BEING NOSEY WITH ...
Martin Taylor
Hi Martin. Thankyou so much for taking the time to do this interview with me. I know your the bass guitarst of a band called The Fanzines. Your band brought a great track to the Bostin' Days album and you have had a lot of amazing shows like at Deerstock and at Bostin' Days Live.
Firstly, How did you get the name The Fanzines?
No bother! Thanks for the kind words about our Bostin track, folk seemed to like it. We loved recording and then playing it and the best bit for me personally was having Stevie Simpson play on it, what a wonderful guy.
Our first name was Colon Zamboni, don’t ask me what it means other than Zamboni was an Italian anarchist who attempted to assassinate Mussolini! It’s also the name of the machine that smooths out the ice at ice rinks. Danny, (singer dude), came up with it when we needed a name for our first gig, which was Gibfest in 2013. Quite how he came up with it I don’t know, probably best I don’t, his mind works in mysterious ways. Neil (drummer dude) joined in summer 2013 and was never a fan of the name. We did a few more gigs using the Zamboni name then after playing at Dan Booths Birthday Bash it got changed. Fanzines were DIY magazines put together by fans in the early days of punk, made at home and were really cheap and cheerful but they had interviews with the bands, record reviews, gig reviews of the well known punk bands but also the lesser known ones the press ignored. Neil proposed the name and in view of what we do it “represented” us better in that people associate fanzines with the punk era.
How did you get involved in the type of music you play with this band?
I grew up with it, I’m 52 and was 13 when punk kicked off in 1976. I missed the very early bits but really got into in 1977/78. Music in the main was pretty dull, there were a few exceptions, the glam rock stuff was great but in the main pretty dull. Punk was exciting, dangerous, all those things that are attractive to a teenager. Also it had some real political elements to it which spoke to me. I grew up in Heston, a small blot on the landscape midway between Southall and Hounslow. The area had a pretty big Asian community, it was a brilliant place to grow up, colourful, interesting, vibrant places. It did however attract a lot of far right morons, coming into to start trouble. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to beat someone up because of their skin colour. Rock Against Racism came about as a result of Eric Claptons “Enoch Powell” speech and they organised some amazing gigs, The Clash, X Ray Spex and Tom Robinson in Victoria Park in ’78, all the RAR gigs all over London that The Ruts, Stiff Little Fingers etc played at. It was a great time to be a teenager. Bit scary too when the National Front or the British Movement showed up and kicked off. I could go on for hours, maybe another time eh. Ooh, then came the British Ska revival.
How long have you guys been together as a band and how did you all meet?
With the current line up, 2 and half years. I first met Graham (guitar dude) when he answered an advert I had put on a musicians website. We then met Danny the same way. We rehearsed without a drummer for weeks, played along to an ipod! I asked a drummer mate of mine to help us out, I’d been in a band with him before. He rehearsed with us and did Gibfest at the Black Market venue then left as he was in 4 other bands at the time. Neil got in touch as a result of another advert and here we are now!
Has there been any challenges for you and the band, if so, how did you manage to get past them?
We’re not professionals in any sense of the word!, the guys have all got jobs and families and quite rightly these come first. We’ve done a couple of gigs with dep drummers. The first one with NO rehearsals at all. Despite all that Tim was great. We drove all the way to Nottingham to do the gig too! We had four rehearsals for the other gig and Aaron did a great job for us. Neil works in the film industry and was working away for those gigs. Other than that we’ve not come up against anything yet we can’t deal with whether it’s gear, the venue, the crowd (or lack of a crowd) whatever, we have always managed to crack on.
Live Music' is a very starved part of music, How would you get more people to get involved and get people to come and see live music more?
That’s a toughie. Culturally, things have changed. There’s no Top of the Pops, no The Tube, no Old Grey Whistle Test, a very tired old format Jools Holland show which just seems to have a rotation of his pals on these days, much like TFI Friday, MTV is a pale shadow of it’s former self. It’s very easy to blame Simon Cowell and his ilk, but I will! Those “talent” shows may well produce the odd person with some real longevity in their career, Will Young springs to mind. In the main they don’t last long. That in itself is indicative of how things have changed. People seem to have developed some strange values, they will go and pay £10 for a couple of cups of coffee and a bun in the chain coffee shops but tell them to save that tenner and pop along to their local music venue just to see whoever is playing and like you’ve asked them to crap into a tissue and eat it. They’d rather sit in front of the TV and cheer on the X Factor/ The Voice contestants of a night. I just don’t get it. I went to 3 or 4 gigs a week, there was so much going on. Then when you got home from the gigs, the Old Grey Whistle Test was on and you got to watch some great new bands (and some old shite too) I still go to as many as I can.
How do you break that mentality, I don’t know. Social media can play it’s part for sure and so can people. Support live music, buy tickets in advance where you can, buy some merch from the bands. It all helps to keep the bands going, performing and recording. Tell your friends and workmates about all the great bands you’ve seen, the great venues you’ve been to, the great festivals you’ve been to. Encourage them to come to a gig with you and keep real music going. It’s such an important part of our cultural heritage. The UK used to export the likes of The Clash, The Pistols, The Jam, Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Pink Floyd and so on. Now? Nothing that can hold a candle to any of these.
Small, good value festivals are on the increase and have a real important role I think. Especially if you can get the festival embedded into a local community and make it something they can be proud of. Venues are closing at a rate of knots which makes me very sad, some dubious activities going on around some of the closures for certain. It’s a really hard question and the simple answer is I don’t know. Maybe it’ll take some courageous TV programming and those talent shows will be replaced with “proper” music shows again.
Is there any major influences in the way you play?
I was very lucky, I grew up watching Jean Jacques Burnel, Paul Simonon, Ali McMordie, Algy Ward, Paul Gray, Bruce Foxton, Horace Panter, John Watson play. The King of Bass for me is Segs Jennings from the Ruts/Ruts DC. He can do it all, punk, reggae, dub, ska.
A lot of bands travel around to get a broader fan base. What is the furthest your bad has travelled to a gig/festival?
Warrrrrrrrrrrrrsop!
If your band only had five minutes left on earth to perform one song, Which song would you choose and why?
We’d spend 3 of those minutes arguing about which song, leaving us 2 so I guess it would have to be a Ramones songs, Rockaway Beach.
I know you perform a lot of great covers, which song is your favourite to perform and why?
Another toughie. It changes so often, sometimes it’ll be Neat Neat Neat or Shot by Both Sides as Grahams guitar work on those is amazing, other times it’ll be Homicide or Cambodia when Danny really lets rip and then other times it’ll be any of the ska songs, Neil is such a great ska drummer and a total joy to play bass with.
Who or what has been a big influence for you to keep performing?
Me lovely lady, Avril. No question. Av was the person who really encouraged me to get back into playing after 3 or 4 years of not being in a band. Also my dad. He was a teacher by day and a red hot trumpet player by night and although he didn’t like the music he always encouraged me to play. And have lessons. Which wasn’t very punk so I didn’t. BIG mistake on my part! I always remember how much he enjoyed playing gigs, he played right up until he had a stroke. He was 71! Always have him in my mind when we play. He was an amazing person and musician.
If something was to suddenly happen to you, how would you want people to remember you?
As someone who gave a shit about people. As Strummer once said, “without people, you’re nothing”
Lastly, Have you got any new material which you will be performing in future gigs?
There will be loads. We’ve got 6 new ones on the go at the moment. We’re doing an hour long ska set in April for a gig so we need about 10 more ska songs!!!! No pressure.!
You can catch The Fanzines on Facebook and Youtube. They are also playing at Deerstock this year... great little festival, you'd be stupid to miss it! They also played an another amazing little festie last year called Wistful, check that out too, they both have brilliant line ups this year!