The Zine culture of the seventies was OG cut and paste. A pair of scissors, glue, a typewriter and a polaroid and you could produce your own account of your music scene. No doubt that Punk dominated the zines with the DIY ethic of Punk lending itself to its creation and publication. Mary Perry’s Sniffin Glue and Tony Drayton’s Ripped and Torn were essential reading then and now. Even the distribution was DIY – print them out in the morning and drop them to the record store in the afternoon.
Zines gained new popularity in the 1990’s thanks to Riot Grrrl inspired prints. That spirit of counterculture continues to inspire the Zine creators of today with activism, climate change and feminism titles to the front.
Read up on The Stones Roses by John Robb, The Hacienda by Peter Hook, Prodigy-Electronic Punks 1988-1994 and Creation: Riots, Raves and Running a Record Label by Alan McGee.
