The Shrieking Violet is 4 — August bank holiday zine launch with music!

The Shrieking Violet zine entered its fourth year at the start of August. This would have coincided with a new issue was it not for a slight hiccup with procuring a cover design! I offer the multi-talented musician and illustrator Dominic Oliver infinite gratitude for stepping in at the last minute and creating this issue's cover image (hear his latest rock 'n' roll supergroup, Fruit Tones, in action at Wahlbar in Fallowfield this Friday!). It seems particularly appropriate as Dom designed the cover for the first two issues of the Shrieking Violet, as well as illustrating the special Shrieking Violet guide to Sounds from the Other City in summer 2010 and contributing various other illustrations over the years. His designs never fail to surprise and delight me.

Read issue 21 online here:


Pick up paper copies at a garden gig in Chorlton on Sunday August 25, which will handily double as a zine launch featuring the best of Bristol's alt-folk scene. Issue 21 contributor Roxy Brennan will make an appearance as Two White Cranes, alongside fellow Bristolians the Nervy Betters and Welsh/Manc weird rocker Llion Swyd. For more information, including times, and contact details for obtaining the exact address, visit http://clockflavour.tumblr.com.

Due to the time and effort involved in photocopying, folding and stapling zines, not to mention the ever-deteriorating quality of copies coming off the machines and a recent price rise from 2p per sheet to 3p per sheet, this issue will be printed with nice, environmentally friendly paper and ink by marc the printers at not much extra cost. Copies are currently on sale for £2 in Piccadilly Records on Oldham Street and in the bookshop at the Cornerhouse on Oxford Street, or at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford (no price, why not make a donation to the Library). Alternatively, download and print your own copy here.

Read issue 21 in Salford Zine Library (currently housed in Nexus Art Cafe, Dale Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester).

In issue 21:

Adrian Slatcher wonders whether memory is being outsourced in our information age and what the consequences of this might be for our self-belief and creativity. Adrian has poetry and fiction in the Rialto, Sculpted: Poetry of the North West and Unthology 4. He blogs at artoffiction.blogspot.com and makes electronic music as Bonbon Experiment.

Roxy Brennan muses about the theme of nature in the sculpture and writing of poet and artist Ian Hamilton Finlay. Roxy is a writer and musician based in Bristol but mostly she works in an art gallery, telling children not to touch things. She is largely interested in Bruce Springsteen and David Foster Wallace, but is discovering that contemporary art is pretty wild too.

Marcus Barnett delves into the story of Maurice 'two guns' Cohen and how he came to his final resting place in Blackley Cemetery. Marcus is twenty-two, graduated from Manchester University with a confusing and ambiguous Combined Studies Department degree in 2012, and holds a certificate in being able to speak a competent Yiddish from Tel Aviv University from a semester there. Since that he has been working in busy kitchens, quiet cafes and the Working Class Movement Library. His main 'things' are post-punk, modernist things (primarily: communism, buildings, progress), reading, and good food, probably in that order.

The Shrieking Violet presents a selection of small images of Manchester life by photographer Joincey. Joincey has a virtually untraceable output of pseudo/anti-music and noise-related sound art/skronk going back twenty years and, as well as playing alone and with other people in bands/groups/combos/projects as Saboteuse, Remedial Queen of England, Puff, Head Effort, Stuckometer and Wheel of Eyes, has fostered a tendency for ultra-amateur photography (mobile phone apps and charity-shop-found 35mm point and shooters almost exclusively) whose themes and stories may be inscrutable or altogether absent. Born and bred in the Potteries, he is resident in Manchester.

Nick Mitchell, founder of Manchester label Golden Lab Records, writes about hero worship and the all-encompassing joy of record collecting and the DIY music scene, as well as contributing a poem to issue 21. Nick was born in 1975 in West Yorkshire and has lived in Manchester since 1999. He works as a writer/poet and musician and has run the label Golden Lab Records since 2005. His poems and short stories have appeared in a number of publications in the UK and US. Hear Nick open for Joshua Burkett at Kraak this evening (Wednesday 14 August), as Chalaque.

James Robinson, a photographer with a penchant for pet portraiture, contributes a selection of photos taken during his recent travels around Southern India in January 2013. Originally from Lincoln, James studied philosophy in Manchester before moving to London where he plays bass for indie band Being There.

Art student Paul Gallagher adds some colour to the Shrieking Violet with his illustration 'Kaspar Hauser'. Paul is influenced by underground comic book artists as well as traditional African, folk art and classic cartoons such as the Simpsons and Beavis and Butthead. His work often uses colour, abstract shapes and patterns and faces. To see more go to http://paulgallagherillustration.tumblr.com. 

Writer, curator and academic Rachel Newsome contributes an essay on fashion and androgyny. A former editor of Dazed & Confused magazine, Rachel chose to leave the commercial world of media in order concentrate on writing fiction and essays after nearly a decade in journalism. Since then she has authored the novel As It Was In The Beginning (short-listed for the Dundee International Book Prize) and edited This Is Not A Book About Gavin Turk, a series of essays on contemporary art commissioned at the request of the artist. She writes essays on art and culture as well as dark fables that explore both the dark interior of the human psyche and its search for light. Set against a backdrop of contemporary consumer society, these fables occupy a landscape somewhere between consciousness and dream, and owe a debt to the short stories of Angela Carter and Ben Okri and the fairy tales of Oscar Wilde and Hermann Hesse. Rachel is the Director of Don’t Tell Stories, which curates narrative-based spaces and situations and is a Lecturer in Fashion Styling and Image-Making at The University Of Salford. She is currently writing a series of short stories, What Remains And Other Tales.

Manchester-based artist Cherry Styles often uses photographs of herself and long-time collaborator Christa Harris in her collages; get a flavour of her collage work in this issue of the Shrieking Violet. The pair are currently working on a photo book of Cherry's pictures of Christa taken over the past eight years. See more of her work at www.cherrystyles.co.uk.

This issue also features poetry by Kenn Taylor, a writer and journalist from Merseyside who now lives in London. He has a particular interest in the relationship between community, culture and the urban environment.

Manchester-based filmmaker Richard Howe continues his series on mental health in the movies by looking at Woody Allen's best film of the nineties, Deconstructing Harry. Help Richard by voting for his surreal comedy film Dream Bubble at www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/film/4664/dream-bubble#.UfKdcWC1Zc9 and tweet him about films @rikurichard.

This edition's recipe, Spanish stuffed cabbage leaves, comes from vegetarian blogger and aspiring cafe owner Paul Barrett. Paul blogs about the joys of vegetarian parenting and the path he is taking to get a vegetarian cafe up and running in the North West. He aims to open a new cafe in New Mills in Derbyshire in the autumn.

One Man’s Junk Is Another Man’s Treasure - SUST clothes Swap Shop, Old Trafford

One of the casualties of the credit crunch has been charity shops, which have reported a fall in donations as we choose instead to get by with what we’ve already got, to ‘make do and mend’.

This means a move away from our throwaway, disposable, consumerist culture, in which clothes are bought and rendered unfashionable again as quickly as turning the pages in a fashion magazine.

Most of us have unwanted clothes at the back of our wardrobes, which outgrew their purpose, or unworn items bought on an impulse or by mistake. It might seem like a shame to take these to a charity shop, the equivalent of money down the drain.

If this is the case, or you’re just a bit bored of the clothes you own and they’re still in a wearable state, a swap shop could be for you, allowing the chance to swap your clothes for someone else’s, and the opportunity to breathe new life into your wardrobe without spending a penny.

Inspired by a similar event at the 8th Day Café on Oxford Road, enthusiastic volunteers from the Manchester charity Action for Sustainable Living set up the SUST Swap shop at St Bride’s church in Old Trafford in November 2008. The swap on Monday 18 will be the third event.

Louise Allen, who helps organise the swaps, says: “It’s a great chance to have a clear out and get a new wardrobe for free, all in the name of sustainability - re-use, recycle and get involved with your local community.”

For those who enjoy a browse but feel priced out of charity shops, which have become increasingly expensive - it’s hard to find even a simple t-shirt for under £2 now (the price of a new t-shirt in Primark), with the going rate more like £4 - you can pay £1 without having to donate any items, and still take away as many garments as you want.

It’s also a great way to get cheap clothes without worrying about the ethical implications now that even charity shops are filling up with more and more discarded items from Primark, some of which are sold on for more than their original price. Louise says: “It’s a big problem that clothes aren’t made to last anymore.”

Call it vintage without the extortionate prices, shabby chic, or even just recycling, you never know what you’ll find - as the old saying goes, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure".

Louise says: “If you get fed up of seeing the same clothes in the shops it’s a good chance to get something different. I took home about five or six really good items last time that I now wear all the time.”

Louise says the clothes tend to be donated by younger people than often give to charity shops, with a clientele based around students and people in their mid twenties.

The organisers invite donations of men’s, women’s and children’s clothes, shoes and accessories such as scarves and belts - although not underwear. If you donate three items or more, you can take as many items as you like in return.

Louise says: “Some people turn up with black sacks full, but people normally take home more than they donate.”

With prices like that - if you go home and realise the garment doesn’t fit, or you decide don’t like the item after all - you can’t go far wrong, and could even swap again at the next event.

Part car boot sale, part old fashioned church rummage sale, the swap shop will also be a chance to mingle and meet people living in the local area. Past events have attracted up to thirty people, including fashion students looking for material and clothes to alter. Some have become regulars.

Charity shops are also reportedly seeing a decline in donations because of the rise of eBay, and the expectation that you can make money from your old possessions.

Swap shops, in contrast, “offer an opportunity to share”, says Louise, explaining: "Swap shops take out the middle man and remove money from the equation as they’re a return to an exchange system”. Louise continues: “It’s nice to see people taking clothes away that they can get use out of, as you’re actually helping people by taking clothes to a swap shop.”

On top of that, there’s the excitement of making a ‘find’ in amongst the jumble of a tabletop sale.

The most unusual item donated last time was an old Stagecoach bus driver’s uniform, complete with shirt and fleece, although Louise says swap shops are also ideal for finding plain tshirts, dresses and jumpers. Louise warns that party dresses and summer dresses that still look new always go quickly, and finding bargains often depends on how long you stay, as more items are brought along throughout the night.

Buying secondhand clothes is often a far more personal way to shop - there’s something nice about giving a new life to an old dress, moulding a much worn jumper to your life, introducing a ‘new-to-me’ cardigan to your wardrobe and working it into existing outfits or wearing something that has already been ‘worn in’.

Louise agrees: “It’s nice to see people taking your stuff that you don’t have a use for anymore because you’ve outgrown it but you still really like.”

Louise’s favourite find was a “big, Fresh prince of Bel Air style jumper”, decorated with orange, yellow and black triangles and gold buttons. Its previous owner told Louise “my kids made me get rid of it - I’m glad it’s going to someone who likes it.”

Each event needs around seven volunteers, and Louise says the swap shop offers an ideal opportunity for anyone who wants to volunteer but who can’t commit much time, as it only involves helping out one evening every two months. An added bonus is that volunteers get first pick of the donations.

Louise hopes to organise similar swapshops based on other goods such as DVDs, games and books in the future.

SUST Swap Shop takes place at St Bride’s Church, Blair Street, Old Trafford on May 18 from 6:30-8pm

For more information, or if you would like to help set up, staff or distribute flyers for the event, contact Louise Allen at louise.allen@afsl.org.uk