Go Kart Mozart, live in Bristol, 12th September, 2014

Hats off to The Brilliant Corners for organising the above event at The Exchange in Bristol over one weekend recently. Chance to catch the rarely seen Go Kart Mozart, as well as Amelia Fletcher's latest excellent musical endeavour, and lots of other great bands and nice touches in the mix. 

Having missed a Sarah Records inspired live event in the city this year, it was time to jump at the above. Sadly, I have to admit that it was only possible for us to hang round for the first leg of the event, with Go Kart Mozart, and how hard it was to miss Amelia Fletcher sing with both The Brilliant Corners and her new band The Catenary Wires...as well as missing the incredible Haiku Salut, missing out on more free gummy bear sweets, and just the general ace atmosphere. I love Bristol for gigs. There is such community, and so much of a free and easy feel. It's an incredible city.

We did get the chance to chat to Amelia Fletcher on the Saturday, which was kindly and lovely. You can still get hold of copies of issue two of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill paper fanzine, from the Etsy shop with this link, resplendent with a really in depth article on and interview with Amelia Fletcher/Tender Trap.

Go Kart Mozart/Lawrence were written about in our first issue of the fanzine, and since the event had the title of Fanzine, I managed to bring a bunch of copies along. Why do I keep ending up drinking halves and folding and stapling fanzines in the pubs of Notting Hill? I even copied the fanzines up in the area beforehand too. I ran out of staples, and have to apologise for that. Copying up issue two went awry and had to be forfeited for sale as well, which was glum.

There were some smart Go Kart Mozart keyrings on sale on the merch table, alongside copies of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill fanzines... Earnings from the fanzines basically went on the keyrings. Sad that there were no Go Kart Mozart Tee shirts though.

It was surreal hearing that Lawrence had made it and was in the building about to perform. I mean, the last tour was pretty much all cancelled and I had never seen the band live up to then. I felt a genuine excitement, anticipation that I don't often get at gigs anymore, having been to so many. It was the most brilliant extravaganza of 70s style synth pop, and I was startled at the lack of dancing.

Couldn't really have asked for too much more from the setlist, it was an even mixture of stuff from all the albums. No Denim songs is a shame but totally expected. Some heckling requests for them, though not Felt for a change. I haven't much love for Felt in the face of Lawrence's newest material. I can't understand all the indie kids that go for all that, its comparably drab and they're missing out on ridiculously bright, fun, amusing, off kilter pop like no other with Go Kart Mozart.

Setlist, as transferred from my handwritten one on the back of some hotel stationery, went pretty much like this from memory:

West Brom Blues

Lawrence Takes Over (excerpt)

Come on You Lot

The Sun

Summer is Here

Electric Rock and Roll

We're Selfish and Lazy and Greedy

Retroglancing

Donna and the Dopefiends

Glorious Chorus

Drinkin' Um Bongo (!)

White Stilettoes in the Sand

(a new song)

Donna and the Dopefiends (again!)

The most memorable, enjoyable gig in years.

Animals That Swim, Pullover, Abuse fanzine, and the spirit of 90s indie

Thoroughly enjoying creased up old issues of Abuse indie fanzine from the mid 90s lately - tatty old, black and white Xeroxed pages, heavy on typed cut and paste text and messily pasted backgrounds, only one staple in the top left-hand corner - nostalgia!

I remembered Animals That Swim again, and put them on as I read the fanzines, excited as a kid at Christmas. I bought one single at the time. But I do have one album that I came across in more recent years, the one that has the brilliant Faded Glamour on it, a classic indie song.




Their album Workshy sounds fantastic too. Particularly enjoy Pink Carnations (maybe ignoring the lyric about the big white turkey) and Smooth Steps. I miss that sophisticated, lyrical, wistful kind of indie that the 1990s produced a lot of. Whipping Boy and Jack were other bands of that ilk, also sadly missed by me.



I also marvelled at a Pullover interview in Abuse fanzine, as few shards of this sublime pop band survive. I have written about Pullover in the paper 'zine of this blog, they are a sadly lost, forever-to-be-treasured, indie-pop band of the mid 90s. I am still besotted with their pop songs, and I cherish the 7" singles of theirs that I have. I felt a bit of a pang to see the band's home address (a flat in Camden - but they're back in Manchester now, I think) 18 years too late. And the fanzine editor had a demo tape of their album - never released, to this day - which I really do not wish to exit the world without ever hearing!

Reading about the 90s indie gig scene again feels strange. It seems like such a small world now. And the spirit so different - the unabashed enthusiasm and rallying for little bands and challenging the music press status quo. Also the power that fanzines had to make new bands - they were useful and focal outlets and bands took the writers seriously as such forces for the good. The internet and digital music and all that goes with it - plus the lack of power/centrality to any kind of music press now - make things so much bigger, more out-there, less defined; not to mention how carefully corporate and hegemonic things have become in that dilution process. Even just reading about it now, in those battered, photocopied pages, it gives a real sense of how it felt like a community, one big exuberant party, involving a small number of specific little scrappy venues, that we'll never see the like of again.

All Thrills No Frills Music Bill, issue #3 of the print fanzine

The new issue of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill is a mini issue, made in 24 hours to celebrate International Zine Month, this month.

This issue of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill is a bit different to usual issues, since it takes the form of a perzine (personal writing zine). It is written from the perspective of a female guitar player, and focuses on: getting back into playing after a break (inspired by reading Good Fuzzy Sounds 'zine, and being hooked on the new Six by Seven album), times of feeling conscious of gender in music playing, also thoughts on the attention/treatment of female musicians, analysis of past personal experiences, heroes and heroines, and asks the question: 'Just, why are women still not fortified with similar respect and credibility about their abilities?

Limited editions of the 'zine come wrapped inside a guitar string envelope, if you buy on Etsy! Dinky little zine, but packed full of writing, images/collage.

And if you are about to tell me that sexism in music doesn't exist, there's this excellent website full of experiences from female musicians:

http://shesprettygoodforagirl.blogspot.co.uk/

Current stockists

Places to buy issues of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill fanzine in paper format:

Housmans, Kings Cross
Banquet Records, Kingston
Collectors Records, Kingston
People Records, Guildford
Starswirl Etsy
SW Zines

Coming soon to:

Rough Trade East
Rough Trade West
Station Records, Milton Keynes

If you would like to buy the fanzine, but cannot get to any of the above outlets, please email us: artistic_vices at yahoo.co.uk to arrange Paypal or other method of payment.

If you like what you see/read, and want to stock this music fanzine, we welcome you getting in touch at artistic_vices at yahoo.co.uk

A reminder of what's in each issue...

Issue #2:
Interview with Amelia Fletcher and her band Tender Trap with in depth article on Marine Research/Tender Trap, also new Tender Trap album Ten Songs about Girls, The return of Tilly and The Wall, The seven inch singles of Pullover, Brian Jonestown Massacre live, Records recently bought: Altered Images, This Mortal Coil, John Foxx, and Teenagers in Tokyo, The Chameleons live at Camden Palace VHS tape review, Edwyn Collins's TV show, West Heath Yard, Female exclusion/abuse within music (including getting attacked at gigs), 1990s compilation tapes and 1990s music culture, Anti anti-pop consortium!, Loads of silly anecdotes/satire about bands/singers, Recent favourite record shops, Mix CD listings, Vinyl.

Issue #1:
Interview with Robyn Hitchcock, Articles on Record Store Day, vinyl, record reviews, mix CD tracklistings, also lots of incidental music fan stuff, humour. Bands featured include: Allo Darlin', Lawrence / Go Kart Mozart / Denim / Felt, Brix Smith, Bow Wow Wow, Belly, Paul Haig, lots more.

Also available a series of mini zines:

Shop 33, Luton

Really nice sounding shop has opened its doors in Luton. All things arts, crafts, and music - plus they are a record label!

http://snap33.co.uk/shop33/



It's part of the regeneration of the High Town area of Luton, which can only be positive. The people working for the shop are volunteers and they're really ace.

I might also add that one of them has taken on some copies of the paper version of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill! Issue #2 featuring a huge article and in depth interview with Tender Trap/Amelia Fletcher, plus all sorts of bits and bobs on bands like Tilly and the Wall, This Mortal Coil, Teenagers in Tokyo, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Chameleons, Edwyn Collins... and stuff about record shops, music culture (this issue looks at females being attacked by males at gigs), compilation tapes, pop recommendations, and, er, Luke Haines's cat, of course!

Shop 33 also stocks the fantastic local-to-Luton Clod magazine - a surreal, satirical work of genius that always makes me laugh aloud. Plus, records by local Luton band The Knockouts, and plenty of other rock/jazz/alt stuff.

The interior of the shop looks really artistic, and I look forward to visiting one day.

Issue #2 of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill + Luke Haines's cat

The second issue of the paper music fanzine The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill shall be launched this Saturday 23rd Feburary! Featuring an exclusive interview with Tender Trap, and lots more that I shan't detail here yet!

You may already know of the spectacular How Does it Feel to Be Loved indiepop/60s/girl soul night in London. They are hosting their first record fair in Brixton, at the Canterbury Arms Pub, from 12noon till 5pm, on Saturday 23rd Feburary (this coming Saturday!).

All Thrills No Frills 'zine will have a stall, and we'll be selling music fanzines old and new - ours and other people's wonderful creations.

I am donating profits from my own creations to the cause of Luke Haines's cat! More info here.

Full details of the event in general + MAP are here.

Come and buy records or fanzines, maybe both - support independent sellers, and independent creative types, and Colin the Cat, too!! Oh, and there are DJs too, and I think HDIF are still seeking the odd DJ or two.

Further thoughts on music buying/HMV

Here's a genuine overheard person on a mobile phone - the location was a little secondhand book shop:

'I'm in a book shop'
[pause]
'I'm old school - I still buy CDs!'

My heart sank. And I just felt the really strong urge that I am not of these times. It was someone not that much younger than me. Something like that makes me feel so sad - it's so odd and alien to me that buying any kind of physical music product can be seen as, what, kitsch? A stylistic choice? Or just plain old fashioned.

I enjoyed Stuart Braithwaite's addition to the great HMV debate, recently.

He has a good point about extremely low pricing making CDs seem disposable when once they were £15. I remember paying £15.99 for CD albums that weren't even new release, and I remember cassette albums in their last days in the album charts being £15.99 too, which is pretty shocking to look back on. The in between always seems fair to me - and a lot of independent record shops have got that right, eg new releases at anywhere between £8.99 and £12.99.

And the below is too true to:

'As a trusted brand, HMV could quite easily have used its position to establish digital music sales far earlier and far better than it did. Filling its shop floors with iPods was surely an act of cutting one’s own throat, and I had a discussion with someone working in Waterstones recently who felt the same way about its stores selling ­Kindles.'

It will be interesting to see what changes get made to the stock/store policies should a buyer take over HMV.

It's incredibly hard for me to comment or get my head around any potential for there to be a next generation who expect all their music free and therefore for music buying to end totally, as I don't know anyone that feels that way, and the most hardcore music fans I know all adore and use record shops in towns and cities - they also tend to see the urgent need to support bands direct, buying albums and t-shirts at gigs so the band get the money direct, and so on. The thought occurs that new music is so much more ubiquitous now than when I was a teenager, there is almost no escape, and TV shows and advertising in particular have gone indie soundtrack in a way that baffles me that would not baffle those growing up now - a song by Clinic in a Weetabix advert is still beyond comprehension to me! Music seems to mean much less in many ways, too - it is fashion, it is commodity more than ever.

I was recently excited to visit a new shop in the provincial town I grew up in, which specialised in band t-shirts (I'd harboured dreams about opening up a record shop there, selling albums and merchandise, as I didn't think just albums would be a success, in such a shopping-centre-driven place). Then I realised the horror that it was all in the name of fashion - it was all stuff that is worn more as a logo of cool/identity than fervent music fandom - a Ramones t-shirt now can sit alongside a Jack Wills one, it is just a style choice. I'm not the first music fan to find themselves seeing band t-shirts in trendy high street stores, and to see people wearing them in the street, and find myself wondering if they even own albums by this band. I once had a flatmate who worked for a major record company but whom owned about 20 CDs, and I once saw on her packing list for a festival trip - 'Rolling Stones tee'. There wasn't a Rolling Stones record in the house, and no other reference to them to be seen/heard from her either. And there is huge peril there that that's a big part of how music has come to seem disposable to people...

On a brighter note, the staff at HMV Curzon Cinema seemed positive about the cinema remaining functional, due to the part ownership by Curzon - which is such a relief. Had some drinks there and celebrated. Also, bought a few items in the actual HMV store.

I leave the mini free versions of this 'zine in there regularly, but I do wonder who is picking it up, and I do wonder if there are that many 'old school'(!) music fans out there that are bothered about/interested in such a thing as a printed music fanzine anymore. Unless it becomes fashionable via an article in the mainstream press and is generally seen as some hip current phenomenon, it does seem to be a niche/dying art for a perhaps soon-to-be-lost generation - and it makes me very reluctantly... twee.

2012 in zines

Just hopping on to post and say that all the zines from 2012 are still available. I'm being slack with a zine for January, but hopefully there'll be one by the end of the month/beginning of Feb. when gig-going gets livelier and there's more to review, or I might just cobble together some pop star satire that was generated over Christmas! For now, just a post of all the zines I made in 2012:

As ever, available via email, certain music shops round London and Surrey, and free mini ones are often to be found scattered around various venues/pubs/shops/cafes around some bits of the UK. Get int touch with questions.

Record fair fun

Thank you to the guys at my local record fair for buying up some of my 'zines to sell! I'm grateful for the enthusiasm and encouragement. It also lent opportunity for a nice chat about one of my favourite musicians (a customer of theirs, I am gladdened to hear). And I may even get a stall at some point, to sell my many different music 'zines and a small selection of records. I'm lucky to have regular record fair within easy reach. If you're interested in going along and you're in the London area, Soundbite Record Fairs dates are listed online. Just playing one of my purchases now - thought I was having a John Peel moment with the record speed, but Claire Grogan's voice really does sound like that - even higher and more child-like than I remember! I also got a cracking looking Clash bootleg DVD, with live and TV performances to go with the stack of others I have amassed in time! Nice to see bootlegs (CDs too) available here, as you don't tend to get them much - well, not since so many market stalls and stuff have had to close down. There was a brilliant one in my hometown, I've still got the Cure one I got there, bought so many old tapes/CDs from that stall as a teen, it introduced me to so much music, sad it's gone.

New stockist + SE London Zine Fair this Sunday!

I'm preparing for this Sunday's 'zine fair at the Amersham Arms in New Cross. Photocopying frenzy! Copies of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill shall be on sale.

I'm attempting to make issue #2  of the main fanzine ready in time - featuring in depth articles on and interview with the splendid Tender Trap, as well as a host of articles, reviews, all sorts of adventures in music, and funny tidbits about a variety of bands/artists.

Issue one is still available via Paypal, Etsy, and in various record shops! Email me for more info. Or visit one of the following record shops:

Rough Trade West - had one copy left at last check! Or try online
Banquet Records, Kingston
Collectors' Records, Kingston
People Independent Music, Guildford

If you are a record shop and would like to stock copies, please do get in touch, I'd love to be stocked anywhere in the UK - or abroad! Thank you to the record shops I have been approaching so far - no knockbacks yet, I just need to get more organised and approach more stores! I'm really heartened at how supportive/enthusiastic so many people have been. Keith in Collectors' Records gets a big thumbs up for being kind, and for always having a good music chat with me. He also started reading my fanzine right away on the counter - now that's a true music fan! It's living breathing music fans and embodiments of music history/fandom that make music shops so vital to visit and support - you can't get the same help/chat/interesting insight from a download store!

I'm doing a deal with the three mini 'zines I have made so far this year - 50p for all three!! If you can get to SE London Zine Fest this Sunday 11th November! If not, email,or drop a comment, and we'll work something out. As long as I can cover photocopying costs/postage, I am happy. I have not made a penny from this zine so far, and do not expect/intend to, I just want to enjoy doing it, and hope others will.

Current listening: Jnr Murvin - Police and Thieves LP. I need to listen to reggae in this weather, to keep warm and happy!

Wimbledon book exchange

I smiled when passing the book exchange in the waiting room on platform 5 of Wimbledon train station - a fanzine was placed on the window sill inside! I have been thinking of leaving my mini zines there for a while but every time I pass, I've forgotten and am empty handed. Not so today - today I could leave a lovely handful of the latest mini issue of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill.

The zine I picked up in return was a railway walkers' enthusiasts magazine - excellent! not what I'd ever usually read so I enjoyed that little peek into this world - of lists of railway bridges, reports on disused railway line walks, and updates on minutiae changes to stations all round the UK. A strange breed of people - but I am the music fan equivalent so I identify, frankly.

I've thought of at least three people I could pass this little magazine onto and no doubt will. It feels good leaving your zine in random places. I finally had my first feedback from a stranger via a comment on here, and it felt good to have that communication, to know that someone gets what I'm doing and enjoys it.

Record Shop stockists

Now stocked in People Records in Guildford!

Also stocked in:

• Rough Trade East and West London, and also online
• Banquet Records, Kingston, Surrey (who are lovely!)

Issue one of paper 'zine now available!

The first issue of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill is out now!

It includes:

• Interview with Robyn Hitchcock
• Articles on Record Store Day, vinyl, record reviews, mix CD tracklistings, also lots of incidental music fan stuff, humour. etc.

Bands featured include:

• Allo Darlin'
• Lawrence / Go Kart Mozart / Denim / Felt
• Brix Smith
• Bow Wow Wow
• Belly
• Paul Haig
• lots more

The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill is a black and white, pocked sized 'zine with some photos, it is over 40 pages.

I hope to make Paypal available on here soon, but for now, please just email - details to the right (on profile page).

I write about whatever takes my fancy as a music fan, not overly conscious of paying strict attention to timeliness / current / new bands, trends/genres, etc, that's the fun of being a music fan so that's how I write. The idea is to focus on the writing, so there is no 'style' to the look of the thing, it's all in the content.

I am currently writing the interim issue for August/September. Watch this space!