Girl Germs is our DIY feminist, queer and trans* friendly club night, and soon-to-be record label. We started in 2008, as part of our university’s Feminist Week. We hired out the student union bar, and suddenly we had four bands booked. We had a lot of help from the staff at the union, and our friends in the Feminist Society blew up loads of balloons for us. And on the night, people turned up! To a club night that we arranged!

When we graduated, we decided that we wanted to do it again. We were a bit cautious, though, as suddenly we were dealing with real venues and it was just the two of us (and our friend Tukru, with her amazing zine distro). We put on several nights in Camden with no bands where we’d DJ for hours, sometimes getting our friends to help us out when we got tired. Our little venue was always full, and everybody left tired and sweaty.

Our latest hand-drawn flyer

But it was during the preparations for Ladyfest Ten that we plucked up the courage to put on another full-scale night with bands. We managed to put on three of our favourite bands and organise DJs, stalls and even cake. We’d somehow pulled it off again! The place was packed, and we were exhausted, but ecstatic.

The plan was to build on the success of that night, but mental health issues and a period of unemployment and geographical separation meant it was impossible. We’re back next month though, and more excited than ever.

We’ve learned a lot through running Girl Germs. But the biggest thing is: running a club night is easy. Most promoters don’t want you to know that, because they don’t want you to try it yourself. We’re poor, unsociable and uncool. We spend a lot of time talking to our cat. If we can do it, so can you.

You don’t need a lot of money

We both work really hard in low-paid jobs. We don’t have trust funds, or any disposable income to speak of at all, really. A night can be as expensive or cheap as you make it. There are very few upfront costs, because bands and venues can be paid on the night from your door takings. It’s also kind of a waste to spend loads of money on fancy flyers, because the most effective promotion now happens online through social media. We spend a little money on photocopying beforehand, but that’s about it.

You don’t need ‘connections’

To have connections, you’d probably need to network, and who wants to do that? We don’t have a little black book with useful emails in. We just write to bands we like and venues we think might want us, and ask nicely. It’s much easer that way, especially if you’re shy. Hell, we barely have the courage to speak to bands when they’re at Girl Germs ready to play.

You don’t need technical knowledge

DJing is easy, and the best way to learn is by doing. We learned on the job, and it never went that badly wrong. As well as that, bands will let you know what they need, and venues will understand their requests. Your job is to be the go-between. If you have any questions, bands and sound people are always happy to answer. That’s their job, after all. Generally venues will have most of the gear, and bands expect to bring extras themselves and sometimes share with other acts on the bill.

You don’t need to spend oodles of time on it

You won’t need to give up your day job to give yourself enough time to do this. We have very little free time in the evenings after work, but it’s enough to get things done.

In the lead-up, you’ll mainly be emailing people and drumming up support on Twitter and Facebook. If you have a smartphone, you can do this on the go (or under your desk at work). You might need an evening to write a press release, or an hour or so to set up a Facebook page and event, but it’s all manageable if you’re a little bit organised about it.

You won’t need to beg venues and bands to give you a chance

Venues need cub nights, and bands need gigs. People need somewhere to go for a dance on a Saturday night. These people aren’t doing you a favour, and most of them won’t act like they are. Venues have always been helpful and supportive to us, and bands have been excited to play. As long as you let people know what they’re doing and when, you’ll be fine.

So, there it is. Easy, huh?

We’d love more club nights to go to, run by like-minded people. Find your own theme, and give it a go. There’s almost nothing more satisfying than watching a room full of people dancing and knowing that you got them there.

If you want to know anything in more detail, or you have questions, you can email us at [email protected] and we’ll do our best to help.

• Lydia and Laura run Girl Germs from their flat in South East London, which they share with a large, angry cat. As well as organising feminist dance parties, they enjoy bikes, knitting, gardening and cooking squashes (Laura) and writing, furniture, Tarantino movies and Wotsits (Lydia). Their love for Beyoncé is deep and profound.
• Girl Germs on Facebook
• The next event: 9th Feb 2013 at Power Lunches, featuring My Therapist Says Hot Damn, Loveover, Woolf and zines from Vampire Sushi!
• @GirlGermsLondon

“I used to write for a ‘zine back when there was no internet…”

But to the ‘zines. I used to write for a fanzine, back in sixth form, when I was trying to be as cool as the girl who made the fanzine in question, who wanted to be a music journalist and who didn’t like Kula Shaker so I had to pretend not to like them either (but I did, and I do). I remember getting super excited over the fact that I was holding in my hand something that I had helped to make, and seeing my art in print for the first time. It made me realise that I could actually be creative, that there were things I could physically make outside of the dismal sessions of Art Class where I woefully, grudgingly failed to reproduce any of the techniques of the grand masters. This involved scissors and glue and a photocopier. I could totally do those things! I did pictures for two issues, until teenage bitching meant that no one was talking to anyone and it all got a bit fraught.

My treasure trove

So that was my experience. I’m glad to say that other people are still making fanzines, and that they are varied, beautiful, different and amazing. I spent a tenner on a stack of ‘zines and came home giddy with the fact I owned little bits of art, thought and lovely stuff. Counter culture. I was gobsmacked with the array of fanzines on offer and made even happier when I realised how fucking feminist all of it was. And how diverse that feminism felt. All kinds of people were making all kinds of cool, gender-diverse, body-shape positive, politically forward things. Which were funny. And nice to look at.

Here are some of my faves.

Queer and Feminist ‘Zines

I fell in love with Nancy just from the cover alone, and more so when I read the contents. A series of personal essays, rants and raves on the subject of effeminate gay men and why there is such antagonism towards them both within mainstream AND gay culture. A seriously smart read, which delivers one gay chap’s take on queer theory sliced through with pics of Lady Gaga and Brian Molko. I particularly enjoyed the list of ‘positive femme men’. Shape and Situate subtitled itself as Posters of Inspirational European Women, and it did exactly what it said on the cover. A whole bunch of artists had done different pages, in different styles, giving stories and pictures about women as varied as Jayaben Desai and Liz Ely, so I now have a whole host of new icons, plus lots of links to new artists and new feminist allies I hadn’t heard of before. Girls Who Fight – do NOT google “girls who fight”; you will get bad porn – from Monster Emporium (see the distributors list below) is a good wodge of art, essays, stories, photos and all kinds of feminist goodies. I got all three issues due to being greedy. And I regret nothing. Another of my stellar buys was Miss Moti by artist Kripa Joshi. A stunning and high quality comic, standing out from its photocopied sisters. The rich, lush artwork details the daydream life of Miss Moti:

Pronounced with a regular T this Nepali word means

A Plump Woman

But spoken with a softer T it means

A Pearl

I really liked the curvy, sexy heroine – depicted on the cover in a seashell like Venus, but clothed in a polka dot dress. The simple storylines unfolded into wonderful fantasies: a bit of cotton candy becomes a pink cloud landscape where she sculpts her own David; a piece of apple grows into a new Eden complete with Adam. This was a real change from the lycra-clad hardbodies and explosion-tasms of the usual suspect superheroines I’ve become so used to seeing. This comic focused on her desires, rather than using her as a vehicle for the (assumed straight male) reader.

Distributors and Indie Publishers

Vampire Sushi are ‘zine distributors, so they’ve got their fingers in lots of pies. They specialise in perzines¹, art ‘zines, queer ‘zines, food ‘zines and feminist ‘zines. Which is pretty much all your ‘zine food groups.  Similarly, Monster Emporium Press have ‘zines and artbooks, as well as being monster-themed, which we at BadRep Towers are generally in favour of. Other Asias bring together artists whose work challenges misrepresentations and generalisations of “The East”. One of their cute mini ‘zines comes with a teabag inside, which meant that all my ‘zines now have a delicious scent to them. Finally, Honest Publishing are an independent publisher based in SW London, celebrating authors with unique, alternative voices.

• If you make feminist or feminist-friendly (or friendly feminist) fanzines, please get in touch with us and tell us all about it!

1. Nope, I didn’t know either. But Wiki does. Woo!