Our friends at Thoughts Words Action are interviewing the talented and creative poets involved in the recent Ten Poets Volume Three book. The conversations make for some very interesting and inspiring reading. I'm off to get writing something myself right now... The first poet interviewed was Michael Bamber, a brave soul and local poetry club compere, who threw all the rules out the window and write from his heart, drawing interesting stories we can all empathise with from

Marquis H K interview in Vive Le Rock The new edition of Vive le Rock magazine is out now and there’s an interesting interview with Marquis H.K. in it, opposite our full page ad for his excellent new book, ‘Voice of a Generation: 80’s UK punx in their own words’. Amongst the conversation Marquis tells us about his involvement in the scene, “I got into punk as a young kid growing up in Yorkshire in 1979. that was a fantastic year for music, you had the likes of the ruts th

50 Years of Chaos: Charlie Harper and the U.K. Subs. Christopher D. interviews Charlie Harper for Scene Point Blank https://www.scenepointblank.com/features/interviews/uk-subs-Charlie-Harper/ More than five decades after the first sparks of punk lit up the U.K., Charlie Harper remains one of its most enduring figures. As the driving force behind U.K. Subs, Harper has seen entire scenes rise, fracture, and reinvent themselves while continuing to tour, write, and perform wi

Jenn L. Beckwith, the author of ‘All Good Cretins Go To Heaven: The Enduring Spirit of the Ramones’ spoke with Punks in the Garage podcast about her excellent book and her love of the Ramones and you can listen in here: https://www.mixcloud.com/Punks_in_the_Garage/punks-in-the-garage-australias-me262-ramones-book-e85-82226/ The full playlist for this high energy weekly rock'n'roll music radio episode, hosted by Rock'n'Roll Joel and Rock'n'Roll Lisa on WAIF-FM includes: The Mo

The upcoming issue of Vive Le Rock magazine is a UK Subs special, so obviously Charlie Harper is in there with a great interview, talking about the final UK Subs gigs next year, his new music and future plans, and of course, his superb ‘An Anarchy of Demons’ book, and in the same issue Eugene also speaks with another of our authors, Marquis H.K. who tells him how his new book, ‘Voice of a Generation: 80’s UK Punx in their own words’ came about. The new issue hits stores on Tu

For those too lazy to read it themselves, or those who prefer to listen to audio books while they get on with something else, there’s a brand new audio-book version of ‘Unscripted Moments: Conversations with Propagandhi (2020-2025)’ by Greg Soden coming out any day now. It’ll be available on audible and all your usual audiobook channels and has been read by a brilliant character, and friend of Greg’s, named Mat Comtois. Mat has done a superb job of the recording and found h

The Travis Cut tour with Sloppy Seconds was a bit sordid and you can read all the gory details in Alex Boucher’s memoir, ‘Three and a Half Minutes of Fame’. The book makes superb reading for any true 90’s indie-music enthusiast, and there will be a documentary film, based on this excellent book, coming out later this year! You’ll see below flyers for the Travis Cut anniversary gig at the brilliant Duchess of York in Leeds, and a 1999 comeback gig at The Garage. There are some

Tear It Down: How Crossover Bridged Metal and Hardcore Punk by Alex Anesiadis (Book Review) This is an incredible book about the whole crossover scene that took place in the late 80’s. The book is over 600 pages and doesn’t just cover the big name bands like Agnostic Front, The Cromags, The Crumbsuckers, Sick of it All, Black Flag, Ludichrist, Gang Green, Dr. Know, D.R.I, SOD, MOD, etc. There is some thrash bands like Hirax, Whiplash, Slaughter, Nuclear Assault, etc. But this

Charlie Harper will be at Hastings Book Fair signing his 'An Anarchy of Demons' autobiography and answering any readers questions on the Earth Island Books stall… Hastings Book Fair, Saturday 12th September, Observer Building, 11am to 4pm. Charlie’s joining us in the afternoon, from around 1pm. Free entry. More info at: https://www.hastingsbookfest.org The 9th annual Hastings Book Festival will take place from 10th to 20th September 2026, with 40 events and more than 80 spea

Underdog review ‘The Scene Police Story’ The story of SCENE POLICE reads not only like a record label history, but also a bit like a tour travelogue. Forget polished success stories and nostalgic punk rock myths. What's told here is the raw, chaotic, and brutally honest story of a DIY punk collective held together by conviction, friendship, sleep deprivation, and some pretty bad financial decisions. Dennis and his companions – including co-founder Emre, accountant Elke, and

Djordje Miladinovic of Thoughts Words Action reviews ‘All Good Cretins Go To Heaven: The Enduring Spirit Of The Ramones’ by Jenn L. Beckwith. Only a few bands in the annals of modern music managed to completely alter the course of popular culture using such minimalist tools as the Ramones. When those four leather-jacketed figures emerged from Queens in the mid-1970s, they effectively wiped the slate clean, discarding the era’s excessive arrangements and self-serious grandio

Author Bill Sassenberger is hitting the road once again, promoting his two books Toxic Shock Records "Assassin of Mediocrity" (Earth Island) and the sequel Wanderlust and Welcome Mats "the Broccoli Chronicles" (Toxic Shock Publishing). Stops include Milwaukee WI for cheesy commentary, Tucson Comic Con AZ for laughs with William Shatner, Montreal for poutine and Toronto Canada for maple syrup soaked hockey pucks. Along with spinning yarns of the rise and fall of punk retailing

Ox Fanzine review ‘THE SCENE POLICE STORY: A Story of Rebellion, Passion, and Financial Ruin’ by Dennis-P. Merklinghaus. A few months ago, Dennis asked me for a few words about his book on the label he co-runs—a label he has been operating with renewed intensity for the past year or two, after it had been in hibernation for ages. And this is what I wrote: “There are those ‘always-there’ labels. They’re always around somehow; they’re the undergrowth of our scene. The thick

Scene Point Blank – One Question Interview with Jenn L. Beckwith (Author of ‘All Good Cretins Go To Heaven: The Enduring Spirit of the Ramones’) SPB: Do you remember the first time you saw the Ramones live (or, alternately if it’s a better story, the first time you heard them)? Beckwith: My collaborator and researcher Gary Lynn Clevenger and I met up on a Ramones Facebook group in 2023. There have been many books written about the Ramones, each good and unique in their ow

Charlie Harper and the UK Subs, Steve Ignorant, Buzzcocks, The Stranglers, not a bad first day for Rebellion Festival with all 8000 tickets sold out and everyone having fun, it was great to see some positive news on the BBC for once. They had a video on breakfast news at 8.50am about thirty years of the Rebellion Punk Music Festival and fifty years of the UK SUBS, and then the Blackpool Gazette even ran a piece about Charlie’s book launch last year with him signing copies of

PUNK AT SEA - A Rebellion Festival Photo Book by Michiel Blijboom Over the years, the Rebellion Festival—held every August in the British seaside resort of Blackpool—has evolved into a kind of global punk gathering. It feels as though every punk and hardcore band, from the veterans to the relative newcomers, has played in one of the rooms at the Winter Gardens venue in the heart of the pedestrian zone; hundreds of bands and musicians perform here annually (including unofficia

Crazewire, a rather large new German music magazine, has just run a six page feature on the excellent new Scene Police Records book, saying; “’The Scene Police Story’ is far more than just the chronicle of a DIY label. Dennis P. Merklinghaus tells the story of Scene Police with unflinching honesty - covering idealism, friendship, and political engagement just as much as burnout, financial setbacks, and infighting within the hardcore scene. Amidst tours, mail-order sales, reco

It’s certainly taken a while to read this (Tear It Down: How crossover bridged metal and hardcore punk) as there’s over 600 pages dedicated to bands, labels, magazines from all over the globe talking about how crossover bridged metal and hardcore punk! Alexandros Anesiadis certainly has done his homework and I swear the level of writing and research is on par with what Ian Glasper has done with his books. You get to listen to the bands themselves ranging from Agnostic Front t

Nathan Brown of Louder Than War reviews ‘All Good Cretins Go To Heaven: The Enduring Spirit of the Ramones’ by Jenn L. Beckwith. Another book about punk pioneers and CBGB mainstays, the Ramones – will it bring anything new to our understanding of this important band? Nathan Brown finds out… “1-2-3-4 Cretins wanna hop some more, 4-5-6-7 All Good Cretins Go To Heaven” Cretin Hop has to be one of the songs which best represents the Ramones, so using a line from that song as

‘Voice of a Generation: 80’s UK Punx in their own words’ by Marquis H.K. has a foreword by Eugene Butcher of Vive le Rock magazine and a Tribute to Colin Jerwood of Conflict before it even really kicks off! It’s packed with 80’s punk conversations with the likes of The Varukers and has great pieces, with many photos, about the King’s Road punks, the Bristol scene, the Southall Riot, etc but we particularly like the words of wisdom chapter where Marquis H.K. speaks with ano