There was a very short lived psychedelic magazine in late 1967 and early 1968 which was printed in Nottingham. Its Editorial and Advertising Offices were at R. Milward and Sons Ltd, Leengate, Lenton, Nottingham. The editor was Martin Graham. The trade agents were Surridge Dawson Ltd, London.

It’s not absolutely clear to me whether Martin Graham or the magazine has any connection to Nottingham or was just printed by the company here but here are the details anyway. 4 issues were issued and a fifth was prepared but never saw the light of day.

Here is an editorial by Martin Graham (The magazine’s originator).

There is a description of the magazine by Patrick Lundborg here and I’ve reprinted it below.

The Flower Scene Magazine
Printed in Nottingham and edited by Martin Graham
Writers include Pete Denning, Dandy Richards, Jon Merrifield.
4 issues with a 5th being completed but never issued

England’s lost psychedelic magazine, 1967-68

by Patrick Lundborg

issue #1 issue #4

As mentioned in Flashback magazine’s essential overview of vintage music magazines (by Richard Morton Jack and Richie Unterberger), there were many small and today completely forgotten music zines from the embryonic days of the ‘rock press’. These should not be confused with the underground press who had its own history of iconoclasm and subversion, but instead taken as the arrival of a new type of pop culture publications, inspired by early efforts like Crawdaddy, Mojo Navigator and Rolling Stone, all of which began in 1966-67, and all of which dealt almost exclusively with rock music.

The bold idea to treat the new breed of musicians as artists who may have something to say and in the very least deserved to be handled like grown-ups spread like rings across the water, one particular wave reaching Nottingham where one Martin Graham watched the exciting new ‘flower’ culture sweep across society while terrific music blasted forth from radios. Putting the two together bred the idea of a magazine that dealt with the ‘flower scene’, which primarily meant psychedelic music, with a third eye open for things like hippie fashion, music festivals, social issues like drug use, etc.

The first fruit of this labor, issue #1 from year #1 of FLOWER SCENE magazine, appeared in October 1967, which was not a bad time to start a hip, forward-looking zine. The friendly, grounded tone of the mag combined well with a basic but effective layout where each ‘flower music’ artist was presented across a spread with one page of text/interview, and one page of photo material. It should be noted that Flower Scene was not a radical or counter-culture publication, nor was it one of those fake ‘happening’ magazines that the music industry put out to promote their artist roster. It was quite simply an unpretentious zine put together by a group of young men and women who were enthusiastic over the new psychedelic music and its accompanying socio-cultural expressions.

The material is mainly proprietary rather than syndicated, meaning that a lot of the articles and interviews can only be found in these Flower Scene issues, which has contributed to their highly desirable status. As an example, Velvet Underground collectors are very keen on finding the unique VU interview that appeared in one of the issues. Perhaps coolest of all is the inclusion of several groups that are as obscure as the magazine itself, such as Skip Bifferty and the Syn, and as always with these old mags you get marvy bonus surprises such as a photo of the poorly documented Paper Blitz Tissue (of Chocolate Soup non-fame). Admittedly, there are several pieces in each issue that deal with artists that went nowhere and have raised no retrospective interest, and at times the vibe becomes too much like those teen-beat magazines of the mid-’60s whose lack of critical perspective and obsession with present hits caused them to proclaim Barry McGuire the future of pop music, or similar clueless hyperbole. In toto, however, Flower Scene remains a respectworthy, charming and occasionally dazzling publication among the flora of independent 60s-era music magazines.

There is no way I can write about Flower Scene without bringing up the special connection it had to myself and others in the neo-garage/psych scene of the 1980s. Following their excellent debut LP, Milwaukee’s cultish PLASTICLAND released a 45 circa 1985 which paid tribute to Flower Scene magazine. In a Bucketfull Of Brains interview at the time, Plasticland front man Glenn Rehse explained that he learned of this obscure zine as a kid back in the ’60s, when his older sister brought copies with her back to the US.
The song, though not a masterpiece, is rather charming in its praise to a forgotten old paper and ‘all of my favorite pop stars’. Curiosity was piqued here in the Vajrayana Lounge, yet actual copies of Flower Scene seemed impossible to locate, and for a while I began to think that Rehse had made the whole thing up, or changed the name of the mag. It wasn’t until recent years that I found confirmation that it truly existed as described.

“Sister brought these magazines…”

Flower Scene issue #1, October 1967

This is actually the back cover, but it’s more
attractive than the front cover which has an
unexceptional photo of Ringo Starr and baby Jason

Intro/program declaration

News snippets including Moby Grape
Woburn hippie festival discussed
Peanut Butter Conspiracy 1/2-page photo (no text)
Maharishi
Flamingo Club in London (incl reference and small photo of Paper Blitz Tissue)
John’s Children 1/1-page photo (no text)
John Peel interviewed, unemployed at the time
Arthur Brown photo+interview

Jefferson Airplane photo+interview (Grace)
San Francisco report
Pink Floyd big photo+interview
(Waters+Mason)
Mothers Of Invention photo+interview
Jimi Hendrix 1/1-page photo (no text)
Hippie fashion
Scott McKenzie photo +interview
The Doors small photo+text
Alex Harvey Band 1/1-page photo (no text)
The Move as anti-war group, Carl Wayne interview
Janis Ian photo+interview

Eric Burdon & Animals 1/1-page photo + interview about LSD use + award “hippie of the month”
New Vaudeville Band 1/1-page photo (no text)
Keith West/Tomorrow details on ‘Teenage Opera’ plans+small photo of Keith

Flower Scene issue #4,
January 1968

Intro/editorial with thoughts on recent success of Simon Dupree & “Kites”

Doors photo + interview (both look to be syndicated)
Equals photo + article
The Herd/Peter Frampton photo + interview with Frampton who ‘now lives at home with his parents’
Desmond Dekker photo + interview
Appreciation of Stones & Their Satanic Majesties Request
Photos of Sandie Shaw and Scott Walker (no text)
Skip Bifferty photo + interview

A poem
Jose Feliciano photo + interview
Cliff Richard photo + interview
The Cake (girl group) photo (no text)
Fashion scene: Apple boutique/The Fool, photo + article
Clear Light photo + article (possibly syndicated)
Otis Redding in memoriam photo (no text)
Kris Ife photo + interview
John’s Children photo (no text)
Flowerpot Men photo + interview