Something kinda funny I’ve noticed over many years of fanzine gazing is just how poorly the covers of some of the British ones have held up over the years. I’m talking only about the ink, and how badly it fades on some mags. Am I wrong, or is this a UK and European-only problem? I had and perhaps still have this theory that it had something to do with the printing presses/machines being used in the UK in the late 70s and early 80s. Was there an ink of some kind that caused covers like the one on What A Nice Way To Turn Seventeen #1 to fade as it has here?
I asked Chris Seventeen, the gentleman responsible for this in 1983, and whose fanzine we’ve talked about here and here before. He said via email, “I must be honest and say I don’t have an answer. I’ll admit everything was done on a budget and there were printers that “specialised” in low cost printing. I certainly wasn’t considering at the time how long it might last – never thought it would be “something” 40 years from then if I’m honest. The only thought I can throw up is I did go for a coloured font – maybe black and white would have stood the test of time a little better?”
Well there goes that theory – that Thatcher-era Britain was using some obscure copier that was set to self-destruct covers of anti-establishment, underground fanzines somewhere down the road. If anyone knows what’s what, please let me know. I used modern computer technology to make this one look a little more clear than my copy actually does in real life.
Anyway, here’s the first issue of What A Nice Way To Turn Seventeen, published in Warwickshire. Chris had previously published a fanzine called Stringent Measures, but decided that he wanted one that was a bit more “fun”, and I suppose that it is. I’m not going to make any more “scarf rock” jokes like I did last time, but let me just state for the record that scarf rocker Dave Kusworth’s band The Rag Dolls get a big write-up, as does scarf rocker supreme Johnny Thunders. Then again, so does Alex Chilton and I never saw that guy wear any sort of neckerchief. I’m always excited to read people grappling with Chilton back when there was still something of an aura of mystery around the guy, and this piece in particular picks apart Big Star’s 3rd aka Sister Lovers and tries to ensure that readers know just how special it is. Me, I certainly do like that record, but Radio City is a top ten all-timer for me, and I’d rather talk about that, if you ever wanna talk about it. Let me know.
Chris is supremely bummed that The Undertones have just broken up, ostensibly because they gave themselves a four-year-plan or something like that to have hits, and it just didn’t happen. I get it. I too enjoy the Undertones greatly, and it’s not even “Teenage Kicks” that’s my favorite. It’s “Wednesday Week”. A perfect pop song. I’ve probably listened to it 2,000 or more times in my life. I had this album with the exceptionally classy cover in high school, and it was that song that I needle-dropped over and over again.
What A Nice Way To Turn Seventeen #1 also has features on Tempest and Nation III; big interviews with The Waterboys and The Jazz Butcher; and a short interview with a new band called The Pastels (!). For good measure, there’s a discography and a couple of pages of praise for The Ramones. I’ll often sum these things up with my own sort of lazy shorthand claiming that it’s a true fanzine, like yeah, this guy was really a true FAN and that comes out in the ZINE etc. etc. So it is. That’s what makes them so fun to read, right? It’s the homespun ones that reek of bedrooms and late nights and phonographs running in the background that I enjoy the most, all the more if the writing chops are up to snuff, as Chris’s were. After this one, he started including records along with some issues of What A Nice Way To Turn Seventeen, and that tradition carried on to the final issue. Some can even still be found here.
Fanzine Hemorrhage 
“Well there goes that theory – that Thatcher-era Britain was using some obscure copier that was set to self-destruct covers of anti-establishment, underground fanzines somewhere down the road.” Maybe the copy-shoppe workers were taking too many union-mandated tea breaks to replace the ink in the machines often enough?
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Ready for ‘Radio City’ breeze-shooting at any and all times. Mind you, ‘3rd/Sisterlovers’ is surely gold. Throw in those fab photographs, including great Egglestone shots and one heck of an evocation is conjured. See, I’m waxing nutty already. And then the ‘Punk’ years of Flies On Sherbet/Cramps. Too much. I think ‘Daisy Glaze’ is undervalued. Is it a rock mini-opera? If I ever met Brian May, I’d like to ask if this track was heard by him, and did it have any influence on the first Queen LP. The sound of ‘Radio City’ is fabulous, warm and deep – tight, but feels on the verge of flying out of control any second. They should’ve produced Germs (GI). Jim Dickinson’s comment in the Chilton book re the Sex Pistols, that he would have loved to have recorded them, with Sid, is the stuff of dreams – a great ‘might-have-been’ imaginary recording. The following might well be horseshit (much like the foregoing): I’ve never been to Memphis, but Big Star make me imagine a semi-rural, silent-night ambience, expansive and open, whereas there’s an urban, densely populated boxed-in intensity to Germs or Pistols. I like the idea of the bands dispersing into the wilderness, where they can be slightly removed and develop in isolation.
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Excellent commentary, wmsagittarius, and thank you. I JUST went to Memphis for the first time in my life only several weeks ago. My pal Scot drove me by the exact spot – a former TGI Friday’s restaurant – where the back cover of Radio City was shot. Also the Ardent studios and the whole general area where Eggleston’s “Stranded in Canton” was filmed. Memphis exceeded my expectations on many levels and I felt a whiff of everything you mentioned just driving and walking around the place.
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Definitely the ink, although I can’t say what properties caused it to fade so dramatically. Certain printing processes, especially quick cheap ones, are susceptible to elements such as sunlight, oxidation, etc. Just like keeping old newsprint, which has loads of acid in it that makes it yellow and crumble over time. Also, certain colors fade more than others. You may have seen old magazines where there’s a noticable color shift as reds fade and blues become more dominant.
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