Gun Rubber #5, 1977

Rat: What do you think of Mark P now he's sold out?

Me: I've only met him once he seemed OK, but I don't see why a mag with 10 sides and 5 adverts should cost 30p. I think it's a crap mag.

Rat Scabies and Ronnie Clock (Paul Bower)

I've alluded in recent posts to the kinship and camaraderie amongst fanzine writers but clearly, it wasn't always the case - there was of course occasional bouts of bitchiness. It's to be expected I suppose, particularly where opinionated gobshites are concerned and I guess most fanzine writers had their narky moments. Anyway, here's an early one for you - Sheffield's Gun Rubber was the handiwork of Paul Bower, guitarist/vocalist of 2.3, and Adi Newton of Clock DVA. Gun Rubber ran to 7 issues between January and December '77. See here for an excellent and extensive appraisal of this fine fanzine - and I'll spare you my gobbets. Issue 5 has Interviews with The Ramones, The Damned/Rat Scabies; Live reviews of Split Enz, The Adverts, Blondie, and The Drones; Loudmouth (editorial) has a brief fanzine round-up; there's news on Manchester, Generation X; Art Zero in Amsterdam; Lenny Bruce + some excellent letters (especially Anon's diatribe about why Sex Pistols oughtn't return to Sheffield). A tad sparse looking in parts but the witty writing and insightful interviews more than make up for that. Grab it now!

A4 scanned at 600 dpi

Gun Rubber #5

Incendiary #1, 1984

THIS, and every other issue of

'Incendiary'

is the

"we do what we fucking want to"

issue

Another great title that isn't it; Incendiary?! A far sight more dynamic sounding than my drabbly titled fanzine, Creation - how very dull aside the Peroxides, Spitting Pretty Pikktures, Nihilistic Vices and what not. Anyway, I know of no copies of Creation that have survived - phew -thank Clapton for that - it was a terrible article. Unlike Incendiary #1 which is packed with great articles and interviews with The Folk Devils and Brigandage (4 pages apiece), New Model Army, Flowers in the Dustbin, and 3D Scream. Editor John Slam kicks-off with the Manifesto for Action: A Declaration of Intent and along the way vents some spleen on Democracy, abolishment of private education, and going through the motions. Elsewhere John offers a brief appraisal of Black Flag/anarchist publications and a short essay, Only Anarchists R Pretty + fanzine round-up and distro info. Neat Neat Neat!

A3 folded scanned at 600 dpi

Incendiary #1

Peroxide #1, 1979

Licensed Shit

Oh yes, it's another cracker. Quentin 'Norman' Cook's, Andrew Thomas' and Ian Laidlaw's Peroxide ticks all the boxes offering practical advice, good writing, neat layout, great use of graphics, cool photos and multiple entreaties for punters to get involved. The 2nd and last issue acknowledges the encouragement and input from fellow fanzine writers so I'll be sure to post that at some point. Really, the only downside with this smasher is that only 2 issues saw the light. Issue 1 is packed with entertaining interviews and articles (the thorough 'what to do with a demo' piece must have proved very useful to budding bands and musicians). Elsewhere we have: decent inteviews with Adam Ant, Toyah, The Merton Parkas; Rough Trade records in profile; an essay on factional violence; 7"s - Essential Logic, The Plastics, Delta 5, Dr Mix & The Remixes, Scritti Politti, Cabaret Voltaire, The Mo-Dettes, The Monochrome Set, Spizz Energi, Harry J & The Allstars, Madness, Booker T & The MGs, Lena Lovich, John Foxx, Riff Regan, The Special AKA, Simple Minds, Wreckless Eric, OMD, and Toyah; LPs - Talking Heads, and Adam & The Antz; Live - Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe and Rockpile; a report on the Sid Vicious Memorial March; Peroxide charts + news on the Antz' defection to Bow Wow Wow. Penultimate page purposely blank. A right beaut'! 

A4 scanned at 600 dpi      

Peroxide #1