We Brought our Friends

"We Brought our Friends"

Group shot outside Flapper and Firkin 1998 This was the publication that started it all! After years of low grade pub-rock in Birmingham a new breed of band crept out of the woodwork. Many had been languishing in obscurity for many years - what we all saw was the growth of a musical community, a group of musicians ready and willing to offer each other support slots, share contacts and generally help each other out. 1997 was the heyday of this "scene" and all the interviews I did were done between November 97 and April 98.

Broadcast were already in the studio recording their debut album. Plone, Novak, Avrocar and Magnetophone have all followed suit.

There have been some casualties; Novak have split, Avrocar and L'augmentation have undergone line-up changes and Steve has left Broadcast and since joined Pram and more recently Jameson.

The aim of this one-off magazine was to try and document those frantic days. It seemed to catch each band at a certain stage of their development, each with their own hopes and anxieties. Most of the magazine articles are included below together with contemporary pictures, some that were not in the magazine.

Feel free to include any of these articles in your own web-sites, just give me a credit. Why not snap up one of the last remaining copies of the magazine itself - a little out of date in places but still a great read!

Group shot inside Flapper and Firkin 1998 The Pictures taken at the Flapper & Firkin 3/5/98 after the interview with The Independant that never appeared. How many people can you name?
Here are the links to the articles