Summer means a couple of things to me.. The sun, not having to wear layers upon layers of clothes, everyone seems happier, smelly tubes, and most importantly, fests.
We are extremely lucky living in London. With budget airlines like Ryanair, we can fly to pretty much anywhere in europe for no more than £40 return. Which means that most people have no excuse to be staying in the country for summer.
So I thought I would give you all a rundown of the biggest and best fests happening around the mainland this year.
The first fest of the season is Pressurefest. Pressurefest is the brainchild of Sascha and the guys at Alveran records and this years line up, by far, is the best line up in its 5 years existance. Held over three days (22-24th June) in an ice hockey rink in Herne in Germany, the fest attracts kids from all over Europe. This year, whilst having amazing bands that are doing the festival circuit, the guys have managed to get a number of exclusive sets including a Sick of it all "fan set" that will be voted for by the fest goers, as well as sets from Shattered Realm, Casey Jones, Have Heart and The Warriors first ever european show. Adding to this, they have put on the cream of the crop in european hardcore, with bands such as Black Friday 29, recently reformed Length Of Time and the UKs very own Knuckledust, Bun Dem Out and Six Ft Ditch.
The fest serves vegan food, there is a swimming pool and a couple of bars 2 mins from the venue and there is also a huge "other" festival happening in Bochum which means that once the day is done, there will be many places for people to spend their nights. Hotels are recommended but there are camping facilities behind the venue.
For more information on this fest and the line up, click on the pressurefest link.
For a video of the last time SOIA played pressurefest, Click Here.
Next up is Ieperfest (24th-26th Aug)
Once a year, the quite belgian town of Ieper gets taken over by over a 1000 hardcore kids.
Organised by Bruno at Genet records, the fest has been going on for well over a decade and has built up a name for itself as one of the best in europe. While the majority of bands that play ieper are hardcore bands, ieper has always prided itself on being a fest that wont shy away from putting on a few emo/punk/metal bands.
Held at a campsite, the fest is the best open air hardcore fest in europe.. every year the line up never fails to disappoint and this year is no exception, with bands such as Madball, Cold As Life, Set Your Goals, Bane and Blacklisted on the bill, as well as Nothing done, Born From Pain, and losing streak repping the euros.
Vegan food is served onsite, there is a huge merch/distro tent to blow all your money on, and as you know, belgian beer is the best in the world.
The organisers hold a pre show the night before at the vort n vis club in ieper which usually showcases the best up and coming bands, and every night there is a club held for all the festival goers. You havent lived till you see around 400 hardcore boys dancing to "its raining men".
My advice to travel to this would be via eurostar, as its the fastest and possibly the cheapest way to get there (a eurostar ticket to belgium is valid to all belgian stations so it will be valid all the way up to ieper). Camping is available on the campsite although there are hotels in ieper town centre which is 2 mins away from the festival site.
For an ieper video, click here.
The final fest of the season is Deadfest (14th- 15th Sept) in sweden. Now, any reason to go to sweden is always good, and its become tradition to end the summer at this fest. This year, it will return to its original home, at the Skylten in Linkoping, the venue is one of best. Deadfest has always been good for not only putting on amazing touring bands, but also showcasing scandinavian bands that generally dont make it as far down as the UK. This years awesome line up includes Die Young, Have Heart, Ceremony, The Boss and a range of awesome bands.
The venue is 5 mins walk from Linkoping town centre where they serve some of the best fallafel on the planet.
Take your sleeping bag, as you can sleep in the venue, but be warned that you will be woken up the crazy frog at 10am by organiser, Chris dead. haha
Also, Gorilla Biscuits are playing the night before the fest in Stolkholm so my advice is fly out to Stolkholm NYO and go to that show first.
(i couldnt find a good video of deadfest.. so here you go.)
Wednesday, 6 June 2007
Thursday, 5 April 2007
VENDETTA INC by Niesh
What is it? who are we?
Vendetta Inc was born in March 2007.
It started off as an idea in my head about a year ago. I talked to scott (of special move) about it. He'd been designing band logos, flyers and cd artwork and together we thought of putting some of his other designs onto tshirts. Pondering it for a little longer, we knew that we wanted Vendetta Inc to be more than just another clothing lable, more than just someone using photoshop to create generic designs with bloodsplatters, knuckledusters, cut throat razor blades and the word "mosh" all over it. We wanted it to be about the art. Later, we asked our good friend and talented tattoo artist Dom Holmes to join the clan. Both tattooed by her and admirers of her work, we knew that she felt similarly and that the three of us could make something worthwhile out of it.
More time passed, nothing really happened...Untill myself and scott went to the EarthxCrisis reunion show whilst on holiday in Baltimore earlier this year. There were the usual that you expect at shows...but there was also food. Stuff that i could eat without having to ask about the ingredients and, more to the point, stuff that i could enjoy! When i came back, i realised that this it was something i'd appreciate at local shows. So, being a dab hand at cooking and baking, i figured that i'd do the same here. Finally, as i've been putting on the odd show in london for about two years, we decided to bung it all together and there you have it!
To sum it up, we're two artists and a promoter- who don't mind cooking every now and then! Essentially, its about putting positive things back into hardcore. Not about bitchin and whinin about new jacks, or how much better your new era is than mine, or similar boring and unhelpful drivel. The name is cheesey as hell and very cliche, but when coming up with it, i thought this, of how much we rely on other people to keep things ticking over and how much negative criticism is thrown about by people who do sweet F A.
We're putting together some of the things that we enjoy and creating something for everyone.
So, if you have questions or would like to know more, feel free to check out our myspace page www.myspace.com/vendetta_inc or email us: vendetta_inc@hotmail.co.uk
We be taking it back in the 07.
Rant No 1 - May
So, the first "column". I appealed and appealed to everyone to write something, but noone would come forward. Generally peoples argument was that they didnt know what to write. This lead me to think that this part of the site would be completely defunct. But screw it. Some people may read this part of the site, some people may not. Someone might actually want to put some view down where everyone else can read it. So im going to start.
In reality, I would love to do a print fanzine, one that people could take home after a show and read on the train journey back. I miss those days. It would be me and ali on the way back from some gig in the arse end of nowhere.. Ali would have bought a bunch of fanzines and we would both read them in silence.
But print fanzines are few and far between these days and websites are easier to make.
I started out London Calling as simply a messageboard. I was working in the payroll department of a hospital doing an extremely boring admin job. Yo London was being closed down, as from what I gathered from the closing down post, the original idea of what it was meant to represent was lost, and people just would go to the messageboard. I set up a free messageboard and alot of the regular posters simply transferred over.. it was a pretty effortless transition, and before long, I was unemployed (again) and found myself wanting to expand the site. After months of trying to find a PHP coder, I gave up and decided to use all the free resources I could and set up something myself. So here it is.
And here is the first thing I am going to rant about.
Im 28 years old. Albeit an extremely immature 28 year old, I am still older than a lot of people that are into hardcore these days (I say a lot, not all). Many people that I was friends with when I first got into hardcore bar a few no longer like hardcore and have moved on in life, due to having other commitments or simply not feeling hardcore anymore. Fair play to them, I say, and good luck with whatever you have going on in your life. The one thing that I cannot stand is when people, when talking about moving on, somewhat pity me for still being here, still doing my thing. Hardcore is still my life. All of my friends, minus about a handful, I met through hardcore. I still get as excited when I discover a band that makes me feel something, as I did when I was 16 years old. The night before a Sick Of It All show, I cant sleep, and when i`m at the show, and the lights go down and the intro kicks in, my heart beats that little bit faster and im grinning from ear to ear.
When Sheep was onstage at the last ever awoken show, he talked of memories being made, and some of my favourite memories in my life have come from hardcore. From my first "real" hardcore show (Biohazard shows, in my opinion, dont count), to this day, I can sit with friends and reminisce about things that have happening in the past and laugh, people that I had met through hardcore, friends that I wouldnt have met any other way.
So please, don't pity me. Im fine where I am and don't plan on going anywhere. I am not saying that I will be into hardcore forever, because that would be an unrealistic statement. But hardcore still makes me happy.
And on a final note, im going to mention something that one of my older and wiser friends said to me a couple of months ago:
"People that have been into hardcore for a long time will go away, do what they want with their life, but will, eventually, return. They will realise that they don't actually fit in anywhere else."
In reality, I would love to do a print fanzine, one that people could take home after a show and read on the train journey back. I miss those days. It would be me and ali on the way back from some gig in the arse end of nowhere.. Ali would have bought a bunch of fanzines and we would both read them in silence.
But print fanzines are few and far between these days and websites are easier to make.
I started out London Calling as simply a messageboard. I was working in the payroll department of a hospital doing an extremely boring admin job. Yo London was being closed down, as from what I gathered from the closing down post, the original idea of what it was meant to represent was lost, and people just would go to the messageboard. I set up a free messageboard and alot of the regular posters simply transferred over.. it was a pretty effortless transition, and before long, I was unemployed (again) and found myself wanting to expand the site. After months of trying to find a PHP coder, I gave up and decided to use all the free resources I could and set up something myself. So here it is.
And here is the first thing I am going to rant about.
Im 28 years old. Albeit an extremely immature 28 year old, I am still older than a lot of people that are into hardcore these days (I say a lot, not all). Many people that I was friends with when I first got into hardcore bar a few no longer like hardcore and have moved on in life, due to having other commitments or simply not feeling hardcore anymore. Fair play to them, I say, and good luck with whatever you have going on in your life. The one thing that I cannot stand is when people, when talking about moving on, somewhat pity me for still being here, still doing my thing. Hardcore is still my life. All of my friends, minus about a handful, I met through hardcore. I still get as excited when I discover a band that makes me feel something, as I did when I was 16 years old. The night before a Sick Of It All show, I cant sleep, and when i`m at the show, and the lights go down and the intro kicks in, my heart beats that little bit faster and im grinning from ear to ear.
When Sheep was onstage at the last ever awoken show, he talked of memories being made, and some of my favourite memories in my life have come from hardcore. From my first "real" hardcore show (Biohazard shows, in my opinion, dont count), to this day, I can sit with friends and reminisce about things that have happening in the past and laugh, people that I had met through hardcore, friends that I wouldnt have met any other way.
So please, don't pity me. Im fine where I am and don't plan on going anywhere. I am not saying that I will be into hardcore forever, because that would be an unrealistic statement. But hardcore still makes me happy.
And on a final note, im going to mention something that one of my older and wiser friends said to me a couple of months ago:
"People that have been into hardcore for a long time will go away, do what they want with their life, but will, eventually, return. They will realise that they don't actually fit in anywhere else."
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