Rabid – fanzine

A Wrexham punk fanzine which spanned five glorious issues between 1982 and 1985. The first three were put together by Neil Brooks and Richard Acton.
Neil said: ‘We started listen to bands like Blitz, The Partisans and The Violators and thought it would be a good idea to start a fanzine. If memory serves me right, I think we were both about 13 at the time. I do remember a local reporter coming into our class at school wanting to interview us for the Wrexham Leader.’

Rabid’s fourth issue was put together by Neil, while Rich went his own way with another fanzine, ‘All Out Attack’ – a venture that lasted a mere two issues before folding.

‘The fourth issue of Rabid was a good one, selling several hundred copies’, Neil said. ‘There was interest from places like the States, New Zealand, Germany and Finland. I recall getting a bit of grief for interviewing Combat 84 in issue 4, a band with very suspect politics who had recently featured on a 40 minutes documentary. Some people stopped writing to me because they thought I’d turned in to a neo-nazi. I was just a 14-year-old kid for christ’s sake! What did I know?

‘Anyway, by issue five, I was losing interest; the punk scene was dying on its arse and it was time to move on to other things. I was given some help on the last issue by a punk who lived on the same road as me: Andy Snowdon – a lovely bloke who deserves a separate entry on this site for being one of the few who had the balls to look, as well as play, the part.

‘One particular incident I do remember is when I received a very abusive letter from a fat bird called Lynne – a Wrexham punk apparently. She tore us, and the ‘zine, to shreds. I can’t recall what she said, but it was all powerful stuff. Needless to say, Rich and I composed a nice little reply the following day in school. Lo-and-behold, her fuming Dad turned up at my house several days later, letter in hand, demanding an explanation. Luckily, we were at the footy, and my Dad had to deal with it.

‘Looking back, I’m still quite proud of Rabid. Yes, it was all a bit ropey and embarrassing, but at least we had a go. And funnily enough, more than 20 years on, I’ve returned to listening to a lot of the music that we covered in the fanzine. I’m even thinking of putting the old issues on-line. Mad.’