This is one of my favorite pictures taken by Al Flipside. Why it is so interesting to me, because I am holding the tape recorder that was responsible for recording all the interviews we did at Flipside, at least when I was there. Also, I am wearing my PIL pants… I loved those pants… DIY silk screening days… and then there is Wimpy’s face… brings chills to my spine! I reprinted this special Flipside issue because it is a history of Punk Voices…. an oral history. Now available again in a sweet paperback book. 1977 to 1987.
(On Cover Subhumans and Samoans: Greg Turner, Metal Mike, Wimpy, Hud, Garry and Jim.)
The new cover of Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine # 54 Ten Year Anniversary Issue Paperback (replica)
Once at the local pub a woman in her twenties looked over at me. She was talking to a friend and I heard her say,
“I don’t know what the big deal is. That magazine came out over thirty years ago?”
She then looked over at me again. I looked back at her. I raised my shoulders and rolled my eyes as if to say,
“I know what ya mean.”
This pub is considered a music pub. The founder Patrick Fairley (RIP) was a member of the 60’s band Marmalade. Also, DJ BIG DAN Disgustington inspired a long line of DJs who just happened to play 1980s punk rock. Punk rock is a unique genre and like jazz we all rejoice in the awesome sound of its originators. Going to the pub is kind of like going to church. The sociology of religion states that 90% of people going to church do so for social reasons. Only 10% go to have a religious experience. A pub is the same way. When ya add some great music and beer this is the place to be to do the 90% thing or the 10 % thing…or both.
As the spirituals gave birth to the Blues and then Jazz; so, does it inspire the music we listen to today? I don’t go to church anymore, but I do go to pubs and for me it is a 10% experience.
In the 1700s pubs often held meetings under the convert of drunks but, it was the beginning of revolution. It was about individuals who came together, who opposed the Church of England and their government. They sang their pub songs or hymns around the fireplace and hidden in these songs were the lyrics and tunes that inspired the people.
Punk rock can be like going to church and it can be an 90% social thing. To me it has always been about the 10% punk rock experience. It is inspirational, thrilling and has the ability to awakened one to wild possibilities of hope and creativity as any good ‘old Jazz song does.
Sharing these tapes is like sharing an old jazz tune or inspirational experience. It has its place in the continuity of the punk rock experience of 1984.
This is what I should have told the young woman who liked to come to this pub on punk rock DJ nights. She enjoyed listening to 30-year-old music. The thirty-year-old magazine she referred to, documented the 10 % punk rock experience! Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine, 1977 ` 2000 , will not rest in peace because the music and voices are still alive….
A dollop for your reading pleasure from 1984 fans. Taken from the letter section of Flipside Fanzine Lee Issue # 44, 1984. The ten years I worked on Flipside we published an issue every two months. Also there were the many projects in between too. Live videos, records and beyond…
LIVE Public Image Ltd. from Flipside Videos !!
the 10 % experience is unclassified, SNFU or part of the X-files.. so go screw!
My Paperback Books for sale on Amazon. Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine Ten Year Anniversary Issue # 54 (replica) Paperback,
1979 – 1989 punk & fanzine publisher memoir. A complementary book meant to read along side the Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine # 54 Ten Year Anniversary Issue (replica). Novel, honest and engaging. A unique story by a woman journalist who wrote about the punk rock scene. Now celebrating 40 plus years of punk rock.
The Semianry Of Praying Mantis Publishing, Non-fiction novella.
Faerie Story By Hudley Flipside
The Seminary Of Praying Mantis Poems by Hudley Flipside An Underground Bard
The Praying Mantis Watercolor Gallery By Hudley Flipside
