MY FANZINES. BAMBI ZINE

I’ve decided to write a bit about some of the fanzines I did in the past.

BAMBI was the 2nd ever fanzine I did - I did 6 issues between 1996 and 1997. They were all A5 B+W photocopied zines (tho’ some issues had coloured card covers) of about 20 or so pages. It went under the tagline All Rock + Roll Is Homosexual (slogan Manics used on a T-shirt a few years earlier) and was billed as the zine of homoerotic rock music. Although I did write about LGBT musicians I was more interested in examining the ambivalence around certain musicians and the grey areas - I used a lot of photocopied press cuttings/quotes and part of it was to show the media/fan interpretation of something could have a life of its own whatever the facts might be but that also that anything and everything was possible. The issues were a mix of quotes, photocopied press cuttings, short reviews + articles and reprints of pieces I found interesting (the last issue was also titled the Hollywood Babylon issue as it concentrated on actors + the film business). It wasn’t intended to be taken too seriously.

Overall I got a good reception to it. It wasn’t as popular as some of my other zines but I tended to do much smaller print runs but every issue sold out. As well as being reviewed in several fanzines, I also got a mention in Metal Hammer + a very nice postcard from Chris of Pansy Division saying how much he’d liked the zine + he’d copied the bits about Metallica and forwarded them on to Kirk! (they did actually know Kirk + he played on a Pansy Division single). Looking back on it now, I’m reasonably happy with how it turned out.

And here is a link to a list of what was in every issue (the printed copies are now all sold out but check the bambi zine tag on here on my tumblr to read some of the stuff or go to my website here)

List of what was in BAMBI zines

BOOK REVIEW. WE GOT THE NEUTRON BOMB. THE UNTOLD STORY OF L.A. PUNK BY MARC SPITZ AND BRENDAN MULLEN

This is a long overdue look at the origins and story of the Los Angeles punk scene in the 1970s. Most books tend to overlook L.A. in favour of New York and London and this book goes some way to redressing the balance. It's made up entirely of quotes from the various musicians, promoters, journalists, groupies and scenesters. Although this means the book does lack a coherent overview, it does make it seem more vibrant and an accurate reflection of the sometimes fragmented and arbitrary nature of the scene.
The authors have managed to cover a wide range of bands from the likes of The Runaways, The Germs and X through to later bands like Black Flag and The Gun Club. I did feel the latter part of the book seemed to cover too many disparate bands in quite a short space but I think that reflects all the different directions the music scene went in. The authors have done a brilliant job in tracking down all these various people and getting them to tell their stories and putting them all together. It is a bit disappointing that there aren't more pictures in the book but overall, I really liked the book and thought it was an interesting read. I know a lot of people who are fans of Please Kill Me (which concentrates more on the New York punk scene) and I'd say that although We Got The Neutron Bomb isn't quite so well-known, it still acts as a worthy companion piece by giving the lesser known (but just as important) history of the Los Angeles punk scene.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JULY 2013