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.
This was the way we communicated before the advent of the Internet and social media. Slow, time-consuming, sometimes wearisome but effective.
Many of these flyers and posters could be really basic in design and layout whilst others could be veritable mini works of art. All, however, whatever the quality of them were meant to be throwaway. Ephemeral. To serve their one purpose then binned, which is what most people tended to do with them once the publicised event had passed. Very few people thought of saving them and those who did so, saved them essentially for the sake of it. Not for having an eye on one day them being collectible or of any possible future monetary value to anyone. They saved them without thinking and for no reason but saved them - thankfully - they did.
Co-edited by Greg Bull and Mickey 'Penguin', Not Just Bits Of Paper collates a wide selection of flyers, posters and handouts from the anarcho-punk era of the 1980s and for posterity lays them out and presents them in all their ragged, torn and tattered glory. As to be expected, Crass are heavily represented alongside The Mob, Flux Of Pink Indians, Antisect, Conflict, Poison Girls, Chumbawamba plus many more others.
A series of recollections, memories, imagined dreams perhaps from the collective memories of those who lived through the punk and anarcho-punk years. Tales recalled of times past and a glorious tribute to the bands and the crowds who made the early eighties so special for so many of us.
It has now been ten years since this book, Not Just Bits Of Paper was first published. The original 2015 edition of the book was 230 pages long, and was presented in black and white. This revised tenth year anniversary edition of the book, has an extra fifty pages of posters and flyers to view, along with three extra chapters to read, that's 280 pages, and the book is now presented in full colour, as it should be!
The contributors that have shared their recollections and memories were all there, in amongst that early eighties punk and anarcho-punk movement.
Greg Bull heard Sex Pistols as a twelve year old and liked the noise they made. He liked their energy. He liked their attitude. And he liked their dress-sense and their rejection of authority. He didn't really know or understand this at the time as he just felt these things without understanding them. He didn't become a punk then. Later in the early eighties Greg met up with like-minded individuals who turned him on to 'black and white' bands such as Crass, and he met and followed Antisect, going from gig to gig, and sometimes supporting that band with his band Sedition. He listened to a wide range of music though and avoided proper 'work' until the mid-nineties. Greg has also co-edited the books 'Tales From The Punkside', 'Some Of Us Scream' and 'And All Around Was Darkness' with Mike Dines.
In 1979, Mickey's pre-teen and early teen obsession was buying records, at first starting to buy records from bands that appeared on the Top of the Pops television programme. The Skids, Generation X, UK Subs, Stiff Little Fingers, the Clash etc, while also having a strong interest in the mod revival and 2-Tone bands. While his record collection was getting larger, more obscure band's records begun to be slipped into the box, bands like Chron Gen, Discharge, the Mob, Zounds, the Poison Girls and Crass etc. Listening to these records was a life changing moment for a bored schoolboy who was spending most of his energy avoiding schoolwork. The influence of those bands still resonate with Mickey today. The first major punk gig that Mickey witnessed was the UK Subs at the Stevenage Bowes Lyon House in October 1981 aged fourteen. During the latter months of 1985, while on the dole, Mickey started to help out at the All The Madmen record label / All The Madmen record mail order. Mickey helped out at All The Madmen for over two years until All The Madmen wound down during the early months of 1988. Mickey decided to start up his own record mail order business, King Penguin Distribution, initially sending his mail order catalogues to ex-All The Madmen mail order customers! During March 1989, and while still running King Penguin Distribution, John Loder from Southern Studios, offered Mickey a position working part time at Southern Studios / Southern Record Distribution. Mickey was offered full time employment at Southern Record Distribution some months later. Mickey remained in full time employment at Southern Record Distribution until November 2017. Mickey moderates several web based pages, and in 2007 helped start the Kill Your Pet Puppy punk and anarcho-punk blog with Tony Drayton, AKA Tony D, who had written and edited the legendary Kill Your Pet Puppy fanzine from 1979 until 1983, and during that time produced six issues of the fanzine.
