The Zine UK

DO Attend/Shout Out these 20th Birthdays!

Something will grow. Again. Whether you’re at these gigs in person or telling others so that you’re there in spirit - it’s the algorithm age where artificial intelligence meets a world mis-governed by artificial stupidity.

SO much inspiration for creators though, looking on the bright side. It’s about to get brighter courtesy of British Music World champions, Joyzine and God Is In The TV and their many (many!) friends…!

Art: **Finn Kidd.**
Beat: “The first in a series of albums to celebrate Joyzine’s #20YearsOfJoy Vol. 1 features 20 exclusive recordings from our favourite artists, with original songs, covers, remixes, live recordings and demos.”

Think about it… just getting to 2023!

An achievement in itself. How thef… some artists are still going, I don’t know! The Planet Pandemica dimension of a grave new world appeared through 2020, 2021, 2022 (pronounced “twenty twenty, too!”). If we’re here, now, our mental health is upside down (a human thing) but that doesn’t stop us adapting and using the natural healing juju of the arts for the drums known as our hearts. Come, Share The Joy.

Autumn 2023 Festivity

Live and lively on stage (Cardiff and London) with

ADWAITH, BREAKUP HAIRCUT, BUGEYE, CARWYN ELLIS, CHROMA, COLOSSUS, DEAD PATRONS, DEUX FURIEUSES, FERAL FIVE, GABI GARBUTT, GARDEN CENTRE, HALF HAPPY, HEY YOU GUYS, HURTLING, iDORIS, JEMMA FREEMAN AND AND COSMIC SOMETHING, KAPTIN (DJ SET), MASCA, MIKEY GEORGESON (David Devant & His Spirit Wife, MJ HIBBET, PAPAYA NOON, PINEY GIR, STEPHEN EVENS, THE BURNING FEATHERS, THE FADES, THE HONEST POET

Hey, talents and audience! Have a think.
In 2018, did you ever wonder what the next five years would bring?

Get tickets to these aces collectively shaping this Autumn and beyond

via Joyzine https://joyzine.org/ (August 19th-20th New Cross and September 16th Islington) + God Is In The TV https://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/ (September 30th Cardiff) and our Events Dept, Rocklands (October 26th New Cross) via We Got Tickets. The whole line up are sparks. Gigs are the fuse.

Creativity is Nature is God is in the TV, the radio, on stages, in minds…

OK, these articles do “go off on one” sometimes, but TheZineUK is a situationist documentary with a Spell as it’s editor and a cast and crew of the magical woodland folks that ye olde faerie tales are made of. A different kind of tapestry is weaving in the arts.

I’m not a journalist, so, sue me about the writing style of this preview. Both GIITTV and Joyzine possess many folks with journalistic skills. Heck, John Clay of Colossus is an author in his own right. Film maker too… Basically, there’s a reason that quality media sustains. Even without the huge advertising and sponsoring supports that mainstream press enjoy there is a genuinely cross breeding community.

TheZineUK is more New Whimsical Express or Rocking Pebble than NME or Rolling Stone, that’s for sure. Doesn’t mean that an investigation of the #FertileEnvironment and #NewerWave trails don’t prove that when uniqulture plants DIY seeds, to quote our original inspiration, Patrick Jones “Something Must Grow”. Tip that in yer shroom and wiggle it. Come dancing.

Gatherings!

A travelling circus party of music festivity for fans of (highly recommended) independent music - much of which has some dream profiled media/industry support. Witness what we can do together…

For instance, within days, Joyzine instigated a love gang of virtual stages that created Balcony On Line Music Festival. Determined to Let The Good Times Pile High it was a soul-balancing lifeline that raised charity for causes within half a dozen episodes of increasingly creative streams. Amazing alumni played!

The Charity motif remains. The new God Is In The TV compilation ‘Pictures Of You’ - new artists, cure covers, endorsed by The Cure - for **MIND** mental health. All Joyzine affiliated events for **HOPE NOT HATE** - timely as we hurtle towards a centenary of nazi horrorism…

Yes 2023!!! Here We Go… Here We Go…

Inclusive Shows. Rock n Roll Hobbits welcome! The trail begins at 5pm on Saturday 19th August at The Old Library in the Music Rooms. A short walk from New Cross Gate station (or the 53, 453 buses stop outside) - day 1 of 2. Arrive from doors because there’s a secret garden so pretty that I’ve sat there in the rain, dreaming in the Planet Water dimension and mainly because it’s an all acclaimed trail…

Tickets: https://www.wegottickets.com/f/13192

To pick just one band from this weekend, deux furieuses are an inspiration of the newer wave rock movement, musical rhythmic dynamics who sing out for so many people’s reality.

Incidently, believe in magick.

A few days after they released punk furied anthem ‘Bring Down The Government’ (partly filmed at the National Covid Memorial Wall over the River Thames from the Palace of Westminster) things fell apart for Johnson, the second unelected tory “leader” since the bacon buggering baddy of 2010 also failed to get elected.

Thank you Ros n Vas, gonna believe that the album, 'Songs From Planet Earth' keeps casting spells of good into the ether. Deserves all the praise.

This image from The Fades ‘Lost My Job’ just leads on nicely from last Summer. If only we had one of those internet mapping programmes with all the names on this page… Extended community unity, innit.

It’s a full circle of Joy as Joyzine editor, Paul Maps, was one of the original New Cross scene instigators. There was a time (2003-2004) when the Lower East Side of London was internationally reknown. Bloc Party, Art Brut and more were in the extended mix of mates and Dexy of Pop Of The Tops instigators, Corporation:Blend, still lives this end of town. Bill Cummings, editor of God Is In The TV, made the journey from Wales and is part of these ongoing connections.

2004: THE NEW CROSS (Angular Recordings) was an NME Album Of The Year. 2023: The #20YearsOfJoy event happens just left of The Sear (a 5-10 mins walk from New Cross Gate Station or a couple of 53 or 453 bus stops along).

Pop Of The Tops nights spawned much fun as well as new bands, DJs, record labels, clubs, art, screenings a John Kennedy radio special and a beer mat. We still live for the moment. Quite a few of these artists are no strangers to the SELondon postcodes. Take Finn Kidd (Hatcham Social etc) who did the artwork at the top of the page.

Creativng futures while living for the now. Still. 2003: Bloc Party, Digital Sneakers, Joyzine’s Paul Madden, Special Needs and friends at Pop Of The Tops. The Paradise Bar is now The Royal Albert, again.

For twenty years, independent DIY multi media music world shapers, Joyzine and God Is In The TV have been future facing, using word, sound, video, events and a relationship with artists and promoters on that wavelength. It’s helped the second event of the trail, came together.

Grab one of the remaining £8 early bird tickets for this Club Fade/Joyzine event! https://www.wegottickets.com/event/586460

Joyzine, God Is In The TV and all interdependent platforms - are key to the up coming alternative artists, x grassroots venues exposure network.

While mainstream music still protesteth on behalf of new faves achieving widespread major moments rapidly, DIY seeds continue to recommend and share seeds that excite them. Some developing their sound, show line up, fan base etc for quite a few years. Both tortoise and hare are valid routes because it’s not a race but music needs all the help it can get when starting out.

Musicians are struggling when many of them could be giving so much more back to the future. Investing support and belief means we all win. Future festival fun will thank you.

20th Anniversary of God Is In The TV! Tickets via The Gate.

In the JoyGod mix of gateways to communities are the rebel godfather, R E P E A T (30 years old in 2024) in true generation tremorists style, they recommended/zoomed the uber sussed and respected Pint Sized Punk during lockdown (editor, Arlo, is nearly a teenager by now!).

Coming to mind, also are tipsters Loud Women, Kitmonsters (first Nova Twins - another DIY seed -interview included), Travellers Tunes, Listen With Monger, Louder Than War, Vanadian Avenue, Play It Loud, Get In Her Ears and the Fierce Panda Records mail outs.

This, in turn, leads to the amount of artists, audiovisual creators and techs/crew, live shows, festivals, independent record labels and organisations that we’re all part of. End Of The Trail Creative, Kick Out The Jams, Decolonise Fest, Cro Cro Land, This Feeling etc. All gateways. The collective anecdotes from the last five years alone, are not dull.

In 2018, music journalists Louise Schofield and Susan Hansen wove in. TheZineUK really dug the way they researched the artists to interview, despite the amount of cut-n-paste blogging of churnalism being a thing. Not for Joyzine or God Is In The TV though. It’s not just musicians that we recommend.

It’s perfectly imperfect i.e. not dull. All the above cross over with opinion, fave songs or shows. Sometimes we agree to disagree. Whatever, we’re mostly on the same sides: Arts and Artists. The fact that everybody has completely different operating systems and musical tastes keeps things eternally fresh.

Take another listen look at the artists who are part of these events. Universal Synchroni City! See future for further details of music passion.

It may not trend, but it doesn’t end.

There is so much more to being part of the Joyzine and God Is In The TV celebrations. If you’ve ever wondered how music fans enter the industry/media then go along to one of these gigs in support of the artists giving you a good time. Taking pix and clips? Doing a review? If you’re shy make flyers or take postcards with your contacts on for the promoters/artists.

If that all sounds a bit airy fairy, it’s no less so than the tapestry that weaves around the many zeenagers of this doc, itself with a Live Events Department (Rocklands) celebrating twenty years also in 2023.