Shout (issue #1)
YEAR: 1981
CREATED BY: Pete, Pedro, Dave and Tom
LOCATION: Kingston Upon Thames
SIZE: A4WHAT’S INSIDE….
A Better Badges production from early in 1981 which is full of stuff about “events and gigs in and around London but featuring bands from anywhere”….
This includes a decent interview with fanzine favourites The Mo-Dettes, which was done at the Marquee in London the day after the killing of John Lennon in December 1980. The Mo-Dettes’ musical output was small and generally unremarkable, but their charmingly amateurish first single “White Mice“ still sounds good today….
Also of interest is a rather negative article about Flexipop – a shamelessly poptastic monthly magazine that existed for a couple of years in the early 1980s and was most notable for including a coloured flexi disc with every issue, featuring an exclusive recording by a popular artist of the day. I remember buying the same issue that gets slagged off in Shout simply to get the flexi disc by The Jam….
Jim Kerr of Simple Minds was interviewed before a gig at the Marquee that took place on either the 17th or 18th December 1980. The band were still promoting their third album “Empires & Dance” (which includes the awesome “I Travel”) and had recently returned to the UK after playing some European dates supporting Peter Gabriel….
Other artists/bands that made it into the first issue of Shout include The UBz, Toyah, Manufactured Romance (featuring Toyah’s mate Nina on vocals), The Temper (obviously friends of the zine writers) and Richard Jobson of The Skids. There are also reviews of gigs by The Undertones and Orange Juice (at the Hammersmith Palais), The Jam (at Guildford City Hall) and a benefit for squatters that took place at City University and featured The Temper, The Mo-Dettes and Spizzles.
Some pretty good photos (courtesy of Tom) appear throughout the zine and based on the playlists printed on page 2 it looks like the Shout collective had reasonably good musical taste as well (especially Dave)….
Loving the picture of Jim Kerr 🙂