Episodes
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In 1973, a Californian by the name of Archie Patterson became so enthused by all the interesting underground European experimental/electronic music he was hearing that he started up a fanzine dedicated to it, called Eurock. It lasted 40 issues, through 1990. In 1979, a Brit by the name of David Elliott felt much the same way and, in part inspired by Eurock and also by post-punk DIY culture, started his own zine Neumusik. While it only lasted 6 issues, until 1982, during that time it grew to over 70 pages and set David off exploring Europe to interview many of the important artists in person.
What kind of artists are we talking about? Some of them you may know, like Can, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Nektar, Neu!, Heldon, Chrome, or Urban Sax.. Others you may never have heard of, like Guru Guru, Asmus Tietchens, Atem, Art Zoyd III, Gunter Schickert, or Shub Niggurath. All of them were at the forefront of musical creativity towards the end of the 20th Century, and Eurock and Neumusik were at the forefront of the fanzines writing about them, interviewing them, and cataloguing their culture. Patterson grew a distribution service and began publishing books; he still posts twice-weekly about the music on his Facebook. Elliot started a “band,” a cassette label, and recently wrote an extensive book on the British pop music of 1984.
For more information about their zines, their culture, and where to get copies of their books, please head on over to https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/adventures-in-neumusik-and-eurock
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For Episode 29, Tony's guests are Roual Galloway of Spinners, and Derek Steel of Razur Cuts, two of the more prominent among the many Litzines currently flourishing in the UK (and beyond).
Litzines – independent zines of literature from outside the mainstream – are surely among the oldest of all forms of fanzines. Depending on your historical perspective, you could even argue that they predate the concept of the fanzine itself, which as noted back on Episode 21, was a word first knowingly used in 1940.
Certainly, self-published zines of prose and poetry writing were an important part of the Beat culture on both US coasts through the 1950s and 1960s, have an anchor in the current vibrant world of perzines, and have been especially strong in the UK ever since the emergence of a new generation of poets in the early 1980s. These were people encouraged by the examples of cross-over artists like John Cooper Clarke and Linton Kwesi Johnson, and aided by the support of rock artists like The Jam’s Paul Weller, and they took to the pubs and small theaters of the UK to reclaim the form “for the people.” In the UK, the medium, in prose and short story form too, has also always had a close connection to the football terraces and others aspects of pop culture, and recent issues of Razur Cuts and Spinners, each weighing in at about 80 pages, readily demonstrate as much...
For more info, including photos, more words, and more links, please visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/the-flourishing-world-of-litzines
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Episodes manquant?
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The first issue of Mick Mercer’s fanzine Panache came out in January 1977, with Iggy Pop on the cover, perfectly poised for the punk/new wave/DIY revolution that was exploding across the UK. Mick kept the zine in print for a further 50+ issues, all the way to 1995, which makes it one of the longest-running, and arguably the most consistently prolific of all the original UK punk-inspired zines. In the decades since, Mick has carried on demonstrating his passion for indie music, comics, and cats, via blogging, radio shows, a Substack column, and his Cat Olympics. Oh, and he’s also written a few books over the years, for which he is rightly considered one of the gurus of Goth.
For more info on this episode, including images from various issues of Panache over the years, and direct links to Mick's radio shows and other creative outlets, please visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/the-fanzine-podcast-ep-28-mick-mercers
And please subscribe while you are there; it’s where Tony continues to exercise his own fanzine muscles by writing about underground and pop culture on a twice-weekly basis. If you enjoyed this episode and your podcast platform allows it, please hit the like button, consider leaving a review and, if you haven't yet, hit "subscribe" to ensure you don't miss the next monthly episode.
Mick Mercer can be found at https://mickmercer.substack.com/
The Best of Jamming!: Selections and Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up 1977-86 is published by Omnibus Press.
'The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast Theme' is by Noel Fletcher.
The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast logo was designed by Greg Morton.
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Throughout the 1980s, Tim Anstaett ran The Offense, an influential, prolific, jam-packed fanzine out of Columbus, Ohio, where he still lives. In the 1990s, Jay Hinman began the underground zine Superdope fanzine out of Seattle, and after a hiatus, picked back up on zine publishing in the 2010s with Dynamite Hemorrhage, which set its stall with a 68-page debut issue. For the last few years, Jay has also been running the Fanzine Hemorrhage web site and newsletter, offering 200 reflective reviews (so far) of select music fanzines (and occasional magazines) from his enormous personal collection. The Offense is one of the few zines Jay has reviewed twice, writing that it “would have been my favorite mag in 1982 had I’d known it existed.” So for this episode of the Fanzine Podcast, podcast host Tony Fletcher brings the pair together for the first time.
Over a one-hour conversation, Tim and Jay talked about their early entry points into punk and fanzine culture, hand-written first issues, why they each abandoned advertisers and distributors, their love of 4AD Records in general and the Cocteau Twins in particular, Jay’s cult heroes the Flesheaters, their fave zines of all time, and the best letter they ever received.
Read more about this episode, and get links to various items discussed – from zine downloads to bands to TV shows and where to get Tim's books – at https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/midweek-update-51-the-american-in ... And please subscribe while you are there; it’s where Tony continues to exercise his own fanzine muscles by writing about underground and pop culture on a twice-weekly basis. If you enjoyed this episode and your podcast platform allows it, please hit the like button, consider leaving a review and, if you haven't yet, hit "subscribe" to ensure you don't miss the next monthly episode.
Jay Hinman can be found at https://fanzinehemorrhage.com
Tim Anstaett can be e-mailed via [email protected]
The Best of Jamming!: Selections and Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up 1977-86 is published by Omnibus Press.
'The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast Theme' is by Noel Fletcher.
The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast logo was designed by Greg Morton.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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For show notes, and to see images from Zerox Machine and other books discussed in this episode, please visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/zerox-machine-the-big-book-of-british
And, while there, please subscribe to receive regular updates on this and other Tony Fletcher podcasts and writings.
https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/subscribe
Matthew Worley is Professor of Modern History at the University of Reading, where he is gainfully employed studying punk and post-punk culture. (Yes, it’s a thing these days.) To this end he has just published an arguably definitive new book, the culmination of many years’ research, Zerox Machine: Punk, Post-Punk and Fanzines in Britain, 1976-88.
Across almost 350 pages and approximately 140,000 words, Worley takes an unprecedented deep dive into the subculture of the British fanzine scene, drawing on access to an incredible number of publications – six pages’ worth are cited at the end - and direct communication with many of the editors. Most importantly, he straddles the thin line between an authoritative research project with the kind of thought-provoking analysis one would expect from a Professor of Modern History, with a book that you average Joe and Jane ex- or current- fanzine editor can read and relate to without reaching for a Thesaurus.
Zerox Machine is published in the UK by Reaktion Books:
And in the US by University of Chicago Press:
For show notes, and to see images from Zerox Machine and other books discussed in this episode, please visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/zerox-machine-the-big-book-of-british
And, while there, please subscribe to receive regular updates on this and other Tony Fletcher podcasts and writings.
https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/subscribe
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With Andy Lyons (WSC), Mike Harrison (City Gent), Kevin Whitcher (The Gooner.) For links to and pictures of these fanzines, to post comments, and to read more related writings and podcasts, visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/the-fanzine-podcast-ep-25-40-years
For over 40 years now, football fanzines have run parallel to music fanzines in the UK, growing out of the same alternative pop culture as did the punk and new wave zines of the 1970s, as evidenced perhaps by the fact that the best known and longest-running of the non-denominational zines, When Saturday Comes, took its name from a song by the Northern Irish new wave band, The Undertones. At their peak in the late 1980s, it’s estimated there were at least 300 such football zines publishing regularly in the UK.
Where the football zines differ from the music ones is in loyalty. If When Saturday Comes is like an alternative to the glossy football magazines the same way that a long-running music fanzine like The Big Takeover, which was featured on Episode 21, can be seen as a more authentically independent voice than a Spin or Mojo, the majority of zines serve more like alternatives to their stated club’s official program. In this context, the Arsenal fanzine The Gooner, whose Kevin Whitcher joins us on this episode, is like a Taylor Swift fanzine, economically removed from the subject it is writing about but passionate about it all the same, while Bradford City’s City Gent, whose Mike Harrison, also featured in this episode, would be more comparable to a zine dedicated to a cult band that refuses to go away – Guided By Voices or Teenage Fan Club, perhaps. Even as football fan culture moves largely online, to YouTube channels and podcasts, there will always remain a dedicated, if “discerning” audience, that is willing to read articles and opinion pieces that bring the banter of what we once knew as the football “terraces” in print.
Kevin and Mike are joined here by When Saturday Comes’ co-founder and ongoing editor, Andy Lyons, for a conversation that discusses the various zines’ origins, their rise to influence and prominence, their engagement and effect on the game they support, and how they keep going after four decades and several hundred episodes a piece in the face of the younger fans migration online.
The episode also discusses the tragic fire that took place at Bradford City’s ground in May 1985, at which City Gent editor Mike Harrison was in attendance. While we don’t get into any horrific detail, I do want to let listeners be prepared.
Thanks to Richard Edwards and Peter Mountford.
Sign up for Tony Fletcher’s weekly newsletter, long weekend read, and for exclusive access to archived interviews, including those from his Keith Moon biography, at tonyfletcher.substack.com.
Theme music by Noel Fletcher. Logo by Greg Morton.
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Please visit (and subscribe to) tonyfletcher.substack.com for more writings on zines and beyond.
In this episode, Tony offers a short update on the Fanzine Podcast's future episodes and some of the activities around the zine scene before using the opportunity of being in the UK for a while to revisit the debut episode of what was then called The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast, "From Classroom To Clubs." The episode was summarised at the time as follows:
For this debut episode of The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast, Tony Fletcher connects with three old friends who all played an important part in the Jamming! school days, and each of whom wrote an introductory piece for The Best of Jamming! book. They are Richard Heard, Jeni de Haart and John Matthews, and over the course of a lively group call, they discuss
the onset of punk,the birth of Jamming and why John Matthews declined a rolefirst gigs at The Marquee on Wardour Streeta shared love of The JamJamming's eclectic tastes - including The Fall, Scritti Politti, Killing Joke and moreattending the Setting Sons recording sessionsApocalypseselling fanzines at gigsbeing taught 'Teenage Kicks' on guitar by The Undertonesthe violence surrounding the tribalism of the late 1970sthe influence of John Peelfave gig memoriesand why those years mattered so much and why they are all still friendsThe Best of Jamming!: Selections and Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up 1977-86 is published by Omnibus Press and available from all good book shops.on Sep 23 in the UK/EU, and Dec 2 in the rest of the world.
More information and online purchasing options available at:
TonyFletcher.net
OmnibusPress.com
Meantime, if you're a former fanzine editor interested in contributing to the Guest Ex-Editor project, "The concept is to bring various zine scene alumni out of retirement for one or two pages. Contributors might use their page(s) to revisit memories of their old zine, re-evaluate it, resurrect it (maybe with a modern twist to reflect where life has taken them since), or pilot a brand-new zine idea." Write to Alison via [email protected]
Zerox Machine: Punk, Post-Punk and Fanzines in Britain 1976-88 available now in the UK from Reaktion Books https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/zerox-machine
Matthew Worley's Facebook group Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change
https://www.facebook.com/groups/267152449995279
'The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast Theme' is by Noel Fletcher. Copyright reserved.
The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast logo was designed by Greg Morton, who also assisted with editing.
The Best of Jamming! book cover was designed by Martin Stiff.
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To win a copy of the compendium, Sniffin’ Glue and Other Rock’n’Roll Habits, published by Omnibus Press, as mentioned on this episode, please visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/midweek-update-32-sniffin-glue-and - and don't forget to subscribe to the Substack account if you haven't already. Competition ends March 19.
Back in 1976, given that there was no other publication dedicated to covering the Ramones or the new bands popping up around London, Mark Perry founded Sniffin’ Glue, the original British punk zine. Barely a year later, after a dozen issues that saw circulation rise from 10 – as in ten, total - to 20,000 copies, Mark walked away from it, partly because he was disillusioned with punk, but also to focus on his group, Alternative TV.
Now, in 2024, copies of early Sniffin’ Glues go for ridiculous sums of money, but they have also been gathered up for a new edition of the compendium, Sniffin’ Glue and Other Rock’n’Roll Habits, published by Omnibus Press. The Sniffin’ Glue compendium gathers up every single page of that zine's 12 (and a half) issues, including all the ads, and has an extended intro written by Mark, along with various photographs from back in the day.
On this episode, we discuss how Sniffin' Glue started, what the scene was like in London at the time, what was good about the zine, how it became so successful, and why Mark walked away from it after only a year.
Mark Perry, Sniffin' Glue and Alternative TV can all be found at https://sniffinglue.co.uk/. Mark Perry can also be found on Facebook.
If you enjoyed this episode, please do the usual like-review-subscribe, and check out previous episodes if you haven't already.
Theme tune by Noel Fletcher. Logo by Greg Morton. Tony Fletcher takes credit and blame for everything else.
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Liz Mason and Billy McCall are two of the more prominent U.S. “publishers” of what are affectionately called “perzines,” fanzines as expression of self. Liz publishes or co-publishes Caboose, Cul-de-Sac, Awesome Things and The Most Unwanted Zine and works as manager at Quimby’s bookstore in Chicago, which actively sells ‘zines. Billy puts out Proof I Exist, Behind the Zines, The Difference Between, has published at least three different pocket-sized memoirs, distributes fanzines online, and designed and initially produced the Zine Game. On this episode of The Fanzine Podcast, they join Tony Fletcher to explain the how, why, when, what, and where behind their phenomenal output, and dive deep into the thriving world of contemporary zine culture.
You can read much more about Billy and Liz, and see pictures of their zines and the conversation we had, at tonyfletcher.substack.com/
Billy is at www.iknowbilly.com and https://behind-the-zines.com/
Liz is at LizMasonIsAwesome.com and instagram.com/caboosezine.
The Best Of Jamming!: Selections & Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up, 1977-86 can be found here and signed copies are available in the USA direct from https://tonyfletcherauthor.bandcamp.com/merch/
Theme music by Noel Fletcher. Logo by Greg Morton.
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The Fanzine Podcast finally gets across the Atlantic, and talks to two of the mainstays of the New York 'zine scene.
Ira Robbins started Trouser Press in 1974 as "hopefully the first consumer-oriented, ( inter }national rock fanzine" and went on to produce 96 issues that got up to a 60,000 circulation before calling it a day after exactly 10 years; Trouser Press continued life as a record buyer's guide, a website, and now as a publishing imprint too.
Jack Rabid started The Big Takeover in 1980 as a one-page broadsheet devoted to New York punk band The Stimulators before gradually turning into an reputable zine that has been publishing twice a year for four decades now, circulation peaking at 30,000. The Big Takeover also has a website and a radio show.
Between them, Trouser Press and The Big Takeover have published 181 issues, and counting.
As well as discussing how and why they started out, how their zines turned into magazines, and why they have persisted in the world of small publishing all this time, Ira and Jack discuss their best and worst interviews, the bands that turned them on and some of those that did not. Acts discussed in this episode include: The Planets, Bad Brains, The Who, Pink Faeries, Even Worse, John Lydon, The La's, The Stranglers, The Buzzcocks, The Damned, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie, The Mumps, Rory Gallagher, The Mad, The Stimulators, and many many more.
The Trouser Press Archives are here. The ongoing Trouser Press website is here. Trouser Press books is here.
The Big Takeover web site/magazine is here. The Big Takeover Radio is here.
The Best Of Jamming!: Selections & Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up, 1977-86 can be found here and signed copies are available in the USA direct from https://tonyfletcherauthor.bandcamp.com/merch/
SIgn up for Tony Fletcher’s weekly newsletter, long weekend read, and for exclusive access to archived interviews, including those from his Keith Moon biography, at tonyfletcher.substack.com.
Theme music by Noel Fletcher. Logo by Greg Morton.
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What was the first ever fanzine?
When was it published? In what country? What did it write about? Where can I find it? When was the word fanzine coined? By who? Where does it come from? What is a Gestetner? Or a Roneo? Where can I get one? Actually, why should I care?
To help answer these questions, I am joined on Episode 20 of my show The Fanzine Podcast by: Hamish Ironside, fanzine editor, book publisher, and co-author of We Peaked At Paper: An Oral History of British Zines; and by Rob Hansen, fanzine editor, archivist, and author of multiple books including Then: Science Fiction Fandom in the UK 1930-1980.
Please visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/what-was-the-first-ever-fanzine for more information, including visuals of the first ever fanzines, and links to Rob and Hamish's various publications. While there, please subscribe to the weekly newsletter.
https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/what-was-the-first-ever-fanzine
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For an episode playlist, to see covers and pages of these zines, and for much more about the fanzine culture in general, visit Midweek Update #12: Fanzines are Alive & Kicking Edition.
In 1980, in Glasgow, Robert Hodgens started Ten Commandments alongside writer Kirsty McNeil and photographer Robert Scott; after four issues, known now as Bobby Bluebell, Hodgens moved to London with his band The Bluebells and became, briefly a pop star.
In 1983, between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, Alastair McKay started Alternatives To Valium. It lasted four years until Alastair, who freelanced for Jamming! during this time, set off to pursue his dream career as a full-time journalist.
Both zines were resolutely Scottish in spirit, and each strongly influenced by Postcard Records, the independent label that called itself 'The Sound of Young Scotland.' In this conversation, Bobby and Alastair compare fanzine notes, share interview stories, and talk about how the Scottish post-punk scene shaped their lives. Alastair additionally talks about how Robert Smith told him The Cure were finished in a 1983 interview he took five months to publish, and why Paul Weller and Mick Talbot tried to punch him at a Red Wedge press conference.
Among the fanzines discussed in this episode: Granite City, It Ticked And Exploded, Juniper Berry Berry, Fish Pie Tales, Jungleland, Slow Dazzle and more.
Among the bands discussed in this episode: Orange Juice, Simple Minds, Josef K, Fire Engines, The Go-Betweens, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, Altered Images, Defiant Pose, The Pastels, Positive Noise, The Fall, Echo & The Bunnymen, Another Pretty Face, The Waterboys, and more.
Tony Fletcher’s weekly newsletter, long weekend read, and exclusive access to archived interviews, is at tonyfletcher.substack.com. By signing up, you avoid the algorithms of FB & X, and you also have the opportunity to support those creators you want to support.
The Bluebells' wonderful new album 'In The 21st Century' is out now on https://shop.lastnightfromglasgow.com/products/the-bluebells-in-the-21st-century
Bobby Bluebell can be found on Twitter as @R0Poem
and The Bluebells Instagram is @thebluebellsglasgow
Alastair McKay's excellent memoir, published in 2022, is, Alternatives To Valium: How Punk Rock Saved A Shy Boy’s Life.
Hecan be found on Substack at https://alastairmckay.substack.com,
The Best Of Jamming!: Selections & Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up, 1977-86 can be found here and signed copies are available in the USA direct from https://tonyfletcherauthor.bandcamp.com/merch/
Theme music by Noel Fletcher. Logo by Greg Morton.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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"No other youth culture or subculture centred on fashion or music, or both, has ever had as many fanzines dedicated to it as the mod revival."
So wrote Eddie Piller at the start of his 2918 book Mod Zines (with Steve Rowland) and he should know: as editor and publisher of Extraordinary Sensations, Piller saw his 'zine sell a phenomenal 15,000 copies at its peak in the mid-80s, as many as legendary punk zine Sniffin' Glue had managed a decade earlier.
Over the course of an hour-long conversation with The Fanzine Podcast's host, Tony Fletcher, former editor/publisher of Jamming!, Ed talks about some of those zines, about the success of his own zine once he brought in Terry Rawlings as partner, about the lasting allure of mod culture for him and thousands of others all over the planet, and especially, about his new memoir Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances: A Life In Mod from the Revival to Acid Jazz. Published in 2023 by Monoray Books, Clean Living follows Ed's adventures through his East End upbringing to his West End clubbing, through trips to Australia and journeys round Europe, covers the violence of the era in gory details, ands with him founding the legendary Acid Jazz label, which is still going strong today.
Additionally, as well as being a DJ, a podcast host himself over the years and an inveterate party promoter, Piller is the founder of Totally Wired Radio which since 2019 has broadcast DJs "who specialise in Jazz, Soul, Hip Hop, Ska & 2Tone, Country, Soundtracks and Library Music, Reggae, Film, Folk, Funk, EDM, World Music, Afrobeat, Latin, Gospel, Rare R&B, Poetry, Punk, Psyche and Garage, Disco along with Podcast Interviews." Oh, and he also co-wrote the book Punkzines, also published by Omnibus Press.
Modzines referenced in this issue include Maximum Speed, Get Up And Go, Shake, Direction Reaction Creation, South Circular, XL5, Go Go, Shadows and Reflections and more.
The Best Of Jamming!: Selections & Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up, 1977-86 can be found here and signed copies are available in the USA direct from https://tonyfletcherauthor.bandcamp.com/merch/
SIgn up for Tony Fletcher’s weekly newsletter, long weekend read, and for exclusive access to archived interviews, including those from his Keith Moon biography, at tonyfletcher.substack.com.
Theme music by Noel Fletcher. Logo by Greg Morton.
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Ten years after she ceased publishing her 2000s rock’n’roll fanzine Bubblegum Slut due to the lifestyle it induced (i.e. drug addiction), Alison B. found herself producing a new zine about her old zine, the lifestyle it induced and the year she spent in limbo before getting clean. That zine is entitled Confessions of an Ex-Zine Editor and it is astonishingly original and entertaining. Partly a “trainwreck memoir” in zine format, it has the benefit of additionally being side-splittingly funny, what with its reviews of old clubs that are now train stations and of snail mail that no longer brings free CDs. With Confessions now up to Issue 3, Alison is also the first ongoing fanzine editor to be featured on this podcast.
Alison is joined by Jane Appleby, who produced multiple different zines in the 1990s and early 2000s, including Jezebel, Bambi, This Is Our Truth, Pretty But Schizo, Pussy Rock, Jezebel, and Trophy F*ck. In conversation with Tony, Jane and Alison talk about their zines and the scenes from which they sprang, about sex and sexual stereotypes, about publishing and printing, about how the Manic Street Preachers inspired more zines than any other band of the era, about recovery Bingo and receiving explicit fetishist letters in the mail.
Bands mentioned in this episode include Hanoi Rocks, Guns ‘n’ Roses, the Manic Street Preachers, the Glitter Band, Sheila E, Shampoo, and We’ve Got A Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use it.
Franchises mentioned in this issue include Taco Bell and Trust House Forte.
Plus, Tony learns a new word: Edgelord.
Alison’s current Confessions of an Ex-Zine Editor and Bubblegum Slut can be found at https://www.instagram.com/bubblegumzinearchive/
And copies can be ordered via:https://linktr.ee/bubblegumzinearchive
Jane Appleby’s fanzine archives can be found at: http://pussyrockfanzine.blogspot.com/
She is active on http://tumblr.com/jaynedolluk
The Best Of Jamming! can be found here and signed copies are available in the USA direct from https://tonyfletcherauthor.bandcamp.com/merch/
For Tony Fletcher’s weekly newsletter, long weekend read, and for exclusive access to archived interviews, just visit tonyfletcher.substack.com.
Theme music by Noel Fletcher. Logo by Greg Morton.
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(Sign up at tonyfletcher.substack.com to receive this podcast interview in unedited form.)
James Brown and Mark Hodkinson both hail from the Pennine District in Northern England. Both ran fanzines in the 1980s (Attack on Bzag and Untermensch). Both stayed in publishing. Both now have successful memoirs out about their lives in the world of words.
Beyond that, their paths have been different. James left Leeds for London, and after 10 successful issues of his fanzine, joined the NME. He then founded Loaded, which was selling 350,000 copies by the time he went to edit GQ after 36 issues. He's written about this - plus his addictions to alcohol and drugs and his subsequent recovery - in his memoir Animal House. Mark stayed in Rochdale, and started a small imprint called Pomona, which published books by people such as Bill Nelson, Barry Hines and Bob Stanley; in his memoir No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy, he explains how a boy who grew up in a house with one book ended up with 3500. Both memoirs are now out in paperback.
In this conversation with host Tony Fletcher, the three of them discuss:
Leaving home vs. staying putWhy Untermensch was a revolt against RochdaleThe joys of selling fanzines at gigs - or not.1980s fanzine culture with references to The End, Cool Notes, Idiot Stregth, Furious Apache, Raygun, New Youth, KvatchHow James could even sell a fanzine to a working policemanThe night that James, along with former podcast guest Richard Edwards, raided Tony's Filofax for famous people's numbersHow Loaded was James' ultimate fanzineWhy Pomona was a critical success but rarely a commercial oneHow Attack on Bzag got it wrong about The SmithsJames Brown is on Instagram and Facebook.
Mark Hodkinson is on Facebook. The Pomona Books catalogue here
Also discussed in this episode:
'The Politics of Fanzines' episode with Richard Edwards can be found here
'One Step Beyond Ep. 27' with Mike Peters of Love, Hope, Strength is here:
'Tacky Tiger,' Sparks zine on a Gestertner, is here.
The Dear Boys single 'Blink Of An I' can be viewed, streamed, or purchased on Bandcamp from https://linktr.ee/thedearboys.
The Best Of Jamming! can be found here
For weekly articles by Tony Fletcher, news of upcoming writings, books, events, podcasts, and for exclusive access to archived interviews, sign up for his newsletter at tonyfletcher.substack.com.
Theme music by Noel Fletcher. Logo by Greg Morton.
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In the mid-1980s, before she became known for fronting the band Lush, Miki Berenyi put out five issues of Alphabet Soup fanzine (“It may be crap but it’s only 5p”) alongside her then-bestie and future band-mate, Emma Anderson. Meantime, before she started Sarah Records, Clare Wadd put out multiple issues of Kvatch fanzine. This podcast, hosted by former Jamming! editor Tony Fletcher, marks the first time ANY of the three have ever had a conversation with each other. Over the course of an hour-plus chat the three of them discuss:
Why Miki had a photo of Tony on hand should he randomly e-mail her introducing himself.Clare’s upbringing in Harrogate, Yorkshire, and starting a fanzine as a way in to the “independent” music world.Miki’s school years in Central London, following Culture Club and Haircut 100, and starting a fanzine as a way to combat shyness.The lack of girls producing fanzines in the early-mid-1980s.Miki’s “nuts” upbringing, how it created a “seize the day” element in her, and how that resulted in her and Emma doing Alphabet Soup.Being sexually harassed as a teenage girl selling fanzines.Alphabet Soup being “silly & smutty” vs Kvatch being “worthy.”The lack of competitiveness among fanzines. The network the editors created instead.Interviewing 1980s indie icons like Half Man Half Biscuit, The Housemartins, Xmal Deutschland, and asking The Wedding Present about apartheid because it feels like the right thing to do.Neglecting to press record on an interview and making it up instead.Sarah Records’ dedicated fanzine “releases” and how Clare’s contributions were more like the modern “perzine.”The sexism Clare encountered running SarahThe gender expectations/tokenism/sexism Miki encountered in a band and that Clare encountered running Sarah… and whether that has changed.Defending The Alarm.Other important ‘zines of the era: Attack On Bzag, Moving, Rouska, Jamming!, Viz Comics, Vague, Scared To Get Happy, Alphabet Soup’s fake Diary of a Fanzine Writer (the Bride Assistants).Miki Berenyi is @berenyi_miki on Twitter and IG, and is also at https://linktr.ee/mikiberenyi Her memoir is Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success.
Various Alphabet Soup bits are at https://standupandspit.wordpress.com/2014/07/12/alphabet-soup/
Clare Wadd is @Sarah_Records on Twitter and sarahrecords.org.uk. The Sarah Records special zine releases are at http://sarahrecords.org.uk/texts/fanzines/
Kvatch 5 is at https://stillunusual.tumblr.com/post/43093052386/kvatch-fanzine
Support this show via the One Step Beyond supporter page:
https://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond
Tony Fletcher is https://tonyfletcher.net/
and https://linktr.ee/TonyFletcher
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mike Diboll founded, produced and published the leading anarcho-punk fanzine TOXIC GRAFITY, producing six issues between 1978-82 "with various spin-offs." Never your typical band-interview-record-review zine, Toxic Grafity set about "to capture and express the ethos, attitude, aesthetics and politics of anarcho-punk using found images, collages, logos, slogans, ‘rant’, prose, prose-poetry, free verse, and essays." Issue 5 carried with it a flexidisc by Crass, featuring the especially recorded song 'Tribal Ribal Revels' which made that issue one of the best-selling zines of the entire period.
After growing disenchantment with the direction of anarcho-punk, Mike withdrew from his close association with Crass and the other residents of Dial House. Following a period of addiction, near homelessness, and a surprise temporary conversion to religion (Islam), he finally embarked on Higher Education, taking a double first in Modern Languages (majoring in Arabic) and Comparative Literature, and graduating with a PhD in the comparative literatures of the British occupation of Egypt 1882-1956.
This specialisation found him working and teaching in Higher Education in Bahrain in 2011, when the "Arab Spring" reached the small island nation, leading to a peaceful, carnivalesque uprising and then a brutal and bloody counter-revolution by State forces. Mike witnessed this deadly repression in person, and on this episode discusses the reality of a Bloody Revolution versus the ones we may all have fantasized about and idealised in our fanzine days. The horror also revived the memory of a life-changing incident riding a motorbike to school with friends at the age of 16. Please be warned: this episode contains graphic descriptions of death.
In recent years, despite an ongoing battle against PTSD and Major Depressive Disorder, Mike has revamped Toxic Grafity online, both as a depository for his zine writings and as a public space for new ones. He contributed a chapter on 'Mental Liberation' to the 2018 book Ripped, Torn and Cut: Pop, Politics and Punk Fanzines From 1976, published by Manchester University Press.
Toxic Grafity can be found at
https://toxicgrafity134567235.wordpress.com/
Mike Diboll can be found directly at https://www.facebook.com/mikediboll
The Best of Jamming!: Selections and Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up 1977-86 is published by Omnibus Press
OmnibusPress.com
Tony Fletcher can be found at https://tonyfletcher.net/
Tony's latest music, writing and social media can be accessed from https://linktr.ee/TonyFletcher
His One Step Beyond podcast is at https://shows.acast.com/onestepbeyond
'The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast Theme' is by Noel Fletcher.
Logo by Greg Morton
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Tony D. – Tony Drayton to his parents - was founder, publisher and editor of the archetypal, seminal, influential punk fanzine, Ripped & Torn, which ran from 1976-79. Tony F. – who prefers to go by his full name, Tony Fletcher – was founder, publisher and editor of Jamming, which ran from 1977-86. Remarkably, and despite both being so prominent in the London fanzine scene, the pair had never spoken before setting up this podcast interview. That will explain why this episode runs over an hour long, because there was so much to talk about. Included in the conversation, from Tony D.’s perspective:
· Taking the Central Line out to Essex to interview Crass
· Playing “Mods and Rockers” in the primary school playground
· How Tony D. was perceived as Glaswegian but has an English accent
· Growing up in a tiny fishing village
· The mid-70s Scottish music scene
· Tony D’s seminal trip to London to witness the punk scene
· Mark P. of Sniffin’ Glue convincing him to start his own zine
· Ripped & Torn graphics
· Contributors Sandy Robertson and Slip Kid
· The importance of Compendium Books and the Rough Trade record shop
· “Can Rich Stars Rock?”
· A night at the Roxy, circa height of punk rock
· The Ripped & Torn v. Jamming! feud
· Why Adam & The Ants were once the greatest thing ever, and whether we were fooled again by Adam’s ultimate sell-out
· The Public Image cover: “John Lydon… you pathetic little puppet”
· The perils of printing and distribution
· And why Tony D. stopped publishing
Tony went on to start Kill Your Pet Puppy and will be back on the Podcast in the future to talk about that zine and running away with the circus. In the meantime, the book Ripped & Torn 1976-79: The Loudest Punk Fanzine in the UK is available through Omnibus Press at https://omnibuspress.com/products/ripped-torn
And you can find Tony D. on FB if you look for him under his real name.
The Best of Jamming!: Selections and Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up 1977-86 is published by Omnibus Press
OmnibusPress.com
Tony Fletcher can be found at https://tonyfletcher.net/
Tony's latest music, writing and social media can be accessed from https://linktr.ee/TonyFletcher
One Step Beyond podcast is at https://shows.acast.com/onestepbeyond
'The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast Theme' is by Noel Fletcher.
Logo by Greg Morton.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Back in 1980, Alan Rider started a fanzine in Coventry called Adventures in Reality. Over in Southend-on-Sea, Graham Burnett started his own fanzine called New Crimes. Forty years later, independently, without knowing each other, Alan and Graham both felt compelled to document their home city's thriving scene zine - Alan, with Tales from the Ghost Town: The Coventry Punk Fanzine Revolution 1979-1985 - and Graham, with Southend-on-Zine: FIfty Years of Voices and Stories from Southend's Underground and Alternative Press. Tony Fletcher, who started his Jamming! fanzine back in 1977, brought them together for the first time on this Zoom call to talk about their adventures in self-publishing, the thriving scenes they were part of. the ups and downs of running a 'zine back in the supposed heyday, why they took on the giant task of putting these compendiums together, and how the lessons they learned back then have remained applicable to this day. Artists referenced include The Specials, Crass, Dr. Feelgood, Attrition, Speedball, God's Toys, Eyeless In Gaza, Stress, the Sinyx and many more. Fanzines referenced include Hard As Nails, Alternative Sounds, Cobalt Hate, Anti-Social, Sniffin' Glue, Kill Your Pet Puppy, Toxic Graffiti and more.
Tales from the Ghost Town and Alan's compendium of his own zine Adventures In Reality: The Complete Collection are both available from https://adventuresinreality.bigcartel.com/
Southend-on-Zine is available from https://spiralseed.co.uk/product/southend-on-zine/, as is the Vegan Book of Permaculture and more. A short video about Southend-on-Zine is on YouTube here.
Tony Fletcher can be found at https://tonyfletcher.net/
Tony's latest music, writing and social media can be accessed from https://linktr.ee/TonyFletcher
One Step Beyond podcast is at https://shows.acast.com/onestepbeyond
The Best of Jamming!: Selections and Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up 1977-86 is published by Omnibus Press
OmnibusPress.com
'The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast Theme' is by Noel Fletcher.
Logo by Greg Morton.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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THE JAMMING! FANZINE PODCAST is back after a year in exile, now as a Podcast for and about all Fanzines, though still hosted by former Jamming! editor/publisher Tony Fletcher. For this first episode of a new series/season, Tony interviews the authors of the excellent new hardbook book, WE PEAKED AT PAPER: AN ORAL HISTORY OF BRITISH ZINES, namely Gavin Hogg and Hamish Ironside. Before, after and when they could, even during the pandemic, they traveled the length and breadth of the British Isles to track down editors of fanzines dating back to the science fiction era that launched the culture, through the punk, post-punk, new wave, indie and Brit-pop eras of the music fanzines, stopping off to discuss a couple of football fanzines along the way, and ending up in the thriving 2020s world of perzines, compzines, and idiosyncratic little one-off publications in a variety of sizes and some with print runs in the single digits.
It's a fascinating, lovingly compiled, and highly professional book - and the interview covers a similarly wide range of subject matter. Tony, Gavin and Hamish date the first ever British 'fanzine' back to 1936 (Novae Terrae), they debate what defines a fanzine, the commonalities among the various editors they interviewed, the shift from the music press culture (including those of fanzines) as a 'men's club' to the current 'zine fairs predominantly frequented by female editors, the financial struggles experienced by most zine editors, those moments of recognition that make it all worthwhile. And David Icke.
Among the editors and zines referenced in this podcast that were also featured in WE PEAKED AT PAPER:
Rob Hansen (Epsillon)Mark Perry (Sniffin' Glue)Mick Middles (Ghast Up)Mark Hodkinson (Untermensch)Pete Paphides (Perturbed)Karen Ablaze (Ablaze!)Siaân Pattendon (How to Win Friends and Influence People)Saskia Holling (Heavy FLow)Saleena Laverne Daye (Without You, I'm Nothing)Elias Nebula (The Hegelian)and of courseHamish Ironside (Soudade) andGavin Hogg (Bag of Tricks and Candy Sticks)WE PEAKED AT PAPER can be purchased from Boatwhistle books at https://www.boatwhistle.com/we-peaked-at-paper.
Gavin Hogg's podcast, The Giddy Carousel of Pop, is at https://giddypoppod.home.blog/
Tony Fletcher can be found at https://tonyfletcher.net/
Tony's latest music, writing and social media can be accessed from https://linktr.ee/TonyFletcher
One Step Beyond podcast is at https://shows.acast.com/onestepbeyond
The Best of Jamming!: Selections and Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up 1977-86 is published by Omnibus Press
OmnibusPress.com
'The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast Theme' is by Noel Fletcher.
Logo by Greg Morton.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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