CSBT (issue #?) YEAR: 1983 CREATED BY: James Nice, Ewan Burke and various contributors LOCATION: Edinburgh SIZE: A5 WHAT’S INSIDE…. The exact number of issues of CSBT fanzine that preceded this one is unclear….
A substantial chunk of the content is devoted to what James Nice refers to as "the usual Factory-ish rubbish" - an article about Dutch minimalists Minny Pops, a neat Durutti Column discography and a fascinating contribution by Crispy Ambulance vocalist Alan Hempsall, recalling his "day out with Joy Division" which occurred on 8th January 1980 - just months before the untimely death of Ian Curtis.
There's also an in depth article about Sheffield band In The Nursery, then only a couple of years old. Formed by twins Klive and Nigel Humberstone in 1981, they continued to release new music on a regular basis for the next four decades, despite languishing in relative obscurity.
Colin Newman gets a much briefer write up, consisting of "odds and sods" which were omitted from an interview with Newman that appeared in issue #7 of Blam! fanzine (which I wasn't sufficiently curious to send off for)….
Pages are also dedicated to jazz explorations and the work of artist Nanny Mulder, broadening the zine's scope beyond the post-punk mainstream.
Various contributors review recent releases (including New Order's groundbreaking 12" single "Confusion", which is dismissed as "so inane and mind numbingly boring that it has to be a joke"), a few zines, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival of 1983 and some gigs (most notably a lukewarm appraisal of the The Smiths' seventh ever live performance, supporting the The Fall at the Electric Ballroom in London).
Click on the title above to see scans of all the zine's pages….
my box of 1980s fanzines flickr
