Alternative Sounds #17, 1980

Here's the penultimate issue of Martin Bowes', Alternative Sounds. Martin (still active in the band Attrition) pulled-off a remarkable feat in producing all 18 copies of Alternative Sounds between February '79 - November '80. I say remarkable because as issue 17 attests, Alternative Sounds was a rather snazzy proposition, not at all a slap-dash affair. Check out the nifty variations in layout and presentation - all making for a dazzlingly dynamic fanzine experience. Apparently the name, Alternative Sounds, was something of a swipe at the decidedly more corporate, Sounds. At any rate, Martin was clearly a dab-hand at the fanzine lark and here in #17 he kindly offers notes from his mooted guide to fanzine creation. Elsewhere we see Martin championing Coventry fanzines (1 page), another page given over to fanzines in general + Do-it-Yourself; tips and pointers to creating a fanzine. Lastly, Martin offers a teaser for the then upcoming Something Else' visit to Coventry on which he was set to demonstrate the art of fanzine creation. A true ambassador for the D.I.Y. ethic, make no mistake. Elsewhere, Alternative Sounds is stuffed to the point of bursting with: profiles - Ambivalent Scale collective, Coventry record shops, The Civil Servants, The Silence, The Wild Boys; interviews - The Abstracts, God's Toys (featuring former AS contributor Dill); reviews - Boys & Girls Comp' (The Human Cabbages, The Clique Syndicate, L'Homme de Terre, The Famous 5, First Offence), Bouncing in the Red Comp' (Steel Pulse, Steve Gibbons, Ricky Cool, UB40, The Denizens, Dangerous Girls), T Rex, Cockney Rebel, The Dead Kennedys, The Louder Animal Group, The Observe, The Damned, Killing Joke, The Glaxo Babies; cassettes - Fantaccini Playground (The Muliple Jesu), The Stick Insects (Puritan Ethic), Cryptic Clues (Half Alive); live - The Fall, The Nightingales; letters and news on X-Certs, the Bush Telegraph, and the Squad's splitting-up. Brilliant stuff!

A3 folded (glossy wrappers) scanned at 600 dpi

Alternative Sounds #17