| PART TIME PUNK #16 November 2005 **** I gotta say the quality of zine reading material that's come into the Wolf's Lair this winter is of a very high standard given its DIY realm, and that's even without a sniff of illegal substances! It certainly gives us new hope that the zine writing neighbourhood of the UK is still very much alive 'n' kicking on all fronts, despite an early prognosis of fatality's in other less adventurous publications. And the latest issue from Southampton's Part Time Punk ain't a bad place to look for a pulse. This zine is probably the best read to come out the shadow of the Dell since Ged Baby retired his pen in the pursuit of Post Punk obscurities. Editor Ian’s a bit of a punk scholar or maybe even an anorak in the way he analyses his punk. But that attention to detail don't half make for a better read. His tastes are also pretty adventurous but never sinks to ostracise his audience, coz there's always at least a few bands that will get yer curiosity primed. This zine justifies it's inclusion in your Christmas hamper for the sheer diversity of the coverage that shines out from its non-descript pages like police beacons after dark. The Cravats crawl out their Redditch slum once more with threats of live appearances. And there's probably the first interview with the Tights in probably 25 years, who you may remember from the 'Business Unusual' album that came out in '78. Then it's time for Rob Lloyd better known to you as the lead singer in the Prefects. The Brummie premier DIY punk band till the Killjoys stole their thunder. Rob went onto form the more experimental Indie darlings the Nightingales who are currently on tour in the UK. There's also a rare zine appearance with Ruefrex from Belfast who've just released the 'Capital Letters' compilation. On a way less inspiring section we get The Count Bishops who count for nothing but the drab pub rock punk was trying to escape from in its infancy. Of the newer bands we get the Scottish Clash soundalikes Hateful and a rare zine appearance of London's Anoraks. We also get space fillers like 'Why You Should Sell Yer Records'. Mind you if I owned a Chester record id sell it! To wind things up we get a Brigandage history lesson from Michelle herself. And as always PTP comes with a comprehensive review section featuring gigs, dvd's, records, books and zines. A great read even with the shittier parts and opinions taken into consideration. So do yourself a favour and inform yourself with some serious punk rock dogma! Next issue due out in February. www.geocities.com/iancanty/index.html |
| RIOT ON YOUR OWN #21 October 2005 **** You get a natty kinda self satisfaction to find a drunken camera shot you took in the backstreets of Birmingham one night earlier this year getting splashed across the front cover of Belfast's latest punk zine Riot On Your Own. Now I know Riot On Your Own ain't exactly MRR or has the pro-gloss sass of something like Plastic Bomb, but it still makes me feel all warm inside this Christmas. So Jenny Lens, Glenn E. Friedman and Dennis Morris...eat yer hearts out! The front cover star and the new woman in Billy Riots life is none other than Scarlet Da Harlot from Derby's Barnyard Masturbator. Who I have to admit brings a bit of Poly Styrene back into the UK punk scene. Especially with her dark, sultry Californian looks and zany stage wear. Just a pity her band ain't as motivated music wise, but we can't have it all can we? And like other editions of this, the best zine in Belfast (although I've yet to read a copy of the highly rated You Can't Polish A Turd). ROYO never fails to keep me glued to its scruffy pages before I've sucked in every last bit of snide innuendo. This issue kicks off with some wise words in the short but succinct editorial,"keep enjoying being punk rockers coz it's the best lifestyle in the world!" And you know what, that's fuckin' bang on!!! Also looks like Bill's been dipping into his Christmas bonus coz there's a glut of reviews in this 'ish! From DVD's, CD's, records and zines as well as his roving penchant for capturing local gigs, which all get duly caught on film and documented for our photo static needs. Bill's taste in music may sometimes leave a lot to be desired (he give Torcha Shed (8) fer fux sake!), but its all sold to us in an amusing honest kinda way, which we quite like here at Punk Rocker central. The two bands featured in this issue are both pretty new. Belfast's Hypocrites (ex-Noodles) do the honours but will probably splinter next week and the already mentioned cover stars Barnyard Masturbator, who Bill fornicates over with unashamed glee. Alongside the regular spiky photo centrespread we finish off with a massive NI punk scene report, which apparently got rejected by the snooty Trackmarx website! Well what do you expect from Tractor nerds I reckon they need a friendly visit from Billy Junior who looks set to be taking care of business very soon. So just give Bill senior the key to the door by ordering this from him, coz you know you won't be disappointed and you might even learn something! FREE with an SAE to BILL, 5 GLEN ROAD, BELFAST BT5 7JH billyriot@hotmail.com |
| PROVOKED #5 May 2005 **** A previous instalment that I've only just gotten round to reading from the best looking punk zine that crawled outta Scotland since Kill Your Pet Puppy. Provoked continues in it's cut 'n' paste rampage throughout its 24 pages of shiny almost slick punk rock and '77 inspired decadence. The layout alone in this baby is enough for it to get a spot in the archives of the Victoria and Albert museum had it come out 25 years previous. But what creates great fanzines or kings of the road as I like to call em, is their ability to create a scene on a page and have enough intelligence, intrigue or just plain scandal to make you wanna read it. Luckily for Provoked and us this ain't just an art school exercise in exit-stencialism and blackmailed ransoms, coz Bill the editor covers old and new and also delivers enough serious information regarding the current state of punk rock without it feeling too nostalgic. This issues cover girl whose bending over backwards to please us is Glasgow punk designer Pam Hogg and inside we get some rather nifty interviews with those decrepit looking Vibrators. Talking of death warmed up, we get the last known Dave Goodman interview before he vacated the mixing booth which was so good it was even purloined and featured on the high brow Sex Pistols website. We then get a less appealing dialogue with that old pleasure beach waltzer and straight edger John Robb outta Goldblade. The local scene don't get overlooked either, coz the Zips unzip themselves in the centrespread while the Red Eyes look on in disbelief and Fire Exit bolt for the door! Or was that bolt the door!? There's an interesting profile on the Straps in their heyday when they didn't look like a second rate ANL while Arturo Bassick of the Lurkers puts in his down to earth commentary and the Amphetameanies bring up the rear. All this is set amongst a montage of news clippings, reviews and trivial punk rock news bulletins that you didn't wanna know or thought you didn't know. However you may need your glasses on to read the smaller print in this razor sharp, entertaining and often chaotic read. provokedzine@yahoo.co.uk (NO LONGER IN PRINT) |
| NEGATIVE REACTION #3 Late 2005 **** 'The fanzine that's better than sex (*with Anne Widdecombe)', or so the banner reads. Well considering Anne's battleaxe status and bowl cut mane, I can see their point. Negative Reaction seems to be reaching for that positive spark that HAGL (its former self) had in the 90's. And you can't go far wrong with the no bullshit approach to punk, life and existence in the grim north can ya? This zine has enough suss and motivation to deliver a brand spanking new issh that's already out on the streets as we speak! So it's neat to see the lust 'n' hunger finally recaptured by Trev and co. It certainly ain't stopped em from leering at bands like Dirty Love from London. They bring us their own take on glam punk, as they make their first tentative zine appearance south of Watford gap. The female fronted band seem to approach Trev's bawdy questions with enough front to make him beat a hasty retreat, pardon the pun. We then get a BIG interview with Tony Martin (naah not the farmer who turned gunslinger) but the Durham cobbler who morphed into author and local vigilante. Leather bound crusaders don't exactly sound like prime time punk reading, unless your into S&M. This geezers written a book about his run in with the corrupt local council, dodgy police forces and baseball bat wielding thugs, who paid him a visit to silence him. They failed of course, and it's now become a one man obsession to defeat fraudulent officialdom and in all its ugly forms. We then get some clued up reviews from the record and print world followed by a severe and applaudable dissin' of 'Charvers' or 'Chavs' to the rest of us media slackers. Christians and working class Tories don't escape the Reaction wrath either. There's a massive 4-page round up of last years Wasted festival which didn't tell us anything we didn't already know. Apart from Toyah trouncing the Avengers to the best band slot, which is definitely a misssstewy!? And yet another half arsed Test Tube Babies interview gets rolled out, which begs the question, why do zines bother? But we do get a healthier response from the smouldering NY Relix. Latest member of the Negative Reaction crew is Joe Diamond from Belfast's 'You Cant Polish A Turd' infamy, and bass player in the promising Hypocrites. He fires off a comical insight into punk promotions at Belfast University. Plus a no punches pulled one to one with big Colin outta Runnin Riot who makes it evidently clear over a couple of gallon of Buckfast that GBH's Colin and Pedro (the roadie) won't be on his Christmas list this year. Reason being, the heinous crime of greedy malpractice after a local gig. So definitely something for everyone in here, and it's all done with enough snot and intelligence to justify its position in the top 3 British PUNK zines of the current climate. £1 & 56p S.A.E. from Rosehill, 20 Front St, Tanfield Lea, Stanley, Co. Durham, DH9 9LY, UK. trevhagl@hotmail.com |
| FAST 'N' LOUD #4 2005 ***1/2 Brand new zine to the Wolfs Lair punk library and I like it's name and presentation in it's strictly early 80's cut 'n' paste mode. But 28 pages of leopard skin print backgrounds can be a bit of an eye opener. Bet the editor don't eat meat either? I was also disturbed by the 'punk and proud' slogan on the front cover. I mean c'mon 'punk and proud', it's like announcing some gay pride statement. That 'proud to be punk' mentality I never really got??? It certainly never entered my realm of thought then or since, and when it was first coined during the early 80's it was always from bands who weren't that good anyway, and makes yer think, do I really wanna be part of this punk tribe with cunts like that in our midst? However I just got sidetracked, so let's get back to the zine itself. Despite some finicky taste issues, Fast 'N' Loud gives us a wide ranging across the board mix or punk themes and bands. D'Corner Bois from Brum gets the reality ball rolling with some honest opinions from Rich Lard. We are then entertained by Cornish Goff band Mothburner who have been together 9 years, and have played a maximum of one gig to date! (snigger) In total contrast to the Goff comedy, there's a look back at dub cult band Basement 5 with some long lost interviews in reduced print. So get yer binoculars out! We then get a boring snapshot of Bad Blood from Bristol, who sound about as enticing as a dose of the crabs. And talking of damp squids, they are followed by pop punks the Scrub who feature an ex member of Busted in their ranks golly gee! There's a small piece with uniformly tiny print on the Dropkick Murphy's. While Cheltenham punks Burnside smoulder in its rear. The reviews are equally cosmopolitan but are overshadowed by a massive section from the Captain Oi! stable. And in case you ain't already guessed, doesn't have a bad word to say about any of their latest releases. Even Sham's 'The Game' is applauded! I'm still waiting to read a UK zine that has enough bottle to say "naaah thought that was shit!" There's a lotta space wasted in this zine which indicates a shortage of ideas or maybe content? So maybe if it was reduced to an A5 format, the printing costs would be lowered and there would be fewer ads to splash over those vacant corners, just a thought. Nevertheless for interesting features and diversity Fast 'N' Loud is one of the better UK zines around at the moment. £1.50 + 66p sae john@fastnloudzine.orangehome.co.uk or write to 88 Overbrook Road, Hardwicke, Gloucester, GL2 4RZ UK |
| THAT'S NOT SKANKING #13 Halloween 2005 *** A Halloween freebie from the rainy city Manchester, but this zine is done with attention to detail and covers a lotta stuff in its 36 pages, both in reviews and interviews. It even boasts a free CD with the next issue! So fair due to the editor for pampering his readership with offers like that. Luckily for punters like meself with unshakeable brass allergy, this issue don't feature predominantly skanking outfits with trombones ablazing and inferior Specials routines, as its name would suggest. The ones it does cover however are probably an acquired taste. Especially with bands like 3dbs Down who are more Indie orientated than out and out punk. But the punk input is underlined by Austrian hardcore outfit, the squeaky clean Red Lights Flash.who sound about as snotty as Cliff Richards snotrag. Closer to home we get a consultation with gnarly punks and attrocious chancers the Arthritic Foot Soldiers. So maybe the leaning of this zine is pretty suspect to a certain degree, especially with the inclusion of poetry, but even that was acceptable due to the accompanying story. So forgot all that, coz they certainly get around it by the intensive gigging regime that gets covered in the review section. And TNS do give bands decent review coverage instead of the usual couple of lines some of the more established zines can only muster. They even have a comic strip which boasts some nifty artwork, pity about the storyline? It was also interesting to hear about that 'Punk' exhibition they held in Manchester recently, if only to justify why I never bothered going. This is a student orientated zine coz you can smell em a mile off, but thankfully it don't get too self righteous or pander significantly to Political Correctness, giving all walks of punk life a sniff of the action in its easy to read format. For more info contact thatsnotskanking@hotmail.com (NO LONGER IN PRINT) |
| PROVOKED #6 October 2005 **** Slash 'n' epoxy all the way here from Glasgow central. Its good to discover newer zines although this one has been lurking around for decades in one shape or form. So it was well overdue we had a perspective from "Glesga" and Provoked which is written by a fellow Sex Pistols maniac Bill G, who does it with conviction. Provoked fills the Scottish gap between the high tech wizardry but appalling quality control of Runnin Feart and the dyslexic space wasting blandness of Anarchoi. Coz lets not forget there's room in punk and especially in Scotland for all walks of punk print, So it makes perfect sense to read a zine that appreciates the original ethics of this thing we call punk rock! A motivated name and a jagged look is half the battle in zine presentation and Provoked comes armed with both. This zine spits out in big blackmail letters it's a punk zine and from what gets covered inside, it keeps its classic zine presence on course through most of its 24 pages. However we do get a disappointing interview which like Puke ain't through the editors incompetence but due to the lazzzzzy uninspiring answers from bands such as Argy Bargy. But thankfully that was the only low point as a really varied bunch of cut throats get covered in this issue including local veterans The Zips, The Square Peg from Edinburgh, The Saints from Brisbane, Holy Racket from Sunderland and Hateful from hell, or as its named on the map Clydebank. But the piece de resistance was a really neat one with Mensi out the Angelic Upstarts whose made more money on smaller labels than he ever got on EMI. The reviews if you can spot em are few and far between, but what I like best about this zine is you can discover little snippets of information no matter what angle you read the page. On the other hand Provoked can get hard to follow sometimes as you get lost in a sea of print and ripped up dialogue, but that's what makes it way more individual. And it comes with a first class attention to detail and in a semi glossy print job too. So if you need provoking this will do the trick! For more details contact provokedzine@yahoo.co.uk (NO LONGER IN PRINT) |
| BLACKPOOL ROX II #8 August 2005 **** Ain't read a copy of Blackpool Rox II since 2003 but if your ever gonna get a copy of this North West of England fanzine then get this one coz it chucks in a FREE 27 track Blackpool punk compilation CD called 'The Ugly Face Of Blackpool' (reviewed elsewhere on this site). Which features bands from as far back as 1977 with Skrewdriver being 'Antisocial', and moving right up to the present day as hardcore hoodlums Sick 56 display their wares, plus everything else (well all the important bands) that came out over the last 27 years gets well documented. So it's a great chance for you to take an audio snapshot of the local scene as well as read about it coz this zine is dominated by the CD's shadow which casts a long 6 page biog of all the bands information and all their little discrepancies. Despite the regulation desktop format of this zine, it thankfully boasts an engaging writing style that's informative without being too pompous. Although some of the book reviews read like a Mastermind candidates subject material on pan European politics maybe. I somehow don't think the local punks are gonna be running out to the library to get some of these titles, but hey that's education for ya. There's an array of reviews plus a local scene editorial. Our editor, label boss, one man show and the Minister Of Reason Andy Higgins seems to have a lot to keep him busy these days, when he ain't doing his one man promotion of punk in Blackpool or following his beloved Seasiders. Finally I noticed one of those little zine writing eccentricity's we can sometimes spot if we look closes enough and that was on the front cover the date and time this zine was actually started and on the back page when it was finished right down to the actual minute! Yep clinical and methodical is what this zine is all about! For more info go here www.jsntgm.com |
| PUKE #9 Autumn 2005 **** So its time once more for the annual heave from Puke which is Birmingham's only real punk fanzine! This is a jam packed to the gills, cut 'n' paste gag bag. We have to literally swim through a mass of typewriter frenzy from Miss Smirnoff herself, Becca Puke. However the zine reviews in this issue ain't quite as detailed as we were previously accustomed too. They're missing that caustic eye for detail as the Puke mobile rushes to meet deadlines or promotion schedules maybe? But you have to take yer hat off to the Aylesbury kid for the vast gigging regime that lurches forward us like some overweight spiky deity sucking up every punk gig on its radar and regurgitating the debris across its 56 pages. The Puke charabanc is stretching its ink sodden tentacles far and wide from its middle England web these days, which is always a good sign to see and read. I don't think I've seen this many gig reviews in one zine since maybe Fear And Loathing. The 'Weird Shit' section is another must read that will keep you entertained, as we hear about Satanic Sailors and bloodsuckers in Birmingham. The interviews in this issue are as always from an array of styles garnered from punks underground. They combine the right on two-tone of the Ballistics to the snotty drivel of Stafford's Nuclear Babies, while California's Neon Maniacs grunt and groan lethargically as the Remnants from Sandbach service station bugger off to Uni! Most typify why bands today simply don't have a lot to say to even the most inquiring of questions. This zine regains ground with an 'Asbo Crazy' page to make you ponder what new waste of space this government can dish out next? Alongside a fetching or should that read retching Gee Voucher styled Liberty centre spread. The last 'Urban Nightmare' tale spotlights dentists, which I can agree with whole heartedly after suffering a needle in the gum job earlier this week. It was also good to see Puke incorporating a few local shady punk characters input, with some snide review comments from the Puke squeeze, Dave Sputum, while Ardcore Andy (D'Corner Bois) attacks the punk rock elite. Finally Big Gray gives us a sussed personnel view on his 29 year career as a punk icon in Brum and how he'd defend that right to the death! And with over 6 pages of record reviews and not one from the Captain Oi stable, its good to see you can still get healthy zines that can review punk without freebie favour peering over their shoulder at every corner. Still one of the sickest UK zines around. Contact... germs90@hotmail.com (NO LONGER IN PRINT) |
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