Not Just Bits of Paper
Mickey Penguin visited All Ages Records and the Museum of Youth Culture recently, both in Camden, and both stocking his excellent Not Just Bits of Paper book, as do Freedom Press and Housemans book shop, also in London.
The Museum of Youth Culture held the 50th years of punk exhibition with visits from Mike Jones, Viv Goldman, various Slits and other punk-rockers. The MOYC have the NJBOP book in-store and on the webshop now:
This is the special tenth anniversary HARDBACK version of 'Not Just Bits Of Paper', with three extra chapters and over 50 extra pages.
Not Just Bits Of Paper is a portal into a world now diminished, a world where the importance of specific bits of paper cannot be overstated. Not that these bits of paper had any intrinsic purpose beyond the sole reason they were produced for - that being to advertise and publicise events - though paradoxically, without it ever being stated or even considered they also represented nothing less than a vision.
The bits of paper we're talking about here are the flyers and posters created to announce upcoming concerts of the more 'earthy' punk rock type prevalent throughout much of the 1980s. Black-and- white, made with scissors, glue, pens, Letraset and found images. Utilising the 'cut'n'paste' method rather than desk-top publishing, then photocopied, fly-posted, stuck up in record shops, given out by hand and sent out by post enclosed with fanzines and cassette tapes purchased from various mail- order lists.
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