You may not have heard of The Boy's Own fanzine. In fact, unless you were at the zeitgeist of Acid House in London in the late 80s you can be completely forgiven. You may however be aware of bands like Underworld, The Chemical Brothers, and Xpress 2 all of which hold a strong legacy to this underground publication. The London-centric fanzine became the voice of Acid house culture that was running riot throughout the country in 1988 and with its in-the-know and sometimes scathing editorials on all things clothes, clubs, music, and football it became the barometer of taste for those that were shaping the scene.
Since then this club gang has continued to play a very significant role in club culture for the last 3 decades.
To commemorate the launch of the Boy's Own T-shirt capsule Rob sat down with one of its founders Terry Farley to get an insight into the history of this cult piece of British youth culture.
Rob: First of all Terry thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to chat with us. You seem to be as busy as ever with DJing commitments, remixes, and putting on some of London's best parties. It must be nice to still be as relevant as ever?
Terry: I guess relevant is depending who you're talking to, I’m just happy being busy, being creative, and still dodging doing a real job, something I’ve done rather successfully since mid-1988 when my partner Sue agreed for me to sling my job in and have a proper go at playing records. She gave me a year to make it work.
Rob: So at the beginning what was the plan for the fanzine? Do you remember what the first print run was?
Terry: The plan was to do a fanzine about what we were all up to, the stuff we loved and to rip the arse out of those we weren’t that fond of. Clobber, politics, and music basically. Fanzine culture was at its height back then so we rode the wave, well we created the wave as nobody else was really doing our slant.
Rob: In terms of layout how did you go about designing the look and feel of each issue?
Terry: Nobody under 40 could even get their head around nipping into WH Smith’s and nicking rub-on type face I think it was called something like electroset?
I would cut out pics from old books, do a scratch on heading then my mum would get the typist at work to type out the text, and then I’d stick it all on an A4 sheet of cardboard.
To say there wasn’t a design wouldn’t be the truth but certainly, I didn’t have any design background. Andrew was much more artistic but most of the time he couldn’t be arsed and would end up scribbling down some words such as ‘The Outsider ‘ at the very last minute.
Rob: In terms of layout how did you go about designing the look and feel of each issue?
Terry: Nobody under 40 could even get their head around nipping into WH Smith’s and nicking rub-on type face I think it was called something like electroset?
I would cut out pics from old books, do a scratch on heading then my mum would get the typist at work to type out the text, and then I’d stick it all on an A4 sheet of cardboard.
To say there wasn’t a design wouldn’t be the truth but certainly, I didn’t have any design background. Andrew was much more artistic but most of the time he couldn’t be arsed and would end up scribbling down some words such as ‘The Outsider ‘ at the very last minute.
BOY'S OWN
BOY'S OWN
BOY'S OWN
BOY'S OWN
BOY'S OWN
BOY'S OWN
BOY'S OWN
BOY'S OWN
Rob: We can’t talk about the fanzine without giving a nod to Andrew Weatherall. How important was Andrew’s influence on how you looked and sounded?
Terry: Very important as he was the arty one, the most articulate one but also the most infuriating one when it came to deadlines.
Rob: One of my favourite regular features was the Uppers and Downers section, did you ever see anything come to fruition in the mainstream as a result of this barometer of taste?
Terry: Pretty sure we kicked off the whole Kickers revival of 88. Simply a joke as one lad we know turned up in a bashed up pair at Spectrum one Monday. Then there was 'it’s all gone Pete Tong' which was a saying our dear mate and force of nature Gary Haisman used to say when things went badly wrong.
Rob: Do you think that Paul Oakenfolds 'Bermondsey Goes Balearic' piece was partly responsible for the mass exodus to Ibiza the following year?
Terry: It was certainly the first article written about that Ibiza scene, Alfredo & Amnesia, etc.
Paul Oakenfold and Ian St Paul started Future at the Soundshaft (back of Heaven) as a winter home to all those Ibiza kids like Nancy Noise and those Walworth Rd girls and where the Ibiza summer workers could go and hear the music that Alfredo and a few other DJs were playing.
Rob: So this is a bit of a full circle moment for me. I started selling clothes in 1989 which was also the year I properly discovered what was happening out there. I would quite often come to listen to you play at various parties in London and the home counties, so on a personal level I’m delighted that all of these years later our worlds continue to collide. Why do you think all these years later there is still an appetite for what the four of you started?
Terry: It very much seems so and I’m delighted it’s from a much younger demographic as well. Club culture as we know it is at least 5 decades old and the past should be preserved if only as a way of knowing how to not get it wrong. Every generation rips it up and starts again while retaining the basic building blocks and it looks like we’re now cemented in those foundations.
Rob: Do you think that Paul Oakenfolds 'Bermondsey Goes Balearic' piece was partly responsible for the mass exodus to Ibiza the following year?
Terry: It was certainly the first article written about that Ibiza scene, Alfredo & Amnesia, etc.
Paul Oakenfold and Ian St Paul started Future at the Soundshaft (back of Heaven) as a winter home to all those Ibiza kids like Nancy Noise and those Walworth Rd girls and where the Ibiza summer workers could go and hear the music that Alfredo and a few other DJs were playing.
Rob: So this is a bit of a full circle moment for me. I started selling clothes in 1989 which was also the year I properly discovered what was happening out there. I would quite often come to listen to you play at various parties in London and the home counties, so on a personal level I’m delighted that all of these years later our worlds continue to collide. Why do you think all these years later there is still an appetite for what the four of you started?
Terry: It very much seems so and I’m delighted it’s from a much younger demographic as well. Club culture as we know it is at least 5 decades old and the past should be preserved if only as a way of knowing how to not get it wrong. Every generation rips it up and starts again while retaining the basic building blocks and it looks like we’re now cemented in those foundations.
Terry's Top 5 Boy's Own party essentials:
1. Good comfy footwear. New Balance 991 are my current trainer of choice.
2. A good crew. Mates who won’t leave you hanging.
3. Nice block of wonky chocolate. The only thing that does it for me these days.
4. A DJ who reads the crowd and has a depth of music.
5. Packets of Nurofen plus and a Gaviscon. It comes to us all trust me.
Terry’s Top 5 Junior Boy's Own productions:
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1. Paradiso - Here We Go Again (actually we licensed it in but it’s a corker).
2. DSK - What Would We Do ( 8 mins of madness ), a Pete Heller and myself production. Was at the Ministry of Sound for a Tony Humphries party and he played it 3 times - my head was exploding.
3. Black Science Orchestra - Where Were You. Frankie Knuckles made this a NY classic at his Sound Factory bar residency (I'm told he even rung the office to get on the mailing list).
4. Underworld - Dirty. This saw the label crossing over into a wider audience.
5. Xpress 2 - Music Xpress. Basically, it’s a house record made in a punk rock 3-chord style - simplicity meets perfection.
