Everytime I review this zine, I’m unfair. Unfair in that I highlight its deficiencies (as I see them) rather than highlight the positives. And here I go again. See, this is a good zine. This time you have interviews with Rollins, Green Day, Fat Mike, Stampin Ground and more. So we’re talking big stuff here. If that whets yer appetite, then ignore the rest of this, buy a copy and judge for yourself.

But it still gets stick from me. I dunno, it’s outdoing itself. It’s now a 4000 distro, which is huge. It has a CD with it (cool), it’s moved to A4 and is in colour. And there’s your problem. To accommodate all that requires serious money. To do that, the zine gets ads. And loads of them. Loads of “fashion” ads. Some dodgy ones too. Nothing wrong with ads as such, but they dominate the zine.

This time round, due to a last minute hitch, there’s no reviews section. I can understand the hitches and problems, cos sometimes it seems that everything goes wrong at once. But you should delay its release then. But maybe the advertisers are unhappy with that.

Some of the columns are a bit unreadable due to the colour (I can imagine it’s a bit of a problem and looks good on screen). And fair play, the guy behind it seems a bit pissed off at the flack he receives, as he says “mainly from zines.” I’m glad he’s fighting back on it and telling people like me to fuck off if that’s what he thinks.

But I just think it has to be scaled down a bit. There’s not enough there yet for it to be the fully fledged magazine that it wants to be, so it ends up feeling like an advert with a feature instead of the other way round. And despite protestations, it also still feels a bit “elitist”. But most, if not all scenes are like that. Which is why “scenes” are shit.

See, I feel bad saying stuff, cos any criticism I level could just as easily be levelled at Yaz. And a whole bunch more. Or maybe I’m just jealous of what is being achieved here. Who knows. And anyway, look how much space I’ve spent reviewing it. That should say something. It’s getting a reaction, which is what it’s about.

If you’re into punk, then I’d recommend you get this, and then ultimately, as with everything, make up your own mind on it.

Contact: PO Box 1152, Winterbourne, Bristol, BS36 2YD. £3