Ep. 15: Miki Berenyi & Clare Wadd (Alphabet Soup/Kvatch)

In the mid-1980s, before she became known for fronting the band Lush, Miki Berenyi put out five issues of Alphabet Soup fanzine (“It may be crap but it’s only 5p”) alongside her then-bestie and future band-mate, Emma Anderson. Meantime, before she started Sarah Records, Clare Wadd put out multiple issues of Kvatch fanzine. This podcast, hosted by former Jamming! editor Tony Fletcher, marks the first time ANY of the three have ever had a conversation with each other. Over the course of an hour-plus chat the three of them discuss:

• Why Miki had a photo of Tony on hand should he randomly e-mail her introducing himself.
• Clare’s upbringing in Harrogate, Yorkshire, and starting a fanzine as a way in to the “independent” music world.
• Miki’s school years in Central London, following Culture Club and Haircut 100, and starting a fanzine as a way to combat shyness.
• The lack of girls producing fanzines in the early-mid-1980s.
• Miki’s “nuts” upbringing, how it created a “seize the day” element in her, and how that resulted in her and Emma doing Alphabet Soup.
• Being sexually harassed as a teenage girl selling fanzines.
• Alphabet Soup being “silly & smutty” vs Kvatch being “worthy.”
• The lack of competitiveness among fanzines. The network the editors created instead.
• Interviewing 1980s indie icons like Half Man Half Biscuit, The Housemartins, Xmal Deutschland, and asking The Wedding Present about apartheid because it feels like the right thing to do.
• Neglecting to press record on an interview and making it up instead.
• Sarah Records’ dedicated fanzine “releases” and how Clare’s contributions were more like the modern “perzine.”
• The sexism Clare encountered running Sarah
• The gender expectations/tokenism/sexism Miki encountered in a band and that Clare encountered running Sarah… and whether that has changed.
• Defending The Alarm.
• Other important ‘zines of the era: Attack On Bzag, Moving, Rouska, Jamming!, Viz Comics, Vague, Scared To Get Happy,
• Alphabet Soup’s fake Diary of a Fanzine Writer (the Bride Assistants).

Miki Berenyi is @berenyi_miki on Twitter and IG, and is also at https://linktr.ee/mikiberenyi Her memoir is Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success.

Various Alphabet Soup bits are at https://standupandspit.wordpress.com/2014/07/12/alphabet-soup/

Clare Wadd is @Sarah_Records on Twitter and sarahrecords.org.uk. The Sarah Records special zine releases are at http://sarahrecords.org.uk/texts/fanzines/

Kvatch 5 is at https://stillunusual.tumblr.com/post/43093052386/kvatch-fanzine

Support this show via the One Step Beyond supporter page:

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Tony Fletcher is https://tonyfletcher.net/

and https://linktr.ee/TonyFletcher

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