Café Royal Books is the kind of gritty, underground gold that punches through the noise with raw, real stories—told frame by frame. They’re not a café, they’re not royal, and they’re definitely not books. What they are is a razor-sharp archive of DIY photo zines that scream with the unfiltered soul of street life, punk scenes, and counterculture past. No gloss, no polish— just truth, straight from the pavement.

Brian Gibson — Punk, Rock, New Wave Newcastle & Middlesbrough 1977-1978

I grew up in Newcastle and in my teens I would to go to gigs on a regular basis. One week it would be Hawkwind the next Leonard Cohen or David Bowie or Black Sabbath, I was just this school kid who just soaked it all up. By the time punk started to emerge in 1977 I had taken an interest in photography, with an SLR camera and a makeshift darkroom in my bedroom.

It wasn't long before I became immersed in that environment and became involved in the start of a new Fanzine titled Deviation Street, it lasted for 3 issues which was about the average for fanzines then. In that time we managed to run features /reviews of local bands such as Penetration, Angelic Upstarts, Speed and The Mps (which I later joined) along with the likes of The Stranglers, Wire, The Ramones and more.

BOOK SPECS:
36 pages
Printed in England
Staple bound
14cm x 20cm