Monday, 19 August 2013

Sometimes It's Worth Living? #1, 1980 (UPDATED)

A tidy little number is this Sometimes it's worth living? As far as I know it's a one-off. Bristol-based editor, Bridget Peters notes that most of the editorial were situated in Manchester, and that's where Siwl? was printed. Despite being one of the sparser examples; it clocks in at a mere 12 pages, the slightly arch approach to interviewing niftily lifts Siwl? out of the sycophant sink. Mostly comprised of: A Different Way of Thought & Vision - Alternative Reasoning with Steve Ignorant of Crass; Adam Ant Puts His Guts on a Plate for You to Consume or Throw Up; The Art Objects interviewed in Quite Arty Cutey; and essaying Magazine in Culture Vultures. Crass, The Needles, Echo & The Bunnymen, Girls At Our Best, Magazine, The Teardrop Explodes, and the mooted The Square Hyena EP (The Manchester Mekon, Spurtz, The Waste, The Bathroom Renovations) being the concessionary reviews. So yes, however brief, it sure is worth living. 

Here's some lovely commentary just in from contributor, Mary:

Thanks for posting this, what a blast. This is the fanzine I made with my sister – she was in Bristol and I was in Manchester. You’re right, it was a one-off, although that was not the original intention. We started work on issue 2 but we didn’t get around to finishing it.

We sold this at gigs – the most memorable being a Teardrop Explodes gig at the Factory at the Russell Club in Manchester, when a middle-aged man showed an interest in what I was doing and I told him to fuck off (for no particular reason that I can remember now) and he just laughed. I walked away and was immediately surrounded by people asking, admiringly, if I knew him. I didn’t, so they told me it was Tony Wilson and that he owned the club. I’d never heard of him but I was grudgingly impressed that he hadn’t thrown me out or said “do you know who I am?” Years later, I saw 24 Hour Party People (set a few years later, in the Hacienda days) which has a scene where Tony Wilson walks past a queue of people waiting to get into the club and is told to **** off by a girl in the queue for no particular reason. I guess it must have happened to him a lot.

Anyway, good times. We enjoyed making this fanzine and it’s really great to see it here and read your comments. Thanks for scanning this in.


Excellent!. Many thanks for dropping by and commenting, Mary.

A4 scanned at 600 dpi

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