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1. Factual Project
Research

2. Initial idea: Fanzine about UK underground subcultures.
• Interviews with artists - one artist has a special focus each edition with say 2 pages all about them
combining pictures and interviews etc.
• Articles on current releases, in depth look at certain songs
• Weekly list of favourite releases
• So many photos, any recent promo pics from artists, full page spreads to be used as posters for say the
main topic or artist of this edition
• Section on what raves are going down in the coming weeks
• Reviews of recent raves from ravers themselves
• Funny rave story section
• Section on graffiti – anonymous interviews, who's about the most atm, 'weekly wannabie' - expose
some poor tasteless graffiti
• Section on depop shops the magazine is affiliated and show Some items currently for sale
• Drug awareness section – list dodgy pills going around etc.

3. What is a fanzine?
• Fanzines are DIY magazines that are
commonly made by fans of subcultures.
Often these subcultures are quite
'underground' and 'niche' therefore
aren't covered by mainstream media.
They got very popular in the punk
scene, and this was before media
production software's etc. Which
resulted in the popular homemade
style.
Over the years, thousands of these DIY publications
have produced by hobbyists and other obsessive types. The
vast majority were labours of love — created out of a
passion for the subject matter — and not expected to make
a profit. (The typical goal was just to cover the costs of
photocopying and postage.) Readers got to experience the
joy of a stapled bundle of black print on plain paper showing
up in the mailbox at random intervals.
Price, N. (2015). What is a fanzine? The basics of these DIY magazines. Available:
https://myria.com/what-is-a-fanzine-the-basics-of-these-diy-magazines. Last accessed 23rd
September 2021.

4. What is a fanzine?
Sniffin' glue was a punk fanzine founded
by Mark Perry in 1976.
A common style tactic in fanzines is
handwritten text/ illustration. Although this
developed into the niche and distinctive
style of fanzines, it originated because of a
lack of printing equipment and technology.
This style plays a big role in the 'do it
yourself' ethos of fanzines.
Another common characteristic of fanzines is black and
white images. Often entire fanzines will have no colour
or use just black ink on coloured paper. This example
was a fairly established fanzine, at the time of this
edition anyway, and we can see they did have a printed
photograph. Despite this, we still see the handwritten
title etc.
Fanzines were effectively magazines, just low budget
and made by average people, not established media
companies. This is where the name fanzine comes from
– fan magazine. The magazines would be made by fans
for fans, which gave a very personal and humble feel
when reading. Like magazines, fanzines have staple
conventions that hold vital information for each edition.
A clear title and headline is always present on the front
cover , alongside a large illustration or photograph that
regards the edition. A slightly more unique aspect to
fanzines, is the slogan/ catch phrase that represents the
fanzine creators. Often under the title or headline they
will have a catch phrase, that try's to present the entire
vibe of the fanzine. With the rebellious and
underground nature of fanzines, this is mostly a slightly
cheeky and controversial statement. Despite the
homemade style, fanzines don’t skimp on info, they will
commonly have a release date and edition number, just
like a magazine or paper, and also the actual content is
very similar to that of other media at the time, it just
covers topics they don’t. Interviews with artists, photos
from recent events, album reviews etc. And it was all
factual and relevant info. The do it yourself ethos isn't
just a style too, this example, 'sniffin glue', which is
probably the most legendary fanzine, was produced in
very amateur circumstances. An article on the guardian,
which I'm going to analyse in the next slide, explains
how Perry stapled tens of thousands of pages, while on
drugs, overnight and in a condemned building that was
handed down to them.
Here we see the distinctive slogan common
throughout all old punk fanzines. Their
commonly quite rebellious and witty to
represent the nature of the zine. This
example also presents the DIY aesthetic with
the slogan being written with a typewriter,
alongside felt tip pen.
Despite the amateur approach, fanzines often still
include a date and edition number like a more
established publication would.
Like the date and edition number, another element to the
cover of a fanzine that replicates that of a more
professional company is a brief subtitle outlining some
main focuses of the edition. Again, the contrasting use of
handwritten and typewriter provides and unintentional
stylistic element.

5. Existing products: Sniffin' glue.
"Launched during punk’s first wave, Mark Perry’s ‘Sniffin’ Glue’ fanzine captured the scene in its purest form and went on to
shape the future of fanzines." (Peacock, T. (2021). ‘Sniffin’ Glue’: First Whiff Of Punk’s Ultimate Fanzine. Available: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/40-years-ago-
our-first-whiff-of-sniffin-glue/. Last accessed 23rd September 2021.)
Sniffin glue was a fanzine founded by Mark perry in 1976 is and is widely known as the most legendary, and
influential fanzine ever. Perry began as a fan, reading the NME as he had an interest in new york punk like
'The ramondes' and 'television'. He felt particularly inspired by 'the ramondes' and even though he wasn’t a
musician, he knew he had to be involved. Though his fanzine is regarded as the most legendary , he didn't
create the platform, there was already fanzines for music like blues and country, but they really took off
when he brought them to punk.
He began making the fanzines with his mums typewriter and felt tip pens. He also unintentionally formed
the DIY aesthetic, which can be seen throughout almost all popular fanzines since, but he was just making
use of what he had. This is very interesting as I feel the success of 'sniffin' glue' is partly down to its
authenticity and by not even intending for the design to be portrayed as artistic shows how real it is. The
first issue didn't have many pages and no photographs, and he sold it via record stores. After a few months
he had quit his job and by issue four he was entirely focussed on taking over the scene. With the quick
success, came larger fronts from record shops to print more and they began printing in the printing shops.
Even though the fanzine was established and really took off, Perry said at the time it didn’t feel as legendary
as it is now. He does say however he can see and appreciate the impact it had on fanzines and the punk
scene. He explains how fanzines like 'Londons burning' and '48 thrills' were born as of his, and how the diy
ethos owes so much to his early fanzines.
This info was gathered from: Perry, M. (2019). How we made punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue. Available:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/dec/10/how-we-made-sniffin-glue-punk-fanzine. Last accessed
19th Sep 2021.

6. Existing products: Sniffin' glue:
A snippet from a BBC three documentary with Mark Perry, sniffin'
glues founder.
I found this short clip on youtube where Mark Perry gives a brief
overview of how he started 'sniffin' glue'. "At the time hardly
anybody was writing about punk rock, I just had the idea to start
a magazine, and made the first punk fanzine." - Mark perry. Punk
was all about not taking things to seriously, and Marks simple
reasoning for starting his Zine represents this. We can also see
how the attitude of punk is channelled into perry himself, with
his quote "anybody can have a go". He knew he wasn’t an
established journalist; he knew he didn’t have great knowledge
on media production, and he knew he was just a fan. This is
what made Sniffin glue so authentic and so punk.
This is a page from sniffin' glue on 'the Clash'
The image to the right is an example of your average sniffin glue article. Instantly we can see the common aestetic of Sniffin' Glue that Perry
uses throughout all of his media, with the combination of handwritten and typewriter text, and also the lack of any colour. I think its very
effective and benefitial for his branding to keep the same visual style throughout. You can tell Sniffin' Glue is Sniffin Glue' by the front cover,
but also any of the pages within. This means at a glance no matter what page your on you know its sniffin glue, and this probarbly aided the
memorable brand and look most fanzine supporters know and love.
When anylising the content of this page, we see some whitty, more rebelious texts, and also some informative. The overall rebelious nature
of the Zine can be seen through Perrys writing style and the stories he allows features to tell. Due to the poor resolution of the image, I cant
tell weather its Perry or The Clash saying this, but nevertheless it proves my point with the fact it was allowed in. The section im reffering to
can be found within the red box on the image. Firstly we see the relatable attitude that’s prominent throughout every aspect of the Punk
Fanzine scene. The section begins "There's a million kids still doing what I was doing". This instantly implys the idea that the writer is the same
as the reader, something that really helped give Sniffin' Glue its legandery yet humble feel. As we progress through the section, he begins to
explain what those kids may be doing, with no boundries. I can see why Sniffin' Glue was such a hit with young lads with statements as honest
as "When they get home they'll either watch TV, take a bird to the pictures, go out with the lads or play with themselves in their bedroom."
As a young man myself, who holds certain interests I belive the Sniffin' Glue fans probarbly did, I can say even today I would be very
interested at any publication putting stuff like this out. It just screams unnoficial, it embodys the entire attitude of the people reading it with
no restrictions. To think that you could walk into a shop and buy something that descirbes girls as 'birds' and read about lads 'playing with
themselves', even today in this world of endless media, seems rare and facinating. Despite this ruthless text, we also have an innocent piece
of info on the page where Perry has simply put the ltrics to The Clashes 'Londons Burning'. This proves that it wasn’t just a handbook of bad
behaviour, but Sniffin' Glue actually was quite useful and thought a lot more about the reasoning behind the content it holds than may meet
the eye initially.

7. Existing Products: 'Mersey beat'
"During the early 1960s Liverpool was one of the only British cities to launch its own fanzine,
Merseybeat, dedicated to local rock or 'beat' music, hence subsequent references to a local 'Merseybeat
scene'." n.a. (n.a). Fanzines . Available: https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/fanzines. Last accessed
29th Sep 2021.
"There wasn't really any music fanzines around. Roger Eagle [manager of Eric's Club] had a thing called
'The Last Trumpet' and there were a few fanzines around with good writing but it wasn't necessarily
about music. We wanted to create something that was a fanzine of record about music in the way 'The
Times' is a newspaper of record." - Rodger hill, cofounder of Merseybeat.
Merseybeat was a very early fanzine, before the punk scene where they really took off. It was founded by Bill harry. It covered
the liverpool based scene also called Merseybeat. Merseybeat is easily differentiable from the later punk fanzines, as it doesn’t
incorporate the DIY ethos we see commonly in those. This is interesting as the reason for the DIY look in the punk fanzines is
literally lack of resources, however the older Merseybeat clearly did have printing equipment etc. This suggests that the culture
here was probably less niche and rebellious. From researching Merseybeat further, I discovered it was founded by a friend of
John Lennons and it was heavily associated with the Beatles. This proves merseybeat was in fact more mainstream, an it was
sold in shops such as WHsmith, whereas punk fanzines were often sold in record shops.
Despite the somewhat professional nature of Merseybeat, the content within still covered topics you wouldn't find in a
newspaper or mainstream music publication. The origins of the zine also represent that of the Punk era, as Harry initially pitched
stories about the emerging liverpool scene to popular local newspapers yet they had no interest. This partly inspired the
creation of his own publication. The first issue sold out all 5000 copies and shortly after they began reporting on other towns
bands, which resulted in over 75,000 copies in circulation each edition.
Another way Merseybeat varies from later fanzines is by making use of its large market. In a 1962 edition they put out a poll to
find who the best merseyside group was. This shows that fanzines don’t have to be amateur and unorganised they can in
fact operate like an established newspaper.

8. Existing products: Clobberzine
Clobberzine is a new fanzine created by Paul Toner, a journalist from Liverpool. The fanzine covers subcultures in the
north east of England. Despite the zine only currently having 2 released issues, it has gathered a reasonable fanbase
and is featured on some established media websites. The main focus is appealing to the working class with fashion and
culture which is often overlooked by publications down south. Toner believes some of the fashion and music cultures
at the forefront of the UK scene owe a lot to the north, yet don’t give the credit deserved. He explains how lads in the
north are so proud of their clothes, and will save a weeks wage just to get the stuff they want. The motivation behind
the zine is simply the lack of anything like it, Toner believes people with such a passion deserve something to
compliment and channel their interests.
Clobberzine wants to eliminate the flashy escapism aspect of fashion these days, which is the most prominent scene.
He explains how from time to time magazines etc. Will cover northern based culture, but never in too much detail and
its always adapted to fit with the more conventional down south scene. His magazine entirely focuses on working
class, real and raw culture, and he claims it’s the only of its kind. To say he's only released 2 issues, the level of
production is suprising. The graphical elements are that of a more modern publication, despite him being heavily
influenced by punk zines that incoroprate DIY ethos. With the cover to edition 2 (image on the left) we see a clear
refrence to northern culture with the 'donk' refernce. The magazine is a fashion magazine, yet hes embodying the tnire
northern culture by using this graphic. Donk is a very quick and punishing type of dance music, often played in clubs
and theme parks throughout the north. By incoroprating this he presents how this zine represents the north as a
whole. Also, the main photos on the cover present the scummy, careless attitude of the north. Most fashion magazines
will want to come across classy, and artistic. With Clobberzines use of unconventonally attractive facial poses, we see
that careless attitude clearly. Northern lads are usually quite patriotic about their upbringing, and Clobberzine is
clearly a reflection of this nature. This is where it is similar to punk fanzines, with the rebelious and proud attitude. The
content presents so much northern culture, one main element being the proffesions of his readers. Toner understands
lots of the working class in the north are manual labourors and he has featured a comic strip style piece in edition 2
which outlines things to do as a laborour in lockdwon. I feel this element is similar to that of old punk fanzines, as it
really feels like its written for the people by the people, its honest and relatable.
'sevenstore'. (2020). CLOBBER ZINE, THE REPRESENTATION OF THE WORKING-CLASS IN FASHION. Available:
https://www.sevenstore.com/editorial/clobber-zine/. Last accessed 30th Sep 2021.

9. Audience research: My topics audience
With my project being a fanzine, I of course want to target existing fanzine readers, however I understand fanzines commonly don’t cover the topics mine will focus on, so I want to research
the audience of those too. The overall topic will be the UK's urban creative scenes, like music production, rapping and fashion. But more specificly the scene which I personally am part of. In
my spare time I make music and peform at gigs and I belive a fanzine is a perfect way to channel all my interests and knowledge of this. The main focus will be music, where I will cover all
aspects of my local scene, from artist interviews, song releases and everything imbertween. Im fairly confident on who the audince is for this, simply due to my own knowledge and
experience and the fact that I literally know the people that I want to read it. Mostly these are teenagers and young adults, who hold a strong passion for this music scene or operate within
it. They will commonly be into oldschool UK dance and rap music and also the fashion that was popular around that time too. A way that I will target and promote my fanzine to these
people is with my own social media following. Throughout the years I have gathered a fairly large following of likeminded people who frequently interact with content I produce that relates
to my fanzines topic. This gives me great confidence that by sharing my fanzine to them, I will gather lots of readers and attention. Another way I will tagrget them is by phsically printing
some copies and distributing them at gigs. The gigs I attend are like a hub for people with an interest in UK rave culture and I know that even if people didn't want to buy it, there would
certainly be a lot of interest. Although this is only thearetical due to this being a college project and the fact I'm only producing one edition, by handing them out at raves I could gather a lot
of regualr readers due to my upcoming raves section. I want a section in my fanzine where I list upcoming events and provide some info on them. By handing these out after raves, people
could find out about other gigls coming up in a very convinent way.
A large proportion of my Zine will cover 'Grime' music. I found an 'NME' article which holds lots of info on who Grime fans are.
Above are some screenshots from the article. The first bit of info that stands out to me, and that also regards fanzines the most is "59% of grime fans have said they belive grime is a way of life,
and not just a music genre." This shows that like fanzine readers of the Punk era, lots of Grime fans regard it as a way of life, a passion and something they identify their entire self with. This gives
me great confidence that Grime fans will love the format of a fanzine, as they reflect that passionate, captivated nature. Another piece of info that makes me think Grime fans will like fanzines is
the explanation of their views on 'Form 696'. Fanzines were very anti – police and gave a less authoritarian view of the punk scene. Like punk, grime is pluaged with negative articles, and many
refer to 'Form 696'. When trying to read about grime, often all you find is negative articles slamming the genre for its so called downsides. My fanzine will bypass this scroutany and give readers a
perspective they struggle to find in mainstream media. Another interesting finding is the info on the general election. With 58% of grimes listeners voting labour due to Jeremy Corbyns
Grime4Corbyn movement, we see that grime fans arent boisterious criminals like lots of articles state, but actually are politically aware and interlectiual. This also proves to me that grime fans will
enjoy fanzines, as a common theme is politics.

10. Audience research: Fanzine audience
Traditionally and most commonly, fanzine readers were Punk fans, due to the heavy endorsment of them within the Punk scene. However, today fanzines have
expanded drasticly to cover bascially any topic you can think of from womens rights to coffee. This means the audince is very broad overall, so I will research the
audicne of fanzines that inspire my own the most. The main inspiration for mine is the punk fanzines. I think the audience of punk fanzines is very similar to that of
mine, as of similaraties with the attitude of the music covered. I will cover old Uk rap and dance music which has main charicteristics of anti- authroity, expressing
yourself with no regard for the mainstream industry, and being quite careless. I feel these ideoligies are embodied by the Punk scene too. Punk fans were rebelious
and bold, and were very anti- politics. This is seen throughout my topic too, with common themes in songs being a hatred to authority and simply being overly
confident to the point that its selfish and cocky.
A common theme in fanzines and especially punk ones is giving a voice to those who normally don’t have one. Punk fanzines were all about putting out media that
you couldn’t see in the mainstream. The topics my fanzine cover also cant be found in mainstream media. Writers of punk fanzines tried to relate to the readers, which
wasn’t hard as they were effectivley the same. The music and scene my fanzine covers is all about this too. The music often describes situations mainstream music
doesn’t, for instance the more scummy, working class side of UK life.
This is a section of an article that covers the views of various
people who were interviewed about punk. It speaks of the
common DIY theme that is seen throughout all aspects of punk
and more specifically punk fanzines. It explains how its widely
known that the idea of DIY was a core value of punk. This can be
seen with all aspects of the music and audience, with the fans
making fanzines and the musicians just being careless and
somewhat winging it. I belive this to also be a core value of the
music my fanzine covers, and even more to my local scene
which my fanzine will really focus on. Due to my audince being
ameteur musicians, a lot of their personal creative ventures
embody a DIY ethos. This means they will recognise and relate
to the DIY ethos of my fanzine, like the punk fans did.

11. Interview experiment
• I conducted my interview with 10 main questions, and then developed these questions with why? When? Etc. as the
interview progressed.
• I interviewed another student - Ellie, about her interest in singer 'Rizha'.
• One of the main things I enjoyed about interviewing someone was actively thinking of ways to push the interviewee to
develop their points. I think I improved my skills a lot and towards the end of the interview I felt I could really keep the
conversation flowing.
• One thing that went well was the content of the interview and flow of the conversation. I feel both me and
the interviewee complimented each other as I kept butting in with a why or a how and they always had an answer. The
conversation ran from start to finish, as we were quick to improvise when we hit a moment of silence.
• Another good aspect was my questions. I feel I asked, along with some generic ones, some quite thought-provoking
questions. The interviewee also handled them great and provided intelligent and information packed reply's. I also sensed
when they were struggling with a question and swiftly moved to the next, while integrating it with the current context.
• A downside to our interview was the lack of quiet recording locations. We began at one of the college hubs, which we
soon found to be too loud and agreed on a final location of the stairs. The stairs were drastically better and stayed
quiet the majority of the time, other than when people came upstairs every 10 mins or so. We handled this issue by
pausing the recording as somebody came past. The full recording can be found in the experiments section of my wix site.