If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you know all about soul fanzines and magazines. Over the years there have been hundreds of them and they’re still going strong despite the internet and everything which that entails. Soul fans, you see, are a peculiar breed. They have a passion for the music that few other genre fans have (maybe with the exception of heavy metal?) and many feel the need to commute that passion into the written word in an attempt to share the joys and pleasures that the music brings them.
You may also know that there is a thriving market in the buying and selling of back copies of rare fanzines and mags – some fetching more than rare vinyl records. Odd – but true. Like we said soul fans are a peculiar breed.
If you’re part of the fanzine/mag collecting brigade and /or indeed you need to know more, can we point you a splendid new book …. SOUL IN PRINT – A HISTORY OF SOUL FANZINES AND MAGAZINES. The book’s been lovingly and painstakingly put together by long-time soul fan IAIN McCARTNEY who admits that (like the fanzines he chronicles) writing the book was a labour of love.
Iain sensibly organizes the book chronologically and great detective that he is, he managed to track down many of the writers/editors and interviewed them. Their answers to his probing are interesting and revealing but almost all talk about the passion they have for the music. And that passion is evident in Iain’s writing too. It’s a remarkable and thorough piece of work enhanced with archive pics and cover scans of all the best fanzines and mags. Oddly, though Blues and Soul gets a mention (remember that that mag started as a fanzine, Home Of The Blues), there are no cover scans. It seems B&S’s new management wouldn’t allow it… says a lot about the passion they have (or don’t have) for the music.
Whatever, SOUL IN PRINT – A HISTORY OF SOUL FANZINES AND MAGAZINES is out now. We believe it’s available from WH Smith, Waterstones and Amazon and you can find out more @ www.newhavenpublishingltd.com
