Trash Culture: Brighton Welcomes a New Batch of Free Reads

Just when you thought there were enough free magazines and newspapers, this spring has seen the birth of a whole new generation of freebies. Personally, I’ve been very excited to see our very literate town offered more choice reading material while sitting at the pub on a Friday afternoon or while recovering from the nightly hangovers in the morning. The styles of all the fresh blood vary wildly, from the anarchical subculture shenanigans of Spam to the more highbrow pretensions of Insight City News. I will give you the low-down on all of them. Love ‘em, hate ‘em, or simply use them for lining your chinchilla cage, they’re around for the time being. It’s a test of time as to which become Brighton institutions and which become quickly forgotten relics.

Rocks Magazine Started by ex-Insight and Insight City News reporter Sarah “Bird” Lewis, Rocks Magazine aims to capture the slightly alternative “slice of life” spirit that was the now-defunct Insight’s trademark and charm. Rocks has the hit the ground running. The 20-page paper made its debut in May 2006 and features writing, design and editorial know-how from most of the previous Insight team.

The first issue included articles on eco-homes, Brighton Fringe, Peace Messenger, a review on The Chimney House, and volunteering with orangutans in Borneo. Did I mention the free Tuaca give-away? (Not that any of you would be interested in that sort of thing.) They’ve included a Mind, Body, Spirit and Life Coach section, and theirs a pretty comprehensive 2 page listings for those who want to know which yoga classes are running on Saturday or fancy a night out at the Festival.

Pluses: The articles are well-written and interesting. There’s a high level of professionalism runs throughout. And there’s no sign of the blatant self-promotion that sadly mars most of the other new papers.

Minuses: It’s pretty hard to find a copy. I went to about 10 places before I found the issue. Hopefully they’ll sort out their distribution.

Get it at Sejuice, The Farm Tavern, Planet Janet, The Sanctuary Cafe, City Books, Komedia. Alternatively, check out the website (under development): www.rocksmagazine.co.cuk

SPAM SPAM is the brain-child of Will Powers, owner of Zero Culture, and Jamie Black, Slackers Convention promoter. The magazine rode into the scene in February 2006, being a law onto itself about all matters music and counter-culture thinking. The first two issues featured learning how to shoplift from ASBO kids (“SPAM goes robbing with chavs”), taking the piss out of homeless people (“Why it’s a human right to drink coffee”) and breaking and entering under the influence of the drug of choice, K (“Christmas: SPAM style”). The two issues also featured interviews with Asian Dub Foundation, Krafty Kuts, Cassette Boy, Utah Saints, KLF’s Jimmy Cauty, Autobots, Maccabees, Bez, Cosmic Sandwich…um, need I go on? Reviews from DJs and promoters, such as JFB, Jimmy Breaks (Nu Skool Breaks), Richard Sole, and Symmetrik give the punters the insider knowledge from those in thick of it.

Pluses: This magazine is not afraid of anyone with a constant two finger salute to the authorities. Funny interviews, finger on the pulse music reviews and appropriate advertising.

Minuses: It glorifies the whole drug scene a little bit too much – sorry if that sounds lame. It’s a weaker second-cousin of Vice, but that’s what happens with in-breeding.

Get it at Pressure Point, the Druids, the George and most pubs.

Insight City News The Insight died a horrible death when the owners sold the paper to new publishers last year. Whereas we had a “fuck you” from SPAM, this 56-page broadsheet sucks up nicely to the Council and anyone with a BN3 postcode. The paper was launched with a new design (horrific primary colors) and a new target audience (Daily Mail readers and luxury flat owning yuppies). It comes out every two weeks and in the last issue featured articles on Prince Philip, yacht races, Mayor Bob Carden’s new car, Brad Pitt and Stanmer House. The paper’s style seems to be about filling up most of the page with a picture, making the type extremely big and including very little content. This approach gives the impression that they have nothing to report on, or are not up to scratch with basic journalistic design. The image that comes to mind is an enormous country mansion with not enough furniture. The journalists are shamefully self-promoting, in the worst sense; I recall in one of the earlier issues, David Van Day’s photograph appeared on every other page. Is this really necessary?

Pluses: It’s free. It’s nice to have something you can hate as well.

Minuses: I could go on really…the worst offence has to be the constant plugging of Stanmer House in every issue and it’s no secret that the publisher also happens to be the owner of this place.

Latest Art The newest spin-off from The Latest empire run by Bill Smith. Yes, we already have Latest Homes, The Latest, the Wave (which he also publishes), and now we have Latest Art. The first issue broke came out this month and it featured a well-worth reading interview with Stella Vine, the ex-stripper cum painter whose celebrity portraits made it big time when they were snatched up by Charles Saatchi. About of a third of the 48-page magazine features art from different Brightonians, a concept that works even better than normal advertising. Photographs, watercolours, fashion, pottery, mixed media, illustrations, Open Houses, exhibits, galleries – it’s all covered here.

Pluses: Eye candy – there’s loads of good art to look at. I found myself laughing out loud several times too.

Minuses: None actually.

Pick it up where ever The Latest/Latest Homes is stocked, which is more or less everywhere. I picked mine up at Pause Café at Preston Circus.

Amy the Filmmaker’s Final Thoughts: With the rise of Brighton-focused magazines, newspapers and the recently launched Brighton TV, there’s one question I find hard to shake off. Is our little city in threat of becoming a bit too inward-looking? Bombardment with news from a small locality is the reason why Americans think that people in the UK use dollar bills and why they’ve never heard of your hometown.

Having said that, it’s a dog-eat-dog world in the publishing game and not everyone can be a winner so stay tuned and watch the match for free (as opposed to the £150 per person events some would try to sell us). In the meantime, enjoy the free stuff. It’s summer. But keep in mind: there is life outside Brighton.

Words: Amy the Film Maker