Debris and a Manchester fanzine culture
Robert Forster, the surviving half of the truly great Brisbane band The Go-Betweens, was awarded a prize for critical writing last week. No big news there, but I did notice this:
When the musician Robert Forster was approached to become the music critic for a new magazine, The Monthly, last year, his writer’s resume consisted of one entry: a column on hair care he penned for a Manchester fanzine called Debris in the late 1980s.
This piqued my interest, especially when I found a BBC Manchester interview with John Cooper, who runs the Cerysmatic Factory website mentioned in the last post, that included this quote:
Manchester has a great fanzine heritage with City Fun, Debris, Freaky Dancin’, Manchester Rains, to name but a few.
Turns out Debris was started by enduring Factory DJ Dave Haslam and featured flexidiscs (remember them?) by bands like Inspiral Carpets and interviews with people like Morrissey and Johnny Marr.
According to Dave, NME described it as “the best fanzine in the world”.
Another zine at the time was Badpress, which was also established because of “the personal fury of one editor/writer for the media, especially the local print media, of the day”. You can read more about Badpress and view PDFs of it here.
So how does Manchester’s fanzine culture compare these days? We’ve got regular, well-produced titles like Transmission and High Voltage, as well as any number of occasional or one-off zines.
Manchester’s alternative radical press is still highly active too, as a visit to The Basement on Lever Street will quickly demonstrate. And the same venue, back in February, even hosted a Zine Fest.
Oh, and just so you know, Forster’s hair care piece (from issue 16, December 1987) included this excellent recommendation:
The Shampoo question puzzled me for years until I discovered Redken. I call it ‘the shampoo of the stars’.
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Good quality posting – and a blog I often enjoy. I’ve got a memoir of Tib Street and Suede Hill in the 1940s for you and Kate F which I will pass on shortly.
By Mantex on 11.06.06 10:22 am
Thanks – I’ve just added a link to your blog.
I look forward to your memory/memoir!
By Mancubist on 11.06.06 11:53 am
do you have access to any sort of archive of Debris magazine? I’m lloking for an isssue from 1986 with an ad for the farewell gig of my band, bIG fLAME, at the Boardwalk – I don’t have a copy, and I need the artwork for a re-issue of some remied tracks – anyone help??
By dil green on 11.26.06 11:34 am
Sorry, never even touched a copy myself. Hopefully someone will find your question via Google and be able to help – I’ll pass them on if so.
By Mancubist on 11.27.06 1:47 am
Hi,
I’ve just seen the email from Dil from Big Flame. I’m sure I have that issue of Debris at home. Do you have a contact email address for him?
Congratulations on a great site.
All the best
Rob
By Rob Kerford on 01.04.07 11:58 am
Rob – you can contact big flame via our myspace acct. We’d be grarteful for the artwork scanned at high res
Greg
By Greg on 02.09.07 6:03 pm
Bit late, but there’s an ad (featuring a Big Flame gig) from Debris for some shows at The Boardwalk in June ‘86 on the MDMArchive site
http://www.mdmarchive.co.uk/archive/showartefact.php?aid=3049
By 1963 on 11.01.07 2:32 am
well, I got hold of the ad in the end – thanks for the pointers. Unfortunately, what I remembered as a spiky bit of ‘dada’ typography is actually a pile of crap. Ah well. Good job Greg’s doing the artwork for the re-release! nudge, nudge.
By dil on 03.05.09 1:06 am
Hi there Rob, are you the Rob Kerford from Manchester who has a brother called Dave? If so then could you please say a big hi to him. I am not a strange stalker just an old friend whose lost touch. Many thanks.
By Lisa on 05.11.11 9:23 pm
Hey Lisa, is that Lisa the daughter of the Viking? Just an old friend from Life cafe back in the day asking ha ;-)
By Simon on 06.03.11 7:34 am
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