[Soviet Union], 1989. Octavo (21 × 15 cm). Original staple-stitched pictorial wrappers; [30] pp. of reduced-size typescript, photographs, and drawings. Very good.

Single issue of this samizdat Rock 'n' roll fanzine, published unofficially in the late Soviet Union by NORIS, an acronym for Nezavisimyi Ob"edinennyi Rok-Informatsionnyi Sindikat (Independent United Rock Information Syndicate), founded in late 1987 by Aleksandr Fedorov and Seva Novgorodtsev, a musician and BBC radio broadcaster based in the UK who was a source of information about pop music in the Soviet Union, especially in the 1970s through 1990s. From 1991, his show was called by the title of this periodical, which was also the title of a later book. The NORIS group was a kind of Novgorodtsev fan club that also organized meetings on his birthday. The wide reach of his radio program is evidenced by the list of contributors to the present issue, which includes listeners from Cherepovets, Kursk, Georgiu-Dezh, Brest, and Minsk. The contents focus on bands such as Judas Priest, Deep Purple, King Diamond, Viktor Tsoi, a-ha, and others, as well as reports on activities of NORIS. The final page makes fun of the Komsomol youth organization, with the caption: "Rock against narcomania, bureaucracy, komsomolia and other afflictions of mankind."

Scarce; as of October 2023, KVK, OCLC show a single copy of the first issue only, at the Soviet and Russian rock music zine collection held at George Washington University.

Book ID: 52981

Price: $300.00