OX Fanzine review Welly Artcore's punk rock tour diary 'Directions to the outskirts of town':
"Earth Island Books is an independent book publisher steeped in punk ethics and subculture, with a 'quality over quantity' motto. Their latest output is 'Directions To The Outskirts Of Town' by Cardiff born Welly Artcore who has been active in punk rock since the late 70's.
He designed numerous album covers on his own, as a result he studied graphic design, published his own fanzine Artcore, which has forty issues to date, and eventually co-founded UK punk band FOUR LETTER WORD, of which he became the lead singer. BYO Records released discs by the band and organized a tour of the US and Canada in 1998.
As early as 1984 the author toured the US for two months with CHAOS UK. In this book, Welly tells the stories of that time.
There are over 250 self-shot color photos to see, dozens of flyers and concert posters are also shown, the routes of the tours are traced on maps, all dates are printed. The stories, very detailed since Welly was writing a diary at the time, range from the amusing and outrageous to the absurdly funny and tragic. Just like life. If you have had these experiences yourself as an accompanist or a member of a band, a thousand memories are guaranteed to come up, because somehow life on tour, away from nightliners and hotels, is always the same: wild, exhausting, fulfilling, full of crashes and trouble with accompanied by the police.
Very entertaining, with attention to detail and a foreword by Kaos (CHAOS UK)".
The written review, in German, on their website is here: https://www.ox-fanzine.de/review/directions-to-the-outskirts-of-town-welly-artcore-126992
"I'd like to point out that the book itself is beautiful. The text is all printed in a style that looks lifted out of an underground zine. The tome is filled with lots of color photos. It would be worth having for the aesthetics alone, but that's certainly not the only allure here.
Welly Artcore wrote for one of those underground zines the book is meant to look like when, in 1994, he went on tour with the band Chaos U.K. It was a two month journey across the U.S. Four years later he embarked on a similar tour with his band Four Letter Word. That tour took him into Canada, too.
Not only did he make those journeys, he managed to write about them. This book is the result of those experiences and writing. It's gritty. It's real. It's also funny and entertaining. It's irreverent, and sometimes blistering in its portrayal of some of the other bands in the scene. The thing is, that's punk. The summary is that this is such a unique and intriguing book".
There's a short video review of Welly Artcore's punk rock tour diary 'Directions to the outskirts of town' by Gary Hill at Music Street Journal here: https://youtu.be/ysWXdA7CVTU
The written review on their website is here: http://www.musicstreetjournal.com/book_display.cfm?id=100075
