It was the summer of 1999 when Merijn, Joost en Joris decided it was time to join their forces and start a band in which they could fully express their love for the punk rock, OI! and hardcore music. At that time Merijn sang in the $400 Suits and Joost and Joris did the vocals for the 046 hardcore band Segregate. But the three of them all felt something was missing and decided to cry out this feeling in the rehearsal room. Joris picked up his guitar and Merijn and Joost their mic’s. They asked their good friend and Joris´ younger brother Daan to do the drums and found their good friend Ivo willing to do the bass. A new band was born: Banner of Thugs. Inspired by a wide range of bands they started to write some very basic OI! songs and recorded their first demo ´This is where it starts´ in the spring of 2000. Despite the lousy sound, the demo received some good critics and the band got the chance to do a number of shows with the likes of Discipline, Evil Conduct, Aggro-Culture, Hardsell and other OI! and street punk legends. Their live shows not only attracted OI! and Street punk lovers, but also people who were into Old school hardcore, Ska or even (heavy) metal. Since they didn’t necessarily felt they had to stick to playing basic OI! music and all of them were crazy about hardcore and many other kinds of music too, their songs got a little hardcore touch and were combined with some rock 'n roll and metal influences. In the autumn of 2001, Banner of Thugs played a...