The Fanzine Podcast

For the 33rd installment of the Fanzine Podcast, we welcome Chris Coleman, former editor of at least two important ‘zines from the 1980s post-punk UK Midlands: Stringent Measures and What A Nice Way To Turn Seventeen. The first of these zines straddled a vibrant local indie scene that included the likes of Eyeless In Gaza, In Embrace, Attrition, and the Glass Records label (about which Chris put together a special edition) along wi...

It’s time for a new episode of The Fanzine Podcast, and we start 2025 off with one of the pioneers from the explosion of punk zines in 1977: V. Vale, editor and publisher of San Francisco’s legendary Search & Destroy along with its successor, RE/Search Publications.

Now in his late 70s, Vale – who grew up in foster homes in the Midwest and found refuge in public libraries – has been active in the U.S. counterculture pre...

For more information, pictures, how to contact the zine editors, and zine updates, visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/relaunching-your-fanzine

Most fanzines are not designed to be permanent: their editors grow up, get "proper" jobs, start families, or just grow bored and want to move on. But occasionally, years down the line, fanzine editors come back around and decide to have another go at it. For this episode, we welco...

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...

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, ...

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...

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 Hemo...

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-british

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Matthew Worley is Professor of Modern History at the University of Reading, where he is ga...

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-years

For 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 ...

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 t...

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...

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 diff...

The Fanzine Podcast finally gets across the Atlantic, and talks to two of the mainstays of the New York 'zine scene.

Ira Robbins started Trouser Press in 1974 as "hopefully the first consumer-oriented, ( inter }national rock fanzine" and went on to produce 96 issues that got up to a 60,000 circulation before calling it a day after exactly 10 years; Trouser Press continued life as a record buyer's guide, a website, and now a...

What was the first ever fanzine?

When was it published? In what country? What did it write about? Where can I find it? When was the word fanzine coined? By who? Where does it come from? What is a Gestetner? Or a Roneo? Where can I get one? Actually, why should I care?

To help answer these questions, I am joined on Episode 20 of my show The Fanzine Podcast by: Hamish Ironside, fanzine editor, book publisher, and co-au...

For an episode playlist, to see covers and pages of these zines, and for much more about the fanzine culture in general, visit Midweek Update #12: Fanzines are Alive & Kicking Edition.

In 1980, in Glasgow, Robert Hodgens started Ten Commandments alongside writer Kirsty McNeil and photographer Robert Scott; after four issues, known now as Bobby Bluebell, Hodgens moved to London with his band The Bluebells and became, briefly a po...

"No other youth culture or subculture centred on fashion or music, or both, has ever had as many fanzines dedicated to it as the mod revival."

So wrote Eddie Piller at the start of his 2918 book Mod Zines (with Steve Rowland) and he should know: as editor and publisher of Extraordinary Sensations, Piller saw his 'zine sell a phenomenal 15,000 copies at its peak in the mid-80s, as many as legendary punk zine Sniffin' Glue had ma...

Ten years after she ceased publishing her 2000s rock’n’roll fanzine Bubblegum Slut due to the lifestyle it induced (i.e. drug addiction), Alison B. found herself producing a new zine about her old zine, the lifestyle it induced and the year she spent in limbo before getting clean. That zine is entitled Confessions of an Ex-Zine Editor and it is astonishingly original and entertaining. Partly a “trainwreck memoir” in zine format, it...

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James Brown and Mark Hodkinson both hail from the Pennine District in Northern England. Both ran fanzines in the 1980s (Attack on Bzag and Untermensch). Both stayed in publishing. Both now have successful memoirs out about their lives in the world of words.

Beyond that, their paths have been different. James left Leeds for London, and a...

In the mid-1980s, before she became known for fronting the band Lush, Miki Berenyi put out five issues of Alphabet Soup fanzine (“It may be crap but it’s only 5p”) alongside her then-bestie and future band-mate, Emma Anderson. Meantime, before she started Sarah Records, Clare Wadd put out multiple issues of Kvatch fanzine. This podcast, hosted by former Jamming! editor Tony Fletcher, marks the first time ANY of the three have ever ...