Rock Werchter
Rock Werchter might be called the biggest festival in Belgium.. maybe even has been selected as best festival in Europe it sure lost its taste in programming the good bands. Yet, while Rock Werchter might probably the most comercial festival here in Belgium, i still am goin there. Cause it has a few good bands, and of course, just to be away with my gf, be on the camping, be out with friends, drink, have fun, and get to know new bands!!
I remember starting to blog a year ago and wrote down a sumary of my Rock Werchter 2005 here. But lets move on to 2006 and stop living in the past!
OH okey! LIVE IN THE PAST! LIVE IN THE PAST…
Heh, how cool is that.. in englisch.. do i mean live (as in live your life) or as live (as in not recorded, but live)……(i sure dont mean the band!)
Lets take a look at my Rock Werchter past before we jump into the future :
My first festival i went to (big festival) at the age of 15 was Rock Torhout. Now what has that to do with Rock Werchter? Well, it used to be called TW… and the festival named: TorhoutWerchter. It was one weekend, and on friday/saterday the bands played in Torhout (very close to my home) and on saterday/sunday the same bands played in Werchter (not so close to my home!). Anyway, Torhout died a sudden death, and Werchter became the biggest festival in Belgium! But before that happened, i was able to go twice to the Rock Torhout one!
1997
Osdorp Posse opend this festival and was followed by:
| Silverchair | Placebo |
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Skunk Anansie started and at the same time it started to rain, yet, i wont forget her show, it rocked like hell (sorry, no pictures)
| Paul Weller | 16 Horsepower | Rollins Band | Daft Punk |
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David Bowie closed the festival. (No pictures of that)
Thats what i saw on the friday. I wasnt able to go two days then, had to do a vacationjob on saterday
And by that missed one of the last performances of Channel Zero, people that where there, still talk about that legendary concert!
1998
ABN - Eagle-eye Cherrry - Junkie XL - Hooverphonic - Moby - The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Pulp - Underworld
This was the last year for Rock Torhout.
Then i did a lot of other (better at that time) festivals like Pukkelpop and Graspop - Go check out my DATES, i have updated them with all festival i done in the past 
…..
I returned a first time to Rock Werchter in
2001
on my own to see just this few great bands, and then left again…:
It was a friday:
| Feeder | Queens of the stone age | Deftones | Tool |
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(saw the beginning of Fun Lovin’ Criminals but had to catch my train back home!) The next time i went to Werchter was in
2003
Krezip - ‘t Hof van Commerce - Stone Sour - Millionaire - X-Zibit - Anouk - Queens of the Stone Age - Arno - Metallica (saterday)
2004
| Black Rebel Motorcycle Club | Monster Magnet | Dropkick Murphys |
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| The Darkness | Korn | Metallica |
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2005
(Friday)
| Velvet Revolver | Green Day |
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(Saterday)
| Therapy? | Pennywise | ‘t Hof Van Commerce |
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| Audioslave | Nine Inch Nails | Millionaire |
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(Sunday)
| Feeder | Eagles of Death Metal | Queens of the Stone Age | Foo Fighters | Arno and a bit REM |
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no pics |
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All pictures are copyright from there respective website.
Most pictures (werchter last years) are copyrighted www.proximusgoformusic.be
I tried to post as much pictures i could from the bassplayers of each band.. but couldnt find them all. Its nice to see some of them back
[To Be Continued….]
June 26th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Damn Tom, that seems like an awesome festival! You’ve seen some bitchin’ bands there, to be sure. Of course, we all expect a comprehensive, in-depth photo-essay of this year’s Rock Werchter on this blog sometime in the near future.
June 26th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
hey alex, Thats what i intended
But expect a runner up soon… cause this post said [To Be Continued …]
:D
June 26th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
Wow, brings back memories… (being a fulltime Torhout-resident untill 2003…) and f*?king cleaning up after you guys left! No, really, I spent two summers cleaning the festival area, something like a summerjob. No fun!!! On the contrary, I clearly remember the annual waves of sound/noise vibrating over our house when the wind was coming from the right direction. The thrill it brought me as a little child,… incredible. My first Rock Torhout (I mean as a present ‘rocker to be’) was the year Channel Zero opened the festival (instead of Live, if I remember correctly) and BodyCount was next… impressive, especially the way Ice-T threw his mic-stand into the crowd after the first verse. I also clearly remember the gigs of Spearhead, Beck, The Cure, The Prodigy (bollocks!), Therapy? (4x?), Henry Rollins… but don’t ask me what year. That’s kind of a blur…
June 27th, 2006 at 8:02 am
I know the first year i went, in 1997 channel zero opend the saterday, but i know they had been there a couple years before too.. and probably with body count then. Thats prob in 1995…
June 28th, 2006 at 5:43 am
I like the Celtics jersey the dude from the Dropkick Murphys is wearing; just wanted to point that out.
June 28th, 2006 at 7:57 am
:P
June 28th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
Been there a few times: Rock torhout 1997: with highlights such as: Silverchair, Henry Rollings, Muse, Channel Zero (at 11 in the morning they were awesome!), David Bowie, Skunk Anansie: You know it was a crazy year, the field of Torhout is a natural theater, I mean, it’s on a hill so you could always see the stage. That year It was very bad weather, rain rain rain, Henry Rollings had his babysuit on and people were throwing big chunks of mudd to this hero, much to his delight! Skin was having a great time, I’ll never forget: she said: ‘ Finally the weather is getting better, how nice in the sun’ and on that moment right behind the main stage a lightning struck some miles after the stage! That was incredible!
In 2000 I was forced to give up my boycot of the new Rock Werchter, without Torhout! Pearl Jam was announced: I mean that was how close you could get to Nirvana, next to the fantastic foos. We went down there: crappy field, crappy people, crappy festival… Saw Live two times, they sucked that much. The only highlights that year were Muse and 9 inch nails; and Bush they were as always AWESOME. We played on the main field with my band then E-Lies for about 50000 people, that was a cool experience too. But I couldn’t really say I loved Werchter that year because Pearl Jam cancelled after their Roskilde experience a few days before that. Pearl Jam still has to come for the first time to Belgium after all these years… Shame! Now they are coming to Sportpaleis in Antwerp in august.
In 2005 we went back to see Qotsa, Foo Fighters and Eagles of Death Metal on sunday only: I never had this much fun at werchter but now it was great: one day of fun! So we decided to go only on thursday this year ’cause it’s the only good day: tool, deftones, red hot chilli peppers…
Tom: als je wil bij ons staan, we gaan donderdagvroeg door en gaan op A3 staan bij Tommy normaal, dus laat iets weten dan houden we plaats!
have fun!
June 28th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
ah, blijven jullie toch op de camping? dacht dat jullie niet bleven slapen…
Daardoor hebben we nu al afgesproken met een vriendin van lien.. wat welliswaar nie verplicht is…
Weet je nu al op welke camping je gaat staan? Niet kiezen voor de dichtsten ofzo?
Hum hum, denk dak anders vanavond nog eens bel naar je.. als je vroeger gaat dan wij..; (wij gaan denkek de trein nemen van ofwel 20voor 8 ofwel 20voor9) dan kun je plaats houden misschien.. kbel vanavond nog!
Yep, that 1997 year was awesome! I didnt know you yet back then
And i was there too with Skunk Anansie, i remember the lightning and the slow coming forwarths of the rain.. the people two rows infront of us where wet already.. and the rain came closer and closer
I also remember Henry Rolling shouting to us that we where digging a hole so deep (when some people where trowing mud on stage) that we would reach hell soon. We all start shouting back “Liar” .. but i think some of us made him too mad..
Skin came on stage to dry his face from the mud and gave a kiss on his forehead! He played his show and left stage, never played LIAR