Ripped & Torn

Tony Drayton

Like trousers, like brain: narrow.

Inspired by Mark Perry’s Sniffin’ Glue, Ripped & Torn was a similarly punk-themed cut-‘n’paste fanzine, that started life in Cumbernauld in October ‘76, relocated to London in ‘77, and endured under original editor Tony Drayton for 17 issues until March ‘79.

Perhaps bizarrely, R&T is characterised by its reactionary editorial voice. While meat-‘n’potatoes identipunk is praised (Lurkers, 999), musical progression is routinely trashed – Television (“terrible”), Magazine (“sterile”), Buzzcocks (“File under Wire in ‘Oh no, not another arty drone band’”) while PiL’s arrival elicits apoplectic front-page ranting (“John Lydon, you fucking pathetic little puppet”). A timely reminder that, for some, punk only ever equated to dull, know-your-place conservatism.