Toczek

THE WOOL CITY ROCKER fanzine ran for just three years. Over its fourteen published issues, it expanded from being the voice of the vibrant and varied Bradford independent music scene at the juncture between punk and new wave, to being the essential guide to the northern rock scene across Yorkshire and Lancashire. As such, it became a seminal northern zine.

From his home in Bradford, the ’wool city’, Nick hand-drew or closely typed his own writings and those of a host of talented contributors, painstakingly laying out each issue by hand. Hot off the press, these fanzines were eagerly consumed by local gig-goers and musicians.

These issues featured gig reviews of The Clash, Elvis Costello, and the first Futurama all-dayer, alongside interviews and reviews of crucial northern newcomers such as Soft Cell, Def Leppard, and Sisters of Mercy.

This volume reproduces all fourteen published issues plus the unfinished fifteenth issue, which never saw the light of day. Within these pages, we encounter the precursors of hugely successful bands, such as The Hustler Street Band (New Model Army), The Elements (Skeletal Family), Violation (Southern Death Cult), Japanese Soldiers (Zodiac Mindwarp and The Love Reaction), etc. There are also the highly regarded nearly-bands of northern rock, such as The Negatives, Radio 5, and Knife Edge.

By the time Nick stopped producing Wool City Rocker, a number of other local fanzines had stepped up to support that exciting early eighties scene. For most of the next two decades, apart from his own ranting poetry performances, Nick was promoting a lot of the bands he had written about in WCR at various venues in Bradford and Leeds.