Precautions Essentielles Pour La Bonne #1, 1981

PLEASE, WE SAY TO YOU NOW, 

DO NOT ACCEPT THOSE THINGS, 

ESPECIALLY THOSE THAT HAPPEN EVERYDAY 

AND SEEM NATURAL, 

FOR IN THESE TIMES OF PLANNED CONFUSION 

AND DELIBERATE VIOLENCE, 

WHEN BLOOD RUNS AND MEN ARE INHUMAN TO MEN, NOTHING MUST BE CALLED NATURAL, 

SO THAT NOTHING SHALL REMAIN UNCHANGED

Ok ok so I’ve used that quote before – but boy does it bear repeating. Inhumans, with their craven bleating press-pack-propagandists obediently at heel, have hidden the ‘deliberate violence’, cooked the books on their wholesale savagery, cranked-up the ‘newspeak’ mangle and fashioned lofty conceits to enable their filthy trade: ‘responsibility to protect’ and ‘humanitarian interventionism’ play loud to a somnambulant populace at large. Right, so who’s next? Oh hang on - we’ve not done for Syria yet. Nothing personal you understand – it really is just business. Anyway, I hope your reading of Precautions Essentielles Pour La Bonne doesn’t leave you as seething as mine just did me. Credit to Julian Vicious, Dan, Pete, Nick, Mark and Ben for delivering: top flight interviews with The Diagram Brothers, Poison Girls and Zoundz; live reviews of Flux of Pink Indians/Zoundz at the Moonlight Club, Funeral Directors/Waxwork Dummies/FoPI at Chats Palace, Six Minute War/FoPI/Eraserhead/Sinyx/Dialectics at Action Space (Anti Vivisection Benefit); spleen venting on advertisements, war, selling out and the commodification of Sid; appraisals of SMW/Theatre of Hate 7”s and FoPI’s tape. Sprinkled liberally with collage and Crass’ lyrics. A corker I tell ya!


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Precautions Essentielles Pour La Bonne #1

Smart Verbal #6, 1980

There is no peace

we are at war

war has become a permannent state of reality 

Here's a well-stuffed and varied fanzine from Brum courtesy of Boz, Mo and Zo. The letter from Crass is a reproduced gig handout. SV#6 also features: Delayed Reaction, Vision Collision, Eyeless in Gaza, Suzy Varty (Brass Lip), poetry from Peter Becker Flecker, M. Newton and Andy C., live reviews of Naked Lunch/Shock/Theatre of Hate/Classix Nouveaux at Nottingham Rock City, Guilty Millionaires/The Prisoners at the Star Club; The Thompson Twins, The Instant Automatons, The Privates, a host of fanzine reviews, Deleted Records mini profile (Radio Silence, Eating People, Blues Masters of the Humber Delta, Peter Paints His Fence ep); Cassette Confrontation looks at the rise of independent cassettes (Loss of Head, Undercovermen, Drumland Dreamland) and elsewhere there are lots of reviews/contact addresses for tape producers; Brian Brain, Blurt, Floozy I Need You, Partizans, and Bron Area interviewed.  

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Smart Verbal #6

The Gargoyle & Nosey Neighbours Supplement #4, 1980

ED. "What inspired the song I'm in Love with Margaret Thatcher?"

Haggis, "Cos we hate her"

An utterly charming little fanzine is The Gargoyle & Nosey Neighbours Supplement. Produced in Mytholmroyd by Steve Baldwin, this issue of TG&NNS is almost entirely text; the Plectrum Boy comic strip being the only graphic concession. Issue 4 features a decent, if silly interview with The Not-Sensibles; letters of jesting menace and encouragement from The Dresden Tax Dodgers and Discharge Cal respectively; a review of Futurama [Gary Glitter / Athletico Spizz 80 / Boots For Dancing / Hazel O'Connor / The Psychedelic Furs / Echo & The Bunnymen / Brian Brain / The Flowers / The Soft Boys / Young Marble Giants / The 4be2s]; Popeye / Annie Anxiety / Poison Girls / Crass at Halifax Lee Mount Club (including a brief interview with Pete Wright); Belladonna / The Magnetos at Hebden Bridge + news, charts, gig guide and crossword. 

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The Gargoyle & Nosey Neighbours Supplement # 4      

Back Issue #4, 1981

Aidan Brennan and Derek Fischer's Back Issue is yet another cracking fanzine out of West London. BI#4 features interviews with Adam &The Antz, Another Pretty Face, Modern English, and The Cravats (see here for a bundle of Cravats ephemera). Reviews: 7"s - Au Pairs, Cabaret Voltaire, Modern English, Virgin Prunes, Delta 5, Misty in Roots, Augustus Pablo, Mass, Young Marble Giants, Vic Goddard & The Subway Sect, Bauhaus, Television Personalities, Motorhead/Girlschool, Depeche Mode, Crass, New Order, Nikki Sudden, Theatre of Hate, Bow Wow Wow; LPs - The Damned, The Wall, Small Faces, Theatre of Hate. Cherry Red Records profile featuring Eyeless in Gaza, The Transmitters, Five or Six, Medium Medium, Second Layer, and The Dead Kennedys + local news/info on Missing Presumed Dead and The Transmitters. PEANUTS?

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Back Issue #4

The Other Side #1, 1981

Kill Nostalgia. 

Admire the view 

now we have reached the top of the Pistols’ 

thorny stockade, 

there is an exhilarating slide down to 

THE OTHER SIDE

a new age!

Well I for one would be well & truly knackered without nostalgia – and ditto many of the fine blogs in my roll I reckon. Still, within its ’81 context it’s easy to empathize with the sentiment. Besides, boasting such excellent ‘issue’-driven interviews with the likes of Killing Joke (Anti Christ Crusade), The Au Pairs (Feminist Reality & Rolf Harris), Linton Kwesi Johnson (Equality, Justice Peace), The Specials (The Greatest Show on Earth), and John Peel (Distress Signals From Peel Acres); The Other Side not only talked the talk, it walked the walk also. And deftly so it must be said - TOS is a somewhat slick production out of Luton headed-up by Neil Rowland & Paul Wellings and features written contributions from Michael Morgan, Jessica Adams, Desmond Hunt and Stephen Saltzberg, accompanied throughout by Hope Row's and Lesley Smith's smashing photography. The nearest we get to a review of any description is the snazzy 1 page plug for Afraid Of Mice and the couple of live The Teardrop Explodes photos from Dunstable. Elsewhere there’s Ronnie Scott’s Twilight Paradise; Strength Through Joi sticks the boot into Oi; and Rock on the Rocks celebrates “new pop ethics”. A great fanzine. 

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The Other Side #1   

White Stuff #6, 1977

MESSAGE TO JAMES: 

sorry, but the pistols just made quarter of a million...they don't need any free promo from me any more...

 
Sandy Robertson's White Stuff, as namechecked in the last Sniffin' Glue post, features contributions from Alex Fergusson (no introductions should be needed for this chap), Glenn Marks, Tony D., and Skid Kid (Ripped & Torn co-conspirator). White Stuff is clearly something of PattiSmithzine: this issue has Patti art, Hotel art and a Devotion to Arthur Rimbaud. Elsewhere, there's The Colossus of Henry Miller by Frank Letchford, which includes the questionable assertion, "women lack the vitality and curiosity for bold experience". I'm not overly familiar with Miller's oeuvre so maybe Letchford is just citing the writer - whatever, I couldn't let that slip through unchecked. Glenn Marks', No More Heroes, looks at 'half ready' product and assesses the criteria for hero status. You can find more commentary on Sandy here, here and here from Alex F. on his and Sandy's close association.

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White Stuff #6

Sniffin' Glue #7, 1977

 

Hits, downloads and comments prove Sniffin' Glue #12  to be by far the most popular e.e. post, so it's about time we had a gander at another of Mark P's inspirational efforts. The back page is missing from my copy so I've tacked on scans from Sniffin' Glue: The Essential Punk Accessory - again, I recommend scoring a copy of that book while you can - - it's got the full bloody run in it! At any rate, the back page Track ad adds to Mark's remarking about the "£60" so it's well worth having sight of it and we wouldn't wanna be without Erica Echenberg's Hang Up now would we? SG#7 is pre-Danny Baker but Steve Mick, Harry T. Murlowski and EE are on board for comments and photos. Mark P. interviews The Adverts and Don Letts; The Gorillas at The Nashville reviewed; news on The Clash and Generation X; U.S. scene namechecking with Nerves, Low Numbers, Bizarros, Thundertrain, Count Viglione, Gizmos, Venus & The Razorblades, Sneakers, Slickee Boys, Pentagram and Pictures; vinyl reviews - Buzzcocks, Spiral Scratch (including enthusiastically reproduced Breakdown lyrics), The Stranglers, Johnny Moped, The Gorillas, Talking Heads, Crime and The Ramones Leave Home +++ "fanzines that have come out since the last issue: Teenage Depression/White Stuff/Kid's Stuff/More-on 2/Zip-vinyl/Sideburns 2/O.D 2/Flicks/Fishnet Tights"....you see, inspiring! "See yer..." 

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Sniffin' Glue #7

Nihilistic Vices #1, 1979

IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS SWEET F.A.
THEN WE GOT UP AND PRODUCED
NIHILISTIC VICES

So, 'Not Just A Fanzine' eh? Well I am inclined to agree. It has the feel of a Toxic Graffitti or some such - though not quite as dense as TG. Contributors for issue 1 include Jonny Cretin, Grolly Green, Tarka the Otter, Dibblewacky and Dormouse - I wish I had their real names. Anyway, NV is a great non-fanzine featuring: short pieces on Nuclear Power, drugs (socially acceptable and otherwise), ethical dressing with Punky Plimmies, the Tories coming to power in So, Maggie Snatcher's in, and The Nihilistic Vices' Guide to Street Credibility; The Great Rock 'N' Roll Bore cartoon; controversial singles in the shape of The Clash - Cost Of Living EP, The Damned - Love Song, XRay Spex - Inflammable Material, Chas & Dave - Gertcha, and ATV - The Force is Blind; 7"s - The Mekons, The Pack, Crisis, Bauhaus, Spizz Energi, UK Decay/Pneumania, Gloria Mundi, and The Wall; LPs - UK Subs, Punishment of Luxury, Joy Division, Gary Numan, Tubeway Army, and The Fall; poetry; interesting collage; live review of Slaughter & the Dogs; and a review of Patrik Fitzgerald's, Poems.

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Nihilistic Vices #1

Jim Marshall 1923-2012

R.I.P. Jim

Paul Gilbert 1961-2012

R.I.P. Paul

Barricade #2, 1980

Come on don't be so apathetic write to me if only to say what a load of dross BARRICADE is...

Barricade #2 eases-up a little on its Northern Ireland fixation and tips its hat to the Republic's rising stars, U2 - oh, and there's a 1 page plug for Virgin Prunes. Of course NI is revisited with a Rudi feature and an Introduction to the band from Good Vibrations record shop/label founder, Terri Hooley. Elsewhere we have interviews with 3 Minutes and 96 Tears + live reviews of The Well Endowed/96 Tears, The Piranhas, U2, Bad Manners and Ultravox.

   

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Barricade #2