Please visit (and subscribe to) tonyfletcher.substack.com for more writings on zines and beyond.

In this episode, Tony offers a short update on the Fanzine Podcast's future episodes and some of the activities around the zine scene before using the opportunity of being in the UK for a while to revisit the debut episode of what was then called The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast, "From Classroom To Clubs." The episode was summarised at the time as follows:

For this debut episode of The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast, Tony Fletcher connects with three old friends who all played an important part in the Jamming! school days, and each of whom wrote an introductory piece for The Best of Jamming! book. They are Richard Heard, Jeni de Haart and John Matthews, and over the course of a lively group call, they discuss

• the onset of punk,
• the birth of Jamming and why John Matthews declined a role
• first gigs at The Marquee on Wardour Street
• a shared love of The Jam
• Jamming's eclectic tastes - including The Fall, Scritti Politti, Killing Joke and more
• attending the Setting Sons recording sessions
• Apocalypse
• selling fanzines at gigs
• being taught 'Teenage Kicks' on guitar by The Undertones
• the violence surrounding the tribalism of the late 1970s
• the influence of John Peel
• fave gig memories
• and why those years mattered so much and why they are all still friends

The Best of Jamming!: Selections and Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up 1977-86 is published by Omnibus Press and available from all good book shops.on Sep 23 in the UK/EU, and Dec 2 in the rest of the world.

More information and online purchasing options available at:

TonyFletcher.net

OmnibusPress.com

Meantime, if you're a former fanzine editor interested in contributing to the Guest Ex-Editor project, "The concept is to bring various zine scene alumni out of retirement for one or two pages. Contributors might use their page(s) to revisit memories of their old zine, re-evaluate it, resurrect it (maybe with a modern twist to reflect where life has taken them since), or pilot a brand-new zine idea." Write to Alison via confessionsofanexzineeditor@gmail.com

Zerox Machine: Punk, Post-Punk and Fanzines in Britain 1976-88 available now in the UK from Reaktion Books https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/zerox-machine

Matthew Worley's Facebook group Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change

https://www.facebook.com/groups/267152449995279

'The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast Theme' is by Noel Fletcher. Copyright reserved.

The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast logo was designed by Greg Morton, who also assisted with editing.

The Best of Jamming! book cover was designed by Martin Stiff.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To win a copy of the compendium, Sniffin’ Glue and Other Rock’n’Roll Habits, published by Omnibus Press, as mentioned on this episode, please visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/midweek-update-32-sniffin-glue-and - and don't forget to subscribe to the Substack account if you haven't already. Competition ends March 19.

Back in 1976, given that there was no other publication dedicated to covering the Ramones or the new bands popping up around London, Mark Perry founded Sniffin’ Glue, the original British punk zine. Barely a year later, after a dozen issues that saw circulation rise from 10 – as in ten, total - to 20,000 copies, Mark walked away from it, partly because he was disillusioned with punk, but also to focus on his group, Alternative TV.

Now, in 2024, copies of early Sniffin’ Glues go for ridiculous sums of money, but they have also been gathered up for a new edition of the compendium, Sniffin’ Glue and Other Rock’n’Roll Habits, published by Omnibus Press. The Sniffin’ Glue compendium gathers up every single page of that zine's 12 (and a half) issues, including all the ads, and has an extended intro written by Mark, along with various photographs from back in the day.

On this episode, we discuss how Sniffin' Glue started, what the scene was like in London at the time, what was good about the zine, how it became so successful, and why Mark walked away from it after only a year.

Mark Perry, Sniffin' Glue and Alternative TV can all be found at https://sniffinglue.co.uk/. Mark Perry can also be found on Facebook.

If you enjoyed this episode, please do the usual like-review-subscribe, and check out previous episodes if you haven't already.

Theme tune by Noel Fletcher. Logo by Greg Morton. Tony Fletcher takes credit and blame for everything else.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Liz Mason and Billy McCall are two of the more prominent U.S. “publishers” of what are affectionately called “perzines,” fanzines as expression of self. Liz publishes or co-publishes Caboose, Cul-de-Sac, Awesome Things and The Most Unwanted Zine and works as manager at Quimby’s bookstore in Chicago, which actively sells ‘zines. Billy puts out Proof I Exist, Behind the Zines, The Difference Between, has published at least three different pocket-sized memoirs, distributes fanzines online, and designed and initially produced the Zine Game. On this episode of The Fanzine Podcast, they join Tony Fletcher to explain the how, why, when, what, and where behind their phenomenal output, and dive deep into the thriving world of contemporary zine culture.

You can read much more about Billy and Liz, and see pictures of their zines and the conversation we had, at tonyfletcher.substack.com/

Billy is at www.iknowbilly.com and https://behind-the-zines.com/

Liz is at LizMasonIsAwesome.com and instagram.com/caboosezine.

The Best Of Jamming!: Selections & Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up, 1977-86 can be found here and signed copies are available in the USA direct from https://tonyfletcherauthor.bandcamp.com/merch/

Theme music by Noel Fletcher. Logo by Greg Morton.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.