So here it is, the very first issue of Magazine. It’s the N°1 but we quickly gave it the code name of « Numéro Zero » as there was another N°1 when we had to change the name for legal reasons. But this is the real N°1, dated march 1980. Thirty years ago. Big format, silk screen printing on the cover, 60 pages, with a bonus 7’’ plastic record of my brother Lala’s first ever record, « Jolie Fille d’Alger ».

What stucks me everytime I look at it (which is seldom) is how we managed to create a little fanzine with just a bunch of friends. In 1980, merely 3 years in Paris, my connections were a few, it was just my brothers (my eldest bro gave me a little bit of money, along Maxime Journiac and Philippe Ouada), a few friends, Patrick Sarfati, the gay clique of Greeks guys living in Paris and that’s it. Nobody famous. Misti was here, obviously, and his ideas are all over the design.

We didn’t know how to write so the idea was to enjoy it. For the interviews, we started with people we knew, like Lala, Ivan Cattaneo (some underground gay Italian singer with a good rep), Jean Le Bitoux wo did a lot of things for gaylib, Daniel Giboury (Bowie’s biggest fan in France at that time), Jean-Pierre Battiloni (designing clothes that would make Lady Gaga scream), Jean-Philippe Coz who started the fanzine Gaie Presse. Then some famous people of that time, harder to get : Jacno, Madness, porn actor Karl Forest, Bernard Faucon, Kiki Picasso. Of course, Magazine was already on the chase for old forgotten myths : Denise Glaser, who used to have the most stylish show on French TV in the 60’s and Pieral, an actor for many famous French movies, a real trooper.

Second section of Magazine is not yet about erotic stories. It’s just fan kids writing about their swag. Sébastien Lucaire writes about Bowie, Pascal Galy about Japanese cinema, Pascal Mounet about Jean Lorrain, Misti about TV and me about disco, of course.

Third section is beautiful but not quite well printed as we chose a cheap paper on purpose to constrast with the shiny cover. My favourite page is N°50 with Sakis Kavadias (RIP), the most beautiful and sweet Greek gay guy in Paris at that time (a big crush). Oh yes, there is this incredible pic of William Burroughs, page 55, a vintage print stolen by Jean-Philippe somewhere.

So here we are, a daring little fanzine with a plastic disc and a beautiful cover lay-out. Gay truth WAS really mazching on !