As some of you already might know, here in Belgium we got some bands which seem to be pretty well-known all over the world, but I’m not speaking about underground bands.

Anyway, these bands I am talking about are supported and pumped up by some individuals who only care about hard cash, and their own egocentric showbizz-world.

Here in Belgium, there are tons of festivals during the summerdays. I also organize an open-air-festival called WEE LAWAAT which takes place (mostly) every year in a town called Zichem. This fest is based on the DO IT YOURSELF-ethic. Besides this festival, there are also tons of other festivals which do not specialize in extreme art as we do, but which are also based upon fun, respect and creativity. But those individuals I was talking about at the beginning of this statement, are trying to build a commercial monopoly of the festivals. This means that they can fuck up others (little) festivals with their exclusive contracts, big media propaganda/promotion, etc. So the fact is that lots of little Belgian festivals are doomed to break up, because they can’t pay their debts due to the boycotts of these big organizers. Last summer, this situation made me sick because only their bands and their big commercial festivals had good promotion by the Belgian media, etc. And guess what, they are the most expensive festivals here in Belgium. Some Belgian bands –which don’t mean a fuck- have exclusive contracts with these individuals and behave therefore like rock stars. Pathetic. This means that no other Belgian bands can play on these fests and that they’re slogged off to the ground. Hard work and believing in the DO IT YOURSELF-ethic doesn’t mean a shit to them. It’s all centered around hard cash and fame. AG has been together for about 10 years now and we will get slogged off, back stabbed, etc. by the media and organizers of non-underground-organizations. Maybe I can understand this, because we’re still playing MINCE CORE without compromising and kissing asses, but the least we want is some RESPECT. Sometimes ago, we had a big radio-show in Belgium which showed some respect to the Belgian-underground-scene by playing Belgian underground bands like AG and tons more. The guy who did this showed an alternative to the commercial music-bizz by supporting the underground movement on this radio-show. Lately, this person was kicked out (because he wasn’t commercial enough ?) and replaced by one of those big business-men which only play their bands in order to make more bucks on their exclusive gigs. There are tons of underground bands in Belgium which need ALL kind of support, but with this OPERATION LIQUIDATION of the Belgian underground, this seems to be getting harder and harder. For more info about this, just get in touch with me. I’m doing some petitions against this crap and I can give you more info about it. Let’s put an end to this corporate bullshit and fight for respect.