Welly Artcore
I first really became aware of music in 1979 via the top 40 on the radio and former jukebox 7”s they’d sell cheap in a local store. In autumn ’79 I became fully obsessed with the new 2-Tone explosion. Punk rock was very much forbidden and a stern “no” was the response to any requests to buy anything I liked by The Clash etc., but somehow the Ska stuff passed the board of censors. I started high school in 1980 and began the fight with my parents to wear the latest youth uniform, which proved difficult. I ended up cutting my own hair, looking like a psychiatric patient, and when I finally got some Doctor Marten boots I was accused of being a glue sniffer as there was a moral panic about that at the time.
By 1982 the 2-Tone thing was over with those bands doing new pop projects and my friends that had been into that started to shift to the Oi! thing as the clothes were the same. I realised what was going on politically there though so instead I became obsessed with The Jam. But then The Jam split up and turned into a pop project and one day I was complaining about the state of music to an older friend, saying I was looking for something “more powerful and more political” and he said he’d ask his even older brother if he had anything.
“When I found “Let Them Eat Jellybeans” my life was permanently changed as I discovered U.S. hardcore.”
He came back a few days later with the first albums by Dead Kennedys and Stiff Little Fingers. To say this marked a turning point for me was an understatement. I was really into both albums but the Dead Kennedys record really changed everything for me, a lightbulb switched on in my head. I set about finding every DK record that I could and when I’d found all of them I found a book about them that had a discography in the back. In that list were compilations they were on and I sought out those compilations. When I found “Let Them Eat Jellybeans” my life was permanently changed as I discovered U.S. hardcore. I also sought out other compilations like “Deaf Club” and “Rat Music” as well other records on Alternative Tentacles and it all spiralled from there.
I knew no one into this music and it seemed like the best kept secret in the world. By 1984 I was ordering from Alternative Tentacles and various mail order places and just buying any hardcore record I could find. Like the AT UK press of “Flex Your Head” led to discovering Dischord, Minor Threat, Government Issue, Scream and the like. Then in 1985 I finally got up the nerve to ask to look at a copy of Maximum Rock’n’Roll in my local record shop. It turned out it wasn’t the political magazine I’d thought it was when it opened on a page with a DK advert. I bought it and took it home, converted some money and sent off for records and demos. I saw the then new zine listings “Between the Lions” and I realised what a zine was. There and then I decided to make a zine as I’d always been into art, design and making my own little books.
I started a zine and started to write to people from all over, trading records, zines and tapes. Fast forward to today and I’m still involved, still make a zine, designed the packaging for nearly two hundred independent releases, released many records, written two books, run two DIY punk record shops, been in about four bands and toured different countries, put on many gigs, designed countless flyers, the list goes on. Once you’re into this music there’s no way out as there’s just so much to hear and so much to contribute, and I have no idea how my life would’ve turned out if my older friend’s older brother had never loaned me that Dead Kennedys album.
More tidbits about Welly…
My first punk show was probably No Choice at my high school youth club in 1983.
I was in the bands Four Letter Word, Violent Arrest, Signal Crimes and State Funeral. I was a roadie for Chaos UK.
I have put out Artcore fanzine from January 1986 to the present day.
These days Welly is a graphic designer and music writer.
More information about Welly’s projects can be found here…
https://artcorefanzine.bigcartel.com
https://www.instagram.com/artcorefanzine
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Colored pencil and photocopy transfer on bristol, 7”x9”, SSilk 2026
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I met Welly when I was visiting a penpal in Cardiff, Wales in the summer of 1990. It was so much fun for me hanging out with these zany punks. They threw me a little birthday party for my 24th and we watched the Monkees’ movie Head that night.
–SS