Boots 'N Booze

In keeping with the 'zine theme', it seemed fitting to post these old relics of yesteryear. This was Boots N Booze from 1987. It was a skinhead zine published by a handful of friends. And I shouldn't have to explain that the skinheads we're talking here aren't the chair-throwing, Geraldo ranting, racist rich kids we hear so much about. This was all about the Spirit O' 69, original skinheads. Guinness drinking reggae listening toe-heads.

It was a great collaboration for about 6 of us, and though in keeping in Santa Cruz tradition, we barely got 2 of these out a year, it was a great distraction from high school.





This was basically the baby of Joel Loya, who has all of the artwork, and got us off of our ass' to contribute. He really did 90% of the artwork and writing, though, when we contributed a mere record review we felt like we were in charge. Joel kept is going for about 6 years and 12 issues until hair started to grow out, and boots were wore less often.

Also, an interesting schism happened within the magazine in 1989. Some folks had moved in from out of town, and due to the increasing violence we'd been seeing with racist thugs, the purists of the team decided to weed out the moderates. It was now going to be 100% soul and reggae, 'traditional' and discarding any veering we might have done to other music or subjects. It broke the team up a bit, but, we all kept contributing for years to come. Viva La Oi!