#1 The Jam

The Spiral BookCase:

In this exciting series we will be focusing on Music Books & Literature.. Another concept from the individual and unique Steve Ferguson of which I am very pleased to be collaborating with. In the first part of this series we open up the long lost legend of the fanzine.. Sure there are bloggers today etc etc.. but sadly they get lost in this day and age in the whirlwind of social media oblivion.. 

When you look at the names in the piece below it will blow your mind.. But this is why its so cool to be a part of things at the very start and what a time this must have been.. So lets turn that very first page and enter The Spiral BookCase..

About The Young Idea In Print:

In May 1977 households across the UK witnessed the arrival of punk/new wave on Top Of The Pops with The Jam performing their debut single 'In The City'. In this feature we will looking at the bands and youth movements and some of the literature published around them, and to begin with we look at the wider influence The Jam gave to their fans. 

FANZINES #1 - TOMORROW THE WORLD:

By the spring of 1977 the punk explosion in the UK was gathering pace with major record labels grappling to sign a number of bands, while the newspapers were seemingly intent on presenting the movement as a sinister threat to the very foundations of British public life and values. The creation of this new scene had led to a growing number of self-published fanzines such as the iconic 'Sniffin Glue'. '48 Thrills' and 'Ripped And Torn', either distributed through independent record shops or within the small ads of the major weekly music papers such as NME and Sounds.

'Tomorrow The World' was one such fanzine, and in this issue we are met with a 16-year old veteran of 'The Roxy' punk club in London known as Max Great starting his own hand-written publication. He was friends with Shane MacGowan later of The Pogues who was then a fanzine publisher himself, and was on speaking terms with a few of the emerging stars of the scene such as The Jam and The Clash.

As some kind of journalistic breakthrough it falls short but as a document of the 'early days' the naive writing style and his determination to convey some degree of street-tough makes it an appealing read despite the dreadful 'Marquee Moon' album review within

Media Copyright of Max Great 1977

You Can Enjoy The Jam's Performance In The Video Below

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