zine hotspots

[paganfrog]

i live in an area that as far as i know does not have any zinesters. im just a solitary zine reader and creator. i found out about zines only by being in online communities for mail arts and crafts type of things. i have often wondered, what causes certain areas of the uk (and the world obviously) to be a hotspot for zinesters.
why some towns and cities but not others? sorry for a silly question.

[Stephanos]

Quite often it builds up somewhere wehere there is a strong music community already, many zinesters do tables at shows. Though there are zinesters from everywhere...i guess its proportional to the size of the population of the place and how much people talk to other people about zines.

[Alice]

I agree that it has a lot to do with the local music scene... and I think that has a lot to do with geography. Big cities like London, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds etc all have very easy access for bands to visit when on tour (and obviously higher populations so higher chances of getting bigger gigs, more audience, more people putting on shows etc). Living in Bournemouth, I find that most big bands will bypass Bournemouth when on tour - they usually visit Southampton or Portsmouth then skip us and go straight to Bristol, meaning that I usually have to travel quite a long way to see bands that I really like, especially American or European bands.

Anyway, I think this really affects the kind of culture that towns have. Portsmouth and Bristol both have quite good music scenes and a lot of people putting on shows etc. Bournemouth does have quite a good club scene and a lot of club nights etc, but we really lack any kind of quality DIY music scene (or at least one worth attending)... we do have a few people locally doing cool stuff but most of them end up moving to Bristol, London or Brighton, and I don't really blame them. We certainly don't have anything like what bigger cities have! Boo!

[chelle]

hi i'm new and have just completed my first zine. i'm not sure that music has that much to do with it as birmingham has a very healthy music scene yet i have not come across anywhere that sells them or any other zinesters. it's a very lonely existence in a way and i have to explain to every one i talk to what a zine is after they give me quizical looks. i still enjoy and am so proud of my first one! it is nice to be in the loop and know other people who do it and have access to other's zines. oh well maybe i'll just shout about it a bit more and hope poeple get inspired.

Alice said:

I agree that it has a lot to do with the local music scene... and I think that has a lot to do with geography. Big cities like London, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds etc all have very easy access for bands to visit when on tour (and obviously higher populations so higher chances of getting bigger gigs, more audience, more people putting on shows etc). Living in Bournemouth, I find that most big bands will bypass Bournemouth when on tour - they usually visit Southampton or Portsmouth then skip us and go straight to Bristol, meaning that I usually have to travel quite a long way to see bands that I really like, especially American or European bands.

Anyway, I think this really affects the kind of culture that towns have. Portsmouth and Bristol both have quite good music scenes and a lot of people putting on shows etc. Bournemouth does have quite a good club scene and a lot of club nights etc, but we really lack any kind of quality DIY music scene (or at least one worth attending)... we do have a few people locally doing cool stuff but most of them end up moving to Bristol, London or Brighton, and I don't really blame them. We certainly don't have anything like what bigger cities have! Boo!