PEPPERMINT IGUANA SEVEN

Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, I give you ……. Cue drum roll. We have a new issue of Peppermint Iguana Zine!

After several nights burning the candle at both ends we now have issue seven of the zine in our hands. We have a bit of partying to do this weekend, but as soon as we get back we will be looking to upload the contents onto the iguana website.

We will, as usual, be getting them out and about at festivals gigs and stuff and putting them in some local record shops. if you have difficulty getting hold of one, leave a comment and we will get back to you.

UPDATE: 29:06:09... zine available from All Ages Records in Camden, probably the best punk record shop in London

POWERSTEPPERS INTERVIEW

On a bit of a roll now. Have managed to get an edited version of the Powersteppers interview typed up and laid out in the zine. Looks like we might be on target to get the zine out before next weekend.

SONIC BOOM SIX

Had a day off today to do something, which ended up not happening, so have been cracking on with Iguana stuff. Managed to sort out the Sonic Boom Six interview that, again, has been sitting on the Dictaphone without being typed up for an outrageous amount of time.

Done now … or at least a zine version is… and it is a cracker, really pleased with it. Laying it out for the mag now, will get it on line once the paper version is in the bag

DICK LUCAS INTERVIEW

Gordon Bennett. Just finally finished transcribing an interview I did with Dick Lucas last year. It has taken me ages. Boy can he talk! Boy does he have a lot of things to talk about! The Stupid Humans, The Subhumans, Culture Shock, Citizen Fish, The Clutton Brothers, Bluurg Records…. He has been one busy bee!

The interview was intended for the book, but I am now going to filter it down to go in the zine, which will basically involve cutting about 4,000 words (yes, that’s 4,000). Here goes…..

while you wait, here is another interview with him that is NOTHING to do with us...

OK are OK!

Things have not quite gone to plan tonight, just about managed to get one review written up. However, it is a bit of a juicy album. Colin Powerstepper has kindly let us get our mits on a demo of a band that he is managing called OK.

They are pure 80s pop, in the style of The Smiths, Housemartins, Prefab Sprout, that kind of thing. Not normally what appears on the Iguana menu, but a tasty and refreshing change. We love it. The review can be found here.

And here be the video for the new single which is out today, available from i-tunes and all that malarkey

MOLARA INTERVIEW

Molara interview edited and laid out for the zine now. This was something I did quite a while back over the phone. Because I was making notes rather than taping it I had to write it up fairly quickly before I forgot what was said, but only now have I got it laid out in the zine.

An extended version of this interview, combined with an interview with Colin Powerstepper, will probably make up a fairly substantial chapter in the book when it eventually comes together.

KILNABOY INTERVIEW

Well, progress is a bit slower than we would have liked, but we now have a version of an interview conducted with Cardiff’s very own Kilnaboy typed up and laid out. It was conducted in a very noisy pub in Cardiff on 23rd May, after the Cardiff Anarchist Bookfair, and before a benefit gig for the same.

Its not word for word, cos I could not make out half of what was said, but I am sure they were too pissed to argue with any of my quotes. Will put a version on line as soon as I have the zine sorted.

ZINE TIME

Taking photographs of railway stations at sunset. One of many things I have been doing when not getting on with the zine

Its that time of year, festivals are around the corner and I ought to be thinking about another zine. Given that I have settled on producing one zine a year, you would think it would be a simple task. I have a knack of making the simplest of things difficult though. I spend a year conducting interviews, accumulating CDS to review and reading books but I still end up rushing the zine together at the last minute. Every year I think to myself, “I will write things as and when they happen so next year it will only take ten minutes”, but it never happens.

This year, things have been complicated by the fact that I have started writing a book on the DIY music scene. The interviews have been much more detailed, and I have been collecting anecdotes from the past, jotting down memories from bye gone years as and when they return to my addled brain. My ‘other’ life (work) has been pretty complicated to say the least, with lots of travelling and long hours. Oh, and I have travelled the length and breadth of the country watching the famous Cardiff City FC.

All excuses really, it is not as if I have not had the time to sit down and knock out a few CD reviews, it is just my brain has been elsewhere. I suppose this is down to me being born in the year of the Water Tiger (any old excuse).

So, time to knock out a zine in double quick time ready for the festival season … which makes my decision to resurrect this blog all the more strange, but I am back. Hold tight, here we go!

NEW PEPPERMINT IGUANA ZINE OUT

Taking a hard earned rest after countless late nights working on the zine

Bloody hell, loads happening but no blogging goin’ on! That’s because recent weeks have seen us in a mad rush to get another issue of the zine out. We give ourselves a year to put out an issue but it always ends up one mad rush as we approach festival time. Well folks, we can now officially announce that the latest issue of Peppermint Iguana the Zine is out now!

It contains recent highlights from this ‘ere website, plus loads of new stuff. Recent weeks have been a bit hectic getting it together and we have not had time to upload stuff to the website, so that process will start shortly. We are out and about at festivals for the next few weeks, so we will get onto it when we dry out.

There is an interview with Nik Turner finally written up to go along with The Tofu Love Frogs, Inner terrestrials, Ozric tentacles, and The Don Bradmans; plus articles on F.I.T. Watch (no, not like bay watch, it stands for Forward intelligence Team), aliens over Wales, 9/11 conspiracy theories and a shed load of reviews of CDs and books that have we have been too slack to do in recent months. In the mean time, keep an eye out for us at festivals and get ya copy while it’s hot. If you want to buy a copy mail order, send us a message innit.