News 2004

25/12/2004	A fuckin' happy X-mas everybody, today it's 23 years ago that I formed this band !
17/12/2004	Tomorrow you'll find us again at the local christmas market in Schuiferskapelle with my own home-made liquor. See you there !
14/12/2004	Probably our last gig of 2004 took place in JH Zjuzjup in Wakken. It was a very nice youthpub filled wih a lot of people. The beer was OK, the bartenders were friendly, and the bands on the bill were Yellow Teeth and The Thirsty Scums. However, not that much people in the pub were interested in either of both bands. I think we'll have to return here to teach 'em right.
18/11/2004	The "Blanc Bleu Belge"-compilation is finally released. Its price is 12 €, it features 18 actual Belgian punkbands and the CD is of course for sale from our mailorder.
05/11/2004	Although there were less people than expected, this was still a great festival at Roeselare last weekend. Watch pictures of The Dirty Scums, other bands Paranoiacs and Yellow Teeth and of course the girlz.
30/10/2004	There's more news on the Walloonish "Blanc Bleu Belge"-compilation. It will definitely be released in November. There will also be a series of gigs featuring all the bands of the CD. The first festival is on 12 and 13 November, where 5 bands of the 19 will play, completed with 4 other bands. The gigs will take place at Gerpinnes in the "Salle des Guichoux" and both days will start at 6.30 pm.
27/10/2004	John Peel from whom every punk remembers his famous Peel Sessions of early punkbands, died yesterday at the age of 65. He had a heart-attack while he was on holidays in Peru. We never had the chance to do a session for him but the title of our "The Pils Sessions"-album is no less than an homage to the real Peel Sessions.
24/10/2004	I'm tired and thirsty. Yesterday morning it was late after the Zulte-gig and in the evening I had to be ready again to go out all night with this lady.
23/10/2004	The gigs yesterday in Zulte were not 100 % (but still 95 %), due to several things like not enough light on stage, something wrong with the sound, a bit of a cold, Maes-beer, and - you have to face it guys - a bit of a lazy crowd too. But we didn't really care, there were friends and girls and beer and we played more than all of the songs.
20/10/2004	Yesterday we had a 5 minute interview on local Radio Tequila concerning the gig of this Saturday and the release of the new and first Thirsty Scums-CD. Afterwards we had a thirsty 5 hour drink with organizers Dardo & Roel. In the near future we're planning to add in the Interviews-sexion all the past radio-interviews we can get a hold on.
02/10/2004	Second gig in a row that's cancelled. After everything was arranged to invite the oldest Belgian punkband around, the people of De Mix in Lotenhulle pretend that they found out that they do not have punklovers in their pub ...
02/10/2004	We went to see the Scurmies and Capital Scum yesterday. The Scurmies are one of the four bands of local punkhero Super. The guitar player's T-shirt was a Dirty Scums-one, so it may not sound as a surprise that we love this band. Capital Scum used to be companions of the eighties scene. They split up at the end of the eighties but have resurrected not that long ago. On the question on what they have been doin' during the last 15 years, they replied they had made some children. Anyway, the gig was great, watch the pictures.
25/09/2004	The 20-page booklet of our "Black leather, knee-hole pants"-CD will be adapted and will mention the dead of Johnny Ramone. A 100 copies have been distributed without this addendum.
21/09/2004	The gigs that will take place on 01/10 in JH De Splinter in Roosdaal will be without the Thirsties. One of the organizers prefers to play with his own band: the Scurmies. It's the intention to have an extended party afterwards, so two bands (the other being Capital Scum) will be enough. Although we don't have to play, we will be present ! Whole lotta Scum !
20/09/2004	Four days after the release of our Ramones-Tribute, Johnny died, but three days thereafter at "Aalst Rockt" we could see Marky in pretty good shape with the Misfits. Watch the pictures of the other bands.
16/09/2004	Damned. Damned ! Damned ... Three months ago, the news was spread that Johnny Ramone was "fighting a losing battle with cancer". I guess everybody has heard the sad news today that Johnny passed away yesterday. Of course our newly released Tribute-CD - which sleevenotes state "in memory of Ramones, Joey Ramone and Dee Dee Ramone" - needs also to be dedicated to Johnny Ramone. Here is what the offical Ramones-site says. "Our dear friend Johnny has died. May he rest in peace. Johnny passed away on Wednesday, September 15 at 3:03 pm at his home in Los Angeles, California. We are immensely saddened by this terrible loss. Johnny contributed in many ways to the success and greatness of the Ramones. But it was his strength and guidance, which made everybody else's work come to an effective completion, that made him the group's center of gravity, providing the balance and stability that kept the band, its support crew, and the entire Ramones organization together and in rocking shape. Johnny's strength came from his character, rich in decency and honesty. His sense of fairness and his strategies always pointed towards the benefit of the Ramones and their fans as an inseparable unit. In this moment of tragedy and darkness, let us find solace, and a cure to our pain, in the knowledge that Johnny accomplished to the limit his life's aspirations, and in the process he made ours seem possible. Hail ! Johnny Ramone. Hail to the chief."
15/09/2004	The home-gig in Schuiferskapelle (satellite town of Tielt) with The Thirsty Scums last Saturday was great ! The gig and the new CD were both very very well appreciated. Buy it while you still can !
10/09/2004	The CD from The Thirsty Scums is ready and it looks great !! You can order the CD from now on directly from our mailorder (or simply by mail). The CD is accompanied by a 20-page booklet and there are about 80 pictures in it, not only from The Thirsty Scums but also from fans and girlz and so. If you don't agree having your picture in the booklet, please lodge an official complaint, the more publicity it gets, the better ! Not all info is already available on the site, but you can start e.g. with reading the pressreport.
06/09/2004	Last Saturday we gigged with The Dirty Scums and with The Thirsty Scums in the pub "De Beiaard" in Poperinge. Good fun and friendly people, sadly the batteries of our camera ran out, so this time you'll miss a lot of girlz-pictures. Of course you can go and visit this pub for yourself. You should like "Maes"-pils and don't forget to salute the people there from us.
03/09/2004	The Punx PicNic in Ieper that was planned for this month will NOT take place this year. Last year already it was a kind of a flop. The organizer promised to do better for this year's issue (where The Dirty Scums would perform as one of the headliners) but things seem to be changed.
03/09/2004	I promised you beers after my return, well here you have 'em ! Cheers !
21/08/2004	Monday I'm gonna quit this place for some holiday. As a result, the site will not be updated during at least a week, also the mail will not be answered. After this week, I guarantee that our beer-sexion will be fully updated.
20/08/2004	More news on the forthcoming first CD of The Thirsty Scums ! The title will be "Black leather, knee-hole pants" and it will be released on Dirty Records on 11 September. There will be 31 songs on it: 19 as a tribute to the Ramones and another 12 as a tribute to Sham 69. It's not our intention to become rich, so the CD will again cost only 10 €, a quarter of this amount even goes to Sabam. The release will be celebrated in Schuiferskapelle on 11 September and during September and October there will be 3 other dates on which the CD will be represented, see the gigs-sexion. Soon you'll find a press report on this site.
20/08/2004	More news on the new Ramones-tribute-compilation, the 4th Ramones-Tribute already on which we will appear. There will be more than 25 bands on this one, Belgium will be represented with our old tour-companions MiseenScene and with The Thirsty Scums. MeS will cover "I wanna live" and TTS will play "Suzy is a headbanger". The CD will be released on the German ShockRecords-label. Releasedate was originally meant to be September, but will probably be released a bit later.
16/08/2004	There's more news on the compilation CD from the southern French-speaking part of Belgium that we already talked about. As said earlier, it will contain songs that deal the ill-treatment of animals. The title will be "Blanc, Bleu, Belge" (referring to our Belgian cows) and the CD will be released in September. Following bands will appear on it: Abject, Allis, Anti Ro, Atomic Leaf, Chump, Far to Close, Gaz Devil, Les Fous du Roi, One Foot Smith, O Pao, Skarbone 14, State of Nature, Sun Power, The Bobs, The Dirty Nails, The Dirty Scums, Tod Pole, Usual Suspect, Vortex. All these bands would have played this Saturday at an open air festival in Dinant, but due to problems with the local government, the festival will be postponed till at least October.
04/08/2004	Another fine weekend behind the back that started with a gig at the Carlito-pub in Tielt. This was our 21st gig in Tielt and the 1st time at this place. It was a great evening with also 2 other bands. Jaded I is a stonerrockband from Tielt that features 2 members of the late No Numbers (that other 80's punkband from Tielt). The 2nd band - Dandare - came from the Netherlands, and made me think a lot at Lärm, once again an 80's band, and also from the Netherlands. I guess you know by now the way to the pictures of The Dirty Scums, the girlz, the boyz and the other bands.
24/07/2004	Great fun last Saturday at Birthday Rock in JH De Splinter in Roosdaal: we played good, the other bands played good, there were a lot of friends and pretty girls, and there was a lot of beer to consume. Great evening, thank you guys and ladies ! Watch the pictures in all the different sexions: The Dirty Scums, the girlz, the boyz and the other bands.
03/07/2004	Ever seen someone playin' the blues on a Flyin' V-guitar ? Well I did, it was Willy Punk, guitar-player in early punkband Stagebeast, after that in Revenge '88, and thereafter in Belgium's best rockband the Scabs. I visited a concert of his band Willy Willy and the Voodoo Band (yeah, after his punkperiod he changed his name in Willy Willy). You should like the blues, but that's no real problem for me, 'cause I do.
28/06/2004	If everything goes well, from September on there will be released 3 compilation-albums on which you'll find The Dirty Scums: An international Tribute to the Ramones (to be released on a German label) A Belgian compilation-album with a selexion of songs dealing the ill-treatment of animals (to be released on a Walloonish label) A compilation of all the bands that played in December last year at the WorldRecord Punk in Venlo (NLD), we however have no much news about this album.
25/06/2004	This week we mastered the songs for the forthcoming first album of The Thirsty Scums. There will be 19 songs on it in a Tribute to the Ramones, and it will contain another 12 bonus-trax. Release-date will be the 11th of September. I know there's something shaky with this date 09/11, what was it again ?
17/06/2004	Sad, sad, sad news ... LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- The guitarist with pioneering punk rock band the Ramones is fighting a losing battle with cancer in a Los Angeles hospital, Rolling Stone magazine reported on its Web site on Tuesday. Johnny Ramone, 55, whose real name is John Cummings, was diagnosed with prostate cancer four years ago, and it has now spread throughout his body, Rollingstone.com quoted the band's drummer, Marky Ramone, as saying. "Johnny's been a champ in confronting this, but at this point I think the chances are slim," Marky Ramone said in the report. "John never smoked cigarettes, he wasn't a heavy drinker and he was always into his health. It just proves when cancer seeks a body to penetrate, it doesn't matter how healthy you are or how unhealthy you are. It just seeps in and there's nothing you can do." The Ramones, famed for playing their high-energy, unpolished songs at breakneck speed, rose to fame in New York City in 1974, paving the way for such British punk rock icons as the Sex Pistols and the Clash. The band made its mark with such tunes as "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" and "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker," but it never achieved the same commercial success as acts that followed in its path. The Ramones officially retired in 1996. The band's singer, Joey Ramone (ne Jeff Hyman), died in 2001 of lymphatic cancer, while bassist Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Colvin) died from a drug overdose the following year.
14/06/2004	There's a new item in the SceneReports-sexion: a list of Belgian fanzines.
13/06/2004	We added 9 MP3-files of songs that appeared only on tape, so there's now a total of 35 MP3-songs on the site ! You can find them by starting for instance here.
03/06/2004	About a week ago we had a gig in a sportschool in Meulebeke. The day after I was invited at a marriage, the day after that we had a party in our family and the day thereafter there was that family-excursion with the cycling club I'm a member of. So it took a while before you could find me back on the net. Anyway, it was already the third time we played in a school and it's always fun playin' for students. I thought sportpeople didn't drink that much alcohol but they all longed for the beers we had brought along ! Once the beers in the schoolhouse emptied, we paid another visit to the nearby pub "Heaven's Door" of old rock'n'roll-buddy Larry.
24/05/2004	Saturday we went to Herent to see perform 3 great bands: Lunatic Society (BEL), Antidote (NLD) and GBH (GBR). The entrance of 13 euro for 3 bands was already pretty expensive but sellin' normal beers at a price of 1,5 euro is way too expensive. When the first band started, a very lousy sound filled the venue (the backing-vocals were louder than the lead-vocals and the drums were louder than the guitars) and there was a minimal light equipment (2 times 4 spots). It seemed like we punx were exploited once again. For some reason (probably the 3 leadvocals and the 2 guitars) the sound of second band Antidote was better. However I was glad to have seen this 3 bands once again, who - despite the shitty sound they had to put up with - never gave up doin' their very best to play a good gig. Of course you'll find new pictures in the pictures-sexion.
10/05/2004	We finished our recordings of The Thirsty Scums yesterday with the mix of all the stuff. Arjan had already prepared everything, so it was OK to start only at 11.30 am. We took all the time we needed to get a decent sound, and in the evening we were really a bit of euphoric with the great result. However, at home, after havin' played two songs on the stereo, I was immediately down to earth with this first reaxion - of the wife: "do you really think people will buy this ?" ...
03/05/2004	Yesterday we had our second studio-day. Arrived there at 9.30 am, started recording at 10 am the remaing leadvocals and finished them at exactly noon. As things went well, we immediately started to record the backing-vocals, took a pause between 1 and 2 pm and finished these backings an hour later. For the rest of the day we listened to the Ramones-songs we recorded, completed the backing-vocals with some ooh- and aah-stuff, ate some spaghetti, argued at least an hour on the backing-vocals of one track (and finished by deleting them), looked at the pretty girlfriend of engineer Arjan, put all the gear back in the van, did a premix in order to take the recorded things with us (to prove the wifes we didn't spend all weekend in the pub, huh), and arrived in time at my habitual pub to be served for the rest of the day and half of the night by this topless lady, watch her here (go to the bottom). Despite my headache now, I however think I have a great weekend behind the back ! Next rendez-vous for the final mix will take place this Sunday.
01/05/2004	As announced earlier, this morning we started recording some stuff from The Thirsty Scums. We had choosen for the Barefoot Studio in our hometown Tielt. This is in fact an euphemism for owner Arjan's bedroom annex bathroom, which is however equipped with professional material. As we didn't have much road to travel we arrived there at 9 am and after soundchecking all our gear we started recording at 11 am. One hour and a half later all of the 19 songs were recorded and we took a pause till 1.30 pm. Then we spent some time listening to the things we recorded, played a new take of 2 of the songs and put a second guitar on the whole bunch till we paused again at 4.30 pm. One hour later we started to record the lead-vocals but because of my cold we stopped after 12 songs. It's now 9 pm and we just arrived home. I'm gonna drink some Trappist beers now, I think I've deserved it !
24/04/2004	Next weekend, 1st and 2nd of May, for the first time in their lives The Thirsty Scums will hit the studio. ALL Ramones-songs we cover will be recorded and will be released on CD later on. Title is yet unknown, release date will probably be September.
13/04/2004	Last Saturday we had a very amusin' evenin' in Moorsele, where a PunkFest took place which we opened for the occasion. Pictures from the Scums can be found here, pictures from the other bands Lunatic Society and Unite Against Society can be found here. Also the girls-page has new pictures.
12/04/2004	Friday we went to see McBee's Brewery. This is a 7-piece band playin' Irish folk and featurin' nothin' less than all the original guys of the late Game Over, extended with three other members. Search the pictures here and try to recognize our two Game Over-colleagues.
03/04/2004	I went to Brussels yesterday in order to to see some old bastards play: Raxola (1 original member, playin' only 7 songs, kind of disappointing in fact), the Kids (great of course) and Brian James with his band (I don't know exactly what I have to think of this gig).
28/03/2004	Yesterday evening I went to see the Kids in our own fuckin' hometown Tielt. I know it's hard to believe but the organisation voluntarily choose NOT to put Belgium's two oldest punkbands on the same bill: what a missed opportunity ! Instead we saw this stonerrockband "Jaded I", 6 months old and featuring two ex-members of No Numbers, our hometown companian punkband from the eighties. By the way, this guy is a fan of "Jaded I". The Kids were, as usual, very good as only our Belgian Kids can be.
27/03/2004	It's possible that you experience temporarily some problems with the site. I changed the PIII/733 on which I'm developing for a PIV/2600. The operating system is now Windows XP instead of Windows 2000 and FrontPage is now version 2002 instead of version 2000. Enough changes I suppose in order to expect some problems ...
22/03/2004	Finally I got a report ready from The Final Show of The Thirsty Scene Tour in Hooglede of last week, read it here.
16/03/2004	In order to make a decent report, I'm still tryin' to put the pieces together of what I find back in my memory from our last weekend-adventures. In the mean time you can already watch some pictures from the gig in Hooglede. Don't forget to look at the girls and the boys too.
09/03/2004	Last Saturday we had the first edition of the Wasted PunkFestival (ex-Holidays in the Sun) in Belgium. The oldest Belgian punkband was not on the scene, but we were present in the venue. Apart from the bands and the beer, there were also a lot of pretty girls, watch them here.
26/02/2004	Twenty years ago, we had our own fanzine "De Waarheid is Revolutionair". Recently I rediscovered the three issues and each of them contains a gig report that still wasn't published on this website. Now you can read about the AntiFeesten of 1984 in Gent, about the punkweekend in the summer of 1984 in Lichtervelde, and about one of the RukRally-events of 1985 in Wevelgem. Don't forget you can consult all the published gig reports (about 70 up till now) by browsing through our complete giglist.
19/02/2004	Thanx to this thing called cache, I was able to recuperate the last six entries of our previous guestbook, better than nothin', uhn ?
17/02/2004	There's a new press report available concernin' The Final Show of The Thirsty Scene Tour. Read it here.
16/02/2004	As you might have read in the report of our last gig, Zjantie started to have some trouble with one of his feet that day. Today he starts his second week with his right foot in a thick plaster bandage. With a bit of luck it will be the last week. I assure you it's not evident to rehearse like this.
12/02/2004	A great opportunity on eBay: there's a copy available of our "Really High"-EP, released in 1992 on the German "Incognito Records"-label on a limited edition of 333 copies, from which only 100 copies were available for Belgium. Find it here !
11/02/2004	Our new guestbook is online and should be working. Please use it, you know we always appreciate this !
09/02/2004	Our first gig of the year and the last one of The Thirsty Scene Tour took place Saturday in Dentergem, as usual you can read our report here.
06/02/2004	In order to have better access for WAP-ers, I changed some internal things on the site. WAP-comments are always wellcome: thedirtyscums@yahoo.com.
05/02/2004	Again we experience problems accessing our guestbook. Indeed again, because this is already the second guestbook we use. I'm thinking of writing a new guestbook myself, then we're also rid of this fuckin' publicity on the guestpage. In the mean time when you want to write us something, our mailaddress is still thedirtyscums@yahoo.com.
17/01/2004	We supplied all the MP3-songs on our site with an ID3V2-tag, which is way more extensive than the ID3V1-tag we used before. If your MP3-player can decode V2, now you can read e.g. the lyrix while you're listenin' to a song. MP3's are stored in the Audio-sexion of each of our releases, you can start for instance here.
16/01/2004	Another one bites the dust: the 8 Flemish music shops called Musikladen - with its headquarters in our hometown Tielt - are adjudged bankrupt by December 2003. So there's not only 8 Belgian shops less where you can find our stuff, in our hometown Tielt there's now even no CD-store at all anymore. Look here for other Belgian CD-shops where you can find us.
08/01/2004	One thing that will change this year: our PO-box. We have one since 1983 or 1984, but we'll stop hirin' our PO-box by 30/06/2004. Thus, please note: things that you send to The Dirty Scums - PostBus 16 - B - 8700 Tielt after 30/06/2004 will be returned to sender. Please use the address you'll find on our startpage.
07/01/2004	Yesterday we reached the number of 10.000 visitors since we started this site on 01/06/2002.
06/01/2004	Happy NewYear everybody ! We're in the middle of several X-mas & NewYear's parties, so things are a bit slowed down for the moment. We have plenty of new plans for 2004, which we'll publish when the time is right.