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.

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Sometimes it's worth living? #1

Back Issue #3, 1980

Not So Brave

This here edition of Back Issue is almost wholly comprised of interviews: Flux of Pink Indians, Swell Maps, Athletico Spizz 80, TV Personalities, and The Damned. I think you'll agree, those superb encounters were well worth the 25p asking price for this fine fanzine. Anyway, apart from those sweet offerings there's a very brief article on Girls At Our Best and a couple of pages given over to Better Badges - and why not?

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Back Issue #3

Mick Farren 1943 - 2013

R.I.P. Mick

Alastair Donaldson 1955-2013

R.I.P. William Mysterious

Richie Havens 1941-2013

R.I.P. Richie

Panache #13, 1980

 

Wading through the fanzine pile for this latest post I struck the Panache seam and was frankly amazed that none have appeared here as yet. It's amazing because Panache was a top flight publication and a personal favourite. Anyway I've hastened ahead to #13 primarily to make the astonishing The Cravats interview more readily available. Panache was of course headed-up by Mick Mercer with input from Surly Yout, Jorn and Eric. Interviews: Another Pretty Face, Animals & Men, Ski Patrol, The Cravats (9 pages of small type! + The Shend’s poem, Varicose Veins), The Chaps, and Siouxsie & Steve Severin (intemperate at times on account of MM’s earlier snubbing of an interview offer). There's a review of Derek Jarman’s, The Tempest, Stamp Out Snogging is a call to ban kissing at gigs. There's a handful of reviews: 7”s - The Visitors, Attempted Moustache, Beast; 12” - The Photos + a small article on Toyah + much much more – really, it’s rammed with tons of writing, cut-ups and snippets. Serious value for money.

 

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Panache #13 

Stabmental #2, 1979

 

Tom Craig's and Geoff Rushton's prettily dark Stabmental is a killer fanzine. Oodles of enthusiam from Oundle sees interviews with Chain of Dots (members incl' Garry Bailey, Sharron Borelam, Nag, Bendle, Igor, Mick Clark [One Gang Logic]), Rema-Rema, Clock DVA (feat' Adi Newton of Gun Rubber fame), The Lemon Kittens, and I'm So Hollow; reviews of The Raincoats, Yet Another Temple (tape), and P.I.L.. Ratcheting-up the Sheffield quotient with The Neutron Manifesto. 3 pages are given over to The Tape List - exhaustive I doubt but it is at the very least a fair stab(mental): The Accelerators, A Classic Slice of Teenage Angst, Coventry ZZZ, Daark Inc. Records (Tank Death, Animal Dance, Staff Incompetence, The New Pollution, Your Animals, Everyone Wants to Win, FurFur, Carcass Analysis), Digital Dinosaurs, Elephant Death, The Door & Window, Blank Space, An Hour of Torture, Wye, The Weird Tales Cassette, The Horrible Nurds, Fuck Off Records/Weird Tapes (Back to Sing for Free, Danny & The Dressmakers, 200 Cancelations, Autoverite, Androids of Mu, Weird Sampler, Scars on Sunday, All I can Hear is the Hearing Aids, 39 Golden Grates, Distortion Dub-Funhouse/Living Deadno, Grand Union Canal Mystery - Anthrax for the People), Fine Products, Flat Out, The Industrial Record Cassette Collection, I'm So Hollow, Infrascan, Phillip Johnson, Paul Leckie, Methods of Execution, Paul Möller, Metabolist, Obvious Products, Out of Print, The Popes, Eddie Re, Solo Sam, Chris Scott, Trokkoids, Violent Death Records, Warsaw Pakt, Paul A. Wells, and Waldo Records. For those wishing to savour some of the above delights I highly recommend a trip over to Die or D.I.Y., where many of these tapes have been discussed and uploaded.

 

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Stabmental #2

Voice of Buddha #2, 1980

We've common goals.

We deliver the goods.

We are the kind of men

Who can do the job;

Same fear, same blood;

Same tears, same mud;

Same heights, same hopes;

Same laughs, same jokes.

 

As flagged in the VOB#1 posting this here second, "Happy Issue" of VOB features interviews with Mayo Thompson, John Peel, Adam & The Ants, and The Jam (+ preview of Going Underground lyrics). Elsewhere there's Poet for the 80s?; a piece on Dave Waller along with a review of DW's and Mr. Weller's Riot Stories, Notes From Hostile Street (incl John Cooper Clarke, Linton Kwesi Johnson, and Patrik Fitzgerald). Practise Makes Perfect offers a brief unravelling of Wire. A solitary review of The Bodysnatchers at the (London) Lyceum. Michael and James dish up some snippets of news - notably the Nips split! Not forgetting the smattering of VOBgraphics throughout.

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Voice of Buddha #2      

Tidal Wave #1, 1980

I've noted this as issue 1, though I think it is in fact another one-off affair. Not that its being a stand-alone diminishes its appeal in any way. On the contrary - and this particulary applies to the most welcome interviews - TW is a veritable gem. It was a sole effort by Terri with "thanx [to] Esther for the endless cups of tea and the wonderfulness". The fanzine overall is dedicated to Ian Curtis and in 2 seperate wee articles Terri laments the passing of the esteemed Joy Division frontman. As indicated, there's an excellent selection of interviews with The Tea Set, A Certain Ratio, Young Marble Giants, and The Teardrop Explodes. Joy Division and ACR at the Moonlight under review and Terri's top platters in the Tidal Wave Playlist. TW is yet another Better Badges production. Top flight gubbins.

 

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Tidal Wave #1

 

Kevin Ayers 1944 - 2013

R.I.P. Kevin

Kick #3, 1980

 

“The vagueness of our discontent is the mark of its permanence”. Ahhh, it’s refreshing to come across a choice Orwell quote as a foreword to this fine fanzine. To be clear though, vagueness does not appear to afflict the Kick organisation’s enthusiasm for the spirit of Punk – that enthusiasm being particularly evident in Richard Cabut’s input here – itself bolstered by contributions from Anne Crawford, Chris Gibson and Lill (“if you’re reading get in touch”). Kick #3 sees The Fall, Bauhaus (David Jay), and Pneumania interviewed; gigs by This Heat/The Elevators, Simple Minds/Martian Dance/Wasted Youth, and UK Decay/The Wall/The Dark reviewed. Richard Cabut and Lill offer brief essays on Punk in, Occult Chemistry and A Rather Suss Piece on Punk & Life Thru a Foreign Punk’s Eyes respectively. Luton Punks sneaks a peek at UK Decay, Pneumania, Statics, Urban Warfare, Cinematix, Nervous Surgeons, Project 4, Dresden Maniacs, The Mandies and The Demons. There’s no playlist! Thank Clapton then for the short fanzine round-up and props to Better Badges, without whom (the inestimable Joly MacFie) many of the fanzines posted thus far on ee may never have come into being let alone enjoyed such a wide distribution. I tell ya, a proper celebration of BB on ee is well overdue. In the meantime, if you haven't seen it already, you’ll enjoy this excellent BB article.     

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Kick #3