The Fanzine Podcast

In 1973, a Californian by the name of Archie Patterson became so enthused by all the interesting underground European experimental/electronic music he was hearing that he started up a fanzine dedicated to it, called Eurock. It lasted 40 issues, through 1990. In 1979, a Brit by the name of David Elliott felt much the same way and, in part inspired by Eurock and also by post-punk DIY culture, started his own zine Neumusik. While it only lasted 6 issues, until 1982, during that time it grew to over 70 pages and set David off exploring Europe to interview many of the important artists in person.What kind of artists are we talking about? Some of them you may know, like Can, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Nektar, Neu!, Heldon, Chrome, or Urban Sax.. Others you may never have heard of, like Guru Guru, Asmus Tietchens, Atem, Art Zoyd III, Gunter Schickert, or Shub Niggurath. All of them were at the forefront of musical creativity towards the end of the 20th Century, and Eurock and Neumusik were at the forefront of the fanzines writing about them, interviewing them, and cataloguing their culture. Patterson grew a distribution service and began publishing books; he still posts twice-weekly about the music on his Facebook. Elliot started a “band,” a cassette label, and recently wrote an extensive book on the British pop music of 1984.For more information about their zines, their culture, and where to get copies of their books, please head on over to https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/adventures-in-neumusik-and-eurock 

For Episode 29, Tony's guests are Roual Galloway of Spinners, and Derek Steel of Razur Cuts, two of the more prominent among the many Litzines currently flourishing in the UK (and beyond).Litzines – independent zines of literature from outside the mainstream – are surely among the oldest of all forms of fanzines. Depending on your historical perspective, you could even argue that they predate the concept of the fanzine itself, which as noted back on Episode 21, was a word first knowingly used in 1940.Certainly, self-published zines of prose and poetry writing were an important part of the Beat culture on both US coasts through the 1950s and 1960s, have an anchor in the current vibrant world of perzines, and have been especially strong in the UK ever since the emergence of a new generation of poets in the early 1980s. These were people encouraged by the examples of cross-over artists like John Cooper Clarke and Linton Kwesi Johnson, and aided by the support of rock artists like The Jam’s Paul Weller, and they took to the pubs and small theaters of the UK to reclaim the form “for the people.” In the UK, the medium, in prose and short story form too, has also always had a close connection to the football terraces and others aspects of pop culture, and recent issues of Razur Cuts and Spinners, each weighing in at about 80 pages, readily demonstrate as much...For more info, including photos, more words, and more links, please visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/the-flourishing-world-of-litzines

The first issue of Mick Mercer’s fanzine Panache came out in January 1977, with Iggy Pop on the cover, perfectly poised for the punk/new wave/DIY revolution that was exploding across the UK. Mick kept the zine in print for a further 50+ issues, all the way to 1995, which makes it one of the longest-running, and arguably the most consistently prolific of all the original UK punk-inspired zines. In the decades since, Mick has carried on demonstrating his passion for indie music, comics, and cats, via blogging, radio shows, a Substack column, and his Cat Olympics. Oh, and he’s also written a few books over the years, for which he is rightly considered one of the gurus of Goth. For more info on this episode, including images from various issues of Panache over the years, and direct links to Mick's radio shows and other creative outlets, please visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/the-fanzine-podcast-ep-28-mick-mercersAnd please subscribe while you are there; it’s where Tony continues to exercise his own fanzine muscles by writing about underground and pop culture on a twice-weekly basis. If you enjoyed this episode and your podcast platform allows it, please hit the like button, consider leaving a review and, if you haven't yet, hit "subscribe" to ensure you don't miss the next monthly episode. Mick Mercer can be found at https://mickmercer.substack.com/The Best of Jamming!: Selections and Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up 1977-86 is published by Omnibus Press.'The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast Theme' is by Noel Fletcher.The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast logo was designed by Greg Morton.

Throughout the 1980s, Tim Anstaett ran The Offense, an influential, prolific, jam-packed fanzine out of Columbus, Ohio, where he still lives. In the 1990s, Jay Hinman began the underground zine Superdope fanzine out of Seattle, and after a hiatus, picked back up on zine publishing in the 2010s with Dynamite Hemorrhage, which set its stall with a 68-page debut issue. For the last few years, Jay has also been running the Fanzine Hemorrhage web site and newsletter, offering 200 reflective reviews (so far) of select music fanzines (and occasional magazines) from his enormous personal collection. The Offense is one of the few zines Jay has reviewed twice, writing that it “would have been my favorite mag in 1982 had I’d known it existed.” So for this episode of the Fanzine Podcast, podcast host Tony Fletcher brings the pair together for the first time.Over a one-hour conversation, Tim and Jay talked about their early entry points into punk and fanzine culture, hand-written first issues, why they each abandoned advertisers and distributors, their love of 4AD Records in general and the Cocteau Twins in particular, Jay’s cult heroes the Flesheaters, their fave zines of all time, and the best letter they ever received.Read more about this episode, and get links to various items discussed – from zine downloads to bands to TV shows and where to get Tim's books – at https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/midweek-update-51-the-american-in ... And please subscribe while you are there; it’s where Tony continues to exercise his own fanzine muscles by writing about underground and pop culture on a twice-weekly basis. If you enjoyed this episode and your podcast platform allows it, please hit the like button, consider leaving a review and, if you haven't yet, hit "subscribe" to ensure you don't miss the next monthly episode. Jay Hinman can be found at https://fanzinehemorrhage.comTim Anstaett can be e-mailed via tkarunner2001@aol.comThe Best of Jamming!: Selections and Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up 1977-86 is published by Omnibus Press.'The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast Theme' is by Noel Fletcher.The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast logo was designed by Greg Morton.

For show notes, and to see images from Zerox Machine and other books discussed in this episode, please visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/zerox-machine-the-big-book-of-britishAnd, while there, please subscribe to receive regular updates on this and other Tony Fletcher podcasts and writings.https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/subscribeMatthew Worley is Professor of Modern History at the University of Reading, where he is gainfully employed studying punk and post-punk culture. (Yes, it’s a thing these days.) To this end he has just published an arguably definitive new book, the culmination of many years’ research, Zerox Machine: Punk, Post-Punk and Fanzines in Britain, 1976-88.Across almost 350 pages and approximately 140,000 words, Worley takes an unprecedented deep dive into the subculture of the British fanzine scene, drawing on access to an incredible number of publications – six pages’ worth are cited at the end - and direct communication with many of the editors. Most importantly, he straddles the thin line between an authoritative research project with the kind of thought-provoking analysis one would expect from a Professor of Modern History, with a book that you average Joe and Jane ex- or current- fanzine editor can read and relate to without reaching for a Thesaurus.Zerox Machine is published in the UK by Reaktion Books:And in the US by University of Chicago Press: For show notes, and to see images from Zerox Machine and other books discussed in this episode, please visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/zerox-machine-the-big-book-of-britishAnd, while there, please subscribe to receive regular updates on this and other Tony Fletcher podcasts and writings.https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/subscribe

With Andy Lyons (WSC), Mike Harrison (City Gent), Kevin Whitcher (The Gooner.) For links to and pictures of these fanzines, to post comments, and to read more related writings and podcasts, visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/the-fanzine-podcast-ep-25-40-yearsFor over 40 years now, football fanzines have run parallel to music fanzines in the UK, growing out of the same alternative pop culture as did the punk and new wave zines of the 1970s, as evidenced perhaps by the fact that the best known and longest-running of the non-denominational zines, When Saturday Comes, took its name from a song by the Northern Irish new wave band, The Undertones. At their peak in the late 1980s, it’s estimated there were at least 300 such football zines publishing regularly in the UK. Where the football zines differ from the music ones is in loyalty. If When Saturday Comes is like an alternative to the glossy football magazines the same way that a long-running music fanzine like The Big Takeover, which was featured on Episode 21, can be seen as a more authentically independent voice than a Spin or Mojo, the majority of zines serve more like alternatives to their stated club’s official program. In this context, the Arsenal fanzine The Gooner, whose Kevin Whitcher joins us on this episode, is like a Taylor Swift fanzine, economically removed from the subject it is writing about but passionate about it all the same, while Bradford City’s City Gent, whose Mike Harrison, also featured in this episode, would be more comparable to a zine dedicated to a cult band that refuses to go away – Guided By Voices or Teenage Fan Club, perhaps. Even as football fan culture moves largely online, to YouTube channels and podcasts, there will always remain a dedicated, if “discerning” audience, that is willing to read articles and opinion pieces that bring the banter of what we once knew as the football “terraces” in print.Kevin and Mike are joined here by When Saturday Comes’ co-founder and ongoing editor, Andy Lyons, for a conversation that discusses the various zines’ origins, their rise to influence and prominence, their engagement and effect on the game they support, and how they keep going after four decades and several hundred episodes a piece in the face of the younger fans migration online.The episode also discusses the tragic fire that took place at Bradford City’s ground in May 1985, at which City Gent editor Mike Harrison was in attendance. While we don’t get into any horrific detail, I do want to let listeners be prepared.Thanks to Richard Edwards and Peter Mountford. Sign up for Tony Fletcher’s weekly newsletter, long weekend read, and for exclusive access to archived interviews, including those from his Keith Moon biography, at tonyfletcher.substack.com. Theme music by Noel Fletcher. Logo by Greg Morton.