Mark Perry, was born in 1957 in London. In July 1976, inspired
by the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, he published the famed and legendary
first British punk fanzine Sniffin Glue...+ Other Rock 'n' Roll
Habits For Punks! and contributes, as loud and irreverent language
pipe of the London scene, to the punk explosion. In the first issue
Mark Perry encouraged his readers to form bands and do music. "London is great so let's go!" (Mark Perry in: Sniffin
Glue No. 1) Perry was working as a bank clerk at the time. The future didn't have anything install for him. So he was an ideal candidate for becoming a punk. The first record of the Ramones and seeing the Sex Pistols on stage changed his life. It was a turning point. In a record shop that also sold fanzines he couldn't find anything about the Ramones. Perry decided to start some kind of Ramones newsletter himself. The song Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue inspired him for the name and so the first British punk fanzine was born. He was encouraged and exited by the good reception of the first issue. It helped him to get in contact with a still small circle of punk protagonists. Mark Perry leaves his job at the bank and with the help of a handful of supporters he puts out eleven more issues of Sniffin'Glue in just one year (not including two specialissues). Sniffin' Glue was soon acclaimed "the nastiest, healthiest and funniest piece of press in the history of rock'n'roll habits". It was promoting the Do-It Yourself-Punk ethic and became the true chronicle of the early days of British punk rock. When its circulation rose to 1000 Mark Perry became one of the most important personalities on the scene, and was called "Punk Prophet". But he did not like the idea. A year later Perry decided to close Sniffin' Glue. He was dissaponted of the way punk was developing and was afraid to be absorbed into the mainstream rock journalism. "Looking through these 12 issues, they look good. They really do. Naive, they should be. I think they tell the story of punk from start to finish", he said looking back. For him, punk was already dead in 1977, it died from to much heat and was put to its grave by big business and mainstream. The end of Sniffin' Glue was also the beginning of a new era in Mark Perry's life. From now on his life was dedicated to music. He started the Step Forward Records label and the band Alternative TV. A free flexi disc of the band was given away with the last issue of Sniffin' Glue. The Step Forward Records label was part of a label collective called Faulty Products, founded by Miles Copeland. Mark Perry was also involved with the other labels, Deptford Fun City and Illegal Records. Releases included early records by the likes of The Fall, Sham 69, Chelsea and the Cortinas. Alternative TV where not just into reproducing worn out punk clichés. They liked to experiment with other musical styles. But when the second album Vibing Up Senile Man came out it was a disappointment for their fans. After playing as the Good Missionaries for a few gigs, the band broke up for the first time in late 1979. ATV reformed in 1981 and returned to a more classical punk sound and released an album on another Miles Copeland label. After Sniffin' Glue Mark Perry published And God Created Punk together with Erica Eichenberg, A Punk Life, an essay for the anthology Gobbing, Pogoing And Gratuious Bad Language and Sniffin Glue -The Essential Punk Accessory. |
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ALTERNATIVE TV IGOR BASIN MICHAEL "PANKOW" BOEHLKE BOONARAAAS! BOY FROM BRAZIL SEZGIN BOYNIK BUZZCOCKS CHEETAH CHROME CZD DEAN DIRG RONALD GALENZA HENRYK GERICKE THOMAS GROETZ DICK HEBDIGE ALFRED HILSBERG STEWART HOME SIEGFRIED KALUS THE KIDS THOMAS LAU MARLENE MARDER MALCOLM MCLAREN LEGS MCNEIL PADELUUN BERT PAPENFUSS MARK PERRY HARRY RAG ROCKET FROM THE TOMBS SEDLMEIR ANDY SHERNOFF MARTY THAU TOKYO SEX DESTRUCTION VIVA L'AMERICAN DEATH RAY MUSIC |
