Thank you for taking the time to stop by and take a look at this site.
My name is Jill Webb and back in the early 80s I decided to put together my own fanzine, which I named Kindred Spirit.
Just over a year ago whilst I was having one of my wanders down memory lane online I stumbled across a site called Hull Music Archive. The site has been put together to tie in with Hull being the City of Culture in 2017 and it is a gold mine of information. And it was whilst I was digging my way through this little treasure trove that I was both surprised and pleased when I found a reference to Kindred Spirit.
This got me thinking that perhaps I too should contribute something in my own small way to the whole City of Culture thing ... hence the reason for this website.
The idea of creating my own fanzine started germinating back in the summer of 1983. The original aim behind it was to provide an outlet for budding poets like I considered myself to be at that time (debatable!!) I remember starting the ball rolling by placing a classified ad in the NME briefly explaining what I was trying to do and asking for like minded people to send me their poetry for possible inclusion in the fanzine.
Everything was done via snail mail in those days and I am not exaggerating when I say I was inundated with letters containing pieces of poetry dropping through my letterbox over the weeks that followed. I was amazed and a little overwhelmed by the response, but immediately set to work reading through each and every one of the poems sent to me before picking out the ones that I liked the best.
Once I’d decided what was going to be included I started burning the midnight oil putting together the first edition of Kindred Spirit, using my portable typewriter - with a good supply of Tipp-Ex at the ready. All the artwork was done by hand.
I had almost got the first issue ready to go to print when I heard of an upcoming local music event called “Sounds 83” which was due to be held in the grounds of a stately home 10 miles outside of Hull called Burton Constable Hall. And it was whilst stood there in the audience that I decided to dig in my bag for a pen and a scrap of paper so I could jot down some notes about what was going on in front of me. As soon as I got home I wrote my own review of the whole thing.
The following week I went along to watch a Killing Joke gig at the Spring Street Theatre in Hull (the site of the former Hull Truck Theatre) where I got the urge to write another review. That’s when I decided that perhaps if I interspersed the poetry with band/gig reviews and interviews it would invariably broaden the appeal of Kindred Spirit to a wider audience.
Things kind of evolved from that point on and I went on to publish four issues of Kindred Spirit, until life got in the way and I had to stop.
Over the coming months I will be publishing a selection of band reviews and poetry and all of the amateurish interviews me and my trusty band of friends somehow or the other managed to talk our way into doing with bands of all genres. Some you may have heard of and some you may not. They will all be included.
If you or anyone you know were part of a band who we reviewed or interviewed back in the day, or were involved in any way it would be great to hear from you.
You can follow me on Twitter for updates.
Follow @jillwebb2005
My name is Jill Webb and back in the early 80s I decided to put together my own fanzine, which I named Kindred Spirit.
Just over a year ago whilst I was having one of my wanders down memory lane online I stumbled across a site called Hull Music Archive. The site has been put together to tie in with Hull being the City of Culture in 2017 and it is a gold mine of information. And it was whilst I was digging my way through this little treasure trove that I was both surprised and pleased when I found a reference to Kindred Spirit.This got me thinking that perhaps I too should contribute something in my own small way to the whole City of Culture thing ... hence the reason for this website.
The idea of creating my own fanzine started germinating back in the summer of 1983. The original aim behind it was to provide an outlet for budding poets like I considered myself to be at that time (debatable!!) I remember starting the ball rolling by placing a classified ad in the NME briefly explaining what I was trying to do and asking for like minded people to send me their poetry for possible inclusion in the fanzine. Everything was done via snail mail in those days and I am not exaggerating when I say I was inundated with letters containing pieces of poetry dropping through my letterbox over the weeks that followed. I was amazed and a little overwhelmed by the response, but immediately set to work reading through each and every one of the poems sent to me before picking out the ones that I liked the best.
Once I’d decided what was going to be included I started burning the midnight oil putting together the first edition of Kindred Spirit, using my portable typewriter - with a good supply of Tipp-Ex at the ready. All the artwork was done by hand.I had almost got the first issue ready to go to print when I heard of an upcoming local music event called “Sounds 83” which was due to be held in the grounds of a stately home 10 miles outside of Hull called Burton Constable Hall. And it was whilst stood there in the audience that I decided to dig in my bag for a pen and a scrap of paper so I could jot down some notes about what was going on in front of me. As soon as I got home I wrote my own review of the whole thing.
The following week I went along to watch a Killing Joke gig at the Spring Street Theatre in Hull (the site of the former Hull Truck Theatre) where I got the urge to write another review. That’s when I decided that perhaps if I interspersed the poetry with band/gig reviews and interviews it would invariably broaden the appeal of Kindred Spirit to a wider audience.Things kind of evolved from that point on and I went on to publish four issues of Kindred Spirit, until life got in the way and I had to stop.
Over the coming months I will be publishing a selection of band reviews and poetry and all of the amateurish interviews me and my trusty band of friends somehow or the other managed to talk our way into doing with bands of all genres. Some you may have heard of and some you may not. They will all be included.
If you or anyone you know were part of a band who we reviewed or interviewed back in the day, or were involved in any way it would be great to hear from you.
You can follow me on Twitter for updates.
Good to see this again Jill!
ReplyDelete