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.