Tuesday, 27 November 2012

NN4 9PZ #4, 1980

 
It has a dead swanky textured cover does issue 4 of NN4 9PZ; a lovely accompaniment for its sterling internals. Excellent work all around sees Chris, Mick, Neil, Tim, and Alan interviewing UK Decay, and Killing Joke (it must be said, the favourable write-up of the KJ encounter shows astonishing goodwill on NN4 9PZ' behalf). There's a mini-feature on Bauhaus; live reviews of 999/Pinpoint, The Zeros/Bauhaus/UK Decay, Antibodies, Killing Joke, UK Decay, The Crew/The Zeros/The Russians, Bauhaus/The Scars, Athletico Spizz 80; poetry from T. Sheppard, and a couple of interesting letters pages (T42 Seaman Stockton (Eklektik) corresponded), along with some of Chris' thoughtful responses. Of course there's the obligatory Playlist and a brief fanzine round-up. Pleasing indeed.

A2 scanned at 600 dpi

Monday, 19 November 2012

Adventuring Into Basketry #2, 1981

 
Here's an actual request fulfillment - issue 2 of Neil Burrows' and Andrew Hulme's AIB (featuring contributions from Monica Bryce, Jonathan Tait, Anna Watson, and Roger Horberry). A wonderfully well-rounded fanzine, issue 2 sees: interviews with Pigbag, The Raincoats, The Comsat Angels, Crispy Ambulance; Submerge Funk One and Submersibles Funk Two focus on "funky Music" (Haircut One Hundred, Heaven 17, Level 42, Blue Rondo A La Turk, Spandau Ballet); reviews of LPs - David Thomas & The Pedestrians, Dislocation Dance, The Diagram Brothers, WNW6 compilation (Artery, Out On Blue Six, The Pinkies, The Room, Dr. Mix & The Remix), Matt Johnson, Depeche Mode, Girls At Our Best, New Order, Ian Dury, Poison Girls, Jowe Head, Richard Earl - 7"s- Method Actors, Vivien Goldman, Lora Logic, Virgin Prunes, Girls At Our Best, Fallout Club, Pigbag, Scritti Politti, Rip Rip & Panic, The Associates, 23 Skidoo, The Cure, Dif Juz, Cabaret Voltaire, The Comsat Angels, John Marlon, Blackouts, Stephen Mallinder, Dance Chapter, Artery, A Certain Ratio - Gigs - Depeche Mode/Blancmange, Linx, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Altered Images, Rip Rig & Panic, Heaven 17; and Spitfire Parade (that's the AIB playlist in Basketmaker's parlance). The lovely lot of it neatly squeezed into 12 perfectly formed pages...hear me hear me - heaR ME HEAR ME!    

A3 folded scanned at 600dpi

Saturday, 3 November 2012

Dry Rot #1, 1979

"AT LAST" indeed! This Dry Rot is a firm favourite of mine - just one of a handful of exceptional items I've been holding back. Produced by Rob Callous from the fabulously low-fi D.I.Y. stalwarts, Six Minute War. As far as I know 3 issues of Dry Rot saw the light. There's no flashy front cover for this fanzine, it just gets right on down to brass tacks from the get go with news on Proles, The Unknown, Riot/Scrambled Acne, Benny Normal, Doggy Ryan, Belgrade, The VDUs, Dyno Rod, The Red Plague, Crass. Great interviews with The Epileptics, Crisis and Crass. Live reviews of AD 1984, The Administrators/The Leopards, Brockwell Park including Stiff Little Fingers/The Verdict/The Spoilsports, Spizz Energi/The Last Words, Splodgenessabounds, Graf X/The Mass/The Licks/Klingons. Featuring Dummy, starring Captain Armpit, Shag Nasty, Mekons (selling out to Virgin), and Manicured Noise + Rob's charts (top and bottom 20 of 1979). Excellent stuff!
 
A4 single sided scanned at 600 dpi
Dry Rot #1     

Thursday, 18 October 2012

Blaze #3, 1984

A fine fanzine this - glimpsed partially in the All The Poets post - here's full mashings of Blaze #3. Out of Peterborough - largely the graft of Janine Booth with many able contributors in Eleanor Linwood, Funky Will, Steve Crosby, Steve Hawkswell, Attila, Sooo Burton, Greg Lutto, and Snakey. Blaze #3 has features on: The Tempest, Everything you ever wanted to know about Northampton but were afraid to ask (incl - N/hampton Musicians Collective Rumpo Records), The Syndromes, Insect Flak, Cellar 16, The Exit Girls, Skating for Cover, Bullets for Silver, Armpit Orchestra, Groovy Underwear, Rouska (Richard Paddison), Some thinks you might like to know about some groups within about a 20-mile radius of Peterborough incl - So What, Perpetual Motion, Plastic Heroes, Method of Exection, The citizens); interviews with Billy Bragg, Swift Nick, Care for a Waltz, Orange Juice; live reviews of The Alarm, The Fleshtones, The Climb, PIL, Redaing Rock Festival (incl - The Stranglers, Big Country, Steel Pulse, Auto De Fe, Pendragon, Solstice, Hanoi Rocks, Man), The Big One @ Victoria Apollo (incl - The Style Council, Mari Wilson, Ian Dury, Hazel O'Connor, Elvis Costello, Paul Young, Passion Puppets), GBH/Conflict/ Chaos, Hiroshima Peace Day Festival (incl - Jo Boxers, Orange Juice, Pauline Black, Orchestre Jazira, Lost Loved Ones, Big Country, One The Juggler, The Icicle Works, Billy Bragg, Taming The Outback); poetry in the guise of Ranting at the Nation (incl - Attila the Stockbroker, Steve Hawkswell); plus Letters and Crossword

A4scanned at 600 dpi

Friday, 5 October 2012

Pink Flag #6, 1980

Here's issue 6 of the excellent Sheffield fanzine, Pink Flag. Predominantly concerned with the local scene, Gary Birchall's extended live features on inter/national bands coupled with Pat Mackle's photographs provide enough interest for those outside the Socialist Republic. Issue 6 contains: news on Clock DVA, Artery, The Naughtiest Girl was a Monitor, They Must Be Russians, Corridor, Veiled Threat/Active Gliders, Sexual Lotion/Daktari, Dum Dum Dum; interviews with De Tian, Vice Versa, New Model Soldier; features on Hula, Comsat Angels, Objet D'Art; live features on Dead Kennedy's/UK Decay, Echo & The Bunnymen, Simple Minds; and poetry from Sheffield lexical juggler, Mark Mywords.   
 
A4 scanned at 400 dpi
Pink Flag #6    

Saturday, 29 September 2012

Acts of Defiance #7, 1983

 
As a lame atonement for the late-summer hiatus I'm posting this chunky bugger - the 40 riotous pages of Acts of Defiance #7. Yes, 40! True, Sned's already made AoDs available on The UK Zine Archive, but here's an opportunity to point you in that direction if you've yet to discover the place. Raf, Russ and Mike at the helm with: interviews - Famous Imposters, Annie Anxiety, Faction, Poison Girls; issues - veganism, Territorial; Army, Militarism, voluntary unemployment, In The City (capitalism), battery chickens, Nuclear Power Fades Your Genes (nuclear accidents), Youth Opportunity Programme; a liberal sprinkling of fanzine round-ups; updates on The Station; tape reviews - Youth in Asia, Napalm Death, Political Asylum, Autumn Poison, Passion Killers, Flowers in the Dustbin, The Committee, Self Abuse, Chumbawamba; a notice on 91 Products; Grangetown Anarcho Punk Gang cartoon; a mini feature on The Stoned Rayzens; and poetry from Edible, Annie Anxiety, Wilfred Owen, and Andy T....and speaking of the lovely fellow... 
Sheffield Marples 1983 pic Andrew Medcalf
...it's well worth noting the recent release of Andy's long player, Life at Tether's End. Yes! Some 32 years since his first appearance on Bullshit Detector we take delivery of this delightful lolloping slab of Andy at his seething 'n' bristling best. Generally I'm not really an advocate of reviews, rather, an adherent of the popular dictum; "writing about music is like dancing about architecture". Suffice to say, there's much to admire in Andy's approach to kicking-up a stink about social injustice and the venality of the political class. Certainly his has been a welcome return to the fray in recent years. As with recent live outings, LaTE sees Andy presenting the poetry in a musical setting interspersed with purely spoken elements. Whilst there's preference here for the highly affective raw ranting, there are some gems amongst the musical offerings, notably the clarion call of the scathing broadside, I Still Fucking Hate Thatcher (itself released as a very attractive 7" on 1in12 records by way of a benefit single for the venerable Club), and the wonderfully depressive Wooden Curtains. Alongside the many excellent new excursions, the CD handily compiles many of the classics first showcased here. LaTE is the debut release on the resurrected All The Madmen records, and it's got to be said that ATM have set the bar bloody high for future releases. The sturdy package houses a 96 page booklet featuring Andy biographised and interviewed by Richard Cubesville and a rake of ace agitart and illustrations accompanying the poetry and lyrics. Easily worth a tenner!          

A4 scanned at 600dpi
Acts of Defiance #7         

Monday, 3 September 2012

Voice of Buddha #1, 1979

 
DEAR READERS,
in this 1st issue we bring you interviews with the Slits, the Modettes and the Detours. Not content with that, we slag off the Stranglers and the Buzzcocks, while drooling over the Human League. Apart from that you'll have to find out for yourself.

NEXT issue (2) will contain interviews WITH THE JAM, ADAM & THE ANTS, MAYO THOMPSON & JOHN PEEL and anyone else upon whom we drunkenly stumble We love you
THE EDITORS...

...namely: Muf (Michael Leonards) and Jim (James Naylor) giving you the lowdown there. I reckon they snaffled the title from the Human League's, Being Boiled. Nothing to add to that really other than VOB #1 also features a brief track-by-track review of The Jam's, Setting Sons. Oh, and issue 2 did contain all they predicted it would - I'll post that one anon. Listen to the....

A4 folded scanned at 600 dpi

Thursday, 30 August 2012

Mucilage #2, 1984

Here are the 26 jam-packed pages of Mucilage #2 out of St, Albans courtesy of Aidan and Allan Clifford featuring incisive input from Coral, Debbie and Dave. Top notch interviews with Crass, The Cult, New Model Army, 400 Blows, New Kick, and The Redskins; features on Dr Who & the Rise of Timelord Chic, D.O.A., Beauty Without Cruelty & For Fox's Sake focus on vivesection, animal testing, and bloodsports along with the angry accompaniment of the stirring Black Mass' lyric, Scum (elsewhere there's a note on BM + This is Britain lyric); news on The Shout; live reviews of The Shout, Penumbra/Karma Sutra/No Defences/Chumbawamba, Husker Du; Clive Pig 12" reviewed; Today's Fashionable Cause; comic strips (Nosey Nigel, Baz Razz - He's Always Sick [i.e. he vomits a lot]) + Mucilage charts and a plug for the Mucilage Press, Some Jolly Cheap Printing. 

A4 scanned at 600 dpi

Thursday, 23 August 2012

City Chains #2, 1977

Don't ya just love that snap of The Bazoomis' Metin Kamil (R.I.P.) sneering at ya from the cover of this fanzine? There's a fantastic write-up and live review of The Bazoomis at The Roxy in this the second issue of City Chains - it's such a shame that we can't actually hear how the band sounded. Apparently they did record a demo but legend has it that the blighter is languishing in some obscure cupboard just awaiting to be rediscovered. Worth noting though, members of the band did go on to form the estimable The Expressos, and The Escape Club. Anyway, this here fanzine was the work of Chig and Elaine and a right riveting read it is too. Apart from the tantalising look at The Bazoomis, issue 2 also includes an interview with The Boomtown Rats, The Members and The Victims live at The Roxy, You & The Pistols appraises Sex Pistols, the punk movement under discussion in, Posh or Poor?, news on Sham 69, Ian Dury, The Yachts, and The Damned + a spot of carping about Elvis Costello on Top of the Pops. I like it...

A3 folded scanned at 600 dpi

Wednesday, 15 August 2012

Dangerous Logic #3, 1978


Issue 3 of Oliver Lowenstein's, Dangerous Logic is quite a contrast to recent posts such as Grinding Halt. DL is something of professional-looking proposition with design and layout credits going generally to Ian Denning, and Laura Rae Chamberlain for the rather stylish cover. Oliver remains vibrantly active in publishing, primarily through his Fourth Door Review, which is essentially a vehicle for championing the benefits of progressive societies - or as Oliver would put it: "[t]he way I imagine it, the Fourth Door is a way into possible futures, with the emphasis on the plurality implied by possible. It feels today as if the increasing tug and ubiquity of one omnidominant official future, drowns out the capacity to even imagine other, unofficial futures."

Anyway, this edition of DL features a superb bunch of interviews with, and articles on Pere Ubu, The Fall, Buzzcocks and Caroline Coon. The only whiff of a review comes in the shape of an appraisal of Julie Burchill's and Tony Parsons', The Boy Looked at Johhny. A cracking read throughout.

A3 folded scanned at 600 dpi

Friday, 10 August 2012

Grinding Halt #8, 1980

Here's another cracking issue of Callous and Snide's Grinding Halt. It's always a pleasure to see the GH masthead screaming out from ee but really I'm posting this now as an artifice directing you towards Stewart "Eddie Snide" Osbourne's, Grinding Halt Facebook page onto which Stewart has begun uploading the full run of the fanzine - topper stuff indeed. As with all GHs, #8 is heaving with delights, namely: superb interviews with The Passions, The Skids (Richard Jobson), Killing Joke, The Dead Kennedys (Jello Biafra); live reviews of The Suspects/The Seize, The Passions, The Diagram Brothers/The Undercoverman/Freudianslip, The Delmontes/Foreign Press, The Thing/Paris/Foreign Press, The Revillos, The Saints, The Skids, The Specials/Swinging Cats/223, The Comsat Angels/Liliput/Wah! Heat/Killing Joke/Pink Military (what an extraordinarily ace line-up!), The Dead Kennedys/UK Decay, The Ramones/The Spectres, Rockpile/The Polecats, John Cooper Clarke, The Durutti Column Pauline Murray & The Invisible Girls; tons of vinyl reviews - 7"s, The Seize, Potent Human EP (Manchester Mekon, The Spurtz, The Liggers, Bathroom Renovations), 8 From '80, A Carlisle Compilation (The Spive, The Pedestrians, Mr Buider, No Support, The Toolbox Murderers, The Limps), Killing Joke, Liliput, Sector 27, The Spectres, Mo-Dettes, Basement 5, Glaxo Babies, Bullseye, UK Subs, Dolly Mixture, Purple Hearts, Echo & The Bunnymen, X-S Discharge, The Monochrome Set, The Professionals, The Distractions, Wasted Youth, Josef K, The Residents, The Rat & The Whale, The Tea Set, Gen X, Poly Styrene, Orange Juice, Athletico Spizz 80, The Revillos, The Passions, The Damned, The Teardrop Explodes, Joy Division, Victim, The Diagram Brothers, The Astronauts, Some of My Best Friends are Canadians, Data, The Psychedelic Furs, Motorhead, The Bollock Brothers, The Stiff Sampler (The Equators, Joe "King" Carrasco & The Crowns, Tenpole Tudor, Dirty Looks, Any Trouble); 12"s, The Saints, The Skids, The Specials, The Cockney Rejects, Killing Joke, UK Subs, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, The Piranhas, XTC; and a mini feature on Bugle Records (Johnny Curious, The Astronauts, Bob Green, The Produkt, The Screws, War Effort, The Plague 1980).

A3 folded scanned at 600 dpi

 Allied Propaganda Issue 2, July/August 1979 Any fanzine is worth checking out if you can spare the time or money, if only for the principle...