The Best of Cherry Lipstick: #3 The Hedonists
The Hedonists joined Cherry Lipstick for Volume 1 Issue 3. They were a crucial part of what set the fanzine apart and kicked on the humour and surreal side of the fanzine. Issue 3 was the key issue for Cherry Lipstick. It came on the back of a CL advert in Q magazine that fortuitously had an feature on Duran thanks to the success of Ordinary World. New readers poured in and Issue 3 featured John Cutcher, Manon Wortel and Mandy Jones for the first time. These three were key players for the rest of the fanzine's life. The letters page in Issue 4 (which included Rokos Frangos) is testament to the effect this had on the fanzine - it was now up and running and its immediate future was secured. This was not guaranteed in a culture where blind worship, exclusive pictures and access to the band were (and remains?) key.
For me as the editor, having contributors like The Hedonists meant I gained huge confidence that CL was striking a chord and finding like-minded people. In the pre-internet days, feedback took time. You had to wait for days / weeks for letters of encouragement to know whether a joke had been found funny or a feature had been interesting. There were no re-tweets to count, or comments and likes within the hour.
This first offering from the Hedonists is not the greatest thing CL ever published (and follows a puff-piece) but it was one of the most important. [Life Lesson no. 58: It's not always how good something is that matters. Life Lesson no. 59: you can never know what influence you have over others.] The poem is from Volume 1 Issue 7 about the January 1994 UK tour (accompanied by some unusually good photos - anyone remember the CL Crap Concert Photos competition?)
So I hope you enjoy this mad outing from The Hedonists. When re-starting the fanzine in 1997, I asked The Hedonists to re-join but they didn't want to. I am afraid that I now have lost their names. You will be pleased to know that in Issue 4 they issued an apology to genital warts for comparing them to Amanda de Cadenet.
