Website: www.bulletmagazine.co.uk
Date: Tue 1 Jun 2004

Imagine the buzz of the Ramones, the electric intensity of the Clash. Imagine rock'n'roll turned into fiction. You'd be thinking of Sunderland-based rock 'n' roll fiction magazine Bullet, which has just launched its second issue. Literature North East spoke to the magazine's founder Keith Jeffrey.

Why a rock 'n' roll literary magazine?
What we are trying to do is develop the idea of rock and roll noir. What would happen if classic noir writers had been brought up listening to the Pistols or Elvis rather than jazz? Would it be possible to translate the spirit, energy, and above all swagger of rock and roll to fiction?

Very few writers have attempted to explore this and we think there's a lot of potential.

Does the magazine just feature stories about music?
Hardly any are about music, most tend to be crime/thrillers but with a style that seems coherent with the notion of rock'n'roll noir.

What's in this issue of Bullet?
20 stories - see the website for details and previews!

What does music have to do with literature?
What we are trying to do is expand the rock and roll aesthetic. Music is the obvious form, but for the failed rock stars among us Bullet is a way to communicate using a near universal reference point.

Who are the 'heroes' that feature on the Bullet website? Is it just coincidence that most of them are now dead?
The heroes are those that through their work best symbolise the rock'n'roll noir aesthetic. Writers like Lester Bangs and James Ellroy [pictured] write with a speed, fizz and crackle that has more in common with an early Ramones single than any literary reference you may care to mention.

The musicians are lost heroes, work which was deeply influential and are a great inspiration for Bullet but who somehow have yet to get their full props.

What is the fascination that the rock and roll world seems to have with James Ellroy?
I think it's the attack and energy he brings to his writing, the closing chapters of White Jazz are pure rock'n'roll.

In the past, there were plenty of performers with one foot in both literary and musical camps, such as Leonard Cohen, John Lennon, Patti Smith, Pete Townshend etc. How much of a crossover is
there nowadays between music and literature?
If you're talking pop and rock, next to none really and I'm not sure why. Maybe musicians are more interested in being movie stars than writers?

How did you get [former Teardrop Explodes keyboard player and head of Food Records] David Balfe involved? Is this the first thing he's had published?
A friend of mine organised a music industry seminar which involved Dave. He liked the first issue of Bullet and had something appropriate, we were very pleased to publish it. This is the first thing he's had out.

Are there any contemporary rockers you'd like to see try their hands at fiction?
Lemmy and Dick Valentine (Electric Six).

How often are you going to be publishing and what are your plans for the next one?
The plan is to do four issues a year but we're slipping on that at the moment. The next issue we're hoping to bring in some rock and roll criticism which should widen our audience we hope but always, we'll be publishing fiction.

Bullet is available in print and downloadable electronic versions. To buy a copy or to subscribe, see the Bullet website.

The second issue of Bullet will be launched on 2 June with a party at Newcastle's Cluny. The event features Bullet writers Milky Wilberforce, Lee Coombes and Ray Banks reading from their own work, animations from Pete McAdam and live performance from groundbreaking, electronic marvels and Tummy Touch recording artistes, the Guessmen, who have been described as, "like John Cale meets Captain Beefheart meets Joe Meek".
 
Tickets available by emailing info@bulletmagazine.co.uk.

Doors open at 7.30pm, with free bubbly till it runs out.

The Cluny
36 Lime Street
Ouseburn
Newcastle upon Tyne
Tyne and Wear
NE1 2PQ