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16 Punks against censorship: negotiating acceptable politics in the Dutch fanzine Raket Kirsty Lohman Punk took root in The Netherlands in 1977, with scores of new bands forming through 1978–80.1 As elsewhere, punk’s mix of spectacular imagery, nihilism and/or radical politics, shock value and a do-it-yourself approach appealed to young people. Also in the late 1970s, the port city of Rotterdam was undergoing a process of deindustrialisation and automation. It was still being rebuilt, both literally and figuratively, following near-annihilation during the Second
15 Punking the bibliography: RE/Search Publications, the bookshelf question and ideational flow S. Alexander Reed Since 1980, San Francisco-based RE/Search has published zines, compendia and significant texts of western subculture. These publications contain hundreds of interviews with underground artists, intellectuals, collectors and scenesters, and throughout RE/Search’s history, editor V. Vale (Vale Hamanaka) and former editor Andrea Juno have repeatedly asked these subjects some version of the ‘bookshelf question’: What do you read? When reading lists
10 Vague post-punk memoirs, 1979–89 Tom Vague Vague covers a boring Salisbury–Bournemouth sort of area with enthusiasm. Kris Needs, Zigzag (1980) At the end of the 1970s, as punk rock became post-punk and Margaret Thatcher came to power, Vague fanzine was founded at Salisbury College of Technology and Art (now Wiltshire College) by Perry Harris, Iggy Zevenbergen and me. Perry’s ‘Vague beginnings’ cartoon illustrates the idea’s conception with us saying: ‘Salisbury’s boring. There’s nothing to do … Let’s start a fanzine … What shall we call it? … Let’s base it
7 The evolution of an anarcho-punk narrative, 1978–84 Russ Bestley and Rebecca Binns From its inception, punk, as articulated through its fanzines, was anti-elitist; positioning itself against self-indulgent, outmoded rock stars and the pretentions of rock journalism.1 Pioneering punk zine Sniffin’ Glue ( July 1976) and those that immediately followed2 sought an authentic form of expression to relate directly with ‘disaffected kids’ who comprised the demographic of punk subculture. Against the hierarchical structure inherent in mainstream media, punk zines
no desire to revisit or re-enact any previous Spanish tradition. Rather, the influence of icons and topics present in North American music, films, novels and lifestyles was very apparent. In this context, it is widely acknowledged that an appropriation of certain aspects of punk resurfaces in the 1990s in Spanish artistic and cultural projects. 1 Nevertheless, most critical efforts have been devoted to literary analyses
Ripped, torn and cut offers a collection of original essays exploring the motivations behind – and the politics within – the multitude of fanzines that emerged in the wake of British punk from 1976. Sniffin’ Glue (1976–77), Mark Perry’s iconic punk fanzine, was but the first of many, paving the way for hundreds of home-made magazines to be cut and pasted in bedrooms across the UK. From these, glimpses into provincial cultures, teenage style wars and formative political ideas may be gleaned. An alternative history, away from the often-condescending glare of London’s media and music industry, can be formulated, drawn from such titles as Ripped & Torn, Brass Lip, City Fun, Vague, Kill Your Pet Puppy, Toxic Grafity, Hungry Beat and Hard as Nails. Here, in a pre-internet world, we see the development of networks and the dissemination of punk’s cultural impact as it fractured into myriad sub-scenes: industrial, post-punk, anarcho, Oi!, indie, goth. Ripped, torn and cut brings together academic analysis with practitioner accounts to forge a collaborative history ‘from below’. The first book of its kind, this collection reveals the contested nature of punk’s cultural politics by turning the pages of a vibrant underground press.
This book explains how the famous Spanish singer and actress Imperio Argentina starred in a film, Carmen, la de Triana, that was made in Berlin under the auspices of the Third Reich. It examines the Transition between the dictatorship and democratic eras in four films featuring performances in which transgendered protagonists lip-synch to songs from the Hispanic diaspora. The book considers how punk music and its attendant sensibility and cultural practices were profoundly influential in Spain throughout the early years of democracy. It focuses on one of the most financially successful Spanish films of the last ten years:
12 From Year Zero to 1984: I was a pre-teen fanzine writer Nicholas Bullen Approaching Year Zero Punk smashed into my consciousness like a boot through a television screen. I was 10 years old in 1978, living in a small village located between the cities of Coventry and Birmingham in the Midlands of England. With the exception of a somewhat unwholesome interest in horror literature, my juvenile tastes tended towards the universal – riding bicycles, reading comics, eating ice cream: music played no great role. However, a seismic shift occurred when punk abruptly
17 Contradictory self-definition and organisation: the punk scene in Munich, 1979–82 Karl Siebengartner This chapter presents a history from below that draws on fanzines to show the complexity of Munich’s punk scene between 1979 and 1982. In so doing, the function of fanzines within a local space will be demonstrated, shedding light on the inner workings of a particular punk milieu. Punk in Munich has yet to be adequately researched. But through this case study, assumptions as to the development and influence of German punk can be reviewed. Methodologically
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman as a true 'Renaissance Man' in the colloquial sense of the word, as well as having a strong and permanent interest in the art, thought, and literature of the Renaissance. Although the tone of Jarman's films is frequently melancholic, the threat which death poses for desire is sometimes modulated by an apparent desire for death. He was never comfortable with the label 'gay', regarding it as both too stable and too self-satisfied, too concerned to present a 'positive' image. He preferred the more fluid and mobile term 'queer'. Jarman's first feature-length film was remarkable in many ways and in at least three respects was virtually unique at the time for a commercially distributed picture. In 1977, the year of the Queen's Silver Jubilee, punk had spread beyond a handful of clubs and bands in London and New York and was starting to look like a complete new youth culture in the making. From 1978 to 1985, whatever else he was engaged in, Jarman's life was dominated by his desire to make a film about the life of the Italian painter Caravaggio. Wittgenstein had been a completely unexpected commission which Jarman, despite his failing health, had rapidly and brilliantly converted into 'A Derek Jarman Film' through his usual intense personal identification with his subject. Blue was one of a cluster of films addressing the issue of AIDS which were released in the early 1990s.