Vitamin X started at the end of 1996 when in the club De Melkweg in Amsterdam Marko Korac, originally coming from Belgrade, Yugoslavia, but who fled to Holland in 1993, was talking to Eric, who worked in De Melkweg, about his wish to start a straight edge band. Eric, who had been playing in some ska- and sixties-bands in the past, but never in any hardcore-band, said he would be interested in playing guitar in that band. Marko brought in a friend from Belgrade, who was also living in Amsterdam, Marko Petrovic (who also was the singer of Soberesponse) to play bass and Eric asked Marc, just like Eric already into straight edge and hardcore from the 80s on, to play drums. Because it turned out Eric and Marc wrote most of the songs, and Marc was a far better guitar player than drummer, very soon Marc switched to guitar, and Johan-X, guitarplayer of Soberesponse, originally coming from Finland but also living in Amsterdam, took over the drums. With this line-up Vitamin X played its first show in the Volta in Amsterdam, at the beginning of 1997.
In May 1997 Vitamin X went into the studio to record 4 songs - one of these songs would been
featured on the 'Return Of The X-Men' compilation-7", that was released as part of a sXe-festival
that took place in Amsterdam, and where Vitamin X was asked to play. The 4 songs were also released
as a split-demo with Soberesponse, that came out in July 1997. After playing some shows, Vitamin X recorded 11 songs in December 1997 and January 1998, at the Sound Enterprise studio of Frans Hagenaars. Seven of these songs were completed and appeared on the debut-7" of Vitamin X, 'Straight Edge Crew', that was released on Commitment Records. The record-release-party, with, besides Vitamin X, X-Men, Reaching Forward, GuidingLine and Oil playing, took place at May 29, 1998. Also in May, Vitamin X finished two more songs of the 7"-recording session, of which one has appeared on a compilation on the Belgian old school label Siton Records.
On September 3, Vitamin played the last show as a five-piece. After that show, Marko the bass-player, who was not sXe anymore, left the band. Marc switched to bass and Vitamin X carried on as a 4-piece. In February 1999 Vitamin X recorded 10 songs for a new 7". After the finishing of the recording, Eric left to live in Spain for some months and Vitamin X decided to ask Floris, guitar player of Soberesponse, to fill in on bass, so Vitamin X could continue to play during Eric's absence, while Marc switched back to guitar. In March 1999 Vitamin X did a very succesful tour of Scandinivia with this line-up, playing shows in Denmark, Sweden en Finland.
The band was asked by DIY Records from New York to contribute a cover song to a compilation with hardcore-bands doing covers of their favorite classic tracks and Vitamin X choose to do a medley with two songs of the legendary Texas-hardcore band Offenders and one song of White Cross, a fast hardcore band that was around at the beginning of the 80s. In 2000, this compilation, that also features Kill Your Idols, Ensign, Indecision, Milhouse and many more, was released as the 'All Ages'-compilation. Together with this song, Vitamin X recorded three other songs, that remained unreleased.
At the end of June, Eric returned from Spain and Vitamin X played on the release-party of the H-Street 7" in Münster, Germany, again as a five piece, with Eric and Marc on guitar and Floris on bass. The two release-parties of the new 7" on Commitment (the first in Amsterdam, with One X More, Mainstrike, Betercore, Heroes & Zeros and Amdi Petersen's Armée and Gun For Jennifer, both from Denmark; and the second in Hoogstraten, Belgium, with One X More and Building) were the last shows with Eric on guitar. After a show in Hoogeveen, The Netherlands, with Imbalance and Oil, Floris (who only became part of the band to help them out on the Scandinavian tour) was replaced on bass by Alex (also of Soberesponse).
Vitamin X played the first show with this new line-up in November, 1999 on the Trial-show in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. In December they did an one-week European tour, playing shows in Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia [in a practice space, due to the fact that the original show was cancelled because the death of the Croatian president Tjudman], the Czech Republic and Germany.
At the end of January 2000, Vitamin X recorded 18 news songs in the legendary Koeienverhuur Studios (in which 80s HxC bands as Negazione and BGK have recorded). 17 of these songs were supposed to appear on their debut full length, that S.O.A. Records from Italy was going to put out. The 18th track was put on a compilation on Youngblood Records from the U.S.A.. After recording, Marko went to India for almost 4 months, which forced the band to take a rest for a few months.
After Marko had returned from India, the band started up again. Marc had written some news songs, and these were recorded in the beginning of the Summer of 2000, to appear on several compilation, in a 6-hour session at the Bunt Studios in Utrecht. In the end, this session was released on Underestimated Records as side A of the limited 'We Came Here For Fun' 7" that accompanied the first Vitamin X US tour in spring 2001.
In August 2000, finally the Vitamin X discography tape on Commitment Asia from Malaysia, was released. That
Vitamin X is a popular band in South-East Asia is also showed by the fact that the Philippinean sXe-band
Feud covered the song 'Straight Edge Crew' on their demo, making Vitamin X the first Commitment-band that
has a song covered.Around Christmas-New Year 2000/2001, Vitamin X did a third European tour, that took them to Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Bosnia (probably one of the first foreign HxC bands to play in Bosnia), Serbia (the first foreign HxC band to play Serbia after the revolution) and Germany. In januari, the long awaited debut-album of Vitamin X was finally released on S.O.A. Records. The record, when it came out only available on CD, was called 'See Thru Their Lies'. This record later was released on Underestimated Records from the USA, both on CD and LP formats.
In the beginning of February 2001, Vitamin X entered again the Bunt Studios in Utrecht and recorded 16 songs: 2 songs of their 2000 demo, a Void cover and 13 new songs. 10 songs appeared on a the 'People That Bleed' 7", that was put out by Havoc Records in the spring of 2001. The other songs were for the B-side of the limited edition USA tour 7", that has been sold exclusively during the 2001 American tour of Vitamin X, that brought them among others to the Chicago Fest, CBGB's in New York and also the West-Coast. As drummer Geert-Jan, who had replaced Johannes as Vitamin X drummer in the beginning of 2001, was unable to get free from school, Ries, the former drummer of Product X, replaced him behind the drumkit during the highly succeful American tour.
After returning from tour, Vitamin X started writing new songs for their second full lenght, besides doing some shows in Europe - for example, at the Fluff fest, where they played as second to last band on Saturday - and managed to break two microphones, a bass guitar and part of the drums in the process... but the show was great ! In 2001 also a tape version of their first album and the songs of the 'People That Bleed' session were released in Indonesia.
In 2001 they entered the studio two times more - one time to record four songs, three for a Lengua Armada compilation and one for an other compilation, and in December they entered the Bunt studios again to record for the 'Maximaal Onthaal' compilation and for a RKL-Tribute. In January they recorded, again at Bunt, 23 new songs for a CD/LP that was released by Underestimated and Havoc, just before their second USA tour in the spring of 2002, that took them all over the USA for a total of 44 shows. This time Paolo, drummer of Fratellanza and Product, took the place of Gert-Jan on tour.
In October 2002, Vitamin X for the first time crossed the Channel to do a bunch of very well received shows in the UK and Ireland. After returning from the UK, Vitamin X entered the Bunt Studios again, now to finish some of the songs of the 1997 Straight Edge Crew session, that never had been finished, to appear on a discography CD on Underestimated Records. Unfortunately, in the end this Discography CD has never been released. Around that time, Paolo had also replaced Gert-Jan as the permanent Vitamin X drummer. 2002 ended with a second European tour.
2003 brought Vitamin X two tours - first, in the spring, a 4 week tour of Brazil. I Shot Cyrus accompanied them on many shows, and the tour was higly succesful. The second Vitamin X album was also re-released on the Brazilian label Peculio Discos, including the 'People That Bleed' 7" and some bonus tracks. Another Vitamin X record that was released in 2003 was a split 7" with Blind Society, that contained some live songs from the first Vitamin X USA tour. In November 2003, Vitamin X did a two week tour of Japan. Before that, the band had recorded six new songs, that were released as the 'Random Violence' CD for the Japanese market - also this release included the 'People That Bleed' 7". Four more Vitamin X songs (from the recording session of the second album) were released on the Japanese compilation 7"/MCD 'Things You Own End Up Owning You 2', that also featured Let It Burn (USA) and We Must Burn (Japan).
In December 2003, Vitamin X entered the Bunt studio again, to record for their third full length, that came out in the first week of their third USA tour, again on Havoc Records, and contained some more midtempo and punkrocking songs. After this very succesful tour (48 shows in 48 days!), Paolo decided to leave the band. In June 2004, Vitamin X played the big French Fury Festival, with Nikita (formerly of Soberesponse) filling in on drums, while former Product X and Reaching Forward drummer Ries will join the band again for their appearance on the 2004 Ieper Fest. In the meantime, Vitamin X is searching for a permanent new drummer.
Line-Up
Marko - vocals (1996-present)
Marc - guitar (1996-1998) bass (1998-1999) guitar (1999-present)
Eric - guitar (1996-1999)
Floris - guitar (Scandinavian tour, 1999) bass (1999)
Marko Response - bass (1996-1998)
Alex - bass (1999-present)
Johannes - drums (1996-2001)
Geert-Jan - drums (2001-2002)
Ries - drums (USA tour, 2001)
Paolo - drums (2002-2004)
Discography
Split-demo with Soberesponse tape (self-released, 1997)
Straight Edge Crew 7" (Commitment Records, 1998)
Once Upon A Time... 7" (Commitment Records, 1999)
Discography Volume 1 tape (Malaysia - Commitment Asia, 2000)
See Thru Their Lies CD (S.O.A. Records, 2001)
See Thru Their Lies LP/CD (USA - Underestimated Records, 2001)
People That Bleed 7" (Havoc Records, 2001)
We Came Here For Fun 7" (Underestimated Records, 2001)
People That Bleed Discography tape (Indonesia - Kontraproductif, 2001)
Down The Drain LP/CD (Havoc/Underestimated Records, 2002)
Down The Drain tape (Malaysia - Karatekore Records/Ugly Smokers Records, 2002)
See Thru Their Lies CD (Brazil - Usina De Sangue Records, 2003)
Down The Drain CD (Brazil - Peculio Discos, 2003)
Poison Eyes Live split 7" with Blind Society (King Friday Records, 2003)
Now It's Our Turn Discography tape (Poland - Refuse Records, 2003)
Random Violence MCD (Good Luck Records, 2003)
Bad Trip LP/CD (Havoc Records, 2004)
Compilations
The Return Of The X-Men double-7" (Commitment Records, 1997)
Stronger Than Ever 7" (Siton Records, 1998)
Don't Be Afraid tape (Positive Youth Culture, 1999)
The Return Of The X-Men 7" (Commitment Records, 1997/2000)
DP Or Not DP #3 double-tape (DP Records, 2000)
Memories Of Tomorrow CD/LP (Youngblood Records, 2000)
More Than The X On Our Hands 7"-box set (Commitment Records, 2000)
All Ages CD (DIY Records, 2000)
One True Old School Story CD (Field Of Hope Records, 2001)
No Sleep For Hardcore CD (Suburban Voice Fanzine, 2001)
Maximaal Onthaal CD (Royal Blood Records, 2002)
For Those About To Trip - Rich Kids On LSD Tribute CD (Malt Soda Records, 2002)
< More Than The X On Our Hands 2-tape set (Refuse Records, 2002)
Histeria Volume 2 LP (Lengua Armada Records, 2003)
Things You Own End Up Owning You 2 7"/MCD (Too Circle Records, 2003)
Forever In Our Hearts 7" (Commitment Records, 2004)
Contact
Vitamin X c/o Marko Korac
Rustenburgerstraat 302-1
1073 GM Amsterdam
The Netherlands
http://www.geocities.com/vitaminxhc/
xvitaminxx@yahoo.com