Zine Scene: Punk to Present
Ania Glowacz
Who would have thought that from the plethora of (mainly) punk zines in the 1980s, that the world of zines would explode and still be going strong nearly five decades later?! Bryce Galloway – from long-time upstarts Wendyhouse (and other bands), and creator of zine/book Incredibly Hot Sex With Hideous People (still going!) – has done the serious legwork required to pull it all together, as much as humanly possible, and has done a great job. Many interviews were done, original zines sourced to be documented – there’s a lot involved.
The book looks the part (that size, just short of A4 – can’t remember my printer’s measurements!) and it’s lime green and hot pink cover. Perfectly punk! Which is where it all starts on the New Zealand scene in the 1980s, when it seemed like everyone was doing a zine, for themselves, for their band. It was a networking tool for “the scene”, with an almost total lack of representation in normal music media, and with only negative reports of punk rockers and skinheads (punks and skins from this point) in conventional newspapers. This just fuelled the fire.
The book is arranged in chapters by decade – cool purple-blue ink throughout – with an introduction for each in terms what was happening in New Zealand at the time, musically, politically, etc. The 80s were particularly grim.
This is where I come in. I left home at the end of 1985, two weeks before Bursary, as me and my dad just couldn’t see eye-to-eye on anything. I found a flat about a month later, in Brooklyn, Wellington with three other (“straight”) people.
That summer, a bunch of Auckland punks came down, and quickly made themselves at home, squatting in Wellington punk’s flats, wreaking havoc around town! At the time Wellington was rough out on the streets, including daytime. It was “punks vs skins”, but beyond that punks and skins often did get along, but not always. There was also street kids vs punks and skins. Because they would be in “packs” and just wanted to beat you up, you had to be careful of your surroundings, as well as run fast when required.
There was also this terrible trend of being “stepped out” for your boots or leather jacket, just in the street. This could be skins on punks, or punks on other punks, but it happened. (Along with stealing records from people’s flats, etc.) I actually carried a knife as I didn’t want my Docs or leather jacket taken. It was second-hand, but it cost $300 in the 80s! A bit of a violent backdrop …
Wellington had lots of bands, but not that many venues, especially ones that would let punk bands play. I started Submission in 1986 – a fanzine. Issues #1 and #2 came out that year. All self-publishing qualifies as a “zine”, a fanzine involves an inspiration/focus and for me it was Flesh D-Vice. They played as often as they could and I went to every gig. Not strictly “punk”, maybe “hard” punk or horror punk … Regardless they were irresistible, the energy, the originality (rules to live by!).
I wasn’t in a band because I couldn’t find anyone to join up with, so I put my creativity elsewhere. So I was a “fangirl” if you like, but more than that, I worked at Jayrem in 1987 and 88 and that was the Flesh D-Vice label! Gerald Dwyer used to come in all the time, and it wasn’t long before we became friends. FDV were inspirational to me (we don’t need overseas bands kind of thing) and I wanted to do whatever I could to help promote them etc. It became more than that, when Gerald got involved in postering around town to survive as an artist, he got too busy to host the Wild, Wild Rock Show on Radio Active. At first we alternated weekly, then I just took on the whole thing. With CDs not being a “thing”, and punk tracks often being incredibly short, you needed to be organised as well as have a huge pile of records to carry up the hill.
Read the full article at Audioculture here.
