Vlad at Kraykulla webzine has been reading Welly Artcore's excellent punk rock tour diary; 'Directions to the outskirts of town: Punk rock tour diaries from nineties North America' and really enjoying it. He has sent us this review...
"Earth Island Books continues to amaze us with all of their book releases. This time, I read this book by Welly Artcore, Welsh punk who played in bands for decades and released more than 40 issues of his fanzine called ‘Artcore’. What I always loved to read in fanzines was tour reports and gig/festival reports. This book is one huuuge tour report divided in two parts.
First part is when Welly joined legendary punk band Chaos UK on their American tour in 1994 and it was a blast to read, being a fan of this band and reading about all the road stories and succesfull and failed gigs, also about other scenes, venues and especially loved the part when Chaos UK and New Orleans sludge legends EyeHateGod toured together and it was chaotic but blast! Each gig, travel to each venue/town is divided into short chapters, so it was fun to read without too long chapters and this book did not get boring for one single second!
Second part of this book, second tour if you like is about Welly’s own Welsh hardcore punk band in which he sang, being Four Letter Word and their trials and tribulations across USA and Canada with their tour in 1998.
I don’t know which part of the book I liked better. Both are extremely interesting, especially Four Letter Word tour with story about now defunct legendary label BYO and Youth Brigade, 7Seconds and many other bands that shared stage with Four Letter Word on that tour."
"This is a great book, so I recommend it to every one who love to read fanzines, tour diaries and punk hardcore!"