As my friend Vicky put it on the morning of the Clapton Zine Fair: today
we're going to the dentist, and we're not afraid! For Board of Fun and Stars
& Flowers had taken over a former dental practice premises for the purpose
of a weekend of zines, live music, poetry, and socialising. The little building
still has its bright yellow DENTIST sign on the shopfront, and I like that it
has been kept. The man behind it all (Phil) has bought the shop with the aim of
doing the place up and putting on gigs and artist events. So at the moment, the
place is a little ramshackle - but I like that too. In a world where so many
bars, cafes, and shops are so perfectly shiny and glassy and new, this place is
refreshing - besides, there is so much potential, and today my thought was: with
such a fantastically bright array of zines and handcrafted loveliness on show,
who really thinks about it today?
The day started with me getting myself dramatically lost alongside a huge
A-road going into Essex, and I feared being hideously late, but all worked out
in the end thanks to my friend Vicky-Anne Smith playing Challenge Anneka with
me. The Dentist is tucked away on a street alive with markets stalls,
independent little shops galore, and so much community. It felt really nice to
finally arrive on Chatsworth Road and take it all in - a sunny day too!
It was thanks to organisers Yo Sushi and Zoe Taylor that we were here. Yo
is a long-standing musician (acoustic/alt-country singer-songwriter), and visual
artist, and he had performed the evening before to makr the launch of his and
Matt Riviere's new music releases, plus to launch the zine weekend. Zoe had
found one of my perzines in Housmans radical book shop in King's Cross (go there
and marvel at zines and comics, or help fill the place with even more political
zines/comics, if you make them!), and had sent me an invite to have a zine
stall, which was really nice.
The Dentist is a very snug shop, but an amazing amount of zine and artists'
delights fitted in - with beautiful art prints, pen sketches, and colourful
collages pinned to walls, high and low, DIY t-shirts hanging in windows from
hangers, and zines of all stripes atop little square tables or on lowdown
platforms, all sorts of home-printed tapes and CDs, badges, cards, and assorted
visual goods, and everyone's positive presence filling the place. We were in our
own zine and art haven for an afternoon.
I had a browse and took photos of the various stalls. I will do my best to
recount the stalls. With a very tightly packed table of very brightly coloured
zines and cards, was Mark Pawson. Best card for me here was one that had an
image of bottles of booze and the legend: SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL OFF-LICENSE. Too
true! Here, I was happy to stumble across a zine about punk history
and psychogeography around Dalston (with an intro by no less than Mr Iain
Sinclair) called Splitting the Atom, as well as the zine Good Fuzzy Sounds. I
had read this zine at the Stuart Hall zine library, so was glad to be able to
buy my own copy. I have reviewed this zine separately, as it is an ace music
zine about guitar pedals.
Pete from Dead Trees and Dye was behind a stall, but not with his usual
perziney wares - this time it was with his Limner art critique magazine
project.
With gorgeously collaged art prints on sale, was Rosanna Thompson. We had a
good chat about feminism, and in particular about a theme in one of my zines
which is assumptions in society (basically woman = babymaker, and also how
renting = to be scorned whilst mortgages are some sort of ubiquitous
all-conquering ambition).
OOMK (One of My Kind) Zine were tabling next to us with artist Amy Lambert.
If you haven't yet seen it, OOMK is a visual art zine with feminist contributors
from diverse ethnic backgrounds. It's really professional, with colour
photography and in depth writing, and interesting themes each issue. Sofia, who
runs OOMK, also had her brilliant colour comic Talk to the Scarf on sale, which
satirises the assumptions people make about religious scarves/scarf wearers (my
favourites were: the little toy you can attach to your scarf as an accessory,
and hiding a pair of headphones underneath during lectures! It's a neat way of
helping stamp out prejudice).
Yo had ink prints pinned about the place, and his drawing zine on sale. I
like his style, and it's cute seeing Zoe featuring in his art/as a muse. He also
played excellent DJ throughout the day. I appreciated the diverse selection!
Ace music I recall being played: Pavement, Half Man Half Biscuit, The Flying
Lizards ('Money, that's what I want', classic 80s pop).
I was also really pleased that an Argentinian creative writer, Maria, from
our zine collective came along, and had made her first poetry zine that very
morning, bound it with pretty ribbon, especially for this event!
I must recount my thoroughly brilliant zine moment (possibly my best ever
zine moment), wherein somebody's elderly godmother, dressed in lavish jewellery
and cape, and very well-spoken, was standing next to a green-and-spiky-haired
punk dude, and they were both looking at my zines! I think such a vision sums up
the beauty and breadth of zines, really. I had a lovely chat with the godmother,
and she bought two of my perzines, and gave me some sweet, encouraging
words.
There was a guy who asked me if I made money from selling other people's
work on our table. When I told him I give everyone's earnings to them direct, he
was flabbergasted, couldn't get his head round how or why anyone could do that.
He was disappointed in my lack of enterprisement, and couldn't understand why I
would sell zines purely for the love of zines! Oh well! Just to round up, if
you're interested, I had on sale that day: A Night's Journey by my friend
Vicky-Ann Smith, and the zines Angry Violist, A Short Fanzine About Rocking,
Feeling Alone? (by Human Bean zines), poetry from the aforementioned
Argentinian, Maria, and some free zines that I'd printed up from the one
that Cath gave me from Swansea Feminist Network, as well as selling a selection
of my own from over the years.
At the end of the day, out came the homemade cake - by the trayful! Top
marks to the baker for her hard work and excellent range of cakes, including
chocolate with real raspberries, white cake with almonds, and bright blue iced
cake too. We had earned our cake and beer. A truly excellent afternoon, in a
great little shop. The Dentist are holding regular gigs, so head over some
time!
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This review was written by the lovely Fliss - thanks! All photographs are the author's own.
