Review: Alternative Press Spring Zine Fair 2013

A quick trip to the Alternative Press Spring Fair, taking place as part of the No Dark Places music and DIY festival, revealed there's plenty of new and established talent on the zine scene.
Its presence in part fills the considerable gap in the zine calendar left by Edd Baldry's Last Hours collective's London Zine Symposium. The fair took place in The Albert hall (no, not that one) a pebble's throw from Queen's Park Station. If the symposium had great passing footfall in Brick Lane and a wave of hipsters, the Albert has a simple charm to it. Despite fantastic local signs, most will have had to hunt the event out and few will have left disappointed. Props to the organisers. 

Among the 30-odd exhibitors there are some real gems including the beautiful design of the Monster Emporium Press, the eclecticism of ShadowPlay stockist Peter Willis' Dead Trees and Dye distro and Holly Casio's odes to Bruce Springsteen and what he represents against her queer, working class background. There are the usual mix of brilliantly bizarre comics, impassioned feminist zines and calls to action - not least The Occupied Times - which continues to publish articulate and in-depth studies in activism with each issue examining a theme in depth. As ever, I often feel the awkwardness of some of the stallholders can seep into the browser and those offering a smile, a complimentary sweet, a daft tale or, in the case of the three lads from the University of East London, boundless enthusiasm, are those who make the day. 

Unfortunately my visit was only fleeting - missing excellent-looking screen printing, stop motion animation and DIY politics workshops - there's nothing like a good zinefest to inspire creativity. It's been a while since the last print edition of ShadowPlay as life continues to get in the way but with each clever idea picked up that long-armed stapler looks more tempting than ever.

More info: @alt_press www.alternativepress.org.uk

New Listening in Tongues podcast

Songs from a parallel universe and the black magic of soul

Journeying to a world unlike our own, Tom Bonnett and Alex Lawson ask what tunes might top the charts in another dimension and take their chances with the occult investigating the secret spell behind a perfect soul record. The ponderous duo take you through some pop puzzles and play some genuine classics to boot. Enjoy.

Listen and download here

or subscribe using this:

http://shadowplayboys.podbean.com/

London Zine Symposium: May 09

This event has managed to elude me for reasons of music, travelling and, erm, Owls matches for quite a few years now so it was a pleasure, last week, to trundle along to The Rag Factory off Brick Lane for the biggest zine gathering (read, slightly nerdy but fun) in the UK of the year.

From the moment you enter the tight, sweaty venue you can’t help but be inspired. The sheer volume of the zines, imported (and there are issues from all over Europe and beyond) or otherwise, is quite astonishing with some exhibitors carrying as many as 100 titles it seems.
Some personal highlights were the thick little blue bueaty which is Shebang zine, a new un to the zine from the South West, covering loadsa of ShadowPlay-faves in an intricate, personal style. Beat Motel was there in force also, with the excellent latest issue spearheading a stall featuring plenty of US and Australian zines, some of the You letters and some prison writings. Dead Trees and Dye (http://www.deadtreesanddye.com/) distro carry some great stuff, largely of the arty variety and now some ShadowPlay issues so snap em up. Ricochet Richochet also offer up some excitement of the punky variety with the Anarchists Teapot supplying some tasty cakes too.

With all these things there’s an element of nervous embarrassment, wanting to buy zines from everyone just because I know how crap it can feel for people to look at your zine, and then seemingly reject it by returning it to its spot. But it’s totally worth it to chat to the great people you meet, reads some offbeat thoughts and ultimately open your mind to things that are different, but not necessarily worse (or better) than mainstream coverage. What is prevalent that I’m writing about this on a blog, but I would stress that it’s a matter of ease rather than preference and the paper issue of ShadowPlay will always be my main focus because it is the passion in printing and crafting, shared by everyone in that room, that remains the driving force. It does bring me to one small gripe which is prices. To me, no zine is worth more than a couple of quid. It’s always about covering printing costs of course but this rarely supersedes that price and, like independent record labels, if you’re in it to make cash, don’t bother. I’m not saying people were being greedy capitalists but to me a pile of unsold zines at five quid looks more pathetic than the one scruffy 50p one left in a pile of snapped up issues. Overall a fantastic event, some incredible people and unashamed inspiration for zinesters everywhere.