2000-08-18 Ensign – Voorhees – Reiziger – Serene – Cast In Fire – Building – January Star – Cataract – Lvmen – With Love – Ariel Kill Him – AmenRa

Introduction => 2000-08-18&19&20 Ieperfest

Laurent Chopard & Olivier Bresson (from Besançon, France) wrote in their zine Co-existence:

Arriving at the entrance it seemed like we heared a well-interpreted cover of ‘Serene’; in fact, to Laurent’s great despair, it was the last piece of a surprise reunon of the band. And to add to our frustration we also missed ‘Ariel Kill Him’ and ‘With Love’. Things started off in a bad way. In addition we were denied access to the distro-space. The bouncer in service at the entrance claimed there was a lack of space, even though we had only two miserable boxes. Once the distro was set up, we could finally enjoy the sweet metal melodies.

It wasn’t until ‘Reiziger’ we found a little consolation. But Olivier found that a little too long. Fortunately for him the English legend ‘Voorhees’ took the stage. For Olivier it was the best concert of the festival, Laurent got tired of it after 5 or 6 songs, and the mangled ‘D.R.I.’ cover didn’t make things better. ‘Ensign’ concluded the evening in a déjà-vu kind of way (not to sound mean).

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‘AmenRa’s performance here – “Mix of hard and soft mid-tempo doomy core; all star formation!” – was their first time in Ieper… That was with (ex ‘Spineless’ guys) Kristof Mondy on bass, Mathieu Vandekerckhove playing guitar & Colin Van Eeckhout singing; plus Bjorn Lebon on drums & Jan Maelfait (ex ‘Spirit Of Youth’, ‘Blindfold’) on extra bass.

‘Ariel Kill Him’ (from Gävle, Sweden) – “David ‘Leiah’ solo with guests! Acoustic emo-pop” – was indeed the band of David Lehnberg (guitar/vocals). That year the album She Wears The Stars Like Him (alternative/indie rock, emo) was out. No idea who supported him: Alec Ahlénius (drums)?, Magnus Björk (keyboards)?…

In 1996 ‘With Love’ was added to the bill last minute. (96-08-18) In 2000, the band (from the Triviso area, in Italy) had an album (entitled I Love Cul-De-Sac) out on Green recs that year. It was recorded with Paolo Riscica (guitar), Giovanni Donadini (bass; canedicoda.com), Nico Vascellari (vocals; pinchukartcentre.org), Andrea Giotto (guitar) & Nicolò Fortuni (drums). They were described as “screaming emo rock”.

‘With Love’ (courtesy of Paolo Riscica)

‘Lvmen’ (Prague, Czech Republic) were announced wit the phrase “As pompous as ‘Neurosis’, as bright as ‘Unbroken’!”… The band at that time consisted of Petr ‘Husar’ Proft (vocals/keyboards), ‘Melnick’ Robert Taschner (drums), David Mirda (guitar; R.I.P.), Tomis (guitar), Tschepitz/Čepic (bass; ex ‘Rat Race’). They had several releases on the Czech label Day After recs (ran by Miroslav Pátý) by that time 2 albums (a self-titled one and Raison D’Être).

‘Lvmen’ (source unknown)

‘Cataract’ – “Brilliant brutal metalcore/mosh presenting their new CD” – was a band from Zürich, Switzerland. In 1999 they did a couple of EPs (one of which was on Marco Walzel’s label Join The Team Player recs). In 2000 Carl Severson released the album Golem on his label Ferret recs (with vocalist ‘Mosh’ Chris(tian) Ebert, guitarists Simon Füllemann & Greg(or) Mäder, bassist Michael ‘Michi’ Henggeler and drummer Patrick ‘Ricky Lions’ Dürst). Federico ‘Fedi’ Carminitana probably sang for the band here…

‘Cataract’ (source unknown)

The German band (from the Münster area) ‘January Star’ – “Soft & delicate emo-pop! Like drinking a mineral water on a sunny day…” – had an album out on Genet recs in 2000: Home Without A Heart. Line-up: Andre Beyer (bass/vocals), Lars Röhm, Jan Flick & Henrik Neumann. They were often compared with ‘The Get Up Kids’…

‘January Star’ (source unknown)

‘Building’, a “youth-crew style” SxE HC from Antwerp, had played at the fest before (98-08-14). Supposedly this here was their goodbye show. The line-up probably was: Olivier ‘Paco’ Packolet (vocals; later ‘True Colors’), Jelle De Cremer (guitar), Werner Boes (bass, also ‘Kombat’; replacing (P)Andy Van Den Wijngaert) & original drummer Bruno had left and was replaced by Gert Jacobs (drums; later ‘Dead Stop’). They released material on SoberMind recs: In Time We’ll Grow (1998) & split-7” with ‘Up Front’ (1999). There’s also a live-tape of them playing at the GoodLife 1999 summer-fest. “Old school mosh heroes, nailed to the X!”

‘Cast In Fire’ (originally named ‘Full Assault’) – “Brutal, stomping, slow & heavy Detroit m-o-o-o-s-h”. In 2000 they had a split-7” out with (the Belgian) ‘Kombat’, and Genet recs released their Apology ‎album. The people in the band were Jake Dufour (drums), Vincent ‘Vinny’ Dufour (guitar), Nate Stickney (guitar), Ricardo ‘Fire’ Hernandez (bass) and Len(ny) Adams (vocals; ex ‘Earthmover’).

‘Cast In Fire’ ([1] & [2] photographed by Roel Brals; [3]?)

‘Out For Blood’ – “BXL style moshcore, back on the map!” –  was a hatecore band with Alain Herszaft on vocals (he ran Released Power Productions label and was the singer of ‘Mental Disturbance’ in the 80s). Apparently they didn’t make it over. There was a surprise show by ‘Serene’ (see 97-08-16). Read the remark below…

‘Reiziger’, announced here as “top quality European emo HC”, had played a few fests before this one: 97-08-15, 98-08-16.

‘Voorhees’ (“Power-violence legend, around since ages!”) hadn’t been ablo to make to the Vort’n Vis 1994. In 1999 they had their album entiled 13 released on Richard Corbridge’s label Armed With Anger recs. It was recorded with a totally different line-up than in ’94: only vocalist Ian Leck remained. The others on that were Andrew Wright (bass; ex ‘Ironside, ‘Unborn’), Dave(y) Allen (drums) and guitarists James Atkinson & Rich(ard) Armitage (ex ‘Ironside’). It was followed by a split-12” with ‘Out Cold’ in 2000 (on Ian Glasper’s Blackfish recs). The split-7” with ‘Kill Your Idols’ was recorded in August with Steve Stewart on bass (who’s mentioned in the guestbook). It was released by Dave Mandel on his label Indecision recs.

‘Ensign’ with ‘Fedi Edge’ of ‘Cataract’ (pic taken by by Patrrick Federli)

In the announcements for this fest, Bruno poses the question “Remember last year’s circle-pit with 1000 kids?!” referring to the show they played the year before (99-08-21)… ‘Ensign’ was a hardcore/punk band from New Jersey. I read somewhere that guitarist Ryan Donoghue had left the band before that tour. Read Nate’s remark below though… Nate ‘Edge’ (Nathan Gluck) switched from bass to guitar and Chris Oliver became the new bassist on the tour. Tim(othy) Shaw was the vocalist. In June 2000, the band recorded for the For What It’s Worth EP with drummer John ‘Vince Vegas’ O’Neill.

Brob

I totally had forgotten about his… How I experienced it?… Ieperfest was always THE show/experience of the year. Back then it was still the biggest underground HC festival I think, so everyone was looking forward to it. Internet was not that prominent but people were eager to meet up with international friends. I remember being impressed by ‘Knut’, ‘Children of Fall’ and ‘As Friends Rust’ [the next days]. The first 2 became real friends: I played with some of the guys of ‘Knut’s new band; I did the drawing for the cover of the ‘Children Of Fall’ CD… ‘Knut’ played that off-beat hardcore (Hydra Head recs) that sounded super-tight live. ‘C.O.F.’ was in the Swedish emo-core vein, live one big lump of passion. And ‘As Friends Rust’… a party on stage, poppy up-tempo hardcore with one of the best frontmen of that era (Damien Moyal). Sweet… Good times!

Kristof Mondy, ‘AmenRa’ bassist

Our first show ever, I believe. Not many people know this or took note of it but in the beginning (just a few shows) we had 2 bassplayers. The second was Jan Maelfait.

Colin H Van Eeckhout, ‘AmenRa’ vocalist

First time ‘AmenRa’ was indeed Colin, Mathieu, Bjorn, Kristof Mondy (with cowboy-hat, if I remember correctly) & Jan.

Lennart Bossu, later ‘AmenRa’ guitarist

One of my clearest memories was watching ‘Serene’ doing their one-off reunion gig here. Not the complete original line-up. Olle [Johansson], the drummer of ‘Serene’, got a nasty infection on his leg after doing a huge tattoo while we were on tour. I think he had to cancel Ieper because of that and go home?

Gunnar Forsman, ‘Leiah’ drummer

I didn’t play in ‘Reiziger’ anymore there…

Arne Van Petegem

Pretty sure that was the line-up with Ryan Murphy on drums (ex ‘Undertow’) and ‘Mackenzie’ [Ryan Donoghue] (the younger kid that played/recorded with ‘Ensign’ on Cast The First Stone and did most of the touring with us) on guitar, plus me & Tim obviously. I know ‘Circle’ played, love that band. Most likely it was either Mad agency [Ute Füsgen, Berlin] or Avocado booking [Marco Walzel, München] that booked our tours, I just don’t remember off the top of my head. I believe in 2000 I was playing guitar at Ieperfest and our friend Chris was filling in on bass.

Nathan/Nate ‘Edge’ Gluck a.k.a. Nathan ‘Voorhees’

This was our last show on a ‘real’ European (3 weeks), before leaving for a tour of 10 days in Japan… I remember that that show started really well, good and powerful sound…but there was a technical problem after the first song (no more electricity?) and when the problem was solved the sound was awful! Good memories anyway…

Paolo Riscica, ‘With Love’ guitarist

After our appearance in 1996 [96-08-18] I think we weren’t able to play the festival again untill 2000. Our second album (I Love Cul De Sac) had been very well received and we left that summer for what has been the longest and best tour for With Love: an entire month around Europe and Japan. We were still excited by the vivid memories of the concert in ‘96 at the Vort’n Vis: that was absolutely one of those tings we were mostly looking forward to. We actually wanted to play there so badly that we accepted Bruno’s invitation even knowing that the day before we were playing in Barcelona (1.400 km away) and that we would have to play in the early afternoon as one of the first bands. That meant we would have had to start driving immediately after the show in order to catch our flight to Tokyo in Venice 2 days later (another 1.300 km). We arrived and basically had to get on stage immediately. The show started and it was incredible. There was so much energy in the air. At least for the first song. Than the electricity failed and it took what seemed like an hour (it was probably just 5 minutes) to be fixed. It happened again during the 3^rd or 4^th song of our set. That was surely one of the most frustrating and horrible shows we’ve ever played. Then we took of for a 16 hours drive. I’m not even sure why I miss touring sometimes…

Nico Vascellari, ‘With Love’ vocalist

Swiss guys living it up (shot by Patrick Federli)

Pat Federli came with us if I’m not mistaken…

‘Ricky Lions’, ‘Cataract’ drummer

I just remember trying to hold ‘Ensign’s drumkit together from the frontside: the stage was so crowded and everything was almost falling apart during their last song…

‘Fedi Edge’, ‘Cataract’ vocalist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

96-08-18 Spineless – Resist The Pain – Stampin’ Ground – Vanilla – Approach To Concrete – Bruma – Separation – Swing Kids – With Love

Introduction => 96-08-16&17&18 Hardcore, The Next Generation

Since I (Brob) was rather disgusted with and had commented on the increasing commercialism, violent/sexist/homophobic attitudes, I spent most of the time I was there (for my literature-distribution) talking to fellow “PC emo-morons who stop everyone from having a good time” (as mentioned in the Hate 8000 Zine) in the courtyard and therefore hardly saw any of the bands, I reprint a review I found on the internet:

>>Last day already; it’s a pity so many people had to leave early, especially since it was the best of the 3 days! ‘Spineless’, just as their name suggests, played uneventful heavy metal. I can’t remember ‘Resist The Pain’ but I think it was just the same… ‘Stampin’ Ground (UK, ex ‘Neckbrace’) played good tight mosh-core. ‘Vanilla’ (France): I’ll never get into them, play boo-hoo style emo, but I think it got heavier than before. ‘Approach To Concrete’ were a good surprise, I thought they were on Lost&Found but I was wrong; they played very fast thrash-core with a couple moshy breaks, and they said many interesting things, I liked it a lot. ‘Bruma’ (Italy) were quite different from the other bands, they play ultra poppy punk with a female singer, I guess I kinda enjoyed it but it’s not the kind of music I’ld listen to all time long. ‘Separation’ were the best band of the fest (together with ‘Saidiwas’). They kicked ass! Just the right band to leave with a positive feeling. And positive was the word here: total old-school punk-ish HC; ‘7 Seconds’ and ‘Minor Threat’ covers, pogo-dance and stagedives all along hooray! I was disappointed by ‘Swing Kids’: I iked their 7” but they were way too emo here. OK, the drummer is good, but I got annoyed rapidly. And then ‘With Love’ (Italy) were added to the bill to close up the fest. Extremely powerful emo. Guess what: I enjoyed it, cool people, cool audience, cool music. Great! Just the kind of music I needed to hear before leaving all my friends… Conclusion: Basically none of the 30 bands that played said anything between songs, apart from “We have CDs for sale, they’re only 20$, it’s so damn cheap, you’ld have to pay 22$ if you’ld buy it from stores” or “We have DIY shirts for sale, we thought about a design and brought it ourselves to a multinational design-company who re-designed it, then we took the film and sent it to the printer ourselves and we chose the colour ourselves and when we got the shirts we sold half the copies ourselves (the other half going to bigger distribution, but we have to make sacrifices, ya know?) and we only charge 18$ each (plus taxes); man we’re so DIY, hardcore rules!”. The audience…well it’s either they kill each other during death-metal outfits or they stand still and apathetic during emo ones, there’s no middle ground. The only unity I could see was in the clothes style: they were ALL wearing baggy pants and chained wallets, how cool. The crowd was as dirty as ever. It’s so funny to see all those kids preaching out about respect for nature and our environment, and then when they leave the place it’s like there’s been a storm or something, it’s just filled with litter. But here again who cares? They’re not the ones who’re cleaning up… And tell me about greed and the consumist mentality of this society! Somenone brought some T-shirts next to my distribution-stall and the kids were literally walking over my zines in order to get the Victory shirt of their dreams. Ever saw kids slam-dance in front of a distro to get a bootleg 7”? We were not that far… Distributors? Well seems like no one had problems selling CDs for 16$ and EPs for 4$, but hey it’s a tough world and we all need to survive you know? Gotta save some money to keep the label going, and who’s gonna buy those baggy pants? Our parents are already paying for private schools and Marshall amplifiers, ya know?…. Anyway. Don’t wanna sound too negative here, I enjoyed the fest ’cause I met so many wonderful people, and Ieper is a very pleasant town too…<<

‘Spineless’ (from Kortrijk) played their first gig at the Vort’n Vis on this fest. They were Kristof Mondy (bass; Yoda zine; later ‘AmenRa’), Colin H. Van Eeckhout (vocals; later ‘AmenRa’), Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen (guitar; also ‘Congress’), Koen Sandra (guitar; replaced by Mathieu Vandekerckhove in ‘97; later ‘AmenRa’) and Stefaan Buyse (drums). They played brutal sXe H8000 metal-core. After their initial demo (’96) Hans ‘Liar’ Verbeke of Sober Mind recs would release the Painfields 7” (1997) and the A Talk Between Me And The Stars album (1998).

Local band ‘Resist The Pain’ had played the V.V. a few months before this (96-05-12). The band didn’t lat very long because the members joined/started other bands. The bassist Steve Noyelle became the guitarist of ‘Lifecycle’, guitarist Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen was also in ‘Spineless’ & ‘Congress’ (etc.), singer Vincent ‘Murph’ Merveillie appeared in later ‘Spirit Of Youth’ and drummer Jan Volckaert was also in ‘Lifecycle’.

The British ‘Stampin’ Ground’ was a HC/thrash-metal band (‘Slayer’-style riffs). They said they were influenced by bands like ‘Earth Crisis’, ‘Snapcase’ & ‘Inside Out’. They formed after ‘Decadence Within’ split up with 3 ex-members – Antony ‘Mobs’ Mowbray (guitar; ‘D.W.’s drummer), Richard ‘Rid’ White (drums; ‘D.W.’s singer) and Ian ‘Slug’ Glasper (bass) – teaming up with guitarist Scott Atkins and vocalist Paul Catten (ex ‘Medulla Nocte’). ‘Rid’ played on the first demo (Feb. ‘95). From the second demo on it was with Adrian ‘Ade’ Stokes (drums). Heath Crosby (vocals; later replaced by Adam of ‘Blood Oath’) sang after the 2 demos: Dawn Of Night 7” on Days Of Fury, Starved 7” on Too Damn Hype recs (from NY) and remastered these for a mini-CD on We Bite recs.

‘Stampin’ Ground’ (photographed by Sergi E. Costa)

‘Stampin’ Ground’ – Ian ‘Slug’ Glasper (courtesy of Heath Crosby)

‘Stampin’ Ground’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek

‘Vanilla’ had already played here a few times. The emo band from Paris put out their 7” (I Can’t Stop Hating This Empty Space) on Olivier Lépine’s label Laissez-Nous Jouer in 1995 (after an initial demo). On that record Jean Lebrun played bass and brothers Yann & Yves Maisonneuve (both ex ‘Ivich’), guitar and drums. Alain Vidal (also in ‘Symptom Of Isaac’ & ‘El Vidal Sonido’) joined them later. Bruno VdV released an untitled LP of them on Genet recs so they were invited back for this.

‘Vanilla’ (pictured by Sergi E. Costa)

‘Approach To Concrete’ (from Köln) consisted of Jörg Schickel (vocals), Jochen Almeida (drums), Thommy (guitar; he replaced Pablo who just played on the 7”) and Seppl (bass). Christian Valk (vocals; later ‘Six Reasons To Kill’) did 2^nd guitars for a very short time during their tour with ‘Battery’. Not sure if he was in the line-up at the Vort’n Vis. They played fast, aggressive HC (and were not really a ‘full’ sXe band). There was a demo and in 1995 they did 2 releases on the Berliner label Mad Mob recs (I think ran by ‘Mad’ Marc, who did Mad Booking with his partner Ute Füsgen): the Drown 7” & the …Failures? CD.

‘Bruma’ was an emo-pop (some say “college rock”) band from Rome with Andrea Marra (‘Comrades’ bassist, nowadays singer of ‘Anti You’), ‘Orco’ Cristiano Fini (‘Comrades’/’Concrete’ guitarist), Valerio Borgianelli (drums) and a female singer (Eva Falomi). There was also a second guiatrist (‘Concrete’s singer Tommaso Garavini ?). They did a self-titled CD on Green recs (ran by Giulio Repetto; same label as ‘With Love’ & ‘Burning Defeat’; nowadays a record- and skate/clothing-store in Padova).

‘Bruma’ (photo by Patrick Federli) – front stage: Andrea Ferraris (‘Burning Defeat’ guitarist), Adriano Pratissoli (‘By All Means’ drummer), ‘Spino’ (bassist of ‘Mourn’), Giovanni Donadini (‘With Love’ bassist ), etc.

‘Separation’ was a Swedish straight-edge hardcore-punk band (from Umeå) with Axel Stattin (bass), Jonas Lyxzén (drums; ex ‘Abinanda’, later ‘Demon System 13’) and Lars Johan Strömberg (guitar/vocals). José Saxlund (‘Abhinanda’) did the vocals from 1994 to 1996; he wasn’t in the band anymore here – he only sang on the 5th Song CD (recorded Dec ’95 and released on his label Desperate Fight recs). The band came back tot the V.V. the next year (97-03-30)…

‘Separation’ (source ?)

John Brady (bass), Justin Pearson (vocals), José Palafox (drums) and Eric Allen (guitar) were the ‘Swing Kids’ (named after resisting youngsters in nazi Germany). They were from San Diego and played emotional HC. The latter 3 had been in ‘Struggle’. Eric Allen was also in the SxE band ‘Unbroken’; he took his own life in 1998. Justin was running the Three One G (31G) label, that released most of their material (a split-7” with ‘Spanakorzo’ in ’95); though their first 7” appeared on Kidney Room recs (’94). Justin’s new power-violence band ‘The Locust’ came over the next year (97-03-30). Roel Brals made a video available from the ‘Swing Kids’ show here. There’s mention of their gig here in Justin’s (first) book: “We had to play this fest in Belgium with tons of really bad bands…” and there’s also a ‘Swing Kids’ tour-report in the Swedish zine Handbook For The Revolutionaries (see additional post on ‘Swing Kids’).

‘Swing Kids’ – photos by Albert Cheong (1) & Patrick Federli (2+3)

Joris Willekens wrote in his zine Forkboy that ‘With Love’ played unannounced as the last band of the last day but “conquered” anyway, leaving the drum-kit and the stage “deconstructed”. They had a demo out (with another line-up), a split(live)-tape with ‘Concrete’ and a split-7” with ‘Mindless Collision’. “They fit anger and rage in a suit of emotional and tempestuous chaos.”. The band (hailing from the Triviso area) was: Paolo Riscica (guitar), Giovanni Donadini (bass), Nico Vascellari (vocals), Edo(ardo) Rossi (guitar) and Simone Gerardo (drums).

‘With Love’, courtesy of Jakub Dušek

Peter Arthur Claesens, one of the “The Pit’s aficionados performing @ Vort’n Vis”, mentioned that he “once did a solo-act where I danced to the music of Bartok’s first concerto for piano, if I remember well… It was on a kind of international festival on a Sunday-afternoon; I believe it was a Straight-Edge concert.” There’s indeed a guestbook-entry of him on 96-08-18…

Brob

I might be wrong but I’m quite certain this was the first show ‘With Love’ played outside of Italy. We left Italy in a caravan my parents borrowed us (which we returned without a window – smashed it with my hand from the outside to scare one of the others that was sitting inside); somehow trying to convince ourselves that we were going on a European tour. As far as I remember the only show confirmed was in Cesena on the last day of the tour and then there was a show to be confirmed in Switzerland the day before. Basically we left hoping that we were going to convince Bruno to let us play the fest since our demo had gotten some good reviews. When we arrived at Vort’n Vis we were shocked. We’d never seen so many people at a HC show before. Boys and girls coming from all over Europe, tons of records and zines. It truly was an inspiring and motivating experience for us. I don’t remember much of the shows ‘cause we were mostly excited, spending time outside talking to people rather than attending shows. We tried to support all the Italian bands playing that year (I remember that ‘Burning Defeat’ delivered a very intense gig and so did ‘Timebomb’) and I have vivid memories of ‘SaidIWas’: their set was intense and they played a cover of ‘Born Against’ which was a favorite band of mine. Their drummer (that later became their singer) played naked. Bruno told us we could play if there was time left after the last band so we were finally announced by Justin of ‘Swing Kids’ (who were also memorable). We were so excited and so nervous to play that I think the shows exploded with energy and emotions. Stage and drum-kit were both broken. We tried our best to introduce some of the songs in our broken English. To these days this was one of the most memorable shows and experiences of ‘With Love’. After the show we left to continue our tour: ten days off before the show in Switzerland and the one in Cesena [Italy]. While going through my archives I’ve found images of ‘With Love’ doing this show at the Vort’n Vis…

Nico Vascellari

At that time ‘With Love’ had been playing for a year or so, and we had only a demo out and maybe the split 7” with ‘Mindless Collision’. I tried to organise some sort of ‘European tour’ using the contacts that Giulio from Green recs gave me. Obviously there was no internet and I tried to arrange some shows by mail and by telephone. We just wanted to have a holiday and tried to play somewhere. We ended up at the Vort’n Vis and immediately asked Bruno if we could play. (‘Ics’ from ‘Burning Defeat’ helped introduced us and Bruno let us play as the last band after ‘Swing Kids’.) I was surprised because I thought that people would have left after the ‘Swing Kids’ but I remember the place was still packed. It was one of our best shows ever, even if nobody (except the Italians) knew us. I still remember it after more than 20 years. Needless to say that all the other shows we should’ve played on that ‘tour’ got cancelled. We played other 2 shows with Adriano [Pratissoli] (‘By All Means’, ‘Society Of Jesus’, ‘Mourn’, etc.) on drums because our drummer left after this show here to go back home. I don’t remember a lot of the bands that played… I was probably busy checking distros and talking to people. I do remember ‘SaidIWas’ did a great show (also saw them in Italy). I didn’t even see ‘Swing Kids’ because I had to prepare the instruments for our own show. We came back to the Vort’n Vis in 2000 [2000-08-18&19&20]…

Paolo Riscica

I was there on Sunday. My friends told me you, Brob, left on Saturday…

Albert Cheong, Barcelona

One of the best shows I saw at the V.V.: ‘Swing Kids’

Cathy Bennett

I was there with Daniel Eberharter and Melanie Friedl (Smart Cookies Collective), also Birgit came with us! I can remember that I enjoyed the bands and the ‘Swing Kids’… I thought that ‘Swing Kids’ were playing naked then but it could also have been another band [Brob: It was ‘Saidiwas’.] at that festival…. Memories fade…

Manuel Harand

I was at the “Ieperfest” in ‘96 (and also in’97). I remember ‘96 very well indeed because it was such a special time, a great line-up and much fun for me and my travelling-party from Vienna. we were loads of people, all sleeping inside the Vort’n Vis too. I have quite a few photos: they’re all on film of course and but haven’t scanned them all yet, it’s a task to do all of that…

Daniel Eberharter

During ‘Swing Kids’s set Joeri Hoste was standing upfront, next to Jürgen Desmet. I can’t remember where I was standing. I saw back them again in Hamburg in 2011. With another guitarist, the original one died. José was one of themost fantastic drummers in HC/punk-land; the only one that can play the ‘swing’ rhythm. Justin remembered this painful concert in Ieper, they split right after. The guys are embarrassed for their behaviour then: they had a raw.

Peter Puype

‘Stampin’ Ground’ was basically inspired into life when we had a night off during the 1994 ‘Decadence Within’ Polish tour and we took a trip across to Leipzig to see ‘Snapcase’, ‘Earth Crisis’ and ‘Refused’… What a show! We knew we wanted to do something much more heavy and intense than ‘D.W.’ that very night!

Ian Glasper

Vique Martin stepped in and really helped save what was, for a variety of reasons, a poorly planned tour for us… And along the way, she snapped quite a few photos. I made some friends there who I am still in contact with today and although it was probably the best show we played of the entire trip, the thing that stands out the most for me is meeting those friends…and there are a couple of others with whom I wish I had not lost contact.

John Brady, ‘Swing Kids’ bassist

My friends Andrea Marra [bass] and Cristiano ‘Orco’ Fini [guitar] (also ‘Concrete’) played for ‘Bruma’… They sucked if you ask me. Eva Falomi was the singer and as far as I can remember there was another girl playing probably second guitar, not so sure about it. I think ‘Concrete’ played probably the same year ‘Comrades’ did [1995]. I do remember Bruno wanted an Italian invasion there for a couple of years…

Paolo Petralia, SOA recs (Rome)

‘Bruma’ was Eva on vocals, Cristiano (‘Concrete’, ‘Comrades’) on guitar, Andrea (‘Comrades’, ‘Anti You’) on bass, Valerio on drums and Olga on second guitar. My band ‘This Side Up’ and ‘Bruma’ toured together in 1996… This here was probably their only appearance outside Italy (in addition to the tour). I think the band disbanded very shortly after our European tour…

Dario Adamic, Zips & Chains zine

Going to the festival (I was the only driver) we totally broke the engine of our car 1.000 km away from Rome, so it seemd like the festival was over for us. But then…

Valerio Borgianelli, drummer of ‘Bruma’

Miss going to the Vort’n Vis fests, sleeping outside by the canal, fun times!

Axel Stattin, ‘Separation’ bassist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

2000-08-18&19&20 Ieperfest

From the www… >>The Vort’n Vis Festival is one of the biggest underground fests in Europe and can be found in Ieper. It exists a long time already, I think from the eighties. It used to be in the club called Vort’n Vis but since two years it has become an open-air festival at the music-school. The fest offers us a lot of styles of hardcore like old school, NYHC, emo, more metal stuff; and combines big names with lesser known names. The big names this year were Ensign, Good Clean Fun, Stigmata, Grade and As Friends Rust. Convinced, Walls Of Jericho, Out For Blood and Shai Hulud were bands listed on the bill but who couldn’t show up in the end, pity… The weather on this year’s fest really sucked, lotsa rain… But that couldn’t stop the fun. The atmosphere on the fest was good but not as good as last years. There were no fights or something but some people seemed to enjoy fucking things up at the camping. A lot of people showed up. They told me almost 1.500 people on Friday, about 1.700 on Saturday and the same for Sunday. Also a lot of people decided to stay on the camping.<< (author unknown)

Programme (full posts with photos of some bands can be accessed by clicking…):

Friday 18 August: Ensign (USA), Voorhees (UK), Reiziger (Bel), Out For Blood (Bel), Serene (Swe), Cast In Fire (USA), Building (Bel), January Star (Ger), Cataract (Swi), Lvmen (Cze), With Love (Ita), With Love (Ita), Ariel Kill Him (Swe), AmenRa (Bel)

Saturday 19 August: Grade (Can), Good Clean Fun (USA), Leiah (Swe) Sad Origin (Bel), Firestone (Bel), Withdrawn/Evanesce (UK), Knut (Swi), Born From Pain (Nl), Point Of No Return (Bra), Negate (Bel), Dawncore (Hun), Circle (Bel), Posession (Spa), 5 Day GetAway (Bel)

Sunday 20 August: As Friends Rust (USA), Walls Of Jericho (USA), Stigmata (USA), Length Of Time (Bel), Reveal (Nl), Standing Tall (USA), One Fine Day (Ita), Children Of Fall (Swe), Purification (Ita), Chispa (Ger), Inane (Ger), Course Of Action (Bel), Oil (Nl), Bobby Peru (Ger), Severance (Bel)

At least one critical visiter… “What are we all doing ???” ;-)

Some shots of the crowd & distro-stalls (source unknown):

An Caers & Nico Peeters (Day One distribution)

The ‘shit-workers’ in the shadow:

96-08-16&17&18 Hardcore, The Next Generation

pre-posters

Right before this fest Stephane Boens (74-04-17 * 96-08-06) a.k.a. The Famous Vegan (a friend of some collaborators at the V.V.) passed away…

photo: Roel Brals

This trend that had silently been creeping in during previous years (commercialism, violent/sexist/homophobic attitudes) got even more established here. Earlier in ’96, I had been isolated, denigrated and vilified because of my criticisms (by the H8000 buisnessmen and their disciples). For many I wasn’t wellcome but I tried to be one of the few who offered radical/political literature, and went over to explain to those who wanted to listen and support my few remaing friends. This here below shows there were also still a few people trying to get (part of the) message across…

someone from The NL in Yann Boislève’s SxE Bulletin #20

It was the last time I attended… I refused to pay entrance and hardly saw any of the bands. I believe this was the programme (but some might have been added):

96-08-16: Firestone (Bel), Facedown (Bel), Vitality (Bel), Outrage (Bel), Victims Of Society (Bel), Down For The Count (Spa), Liar (Bel), Spawn (Ger), Unborn (UK)

96-08-17: Voices At The Front (Bel), Kindred (Bel), Sektor (Bel), Saidiwas (Swe), Regression (Bel), Timebomb (Ita), Burning Defeat (Ita), Congress (Bel), Racial Abuse (Öst), Despair (USA)

96-08-18: Spineless (Bel), Resist The Pain (Bel), Stampin’ Ground (UK), Vanilla (Fra), Approach To Concrete (Ger), Bruma (Ita), Separation (Swe), Swing Kids (USA), With Love (Ita)

the marketplace… :-(

courtesy of Karel Deweerdt (Wim ‘Blindfold’ & UJ ‘Liar’ on the left)

photo by Joeri Hoste (central: Eric Allen, Marco Walzel, Justin Pearson)

the international crowd… :-)

even the local girl-scouts visited…

…and a little British kitten named Vique… (photo courtesy of Joeri Hoste)

photos by Sergi E. Costa (unless where otherwise mentioned)

There were people from all over but there was especially an Italian invasion… Quite a few bands from there played and some people who were in Italian bands that didn’t play also came over. One of them was Federico Oddone (ex ‘Maze’), the guitarist of ‘Sottopressione’ (from Milano). In that band he played together with ‘Diste’ Andrea Di Stefano (bass), ‘Kuku’ (drums; replaced Mauro Dossi ex ‘Crash Box’) and Mayo Maggiore (vocals). The band released a 7” through Mele Marce recs and 3 albums on Rudy Medea’s Vacation House recs. Federico wrote this entry in the guestbook:

Veganism was a big issue too… Animal Truth zine (by Cindy Frey & An Lehaen) a reference…

additions wellcome!…