Terminally Stupid fanzine (1984) presents "Diving With Your Boots On. 1985: The Year in Punk & Hardcore" photozine. Originally planned for release in 1986 as issue #6 , it is finally available on-line- FREE download from: http://melonvillehc.blogspot.ca/2013/09/terminally-stupid-6-photozine.html
Before I start, I'd like to mention a special dedication and thank you to Laurie Mercer who ran Col
lector's RPM Record store on Seymour in Vancouver and promoted most of the big punk shows that year.
1985 was a good year for Punk and Hardcore in Vancouver. There was something all-ages happening at the "New" York Theatre every few weeks, a regular Wednesday night punk rock gig at Gastown's John Barley's (23 W Cordova), and always a ruckus after-hours at Lux Bob's Warehouse in East Van by the old sugar refinery. There were many out of town bands touring though all year long, especially that summer. I had just started printing a crappy little photocopied fanzine, Terminally Stupid, in the summer of '84. It was the best way to learn about this relatively new thing called Hardcore by first interviewing all the local bands I could get phone numbers for, then the touring bands at their shows. I started taking pictures in the winter of '84 with an even crappier point-and-shoot 35mm camera. Luckily I had made friends with a fellow skater and punk kid named Dean Attridge who had been taking photos with a proper SLR camera and who had a darkroom set up in his basement. So B&W film it was, and we would print our own photos- a few choice 8x10s of the bands that Laurie had promoted for display in his store in exchange for access to the back-stage at the York. Between Dean and I, we had compiled photos from most of the bigger shows that year, and lots of others at Barley's, Lux Bob's and the Waterfront... (although I was still underage to get into places like the Waterfront, the Railway, and the Savoy, I didn't have a problem at John Barley's. Dennis the manager even used to let me keep my skateboard behind the bar, thanks!). Along with the zine I had put out a compilation cassette of then unreleased local hardcore and was working on another. I was also helping out on one of the few punk rock radio shows, 85 RPM, Wednesdays at midnight on CFRO co-op radio 102.7. Busy kid who was still finishing his last year of high school out in the suburbs. I skated over the Pattullo bridge many times in the wee hours of the morning (pre- Skytrain), making it home just in time to get ready for school. When the summer hit and school was out, I was spending much more time downtown and crashing on couches at the infamous "Plaza International" punk house in East Van after many late night gigs. Another special thanks goes out to the wonderfully generous folks who lived there- Tim Challenger, then of Death Sentence, Jill Torgersen, Alex Teare, Paul Bristlehead, and Gary Taylor to name a few- your generosity and community spirit will never be forgotten...
So with this fanzine network I had become part of (everybody was doing a zine back then it seemed), I put the word out that I was going to print a photozine. I started to get band photos from all over. There was a fair amount of stuff to be printed by now...
Then came life...
I moved into Vancouver the following spring, got a job and started playing in a band. No more photography at all the shows, we spent most of our free time rehearsing and playing gigs. By the summer of 1986, I simply didn't have the time to finish sorting it all, nor to do the old-school cut and paste gluestick layout. By the following spring, I handed it all off to a fellow zine editor, who was to finally get it printed. Kim Kinakin put out C.O.H. fanzine, and also ran Final Notice records (releasing the Mission of Christ/ Fratricide split 7") with Cory Yuzak from Dick For Brains fanzine. Ambitious bunch... but then life (and eventually Sparkmarker) got hold of Kim too...
Jump forward to the spring of 2013, and thanks to Facebook, who tells me he still has the originals for the the photozine? ...and asks me if I want them back? Thanks Kim!
28 years later, I figure it's time to get this stuff seen by people who were there at these gigs, and by the bands in the zine. I only wish my 17 yr old self had kept better notes on who the bands were, I had to guess on a few (luckily I got confirmation on them from the bands...thanks A.O.D. and Battalion of Saints). This goes ESPECIALLY for the photographer credits. Sorry in advance to those who are uncredited. Just drop me a message if any of these are your photos, and I'll add your name to it ASAP. The layouts were almost complete, but there were a few loose photos to organize and the zine as a whole had to be arranged somehow. After rearranging page order and trying to group the two "scene reports", there were still a few strays with no dates or credits. I figured a year long timeline would probably make the most sense- seeing as that's how I had kept the minimal notes. The pages I did reconstruct, I tried to keep the same look as the originals without stepping over the timeline- cut n paste gluestick style. The title "Diving With Your Boots On" was originally to be a poster collage made up of just that- stage divers over the year diving with their boots on...It seemed fitting at the time. But since this isn't being actually printed, I've just included these shots as full pages. I hope you all get even a fraction of the joy checking this out as I have in releasing this finally.
... And I hope your memories of these shows and the year 1985 are anywhere near as happy as mine...
Thanks again to Laurie Mercer at Collector's RPM, and to Al Campbell aka Mr. Ed Banger, another local promoter who would always tag his posters and flyers with a note to "step lively"...
And also thanks to James Cornell at Melonville Hardcore blogsite- http://melonvillehc.blogspot.ca/ for hosting the free higher resolution downloads (check out the great collection of old-school Vancouver bands demos and rare records here too)
Cheers... Dan Walters
