I was decidedly not an indiepop kid in the late 1980s, so I’ve come to my only issue of the Charming fanzine well after its publication date. But I do know that fanzines were an essential part of the UK pop underground and that within them many a battle was fought, many a crush was nursed and many an obsessed vinyl collector was born. Years later – and I mean years later – I finally caught up to 80s English and Scottish acts like Tallulah Gosh, Fat Tulips, Pooh Sticks and so on, but I didn’t give that stuff much of a sniff back in my knuckle-dragging youth.
Charming #2 from 1988’s pretty much everything you’d want it to be, though, if that is or was a world that mattered to you. Fully cut-and-paste, with loads of wacky photos, double entendres, scene gossip, drawings and excitedly hurried reviews of bands both new and old. The editor was “Stephen Charming” (he also refers to himself as “Stephen Sexbomb Charming”, as one does), and he published out of a really small coastal town in the east of England called Dovercourt. Wikipedia says “Dovercourt is a seaside town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Harwich, in the Tendring district, in the county of Essex, England.” So now you know.
The enthusiasm and vulgarity of The Pooh Sticks is on full display here in their interview, as the (male) members of the group discuss what they’d like to do to and with Clare Grogan. My Bloody Valentine are a new band, one already gathering a major reputation for “driving audience members out of the emergency exits” for their ear-bleeding set closer “You Made Me Realise” (spelling, MBV!!). I first heard them on Loveless and still enjoy that one in fits and starts, but they’d already started to become a touchstone band for many in the late 80s. Charming #2 has definitely lost whatever goodwill and admiration they had for The Smiths by this point – I can’t believe we’re talking about The Smiths for the second post in a row, or in any posts at all – and there’s a to-do made in multiple places about them selling out, cleaning up, whatever. All very nasty, too – Stephen Charming wasn’t a guy who suffered his fools gladly and while he may have enjoyed twee sounds he’s far from a shrinking violet in print, which makes for a fun read.
That’s when you can actually read the thing – jeez, am I starting to sound my age or what? 4- to 6-point fonts, man – I want to enjoy them, but I do really struggle with some of the fanzines of yesteryear, such as this one, made for US fighter pilots with 20/20 vision holding a magnifying glass. Oh, there’s a few other things, though – remember when we talked about Drunken Fish #1 fanzine and their big run-through of the Fierce Recordings label? Charming #2 does this too, in less discographical form. And the big overview in here of UK band The Primitives – I wouldn’t hear them until the 2010s, having closed my ears off nearly entirely to such music, but if you’ve ever heard a better feedback-drenched indiepop song than “Really Stupid” – listen to it right here – well, I want you to tell me about it and we’ll do a nude fistfight on hot coals over which one’s really better.
Fanzine Hemorrhage 