Summery Summary
"They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds" *
Poet, novelist, music scholar and folklorist, Dinos Christianopoulos left the world in 2020.
This couplet resonates increasingly as a “Soon Army” of Earthlings respond to their instinctive sixth sense supernature. All humans are wrong sometimes, but many are compelled by empathy, to stand up against oppression. Within this world, many activists, creators and performers inspire our documenting.
Not quite buried, just under the radar of the mainstream
Mostly on the (threatened) circuit of grassroots music circuit and independent festivals, is this art-rocked tapestry of a punky DIY decade. In the wider world the last decade has seen fresh organisations stand up for people and planet in a spectrum of ways. The arts world included.
In our story, bands have come, changed, gone or remain. Myths and legends are made of this. Since 2014, friends and associations have been made, lost or retained in the circle of life which includes births and deaths. Our planet is a grave new world. Ever adapting, humans keep inventing new futures daily.
For “children of all ages” the fierce resistance to oppression that is expanding via youth self education, gives hope. Music soundtracks these times through it’s genres and generations. 2024 is a key to how the fertile environment works.
Tarquin Clark’s image from Comicon Manchester, (2015) feels even more relevant by the time of our surreal 2024 “reality” https://www.instagram.com/tarquinclark/
Artists of all backgrounds, levels and disciplines help save our souls and boost our spirits. To quote Queen “It’s A Kind Of Magic”. Yes, we share a decade’s worth of whimsical situationism but simultaneously these are all Earthlings who straddle the 21st century of Earth and parallel dimensions of their own making with fellow music fans.
“Politics is the entertainment division of the military complex”
(Frank Zappa)
The power of artists and their allies has already removed apartheid/war invested sponsors from artwashing their reputation and social media disgust even changed a BBC headline (July) to reflect the truth. Every day people CAN effect change and artists can experience what feels like magic beyond their wildest imaginings of even a few years ago. More than one fave from our pages bigged up by Elton John, playing huge supports and events, on awards red carpets. A decade ago WE were screaming, not dreaming, into the void.
February 2022 at The House Of Vans. Arxx and Lilith Ai enjoying Gen and the Degenerates. Now THERE’S a load of stories from newer wave’s rock n roll, especially post lockdown!
From (so many) future pick faves; Big Joanie, Arxx and Alt Blk Era as pop icons, Kneecap as movie stars alongside the enduring emergence of Bugeye, MOSES, The Velvet Hands and a variety show of interdependent music industrious as our allies to visions of Nova Twins, Bob Vylan and more on public billboard posters.
Couldn’t make up “The Punx Of Normal Island”!
A favourite recent thread is ArtfulFest (October 2023) thanking CroCroLand for tipping Maya Lakhani!
Fast forward to April 2024 where our live review of Cro Cro Land Festival included reporting that “her set felt like a rocking pop party”. This being one of interdependent music’s most wonderous weekends, there was a MOMENT when, thanks to BBC Introducing (sussed media in attendance), Maya found out that she had earned a slot at Glastonbury Festival! BBC TV news (also includes Arxx) at Maya’s TikTok.
A favourite magical journey… Image used with kind permission
Could we have originally imagined how the consistently achieving and connecting Featured Artists Coalition, Music Venue Trust, Peace and Justice would become the closest we have to a government?
We are only human. So we are also magical, the musical and musical the magical.
We live through this Orwellian, Dickensian, Dystopian, Kafkaesque Kleptocracy with our gas-lit minds just about holding it together. Most of the time. That’s a privileged positivity in itself. Now add an outstanding soundtrack to this horror comedy satire in which we are cast as unwilling extras.
A punky gate-crashing memory at a Google HQ “tech start up” event. Got TheZine name on a screen with some big brand, ate some (many) macaroons and, erm… we are real?
Weave in the lyrical prose and the enlightened energy of youth, resistance and the nurturing nature of the untelevised ®evolution. Add a sprinkling of empowerment rising and the bigger picture is still growing.
Yes to the rise of women representing beyond the glass ceiling. January 2024 Women In CTRL launch at PPL HQ of the
What A Time to…
A biggest picture emerges during the fash centenary’s jigsaw nearing completion during a climate emergency, pandemic and the biggest heist from the people to the establishment’s crumbling empire of a hostile environment. Come dancing with Kick Out The Jams and friends, for instance. Proper scouting outing it is.
“2018. Where do you see yourself in five years time?” - not one answer could have been correct. #2024ourPartyPeople - the story rolls on.
Believe in the musical magical of positive action fuelling a fertile environment that TheZineUK’s decade of documenting proves to work, regularly weaving in the interdependent music industrious.
A beloved artist who is part of this tale, giving encouragement from the heart. Proper treasure, Summer 2023.
Existing is exhausting in the first (now second) world alone but global genocide makes the working poor into a privileged people as we’re not (yet) being shot for sport. Woop!
Reality Check
We, the many, are simultaneously ignorable and disposable plebs (to the ignorant). We are, in fact the humane sanity that defines civilization. I dig small venues for this and made most friends in such spaces. Some absolutely gold hearts inspire. Good souls speak out where (and however) possible but there’s no uniform way to do so.
#TheZineUK first exposition was #No3Expo at The Ministry of Fluff And Dreams. 42 Stands including the bar and the stage. Images: Nova Twins and The Homosexuals, photograpraphed by Polstar (Polly Harvey) who - in the next image, is photographed by Rupert Hitchcox (now of our co-promoting allies, Joyzine). Also on the live music bill were trio, Cat Bear Tree (now duo Cat Bear. Bassist, Claudia Mansaray plays with rising newer order band, Lufe Tempo). Little Death Machine were the seeds of Kerrang! praised Birthmarks (and soundtracked TheZineUK prologue short, ‘Expo Beats’, exclusively. Eternal thanks to all who come on side with our imperfect visions.
For balance, this audiovisual tapestry weaves in song, dance, word, film, theatre, technology and politics with situationist tales unfolding good news. In short as (like all dinosaurs), the bigotaurus becomes extinct, we feel rock n roll seeds start to bloom.
TheZineUK documented memory from 2016 mixing Super Furry Animals and the word magic in one setting: The Magic Roundabout, East London.
Stay strong, friends. Despite our differing backgrounds, opinions and tastes, the fact that we don’t use weapons when we agree to disagree is part of seeding better futures. Hope is not lost.
Translated into English:
“what didn’t you do to bury me
but you forgot that I was a seed”