Mick Magic
Well, you’re going back over 20 years there, you know! I’m honestly not sure about the FIRST tape trade, BUT… I can tell you the pivotal moment I became “connected,” as it were: I think it was when an article had been written about Magic Moments At Twilight Time in The Organ, circa the Summer of ’88. As a result, a band called Paradox sent us a tape, a friendly letter and a handful of flyers. The first two items ultimately lead to the expansion of our own MMATT Tapes label into the more globally minded Music & Elsewhere. The flyers were that pivotal moment. Amongst them was one for BBP Records & Tapes, the truly independent Stephen Parsons, who also ran the UK wing of Kentucky Fried Royalty, which in turn lead to KFR Germany (Guido Erfen and the underground legend that is Lord Litter), not to mention KFR USA, aka your good self. How did it make me feel? No longer alone. As it turned out, it was only the first epiphany of many as time revealed that global underground to be far greater than the sum of its parts, probably even more so than any of us ever realised. You think about it; we were all communicating with bands and like-minded souls from the four corners of our round world (?) BEFORE the Internet made postage stamps, jiffy bags and and those little green customs forms effectively obsolete! That ‘united world underground’ was a phenomenon before its time and I’m very proud to have been a part of it.
Mick Magic became a central figure in the world underground scene from the sleepy town of Frimley, south of London. Banging out the space rock with his band, Magic Moments At Twilight Time, championing indie groups with his zine, The Mattrix (below and left), distributing and selling tapes with his Music And Elsewhere label ( which later morphed into the United World Underground ), and basically working night and day ( when not driving a cab) on underground music activities.
Kevyn Dymond and I met him and some of his mates in 1991 in his home town and we could feel the energy of his music and his passion for the underground straight away. Mick also has a very large sense of cutting humor and the first thing he said to me was, “I thought you would be taller”. Now, he might add “thinner too”. Stop it Mick or I’ll eat that last piece of marzipan.
