Heart of a Punk Soul of a Rasta

There's New Kid on the Block by the Name of
Vive Le Rock

Reviews! Now music journos (spit) are never happier than when they're laying into some poor band, giving them a verbal mauling without any chance of a comeback. Very critical people the average journo, but can they take it as well as dish it out? Looking at the shelf at WH Smith's currently it really is a case of the same old same old. The same old faces in the same drab places. Q Magazine (£3.99), and Mojo (£3.99), and WORD (£3.99) continue on as unchanging raging bores. CLASH magazine (£3.50), to be fair, has gone through a startling transformation. It's gone from being a Mojo wannabe to becoming The Face magazine. (Anyone remember The FACE magazine?) This pic below might jog your memory. THE FACE were always demented style monkeys residing somewhere up their own perfectly coiffured arses. Let's hope CLASH magazine doesn't take this style flim flam too far, cos in the past it's been the only music monthly not in a constant cycle of repeating the ever so predictable.

I love the quote in FACE "People should wear what they want to wear and not be dictated to." Thus spoke the great prophet Joe McKenna of Vanity Fair. Words to eclipse Jesus, Mohamed and Buddha - life changing stuff by The Face from 1986.

Clash becoming The Face, a sad style change if its over done. Love the confident covers, but inside are CLASH selling music or fashion?

But there's a new-ish MAG on the market called "Vive Le Rock" (£4.99). I think it's a quarterly (or is that a closely guarded secret). Have you bought a copy of Viv Le Rock magazine yet? You haven't? Well perhaps you should. I've just bought issue 4 and I can say without any fear of over doing the hyperbole, I might just buy Vive Le Rock again.

First off then, what exactly is Vive Le Rock? Well the top banner on the front cover states its intention. ROCK N' ROLL - PUNK - NEW WAVE - BEYOND! I don't know what "beyond" is, but I know I've been round the back there a few times - pardon the pun (was there one?). So Vive Le Rock is a broad-ish church. Its a genre specific mag (like the monthly ARTROCKER £3.50) and let's face it genre specific publications are the only type of magazine worth parting with KA$H for nowadays. With KA$H in a state of strappedness no one wants to waste money on a mag made up of 50% ads, 50% music you hate, and only 25% stuff you're interested in. (Percentages are not my strong point but you get my drift). The most important thing about Vive Le Rock is you know from the start exactly what you're not going to get in Vive Le Rock.

OK so Vive Le Rock is niche but is it any cop? Well let's get the BAD out the way first, cos there ain't that much wrong here. The only thing in the mag that offended me, that made me wince and gave me slight case of heartburn; and that was the interview with Suzi Quatro. Suzi Quatro! Oh dear no. Suzi Quatro, the seventies equivalent of an X Factor product. Managed manufactured and homogenised by Mickie Most the precursor of Cowell. Do I want to read a magazine with Suzi Quatro in? Not really.

The only other thing that perplexed me about VleR is that it doesn't state its sale date. Not a big deal you may think. Well it is. I'm still guessing it's a quarterly. And that means it has a massive problem, because it negates any usefulness it might serve as an "up to date" provider of information. Buy the magazine after it's been on the shelves for a week and most of the gigs advertised inside have already been and gone. Not good.

But as I've already said these are just minor quibbles and Vive Le Rock does exactly what it's supposed to. The interview with The Specials is excellent - they seen to want Jerry Dammers back now they want to record new material. The interview with Captain Sensible of The Damned is sound - recounting capers from the recording of the Black Album in '80. The brief snatches of stuff with John Foxx, The Godfathers and The Horrors are also worth a read, there's nothing sycophantic here or contrived and no superciliousness clap trap either.

{PS If you want to read cringe making sycophantic bollocks read NME's interview with John Lydon from 24th Sept. Hilarious stuff. How did Johnny get NME to print a pic of every single PIL album. And how did he get them to say things like "For 14 years PIL released challenging, intelligent records". Smacks of D for desperation on the part of NME methinks).

Vive Le Rock actually reminds me of a slightly souped-up version of Trouser Press meets Zig Zag. (Don't know what I'm yaking on about? Well for God sake see the pics, read up, get up to speed, and get yourself educated). And Vive Le Rock has a good blend between old music and new music. The new music bit isn't over done. Violently attempting to find "NEW MUSIC" as if its some kinda fundamentalist crusade just becomes an incredibly boring after a time. And generally ends up throwing up too many bands that are criminally mediocre. Nowadays if you're interested in finding something new for your ears, you're more likely to run up against it either at a gig or online, rather than from an untrustworthy over zealous magazine. (Yes NME it's you again). And Vive Le Rock isn't fundamentally retro either.

Finally there's the Vive Le Rock CD. OK so CD's given away free with magazines are invariably only heading in one direction. To the .10p box in the charity shop. But actually the CD given away free with issue 4 of VleR has found its way into my CD player three or four times. The handful of bands I've already seen live were good to hear in studio mode; particularly those dog fighting wallah's the Hi-Fi Spitfires. The other tracks that have stuck with me were The "Reilly Express" track M*O*T*O*R*H*E*A*D - what the hell is that all about? Oh right it's about Motorhead, silly me, yeah ok I get it now. Then there's "Teenage Fuck Up" by the serial compilation CD combatants Bubblegum Screw. "Teenage Fuck Up" is simply a classic piece of glamtastic rock n roll phlegm. If you don't smile when you're listening to this one you're already dead. But the track that's got under my skin in a major way is "Talking Robert Zimmerman Blues" by The November Fire. Not seen them live, don't know anything about them. And I don't need to say anything about them cos "Talking Robert Zimmerman Blues" is playing now. Sounds damn damn damn good to me.

In conclusion then; Vive Le Rock is a quarterly magazine that retails for a hefty £4.99 a throw. Which is a lot of KA$H nowadays. Can you download an album for that much? Apparently you can, but why you'd want to download anything is beyond me. Is Vive Le Rock credible? - Yes it is. Is it here to stay? - Hopefully yes. If it can hang around long enough in this era of dwindling interest in the music magazine I might just buy another copy. And I can't commend it any higher than that.

PS. Its well know that I hate album reviews that are only two paragraphs long and have a numerical mark to back it up. With this hateful practice in mind I give Vive Le Rock 8/10.