In 1994 punk rock fanzine writer Welly Artcore jumped in the van with legendary British punk band CHAOS U.K. for a two month tour around the U.S. Four years later he did it all again with his own band, FOUR LETTER WORD, this time also travelling across Canada.
From the impossible drives, to scrapes with the authorities, and the bands they shared stages and floors with along the way, often with nothing more than the name of a club on a scrap of paper that turned out to be a disused unit in an industrial estate, they somehow made most of the gigs. All the while, he did something so many others don’t, he wrote it all down.
Directions to the Outskirts of Town is a candid and humorous account of life on the road packed into a 6” x 9” paperback with over 300 pages, over 250 unpublished colour photos, flyers and illustrations, and a foreword by Kaos of CHAOS U.K.
“Initially I gave Chaos U.K. a five year shelf life. Twenty five years later and I am still screaming”
- Kaos of Chaos U.K.
While still in high school, after finding out what a fanzine was from the pages of Maximum Rock’n’Roll he began creating his own, Artcore, in late 1985, printing a few dozen copies of the first issue on the high school photocopier in January 1986. He continues to publish Artcore to this day with 40 issues and 16 vinyl fanzines released to date.
From 1991 he was in numerous punk bands and has 20 releases and numerous tours under his belt. He also ran two D.I.Y. punk rock record shops/stalls, Damaged Records (2004-2008) and the aptly named Ghost Town Records (2012-2014) in Cardiff, Wales, and was involved in promoting and making flyers for gigs and all-day charity benefits in Cardiff and Newport from the 1980s onwards.