Here be Tygres – fanzines and my life underground

I’ve been thinking about the impact fanzines have made on my life – and the result is this blog! Enjoy…

For someone who really was a Teenager in Devon (the poem isn’t an exaggeration http://www.rosiegarland.com/news-and-events/item/53-i-want-to-be-a-teenager-in-devon.html ), it’s hard to overstate the impact on a fifteen-year old geek girl of a let-off-the-leash long weekend in London.

Mid 1970s. Mum sets a friend and me up in a vicarage beyond the twilight zone of the North Circular. Every morning we take two long bus journeys into central London. My mate smokes cigarettes and swills cider like any normal teenager. I haunt Dark They Were And Golden Eyed, Atlantis Bookshop and the innumerable second-hand bookshops around Soho. It’s a four-day sojourn in a tatty oasis for the starved mind and spirit. As well as the books and comics I expect, I also discover fanzines.

They flick an entirely different switch in my imagination.
I’ve been making magazines since I was a kid, but now see I’m not the only nerd in the world to spend evenings with glue and a stapler. Even more groundbreaking, the zines cover interests I’ve learnt to conceal in order to limit my bullied isolation: horror movies, vampires, sci-fi, punk, weird illustration, weirder literature. The Gothic, in short. For the first time in my life, I see myself reflected. I encounter an underground community of the imagination. I know I’ll never meet any of these fellow-weirdoes, but I am not alone.

I return to the mix of beauty and soul-death of rural Devon (miles north of the artsy bit around Totnes), grit my teeth, make it to 18 and escape. In my new home, Leeds, one of the first things I do is check out the 2nd-hand / radical bookshops (a tip ‘o the pen to Austicks & The Corner Bookshop). As well as reviews in mainstream music papers such as Sounds, Melody Maker & NME, I now feature in fanzines that interview my band The March Violets (eg Rendezvous, Attack on B-Zag, The Angels are Coming, Whippings & Apologies – best zine name ever IMHO). We even produce our own Violets zine. High production values, or handwritten, it doesn’t matter. It’s all part of the vibrant build-your-own record label / indie scene of the early 80s.

Another hiatus follows when I quit the UK to work in Sudan from 1984-1986. In 1987, semi-fanzine independents Shocking Pink & Spare Rib inspire my move to Manchester where I find a thriving LGBT scene. However, it soon becomes apparent that being a dyke AND a Goth is a step too far. I have no problem making the connections between goth, punk and post-punk, fetish, feminism, queer, vampires and weird literature but I’m damned if I can find a queer pal who’ll go to The Banshee with me. As for my penchant for leather trousers, the less said about that the better. I can come out, but not about everything. However, late 80s feminism is a different blog.

It seems I can still feel isolated in a massive city, and I learn what it’s like to be marginalised within a marginalised community. I need help, and once again find it in the fanzines of the late 80s / early 90s. One particular pleasure is Dominic Regan’s graphic Dom Zombi story in AARGH (Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia ) which drew everything together so succinctly. Others include: For the Blood is the Life, Bats and Red Velvet, The Velvet Vampyre, Udolpho and early issues of Skin Two (produced on Tim Woodward’s kitchen table). Listings of penpals, society meetups and clubs provide me with a flesh & blood community, not simply one of the imagination. All of it pre-internet, off the map, under the radar. I even meet a bisexual Goth.

Jump cut to the present day.
I’m excited and encouraged by the rebirth / renaissance of Xeroxed, glue-and-collage, passed from hand-to-hand zines. There’s a fresh new family of folk learning the liberating impact of turning off search engines so your keystrokes can’t be tracked in order to tailor more bloody advertising into your feed. To quote Keith Lowell Jensen: “What Orwell failed to predict is that we'd buy the cameras ourselves, and that our biggest fear would be that nobody was watching” https://twitter.com/keithlowell/status/347741181997879297

Only last year I met a woman in Athens, Georgia, who knew my work because she’d come across Pink Bomb, a CD fanzine produced in Manchester by the radiant Ste McCabe . Our words don’t need wifi to span the globe. And if you can’t hold something in your hands, it doesn’t really exist.

Fanzines are still there when the battery runs out on your phone. When some yellow-haired dictator decides you can’t Google ‘that’ article any more. Fanzines can’t be deleted at the swipe of a button. So - Buy that ancient typewriter. Get stapling.

© Rosie Garland 2017‏

Cherie Bebe's Burlesque Revue

Matt and Phreds
64 Tib Street, M4 1LG Manchester

20:00 - 22:30

Come and celebrate our 3rd birthday in true burlesque style.

We have a very special lineup taking to the stage at Manchester's iconic Matt and Phreds.

Starring:
We have the absolutely fabulous Lady Wildflower join us on stage. Voted in the Top 20 UK Burlesque Performers of 2014 & 2015 by 21st Century Burlesque She certainly is one not to miss.

We are very excited to announce that Rosie Garland, performer, award winning writer, singer for The March of Violets and her vampire Queen / mistress of ceremonies Rosie Lugosi will be taking to the stage alongside the wonderful Eilish with a brand new act
Kitty and Lilibet, Polyhymnian Suffragettes.

The devine and cheeky Freida Nipples will be joining us on stage also all the way from London!

Hosted by our resident compare, the diva of the night, the hilarious and naughty Jonathan Mayor.

....And of course Cherie Bebe.

https://billetto.co.uk/en/events/cherie-bebes-burlesque-revue-november2016

Tickets are £8 if booked in advance via billetto / £10 on the door.

Doors at 7pm with the show starting at 8pm.

Matt and Phreds Happy Hour Offer ~ 'Buy two alcoholic drinks get a free pizza' will be available on the evening between 7pm-9pm!

PLEASE CALL MATT & PHREDS TO RESERVE SEATING ONCE YOUR TICKETS HAVE BEEN PURCHASED AS THE TABLES ARE STRICTLY LIMITED ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVE BASIS AND WE DO SELL OUT.
0161 273 5495
www.mattandphreds.com

Birmingham Alternative & Burlesque Mega-Fair @ The Institute
Hosted and emceed by ROSIE LUGOSI

The Institute
78 Digbeth High Street
Digbeth
Birmingham
B5 6DY

Saturday 6th June 11am - 5pm

Join us in the Edwardian splendour of Birmingham's most iconic venue for 'The Ultimate Alternative Shopping & Entertainment Experience' only this time BIGGER & BETTER. New for Summer we are expanding to all 4 levels of the venue, near doubling guest capacity, with up to 60 exhibitors and seated balcony viewing for the main stage.

★ Up to 60 exhibitors
★ 4 levels
★ 3 shopping zones
★ 2 stages
★ Entertainment throughout including Burlesque, Twisted Cabaret, Aerial Acts & DJ's
★ Vintage Dining Experience courtesy of Lil's Parlour
★ Multiple bars
★ Cloakroom & Cashpoint

Admission : Advance tickets £6 available online (with NO BOOKING FEES) admission on the door £7 or £4 N.U.S. with ID. Please note that the increase to the previously advertised price of £5/6 is due to our compulsory VAT registration on 6.4.15.

Ticket sales, event information, exhibitor listings & performer lineups www.thealternativeandburlesquefair.com/birmingham

LOCATION & DIRECTIONS

Directions & Location : Opposite Digbeth coach station 5 minutes walk from Bullring Shopping Centre/Markets & Custard Factory

Car Parking : Custard Factory (Digbeth High Street) & Trinity Street (behind former Air Nightclub Heath Mills Lane) both around £5 all day and less than 5 minutes walk.

Public Transport : Nearest train station Moor Street, but only 10 mins walk from New Street.

Age Restriction : Strictly 18+ ID may be requested. Babies under 12 months old are permitted providing they are suitably carried.

Cloakroom : Available in venue

Cashpoint : Available in venue

Accessibility: Most areas are fully accessible, although smaller library room has accessible viewing for stage, but stair access is required for stalls

Dress Code : None, but feel free to look FABULOUS whatever your style