GO (2004-2008)

GO was a fanzine about Sheffield produced in collaboration with Tom James from 2004 to 2008. The publication was a love letter to a city that is not always lovable at first sight. Sheffield is a cult classic, a city with hills and trees and music and great people. It kind of gets under your skin.

Over four years and 11 issues we shouted, ranted, campaigned, and enjoyed the city; coming up with ideas for its future while celebrating its past. This was a simpler time before the credit crunch of 2008, a decade of Tory austerity, before the portmanteau of Brexit was even a thing. It was a time when for all intents and purposes the internet barely existed or at least we didn’t know how to use it.

The fanzine covered everything from Sheffield’s modernist architectural heritage, its distinctive local culture, dead space, to gay life in a northern city, and wanting to leave. It was lo-fi and scruffy because Sheffield was lo-fi and scruffy. It was put together with minimal design expertise, and in the beginning was photocopied after-hours in the offices of the student’s union.

GO was featured in the national press, was voted one of the top 10 best kept arts secrets in Britain, and was featured in a documentary about fanzines on Radio 4. It was part of the exhibitions including ‘A Few Zines: Dispatches from the Edge of Architectural Production’ (2009) curated by Mimi Zeiger; and ‘Archizines’ (2011-2015) curated by Elias Redstone; and is part of the collections of the National Art Library at the V&A, and the School of Architecture Library at Princeton University.

Issues 4-11 are here. The rest are under a bed somewhere and will be uploaded when we get round to it.