South East London Zine Fest!

Sadly it's yet another fun fest we can't make thanks to work commitments (booo!) but this is set to be awesome.

I Can Do Anything Good!

Shebang in Girl Gang Zine!

Girl Gang Zine #2 has arrived! And what a fine papery read she is. I have no idea how Maren and Kristina managed to get SO many well known women involved - the contents page reads like the best party ever: Grass Widow, Brilliant Colors, Super Wild Horses, Cassie from Vivian Girls, Electrelane, Marnie Stern, Tavi Gevinson (Style Rookie/ Rookie Mag), Karin from Fever Ray/The Knife, Kate Nash, Zola Jesus & others, all openly chatting about their music, art, feminism, love, life and all the rest of it, in an incredibly candid manner. For Shebang to be featured in the same issue as these ladies is quite mindblowing & a total honour.

The zine is as lovely as you'd expect from two such talented girls - all images are illustrated, with text a mixture of hand-written intro's and typed Q&A's. A few of the women featured are new to me (The Blow, signed to K Records, in particular), so I've got plenty to look up, as well as others to revisit. With a quote from Kathleen Hanna kicking everything off, it was always set to be a winning read.

The zine is available from the Girl Gang Zine site - get yours quick!

(Text taken from Liv's blog, dress up to mess up).

Round Up - Zine Fest at The Women's Library

We appear to have dropped off the face of the (virtual) world for a while.. Ooops. To try to make up of the lack of contact recently, here's a slightly late but better-than-never write-up of the recent Zine Fair at The Women's Library in London, which was one of the most enjoyable fests yet!

Taking place on Saturday 25th June, the event was the 4th Zine Fest to be held at the 'Library. Brilliantly organised by Red Chidgey, the day has many goings-on in store for zine fans, including comic making workshops (which Rushka attended - the fruits of her labour will be popping up soon!), survivor zine discussions, a feminist media and memory panel, tours of the library's archives, art installations, cross-stitch drop-ins and mask making! With the fair only lasting for 4 hours a lot was crammed in, and although we weren't able to sneak away for much of the programmed events we heard from friends that there were a lot of interesting, fun and thought-provoking activities and conversations.

The morning began with us doing as little directions prep as possible (living in London has made us a bit too cocky), meaning we lost about 45 minutes strolling in circles around The Women's Library like two lost loons. Thankfully, our adventure wasn't all in vain as we managed to pick up a sugary breakfast from Hummingbird Bakery to keep us going-

We had out stall inbetween the wonderful Reena from Nest and lovely Anna-Marie from Pamflet zine. The space was smaller than recent fairs we've stalled at, making it easier to get around to have a chat to the other zinesters and to catch up on what everyone's been up to.






A very special part of the day was when Erica from Girl Frenzy showed up with a suitcase of back issues of her legendery zine, and was kind enough to share them out between everyone! Girl Frenzy was one of the best known riot grrrl-inspired names in the 90s, so to get a chance to chat with Erica and to flick through copies was pretty exciting for zine nerds like us! We're hoping to sort out an interview with Erica for Shebang #4, so keep 'em peeled...

I always make a beeline for the feminist and music-related zines at the fairs, so this was the perfect opportunity to pick up EVEN MORE, just in time for my holiday... (holiday reading = best excuse)

The only trouble was that I went home and read them all from front-back straight away. Oh well. Luckily I also picked up the much lusted-after Doris anthology that I'd had my eye on for a looong time, which I hid in a suitcase so I wouldn't be tempted to read before setting off. I've written up a little review of it over on the dress up to mess up blog, so feel free to have a little read if you want to find out more.


BIG thanks again to Red for organising the day! For the full list of stallholders, click here.

xx

Shebang in Time Out!

Big thanks to Katie from Fat Quarter zine for her inclusion of Shebang in her Zine Scene article in this week's Time Out magazine! We're in very good company in the pic... x

ISSUE #3 IS FOR SALE WORLDWIDE!

Crack out the party poppers and cake - Shebang issue #3 has finally arrived!

After a successful launch party (BIG BIG thanks to all those who helped out and came along to the party - photos up soon!), the issue is now officially ready for sale worldwide in our online shop, which you can visit by clicking here. Unfortunately the price has gone up a little since the pre-orders (we have also only just noticed that Paypal have been helping themselves to 10% of all sales) but we can guarantee you'll get a lot of Shebang for your buck.

The issue includes:

Mixtape rec's from Brilliant Colors, Finally Punk, Comet Gain, Sharon Van Etten, Male Bonding, Micachu, La La Vasquez, Lovvers, Dent May & more, interviews with Quasi, Jeffrey Lewis, Eithne Farry, The Thermals, Hope Roth & Twingrrl Records, artist profiles on Tuesday Bassen and Audrey Malo, travel guides to Barcelona, Melbourne, Edinburgh & Breakfast In America, reviews of Dance Magic Dance, Preston Is My Paris Zine, Got A Girl Crush blog and Ponytail Zine, features about The Great Cake Escape and Charlot Webster's Mixtape Exchange, Lucian Freud Retrospective, Why I Love... Adam & Joe

You can have a peek at what's inside by visiting the Facebook page and browsing the photos.

Last week was busier than expected, so all orders and contributor copies are beginning to be sent out in batches from lunchtime today. Issue #1 is also nearly all gone, so if you want a copy, snap it up fast!

As always, thankyou thankyou thankyou so much for reading the zine and showing your support, we can't believe we've made it to our third issue, and have big plans for the future.

Lots of love,

Liv & Lynsey
xx

ONLINE SHOP

London Zine Symposium 2011

As well as Record Store Day taking place on Saturday, this weekend holds another celebration of all things independent, as this Sunday (17th April) sees zinesters flocking to The Rag Factory in Brick Lane for the annual London Zine Symposium.

The day brings together zines, small press, comics and radical writers to celebrate DIY and zine culture. There will be over 60 stalls plus workshops, talks and a radical history walk of the surrounding area, and a lot of cake.

We've had stalls at past events and have always had fun, and this year lots of our zine friends will be selling their wares, including Art Is Proof, Dear Soeurs, Fanzine Ynfytyn, Fat Quarter, Last Hours, Marching Stars Distro, Nest, Storm In A Teacup, Vampire Sushi, Zineswap & many more. We'll also be taking out Shebang issue #3 for the first time (and will be selling all issues at a discounted price) so please stop by and say hello!

The event opens at 11am and goes on 'til 6pm, and the Rag Factory is located just off Brick Lane (in the opposite direction to all of the vintage shops), at 16-18 Heneage Street. There's also an individual zine table for those who weren't able to get a stall (or only have one issue of their zine), contact edd(at)rnzine.co.uk for more details.

For more on the event, just CLICK.