Our Voices Are 4REAL
Alt Arts Rocking (2025 second half has kicked off)
Researched. Despite the “real” world, we’re…
Six degrees of separation. Three degrees of celebration.
June 2025 joining dots of the interdependent music and arts sector. Moonbow John of Fourth Portal then created proper mapping. July 2025 starts adding the connections every weekend (including Panda Power, Vampyres of Soho, On The Meadow…). An Events Dept. experiment focus on Music Tourism For The People asks “do you know (m)any of these names?” - Sonja The Blur Fairy knew of them all.
(1) Once Upon A Time, Part 1
Click here to download/view the cut n past picture story of Q1, January to March 2025
It weaves Manic Street Preachers, #SohoVampyres (Vampyres Of Soho), Nova Twins, Deptford Flower Market, Jean Genie and The Blur Fairy at The Musos Awards, This Feeling Big In 2025 and The Chinese New Year Of The Wood Snake.
6th February. Lock-In have just played an acoustic session for This Feeling at Gibson Garage and now Jean Genie and Jonny Haze of ASBO Magazine are about to grab a quick interview. Singer, Benji, said he’d be up for attending The Musos Awards on 6th March. Little did they know then, that they’d be part of the Electric Ballroom show (all votes by musicians). This Feeling won 2025 Promoter Of The Year. A party of the year with faces at all stages of their story. Oh and Check out this insta video! “The finest of gentlemen… fun having a little sing song” (with Pete Doherty of The Libertines and Kyle Falconer of The View). So don’t miss 2026! https://www.instagram.com/musosawards/
(2) What happened after Once Upon Another Time, Part 1?
April to June included, The Blur Fairy on stage with Maj-ick Anita Maj & Kat Five at the inimitable CroCroLand Music Festival, they Manics on tour (“wahey!” says this atheist who believes in ‘The Holy Bible’), This Feeling’s 10th Isle Of Wight Festival Stage anniversary, a legendary Soccer Six Fest and meeting an artist in the Neverlands/Netherlands who had a snake headed wooden cane.
Hallo wood snake, it’s your year! (it’s our year. shred the old world skins)
Ruigoord, Neverlands, Planet Water - Live Music, Live Forever
(3) No need to make it up.
Our yellow-brick-road, situationist, new whimsical express is down the rabbit hole, while the entire world is really up the junction! Buckle up, this Zeenagers Expo report has tangents on it’s tangents.
June 2025, down a rabbit hole… with Nijntje
The Arts Are Angelic Compulsions
TheZineUK documentary’s cast, cats, crew and readers are kismet’s woven tapestry of spirited ideas for escapism. A modern must-tell tale that is both depressingly bleak but uplifting and unique. Situationism’s magick is REAL (despite the evil empire trying to exterminate humanity, our planet and reality itself.) We RESIST.
Free Mo Chara, we go again August 20th. Pic from Westminster Magistrates Court, June 2025. Ruby Blue’s clip is viral on line. TheZineUK insta
(4) Welcome To The Multi Verse Multiverse.
A McNaughty Day Out - #PlanetWater25 style.
TheZineUK daily life includes every day people, wizards and fairies.
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? There are also warlords - and other monsters in this time on Earth. There are hate-infested online trolls - some posing as “mainstream media” to radicalise every day folk into increasing bigotry with lies! This is a side of the real (nazivermin infected) life. It’s not just fantasy.
It affects the lives and futures of arts hearts and sporting sports, so… In monster time (boo!), we ancient instinctive spirits have evolved to be our own heroes (yay!) In our parallel dimension, sometimes it’s on a stage… Glastonbury, globally, this year. See international reactions for further details.
Sixth Sense Instinct, it’s a human thing… Here at Events Dept., the heart was officially sparkled by the cosmic Saganism star gate between the star-dusted minds of the bands Weather Underground and MOSES, for instance… Both have many connections through this report. You may know of them.
Saturday 5th July 2025. The “police” are arresting 84 year old lady vicars for protesting against genocide on one dimension a few miles away. In another, Croydon/S.E.London we’re enjoying the fab Gabi Garbutt at the Panda Power all dayer in the grand Stanley Arts.
Amidst TheZineuK’s friends and alliances, are many bards, minstrels and jesters. Ye olde spirits, reborn as now and next inspirations, it all works out just fine for our whimsical ways.
In this first quarter of Earth’s 21st century (the year 2025), humanity’s parallel dimension (Planet Water uniqulture) is in full effect. If you believe.
Vampyres of Soho gather at the semi secret rock n roll social. Attendees from TheZineUK cast, cats and crew so far include the Chaos Twins of Weather Underground, The Outers, Abes of Soccer Six, Flesh Tetris and ASBO Magazine editors, Jean Genie & Jonny.
(5) We still believe.
The inspirations of our story were cast by a Spell and a Poet.
From adventurous word wizard, Patrick Jones in performance at the 453 Club, then a fallen sunflowers art installation - Dizzy Spell (TheZineUK Editor) and myself, Caffy (Events/Diary) - via Moonbow John’s Fourth Portal on Platform 7 of the New Cross Road. (Found an old video ‘Silent Cacophony’) from the year after. In 2014, TheZineUK was born, a short walk further along that same 453 bus route, with anchors and sunflowers as continuing themes. Fourth Portal is no ordinary gateway. DR WTF can confirm. (YouTube = half a minute in Groovesend)
At the Zeenagers Expo launch (Spring 2024) were further industrious arts mavericks, 122 Music Management rounded the year off, at winter solstice with Still Traffico kicking off something brand new at 1900 hrs GMT… 24:1900 returns this year and it’s another connection circle for the map.
Fast forward to December 2025, #241900fest returns. 24:1900 is 24 hours of global live alternative music time zones at 7pm local time! Scroll down https://24-1900.live/blogs/24-1900-updates for news and involvement.
Our #PlanetWater25 realities (despite the dystopian backdrop), include the further rise of humanity for people and planet, escapism soundtracked by a virtual movie’s worth of star turns. We find them within some of the most unusual experiences.
The Kairos entered our story a few years ago at a surreal This Feeling Test Transmission launch at The Social during train strikes and European war outbreak. Fast forward to them having made their mark in various ways to a Saturday night (19th July) at On The Meadow festival at Signature Brew.
(6) 2025. The game changer year. It’s been a journey.
Maybe since innocently starting with a passion for art rocked situationism, we are all where we were meant to be as the second half of 2025 is GO. Innocent-ISH, as we were not expecting to be living through the Brexshit years, adding lockdown pandemica and how surreal things got then closer to Armageddon’s Panto Apocalypse courtesy of a global, alien(hearted) invasion force for human extermination during a climate emergency. It’s end end of July and TheZineUK tapestry is still weaving.
That Arts Hearts compulsion again.
Many of our friends uplifted us with songs, performances and moments.
(a) Chapter 1 (mid-March 2014): Included pre-Nova Twins, creating with TryLife in New Cross (Andy Palmer, you legend) and (the above mentioned Musos Awards 2025 Pete Doherty/Soccer Six - photographed by Rupert Hitchcox. We had an official stage at Brighton’s alternative escape via End Of The Trail, too. That top image map of connections is just a fraction of this action.
Soccer Six © Rupert Hitchcox for TheZineUK - thanks for the tickets, Heather Minx, you started a Back-Of-The-Net thread in our tale.
(b) By December 2017 (the origin stories year, our stage style queen, Ruby Blue, is correct) The Music People Party begins (a youtube picture slide show of 2021s cast from 2014 to 2017).
2021 round up of TheZineUK photography crew so far. Many more have been added since then, especially CREW crew, Rhona Murphy.
(c) Next came alternative arts power. The first Music People Party (December 2017) was a gig and social alliance of promoters (women led. DJ Katie Owen and hosts: Rachel, Heather, Dizzy and myself, Caffy. (Show openers, the Velvet Hands, are still at Hawley Arms in 2025. They headlined the legendary Camden Dingwalls, just down the road from there, this Spring. “WHAT A NIGHT FROM START TO FINISH” (This Feeling) - insta pix.
Katie Owen #MusicPeopleParty Hawley Arms, Camden, December 2017. International DJ, presenter, rep and multi media riser.
Pink Cigar and friends, #MusicPeopleParty Hawley Arms, Camden. Joe Strummer looks on, approvingly.
(7) 2018
Katie Owen’s first filmed interview (for TheZineUK: The Velvet Hands at This Feeling in The Water Rats in Kings Cross. This year, our story also met Louise Schofield, Susan Hansen AND Ruby Blue - via musicians and gigs, of course.
In September 2017, interdependent live promoter, Kick Out The Jams launched at The Good Mixer with The Velvet Hands, Bugeye, Smiley & The Underclass. It was one out one in before the first live note. A year later and Fontaines D.C. Were about to play their second show for them… by 2025, KOTJmusic alumni is ridiculously awesome and then some…
(8) 2019
Uniqulture. Very much like the interdependent sector map at the start of this article, it comes naturally to create co-operative communities of the grassroots venue circuit. Kick Out The Jams now stages the Brighton Rock n Roll Circus, a free music festival, annually, mid May. Their who’s who is a major festival in it’s own right - as are all of alt rock’s music industrious.
(9) 2020
Country locked down. Newer wave artists and multi media rocked up.
A lifeline to stay in touch with friends. After six months, creativity was making alternative TV from the streams. Documenting is a blessing.
More interconnection between Flare Audio, Music Venue Trust and another lifeline, Tim’s Listening Party which lit up twitter in lockdown. Tim Burgess is an Extra Artist on behalf of our Music World, pre honorary statue.
(10) 2021
Making TV, Louise Schofield became the music journalist with the most interviews via Roobi TV and End Of The Trail Creative. At this time, we are still masking. seated, one way system at shows, sanitised hands etc and trying to rebook all those cancelled and postponed events.
So, here we are in a Chelsea Jazz Club (606) with The Velvet Hands, Louise Schofield, Lisa Knight (now of Knight PR) and Kelly Munro, End Of The Trail Creative head, at the start of 2021 creating wonderful quality live music TV show, GET ON!
(11) 2022
There was SO much love for the incredible Anna Wolf when she played ArtBeat Amersham Arms. Events Department Joy. It was Lewisham London Borough of Culture year AND Independent Venue Week. #IVW22 because Independent Venue and #Lewisham2022 even though we didn’t have any official listings. Music Tourism For The People is based on including or inserting Alt/Art Rock! Found this wonder woman, through another, Louise Schofield via the above mentioned GET ON! TV show! Golden threads, weaving…
2022 ended with MOSES, The Outers and YUKE woven into new futures at The Old Blue Last and new red hot firsts in the wings…
(12) 2023
During ArtfulFest month (October) 2023 we found ourselves at the awesome panel evening, Kerrang! hosts REPRESENT: Black voices in alternative music - a panel discussion - Laviea Thomas (Journalist), Alex Ekong (Decolonise Fest) and Artist, Kid Bookie. Voices of musicians and industry within alternative music hosted by Kerrang! Radio's Sophie K. Snapshot above: repping ASBO Magazine, The Outers and Model / Asexual Activist, Yasmine Benoit. We inserted ourselves down the front row and felt SEEN. Full YouTube video of a continuing conversation during Planet Earth grave new world days.
(13) 2024
Began with TheZineUK reviewing ‘Inviting The Light’ poetry book by Patrick Jones (who we experienced live, September 2023 courtesy of Chile, R *E *P *E *A *T and many friends in Swansea). Yes, poetically of course, and punky rock n roll as a lifestyle. It’s TheZineUK!
January 2024, thanks to the expanding Soccer Six family, we’re back at The Old Blue Last. There’s this teen rock band called Emergency Break headlining, for their first year of existence and it’s all going off. When you’re leaving Shoreditch with a stupid grin! Punk power.
(14) Time Travel through lockdown to NOW.
Rock n Roll can help to save the world. Still. So can representation.
Pic: TheZineUK was boosted by repping at Women In CTRL’s launch of Seat At The Table report, end of January 2024 positivity at PPL HQ in Soho. Femme-iliar faces bumped into included Jean Genie, Editor of ASBO magazine and Karen Emanuel head of Key Production.
(15) Planet Earth 2025
A Time Of Monsters. Post Lockdown, The Movie. This time it’s personal.
In this ingreeding, human slaughtering, lying and often heartless grave new world ruled by evil panto clowns, TheZineUK will go THERE: Acknowledging politics alongside poems and pop.
We were born for resistance to death-star fanatics and take JOY in sharing escapism. Magick is obvious in our dimension - graced by Panda Power friends like the Kosmic Troubador and the Lord Of The Lobsters - the Interdependent Music Industrious sector even has an established independent music media named JOYzine!
It’s no coincidence that Sonja Amoretti, The Blur Fairy is another golden thread. We started telling a story, but now the story is telling US! It’s perfectly imperfect and so, often beautiful.
Bottom pic, Lekiddo - Lord Of The Lobsters, Sonja The Blur Fairy and Kat Five the Space Vixen at Featured Artists Coalition Summer Party in Cambridge Audio. Thank you always to David Martin and the team for the inclusion and - like Music Venue Trust - the hard work with officialdom that helps to drive our story as much as the gigs and songs.
If this all sounds a bit punk fairy tale, that is because the ongoing story of Once Upon Another Time is real surreal reality 4REAL.
Cro Cro Land stars of 2024 AND 2025 at Stanley Arts - it’s YUKE, still thrilling our eyes and ears since that first sighting at the end of 2022. True stories entwined. Kudos to artists, Angela Marttin (Bugeye) and Julia Woolams (31% Wool) for founding a life changer of a music festival blueprint for the 21st century.
(16) This Is Planet Earth
Humanity has a global flag, street art, peaceful protest, chants and chances. Every little helps.
Insanely, thuggish, granny bashing, law-stealing, greedynonce alien daleks make outlaws of people who try to save all the other people - even those who despise them for having empathy - and our home planet. To the bot-brain-baddies: Get back to fckn Mars, you total CAN’Ts.
Honestly, they come over here…!
Brave policemen terrorised by Audrey White who is in her 70s. They’ve been taking “Grab A Granny” night too far, me thinks. The real Generation Terrorists, “think” they.
(17) 2025. Existing: Exhausting. Yet…
Hope.
A decade ago, ALT BLK ERA, Emergency Break, The Molotovs and many of the ASBO Magazine / ArtsyMix / Brits Got Groove / So Young Magazine etc teams would be in junior school. Nowadays, ageism is so last century and guitar music audiences are young - but also inclusive of all ages. TheZineUK’s Generation Tremorists pun has become a reality.
The Bands Come Out To Play 2025 winner, FNTSY, showing how at home he is on the stage of the Electric Ballroom for the Musos Awards
Take all youth explosions seriously and bring on the next movements as we all need as much fun as possible, for balance.
This includes artists and allies celebrating thirty years of Music Industry Soccer Six (this AND next year, it’s a game of two “rock n goal” halves). Pete Doherty was a deserving winner at The 2025 flavouring Musos (where ASBO and Brits Got Groove were attendees and ALT BLK ERA are nominees this year). There are over two decades of Soccer Six women’s games, music world’s Lionesses and ambassadors like Rowetta, Louise Schofield, Megan Wyn and all of the fab femme fun of this year’s SoccerSixFest.
Music Industry Soccer Six live appearances at Soccer Six Fest, The Musos Awards and The Bands Come Out To Play Finalists, during the first half of this year. Follow for what happens next: https://www.instagram.com/soccersixofficial/
(18) Uniqulture is the result of what TheZineUK has documented for a decade.
So many dots are connecting… passionately.
Here we go again, more industry, media, charity connections at The Brighon Rock n Roll Circus - mid May 2025. Tech-tactic! Superb use of info screens at a music world scouting outing weekend.
(19) A newer wave of music industrious have created an even NOW-er, alternative interdependent sector for the arts.
Another prime example is that alongside the artists and presenters on stage at the wild On The Meadow Festival (by GoToBeat and Leo Gerchen, lead singer of Emergency Break) are a swathe of multi media alliances… TheZineUK happy to be in such esteemed company.
YouTube: Half a minute of On The Meadow festival! Now to investigate the names on the poster. There may be more connections next time.
(20) We keep keep singing and dancing! Ah… July!
Weekend 1:
Panda Power courtesy of ASBO’s Bringer Of Sunshine, Jean Genie, presenting live music and a social. Music tourism: Stanley Arts, South Norwood. Rikki Lee launched her debut album ‘21st Century Rockstar’ and The Outers their new single, ‘Wishy Washy’.
The Outers are one of the bands who also performed at the Brighton Rock n Roll Circus.
Weekend 2:
Vampyres of Soho gathered for the Summer Social, courtesy of Bedderz at Kick Down The Doors PR. This time the music tourism was the Spice of Life in Central London.
Huge thanks to ASBO Magazine for gifting an issue of the hot property printed magazine while there. Also got to meet the lovely Mand of The Best New Indie. Industry shaker maker!
How many more do we connect? How do we lift each other up? Working on it by enjoying what we all do, in the mean time.
#SohoVampyres - The Youngbeats, playing with Jim Jones
Weekend 3:
We were On The Meadow courtesy of Leo Emergency Break and (many) friends. (Leo is the lead singer who did a lap of the Mile End Stadium during a song at SoccerSixFest in May!) Music tourism this time round was the space ship looking Signature Brew (came into our story during lockdown, for helping musicians) Walthamstow HQ.
Ace artists Jean Genie, Leo Gerchen and The Molotovs (photographed by Olly Bromidge who wove into our tapestry at Spring 2024’s Zeenagers Expo launch) at a Fab Fest and Location with a FabBest Publication!
Weekend 4
It was SO good to get to this year’s Truck Festival (huge thanks to Mikey and the Zone Rangers of This Feeling who did the Most Happening Stage thing again).
#musictourism: Truck Festival (born via a record shop) is a fairground, festival, frolic of a weekend in the mystic oxfordshire countryside. The otherwordliness is a much appreciated break - with uplifting decibels, effusive loveliness and lights, lights, lights like the stars - but everywhere.
Good Health Good Wealth were everything This Feeling’s star turn host and DJ, John Kennedy of Radio X and so much more, says they are - and more. Hurt my cheeks grinning, I did.
There was also a Deptford Flower Show by the Deptford Flower Market extended community (as mentioned in Chapter 1 of Once Upon A Time, which is where we began this report). Wheels within wheels of wonderful.
Like Chelsea Flower Show but VERY DEPTFORD Fun City. Reels and Pix at https://www.instagram.com/wherehavealltheflowers/ Ru and the Crew are a delectable delight.
(21) Diss Dystopia
Bollocks to the bullshit. It’s the end of July and Britain’s mainstream “media” have just been fawning over a cheesywotsitsnonce - but there also a nation uniting positivity pervading their depravity, for balance. The Lionesses (football’s come home, yet again, ThanX), an obvious public wish for there also to be a left-leaning representation of politics (was in a community garden with Susan Hansen, Jeremy Corbyn and more at the weekend when news broke of YourParty reaching half a million followers in a couple of days) - and then there’s the ever lifting euphoria of live and recorded entertainment.
Ha ha, cynics, guitar bands are properly back (especially since 2017). You don’t need to be an Oasis fan to enjoy the joy of their fans. Next-gen future changers in those crowds. Saw more than one nursery and junior school t-shirt worn at Truck Festival!
That time TheZineUK and friends staged a punk takeover at St Pauls in April, then it was Abbie McCarthy’s Good Karma Club in May, then it was This Feeling Stage at Isle Of Wight Festival in June. Yes, it WAS a zeitgiest of a decade beginning. It’s come through SO much, already.
An unlikely saviour, but it seems that rock n roll CAN save the world.
Like people parrotting that the devil has all the best tunes (when we know the angels have most of them), kindness and empathy are now lie-labelled multi generation “terrorist”.
Horror is alive. Satire is dead. Our living organism home world needs us.
Nature’s force, sixth sense instinct/supernature remains strong in the many. We are lost without a sense of humour, song and dance. Big up the (r)Evolution!
at Deptford Flower Show, #PlanetWater25 - Part of the Deptford X visual arts festival week.
(22) Choose Day Choose Love
Solidarity, like anger, is an energy. Kindness, like courage, is a superpower. Music is a language. Playing is our nature. WE shape our world with every note! Do you believe that it’s a kinda magick? I’m proof reading this on a chooseday. Situationism, innit.
I’m proof reading again this winsday (30th July) because TheZineUK is written organically and I’m not the journalist in the team! (Caffy)
Music Tourism gem. This is the public transport bus stop from Truck Festival to Didcot Parkway rail station. Yes. Magick.
(23) Come with and/or stay strong/safe. A Fibonacci spiral of events, our voices are 4REAL
Musician, Tyla Challenger, pictured this in Autumn 2019 for TheZineUK on line magazine front page
(24) Our Party People
Love for Music Venue Trust, always. Big up the Music Venue Properties solution. Their brochure was at this year’s Great Escape Festival - saw this at the Featured Artists Coalition social with WeAre8 App - and always ace to see Jean Genie’s smiling face. Her Massive Hugs TUNE, ‘Ray Of Hope (Ferret Forever)’, the venue Preston Ferret - and all the above, are jigsaw pieces of our bigger picture.
(25) #PlanetWater25 that is - we’re gonna need a bigger circles map!
Come together, community. We are movement. Come with. Have another look at the last words on that page above… “Let’s prove that when we come together we can save the soul of our music scene”.