About Me
Re-launch Issue
Volume 2 Issue 2
Volume 2 Issue 3
Volume 2 Issue 4
**** NEWS FLASH ****
Shindig! is back! Bigger! Better! Sexier! More exciting! Shindig! is back! Shindig! is back! Hurrah! Now with Volcano Publishing behind us we won't be wasting time trying to sell the mag ourselves and getting ripped off by distributors ... and ermm being pissed off when we should be really loving some bloody great music. I must be blunt, Shindig! had become more of a nightmare than a pleasure, but now that's all changed! Without fussing around and losing our minds my right hand man Andy Morten and I can edit this wonderful magazine whilst our Volcano saviours deal with the business. So with no further ado let's tell you exactly what's happening... and what will hopefully continue to happen, happen, happen...
Wanna buy the magazine now? Wanna miss out on having to search the web or walk to your local record shop or newsagent? Well, we have just the thing. At The Shindig Shop you can subscribe to Shindig! directly. That's right, you can finally subscribe me hearties and never miss out! In doing this we have cut corners and will save you so much in shop price mark up! In the UK, for instance, a yearly sub for the SIX issues will cost only £23! Yes £23! And what will it get you? A perfect bound, glossy magazine that is full of interviews, features, unseen pictures, columns and reviews! Basically everything you loved about Shindig! of old, but bigger and better! And yes, the beloved reviews are back.
It's an exciting, and somewhat nerve wracking, time for us, but we hope that our new found profile will reach out to new readers, turning them onto music they knew little about! How long have serious rock and roll and pop fans of a certain vintage had to put up with constant recycling of The Fabs, Dylan, Stones and Zep? Too long! Shindig! loves the big bands too but we feel that they have been spoken about enough, for too long.
When was the last time you read and in-depth interview with MOBY GRAPE (told in three exhilarating parts), BLOSSOM TOES , GARY WALKER & THE RAIN, THE SONICS, GONN, THE DUKES OF THE STRATOSPHEAR, BLUE ASH, BUFFALO or THE WEST COAST POP ART EXPERIMENTAL BAND? Could that be.... NEVER? Recent research has shown that Shindig! IS the magazine that vinyl hounds, CD reissue fanatics and culture vultures swoop upon. We are their magazine... and yours too. Our doors are open so please come in and play.
THE ALL ENCOMPASSING RAGS TO RICHES TALE OF SHINDIG!
What is now Shindig! hasn't always been so... Back in 1993 Jon 'Mojo' Mills, the magazine's editor, was living in the small village of Landford - on the edge of the New Forest, 10 miles south of Salisbury, Wiltshire - playing guitar and singing with garage band The Nuthins. Through touring the breadth and length of Europe he discovered an international network of bands and labels that were dedicated to the '60s garage phenomenon. After reading American publications like Ugly Things and Cryptic Times and the roughly photocopied Italian fanzines Misty Lane and Born Loser, he thought to himself, "I'm gonna do that."
Things weren't so easy though. He had no experience of writing and had absolutely no idea of how to layout a magazine! Getting a PC would be a good idea, but how would he be able to afford one? He worked long hours in all manner of boring jobs and six months later had, surprisingly, accumulated enough money to buy a brand new machine. Meanwhile, letters were sent to various obscure garage bands and some major heroes, ranging from The Tell Tale Hearts, Distortion/Moulty Records and even '60s freakbeat legends, Les Fleur De Lys. Amazingly, all replied, and even supplied photos and records...this was GREAT!
All those years ago, PCs were much more expensive than today - and more for business than pleasure. Diskovery Systems of Salisbury supplied him with a then state-of-the-art 486 machine with four megabytes of RAM. Not even enough power to surf the web nowadays... but then it was a monster! Loaded with a basic DTP package Jon set about learning how to use it. Through trial and error he eventually got there. The interviews were completed... all he had to do was type them up, lay out the pages and review the records... However, due to eagerness and zero PC experience the work was lost about ten times due to the PC crashing and forgetting to back it up! Doh! But determination ruled, and he didn't give up!
Featuring Canadian comic artist Darren Merinuk, Mike Stax, Les Fleur De Lys, live music scene at London's Wild Western Rooms, The Mystreated and much more, the 60-page issue was complete. Inspired by the spooky B-movie themes that many garage bands of the time liked to feature in their songs, the name Gravedigger was chosen. Darren Merinuk drew a great cover, and BAM!, what seemed like a magazine was now ready to print. But hold on... How was the bloody thing going to be financed? That most important of factors had been completely overlooked! The £700 quoted by a local printer in Salisbury was totally unexpected! This could be the nail in the coffin! After buying the PC Jon had no cash left! He'd also forgotten about trying to get some advertising to help with the costs. There was no money.... Gravedigger had dug its own grave!
A few months later the bassist in The Nuthins, Carol, managed to sneak out 100 or so copies using the photocopier at work. The project was saved! Hooray! The rough-around-the-edges look of this photocopied 'n' stapled job was a start at least. Slim Chance's Wild Western Rooms in North London, where The Nuthins regularly played, was the obvious marketplace - and all of the copies sold. One copy was bought by a chap called Paul, of whom more later...
Things progressed with The Nuthins, Jon met more 'scenesters' and decided to start on the second issue - Son Of Gravedigger. There were so many bands fitting in with this garage scene - some more punky, others surf orientated and the rest of a more purist '60s persuasion - subject matter was plentiful. That second issue was ready to be printed in 1994 (the year before Jon left for university) but still he'd not figured out how to cover the printing costs. Fortunately, a one-time Bucketful Of Brains contributor contacted Jon about Gravedigger issue 1, offered to write for issue 2 - and ended up paying for it! He donated enough money to print 250 copies.
Jon then left the country and moved to London to study. He took the box of Son Of Gravedigger with him - and very quickly sold them around the Big Smoke's record stores... London was teeming with '60s music and clubs! What a place for Gravedigger to be situated! More and more great '60s comps were being issued and the labels were now treating Jon as a "proper" editor - and sending vast amounts of promos. The black-clad, pointy-booted, mop top '80s/90s garage bands seemed rather naffv all of a sudden! They just weren't so appealing any more and somehow seemed at odds with Jon's new vision. The editor wanted to change direction - a new philosophy, a more professional outlook and more of a focus on the '60s originators. With a change of name to Shindig! - and an ever-increasing team of people willing to help out - this magazine looked set to really take off.
By now Jon had renewed his relationship with "the chap called Paul" whom he used to see at gigs. Paul (who was later to become organizer and DJ at The Dirty Water Club) was a designer by trade and had offered to lend his skills to help improve Gravedigger. With the change to Shindig! Jon felt he needed to trust a real professional to design his vision! Along with Paul came even more contributors - Lenny Helsing from The Thanes, Josh Collins of The Frat Shack, Ben Olins, then writer for national newspaper The Guardian and a major garage music hound to boot, and a whole host of knowledgeable people who would take the fanzine closer to a REAL magazine.
For issue 5 one-time Bucketful Of Brains contributor, Phil Suggitt, and musician and pop-psych fan Andy Morten took on major roles as Assistant contributing Editors. Its huge Move interview (a perfect follow up to issue 4's gigantic John's Children interview) and full colour cover also helped pave Shindig!'s way to becoming a somewhat regarded and a much more widely read magazine.
Issue 6 spilt lots of ink on one of the mag's fave bands, The SRC, and issue 7 went to town on UK pop lords Grapefruit. However money was as low as ever and time was increasingly harder to find, especially when Jon and Andy became dads. It seriously looked like issue 7 may be the last and the website, with it's much read monthly reviews, would take over. And so it seemed... until by chance Jon hooked up with Volcano publishing, who at the time were publishing indie bible Artrocker/. Volcano showed so much interest in Shindig! that a contract was quickly drawn up for it to become a widely distributed professional magazine! A more organised and seriously run venture, but with the exact same eclectic collection of cool bands and columns, not to forget the highly cherished review section.
Now published every two months Shindig! has become even better looking, bigger, cooler and printed in full colour. New writers include Pat Long (who was the associate editor of the NME), Johnny Black (a well known UK journalist who along with having been the Head Of Press for Polydor records has written for everyone from Smash Hits and Mojo to The Times and Radio Times) and Jeff Penczak (a major psych fan from the States). We even have the cult artist Pete Fowler on board! And to prevent Jon from going completely insane from all of the mind-melting work Andy has become the Associate Editor as well as designer (after taking the magazine to a new level PJ has taken on more of a consultancy role) whilst Phil is still ever present helping out with proofing and supplying reviews and features. Shindig! is bi-monthly, sold in all manner of shops across the world from large British and American chain stores WH Smiths and Barnes & Noble to friendly record shops like Raves From The Grave Records in Frome, Somerset (a sleepy little town in the wilds of the English west country), to Red Eye Records, Sydney, Australia and Groovie Records, Lisbon, Portugal... not forgetting Mr Shah's tiny newsagent in Highbury Corner, Islington, London.... for more info please visit. Shindig .
