1998 FANZINE CONVENTION

The idea of a Radio 1 organised fanzine convention would never have been dreamt of a few years ago, as the only people back then who took fanzines seriously were the people who wrote them, and a small minority of readers with an interest in unheard-of bands (it was rare to find zines a few years back which featured famous bands). But like I said in the piece on last year's fanzine convention, it looks as though the mainstream media have finally realised that fanzines can help to get bands heard about.

The 1997 fanzine convention had good points and bad points - I saw the whole concept as a good idea, but some bits of it just didn't work. Part of this was due to the organisation of it, like the freebie CDs they gave out were mostly by VERY mainstream acts such as Steve Winwood, Depeche Mode and Natalie Imbruglia. Part of it was due to the state of fanzines last year - there was a lot of teenagers writing zines, and they often put across the view that anybody over 18 is too old to a) write a fanzine, and b) enjoy music. This is, of course, nonsense. Many zines in '97 were generally very focused on mainstream-alternative music/culture as well, hence various comments I overheard from people there, which I could have believed were said by trendy-types, but not fanzine writers. Examples of this included someone who didn't know what flexis were, and someone who called a girl in flamboyant glittery clothes 'weird'.

1998's convention was much better researched/organised this year I thought, probably due to the fact that the promoters sent questionnaires asking zine people what they wanted from the event. There was a free CD especially compiled for the event, which featured much more zine-friendly bands, many of whom were on microscopic indie labels. Now this is more like it! Although there's nothing wrong with writing about famous music, I still firmly believe that the emphasis of fanzines should be to uncover less-known music.

There was a much wider age range at the 1998 fanzine convention, which is encouraging. All this ageism in the zine scene was worrying, but it looks as though that attitude is, thankfully, dead. There were many more people dressed in OTT/unfashionable/individual clothes this year, which is also encouraging. I was fairly underdressed considering some of the clothes I've got, but if I'd have shown up in some of the more extreme items in my wardrobe, I wouldn't have felt at all out of place like I do in Redditch!

Last year's zine convention had a panel of journalists, and there seemed to be the general feeling that it was all about how zine people can become 'real' journalists. I believe that zines should be an alternative to the mainstream press, so that idea left a bit of a nasty taste. This year, however, the panel consisted of zine writers with other projects such as record labels, gig promotion organisations, etc. This seems a lot more relevant than last year's cos it actually involves zine people themselves, and doesn't make zines look like a second-rate version of the 'real' press.

I met more people I'd written to this year, and met a few people I'd not written to before as well. It was a much better overall atmosphere than last year's, I can't think of anything negative to say about it except perhaps the distance - it was in Newcastle - but that was no massive quibble. I look forward to next year's!

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