bombsite

The Fanzine

On September 13th 1976 the Pistols played Quaintways in Chester, by March 1977 The Clash's White Riot was released.  On that day Mart and Grom bought their amps, and along with Mark and Cookie, they started to practice together as a band. They recall being pissed off about the gray days and bleak future, but had been energized to do something by the sound and lyrics of White Riot and the epic B side 1977.

There was a buzz from London, plus the timing felt right to do something, start a band or a fanzine. Their actions had nothing to do with the Stooges, CBGB's the Ramones, or any other distant place or legendary rock star. In 1977 these lads needed an outlet, they were broke and so was England.

The fanzine was published to document the energetic music movement as it migrated from London to the north of England. Early copies were printed in a garage in Chester on a 1950's style manual printing press and sold around Merseyside in July 1977. Bombsite issue No 2 was distributed during September, and issue No 3 was released during November. Issues No 2 and 3 were printed using a conventional copy equipment.

If you visited Probe records and Eric's in 1977, you most likely read a copy of Bombsite. The fanzine reached a print run of about 500 in December 1977. Thanks to Rip’s [Mark] tenacity with acquiring outlets in Manchester, Chester & Liverpool including Probe Records close to Eric's.

After signing their £75,000 record deal with United Artists at the bar of the Electric Circus on August 16th 1977. The Buzzcocks sent a check to Bombsite for a full page promotion for their new single.

The third issue of Bombsite included a free single from a batch of old junk singles donated by Chris Harrup's (Eric’s club DJ) hippy buddy who owned a record/comic book store in Birkenhead.

The fanzine ran for about a year, during which time Mark Hodgkinson (aka Rip], Martin Cass (aka Al Bum) Colin Gronbach (aka Grom) and Clif Ison (aka Cookie) were regularly practicing and with their band originally named  Bombsite, but later changed to Why Control.