What A Nice Way To Turn 17

There are times when I curse myself for the non-appearance of issue 7. Among many great contributions, some already shared and some to come, we had a track by the wonderful Tav Falco's Panther Burns and a Tav Falco interview/article by Sonic Boom (Spacemen III). What were we doing letting this thing slide? So here's that piece on Tav, again from 1987, followed by the track “Ode To Shetar” (which eventually appeared on New Rose's “Red Devil” compilation in 1988). I never actually met Sonic aka Pete Kember, but spoke on the phone and corresponded with him (pre-e-mail days these....) and he'd provided a detailed Suicide discography to accompany a long Suicide interview (which I may run later) also lined up for the magazine. Unlike Sonic I never even got to speak to Tav though I received a number of beautifully penned letters and postcards from this most genuine of gentlemen. You know something, people used to be so cool back then..... The Incredible Tav Falco Part One ...

A long time contributor and supporter of the magazine, Andy Bean first heard Captain Beefheart in 1973 and was at the famous Aylesbury Friars show in 1975. He had his own variously named but usually Captain Beefheart inspired fanzine in the late 1970's, and in case you'd not guessed, owes his surname to the man himself. He played "bass (badly) and guitar (worse)" in Nikki Sudden's band before taking over the drums for three years at the end of the 1980's, including playing on Nikki's "Groove" album in 1989. He now lives in London and is manager of a record shop. Andy Bean & Nikki Sudden Truth be told, this piece from issue 2 of WANWTTS in 1984, was my real introduction to Captain Beefheart. I had the safe-ish "Safe As Milk" album, but it was only after reading this article that I delved further into the esoteric world of the Captain. It was the second in the series of Great Misunderstood Rock'n'Roll Legends, the first havin...

Whilst this was a piece meant for issue 7 and thus never published, its author, Jeremy Gluck had been both a literary and musical contributor to the magazine since as far back as issue 3. As a long time Barracudas fan, I was never less than thrilled at the interest he took in WANWTTS, and this is the first of several articles he wrote for us that I'll be putting up (though the only one bearing the pen name Cal B Burnholdt III....). Hello, I'm A Truck – Introduction by Cal B Burnholdt III “Country singers have been singing about truck drivers for nearly as long as truckers have been listening to country music. The mutual respect of the two professions is deserved, both travel many millions of miles a year and both are experts in their own field. It is not an unusual sight to see at least one country stars bus or car parked in a truck stop. In the USA many powerful Country radio stations devote their night-time radio programmes to truckers. They mix country with road reports, we...

There are quite a few folk, myself included, who hope that one day history will record that the world at large missed out on one of the very best bands of the early 1980s, The Subterranean Hawks. Birmingham's finest released just the one single, “Words Of Hope” on Five Believers Records, a bunch of demos were recorded, and then they were gone. The album that came with issue 3 of What A Nice Way To Turn Seventeen included one of those demos, “Big Store”. The magazine itself included the following, purported to have been written by one Dean Spence, who we now exclusively reveal to have been......Stephen 'TinTin' Duffy. “Punk Rock claimed a great deal of casualties. But is casualties the right word? Shall we consider head cold? Or Athletes foot? Anyway I've got a note and the Subterranean Hawks are excused from showers. Why five nice boys should take a bloated discredited idea as their divinity, and the decadent enemy they had only just finished fighting, as their role mod...

Sid Griffin was a long time friend of the magazine – his band the Long Ryders even supplied a track "Baby We All Gotta Go Down", under the alias of The Spinning Wig Hats, to the album that accompanied issue 6. Besides being a great frontman with his band, he was and remains to this day a mighty fine writer. I have a signed and annotated copy of his “Gram Parsons - A Music Biography” (1985) that remains a most treasured possession, and his two Dylan books, “Million Dollar Bash” (2007) and “Shelter From The Storm” (2010) are two mighty worthy additions to the canon of Dylan biographies. I'd spent a few hours in a London studio with the Long Ryders during the recording of their final Ed Stasium produced album “Two Fisted Tales”. Yes, that's The Ramones “Leave Home” and “Road To Ruin” Ed Stasium. Anyway, Sid had said he'd write something for issue 7, little knowing, when he agreed, that the band were on the verge of splitting up. But that's what he ended up writi...

The very first article in issue 2, from 1984, was a piece by David J, then a solo artist about to release on Glass Records the fellow Northamptonian Alan Moore inspired “V For Vendetta” EP, Bauhaus having split in 1983 and with Love And Rockets not forming until 1985. He'd come to us by way of his contributions to a couple of Jazz Butcher albums, the Jazz Butcher completing a very neat circle by contributing a version of John Cale's “Chinese Envoy” as one of the four tracks on the EP that accompanied issue 2. An Appreciation Of John Cale by David J “The soul of anaesthesia. Antarctica starts here.... At the time of writing, I am listening to a bootleg tape of John Cale's solo London concert which took place in January of last year. I remember the gleam of that moment, air chilled by fire. “I Keep A Close Watch On This Heart Of Mine”, a key song always. The stage is a seducer, a doctor, a card you cannot trust. Cale has five aces and a raven tattooed sleeve. Black on black, ...

I thought we'd start with a piece that was meant to be in issue 7. We'd established good enough contacts with REM to get a track by The Musical Kings – Peter Buck and Kevn Kinney (from Drivin'n'Cryin' – a cover of the Stones' “I'm Free” (which I will put up in the next week or so) and the following bit by Mr Mike Mills. A short, sweet and really quite charming “Letter From America”. “Lately, I have become increasingly concerned over the lack of culinary diversity here in Athens, Georgia. Walter, over at Walter's Pit Cooked Barbecue, has taken to closing early, if he opens at all, and one can eat only so many of Rocky's Buffalo style chicken wings, excellent tho' they are. Even a nice beef and kidney pie would be a welcome change. What I believe we need here, that you have a lot of in the UK, is an Indian restaurant. The nearest one to us is in Atlanta, an hour and a half's drive away, and even it is not as good as the majority in England. So...

This is what I wrote back in 1983 in the very first issue of WANWTTS. “This is an easy introduction. No doom laden exercise in dank depression and teenage angst from this source. We're tired of the gloomy darkness and ugly aggression so many others choose to purvey. Not that we're will o' the wisps without a thought in our tiny heads, it's simply a wish for people to enjoy themselves without feeling restricted within needlessly laid down boundaries. How about individual reaction in preference to group reaction?” ....and on and on I went. Remember, this was 27 years ago and I was a very young man. I was also laying it on a bit thick as was the righteous style of a newly re-born fanzine editor already of some five years vintage in 1983. We were coming off five issues of something called “Stringent Measures” in which we'd featured The Orgasmatrons, 3-Way Dance, Dead On Arrival, The Shrinking Men, Persons Unknown, New Antiques, La Peine, Crosstalk A/V, Mothmen, Zeitgeis...

What A Nice Way To Turn Seventeen The Crystals My birthday candles have all gone out The party's through and I'm alone with you woah-oh What a nice way to turn seventeen I feel your sweet lips against my cheek The lights are off, your shoulder feels so soft mmmmm What a nice way to turn seventeen My friends all bought me so many gifts But yours is the one I'm proudest of A golden heart inscribed to me “Happy Birthday, with all my love” It feels like heaven here in your arms ooooh Don't let me go 'cause gee I love, oh I love you so What a nice way to turn seventeen. (Keller-Kolber) (Screen Gems/EMI Music Ltd.) (Released 1962 (Philles 102) as the b-side to “Uptown”)