“A report that Liz and Cath have produced a full-colour magazine. As described in James Nice's Shadowplayers, the money came from Tony Wilson, who gave Naylor fifty quid after Jon Savage 'frog marched' her up to Wilson and insisted she be paid for a script he'd asked her to write. The script was for a spy thriller film that was to be set in Manchester. Naylor wrote a few notes in Biro which involved A Certain Ratio blowing up Joy Division, then vanished with the cheque.”
“The no-nonsense 'bloke goes to gig - bloke likes gig - bloke tells people he liked gig' tone of this review of a night at Factory's Russell Club is a world away from the City Fun style which developed after Liz Naylor and Cath Carroll's coup. Nevertheless, there were continuities: the in-jokes and the politics, for example.”
“With hindsight, there is a kind of poignancy in one of the last issues of City Fun featuring news of a new Manchester listings magazine called 'City Life' which, like its predecessors, may succeed briefly then fizzle out. In reality, City Life went on to run in physical form for twenty-two years and still has an online presence. At least for its first nine years it essentially took up where City Fun left off, with its co-operative structure and mixed coverage of music, arts and politics.”
“In typical non-professional fanzine style, it appears Liz and Cath managed one more issue after announcing their departure, though with the not-quite accurate caveat that the majority of it is "poxy adverts".”
“The editorial of the last ever issue edited by Liz and Cath, who went off to London in search of "Sapphic Paradise". It seems they took the emotional occasion as an opportunity to let their hyper-critical guard down a little, referring to New Hormones boss and close friend Richard Boon as "a saint", and giving a revealing list of the music that meant most to them at this moment. There's almost no post-punk, which had begun to run its course by this point ("I hope I'm never in a New Order mood", Liz quips) but it's not replaced with New Pop, goth or any other current trends. Instead there is a love of folk, jazz and soul, much of it pre-80s. A kind of burned-out return to authenticity, perhaps?”
“This review of a documentary on pornography and advert for a women's self defence class in Moss Side reveal one reason why that friendship between Ludus and City Fun existed: a shared commitment to women's rights.”
“More Hacienda publicity combined with fraternal teasing in an interview with Howard Jones and Mike Pickering. The air of arch conceptualism which the club was going for is somewhat punctured by the mock 'fun for all the family' style of reportage adopted by the article's author: "Are you with us so far, Gran?"”
“"Get some decent food down your neck!": An advert for Manchester's still-thriving Eighth Day vegetarian food co-op below a gig list featuring A Certain Ratio and Nico backed by the Blue Orchids. Once more, the now sadly absent common-sense links between countercultural music, alternative values and ethical economic models are implicitly made, with Una Baines of the Blue Orchids as a nodal point; she told me that she was first introduced to feminism as a teenager by a group of women who were involved in setting up the Eighth Day.”
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