The Pig Paper was Canada’s very first self-published music fanzine, and for twelve years reported not only on the birth of that country’s independent music scene, but came to exemplify and epitomize the very DIY ethic itself.

Beginning life in the early Seventies as record-hunting correspondence between founder/publisher Gary Pig Gold and his oldest friend, Doug “Rock Serling” Pelton, the first Pig Paper to be made available to the public was a mock-concert program sold during a 1975 appearance by The Who in Toronto.

Within two years, The Pig Paper was covering Canada’s nascent punk rock community, publishing some of the first-ever in-depth articles on such bands as Teenage Head, The Viletones, and Simply Saucer as well as early reviews and interviews with The Ramones, Sex Pistols, Talking Heads and many others. Each issue also contained material on vintage acts such as The Beach Boys and Elvis Presley, as well as offering performers such as Half Japanese and Jandek many of their initial appearances in print.

The Pig Paper duly gave birth to the Pig Records label in 1978, issuing the first release by Simply Saucer, and Gary’s widely-syndicated Pigshit column, which first appeared in the February 1979 issue of Flipside, continues to run monthly online to this day.

Here is the first issue. It was put together in December 1975 because the Who were coming to Toronto. In an interview with Pete Townshend, Peter discusses the rock-opera they are creating, which her refers to as “Billy.”

Gary Pig Gold website:  Please check it out!

Pinball Wizard by The Who

Published by Michelle

View all posts by Michelle