"clumsykisses" is Rebecca McCormick, who is steadily producing highly personal and insightful zines on various subjects including her favourite songs, bands and television programmes, as well as perzines about her own life. The zines are stapled photocopies, usually in mini-zine format but occasionally A5, and full of content which is always interesting. I am highlighting four more titles here in part 2 (read part 1 here) The clumsykisses Etsy store can be found here, with all titles currently available.
TITLE - JUST CHEAP TARNISHED GLITTER - A ZINE ABOUT THE MANIC STREET PREACHERS [APRIL 2016]
A5/48 PAGES/B&W STAPLED PHOTOCOPIED PAGES
PRICE - £2.00 + SHIPPING - LINK
The list of successful Welsh bands is not a long one, but we’ve had our moments, and CK is a fan of one of the best ones - the Manic Street Preachers. Following zines about Bruce Springsteen and The Clash (see part 1), the Manics also get the ClumsyKisses treatment, with guest articles and “top fives” from friends and fans. The zine itself is the (almost) full story of CK founder Rebecca McCormick’s life journey with the band from first discovering them, falling out of love with them and then rediscovering the band. There are album reviews, quotes, sections on the Manics’ literary influences, personal reminiscences linked to songs, and key events in the band’s life, which themselves are linked to important events in Rebecca’s own life: a history of the Manic Street Preachers as well as a personal history. Friends are made and lives changed through the Manics’ music. This zine is intense in places but also a true joy to read with a lot of content.
[N.B. There is a warning in the introduction about mentions in the zine of self-harm and suicide. This is expected if you know the history of the band, but it needs to be said.]
TITLE - SHY PUNK #2 [MARCH 2019]
4" X 4"/45 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOCOPIED PAGES
PRICE - £2.00 + SHIPPING - LINK
Shy Punk is an ongoing zine about things that Rebecca
McCormick considers to be punk, and a few things that are definitely not. The
choices in issue 2 may be surprising - nothing so obvious as Johnny Rotten’s
socks, but the Sex Pistols do get a mention. Instead we get the singer Emmy the
Great, treating people with kindness, laziness, libraries, knitting and crochet
as a feminist act, lidos, and much more. There is also a more serious section
on things which are not punk including abusers in the punk scene, buying off
Amazon, people being preachy about food and the aforementioned Sex Pistols -
which I wholeheartedly agree with. Another CK must-read, and one of my
favourites so far.
6" X 4"/24 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOCOPIED PAGES
PRICE - £1.00 + SHIPPING - LINK
Written and assembled during the early days of 2020 and the lockdown, the main ongoing perzine from ClumsyKisses, “Opinionated Nobody”, has reached its 15th issue. Rebecca lays her soul bare on the worst things in recent British history like the most recent U.K. election, Brexit etc, through stressful Christmases with family (something we can all recognise) but also on positive subjects such as her love for crochet and attending “Weirdo Zine Fest” (I’m jealous!) and her birthday celebration. The zine is rounded off with a piece about trying vegetarianism and a recipe for spiced carrot lentil soup. “Opinionated Nobody” #15 is honest, funny and awesome and is a must-read.
A5/22 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOCOPIED PAGES
PRICE - £2.00 + SHIPPING - LINK
One of the most heartfelt zines produced by Rebecca, this zine consists of fifteen of her most favourite songs and essays about what they mean to her. These are often very emotional and personal stories in their own right, especially in the section for the Queen track “These Are The Days Of Our Lives”. This is a perzine that really lives up to the name. The list includes songs from Bruce Springsteen, the Manics, the Clash (all of whom feature in their own excellent zines from CK), David Bowie and the Beatles etc alongside less well-known acts such as Rancid, The Academy Is… and Grace Petrie.
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