Ugly Earth

Ugly Earth was a fanzine created in 1999 by me (Terry McGaughey) after a Karl Blake piece which used dialogue snippets of 'The Birds', 'Psychomania'and 'Alice' to illustrate the disintegration of a relationship. Not that the fanzine was dedicated to that topic, though it was intended to be conversational and informal, very much like a good relationship between friends. It was influenced by Lisa Crystal Carver's 'Rollerderby', the TakTakTak books and 'Hormone Frenzy', though literally it was physically supported by 2 people: Ruth 'Muffmonster' McCarthy and Mark 'Hormone Frenzy' Connorton. Ruth contributed her youthful earnestness, optimism and dirty humour, Mark his masculine rationality and sense of wit. Both also contributed hilarious cartoons (which I'll upload fairly soon) covering topics such as preferring cigarettes to women and observing nefarious goings-on at the public swimming pool. Everything else, including all of the interviews, were conducted by me, on the phone, over emails and in letters. I never saw myself as a writer, I'm too lazy, so a fanzine was the perfect medium. Most of my interviews took the form of Q&A's, since I only interviewed people I admired and it was better and more honest to let them speak for themselves. The questions were never lazy however, and every interviewee responded openly and articulately to questions that sometimes borderd on the impolite (see blog for excerpts). In the space of 16 months I somehow found I'd intervewed: Rickie Lee Jones, Chris & Cosey, Jane Siberry, David Grubbs, Cyclobe, Calexico, Susie Bright, Gary Lucas and on one fun occasion, my young niece and nephew. Anyway, I could never make myself into a writer, and Ugly Earth lasted 2 printed issues and 1 unfinished. Since I only ever made about 100 copies of each issue I decided to create this page as a repository of the best stuff, which I feel deserve another chance as they're great. I hope you enjoy what's here.Terence J McGaughey 17/10/06