Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Get a Heavy Soul...

The Heavy Soul fanzine has been on my radar a while but I'd never got round to getting a copy. Until that was I saw the review in the latest Modernist Society blog posting. Sounded like it had some interesting articles plus a CD all for a fiver plus postage (and of course associated with Rowed Out Records). I was not disappointed.

Quite deliberately, apart from the glossy front and back covers, Adam has given this a feel of the old 80s "cut and paste" 'zines. Anyone who produced flyers and the like back then will recall typing text, photocopying images and record sleeves and literally pasting them on to A4 paper and then copying into one page (after usually having to "tipex" round the shadows caused by photocopying the pieces stuck on the page). DIY it certainly was. So the fanzine has a basic structure but also benefits from having items stuck in the middle of pages as if to take up some blank space, and all the better to my mind for that feel. The photos and images aren't, as the web site says, like a "Sunday Times supplement". It looks like a labour of love.

So, content...

Features on the CCI reunion, The Moons, DC Fontana, Secret Affair - plus lists of new releases and reissues all in one handy location There are obviously ongoing articles on top 100 mod bands (how to start an argument in an empty room there I think), old gig reviews (this time a hairy Loafers gig from the late 80s) as well as updates on singles seen on eBay and releases on Acid Jazz, current vinyl on the turntable and of course the free 20 track CD taken from 45s only including Prince Buster, Harmonica Fats, Howlin Wolf, Orlons, Joe Bataan, Magnetics - worth the admission fee alone I'd say

Finally thanks Adam for bringing Timo Lassy to my attention, from the Five Corners Quintet:




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