Strange Things Are Happening, 1988–1990

A NOTICE TO OUR PUBLIC…………
It’s now a shade over twenty years since Rolling Stone was launched, complete with a brave new broadside on its interests and purposes.

So we too now announce our aims and prejudices and strive to clear a path laying bare our hopes and inspirations. Strange Things will deal from the heart and feature items that we would wish to find on offer. Music, from whatever era, will always be the core, with in-depth studies of a sound or an individual, or a laugh and a picture whenever the situation arises. There will be discographies, reviews, rare photographs; there will be threads or themes across several issues or even, instead, a one off appreciation.

That aside, there will be literature, film and television; cult curiosities or mainstream geniuses. In short, the boundaries are limitless. Over the next few issues the tale of Greenwich Village will unfold; so too the life and work of Richard Brautigan. Frantic new pop will sit beside English folk-rock, the Silver Surfer will meet the San Franciscan scene and white Chicago Blues will rock with Thunderbirds. “Whatever Fits” is our new motto – we’re there wherever strange things are happening.

Volume 1, Number 1: March 1988
The Kinks; Horror At The Party Beach; The James Taylor Quartet; Krazy Kat; Syd Barrett; Robyn Hitchcock; Greenwich Village; Psychic TV; Los Angeles & The Dukes Of Stratosphear.

Volume 1, Number 2: May/June 1988
Iggy Pop & The Stooges; Giant Sand; Richard Brautigan; Alan Moore; Wire; Man In A Suitcase; The Creation Label; Krazy Kat; American Country Rock; The Shamen; Smoke & The Silver Surfer.

Volume 1, Number 3: July/August 1988
Little Feat; Sgt. Bilko; Nirvana; Country Rock, part two; International Artists; Barbarella; Krazy Kat; The Insect Trust; Tiny Tim; Bruce Lee; Autosalvage & Kathy Acker.

Volume 1, Number 4: September/October 1988
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.; Fierce Recordings; Van Morrison and Them; Syd Barrett : The Making of Opel; Deutsch Nepal; Sid Griffin’s Guide To Los Angeles; Green On Red; The Go-Betweens; Krazy Kat; Merrell Fankhauser & John Fahey.

Volume 1, Number 5: April/May 1989
Frank Zappa and The Mothers Investigation/Straight Records; Clive Barker; Track Records; Josefus; Merrell Fankhauser; Krazy Kat; Crosstown Traffic; Paula Paradaema; EC Comix & Roy Orbison.

Volume 1, Number 6: Summer 1989
Dr. Who & The Daleks; The Soft Machine; The Daevid Allen Interview; Q65; Terry Riley; Harvest Records; Bevis Frond Plucks; Just William; Krazy Kat & The Grateful Dead.

Volume 1, Number 7: Spring 1990
Nick Drake; The Carousel; Bleecker & MacDougal; Kenneth Patchen; LA Rock Guide; Moondog; Krazy Kat; Kaleidoscope/Fairfield Parlour; Heyday Records & Detective Fiction (Free 7″ single given away with issue seven contained the following tracks : Clover—Ice Cream Man; Johnny Burton—Polevault Man; The Eggy—You’re Still Mine & Rhubarb Rhubarb—Rainmaker).