I guess it’s likely more than clear that I’ve got a small handful of fanzine “micro-genres” that I collect, and therefore that I disproportionately write about here. Anything marginally well-done from San Francisco circa 1977-87 will usually make the grade, for instance. Case in point would be New Dezezes, Damage, Creep, Search & Destroy, Wiring Dept, Unsound, Bravear, New Wave, Revolutionary Wanker, Puncture, Breakfast Without Meat and others besides that I’ve prattled on about, surely. There are even some I’d yet to cover, like No Exit #1, edited by a 1977 SF scenester named Tony Steel, a man whose name had yet to pass my eardrums nor penetrate my eyes in any other form. And I’ve been studying up for a while, let me tell you. So here it is!

The ‘77 excitement here is real. I’m talking ALL-CAPS real, as a single lowercase letter is nowhere to be found within No Exit #1. James Stark – one of the punk photography all-timers – handles the visuals, and fashion is helmed by a woman going by the outstanding blank generation moniker of Jane Who (Jane’s big fashion contribution is a single page of photo booth shots of pretty people preening in sunglasses – the page is called appropriately called “Fashion”). And right out of the gate, we’ve got some attitude being thrown. “Thanks to the only bands in SF, all four and no one else”. Having lived in San Francisco myself for 37 years now, I can appreciate the sentiment. During some of our leaner years, four might even be a bit too optimistic. Luckily for the No Exit triad, Crime and The Nuns and whomever the other two were would be joined by at least another half-dozen true ringers within months.

And also: “No Exit is a publication dealing with exclusively new wave music, people and fashion. There are a lot of fanzines but only a few deal just in new wave items, so get it while you can”. (Note the beautiful lack of the lame “oxford comma” in that one – back from when even new wave ding-dongs knew how to write and punctuate correctly). The opening gossip is all pretty standard fare, but I like the bit about “Bill Graham of Fillmore West fame has finally given in! No it’s not Kiss and The Runaways but a semi-normal show July 30th, The Ramones, the Dictators (blagh!) & The Nuns (local kids make good) – well I give it an 8 out of 10”. And there is some real honest excitement over NBC’s coverage of “Punk Rock in Britain” on the 11:30pm Weekend Show – something that, if you were so inclined, you absolutely would have stayed up for & gathered all your n’er-do-well punk friends around the tube for. Such was the nearly unquenchable thirst for punk in its earliest days.

Their interviews are as brief as brief gets. A guy from this period named Novak – he produced the second Crime 45 – gets a page. Each member of Crime themselves, in fact, receives a page. Johnny Strike disavows any connections whatsoever with punk or new wave; he’s in a rocknroll band, end of story. Frankie Fix talks about the very first song he ever wrote, in 1976 – the year before – called “Razors”. Anyone out there have the demo to send me? Perhaps he was still going by Marc D’Agostino at that point. There is also a picture of him signing autographs, as well. Crime fucking mania in mid-’77! Neither Ron The Ripper nor Brittley Black say anything particularly distinguishing, but I guess overall I’m mostly bummed that Ricky Tractor wasn’t called back for a Q&A here. 

There are reviews – love for the excellent Users 45 and new Step Forward singles from Chelsea and The Cortinas – and then that’s it: No Exit #1 over and out, an ephemeral one-and-done fanzine from the frenzied mess of mid-1977. They were publishing from 49 Germania Street, a lovely little one-block street in the lower Haight. At the time the area wouldn’t have been so lovely; nearby housing projects were get-yourself-robbed zones and the blocks surrounding Germania didn’t quite manifest the gentrified charm you’ll now see fifty (what??) years later, to say the least. Such was life as a shoestring punk in ‘77. Tony Steel, if you’re out there, please get in touch with the ‘Hemorrhage!