Adelphi gig to celebrate 30th anniversary of influential Hull music magazine ‘Where?’

‘IT WAS A GREAT SCENE THEN AND IT’S GREAT NOW’: Tim Joseph, left, founder of Where? magazine, with Chris Warkup

By Simon Bristow

Bands from the early-90s music scene in Hull will play The Adelphi on Sunday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the launch of city music magazine Where?

The gig was supposed to take place last year but was postponed because of the pandemic, and is now being billed as Where? XXXI (Class of 1992).

The night, which will feature bands from the day and some in their current guises, will also be a tribute to Where? founder Tim Joseph. It follows on from the sell-out Where? XXV gig at the same venue six years ago, when Tim had just completed a course of treatment for cancer.

Bands taking part include Janus Stark, who have reformed especially for the occasion and will be playing their first gig for 30 years. The line-up also features Loudhailer Electric Company, fronted by Lou Duffy-Howard, a member of the recently reformed legendary Hull band Red Guitars, a current member of Agent Starling, and a former member of The Planet Wilson.

Tim Joseph, right, with Myles from Kingmaker at the Where? XXV gig at The Adelphi. Picture by Richard Duffy-Howard

Also playing are Oceaneers, featuring former members of Looking For Adam; The Last Bastions of Bohemia, featuring former members of The Brontes; and The Part-Time Popstars. A number of special guests are also promised.

Tim said: “The last one was wonderful, so much support and so many people attending it. I thought I was going to be there on my own – the support was amazing. All the acts were great. It was fantastic, really.

“Because I wasn’t well it was a good tonic. I’d just finished chemo at the time. I had some scans last month and they didn’t show any new growth so that’s good news, so I just carry on day to day.

“It was supposed to be Where? XXX but now it’s Where? XXXI. It worked well last time so Chris [Warkup, friend, musician, and gig organiser] thought it might be nice to do it again. I think everyone enjoyed it. One good thing about the last one was a lot of people who haven’t seen each other for years got together again.

Loudhailer Electric Company. Picture by Sydpix

“It’s nice that Janus Stark have reformed especially to do it. I can’t imagine what they look like now, but I’ll find out.”

Where? was a monthly magazine which ran from 1991 to 1994 and provided comprehensive coverage of the city’s music scene with a depth not seen before or since. It covered nearly every original band playing in and around Hull, from major established acts to new ones.

Tim combined his editor’s role with writing much of the content himself, but also enlisted an army of freelance reviewers to help out, including Chris, who as well as playing in a variety of bands was already writing the Yosser’s music column for the Hull, Hell & Happiness football fanzine.

“It was very home-made,” Tim said. “Windows 3 was the upgrade. I did it because Hull never seemed to get the attention it deserved although there was a lot happening. The name Where? Was supposed to be sarcastic. People asked ‘Where are you from?’, you’d say ‘Hull’ and they asked ‘Where?’.

John from Oceaneers

“I also wanted a permanent record of what was going on. I made sure I got every CD or LP or demo tape and reviewed and interviewed as many bands as I could. And I also tried to be positive. There’s no point being negative. I didn’t want to put someone off playing for life because of some negative review. I was trying to encourage people.

“The early issues had a bit of historical stuff. The longer it went on the harder it got to do every month. I wanted it to be a permanent record of Hull’s music industry. It’s just a shame it didn’t last longer. Imagine if it had lasted until now … all that history would be recorded. But I was preaching to the converted at the end.”

Tim managed to produce Where? while also gigging with his own band, England Under Snow.

As well as promoting Hull bands, Tim’s eclectic approach led to some major coups and exclusives.

Contributor Tim Maitland interviewed a then relatively unknown American band called Nirvana after a gig in Bradford. It was about a week before the single Smells Like Teen Spirit catapulted the group into global superstars.

Tim Joseph and Chris Warkup (wearing hats) with engineer Gary Burroughs at Animal Tracks studio in 1993, producing one of Chris’s Hull North of Manchester compilations of bands featured in Where?

Tim Joseph said: “Tim rang me and said ‘You really need to run this’. I said ‘Well, there’s not really any connection to Hull, but go on then’.”

Chris said: “It was just as Smells Like Teen Spirit was breaking. And soon after that it was like, ‘Oh, they’re the biggest band in the world now’.”

Closer to home, after the success of Red Guitars and The Housemartins in the 80s, few Hull bands had made it big until Kingmaker burst onto the scene in the early 90s. Kingmaker’s meteoric rise breathed fresh life into the local scene Where? was just beginning to cover.

Tim said: “We were lucky in a way it [the magazine] coincided with the rise of Kingmaker. When something breaks through it encourages a lot of other people to think ‘I can do that’.”

The recently reformed Janus Stark, getting ready for their first gig in 30 years

And then after all that energy and vibrancy, things began to peter out. Tim said this was because many bands had members who were university students, who left the city after completing their degrees. “Another reason the magazine ended was it was the end of that cycle and everything seemed to stop at once,” he said. “We lasted one university career and then they all went home in the summer of ’94 and never came back.”

But he and Chris said the Hull music scene now was arguably as strong as it has ever been, with bands such as low hummer, Life, bdrmm, The Gold Needles, and Late Night Marauders among those on the rise.

Tim said: “It did come back with The Paddingtons. And I think there’s even more happening now – I’m just too old and knackered [to cover it]. It does seem like there’s a lot happening and it seems a shame there’s not a Where?”

Looking forward to Sunday, he said: “It will be nice to see everyone again, and it will be interesting to see how everyone sounds.”

• The gig starts at 8pm and tickets can be bought in advance for £5.80 from eventbrite, or are £5 on the door.