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Hi everyone,

Does anyone remember a couple of 'fanzine' type publications that were sold in Nottingham around about the late 80's / early 90's. They were sold in places like Selectadisc and Forbidden Planet etc.

They were homemade affairs containing poetry, cartoons, music reviews and political stuff. One was called 'The Lobster Telephone' which I used to buy regularly and still have copies of in the attic somewhere. But there were others that were more comic strip based and they were A4 size. One which I occasionally bought used to have a comic strip in it called 'Skate Bunnies From Radford' and I can't remember what it was called. The cover logo was in a kind of a hip hop graffiti 'tag' style. Ring any bells with anyone?

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Friends of mine have been involved in producing one for a long time and I have written the occasional piece - a football fanzine for Hibernian FC Edinburgh - Mass Hibsteria which ran for twenty years and has this week been resurrected after five years for the coming Scottish Cup Final. Author, Irvine Welsh was an early contributor as he is in the current issue. Very proud to have contributed to that also.

Fanzine alive and kicking again for cup final special

I remember the fanzines on the wall in Selectadisc on Market Street. My earliest recollections of fanzines were based around music and one that comes to mind from the punk era, when I think they first started being produced is Sniffing Glue. The accent seemed to travel towards football and most decent sized professional (and in some case not professional) clubs had one or several dedicated to them. Their gradual demise came with the increase of internet usage.

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Thanks for the info Stu. Glad to see there are some fanzines still out there.

The various Nottingham based football ones were The Brian, The Tricky Tree, Forest Forever (all Forest) and Pie In The Sky and Flickin' and Kickin' (both Notts) - I'm sure there were more though.

The ones I were thinking of were not football related....they were more freeform in nature....more "zine" than "fanzine".

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Some of them were great - rough and ready as they were. I always associated them with punk music originally. When they came out I was an apprentice compositor (typesetter) at a small printers and I showed a copy of Sniffing Glue to my then boss asking him if it might be a market he might want to get into? ' No, I don't think so' he replied rather stuffily! Could have been to do with some of the industrial language in there!

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LOL.

'Sniffing Glue' would have been slightly before my time really. I saw a book that was brought out about a year ago which was a compilation of 'Sniffing Glue' issues. Looked interesting....and DJ Danny Baker used to write for it before he went to the NME.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 years later...

Hi RChappo,

 

I believe the 'Skate Bunnies on the Town' appeared in a local comic called C.I.A.

 

It was cheaply produced, just black and white photocopied A4 stapled sheets with yellow sheets for the front and back cover. I also recall they did a Dirty Harry skit with a lot of colourful language and a strip about some boy racer types off on a Sunday afternoon spin called 'Drive'. There was also a strip called 'The Incredible House' which I think was a house music take on The Incredible Hulk.

 

That's all I can remember for now. I think the Mushroom Bookshop sold it in about 1988.

 

Ah, one more thing, when the 1989 Batman film came out, the C.I.A. logo was altered to parody the bat symbol.

 

That is my brain racked for now! :)

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