A fanzine (blend of fan and magazine or -zine) is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share their interest. Typically, publishers, editors, writers and other contributors of articles or illustrations to fanzines are not paid. Fanzines are traditionally circulated free of charge, or for a nominal cost to defray postage or production expenses.
The punk subculture in the United Kingdom spearheaded a surge of interest in fanzines as a countercultural alternative to established print media. The first and still best known UK 'punk zine' was Sniffin' Glue, produced by Deptford punk fan Mark Perry. Sniffin' Glue ran for 12 photocopied issues; the first issue was produced by Perry immediately following (and in response to) the London debut of The Ramones on 4 July 1976.
In the UK, there were also fanzines that covered the local music scene in a particular town or city. Mainly prevalent in the 1970s, and 1980s, all music styles were covered, whether the bands were playing rock, punk, metal, futurist, ska or dance. Featured were local gig reviews and articles that were below the radar of the mainstream music press. They were produced using the technology of the time, i.e. typewriter and Letraset. Other fanzines, taking Zigzag magazine as their role model, covered American West Coast music (Dark Star, Omaha Rainbow) or avant-garde jazz and rock (Impetus).
The longest running football fanzine is The City Gent, produced by supporters of Bradford City FC, which first went on sale at Valley Parade in November 1984 and is now in its 26th season. In 1985 the emergent When Saturday Comes (a fanzine without a specific club focus that was subsequently launched as a mainstream magazine) promoted a 'fanzine movement' that gave birth to many more club titles during the late 1980s which was something of a glory period for fanzines.
With the increasing availability of the Internet in the late 20th and the early 21st century, the traditional paper zine has begun to give way to the webzine (or "e-zine") that is easier to produce and uses the potential of the Internet to reach an ever-larger, possibly global, audience. Nonetheless, printed fanzines are still produced, either out of preference for the format or to reach people who do not have convenient Web access.
“Although there are those who would say the fanzine outlived its usefulness in 1977, I am here to tell you, my beauties, that as a guide to what is going on throughout the land they are, collectively, more valuable than the paper you hold in your hand.” (John Peel, Sounds column, 6 Oct 1979)[1]
"I read as many [fanzines] as I can. I might get 2 or 3 a day. I like Billy Bragg, but I must admit that I don't think I shall ever be able to read another Billy Bragg interview: I've read thousands in the past year.... They're a good way of finding out what's going on nationally rather than endless interviews with people who are known nationally." (John Peel, Baby Bites Back interview, 1985.)[2]
Self-published magazines produced by record collectors or fans of music genres had a long history, predating the punk explosion, Peel may have read some of them in his jazz-influenced youth and, during the British blues boom in the early years of Top Gear, mentioned Blues Unlimited, a magazine produced by blues enthusiasts, on the show. London's hippy-era "underground" alternative press, including International Times and Oz, also spawned imitators in other cities as well as promoting the many "little magazines" which dealt not just with music, but poetry and other aspects of the alternative culture.
After his involvement with IT and the underground scene had ended, Peel was keen to promote the fanzine culture that grew across the UK as part of the DIY spirit of punk and indie, with Rough Trade acting as a hub for national distribution, frequently plugging particular publications on his shows. On What The Magazines Say (1995), he approvingly described fanzines as “hugely prejudiced, wildly enthusiastic, no respect for the person, and highly readable,” while also suggesting that (like the major publications) they “tend to concentrate on too narrow a range of bands and musicians.”
Among the related musical discoveries played on Peel's show, 'Preposterous Tales' by I, Ludicrous, originally released on a free flexi-disc with 'Blah, Blah, Blah' fanzine, reached #11 in the 1987 Festive Fifty. The same year, influential indie-pop imprint Sarah Records emerged from the Bristol fanzine scene, with co-founders Matt Haynes and Clare Wadd having previously edited 'Are You Scared To Get Happy?' and 'Kvatch', respectively. On the other side of the Atlantic, the origins of seminal Seattle grunge label Sub Pop, also heavily supported by Peel, can be traced to a fanzine called 'Subterranean Pop' that focused on independent music and came to alternate issues with cassettes of underground bands.[3]
Although his initial interest centered on music fanzines, the DJ was also a big supporter of the emergence of football fanzines from the second half of the 1980s, particularly The End, founded by Liverpool fan Peter Hooton of The Farm, which focused on "music, beer and football. The very stuff of life itself."[4] The DJ later wrote that fanzines "have rekindled and redirected my enthusiasm for football in a manner I would have gauged impossible after Heysel."[5] In the aftermath of Hillsborough, Peel played tracks from the 'Bananas!' album put together by the 'Rodney, Rodney' and 'When Saturday Comes' fanzines to oppose moves by the Thatcher government to introduce ID cards for fans.
In 2022, "Sniffin' Glue Magazine: A Collection Of Punk Fanzines, 1976-1977" and "Collection Of Various Punk Fanzines, 1970s/1980s" were among the rare items from the Peel Record Collection and archive that were sold at an auction.[6][7]
Peel Interviewed[]
(Peel interviews in fanzines, by publication, in alphabetical order. Please add more information if known.)
(Radio plays or mentions by Peel related to fanzines, including for various artists (v/a) compilations where indicated.)
1970s
31 July 1978: (Just before playing Magazine's cover of 'Boredom', John mentions that he read in a fanzine called 'Hey Fever' that the original release of 'Spiral Scratch' (on New Hormones) was selling for 30 pounds a copy, which he thinks is 'a bit daft'.)
The chart from the August 1978 issue of Ripped & Torn
John Peel's Ripped & Torn Top 13 Alternative Chart - August 1978
(JP: “And I thought it would quite interesting tonight to play you an alternative chart. You see them printed in the weekly music papers, and this one comes from 'Ripped & Torn' number 13… From votes sent in by readers, a good hundred of them sent in lists of ten current favourite singles, and they claim that it is Britain’s most accurate alternative chart. And there are only two rules about the records that you nominate – they should be punk or punk related stuff or records that have been released. Well, all of these have been.”) - 13: Subway Sect: Nobody’s Scared (single) Braik - 12: Patti Smith: Because The Night (single) Arista - 11: Stiff Little Fingers: Suspect Device (single) Rigid Digits - 10: Lurkers: Ain’t Got A Clue (single) Beggars Banquet - 09: Art Attacks: I Am A Dalek (single) Albatross - 08: X-Ray Spex: The Day the World Turned Day-Glo (single) EMI - 07: Sex Pistols: Anarchy In The UK (single) EMI - 06: Swell Maps: Read About Seymour (single) Rather - 05: Plastic Bertrand: Ca Plane Pour Moi (single) Sire (JP: "Well there you are. Ripped & Torn readers have placed that at number 5 in their chart. At #4 is East Sheen by O Level, which I can’t actually play to you because it’s got a rude word in it. I know that neither you nor I are going to be particularly inflamed by hearing a popular colloquialism for human waste, but there are those who listen to the radio and watch TVs and go to films in order to be offended so they can make a lot of noise about it, and they call this protecting the nation from a tide of filth. So I can’t play you O Level.”) - 03: Television Personalities 14th Floor (single) self-released - 02: Clash: (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais (single) CBS - 01: Jilted John: Jilted John (single) Rabid
1980s
12 February 1981: (John has been reading 'Sheep Worrying' fanzine.)
26 February 1981: (John has been reading 'Stand And Deliver' a Glasgow Fanzine.)
09 June 1980: John has spent a certain amount of the weekend catching up on fanzines: 'Sometimes It's Worth Living' from Bristol, 'Feast In The Garden' from Humberside, 'NMX' from Sheffield #17, 'Sanity Is Boring' from Ayr, 'Wool City Rocker' from Bradford, 'Vox' from Dublin, 'The Face', issue 2, 'Ten Commandments' from Glasgow. Though some of these claim not to be fanzines.
29 December 1981: (JP: "I got a note from the excellent 'Sick As A Parrot' fanzine, football magazine, which comes from Edinburgh... they do want correspondents...")
06 January 1988: Heavy Discipline: Symbol Of Capitalism (v/a flexi) Issued with '11 Years On' fanzine
18 January 1988: Blood & Thunder: Cities On Fire (v/a flexi) Issued with '11 Years On' fanzine
19 January 1988: (Peel mentions getting a copy of the Disappointments record after reading a positive review of their record in 'Maximumrocknroll' music fanzine.)
26 January 1988: (Peel says the best fanzine he's read for ages is the American, 'Pope' Fanzine.) - Bork!: Gerard's Dick (shared 7" with Bob Mould And Those Pillowbiters - Motorola Cloudburst) The Pope Fanzine
16 May 1990: Jack Musee: Abakhana Mwelinde (Peel says it is on a various artists compilation cassette called Bungomo Success, free with 'Songa!' issue #1 fanzine that can be obtained by sending £2.50 to Phil Bunce, 104 High Street, Billingshurst, West Sussex)
21 March 1992: (JP: 'My thanks to the people at 'The Memoirs Of Seth Bottomley', which is the Port Vale fanzine, and I'm afraid they don't have a great deal to laugh about at the moment: they lost 1-0 today at Millwall as well. In the note that accompanies it, they talk about the new hours for these programmes. They say, "Your times seem to alter more than the times on a West Midlands Police Force confession." Just kidding lads, I'm sure: is that the sound of doors splintering I hear there?')
08 October 1994: (Peel interviews Graham Kemp and Jennifer from 'Kitten Frenzy' fanzine. Before playing an Urusei Yatsura track from the publication’s Kazoo Collection compilation, he invites Kemp and the rest of the band to record a session (they eventually did three).) - Urusei Yatsura: Guitars Are Boring (v/a LP: The Kazoo Collection) Glass
24 June 1995: (Interesting fact about Anglefish from Zion Train fanzine.)
29 October 1998: Bis: I'm A Slut (v/a CD- Fanzine Convention 98) Doc Martens (a new track that Peel says comes from an LP conjunction with the Fanzine 98' Convention)
Gigography 1980: Nov 1: Manchester Polytechnic: John Peel Roadshow / 'City Fun' fanzine benefit event.
Gag: Singer Rhodri Marsden first run-in with John Peel was at the age of 17 when his fanzine, 'Glottal Stop', was the subject of a piece on Peel's show on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire in 1988.
Steve Lamacq: Started fanzine called 'A Pack of Lies'.
Andrew Weatherall: Involved in the 'Boys' Own' football and music fanzine, with Terry Farley and others.
Yeah Yeah Noh: members John Grayland and Sue Dorey (along with Damian S) published Printhead, a free magazine focusing on independent music in Leicester and its environs.
Dave Haslam: Founder of 'Debris' fanzine. Peel played related releases.
