Despite the rise of digital media, the fanzine has refused to die. Next time you go to a gig, check out the merch table, or where they keep their copies of DIY, Crack and xxx, and you’ll probably see a zine or two. Whenever I see a zine I pick one up. Sometimes they’re just the rantings of a super fan or someone looking to form a clique, but generally, they’re full of insightful thoughts, interesting takes on classic albums or full of wonky drawings.
In recent months one collection of zines I’ve gone back to again, and again, are by the Brighton based musician Thomas Vincent. Vincent is a member of the punk group Austerity and founder of the label Every Man His Own Football. It’s through this label that Vincent has released three solo zines and eight issues of the Austerity Times.
These zines range from collections of poems to short stories that lean toward the traditions of the Beats, but never lost track of the overall point.
What are the zines Every Man His Own Football have released and why?
So far we’ve released eight editions of The Austerity Times, which is a zine I co-edit with Stu Chaney. It’s a mix of light-hearted stuff that we find funny plus politically motivated crypto-situationist stuff and occasionally forays into cut-ups and experimental poetry. We’ve also released three of my Thomas Vincent solo zines containing prose, poetry and political writing.
What is the main difference between your zines and the Austerity times?
The solo ones are less chaotic, not so visually noisy; perhaps they are more serious and more coherent. They have a different feel. In the solo zines I’m consciously presenting a body of work that’s been carefully curated over a few months, The Austerity Times is more anarchic, spontaneous creativity, we never really know what the zine is gonna contain, we just get out the scissors and PVA, take some uppers and see what the hell comes out. In The Austerity Times, there is more scope to be inventive visually and you can do different things that maybe wouldn’t sit right in a solo zine. The other main difference is that my solo zines are all my own work, whereas The Austerity Times is collaborative, generally, my ideas get filtered through Stu’s brain or the other way around.
Why did you decide to start writing and releasing zines?
Initially, if we’re looking at it cynically, it was a promotional gimmick for my band Austerity. We wanted to give people something to take home from our gigs. The other motivation was that zines gave us a chance to expand on the lyrical themes in more depth and really explore some subjects that we thought were important. I’m always writing and producing visual art so the content was already there.
Stu used to work in a call centre and he realised that if he stayed late he could use the photocopier when no one was looking, so initially, we printed hundreds of zines at no cost. Once we figured that out, doing the first edition of The Austerity Times was a no-brainer. Stu’s subsequently changed job so these days we have to pay for printing though.
I guess I just like being creative, and creativity can be expressed in a bunch of different ways, zines are a cool easy to produce piece of work that can enable you to communicate ideas and connect with like-minded people. I like reading zines, so it made sense to make one, and having roots in punk rock, well, DIY ethics is integral to that, so fuck the industry, it’s much more rewarding to create and disseminate yr own work.
Are there any zines that inspired you start doing it yourself?
Yeah man, loads. The first one was Rancid News, which later went on to become Last Hours. I bought one off Edd at Reading Festival when I was fourteen. I was from a boring leafy suburban town and reading that zine was like stepping into another world. The writing was all about anarchism, squatting, art and punk rock, it seemed really glamorous and totally blew my mind, and it was like ‘finally, I’ve found my people’.
When I was an angsty teen I got into Cometbus in a big way, I like the way Aaron writes, very emotional and personal. To be honest though, lots of the most memorable zines are these weird little ones that no one’s heard of that you pick up on a whim, little dispatches from someone else’s life, and maybe there’s only ever one issue then they disappear forever, fleeting kinship, then distance, it’s a beautiful thing.
Why are zines important to you?
They are a source of information that is completely unmediated by industry norms or the profit motive, so obviously there is no quality control as such and sure there are shitty zines but I kinda like that, when you pick up some weird little photocopied A5 zine you never know if it’s gonna be trash or some completely brilliant piece of art that changes yr life. Whether they are good or bad zines always have character and energy to them. Also, in a zine you can write about stuff that would never get into a conventional media source. I like the DIY aspect, being self-sustaining, not relying on capital or bourgeois power structures. I also like the amateurism, it makes it really inclusive. I think it’s really cool that you can feel connected to a network of friends who are all part of a loose non-hierarchical scene made up of ordinary people talking about the shit that they are passionate about, that’s a fucking important and glorious thing. Zines are also a really democratic art form too.
Why do you think that the zine having a resurgence in a digital world?
I’m not sure they are? I mean, I hope so cos I think zines are great but I’m not sure, Maximum Rock n Roll just stopped doing physical. I guess if they are having resurgence it’s because they are accessible and easy to make. I think there is also something to be said for an engrained tendency in us to fetishise physical objects; people like physical things, objects have soul. Personally I fucking hate reading stuff on a screen, but I’m old and out of touch. I guess the other thing is that we’re living in this short-attention span hedonist-individualist technological dystopia, we have so much at our fingertips but generally, we just scroll through a feed looking at headlines and fairly short surface-level stuff. Zines are opportunities to cover a subject in more depth where you can let people immerse themselves in yr world for a while.
How would you sum up the zines you’ve released in 10 words or less?
Honest, passionate, opinionated, political. Fragmentary glimpses into my life.
What is on the horizon for you and Every Man His Own Football?
The next release will be Black Sauce by Mike Neaves; it’ll be a limited edition tape EP. Mike used to play keyboards and electronics in Nitkowski who are probably one of the best bands of the last few years. Mike’s solo stuff is this mad hyperactive techno with slowly mutating melancholic synths pulsating under skittery drum machines. He’s great. It’s abstract and emotional at the same time somehow. He’s someone I’ve known for fifteen odd years and I’m really excited to be working with him on this release.
After that the next big one is gonna be the debut Austerity album, ‘Anarcho Punk Dance Party’. It’s coming out in May. Austerity is my band, we play anarcho post-punk and always get compared to Gang of Four and Fugazi. I’m so unbelievably proud of this body of work and I can’t wait to share it with people.
We’re also planning to release new copies of The Austerity Times throughout the year. There will probably be other projects too; we’ll see how the year pans out and whether or not we get offered anything exciting!
Vincent has a unique voice and while his work can be challenging, it is also engaging. Throughout ‘Stumbling towards the Flames’ he manages to makes the mundane entertaining.
https://everymanhisownfootball.bandcamp.com/merch/thomas-vincent-stumbling-towards-the-flames-zine
His short story “What I Think at When I’m Queueing at the Bank” is really relatable. How many times has your mind drifted while doing something boring? How often do you just switch off and go elsewhere when doing something monotonous? However the story that really resonated was ‘Trembling with Fear but Caught in a Sparkle of Possible Love’. In nutshell it’s about having a beautiful moment with a random girl you’ll never meet again after missing a train. Both parties knew that this was a one night deal and whatever happened that night didn’t matter in the wider scheme of things, so why not get blasted and have a laugh. It reminded me of a night I had in Texas years ago. In 2005 I went to SXSW on holiday with a friend. As usually happens, either, on holiday or at a festival you want to do different things, so you split up for a bit. I spent the evening hanging out with an American country singer. We walked round Austin like tourists at night, seeing the sights, laughing at nothing, and bar hopping. In hindsight we drank very little a ventured no further than the Texas State Capital Building, but it was a night that has stayed with me since and this reminded me of that.
But I digress, and this is the power of Vincent’s work. He makes you see yourself in his lurid and self-deprecating stories and to think about what you’d do in that situation. To question if you’d follow the narrator’s lead, or if you’d go another way. Ultimately it doesn’t matter as Vincent isn’t asking for approval, or disdain, but for you to take a moment out of your life and consider someone else’s. And isn’t that the point of good art?
The fanzines mentioned can be bought here
https://everymanhisownfootball.bandcamp.com/
If you have a zine or know of a zone we should cover, please get in touch
