I have received my copy of ‘Zine Age Kicks’, it arrived Friday so I’ve had the weekend to glance through it but I’ve not touched the sides or is it covers for a book? The volume of content is immense; it’s page by page of “every time I look, I see something new”.
A time capsule of sorts from 1984 to 2009 from James Brown covering the time he worked on magazines from his early start in creating his own Zines to working for the NME, Loaded Magazine and GQ. If these titles and that era mean anything to you the pangs of nostalgia may have already started!
I say I received my copy as for me this started a long time ago, as an avid reader of the NME back in the nineties and a regular bought Loaded I’ve been a social media follower of James Brown for years. When mention of this idea appeared online and the mention of support for the project was cast out I responded quickly and put my money where my mouth was and basically bought my copy while it was just a tsunami of ideas in one man’s head. Hence my name is listed in the back under with thanks:
‘On Double Secret Probation for actually supporting this foolish venture before it even existed.’
The NME especially back then in broadsheet form was my music bible, I could sit as a student in a bar and read the paper cover to cover, the internet was not where it is now so this was the go to, that and Jojhn Peel, I miss that.
As for ‘Loaded’ I loved the chaos that it portrayed, not necessarily as a fan of lad culture but just as a fan of freedom of expression and thought. The stupidity of conversations, crazy ideas and comments that happen between friends on a daily basis that are quickly forgotten with your day-to-day. Someone was taking that, turning it up to 100 and printing it! Brilliant!
Two summers ago, I read ‘Animal House’ by James Brown and that era although not forgotten all came flooding back within a multitude of written stories. ‘Zine Age Kicks’ is basically a visual appendix to that. In James Browns own words from his editor’s letter
“If you’ve read Animal House then here you go, more of the same but in pictures not words”.
It’s a great read, it’s a nostalgic read. There is a timeline to the order and there is a contents page which will help later when you start jumping back but you’ll just pass through page by page, you’ll spend as much time if not more actually reading the images from the magazines as the additional text which is definately worth the attention as well. You will need to go back through it several times and take time on the design of the content, not just the book itself, but the design styles as they change through the ten or so years covered (the designer in me did find a double space). As I said at the beginning it’s a ‘time capsule’, of music, of design, of thinking, of attitude the likes of we will never see again. Plus, it contains Beastie Boys content so a must for my collection and I love the nod to the band on the front and back covers, it was a nice touch. His involvement with the band is well noted in Animal House.
Only 1000 of these are being printed so if interested you should act quickly and visit:
https://www.instagram.com/jamesjamesbrown
