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307.
NEW YORK ROCKER #1-6, #8-9, #11-13 (NYC: February 1976 - August 1978).
Ed. Alan Betrock (#1 & #5-11); Craig Gholson, Guillemette Barbet (#2-4); Andrew Schwartz (#12-13). Tabloid newspaper format. Each 20pp.-72pp.
A broken run of the first 13 issues of this renowned magazine (lacks issues #7 and #10), chronicling the burgeoning downtown New York scene and the punk explosion.
The list of interviewees reads like a who’s who: Tom Verlaine; David Byrne; Wilko Johnson; Russ Mael; Cherry Vanilla; Richard Hell; Robert Mapplethorpe; David Johansen; the Sex Pistols; Blondie; Wayne County; Vivienne Westwood; the Clash; Lester Bangs; Patti Smith; Howard Devoto; Brian Eno; Lydia Lunch; Billy Idol; the B52s; Devo; and numerous others.
Many of them are featured on the front covers, and each issue is prolifically illustrated with images by all the best photographers of the day, including six photos of Patti Smith live at the Bottom Line, the Ramones in London (both in 1976), Keith and Anita (by Gerard Malanga), Blondie in California (1977), and, in issue #2, a centrespread reproducing 130 portraits by Leee Childers of everyone on the New York scene.
In addition, concerts at CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City (and elsewhere) are given extensive coverage, along with regular reports filed from London (and the West Coast), with Kris Needs documenting the impact in particular of the Sex Pistols and the Clash.
Other contributors include Lester Bangs (incl. a eulogy for Peter Laughner), Ken Barnes, Gene Sculatti, Steven Meisel (among many others), and alongside regularly profiled artists the Heartbreakers, Suicide, the Cramps, Talking Heads and the New York Dolls, other articles feature the SF and LA scenes (the Avengers, Nuns, Crime, the New Order, the Runaways, Weirdos, Screamers), while the ninth issue includes a special London ‘77 section.
Newsprint slightly age-toned; short ink inscription to pp. 3-4 of issue #6; issues #12 and #13 slightly edge-worn; o/w Very Good plus (all eleven issues unfolded and stored flat).
