Terminus (Have A Good Laugh #18)

H.A.G.L. (short for “Have A Good Laugh”) was published in the Newcastle (Upon Tyne) area throughout the 1980s and 90s by Trevor Howarth. It focused mostly on 1977-style punk and Oi! Trev also did a distro. He wasn’t a member of AFA (Anti-Fascist Action) but he wrote about anti-fascist street action and local politics (In his own words: “the usual bits slagging the nazis”.). I’ve only seen a few issues but the layout wasn’t something to excite the reader to dig into it; “wonky and smudged”, I read somewhere. I’m sure Trev would’ve called me a ‘PC prick’: he wasn’t alway politically correct and had a weird sense of humour, easily offensive for some. He had “a gleeful obsession with winding up any liberally minded readers by calling naff things ‘gay’ and making sick jokes about child-abuse”… Others said it was all hilarious; that he “had the power to raise a chuckle, provoke a bit of thought and, most importantly, have a personality that is distinctive of those who are easily offended!”. Scandal-quizes, drinking-stories, chat-up lines, … Anyone!?

Some names of bands interviewed? ‘H.D.Q.’, ‘UK Subs’, ‘Sacrilege’, ‘Razzia’ (#12) – ‘Chaos UK’, ‘Chumbawamba’, ‘Thatcher On Acid’, ‘Axegrinder (#14) – ‘Amebix’, ‘Conflict’, ‘Civilised Society’, ‘Potential Threat’ (#15) – ‘Mega City 4’, ‘Toxic Ephex’ (#16) – ‘Terminus’, ‘Leatherface’, ‘Snuff’ (#18) …

H.A.G.L. started in 1983. He called it a day in 2003 after 30 issues. In between he also contributed to UK Resist. Nowadays he now edits the occasional Savage Amusement webzine, “focused heavily on the regional punk-scene and often sought to comment on the comings and goings of other fanzines, as well as anti-fascist and left politics”. He also self-published Having a Laugh & Having A Say – Not Another Bloody Punk Rock Autobiography (Savage Amusement Publication).

Brob

1983. There was always something beyond my control that fucked things up in the band I was in (‘Bondage’; the name being a tribute of course to a certain singer named Beki – although try explaining that 35 years later when you walk into a micropub owned by a garage-punker who greets you with “Ah! Mr Bondage! What can I get you?” as real ale twats look on with raised eyebrows). A fanzine. That’s it. I could have a say ánd have some kind of control over events (as long as I could scrape together the money for printing). One of my fave bands at the time were ‘Uproar’ (great live but never getting it quite down in the studio) and as most zines were só serious , Have A Good Laugh would be the title. I put an ad in Sounds and was surprised to find that bands I had records by actually contacted me. ‘Uproar’ (of course) & ‘The Destructors’ as well as an obscure Yorkshire band ‘All Over The Carpet’. With a typewriter whose ribbon I would reuse until you could barely read it and a bog standard Gestetner duplicator in a cab-style advice-centre in Benwell , my rantings of a northern gobshite would be unleashed to the world with a really shit hand-drawn cover with a laughing gob ripped off from Monkey of ‘The Adicts’. Sickened by the Arselikhan of boring lightweight bands in the music weeklies and the massive decline of Sounds in particular, I set out to be outspoken from the off. How I never got twatted I will never know, but various people on social media have reprinted gig-reviews etc. (I don’t have my own zines anymore) and I was shocked at how confrontational it all was. The early 80s were a great time for punk with gigs every week (like there is now, but with a crowd) and was surprised to be invited into the dressing-room to do a face-to-face interview with John Ellis from ‘The Vibrators’ – most interviews were just given to the bands and they would (hopefully) write back. Politically, like most zines, I was angry as fuck with the evil witch Thatcher . My father had a good well-paid job lined up for me at Consett Steelworks when I left school a few years earlier, but within a year of getting power she shut the whole place down. He would never work again and I was left with shitty rip-off schemes. But amongst the anger was my bad taste sense of humour which caused it’s fair share of controversy . I was involved in CB(radio) wars at the time. We used to wind up the sensible religious types who didn’t like swearing. I drew a 4 page piss-take of one of them ( a touch on the offensive side) and passed it around at the CB-disco. It fell into the wrong hands – his. He came to the house when I was at work threatening legal action & all sorts. Issue 5 of HAGL had just came out and my parents said “Is this what you mean?”. He bought it and sure enough gave it to the coppers to try and get me done under obscenity laws (it had an interview with ‘The Abused’ in it) but they just turned up at the house, gave a warning and said it was no different to the top shelf mags at the newsagents (I still can’t work out if that was praise or an insult). I had every type of band in there including ones I couldn’t stand musically (especially in the late 80s) . If I thought they’d give good answers then I would give it a go. ‘Hellbastard’ for example. Great answers. Whereas a lot of the bands I liked just couldn’t be arsed. Some wouldn’t even reply at all so I would name & shame. It wasn’t like today where you send an email and if no reply that’s no big deal. I was skint as fuck and couldn’t afford to waste SAEs on egotistical tossers. The miners-strike come and went, then the Poll Tax, hassle at work after slagging off the greedy directors 33% pay-rises in the local paper. All were documented angrily . Trouble was never far away with the local nazis especially when a copy of the zine fell into their hands. With few good bands left I diversified a bit and went to see indie-punk bands like ‘Mega City 4’ , ‘Senseless Things’, etc. Many times I felt like giving up. Printers were erratic as fuck (they changed with nearly each issue) and many a time it didn’t look as if I was gonna manage to produce it at all. One issue in the 90s I went all the way to Middlesborough as my mate said I could print it at the MPs office. Great until his staff picked up a copy and I wasn’t invited back to finish it. The early 90s were a cultural wasteland. The odd good band like (early) ‘Blaggers’ but how do you keep it going when there’s nothing to write about? I tried to do a more varied zine called All The Rage, which bombed. Grim times. Loads of trips away to punks-picnics and some write-ups of minor hellraising which make me cringe today. Sned once called me “The Garry Bushell of zines” and looking back some of that stuff was indeed wéll embarrassing. The last half of the 90s showed promise with a load of good new US streetpunk bands and small labels and I set up a small newsletter (Savage Amusement) to keep the freebies coming; then after that (I think it was early noughties) set up a zine called Negative Reaction, splitting the costs with Bison (who does merch for bands at Blackpool) and Laz Ogden (who is about as far politically from me as you could get, so that was awkward at times). Nearly gave up on that after 5 issues then met Dawn who did a zine in the 80s (That Neurotic Feeling) and we gave it a go again. She still has to put up with me today! I wrote a book (Having A Laugh & Having A Say) about 5 years ago which went well, and keep trying to finish another one, provisionally titled Punk Underground; although most who said “Yes I will do an interview” actually meant “Nah I can’t be arsed”. If it appears it will basically be like a nostalgia book-fanzine crossover. It’s sad to see the decline in zines now – like most others I had to pack in due to apathy and huge printing-costs – but I guess anyone can rant on F**k etc. for nothing . Riot 77 is by far the best of what’s left. Speaking of which, F**k: it’s great to see old mates appear on there again, many of which now go to gigs again and most are thankfully still pretty much the same. F**k does, however, open your eyes to some people who share all manner of dodgy shit. There are even some Tory punks on Punks Reunited. I thought only the americans were that fucking stupid. Ah well. Corbyn for PM and that may well happen now the country is about the collapse and the tories don’t wanna be around to take the blame.

Trev H.A.G.L., June 2018

‘Terminus’ was a melodic hardcore-punk band from Scunthorpe (England) of which I distributed the vinyl on the Words Of Warning label: the LP Going Nowhere Fast (1990), the 7″ What Kind Of World? (1991) & the album Back Among The Blind (1992). Around that time of this interview the band consisted of Mark Richardson (vocals/guitar; editor of Fuck Off And Drop Dead zine), Chris Dale (guitar), Col Spence (bass; later Paddy Niland) & Mick Hare (drums; later Steve Connolly). ‘Rocky’ Richard Oxenforth played 2^nd guitar on Going Nowhere Fast. Mark compiled a comprehensive biography of the band on his website.

 

Advertisements

Vuur (My Dreams… #2)

Around the turn of the century Tilt! mailorder/distribution (already focussing more and more on zines, pamphlets and radical literature) got support/practical aid from the younger generation (Roberto, Bartje & Tijs).

It must’ve been at that time that Julien Vanderhaeghen (a ‘kid’ from Nivelles, studying in Liège) wrote me about this straight-edge zine he was doing. For some reason I never actually got to see it. Turns out Tijs S. had a copy of #2. It contained interviews with David of Perseverance zine, the bands ‘Engrave’, ‘ Fairfight’, ‘Pointing Finger’, ‘Tyranny Of Small Decisions’, ‘Vuur’, ‘Yage’; and personal writings/columns, poetry, reviews.

Julien also organised sXe concerts under the name P.M.A. Active Group – together with his friends Séverine Bouvé (a.k.a. ‘the sweet emo witch’), Gaël ‘the anarchist guitar hero’ & Xavier Lepage (Still Holding On recs). Xavier & Julien also did the ‘Don’t Be Afraid’ compilation-CDs. And I also saw an ad for a split-CD (‘Reproach’ & ‘Dusk Within’) under the name Positive Youth Culture. Later he released a bunch of stuff on his label Heart On Fire recs (one of which was a split-12″ ‘Vuur’/’Grinding Halt’).

‘Vuur’ was the band of some mates of mine that were also in the Newland Collective that we’d set up as an attempt to create a new alternative to the growing commercialisation of the HC/punk-scene: Nico Peeters (bass; ex ‘Outrage’/’Reller’, later ‘KingTerror’, Day One distribution and record-label, nowadays singer of ‘TravØlta’), Stef(an) Goos (drums; ex ‘Hopeman Path’, later ‘KingTerror’, Empower distro and editor of Splinter newsletter) & Yannick Daems (vocals; ex ‘Reller’). They were joined by Bart Jansen (guitar; ex ‘Deconsume’, later ‘Nervous Mothers’ & nowadays 2^nd guitarist of ‘Days Of Desolation’) and initially there was a second vocalist named Koen Luyckx (ex ‘Deconsume’), who returned in the band when Yannick had to quit singing in 2005). Screamo-violence! Their first rehearsal-tape was recorded in 2000 on an old tape-deck…

Vi Subversa (Désir Nocturne #1)

As far as I can remember Désir Nocturne was a one-off (published in 1998). It was made by Lara A. when she’d moved from Biel/Bienne (Switzerland) to Paris. Lara was the mother of the daughter she had with Pablo (‘The Prophet’) and she had collaborated in various of his zines (e.g. No Sanctuary). In this one here she published a talk with her (then) 5^1/2 years old daughter Suzy and an interview with ‘Flav’ (singer of ‘Paris Violence’). There’s also thoughts on love and fidelity. There’s also (a reprint of) a criticism on local exchange systems, info on fertility-signs and this account of a conversation with Vi Subversa around the time ‘Posion Girls‘ had their CD-box out…

[translation below]

VI SUBVERSA [Frances Sokolov; born 1935, R.I.P. 2016] was the singer of the English anarcho-punk band POISON GIRLS that formed in ‘76 when she was 42 years old and had two children. This interview [orginally by Rosanne Rabinowitz], published in BAD ATTITUDE [Radical Women’s Newspaper (1992-1995)] n° 8 in Autumn ‘95, was done during a rehearsal: to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of Vi, ‘Poison Girls’ reformed at the time for a concert. I wanted to translate this interview because Vi has always been a kind of model for me, even if I don’t agree with everything she says. (I don’t think there’s a profound enough analysis of what is declared.) It shows that at any age one can give a new direction to one’s life to fulfill one’s desires, and that one must behave one’s self as one is, without complexes, talk about what one wants to talk about, do what one wants to do, even if it doesn’t fit the mold. And she shows that aging is an enrichment, not just wrinkles in the face. It’s really a babe that gives me energy!

When did the band split up and what have you done since?

Our last concert took place in Zagreb in November ’89. ‘Poison Girls’ existed 13 years. Vi Subversa was the epitome of a very strong character…and when everything came to an end I needed to think about who I was apart from Vi Subversa. I went back to university for some time. I became a Parent Network Advisor and funnily it was an extension of Vi Subversa; because she had always spoken as a parent, for example in Jump Mama Jump and Not Your Fuckin’ Mother. I was teaching people how to do a communication-class for parents to listen better to their children. After about 5 years I still spoke as a mother while my children were already adults and lived their lives. So I felt it was time to stop that, also to really find out who I was apart from that very responsible person that was Vi. I started to detach myself from this. Last January I went to Spain to have a good time in the sun, to find some space and to spend time alone with myself. I was interested in what is happening locally and the big problem there turned to be the water. I wanted to do some gardening but there was very little water. The rain didn’t come so I am immersed myself in the practical aspects of irrigation. What amounted to using a very old irrigation-system that dates back to the time when the Moors were there. Now I take care of watering orange-trees and I also water my own vegetable-garden. The other aspect is the ‘water-policy’. It’s really fascinating, all the power held by those who have control of the water.

What made you want to be in ‘Poison Girls’ at the beginning, at the age you had?

It didn’t have much to do with my age, apart from the fact that it wasn’t easy because one isn’t supposed to do this kind of thing. It was more related to what was happening in the mid ‘70s. Many women were opening up to a new wave of female consciousness. I’m sure it’s been like this for centuries. I found out that I had something to say because most of the people who spoke out then were young women, students, and I felt they were missing out on a lot of things. My son [‘Pete Fender’] played the guitar… and if we can’t do better than them, we must join them! I met people who were doing something for the Edinburgh Fringe [arts festival] and they invited me to join them. This is where I wrote my first songs. I was encouraged by people who said “Go on, what you say needs to be told.”. Richard [‘Richard Famous’], the second guitarist of ‘Poison Girls’ encouraged me, he really liked not only what I said but also the quality of my voice that no one had ever found interesting before. I really enjoyed it, partly because I was doing something that I never thought I could do. I decided that I didn’t just want to be a run-of-the-mill singer so I learned to play the guitar. And I really got into making noise, and everything became really fun and erotic somehow. Having fun, it was really important because I don’t think I’m interested in politics per se, but once you start telling yourself “I want a fulfilling life, I wanna have a good time.” and that you are a woman and a mother, you run into the politics of what prevents you from doing so. The other aspect was more serious. I deliberately agreed to be the spokesperson for many women. In some songs I spoke about quite extreme things that were hard to say. My son heard me say overwhelming things about men and it was difficult to juggle that, but I felt that these things had to be said. I didn’t know about the hell that some women are going through. I don’t know if it was a good thing or not but I became the spokesperson for a feminine political line of thinking and I found it rather exhausting. There were some tough things for my two kids. I was a very strong role-model for my daughter but how did that translate to her expectations and the world she grew up in? I never thought I could be a spokesperson for all the radical separatist things that were very strong at the time, partly because I had a son, a lot of women had sons. And I wanted to work with men, in my life they were the people that surrounded me.

Did you get a lot of reactions from women at the time?

There were almost no women attending the concerts. The pacifist punk political movement of which we were a part consisted mostly of young guys, but little by little there were more women. Yes, I was supported a lot, but there was also some difficult things like “Why are you playing with guys?”, “Why do you utilise that macho music that rock is?”.

I was a young woman at the time and I was interested in feminism, but I also liked rock’n’roll and it wasn’t easy! There was a basic hostility at the base, the idea that only soft music suits women.

I offered a response to that kind of things. It was obvious that I was receptive to rock and that I drew my energy from it, and why not? But I respected the fact that it was a problem.

A long time ago I read an interview in a music journal where you talked about the concept of youth-culture. You said it was a way of labeling rebellion as a stage, rather than a fundamental rejection of capitalism and the state. I think that’s an important issue to repeat!

How is it when you’re still rebellious at 40, is it bizzarre? That’s about what people say; do you pay attention to what people are saying? I keep thinking that I won’t let others define me, thank you!

What do you think about most of today’s girls’ bands?

I don’t know much about them actually. I’ve been to some concerts a few years ago. It seemed really good but not particularly new, not more new than the women’s movement itself is; seeing women making noise, having fun, reclaming their space, demanding attention! When I saw ‘Bikini Kill’ at ULU [University of London Union; venue] I had a good time, I met people I hadn’t seen in ages, I bought a T-shirt! I never followed a band. I listened to the ‘Beatles’, I liked the quality of their music and my kids loved them too. I breast-fed them listening to lots of songs and I rocked them until they fell asleep. I lived on the countryside and I didn’t even go to most festivals. It wouldn’t really have interested me to be part of the audience.

What got you all together to do this concert?

Ten years ago when I was 50, we had a really big party to celebrate that. So I thought it would be nice to have a party and invite those of the time. I didn’t think of playing or anything. Then I went to Spain but in the meantime Cooking Vinyl [British indie label] wanted to release all the songs we had recorded on CDs because nothing of what we had done was available anymore. So we said “When can we do it?”, “Well, she’s going to be 60 years old.” … and that’s how it was arranged.

Was it hard to find everyone?

I let Richard take care of everything but he had some difficulty. He couldn’t find Dave [Bennett; also ‘The Cravats’], who was our last drummer and wrote a lot of the recent stuff. He’d disappeared. I believe someone put an ad in Time Out [magazine] asking anyone who knows where he is to contact us with free CD-box as a reward, and two people called to say they’d found him! Its three weeks that I came back here and I rehearse almost every day. I’m afraid my voice doesn’t hold out, it’s been almost 6 years since I did this kind of thing. But this little magical thing that happens when we play together came back fast, it’s great! I don’t know what everyone did. We didn’t have much time to talk, but it works again and it feels good!

A more personal question: I wasn’t satisfied by everything I read about the menopause, not even by all that feminist stuff supposed to be ‘positive’. They often start from the premise that we have become ‘wise’ at that age. I’m very interested in the experience of women doing things that are not so conventional and maybe not that ‘wise’.

This is a very broad question! For me menopause has been a bit like adolescence. The body changes a lot and we realise that something new is happening to us. I don’t think I’ve ever been very certain of anything, even when I was in the ‘normal’ period between puberty and menopause. I’ve always been open for change, I’ve tried things out in my life, I’ve always challenged myself and I like taking risks. So I guess the changes in my body as I grew older were just an extra thing. I think the whole point was not to identify with “Oh my dear, I’m getting older now, I have to find myself a little house covered with roses!”. What helped me is the same as when my adolescence was difficult: the friends around me, a lot of support, not expecting to know all the answers, making the effort to ask questions. When I was young I learned to detach myself from what hurts me. To really get away from the concerns about my appearance. Although it still worries me, a lot of these problems have disappeared. In the end I feel stronger now than I have been in a long time. I left a lot of my fears aside and I got rid of a lot of shit. I wanted to go to Spain, somewhere far from London, to live on the countryside, in touch with nature, surrounded by mountains; I wanted to walk at night on bumpy roads… That’s really important. I found myself a new balance, and a new calm too. I know what it’s like to be nervous but I don’t feel so overwhelmed by unnecessary fears, which is all about me because I was born in a difficult time. It was wartime when I was a child and I grew up without the support that many women know today. We were still afraid of each other.

Do you have any advice for the younger women who would like to rock and live a rock’n’roll life?

The people we work with are much more important than the music or the ideas about music. If you have the right people you will find your music. If you have the right people, if you have that click, that support and it’s solid, then yes, go for it! Go ahead!

Bimba Obesa (Santa Riot)

I found some bits of Santa Riot; there was a lot more but that got probably lost. To read it back now I can see that my level of English at that time was hilarious! I was young and punk with some radical ideas I don’t entirely agree with anymore. Nevertheless I’m happy with that part of my life, fanzines, playing in a political feminist band in squats, facing a lot of machismo in the punk-scene itself (sadly enough). Catholicism is so ingraned in the culture here…

Bimba Obesa was a fictional character from my sick mind and I published her adventures in both my zines Santa Riot and Sisters. These were 2 separate zines with similar articles and subjects but one was in English and the other in Italian. I don’t remember how many issues of Santa Riot I did (it didn’t appear on a regular basis), perhaps around 10. I was struggling writing in English so there weren’t that many pages. The Italian one was bigger and probably had around 20 issues or so. Everything happened between 1995 and 2000…

Consuelo Giorgi

Santa Riot was a zine about punk/feminism/riot grrrls with female/feminist band interviews, music-, art- and literature-reviews edited by Consuelo Giorgi from La Spezia (Italy). She was also doing comics under the title Bimba Obesa (fat baby): feminist surreal stories of a chubby riot grrrl. Consuelo also organised the first 2 Grrrls Pride events in Italy at the La Villa Okkupata squat in Florence and played bass and sang in the riot grrrl band ‘Pussy Face‘ (after she’d been in ‘Juicy Shoes‘). Nowadays she lives in London where she teaches photography and plays in the  feminist horror-punk band ‘The Creeping Terrors‘. Read more on her website Babes In Horrorland.

Consuelo sent me a lot of interesting stuff; unfortunately I can’t publish all of it. Here’s a selection (not necessarily from the same issue) but get in touch if you want to read more… There’s quite a few comic-strips, band-presentations (‘SexySuperPornoHC’ from Italy, ‘Bratmobile’, ‘Spitboy’) and interviews (‘Flocks’ from Italy), reviews of records (the Sperminator compilation-CD) & books (Valerie Solanas‘ S.C.U.M. Manifesto; Angry Women In Rock), anti-sexist writings, collage against lesbo-/homo-phobia, etc. etc.

Brob

————————–

---

Man Is The Bastard (Drops In The Ocean #2)

Drops In The Ocean was done by Roger ‘NBH’ (‘Nothing But Human’) who used to play the bass for the socialist sXe band ‘Feeding The Fire’ (and also ‘Point Of No Return’). Before this one here, he did Connection X zine; together with Rob Franssen (‘F.T.F.’ vocalist). Roger originated from Kerkrade, The Netherlands (nowadays residing in Amsterdam).

Can ‘t remember having seen the first issue. Besides this ‘M.I.T.B.’ interview, #2  contains quite a few photos, some ads, bits of poetry and a talk with ‘Acme’.

Today Roger’s a photographer/designer and creates dark ambient/drones/soundscapes under the name ‘Monotonos’.

‘Man Is the Bastard’ (also known as ‘Charred Remains’ was another project put together by Eric Wood (ex ‘Pissed Happy Children’). He’d also been in ‘Neanderthal’… Their music was described as power-violence and they’re known for their brutal dual bass attacks. This interview dates from early ’95 (with Joel Connell on drums, Aaron Kenyon doing bass/vocals, Eric bass/vocals, Henry Barnes electronics & Andy Beattie vocals).

Subhumans (IQ32 #1)

‘Digger’ (real name Graeme Wood; he’d moved to Liverpool to become a student: in the third issue he mentions he’s a B.Sc.) is a guy I met when my band played with ‘Generic’ & ‘Electro Hippies’ (87-06-28). He was touring with them and selling ‘merch’. He also printed patches/T-shirts and did compilation-tapes back home. Really nice bloke. We exchanged a few letters but he never told me he had been doing zines. IQ32 was the first one he did.

Besides concert-/fanzine-/tape-reviews, announcements & odd bits (e.g. on “american hardcore”, there were of course interviews [#1 (’82): ‘Anthrax’, ‘Rudimentary Peni’, ‘Subhumans’, … #2 (’82): ‘Abrasive Wheels’, ‘Conflict’, ‘Gaye Advert’, … #3 (’83): ‘Anti-System’, ‘Chaotic Dischord’, ‘Disorder’, …] and band-presentations [e.g. ‘Blood Robots’ in #3]. The third issue had also a scene-report on Finland & Brazil.

After this IQ32 zine he got more into anarcho-political stuff, did interviews (with ‘Chumbawamba’, ‘Anarka & Poppy’, ‘No-One’s Property’) and wrote stuff on Burtonwood Peace Camp, Stop the City, The Miners Strike, etc. for an issue of Indoctrination For The Ignorant Children [1985].

Brob

Another zine I sold… ‘Digger’ also did one called Runny Green Sick which was a pisstake of really shit zines put together with zero effort, crap articles and brainless interviews. It was very amusing.

Charlie Mason

IQ32 was all a long time ago and I no longer have copies (although I believe there are scans on the net [Check Sned’s UK Zine Library]). There were 3 issues – and a 4^th was finished but never printed sadly, although some of it surfaced in a political zine (Indoctrination For The Ignorant Children) I did. Not really much else to say about it – I didn’t think it was particularly special as we were all doing zines! But I’m always touched that people remember it! It was a cool time though and I made good friends through it all!

‘Digger’

Every (old, and young) punk should know ‘Subhumans’ (there still playing live)… This interview was done a couple of years after the band started, and when Dick Lucas had joined to take over the vocals from (guitarist) Bruce (ex ‘A-Heads’) and drummer Andy (Andrew Gale; also of the ‘A-Heads’) had left to be replaced by ‘Trotsky’. They had 3 EPs out on (‘Flux Of Pink Indians’ label) Spiderleg by then; plus a few tapes (on Dick’s Bluurg tapes and a split on Stephen Parsons’ BBP tapes)…

Universal Order Of Armageddon (Fenceclimber #2)

Josh MacPhee started studying media and culture at Oberlin College (Ohio). There he did this “politically charged” zine; he was also an activist. After two years he quit school and moved to Washington DC, to help some friends start the Beehive – a book-/record-store and community-space for anarchists and punks. Nowadays Josh lives in Brooklyn and is a designer, artist (develops/distributes T-shirts, posters and stickers with revolutionary content), curator and archivist. The radical art distribution project (justseeds.org) of which he is the founding member (1998) was formed into an artist coop in 2006. He’s also one of many volunteers that keep the Interference Archive going. Plus: he contributed to Signal, an ongoing book-series dedicated to documenting and sharing compelling graphics, art-projects and cultural movements of international resistance and liberation-struggles.

The first issue of his zine (out in 1992) featured ‘Spitboy’, ‘Worlds Collide’, a piece on safe sex and concert-/record-reviews. The issue I have (#2, 93-ish; probably an introduction by Vique ‘Simba’ Martin or ‘Jen ‘Fucktooth’ Angel) contains interviews with ‘Econochrist’ & ‘Universal Order Of Armageddon’, a page on the band ‘Heroin’, a lengthy piece on labour-unions, info on sexually transmitted diseases, columns on black/white power & on political correctness, and reviews.

Brob

Fenceclimber really only had 2 issues. They were my attempt to merge the hardcore music I was inspired by with my emergent politics. Which made for an interesting mix of band-interviews and immense amounts of record-reviews and then features on diverse political issues. In Oberlin not only did I do the zine, but with a couple friends (Irene Chien and Rebecca Parker) ran a small zine-distro called Junglegym.

I made a number of zines after Fenceclimber #2 but they all evolved and changed, and didn’t seem to fit the name anymore. I did some small run personal zines, and then about 15 years ago started putting out a new round of zines rooted in street-art documentation. That has evolved into Pound The Pavement of which I recently released issue #19.

Josh MacPhee, June 2018

I got to know about ‘Universal Order Of Armageddon’ (based in/around Annapolis) through my comrade Sam MacPheeters (‘Born Against’ singer). After they toured Europe, Tonie Joy (also ‘Moss Icon’ and owner of the label Vermin Scum recs) & Brooks Headly joined them on bass and drums. The latter 2 also got together with Anthony Scott Malat (bass – Tonie played guitar in ‘U.O.A.’) & Colin ‘Seven’ Busch (vocals) to form this new band. At the time of this interview they had just released their first demo. Their first vinyl would be a split-EP with ‘Born Against’… In Tilt! #8, I wrote about that: “play noisy, angry, over-the-top HC-punk” and their lyrics “prove they don’t see themselves as the beginning and end of the whole HCpunk-community”… Intelligent/political/sociocritical band!

Brob