Cro Cro Land 2024

March 28, 2024 by Caffy St Luce

Cro Cro Land is already an event of the year for fans of rock, pop, electro, shoegaze, art and style presented on two stages at one location.

Once Upon Another Time

March 15, 2024 by Caffy St Luce

#ZeenagersExpo 01 Spring 2024

“Well done for keeping the spirit of rebellion alive” (Patrick Jones)

Swear to Mushrooms that this really happened. Follow the green cat.

7th March, Amersham Arms, New Cross (i.e. London’s Sarf x Sarf East!) rock n roll music, poetry, visuals, photography, technology (including audio recordings), Stage Style, creativity and DIY skillz all rolled into a live music social. We are blown away by the all-positive feedback for the evening!

Expo 01 Artists and Allies - links directory:

From Italian TV to a New Cross stage: Flesh Tetris

Find/support each other! Flesh Tetris, Thebigbadsad., Patrick Jones, Petra Palkovacsova of the Femmesocial Press community, Dizzy Spell, Ruby Blue, Ame Kali, Kat Five x Feral Five, SetMixer and TheZineUK, Kick Out The Jams (+ more!) Warm Welcome Blur Fairy, Sonja Amoretti! + #MusicTourism Team - Backstage Bar of Amersham Arms where TheZineUK was conceived! (Venue manager, Andy Palmer, is a star turn musician in his own right - as per The Britpop Show 12th March podcast) all mixing with The Outers, Lisa Knight of Knight PR (great film clips!), 122 Music Management and myself, Caffy St Luce of TheZineUK’s Events Department; Rocklands (Magic Hat by Toast The Goblin Laird). Photographers included Olly Bromidge (thank you to Jean Genie Hayes & Jonny Haze at ASBO magazine for connecting us) and James Lewis: “Excellent poetry performance from Petra Palkovacsova” (images of Flesh Tetris and Thebigbadsad. on FB) + The evening was soundtracked by a Newer Wave Rock n Roll spotify playlist EXPO NO.1 by Dizzy Spell. TikTok blip of TheBigBadSad and more from Zeenagers Expo to come…

We need to take our road show… on the ROAD! Where to, next?

“In amongst the joys of catching up with @artbeat.bsky.social amongst others, 2 quality acts played down The Amersham Arms last night TheBigBadSad, ‘gloom rock goth cowboys’ brought the noise, & then some, pushing their sonic mantra to the end Different, ear-catching, eye-catching.” (122MM - link)

Thank you to everyone who performed, bought a ticket and came out to play in person or spirit. We’re all ingredients of an exposition of the interdependent music sector - and whatever happens next.

#24ourPartyPeople

Whoever is WITH/for TheZineUK - YOU are all what the #ZeenagersExpo is about!

Further reading - origins

One of our Wizards knows. Yes, we have more than one in this tale…

14th March 2014 - Upload Chapter 1 of TheZineUK multi media tapestry. Situationist whimsy weaves waves that we could not make up.

14th March 2023 - Begin a year’s research into Music Tourism For The People at the British Music Embassy in Austin, Texas (the final real SXSW). End of year, TheZineUK returned to USA, this time L.A. Stage Style stories off the hook.

14th March 2024 - Despite the hostile environment dystopian decayed decade TheZineUK can prove that the alternative arts have created a newer wave of music industrious through uniqulture. Their actions and good souls have resulted in a Fertile Environment worthy of an exposition.

Click OUR STORY page for more but, basically, an Alternative Arts documentary living the skint life of the grassroots venue circuit community. It’s not been dull.

2014 to 2015:

An ideas factory-cum-DIY studio/rave warehouse etc., pop-up HQ ("The Ministry of Fluff and Dreams" run by Menace & McNaughty) rounded off with #No3Expo (42 stalls including a live music stage - The Homosexuals, Nova Twins, seeds of Birthmarks, Cat Bear, Lufe Tempo - and a bar!). It set the tone. #Zeenagers prologue 'Expo Beats' 2014/2015 (YouTube)

Punk scared Darwin! Photographer, **Rupert Hitchcox**, (now with our allies, **Joyzine)** had fiften minutes in dodgy light to capture early **RTN Makes Music** magnificence at the Natural History Museum. Impromptu ad libbing has continued ever since and this show became the front page of Picture Book chapter 001. In capitalist style, Issuu changed the visibility of our documents, as we’re skint, but we’ve managed to salvage much of the reporting. Enough for Expo slideshows!

Alongside the magick powered situationism and woodland folk heroes in this emerging tapestry, the likes of Cro Cro Land, CUP Soccer Six, Decolonise Fest, This Feeling, Music Venue Trust and LOUD WOMEN are only half a dozen of many prevailing threads.

**We ARE doing something new, Bruno Wizard!** Amidst the old boys networks, the privileges, the nepotism and cliques we are an open armed collective for all backgrounds to unite as Playing Class Friends. On this evening (12th February 2016, David Bowie homage charity show by Dizzy Spell at Amersham Arms HQ) **The Homosexuals** were supported by Little Death Machine (seeds of the incredible **Birthmarks**) and Featherz while upstairs, photographer **Duncan Stafford** held his first photography exhibition (Fat White Family, Sleaford Mods etc) in the Take Courage Gallery. When it came downstairs to the venue, Don Letts, Tim Burgess and various members of The Libertines would have the images as a back drop while upstairs became a **Laurie Vincent** (Soft Play) art exhibition - all this fun before fckn Brexit was illegally “won”.

TheZineUK. Officially repping (and therefore reporting) at festivals with either a stage, a logo or a co-promotion every single year from 2014 onwards (lockdown was Balcony On Line Festival) and promoting live music socials fuels the story, courtesy of kind artists/promoters access. In 2024 we are chuffed to be a media partner with #ItsAVanFest - the Austin Texas music festival (Teenage Sequence, The Hollows, more) where the super-sponser is Rock n Roll (We met behind the painted word, “magic”, in 2023)

**Birthmarks** band powered evening ‘Pulse 1’ - art gallery with live music (including **Deux Furieuses**). Like Birthmarks, artist, **Eugene Ankomah**, is a golden tapestry thread of big heart, pure talent and inspiring soul. Photographer, **Stefon Grant** has been exhibited, publicly… It’s ALL happening. Circles of (key scouting) life; ‘***One Pulse’*** video by Birthmarks. A cinematic happening of a band.

By 2017

there was a visible and voluble newer wave of music industrious. Audience powered arts, industry and media learning/exchanging biz, tech, journalism whatever skills as their interdependent collective rise in staggered unison, rather than all “pulling up the ladder" behind them. This is how we do it. YouTube Slideshow of our 2021 cast and crew - 2014 to 2017 snapshots: The #MusicPeopleParty begins

2018 - "where do you see yourself in five years?"

The question that no human could have answered. Then between the cast, cats and crew of TheZineUK and an unbelieving world if we are here today then we are all changed. WHAT a soundtrack we got in the Music People Party years.

That time (September 2018) when interdependent altrock promoter, **Kick Out The Jams** launched monthly events co promoted with TheZineUK, at The Good Mixer in Camden with **The Velvet Hands, Bugeye** and **Smiley & The Underclass**. Reportage: This image was *before* the first band’s set!

2019

The **#MusicPeopleParty** had, by now, become the welcomig end of year not-got-an-office party for artists, DJs, bloggers, creators and all the rock n rollers. This was December 2019, with This Feeling star, Nineties Mike on the decks and **Louise Schofield** as host. Feels innocent - we had no idea of six months time… (Camden Monarch, another live music venue lost…)

2020

Mirrored… **RTN Makes Music** x rock music movie, **Velvet Goldmine** x Genesis Cinema - our story suits cinemas! Weeks later, we were in lockdown, but boy did we dress up first!

2021

Breaking outta lockdown and back into gigs - the newer wave of music industrious are shaping new futures! **Anaiah M. Davis, Robyn Skinner, Jean Genie, Kat Five, Caffy St Luce** and **Sonja Amoretti** at **Kick Out The Jams,** Amersham Arms.

2022

This blur (I’m gonna call it “art”) is Benji from **Lock-In** at The Social in Fitzrovia for **This Feeling’**s Test Transmission 01. We all walked miles due to the rail strikes, war had just broken in Ukraine and there was impending doom in the nationwide air. For balance, we kept our doses of escapism coming. Lock-In would headline a sold out show at The Garage with This Feeling’s “Zone Airport” artist development runway campaigns in Spring 2023. This year, they step up to their biggest headline so far: Lafayette in Kings Cross.

2023

Key blogged conversations and events on PoC in guitar music and AI, rounded off with an Artful Party that included star turn multi-media artivist mavericks Bugeye (who were on tour as special guest of The Bluetones, and will play their biggest show to date, headlining Oslo Hackney on 4th May (tickets) after presenting 2024 with the incredible Cro Cro Land Festival mid April), Colossus (Fckn suPERB debut EP and get a load of the live presence in this #ArtfulFest video blip!), Joyzine, God Is In The TV and and and… these artivists are ALL connected and those conversations are ongoing.

2024

We’ve created. During the most historic era in human history (i..e. largely a binfire of bigoted bollocks)! We promote a punky rock n roll music world angle with diy glam chic, recorded from the reality of post brexit Britain Ireland.

Escapism not extremism. Love is NOT hate! We wanna have a good time, all the time!

Creator and Stage Style icon, **Adora,** at the sold out **ASBO Magazine x Bilk** EVENT, Rough Trade East

Today, Friday 15th March - the music festival conversations are TV’s Glastonbury and Austin’s SXSW. With the latter, ironically, the mainstream media have covered the bands that have dropped out more than the usual attention they give to the line up.

2024, a few days after International Women’s Day shows how the establishment treat Britain’s first Black Woman Politician. Imagine how far down the “food chain” we, The Outsiders Family, are. We’ll keep fighting the nutsies by sharing audiovisual hope. It’s the least we can do.

Sixth sense supernature powers the chapters of TheZineUK. The feedback is always appreciated.

Are you with us, Zeenagers?

https://linktr.ee/thezineuk

Nature’s Science of The Arts Life

February 07, 2024 by Caffy St Luce

Unpublished Events Department Archived notes from March 2023. It’s 8th February 2024, and I’m adding some images while proof reading, Events Department thoughts…

I’m writing this on the first weekend of March 2023, Women’s Month.

We’ve a long way to go, (hi, festival bookers!) but let’s keep going there.

Perfectly imperfect, the interdependent music industrious who drive this tale are, nevertheless, pro active in making the world a better place.

Lewisham had been London Borough of Culture in 2022, but Alternative Sounds, weren’t really a feature. No worries, Fox & Firkin is where loadsa top names are calling in. At time of writing (8th February), Bez from Happy Mondays is the DJ on Saturday night 10th February.

The artists, through music and performance, the audiences with support, word of mouth and reaction, media (DIY or mainstream) with the oxygene of publicity and allies like the grassroots, independent gig circuit and all who sail with it.

Despite this dystopian, physical/mental health-fighting era, Music, like air and water, still cares about social justice, environment and a future. We each have differing tastes and politics, but most appreciate the huge economic, educational and reputational potential of new music. We argue about loads but we don’t go to battle about it, on line or in a festival field.

Ah. Screenshots. The People’s Chronicles. January 2023.

At the end of 2022 TheZineUK doc focused on independent venues, Sheffield Leadmill, The Ferret in Preston and Manchester’s Night & Day Cafe in an article. This tapestry weaves formidable talents and their spaces.

In the first quarter of this year we’ve witnessed scary scenes like there’s a nazicentenary jigsaw to complete by the 1930s. Nah mate, sod that. No wonder Spiite-Wing politricks steals good music for their rallies (rebranded as “party conferences”).

The angels have all the best tunes, the devil just asks without taking.

This is literally how tory-types choose how to live next to a grassroots music venue just so that they can then complain about noise. There should be a law that forbids such bollocks. It’s an attack on our culture and heritage, let alone the social collusion of a local community in a nation that has had it’s Youth Centres culled, also, during these crooked years of misrule.

Music World Advances Humanity

Music is a sharing blueprint lifestyle of Nature’s scientific sequences. The human animal is made of music. The arts are our (r)Evolution boost as we adapt at the rate of the tech we can get up our local shops.

**Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Search For The Blue Note.** The short film by **Jean Genie Hayes & Jonny Hayes** was what flavoured Croydon as London Borough Of Culture, 2023 for me. The premiere was packed and hugely applauded. Jean Genie also sang while presenting with Jonny and if time travelled, they could have been S C=T’s parents! Big up Stanley Arts! **Documentary Information.**

Uni Verse translates as One Song. In conjunction with the celestial skies made of the same Nature as the living globe, is a consistent serendipity that lifts the Islands and Isles just off the European landmass. We need it, we’re literally jailed by a barbed wire fence of sewage. Yeah, you bet Musician, Feargal Sharkey is a leading figure in the fight to put things right, there, too!

Also known as leader of 1970s onwards Derry lifetime-legends, The Undertones, a band whose loved-by-rock music generations anthem, ‘Teenage Kicks’ sealed their music culture heritage by happy (phew!) accident. Bassist, Mickey Bradley, is a music world hero giving airplay to newer wave rock star potential on his BBC Radio show.

The 22nd Century Space Pop outfit, **Feral Five**, reshaped sounds and thoughts with their 2023 album ***‘Truth Is The New Gold’*** the multi-sensory launch gig (with special guest, **Ms Mohammed**) was a veritable ABBA discovery with a DIY-Hackney flavoured plot twist.

Small, independent venues have built the barely visible Irish British dots on the globe to centuries of international giant reputation and achievement. Some balance to the English colonial bollocks of a nation whose new generations are all for saying “sorry”, “thank you”, whatever but the fash fossils ain’t having it.

Between **#SaveTheFerret** + **Music Venue Trust’**s **#OwnOurVenues** campaign and the sparkling video ***‘Ray Of Hope (Ferret Forever)’*** by **Jean Genie’s Massive Hugs** (“What a song!” - **John Kennedy, Radio X),** is a symbiotic uniqulture blue printing the future Entertainments module.

Entertainment arts power has been especially potent from the second half of the 20th Century as media possibilities bloomed - and owes very much to working class power which is also where the most diversity (and therefore possibility) remains.

Grassroots music circuit is where the next industry is creating itself. Obviously. Heck, artist/journalist, Dizzy Spell (TheZineUK’s Editor) bio is Situationist Roma Activist and I don’t know if it’s a queer thing or not, but I (Caffy, Events) am a vintage Black rock chick with a long time career as a Love Pirate on a parallel dimension (Planet Water). Along with the cast, cats and crew (Zeenagers) our tales of the playing class prove what is seeding under the radar to be worth investing time, energy and cash into.

This happens annually. **This Feeling** is not only Britain Ireland’s No.1 live rock n roll music club it’s also a finishing school of future picks with many perks, a community audience who follow bands on tour, supporting the venues as well as the artists, a creative crew of writers, photographers and hosts/DJs and a cross breeding Zone with a stellar reputation. **thisfeeling.co.uk**

The Newer Wave Punx of Normal Island

Fast forward to all backgrounds fusing to create playing class friends, while music education and venues feel systematically shut down by design.

Some genuine cult classic songs or even bi-stage worthy live sets grace intimate safe spaces. Affordably. I feel like I’m stepping home to Planet Water from the Maximum Mad Max Mayhem of Planet Earth, when I walk through the doors of a small venue.

Zone Airport. February 2023, coolazfck rockers, **The Velvet Hands** sold out This Feeling at The Lexington, London (ably supported by Lion Machine 23 - wove into this tale, 2019) and Sasha Assad who became a golden thread that very night. Via headlining TF Stage at Truck Festival then selling out November headline tour they play their biggest London show to date on 26th April 2024 at Omeara, London Bridge. **Tickets:** **The Velvet Hands | (thisfeeling.co.uk)**

The fact that so many faces from our pages are surely living a reality that they could initially only dream of, is a beautiful thing. We mean it when TheZineUK states the #FertileEnvironment as a “despite everything” reality. Blue Meanies, tories, can stick their hostile environment up their austerity hole.

2023 started colourfully

#BigInThisFeeling: Our gigging year started at another iconic music tourism space - The Water Rats in Kings Cross - being thrilled by Alien Blaze, Alice SK, Colour TV (James Brookes from the Soccer Six crew was beside himself after their set), Darlings - and more at This Feeling’s Big In 2023 show. (I also loved hearing SHADE in the between sets club sounds).

The Zone travelling circus of rock n roll brings crowds to the circuit and increasingly sells out in advance. Like this evening did. In the crowd were Zone Rangers, Louise Schofield and Jean Genie, multi tasking music women who move and shake new pop worlds.

There’s always a mix of artists, industry and media in “The Zone” and various of the events that we regularly attend and document. “Something Must Grow” (Patrick Jones, TheZineUK original inspiration). What makes the newer wave work is the mutual recommending, staging and witnessing that is outside the boundaries of mainstream manufacture. If it doesn’t grab us, we can’t be arsed to pretend it does. If it does though, uniqulture has a healthy rivalry to keep most of us raising our game, but with respect.

February 2023, #FuturePicks - **Anna Wolf,** **KILL THE ICON!** and **Feral Five** all have an increasing presence in February 2024. Check out **Right Chord Music** here: https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/

Interdependent Circuit Of Recommending Promoters, too

This Feeling, Decolonise Fest, Kick Out The Jams even TheZineUK’s own music socials, where would our next shows be staged without the Music Venue Trust. Genuinely the closest that our dimension of civilisation has to a government that cares about it’s people and their necessary spaces.

Own Our Venues is a people powered initiative. The Independent Venue Community look after and unite the spectrum of local people. The Tonic Charity is one of the mental health charities looking after the music world.

I found Tonic via the Music Industry CUP Soccer Six (whose crew includes an environmental Professor, Mark Maslen) and has included Women’s Football for over two decades (ambassadors Rowetta, Abbie McCarthy, Louise Schofield, Megan Wyn, Katie Owen are Ents world sparklers, on and off the pitch!)

The name Love Music Hate Racism speaks for itself. Forget Westminster on the North West bank of the River Thames. South EAst London has a Ministry Of Sound where Music Venue Trust were originally based and the ace n awesome Featured Artists Coalition still reside.

That’s a short walk from the Temple Of Art And Magic where I ended February 2023, on the night of a "Hmmm, War?” kinda day catching Kosmic Troubadour and friends pulsing PEACE through music with songs like ‘I Believe In Love’. I arrived home humming “We can do it, we can save the world”. But actually, we CAN.

Follow all the above and below - a supernatural magick will manifest.

With a couple of actual wizards (Gavin Monaghan of Magic Garden Recording Studio - The Wizard of Wolvo - and wordsmith, punk legend Bruno Wizard) in our collaborative cast, cats and crew of creative charismas. Lisa Knight PR is one of the bewitching black cat owners of the music world (hi Molotov!) who, like ourselves, offer assistance affordably to help spread the word of emerging acts into ACTion.

Hi £-rich people, there’s enough official data from these and more organisations for worthy investment proposals. Who can help? Help sufficiently and break more than even. (see organic DIY growth reports). Also, Stop eroding and gate-keeping the potential pipeline! Please and thank you. Credit where credit’s due: Appreciation to the access angels.

Meanwhile, in the Temple Of Art and Magic… Love Month 2023

Add Nature’s Science to the arts for amplified public entertainment and we become united by a song, an individual or a group - often like a family extension. Fact - many of the people above meet each other on the future-making smallest venues biggest stories trail. It’s in our Sixth Sense of instinctive Nature.

The Force is strong via music.

Come with the MusicPeopleParty that is ALL happening!

TikTok Tales of January 2023 included at TheZineUK (@thezine.uk) | TikTok

14 March 2023 - Music Tourism Report Research began at the British Music Embassy in Texas

14 March 2024 - Music Tourist Board FOR THE PEOPLE is go! This is a situationist documentary, so no previews are currently available but it will be planned simultaneously as it unfolds.