Flipside Fanzine, which long outlived Slash Magazine and some could argue "punk rock" (in terms of its original intent), was long the vanguard of the punk fanzines and would eventually go on to obtain worldwide status and recognition as such. The fanzine, begun by a group of mostly Whittier (California) High School graduates, chronicled the early Los Angeles punk rock music scene, beginning with the first issue back in August of 1977 through approximately December 2000, a period of over 20 years. Within this period of time, punk went from a notorious underground music phenomenon to an established genre of rock music. Over that time period, the Fanzine evolved from a disorganized stapled-together 1/4 page Xerox fanzine, to a major glossy-covered "magazine" with many issues over 150 pages in size (and to my dismay, it never had a table of contents!).  In those later years, it attempted (and many would say rightly succeeded) to cover a scene that had grown to worldwide proportions, and in fact, the world looked to Flipside as its voice. The letters section was a sounding board for the common punk on the street and often engulfed 3 or 4 full pages. Its popularity was a testament to the fact that so many people felt they could have a voice through its pages.

Over the years, many writers came and went (and this website will not attempt to chronicle their “careers"), but the one man who who kept it going throughout all the years was Al Flipside (Kowalewski), the publisher and editor. There's been a lot of speculation and rumor as to what led to the demise of the fanzine. This website is not focused on providing those answers.*  Rather, the focus here is to chronicle the early years of Flipside Fanzine (1977-1984) and the golden age of the Los Angeles punk music scene.   

SPECIAL THANKS 

I’m forever indebted to the following cornerstone contributors who initially supplied the guts for this website:  Longtime friend, Elizabeth "Sissy" Barela; Mike Alessi (my husband) formerly of the Los Angeles-based bands  V.O.A. and  Skull Control; long-time Glendale Calif. scenesters, Jay and Mary Thurston; early L.A. scenester and one-time west-end'er Buddha James, and Anonymous Donor (he knows who he is!).  Their names appear throughout the website next to their contributions.

BE MORE THAN A WITNESS

The Flipside archives are gone and I'm relying on what's left of my picture collection, donations and whatever I can find at public libraries.  It’s a work in progress and I admit it hasn’t gotten the attention I would have liked in recent years.  Primarily due to this fact, the website has become a static resource for academics writing about punk rock.

However, as you can see, I put a major effort into revamping and adding content.

And I still invite you to be more than a witness!  We need content, such as scans of old flyers, newspaper ads for gigs, pictures of bands, ticket stubs, etc.  Even pictures of unknown bands.   If your band never made it into Flipside in the old days, here's your chance.  Write a short story about a riot you were at (okay, it doesn't have to be a riot), or a description of the scene in your town (within the time frame 1977-1989).  If you're not a big writer, send me a short paragraph.  Just check out the letters section; perhaps that will inspire you. This is the punk rock "memory lanes," but in order for it to be that, people have to give me those stories and experiences.

You don't have to physically give up your items to help; just provide a copy (use your scanner or digital camera). If your punk stuff is just sitting around gathering dust, why not share pictures of these items here on this website? You can even just send me the jpegs from the stuff you’re selling (or sold) on Ebay.  All donations will be fully credited on the page where they appear.

1. -Sincerely, Michele Flipside
   

*About this website:  This website was created by myself (Michele Flipside) as a personal research project back in 2004, and was subsequently sanctioned by Al Flipside to be the official “memorial” (my emphasis) site for the zine.  I have always envisioned this site to be a memorial website, as well as a place for me to provide my research free of charge.  I am ecstatic that the website has proven to be of great value to those in the academic community who are writing books, master’s theses and dissertations on punk rock!  The website was never intended to become the “active” website for Flipside Fanzine.  Only Al has the right to resurrect the zine.  The materials from Flipside Fanzine used on this website are treated as data, artifacts, and exhibits, as one would if writing a thesis or dissertation (well, okay I have not cited every source everywhere, especially in the gig database, for example, since it would become too tedious to read).  But I have a high confidence level in my research and I’ve done everything to ensure the integrity of the data.  I have a master’s degree in Urban Geography and have presented my research papers at several professional geography conferences during my stint in academia.  When I come across conflicting or questionable data, it has either been omitted or cited next to the data as questionable.  I do have my original logs of collected data (however disorganized) where everything is cited, but don’t expect me to look up the original sources for you.   I’ve summarized sources used at the top of the webpages where such data is made available.  For those doing research, you can site this website as the source or you can do the research yourself.   I do enjoy brainstorming on how to get data, so if you’ve run out of ideas, give me a try.   Please read my FAQs page before requesting to use artifacts found on the website.