Toxic Grafitty #4 (inc, N.R.R.), 1979

THE MAIN PLANK OF ANARCHISM IS THE REMOVAL OF VIOLENCE FROM HUMAN RELATIONS.

Ericco Malatesta

Right, so now we have a far fuller picture of N.R.R./TG courtesy of the good folk at Kill Your Pet Puppy - huge thanks to Chris Low for delving into his archive and sharing this fascinating letter from Mike Diboll:
'
Toxic Grafitty started life as 'No Real Reason' named after the line in 'holidays in the sun' the first issue went out in Oct '78 with a circulation of 50 copy, eventually this went up to 200 copys and the March '79 issue was to contain one of the earliest Crass interviews done by a fanzine, along with Poison Girls and the Wall, and lots of writeing about my own opinions. Unfortuneately I was stopped by the old Bill when I had a copy of that issue, and they 'threw the book at me' for every petty traffic offence that they could think of, confiscated the copy of the the zine, threatened me, and said if they saw the title on the street, or me with it, I would have 'an accident'. So I decided to change the title to Toxic Grafitty which I thought up on the spur of the moment, and I thought it summed up the content of the zine at the time. That summer Crass, Poison Girls and the Epileptics (A.K.A. 'Flux OF Pink Indians') did a benefit gig for the zine at conway hall in centeral London, which raised about £200, that summer the zine reemerged under it's new title and sold 500 copys, another sucsessfull issue came out in December '79 featuring stuff by Crass, Eratics, Epileptics, rubbela ballet and the heretics, this issue sold about 1,000 copys, and gained it a reputation as being a particularly anarchistic zine.

'

arround that time I started to talk to Crass about the idea of collaberateing with a zine/flexi-disc package, this zine, like all future copys of T.G. was to have no interviews, just oppinions, graphics, articles, and the occasional set of band lyrics, this zine was due to come out that summer, but the project was, and still is, beset by printing difficults and procrastinations, so the zine didn't appear untill the begining of 1981, when it did apper it was in the form of a 47 page anarchist zine ,with no adverts, and the exelant Crass song Tribal Rival Rebel Revels, recordedd on extra thick flexi material so as to make the sound quality as close to that of a 'solid' record as possible, and with some anarchist stickers, the price 50p, which is good value page for page compared with cheaper zines. So far I have sold 20,00 copys, the record opening up an otherwise unobtainable markets for the zine.

'

The idea of my magazine, I prefere that title to 'fanzine' cos I don't like the 'fan' part of the word, is to promote my views and those of others like me in an as uncompromiseing wau as possible, and to a wider audiance as possible, the content is unashamedly anarchist/pacsifist, and aims to get the reader to look at the shit they see around them in a new light, I belive in is up to people form their own oppinions, TG does not seek to try to indoctrinate people, but to give anarchist thought a wide airing, which the conventional media refuses to give it. I stopped doing interviews and thing because I think they can be cliched and boreing and seldom provide a good platform for the bands themselves. Insted I want to make my writeing and graphics as interesting and inivotive as possible, and to continue with the idea by having a flexi of a band I especialy like and can sympathise with, and giving them a page or two to acompany the flexi, to this end the next copy of TG will have a flexi in it by an exelant London Anarchist punk band call 'CONFLICT' the title of the song is 'Crazy Governments', also I intend to include patches, and maybe stickers. It should be out in September, and I'm hopeing for a sale of 10. 000 copys. In addition I'll soon be getting a duplicateing machine, so I hope to do a smaller more conventional magazine, as wel as doing leaflets and pamphlets and possibly other copies zines for as reasonable price as I can. I don't care if TG only comes out once or twice a year, as long as the end product is good and makes an impact, although the unecessary printing delays are very irritateing, and have bugged TG recently. I'd love to have my own litho.

'

I was very influanced by early punk as a rebellious movment, although I now prefer to write in a 'non alighned' way as far as so-called 'youth culture' goes cos I think they're all a pile of shit to con the arse of people and encourage mindlessness and needless aggro for the participants, and mony, money, money for musical establishment, such as the record companys, papers, cloths makers and so on ad nauseam.

'

I like practicaly any form of music as long as the particular example of the music is good of its kind, and honestly done, and that includes things like jazz and classical music as well as the more usualy talked about kinds of of music like punk, reggae, funk, and so on.

'

My favourite bands/musicians are; Sex Pistols and Clash and early punk in general, John Lennon, some reggae, especialy dub reggae, P.I.L., good disco, Crass, Poison Girls, Throbbing Gristle, John Williams, some oriental music, Elgar, Vaughn Williams, Mussorgsky, Pachabel, Handle, prokofiev, and many others. My Misical dislikes are; practicaly everything in the charts and T.OT.P., especialy moronic Oi Oi-ism and so-called futureist shit, and also all the usual pulp like abba, etc, yours, M.V.D. (Mike)'

Excellent to see so protracted a commentary from Mike on this great fanzine. For sure, TG#4 is jam-packed - practically every inch of page space is utilised. Excellent articles/interviews featuring a seminal bunch of artists: The Eratics, Heretics, Rubella Ballet, Epileptics, Materialschlact, and Mick Duffield offers an extensive breakdown of his film Autopsy. Penny Rimbaud writes, 'Following the 8/9/79 Conway Hall Agro', and elsewhere Mike offers comments on that ill-fated gig. Lots more Mike musings on, 'Willy Whitelaw, Prison and You and Me', R.A.R., Yugoslavian punk, Tribalism and Propaganda Press. Reviews of The Monochrome Set, Poison Girls, Crass, The Feelies, The Pack, Spizz Energi, The Door & Window, Rondos, and Rainbirds. Poetry from Melanie and Annie Anxiety. Also collage, lots of fanzine and book reviews + lyrics and artworks from the featured bands. Superb stuff throughout.

A4 scanned at 400 dpi

Toxic Grafitty #4