while returning from the studio in The Netherlands (where we’d done the final mix): I was suffering from a back-injury (couldn’t move for a few weeks) and Jaak was ‘out’ (in hospital) for a couple of months with some serious fractures and surgery. He didn’t start drumming again a few months later. The concert took place without ‘N.O.F.’ and the record only got released in March 1992. The album wasn’t ready anyway: the recordings had been in May and August; shortly after this gig Ed went to L.A. – beginning of September until end December – to work for his family, and got the record (re-)mixed (Onno [Hesselink]’s original mix was rather questionable) by someone who at that time also mixed ‘Bad Religion’.

Jeroen Lauwers, ‘N.O.F’ bassplayer

I believe all other bands were XXX and a big part of the audience as well, but I’m not really sure. If I remember correctly, everybody left when we got on stage with a tray full of beers and started our noise, haha. Those were the straight-edge heydays :-). Our line-up in ’91…that would probably have been Burt [Beyens, drums], myself [vocals at that time], Erwin [Vandenbergh, bass at that time] & Chris [guitar].

I really liked ‘Spirit Of Youth’ in their early days. Very young guys , full of commitment and energy. Coincidentally, a while ago, I ended up at a bar-counter with one of the members of ‘S.O.Y.’ when he was playing with his new band.

All in all, the end of the 80s/beginning of the 90s were great times at the V.V.

Jan Frederickx, ‘Agathocles’ bassplayer/vocalist/guitarist

I don’t recall ‘Behind The Smile’ playing that day. [Brob: ‘B.T.S.’ was considered to play there at some timepoint…] I think it was ‘Scraps’. [Brob: Could well be ‘cause David & Raph wrote something in the guestbook that day…]. ‘Spirit Of Youth’ was still Hans [Verbeke] drumming, Jan [Maelfait] singing, myself playing guitar and my brother Fré doing the bass.

Dominiek Denolf, ‘S.O.Y.’ guitarist

‘Cry For Change’ had played at the Vort’n Vis before and ‘Scraps’ were no new-comers either of course (with various crossings of the border into I-town; see e.g. 91-03-16).

‘Cry For Change’ (photo courtesy of Johan Maes)

‘Scraps’ vocalist David was technically ‘unemployed’ with ‘N.O.F’ being half handicapped anyway. They kinda replaced ‘N.O.F.’, even did some ‘N.O.F’ covers. Besides the 2 brothers Dutriaux, there was Tomoy on bass and Xavier on drums. I think their show was taped on video for the SCALP-benefit that Wim & Chat’n (‘Blindfold’) did… By then, ‘Scraps’ had their LP Wrapped Up In This Society out on Be Yourself recs (Carl Levecke & Ghilain Vermeersch)…

‘Scraps’ – Raph, Tomoy, Xavier – pics from Wim Vandekerckhoves’s zine Reminder #1

‘Spirit Of Youth’ had just appeared at the V.V. for the 1^st a few months before (91-06-08).

And does ‘Agathocles’ need an introduction…?

This was another organisation of the ‘Touch My Heart Crew’ (see 91-05-03). It would seem like Ed(ward) (‘N.O.F.’ guitarist, later Good Life recs) had adopted some sales-techniques during his stay in L.A.: he even had T-shirts printed of this bill (see picture)…

Brob

In the Vort’n Vis , everybody is taking care: we don’t need bouncers, we don’t need cops, we can decide for ourselves. Today was a good example: people can decide and act for themselves. This is what we’re into…

David Dutriaux, in Reminder zine 1991

pic kindly provided by Rudy ‘Rudee’ Penando

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

The ‘Scraps’ Dutriaux bros expressing their ‘warm’ feelings…

‘Crivits’ guitarist Jeff expressing his wish to play the V.V. That would happen a few months later (91-12-21)…

additions wellcome!…

91-12-31 Disturbing Foresights – Neuthrone – Blindfold – Scraps – Union Morbide – [Negative Stance]

cover of ep entitled 1992

New Year’s Eve at the Vort’n Vis? Of course! Why not!? This is where our friends were and where we could meet likeminded and interesting people from all around…

I had heard the music of ‘Negative Stance’ already on the split album with ‘Kismet HC’ and corresponded with their drummer Bill who did Actions Of Rebirth zine. These guys were also active in the scene around the well-known Villa Amalias squat in Athens. So I was looking forward to meet him/them. Unfortunately, for some reason they didn’t play… Can ‘t remember if they didn’t tour or if they just didn’t make it to the Vort’n Vis. The drummer was Vasilis ‘Bill’ Babouris, bassist/vocalist Makis, later John (Giannis Tzamilis) and guitarist Stamatis Spiliotopoulos. At some timepoint there was also singer Alex…

‘Disturbing Foresights’ played innovative HC. Some of them were organising punk-shows in the Mevr. Latenstaan youth-centre in Zoetermeer (near The Hague) which I visited when my friends’ band ‘Hate Crew’ played there (end of the 80s). The band consisted of Cor Hoogerdijk (drums & vocals; also in ‘The Incredible Softies’), Chiel Schouten (guitar; also in ‘The Incredible Softies’; a bit later replaced by Sebastiaan ‘Bas’ de Neef), Koen Bakker (bass), Iwan P. Vol & Ron Osephius (vocals). Ron had been in Barcelona where he (and his partner, at that time, Rosa) booked quite a few bands from up here. I also wonder if Arni van Driel (one of the guys who arranged things in Latenstaan) came with the band that night… They were on their 1991 X-Mass European tour with Berlin/Hamburg’s ‘Apoplexy’ (but I’m pretty sure these didn’t play at the V.V.). Their EP called 1992 was just out (see cover).

As Jeroen explains ‘Nations On Fire’ (who had been announced) didn’t play. David who was singing for them (and was not involved in the accident) probably played with his original band ‘Scraps’. Living just across the border, they played the V.V. many times. Can ‘t remember if they actually did this one…

‘Neuthrone’s appearance was, I thought; their first (of a whole series in the V.V.) that night (Steve W. explains below it’s not). They were locals and helped out at the Vort’n Vis… Guitarist/vocalist Steve W. had moved back to Ieper from the U.K. and formed this ‘sludgecore’ band together with (ex ‘Silly Old Fart’) David Stubbe (drums) and Fabrice Baclet (bass). Tim ‘Nutje’ Denutte replaced the latter a while later.

Being local and helping out at the Vort’n Vis, ‘Blindfold’ played another set, just shortly after their debut [91-12-21] here…

Apparently ‘Union Morbide’ played here aswell (see below) but I can’t remember that. I do recall them playing 91-11-23.

Brob

I recall that I played bass for ‘Shortsight’ at the V.V. once that X-Mas period [91-12-21] but I’m also certain I spent New Year’s Eve 1991 at La Gare in Lauwe and not at the Vort’n Vis viz. ‘N.O.F. seems unlikely ‘cause Edward hadn’t returned from the U.S. and Jaak still wasn’t recovered from his car-crash injuries. [91-09-01]

Jeroen Lauwers

This is our and my only performance in Belgium…so far. We entered the country through the German-speaking part and got followed after a few kilometres. It appeared to be the cops, who wanted a closer look at the inside of our bus. Yep, we didn’t smell that fresh but we got away quite easily. We had done 12 gigs by then. Every school-holiday we took the opportunity to tour and Ieper became our debut in your beautiful country; it was also the last one of that tour.

About the Vort’n Vis, I can remember that the stage was right next to the entrance; and during our set two bored straight-edge-kids were gazing at us. When I listened back to the recordings (available on-line), it appeared that the public, back in the pub, was rather enthusiastic…

I play in another band now (called ‘Zoikle’) with GW Sok (ex ‘The Ex’) and I’m a part-time music-teacher.

Cor Hoogerdijk, ‘Disturbing Foresights’ drummer

I believe the stage collapsed underneath me…

Chiel Schouten, ‘Disturbing Foresights’ guitarist

‘Apoplexy’ was on tour with us but apparently didn’t play here [Brob: probably because this was the last show before ‘D.F.’ headed home…]. After Sebastiaan de Neef we took another guitarist: Arjan van der Schee (who had been in ‘Brutal Obcenity’). Ron was in the band before me. He had gotten back from Barcelona by then (he’s not with Rosa since a long time). Myself, until recently I played in ‘Possible Suspect’ and nowadays in the ‘Pisnozems’ (and some others). Arni lives in Kopenhagen. I don’t think he was on this tour, but he did come often.

Iwan, ‘Disturbing Foresights’ singer

‘Disturbing Foresights’ (pics by Eric W.)

I recorded ‘Disturbing Foresights’ live that night [link above] (I also have recordings of ‘Scraps’, ‘N.O.F.’). I enjoyed their music, kind of rap-core [???], as well as their ep, full of meaning and good lyrics about the European Fortress, animal-rights, etc.

Eric Wawr, React distro

The first line-up (on the split LP with ‘Kismet HC’) was: Bill drums, Alekos on guitar, Alex ‘Z’ guitar & vocals and Makis on bass. When Alex left the band, the band became a trio: Bill on drums, John bass and vocals and Stamatis guitar. They recorded the second LP Angels Of Deceit.

Alex, ‘Negative Stance’

‘Neuthrone’s 1^st gig was in September 1991 if I remember well, perhaps October. We’d played a short, un-announced set at the Leet fest [91-09-14]. We also did the gig with ‘Debiele Eenheid’, last gig ever by ‘Sloth’ that was [91-10-05]. That was perhaps our first official 1^st gig as ‘Neuthrone’. 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.

Steve W., ‘Neuthrone’ guitarist

‘Neuthrone’, ‘promo-pic’: David – Fabrice – Steve

I’m pretty positive we (‘Union Morbide’) played on 31^st of December 1991 in the Vort’n Vis! We were on tour with the ‘Scraps’ back then and we sort of teamed up with ‘Disturbing Foresights’ the night before when all 3 of us played at a festival in Ransbach-Baumbach in Germany. I remember my surprise about the total absence of fireworks at NewYear because in the Netherlands, Belgium has a reputation when it comes to fireworks: every Dutchman goes to Belgium to buy the ‘heavy stuff’. There was also another band playing that night (don’t remember their name) and the crowd was a mix of straight-edgers and drunk-punks – a little tense at times, but all in all a good spirit.

Philip van Koeveringe, ‘Union Morbide’ guitarist

So we played at the Vort’n Vis on New Year’s Eve… Inside: Flemish punx in hardcore outfit (caps and checkered shirts), also (on the other side of the venue) Walloon punx (spiked hair, tartan pants, boozing until Sid comes and gets them.) This dichotomy was unknown to us in Beverwijk – we didn’t preach punk or hardcore but hardcore-punk. We were ill , not just in our heads but also our bodies. And when we layed down our heads after having played – and underneath us the festivities continued in full swing (with here and there a yell about boozing and not boozing, in French and Flemish – which led to some squabbles) – the astmathic sucking of our drummer Michel on his inhaler provided a cheerful undertone.

Maxim Aafjes, ‘Union Morbide’ vocalist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

visitors

additions wellcome!…

89-09-16 Belgian Asociality – [Scraps] – Dirty Scums – Chronic Disease

This fest was an alternative to the Leet festival organised by the city-council of Ieper and would later be organised yearly and named the Vort’n Vis Leed festival.

As can be read in the gig-review that appeared in the 1^st issue of Pyrobolum zine (written by Dieter / Klaas / Bruno), ‘Scraps’ cancelled…

‘Chronic Disease’ were up and coming; Smurfpunx had offered them a chance to play already; first in Netwerk (Aalst) with ‘R.K.L’ but they’d had to cancel that; then (which they did play) in Eeklo with ‘Rose Rose’ (88-11-11). This one here was the 1^st of a whole series of gigs at the V.V.

Same for ‘Belgian Asociality’ (88-06-25). At that time the band consisted of Mark Vosté (vocals), Patrick ‘Vlie’ Van Looy (guitar), Tom Lumbeeck (bass) & Chris Raffo (drums).

‘Brainless’ were, if I remember correctly, from Vlissingen, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen (the Netherlands)…

‘Silly Old Fart’ were a local, rather noisy combo of people hanging ‘round the Vort’n Vis…

‘Dirty Scums’ – from my hometown – don’t need an introduction, I guess… These dinosaurs of punk had been going for some years already and who would’ve thought they would still exist today. At that time Bart ‘Pik’ D’Ooghe (guitar & vocals) and Jan ‘Zjantie’ Den Baes (drums) still had the original bassist Chris ‘Jenz’ Lannoo with them.

Brob

Yep, ‘Silly Old Fart’ (David & Fabrice, along with Vinnie & Davy Letiere both on vocals – the latter now runs a pub for English tourists (‘The Old Bill’), opposite to the Vort’n Vis!) also played this gig…

Tim ‘Nutje’ Denutte; ‘Neuthrone’ bassist

Before ‘Sloth’, I played bass in a band with David Stubbe (on guitar): ‘Silly Old Fart’. The singer was Vinnie (Vincent something), the drummer Jan Moerman. My nickname at that time ‘Basswhan’…

Fabrice Baclet, ‘Silly Old Fart’ bass-man

I was 14 when I first asked Vinny, Fabrice and Jan (Moerman) to start a hardcore-band. We were full of absurdist teenage humour and a lust for noisy and fast music. Jan was the oldest, into speed- and thrash-metal for a while already, trying to master those double bass-drum techniques and that new thing called ‘blast-beat’. Vinnie (the singer) liked hair-gel, ‘Front 242’ and ‘Big Black’. Fabrice was an excellent guitarist but became the bass-player, infusing our ‘sound’ with some ‘Birthday Party’ / ‘Rita Mitsuko’ open-mindedness. I was the ‘E.N.T.’ / ‘Doom’ / ‘Napalm Death’ -freak on guitar, things couln’t get fast and noisy enough for me. I had no distortion but a wahwah pedal that, once pressed down to the end, made the tiny amp that I borrowed from Peter sound like a mix between a hairdryer and a stopping train. Kicks guaranteed. The band-name came from Jan who explicitly wanted us to be a ‘spun-core’ band, nothing to do with spunk but rather a contraction of ‘speed’ and ‘fun’. Mind you: there was no sign of the drug speed in our lives back then. Hell, we hardly even had a beer or two. Oh yes: Fabrice had an older brother who smoked joints but that was another level of existence to me. We practiced in an abandoned church in Zillebeke every sunday, hitch-hiking there with amps, guitars and everything every week. Much against all logic we played live quite a lot, together with bands like ‘Dreft’ (a very grinding 5-piece back then) and ‘C.O.D.A.’ (“the band with no guitar”, who wrote timeless classics like ‘Popeye Was a Nazi, He Ate Too Much Spinazi’) and ‘Belgian Asociality’ (Hilarious: the gig at de Kreun [venue in Bissegem, near Kortrijk], when Fabrice forgot his bass at the church and Jan decided he had to get to Kortrijk before the gig to buy a new cymbal and stand, which didn’t fit on the stage in the end.).

One of the more memorable moments was the gig at the very first V.V.-fest (September 16^th, 1989) with ‘Brainless’, ‘Dirty Scums’ and ‘Chronic Disease’, where we kept playing even when the cops shut down the P.A.-system. We addressed the audience to choose between pizza or Barabas (“Choose Barabas!”, we were young indeed.) or to convince them that their tinnitus was in fact a U.F.O. landing.

We disbanded after about 2-3 years due to growing discrepancies and different opinions. I discovered the ‘Swans’, ‘Gore’, ‘Foetus’, ‘Einsturzende Neubauten’ and wanted to experiment more. Jan wanted us to become a full-on metal-band, Fabrice got really very sick of the hardcore/noise tag and felt trapped in the ‘scene’, and Vinnie completely disappeared into ‘Cat Rapes Dog’ and ‘Borghesia’-styled industrial EBM [electro body music]. Right now I can’t even remember when or where I saw Vinnie or Jan for the last time. Fabrice showed up at the Rode Lijvekens squat [in Gent] where I was living 10 years ago, to drink some beers, and disappeared again. I doubt those days were really as great as I remember them to be but who cares.

David ‘Farty’ Stubbe

I recall a letter David wrote me…also that ‘Belgian Asociality’ asked for quite some money which resulted in the other bands getting rather disadvantaged. I think that I also had lost my voice the night after our gig. It was out in the an open-air, in the yard next to the pub. David’s band (‘Silly Old Fart’) also played.

Leffe, singer of ‘Chronic Disease’

It’s a long time ago but I can remember shreds of it… I know things were rather wild with lots of pogoing and stage-diving. A full house too. Can’t recall exactly who, but I think it was ‘Pik’ of the ‘Dirty Scums’ that took a good run-up during our performance to dive from the stage into the crowd podium and got stuck to a mike with his ear, an ear-ring was torn out and everything got covered in blood.. Another enthusiastic stage-diver that night was Herr Seele [famous Belgian cartoonist], who went into the crowd full length… I’m afraid (due to the excess of alcoholic beverages and such) that this is all my memory can come up with, but I’m glad it’s at least something.

Mark Vosté, ‘Belgian Asociality’ vocalist

‘Belgian Asociality’

I seem to have very little recollections on this… On our ‘blog’ on 1989 it says that it was one of our less brilliant gigs: “We played with ‘Belgian Asociality’ again, and also with ‘Chronic Disease’ and some other bands. It was an open-air gig next to the pub the Vort’n Vis in Ieper. Our gig was rather mediocre. There was a substantial amount of people but after the concerts a bunch of cops came to throw us out without a single reason. Cozy.”. (http://www.thedirtyscums.com/Biography/AllBiographies/Biography1990-1.htm) I never wore an ear-ring (always thought I was handsome enough the way I was ) but that could’ve been Jenz.

‘Pik’, guitar & vocals for ‘Dirty Scums’

additions wellcome!…