''Last Hours'' (known as ''Rancid News'' prior to 2005) is an anti-authoritarian publishing collective. From 2003 to 2008 it produced a fanzine, initially called ''Rancid News'' until issue 9, changing its name to ''Last Hours'' from issue 10 till the final issue, 17, in May 2008. All 17 issues were edited by
Edd Baldry before he stood down as editor. Since 2008 ''Last Hours'' has become a publishing collective, launching a website, and releasing two books in the autumn of 2009, ''Excessive Force'' and ''Diary of a miscreant''.
Rancid News
At its inception Rancid News was a
punk zine
A punk zine (or punkzine) is a zine related to the punk subculture and hardcore punk music genre. Often primitively or casually produced, they feature punk literature, such as social commentary, punk poetry, news, gossip, music reviews and arti ...
, which began circulation in April 2003 with interviews from
AFI
AFI may refer to:
* ''Address-family identifier'', a 16 bit field of the Routing Information Protocol
* Ashton Fletcher Irwin, an Australian drummer
* AFI (band), an American rock band
** ''AFI'' (2004 album), a retrospective album by AFI rele ...
,
One Minute Silence
One Minute Silence is an Irish four-piece rap metal/nu metal band based in London, England. The band consists of vocalist Brian 'Yap' Barry from Templemore, County Tipperary, guitarist Massimo Fiocco from London, drummer Martin Davies and ba ...
, and
Johnny Truant
Johnny Truant was a British metalcore band, formed in 2000 under the name Severance. The band recorded three demos under this moniker before renaming themselves after one of the main characters of Mark Z. Danielewski's novel ''House of Leave ...
, alongside articles, columns and reviews. ''Rancid News'' was initially launched at a time when the ''
Fracture'' and ''
Reason To Believe
"Reason to Believe" is a song written, composed, and first recorded by American folk singer Tim Hardin in 1965. It has since been recorded by artists including Bobby Darin in 1966, Karen Dalton also in 1966, Glen Campbell in 1968, the Nitty Gritty ...
'' zines were still in existence. After those publications ceased, ''Rancid News'' assumed their mantel documenting the
UK punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
scene
Scene (from Greek σκηνή ''skēnḗ'') may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Scene (subculture), a youth subculture from the early 2000s characterized by a distinct music and style. Groups and performers
* The Scene who reco ...
. A key difference between ''Rancid News'' and the aforementioned zines is that ''Rancid News'' was sold outside
gig
Gig or GIG may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Gig'' (Circle Jerks album) (1992)
* ''Gig'' (Northern Pikes album) (1993)
* ''The Gig'', a 1985 film written and directed by Frank D. Gilroy
* GIG, a character in ''Hot Wheels AcceleRacers'' ...
s, and in record and comic stores rather than being available free. It was compared to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
-based ''
Maximum RocknRoll
''Maximumrocknroll'', often written as ''Maximum Rocknroll'' and usually abbreviated as ''MRR'', is a not-for-profit monthly zine of punk subculture. Based in San Francisco, ''MRR'' focuses on punk rock and hardcore music, and primarily featu ...
'', due largely to similar political beliefs and style of music covered.
''Rancid News'' was often connected with the Household Name records scene, featuring most of the label's bands between 2003 and 2005. ''Rancid News'' was also distributed by many of the Household Name Records bands, including
Five Knuckle,
Captain Everything!,
Adequate Seven
Adequate Seven were a Welsh band who blended music styles such as hip hop, hardcore, punk, and funk. They formed in 2000 and split in December 2006.
History
Adequate Seven formed in November 2000 and played their first gig only four weeks la ...
,
Howards Alias, and
Antimaniax amongst others. At its height ''Rancid News'' distributed around 4,000 copies around the UK and Europe. The zine was printed on
newsprint and most issues were 116 pages long, with a colour cover, and
saddle stitch binding.
In early 2005 the name ''Rancid News'' was considered a hindrance. People mistakenly assumed the fanzine had something to do with the punk rock band
Rancid and it was felt that it forced contributors to focus too heavily on music. The final issue of ''Rancid News'', published in February 2005, gave an indication of the changing direction, with a greater emphasis on radical culture in general and with particular focus on political articles,
vegan
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...
recipes and longer columns.
The name ''Last Hours'' was agreed on in a meeting in March 2005, with the first issue - issue 10 - of the fanzine being released in June 2005, with subsequent issues to be released every six months. It maintained a balance between interviews with punk bands and political articles. It was published under the strapline 'Radical culture and punk rock'.
The print production remained the same as ''Rancid News'' until issue 13, when the fanzine again changed direction with the first perfect bound edition, and an issue dedication to 'Punk rock and comics'. It marked the first time that interviews, articles or reviews relating to punk rock took up less than 50% of the fanzine.
After issue 13 each issue of Last Hours was themed in one way or another, most often around the principle article of the zine. So, issue 14 focussed on acoustic punk rock, issue 15 on
anarcho-punk compilations, issue 16 on DIY punk rock houseshows, and issue 17 on radical illustration. In all of the issues of ''Last Hours'' anarchist politics and radical culture took prominence over the music.
Last Hours live
''Last Hours'' regularly put on gigs in London under the monicker ''Last Hours live''. During 2006 these were most often at ''The Square'', a
squatted
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...
social centre in Russel Square, where Last Hours put on, amongst others,
The Steal, Ghost Mice,
Attack Vipers and
The King Blues
The King Blues are a British punk rock band from London credited for fusing punk and hip hop together with influences from ska and spoken word. Tariq Ali described the band's sounds as "rough, radical music that should unsettle the rulers of t ...
. During 2007 ''Last Hours'' continued to put on gigs in squatted social centres around London, including ''The Vortex'', in Stoke Newington, and ''The New Camberwell Social centre'' off Camberwell New Road, Kennington. In late 2007 ''Last Hours live'' started putting on gigs at the
Cross Kings, Kings Cross, to launch Last Hours issue 16, and for the first five months of 2008 had monthly gigs at the venue, including one of
Fall of Efrafa's few London shows.
In addition to putting on gigs members of the Last Hours/ Rancid News collective have been involved in a number of squatted social centres, for example in 2003 with involvement in the Blackstar collective, 2004 with the In Arms Reach collective, which squatted a building off London's
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and ...
for a two-week punk festival, and 2005 at the Institute for Autonomy on Gower Street, London.
London Zine Symposium
In 2005 two members of the ''Rancid News'' collective established the London Zine Symposium, which for the first year was held in the Institute for Autonomy. It has become an annual event, and in 2009 had over 1,000 attendees with talks given by
Roger Sabin
Roger Sabin is an English writer about comics
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech ba ...
,
Teal Triggs, Barcelona Zine Library, and Alex Wrekk from Portland, United States. Up until 2010 the event had been organised by members of the ''Rancid News'' or ''Last Hours'' collective.
Hiatus
After issue 17 Last Hours was placed on a brief hiatus as
Edd Baldry stepped down as editor of the publication. Other members of the collective pushed for the publication to be migrated to the internet, and a regular resource for the anti-authoritarian and punk communities in the UK. The website was relaunched in early 2009 and long articles written about the protests against the attack on Gaza, photo essays about the G20, and responses to Ian Tomlinson's death. It also started publishing a podcast and offering regular vegan recipes.
"Creative resistance"
During 2009 Last Hours changed its strapline from 'Radical culture and punk rock' to 'Creative resistance', indicating a greater focus on radical politics and a move away from punk culture. In the autumn of 2009 Last Hours released its first two books. Excessive Force was a 150-page comic's anthology against the police, with the subtitle, 'Police everywhere, justice nowhere'. It featured artwork from 17 international illustrators about abuses of power by the police. It was a benefit for
FitWatch and
LDMG, two organisations working to curtail
police abuses. ''Excessive Force'' was the first of what will become a regular
comix
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...
anthology being produced by Last Hours. At the same time the collective was working on Diary of a miscreant, a book collecting ten years of the comic zine ''
Morgenmuffel'', by Isy Morgenmuffel. It offered a document on the anti-globalisation movement through the prism of an anarcha-feminist, vegan who was heavily involved in the manifestations during that period.
Last Hours, in 2010, aims to publish books about the London Zine Symposium, the squatting movement in the UK and a series of posters offering alternative perspectives on subjects such as anarchy, prisons and the general election. It will also be creating a film about the UK
small-press and
fanzine community.
References
{{Reflist
Fanzines
Anarchist publishing companies
Anarcho-punk
DIY culture
Underground culture
Anarchist collectives
Publishing collectives
Punk zines
Defunct periodicals published in the United Kingdom