I got a job working at express dairy working on a machine that folded invoices into envelopes and had a bit of money coming in so I made issue 2. I was heavily influenced by all the European punk music I was listening to hence the inclusion of some interviews I did via the post with those bands from places I'd never visited. The cover featured a naked child standing in a sink (not very PC!) There was a guy who worked at the dairy who was a friend of my dad. Vic Doors was his name, he made the masks that featured in the Vincent price film MONSTER CLUB. He said he had a picture of his brother that would look good, so I went with it.
The first 2 issues were printed by someone in Lincoln and I decided to change printers and size of the zine. I was really enjoying a lot of the A5 zines at the time such as Raising Hell (by Sik o war) and Final Curtain (by Paul May) both differed in style but I loved them both. My issue 3 was influenced by them and the cover photo with the stuck on spiky black hair was ME! I seem to recall as a child wearing a fetching home knitted cardigan sitting in the front room, typical watch the birdy set up with a photographer. Onto issue 4, I hurried it and the cover I put together was shit, used the same picture but smaller but the contents were good. issue 5 I took a picture off a punk show flyer from the USA, and I really didn't put much effort into the zine at all, most of it was hand written and it was poorly put together,it was the zine I was most disappointed with putting out, but some great interviews. I had a go at arranging a couple of gigs in Hayes at the time at an Irish pub called the Adam + Eve, it had a large hall out the back. Someone had been putting on some bands and I'd seen ACTION PACT play there, I asked if I could arrange a few punk ones and the guy arranging the venue said yes. I first approached CONFLICT but they wanted a stage and to be honest it was small for them. I finally got round to arranging one with ANTISECT and another with THE INSTIGATORS and made the arrangements, flyers were made, posters put up on local bus stops and listings in sounds + N.M.E, then the week before the gigs the pub lost its licence to have live bands!!!! Oh Shit! I couldn't stop the adverts in the papers and so I put up a flyer at the PUB to say they were cancelled. I remember seeing punks around Hayes area and I was so gutted. That was first and last attempt at arranging a gig. Just stick with the fanzine Paul. Issue 6 was when I took the zine seriously, there was a flourishing DIY punk ethic scene, gigs galore and fantastic bands around. I'd started going to other cities for gigs, Birmingham, Coventry & Ipswich. London had regular shows, particular favorite of mine was Hammersmith Clarendon. Lots of foreign bands were touring the UK and it seemed 1986 was exploding in Hardcore punk glory. Extreme Noise Terror, Napalm Death, Ripcord, Stupids, Electro Hippies. The 1,000 zines sold well and I had a great feedback. I think it was my favourite cover as well, Dean from Extreme noise terror on the front. I was really pleased to get Chaos UK in the issue which covered their tour of Japan. I also had the pleasure of getting an interview with sik o war who did Raising Hell fanzine. Issue 7 saw an increase in USA bands, D.R.I & Corrosion of Conformity. I found that with so many zines at the time covering bands I moved onto covering people involved in other ways in the scene. Daz Russell who was behind tour promotions and put on amazing gigs at the mermaid Birmingham. As many of you should know he still promotes gigs and has been behind a lot of the big punk festivals in the UK. Martin Sprouse appeared from the influential Maximum rock n roll magazine. This issue saw the addition of NATIONAL UK PUNKZINE title on the cover. Not sure why I did that, I think it was my attempt at being a uk maximum rock n roll (No Chance!) I did enlist some columnists, just some friends and some other notable people on the scene, Mick Slaughter from the excellent Obituary fanzine & Slug from Decadence within (who some of you may know as Ian Glasper who is the author of the fantastic historic punk books BURNING BRITAIN / THE DAY THE COUNTRY DIED / TRAPPED IN A SCENE & ARMED WITH ANGER). Issue 8 Took on a new look with it's first Glossy cover, just to make it look slicker. It also had another tour diary which the Instigators put together as well as providing a great cover. I focused on smaller bands for this one as I was coming across so many good ones when going to gigs at the time. The only problem I was finding was keeping up with the mail I was getting, I was getting swamped and it was really just me doing it! I had so much stuff to publish I quickly released Issue 8 1/2 which went from 60 to 76 pages!! the price had to go up to 50p and I could only afford to print 800 as I still had lots of issue 8 to sell. I crammed all the outstanding materials in. Along with lots of reviews etc..... but I didn't enjoy doing this one as much and once the majority was sold I decided to call it a day. It was taking up to much of my time and the scene seemed to be slowing down, but the music was speeding up and bands were becoming metal or not really appealing as much as before, it was becoming copycat. Shame really.
Fast forward 8 years and I'd gone through the music mangle, I like many others got into the the Acid house scene and it was electric. Fuck all message in the music other than dance and be friendly. It felt quite anarchic and liberating in away not like the judgemental splintered punk movement. The male domination had gone, the presence of people from all colours and creed coming together as well. I know it was a drug thing to most, I didn't pop any pills, I smoked weed a bit but I preferred a drinking than the pill popping water drinking brigade. Listening to punk music never left me, I kept listening to new stuff coming out. It was like having 2 lives. The punk and dance music combination, what a cocktail. It was 1994 I was in a long term relationship at the time and I'd started picking up zines again, getting in festivals such as Glastonbury and Reading. The 'Brit pop' scene had kicked off and a new excitement for BANDS had appeared at last! The underground punk scene seemed to be thriving and I had a renewed energy to get involved once again. On my honeymoon I made a decision to start the zine up again. Issue 9 So 1995 with a coloured glossy cover saw the resurrection and close friends helped out this time with contributing. My wife had attended her first Glastonbury and wrote a report and I tried to mix Punk with Indie to appeal to both sides. I think it went ok. It was good to get different readers who wouldn't normally bother with stuff like this and the sales were pretty good. It did indeed seem like a great time for music in general. Issue 10 covered Reading festival and an interview with Dig from Earache records as well as a Decadence within tour diary by Ian Glasper (slug), but upon completion my relationship with my wife came to an abrupt end. This signalled an end to the zine and my involvement with the scene at the time. Not a good time in my life. The material I had for the following issue were given to Ripping Thrash fanzine (great zine! and still going today!)
Below are a few photos from back in the day........ gotta laugh ain't ya?
The first 2 issues were printed by someone in Lincoln and I decided to change printers and size of the zine. I was really enjoying a lot of the A5 zines at the time such as Raising Hell (by Sik o war) and Final Curtain (by Paul May) both differed in style but I loved them both. My issue 3 was influenced by them and the cover photo with the stuck on spiky black hair was ME! I seem to recall as a child wearing a fetching home knitted cardigan sitting in the front room, typical watch the birdy set up with a photographer. Onto issue 4, I hurried it and the cover I put together was shit, used the same picture but smaller but the contents were good. issue 5 I took a picture off a punk show flyer from the USA, and I really didn't put much effort into the zine at all, most of it was hand written and it was poorly put together,it was the zine I was most disappointed with putting out, but some great interviews. I had a go at arranging a couple of gigs in Hayes at the time at an Irish pub called the Adam + Eve, it had a large hall out the back. Someone had been putting on some bands and I'd seen ACTION PACT play there, I asked if I could arrange a few punk ones and the guy arranging the venue said yes. I first approached CONFLICT but they wanted a stage and to be honest it was small for them. I finally got round to arranging one with ANTISECT and another with THE INSTIGATORS and made the arrangements, flyers were made, posters put up on local bus stops and listings in sounds + N.M.E, then the week before the gigs the pub lost its licence to have live bands!!!! Oh Shit! I couldn't stop the adverts in the papers and so I put up a flyer at the PUB to say they were cancelled. I remember seeing punks around Hayes area and I was so gutted. That was first and last attempt at arranging a gig. Just stick with the fanzine Paul. Issue 6 was when I took the zine seriously, there was a flourishing DIY punk ethic scene, gigs galore and fantastic bands around. I'd started going to other cities for gigs, Birmingham, Coventry & Ipswich. London had regular shows, particular favorite of mine was Hammersmith Clarendon. Lots of foreign bands were touring the UK and it seemed 1986 was exploding in Hardcore punk glory. Extreme Noise Terror, Napalm Death, Ripcord, Stupids, Electro Hippies. The 1,000 zines sold well and I had a great feedback. I think it was my favourite cover as well, Dean from Extreme noise terror on the front. I was really pleased to get Chaos UK in the issue which covered their tour of Japan. I also had the pleasure of getting an interview with sik o war who did Raising Hell fanzine. Issue 7 saw an increase in USA bands, D.R.I & Corrosion of Conformity. I found that with so many zines at the time covering bands I moved onto covering people involved in other ways in the scene. Daz Russell who was behind tour promotions and put on amazing gigs at the mermaid Birmingham. As many of you should know he still promotes gigs and has been behind a lot of the big punk festivals in the UK. Martin Sprouse appeared from the influential Maximum rock n roll magazine. This issue saw the addition of NATIONAL UK PUNKZINE title on the cover. Not sure why I did that, I think it was my attempt at being a uk maximum rock n roll (No Chance!) I did enlist some columnists, just some friends and some other notable people on the scene, Mick Slaughter from the excellent Obituary fanzine & Slug from Decadence within (who some of you may know as Ian Glasper who is the author of the fantastic historic punk books BURNING BRITAIN / THE DAY THE COUNTRY DIED / TRAPPED IN A SCENE & ARMED WITH ANGER). Issue 8 Took on a new look with it's first Glossy cover, just to make it look slicker. It also had another tour diary which the Instigators put together as well as providing a great cover. I focused on smaller bands for this one as I was coming across so many good ones when going to gigs at the time. The only problem I was finding was keeping up with the mail I was getting, I was getting swamped and it was really just me doing it! I had so much stuff to publish I quickly released Issue 8 1/2 which went from 60 to 76 pages!! the price had to go up to 50p and I could only afford to print 800 as I still had lots of issue 8 to sell. I crammed all the outstanding materials in. Along with lots of reviews etc..... but I didn't enjoy doing this one as much and once the majority was sold I decided to call it a day. It was taking up to much of my time and the scene seemed to be slowing down, but the music was speeding up and bands were becoming metal or not really appealing as much as before, it was becoming copycat. Shame really.
Fast forward 8 years and I'd gone through the music mangle, I like many others got into the the Acid house scene and it was electric. Fuck all message in the music other than dance and be friendly. It felt quite anarchic and liberating in away not like the judgemental splintered punk movement. The male domination had gone, the presence of people from all colours and creed coming together as well. I know it was a drug thing to most, I didn't pop any pills, I smoked weed a bit but I preferred a drinking than the pill popping water drinking brigade. Listening to punk music never left me, I kept listening to new stuff coming out. It was like having 2 lives. The punk and dance music combination, what a cocktail. It was 1994 I was in a long term relationship at the time and I'd started picking up zines again, getting in festivals such as Glastonbury and Reading. The 'Brit pop' scene had kicked off and a new excitement for BANDS had appeared at last! The underground punk scene seemed to be thriving and I had a renewed energy to get involved once again. On my honeymoon I made a decision to start the zine up again. Issue 9 So 1995 with a coloured glossy cover saw the resurrection and close friends helped out this time with contributing. My wife had attended her first Glastonbury and wrote a report and I tried to mix Punk with Indie to appeal to both sides. I think it went ok. It was good to get different readers who wouldn't normally bother with stuff like this and the sales were pretty good. It did indeed seem like a great time for music in general. Issue 10 covered Reading festival and an interview with Dig from Earache records as well as a Decadence within tour diary by Ian Glasper (slug), but upon completion my relationship with my wife came to an abrupt end. This signalled an end to the zine and my involvement with the scene at the time. Not a good time in my life. The material I had for the following issue were given to Ripping Thrash fanzine (great zine! and still going today!)
Below are a few photos from back in the day........ gotta laugh ain't ya?
Newtown Neurotics - Brunel University 80's
Subhumans - Fulham Greyhound 80's
Atavistic - Hounslow 90's
The Prodigy - London Forum?
OI POLLOI - 95
Those that filled in their current record/fanzine top 10 sheet which came with various issues had an opportunity to win a problem child t-shirt. It was printed on both sides. The chart that was compiled was from the returning filled in sheets.
The front was created by Brian Cobb who also did the cartoon strip in the fanzine. The back has Problem child. I thought it was pretty cool actually. These are the last 2.
The Extreme noise Terror jacket was a cut down jean jacket i dyed in bleach and painted in black. Over the years it had many drawings and bands on it.
The bottom half at one point had "EXPLODING BUTCHER SHOPS NOT SPACE SHUTTLES" which I painted in 1986 after the space shuttle disaster.
before that I had painted "All the arms we need" after the flux of pink indians drawing. Pre extreme noise terror, I had Hagar the womb across the top.
The front was created by Brian Cobb who also did the cartoon strip in the fanzine. The back has Problem child. I thought it was pretty cool actually. These are the last 2.
The Extreme noise Terror jacket was a cut down jean jacket i dyed in bleach and painted in black. Over the years it had many drawings and bands on it.
The bottom half at one point had "EXPLODING BUTCHER SHOPS NOT SPACE SHUTTLES" which I painted in 1986 after the space shuttle disaster.
before that I had painted "All the arms we need" after the flux of pink indians drawing. Pre extreme noise terror, I had Hagar the womb across the top.