//13th Floor Elevators mural inside Zippo Records, Clapham Park, south-west London, mid-80s, courtesy Pete Flanagan//

Pete Flanagan, owner of the long-gone Zippo Records in Clapham, south London, has sent me this photograph of the shop interior.

//Front cover, Droolian, Julian Cope, Zippo/Mofoco, 1989//

It sums up everything that was wonderful about this unique space, where Pete established a hub for like-minded souls. With staff including Edwin Pouncey (aka Savage Pencil), Pete also released otherwise hard-to-find records via his own independent imprints. These included Heartland, 5 Hours Back and MoFoCo for Julian Cope’s towering LP Droolian.

//Droolian’s back cover//

//Zippo’s distinctive price label (this from The Many Faces Of Gale Garnett, an obscure 1965 release on RCA)//

I bought a lot of music and also an example of every one of the short-run t-shirts Zippo sold, including my favourite, this MC5 number (other owners, and there can’t be many because they were printed in very limited numbers, include Bobby Gillespie).

As a local I was a Zippo regular with our Battersea hound Tom. Pete christened him “The Conqueroo Dog” after the four-legged friend on the cover of his reissue of the Austin band’s 1968 release From The Vulcan Gas Company.

//Front cover, From The Vulcan Gas Company, The Conqueroo, 1968/reissued 1987 on 5 Hours Back//

When Zippo closed I bought a whole load of stock and had a few happy years trading in vinyl as a sideline, until my back gave out.

Pete’s still at it, running Soho Music which is now on eBay – see here.

I bumped into Edwin P a couple of years back; he was in the company of another great person who was also a former Zippo staffer. Can’t for the life of me recall his name but hopefully he’ll see this and get in touch.

See what Savage Pencil is up to here.

Tags: 13th Floor Elevators, 5 Hours Back, Bobby Gillespie, Clapham Park, Droolian, Edwin Pouncey, From The Vulcan Gas Company, Gale Garnett, Heartland, MC5, MoFoCo, Pete Flanagan, Roky Erikson, Savage Pencil, Soho Music, The Conqueroo, Zippo Records

//Flyer for The Rock n Roll Show printed on the back of a subscription form for Oz magazine, July 1972. The Move were replaced by lead member Roy Wood’s new band Wizzard; this was their first gig. Original Brit-rocker Heinz was added to the bill; his backing band would soon become Dr Feelgood//

I acquired my first underground press publications in the summer of 1972, at about the point when the sector was taking the nosedive from which it never recovered.

Still, better late than Sharon Tate, as they say. Aged 12, my taste had been whetted by sneak peeks at an older brother’s collection of magazines when a guy called Kevin O’Keefe who lived down the road gave me a few copies of Oz, including number 43, the July issue.

A few weeks later, to my astonishment, the newsagents in Hendon’s Church Road started stocking Frendz. I folded issue 33 between a couple of music papers and pored over it in my bedroom.

//Front cover of OZ 43, the issue which included the Wembley flyer//

//Front cover, Frendz 33, September 1972//

//Crowds around the Let It Rock stand. From the 1973 film London Rock N Roll Show directed by Peter Clifton//

Neither of the magazines are shining examples of the genre, but they had something in common: the centre spread of OZ 43 contained a subscription form back-printed with a flyer for the London Rock N Roll Show, a one-day festival of original 50s acts and those who could claim kinship held at Wembley Stadium on August 5 that year.

And for me the most beguiling article in Frendz 33 was a two-page stream-of-consciousness report of the event filed by one Douglas Gordon and illustrated with photographs by Pennie Smith, soon to leave for the NME and carve out her reputation as one of rock photography’s all-time greats.

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Tags: 1972, Chuck Berry, Douglas Gordon, Dr Feelgood, Evening Standard, Fats Domino, Fred "Sonic" Smith, Frendz, Gary Glitter, Geoffrey Aquilina Ross, Granny Takes A trip, Heinz, Hunky Dory, Ian Bodenham, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, London Rock N Roll Show, MC5, Oz, Pennie Smith., Peter Clifton, Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, Vivienne Westwood, Wembley Stadium, Wizzard, Yvonne Gold

I’ve collected t-shirts for 30-odd years; this is one of my favourites.

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Tags: Detroit, Edwin Pouncey, Elektra, Hudson's, John Sinclair, MC5, Pete Flanagan, Savage Pencil, Zippo

Now this really gets me at it of a Friday night.

I first saw this on a night of rare “punk” footage at the King’s Cross Scala hosted by Clinton Heylin in the early 90s; there were a couple of hundred of us huddled there – including such fans as Alan McGee + Bobby Gillespie – for that opportunity.

Everything we saw that night is freely available on Youtube these days.

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Tags: 1972, Dennis Thompson, Fred "Sonic" Smith, MC5, Rob Tyner, Tonight, Wayne Kramer