The U.K Punk and Hardcore scene stretches far and wide across our fair isles with disgruntled punks forming bands in every single nook and cranny of good ‘ole blighty. But there are certain cities and areas that can claim more influence than most. One of those places is Leeds. Henry Rollins once said of Leeds that “This city’s been slapped in the face with a coat of grey poison” and it’s that sort of attitude that helped the area spew out countless bands of varying influence. From Chumbawamba to The Flex via Send More Paramedics, the list is endless. Actually, it’s not and if you want to see the full list of bands featured in Raising Hell, see below. But what brings those bands together is that they all came from the DIY punk scene, where fanzines are king and a vital source of information especially in the 80’s and 90’s. Front and centre to the Leeds scene between 1982 and 1990 was Raising Hell and now you can relive the cream of those issues with The Best Of Raising Hell: Leeds, UK 1982-1990.

In true fanzine style, not an inch of paper is spared with 500 pages stuffed with as much information as possible ranging from interviews with all the main players from the scene to crazy sketches and political opinion jammed in between. A proud working-class city, Raising Hell also rages with anger at times – a depressing snapshot of what it was to be in eighties Britain with Thatcher at the helm, sadly something that still resonates today and still representative of the UK’s class system. Fanzines represent the very fabric of what it is to be punk, and the beauty of a fanzine was always the cut and paste style of the time. Even dressed up in book form you can still see the blood and the sweat that went into every issue of Raising Hell, and there’s not one drop of colour throughout, again staying true to that original style and never one to let a broken typewriter get in the way of production, some parts are simply written out, offering you a very authentic glimpse into another time, when passion truly came before fashion.

With hundreds of interviews, you would have forgiven the writers if things had gotten monotonous.at times, but there’s no danger of that, as all interviews and reviews are given a healthy injection of humour and a somewhat lively edge, and they also branch out with scene reports from all over the world.

If you love your punk history, then Raising Hell is an absolute must, as it gives much needed space to some of those bands who blazed a trail for the scene as it is today. An important time in the U.K punk scene’s formative years has been perfectly preserved by for future punks to savour and see how the forefathers did it….Chris Andrews

The Bands

16 Guns – A-Heads – Anarcrust – Angor Wat – Anti Dogmatikss – Anti System – AOA – Atavistic – Bad Religion – BGK – Black Ideals – Chaos UK – Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers – Christ on Parade – Chumbawamba – City Indians – Civilised Society – Co-Exist – Contropotere – Criminal Justice – Crucifix – Dan – Death Zone – The Deformed – The Depraved – Detonators – Deviated Instinct – Disorder – Disturbance from Fear – The Disturbed – Electro Hippies – False Prophets – Famous Imposters – The Fartz – The Fiend – Flux of Pink Indians – Force Fed – Generic – Ginger John – Godorrhoea – Heibel – Icon AD – Industrial Suicide – The Insane – Instigators – Killdozer – Kina – Kulturkampf – Lunatic Fringe – Maximum Security – Momido 7 – Negazione – Neuroot – Oi Polloi – Pagan Idols – Pandemonium – Pink Turds in Space – Political Asylum – Reality – Scraps – Scream – The Sect – Silent Community – Skeptix – Skumdriblurz – So Much Hate – Subversion – Suicide Visionary – Toxic Ephex – Toxic Reasons – Trottel – Upset Noise – Verdun – Victims Family – Wretched -Xpozez – Xtract.