Private Scandal Fanzine - Issue 3 (Chiba Punk Special, The MARGAReTS, the C&C)

The reception to the 2^nd issue of the zine was pretty good. I remember Tony (More Noize) and Tom (General Speech) liked it which was high praise as I loved their zines.

Private Scandal issue 3 - artwork by Maki.

I quickly began thinking about writing another issue but wasn’t sure what to cover. Around the same time I was trading with Kotax (Planaria, ex.EXPOSE etc) and his wife, Maki. Maki was part of the 90’s Chiba punk scene and loved bands like The MARGAReTS and the C&C. When I was trading with them, Maki drew this amazing artwork that was a homage to the Seditionaries gay cowboys design but in the style of The MARGAReTS. I knew I had to use that artwork for something so what better than a Chiba punk special of the zine?

I’d been getting really into the 90’s Chiba punk stuff. I heard the C&C shortly after reading their name on a Wankys Japan Tour flyer in 2010. The first time I came across the name The MARGAReTS was on the back of my friend Ryoching’s leather jacket. He painted this amazing back piece and the moment I saw the artwork I knew The MARGAReTS was a band I had to hear! It helped that they were paired with Thought Control! Ryoching has great taste.

Ryoching's jacket.

At some point, I’d offered to release a MARGAReTS CD on my old label, Pogo Punx Records, but it never came out. There were a couple of reasons for this, I wanted to release a complete discography CD, but the band for whatever reason only wanted to release the OK tape and the Your States Fuck Off. They didn’t want to release the incredible self-titled tape for reasons beyond me. Around the same time, I was talking to Thought Control about releasing a 7” but again this never happened, bad timing, not enough money, etc.

The proposed art for the back of The MARGAReTS CD I was going to release on Pogo Punx Records in 2013.

Anyway! Maki’s incredible artwork gave me the idea to do the Chiba punk special edition of the zine. The MARGAReTS had decided that their gig at the last Private Scandal Party would be their last and given that the discography CD I had planned a few years prior wasn’t going to happen I wanted to interview them as they were almost a cult band that inspired many young punks in Chiba but I feel they never got the recognition they deserved so the interview would act as a sort of epitaph to the band.

Uda (The MARGAReTS) - This gig was at Shindaita Fever with Oi Skall Mates and JUNIOR.

The other band I wanted to cover was the C&C. As mentioned above I’d heard of the band because of them playing with The Wankys. I later learned that they were old friends of No.6, the vocalist of Chaos Channel. Kengo (the C&C vocalist)’s old bands The Snipe and Brain Tarantulas used to play with No.6’s band Kick The Bollocks.

An early line-up of the C&C.

Kichi, then bassist of the C&C had a blog where he documented the lesser-known and incestuous Chiba punk scene that centered around members of the C&C and their other bands, and it was fascinating! Through Kichi’s blog, I learned about bands like Visible Fucker, Big Jet Mouse and more.

I wanted to write a bit of history around the C&C to show just how active these guys were, they’ve constantly been in bands since 1992! I also wanted Kengo’s view on things, so I interviewed him. Luckily for me, Kengo’s brother-in-law spoke really good English so Kengo was able to get his message across quite well.

The Sinister Six. A band that was basically the C&C with Kichi on vocals instead of bass and Kengo on bass instead of vocals!

With a lot of help from Kichi, I was able to pull together quite a comprehensive account of the 90’s Chiba punk scene that was largely unknown outside of a few old nutters who saw the bands back in the day.

This issue was very well received and it was distributed globally. Once again, Tom (General Speech) printed copies in the US and helped distribute them there (thanks, mate!)

The MARGAReTS! In the background you can see a poster for BELLETS (a popular Chiba rock band at the time).

One thing I didn’t like about the zine was the black-and-white printing. It was cheaper, but those colour photos of The MARGAReTS and the C&C were so good that I wish I had paid extra to get the zine printed in colour. This was the last issue printed in black and white.

I’ve often thought about printing an expanded edition of this issue with some more photos, extra details, and a collector’s guide to Chiba punk.

90's Chiba punk tapes.