Running from the mid 80's to the early 90's 'Top Secret' was a DIY fanzine put together by fans down in West Sussex. This labour of love, not bettered in terms of Mk I coverage until the appearance of the Burning Up Times pdfs (available from Gary Kent's website
here). As stated in the flyer above, the thinking behind 'Top Secret' was to provide coverage of key Stranglers related events (such as the tours) in between publications of Strangled. In this period, perhaps as a consequence of numerous changes to the Strangled editorial staff, the frequency with which Strangled was published became rather sporadic. Moreover, landing on the mat only every 3-4 months, Strangled was inevitably out of date and no where near meaty enough to cover the band's activities in this productive period.
The 'Top Secret' coverage was comprehensive, well put together with a high level of fan contribution.
Here's a scanned copy, 'borrowed' from the Burning Up Times forums (
www.themeninblack.co.uk/forums/), apart from the official site, the most important Stranglers site on the web.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WPUOKS8Q
I would love to see a CD-ROM of all the issues of 'Top Secret'. Now that would be worth a tenner of anyone's money!
Hello !
ReplyDeleteCongralutations to your blog, very excellent and interesting !!!
my name is Eric Dochez, I lived in France and I collaborated with Top Secret Fanzine, with Gary Holmes, a very nice guy. I managed to run the Official Stranglers France Service, and we published 18 issues of Strangulation Fanzine (in french) between 1993-2001. I stop the publication for professionnal reasons, but I am always a great fan of Stranglers music and solo stuff.
All my best wishes.
Eric Dochez
Hi Eric, I appreciate the feedback. SFS and the French fans have always represented the band very well, especially in print. I loved Black & White. It's always a pleasure to see the lads in France, a good reception to the roast beefs from our French coleagues is always guarenteed!
ReplyDelete