Melody Maker to close? Dadrock mags to reign supreme?

Ahhh... That's better!!!

Old Fart!!

Bloody pop mags, bloody dance mags, I'm locking my self in my room!

What are *my* kids going read every Wednesday?

"to sutherland" (verb): to make any publication as boring and lowest- common-denominator as possible :).

But then I remembered why I had stopped buying MM and then I heard that Fred Durst (AKA the most tedious rebel in pop) was going to be on the cover...

No doubt wearing his stupid red baseball cap...

No doubt having nothing to say of any interest...

Not sure I can face it

I was hoping the opening sentence ("Melody Maker's glory days were already well behind it when I joined as a freelancer in 1985") might have been followed by "But it would be fair to say my appointment worsened matters".

Caroline's radical thesis is that it wasn't the internet that's killed off MM - it was Vogue! She might be right, you know. I for one had a word with my newsagent a couple of years ago and had him amend my order. In many ways, Vogue's refereshing take on music criticism reminds me of Reynolds, Stubbs and Roberts in their late 80s heyday.

N. x

Death by Vogue? What a cretain.

But we shouldn't listen to Caroline Sullivan anyway. She recently contributed to - wait for this - Virgin Trains' promotional free magazine (yes, the bastards at South West Trains have started stocking it as well as their own magazine) lamenting that you can't tell what's at number 1 these days and nobody knows anyway, there's a new number 1 every week, nothing stays at number 1 for as long as Bryan Adams and Wet Wet Wet did (I'm not fucking joking; she was actually nostalgic for *them*), and it's all hype anyway. I think she's gone back to the old people's home now ...

MM - had Frank Owen - who did Hip Hop reviews/articles, plus Simon Reynolds supporting Hip Hop consistently, front covers too for Eric B & Rakim, Public Enemy. Mantronix all featured in 96 end of year poll.

The Maker was culturally on the slide throughout the nineties, it got progressively worse each year, however from 1996 onwards and particularly when Sutherland took over it lost the plot completely. The compass was not even pointing in the right direction.

I assume you mean 86 (or maybe 87 / 88) rather than 96 ...

by the way, did you see that berk Tony Parsons comment on MM/NME in The Mirror today, the berk thinks the heyday of music journalism was 60s Stones vs Beatles, 70s Clash vs Sex Pistols, 90s Blur Vs Oasis. And he hates the idea of the NME getting into a merger with MM, as "I feel like an old soldier watching his country cuddle up to the germans". A total berk, Parsons has not left the 70s, has simplistic ideas of music history, and today could not recognise creative music if it was waved in his face.

Old Fart!!!!!

In Her Heyday Remembering the Best Music Paper Ever by Everett True

Putting Q in the same category as Uncut and Mojo is a bit misguided to say the least. 90 per cent of the music Q covers is newly recorded. In styles and genres that may have existed in some form before 1980, yes, but still new music.

newly recorded maybe but still sounds like old fart music played by boring old farts (no offence thread starter just incase you ever come back to ILX)

I like how he includes himself in the list of 'witty, intelligent, provocative' writers. (also, I'm impressed ILM dates back all the way to the Melody Maker era!)

Some people need to get away from the idea that guitar based melodic music is only supposed to appeal to "boring old farts". It's timeless. It will always be here, and it will surive everything.

and you do know ET posted on ilx back then? It was quite good conversing on a message board with someone who had actually gotten me into some good music nearly 10 years previously via MM

I always kind of assumed this place was hack-and-muso-infested, but I've never been any good at working out who's who behind the arcane logins (lj apart). ET always seemed like the kind of guy you'd cross the street to avoid, but to give him his due some of his pithier reviews still make me smile (e.g. on Suede: "Album of the year. And the year is 1973")

he posted under his real name

I also assumed that ET wasn't his real name.

Some people need to get away from the idea that guitar based melodic music is only supposed to appeal to "boring old farts". It's timeless. It will always be here, and it will surive everything.

this is your occasional reminder Geir that while you like to believe this, it's clearly untrue

I always kind of assumed this place was hack-and-muso-infested, but I've never been any good at working out who's who behind the arcane logins

i've been ilm'ing for fucking years and this side of the game still has me stumped bar a few of the more obvious ones and those that dont hide behind pseudos.

http://www.barnaclepress.com/cmcvlt/OutburstsOfEverettTrue/oet080326.jpg

im bob christgau fyi

and this thread gets a b-

how am i the first person to repost some old fart!!! lines

Ahhh... That's better!!!

Old Fart!!

That Guardian obituary of the MM has to be one of the most hilariously badly-written and ill-informed pieces of pop coverage even it has ever given us ...

― Lutra Lutra, Friday, 15 December 2000 01:00 (8 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the earliest anti-guardian article post on ILM?

http://seniorcitizen.blogspot.com/ old farts blog still exists!

does he still post here?

But a look at the circulation figures (published at the end of the article) tell a different story. Top seller is (appropriately enough) TOTP by a large margin, (300,000+ sales) followed by Smash Hits, (200,000+) and then a fair bit behind that is our first dadrock mag, Q. (around 160,000)

I assume TOTP'S magazine doesnt exist now? What sales were Smash Hits getting when it folded?

Melody Maker fans go to http://archivedmusicpress.wordpress.com/category/melody-maker/
pages and pages of scans for you to enjoy

http://archivedmusicpress.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/talk-talk-talk-with-mr-agreeable-26th-october-1991.jpg

this is your occasional reminder Geir that while you like to believe this, it's clearly untrue

It has proved to be true. Melodic pop/rock was first declared dead in the early 90s, then came grunge and Britpop. Then it was declared dead (at least in its singer-songwriter form) during the boy-girl band craze in the late 90s. Then came Travis and Coldplay. It will always be here, it will never disappear.

you sure?

citation needed

blueski , which of the weeklies did you think covered dance music best, NME or Melody Maker?
I always thought MM was better but just wondered what everyone else thought.

i only read MM about three times ever unfortunately, but i'm sure they did

Did you buy NME then or did you always just buy mixmag/muzik?

Geir is making the point that a 50 year-old art form will last FOR ALL ETERNITY which is clearly batshit and wrong but is at least proving entertaining.

Some people need to get away from the idea that Old Fart!!! posts are only supposed to appeal to old-ILM. They're timeless. They will always be here, and they will survive everything.

Geir is making the point that a 50 year-old art form will last FOR ALL ETERNITY

I thought he was talking about flamenco

i only bought around 50 or so NMEs between '94 and '01 probably. MM just never seemed as visible and i had got it into my head that it was not as good for some reason (if by chance i'd bought MM first i probably would've ended up feeling that way about NME).

probably. But MM was really really bad the last few years.

I know late 80s/early 90s MM seems to have the better reputation these days but if the album lists are anything to go by the NME was covering way more interesting music.

Matt you're gonna be unpopular with steve, you've just given me an idea for a poll!

Melody Maker EOY List 1987 vs NME EOY List 1987?

IPC Media plans online revival of Melody Maker - Press Gazette
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=44920&c=1
IPC plans to revive the Melody Maker name with a comprehensive online archive of the magazine - which ran from 1926 until it merged with the New Musical Express in 2000.

Found some old issues when packing up my mum's house at the weekend. Priceless commentary on world events from TFC and Jesus Jones in the Xmas '91 issue:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2781/4285889815_256772f614.jpg

That's a pretty great picture. The bloke in behind could be crooning.

Bobby Robson on the right?

Melody Maker started in NINETEEN TWENTY-SIX?!?!?!?!?!??

http://www.r2ok.co.uk/mmaker1.jpg http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/journals/modernmusic/melodysm.jpg

My grandad used to buy it in the 40's to read about dance bands.

i interviewed a very elderly and quite senile spike milligan for the melody maker back in 1998, just when i started, and he said "i used to read the melody maker when it was a jazz magazine, but now its just full of monkey music"

pretty sure "jazz magazine" is a euphemism for something else

(... "50-year old fart form" ...)

(xxxxxx-post)

Those two covers are lovely. The first reminds me of the animation in Fantasia, or something 1920s anyway. I like that it's The Melody Maker too, that feels important.

"A bungalow, a piccolo and you"

They don't write them like that anymore!

Once, when I was living back at home post-degree, I was laid up in bed ill with something or other and I asked my mum to pick up MM from the newsagents. "Oh, I used to buy that when I was your age!" (She was 63 and I was about 22 at the time). She came back looking thoroughly unimpressed with a magazine that had MEGA CITY FOUR CUT THE CRAP on the front cover and some guy in dreads sticking his tongue piercing out at the camera. Joe Loss it wasn't.

If they did an online archive of issues from the twenties and thirties, that would be awesome!!

Would love that. It's pretty sad that they ended up having weeks where a Mega City Four feature was the big selling point.

They'd have represented a Hot New Thing at that point though surely?

I guess that grunge was taking off and they were probably scrambling for suitably scruffy UK oiks? Would probably find them totally unlistenable now, but the MC4 were good fun at the time.

I seem to remember it being a fairly confrontational feature - rather like the Levellers cover story around the same time. MC4, Senseless Things, etc were definitely not part of the prevailing early '90s MM aesthetic (they got +ve coverage in NME though and possibly Sounds before it folded) but this was a sort of state-your-case sop to a popular band. A sort of "we admire yr politics, why do you have make such a turgid racket"?

i interviewed a very elderly and quite senile spike milligan for the melody maker back in 1998, just when i started, and he said "i used to read the melody maker when it was a jazz magazine, but now its just full of monkey music"

Reminds me a little of when MM interviewed Bernard Manning sometime during the nineties. His opening gambit: "what do a jazz paper want to talk to me for?"

I think I remember that MC4 piece, they basically let the guy make a cock out of himself and gave him the cover for his trouble.
Here it is, and yeah I remember that sub-heading too:

http://www.rockofages.uk.com/stock/19987.jpg

Don't recall the girls on sex article tho.

http://tomewing.tumblr.com/post/342881741/1993

Funny thing about that issue and cover -- when Melody Maker sponsored the Rollercoaster USA tour in late 1992 (Jesus and Mary Chain/Curve/Spiritualized) they sent over a huge batch of copies of a particular issue for distribution at each venue. Guess which issue.

what date was that issue of MM?

31/10/92. A bit later than I thought.

18 years ago this month
http://www.prweek.com/article/94726/media-brief---sutherland-goes-melody-maker

Who knew what fresh mayhem lay ahead - be it regional Idlewild fans swarming letters pages or over euthusiastic coverage to Paisley Underground veterans and Sam Peckinpah

A Simon Price Melody Maker Spotify playlist here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5pQG5E8BNE3CwTREjEJY3h?fbclid=IwAR0PVnYKFstrr9lSgwBwOwRVgmsk1w7oC_fwnwBj_NKro3ecvBx5gOB471U

Inspired me to compile my own ...

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0WNCUK2moLElB1CeOkMxVm

Some people need to get away from the idea that guitar based melodic music is only supposed to appeal to "boring old farts". It's timeless. It will always be here, and it will surive everything.

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, April 16, 2009 12:16 PM (eleven years ago)

Free access to music and gigs is a wonderful privilege that bestowed self defined good taste on you. I had to spend 14 pounds to find out that Campag Velocet were shit and journalists lied for the fun of it.

— DefensiveJeans (@EmbarrassedBelt) November 25, 2020

Thought of MM the other day re: the 'Prolific bands/artists with one super special album' thread.

I used to visit relatives in the UK a lot in the mid-late 90's, like for months at a time sometimes, and really looked forward to the opportunity to read MM and NME on those trips. My main takeaway was a sense that a short run 7" by an unsigned band could be more valuable and important than entire discographies of 'legendary' artists who sold hundreds of thousands of records.

For better and worse, MM encouraged me to build up a record collection along these lines, searching out the most unique, priceless artifacts without bothering to fill in the cornerstones. Even though I could only afford a handful of albums a year at that age, I could buy several times as many singles.

It's true that the music they championed wasn't always the greatest and I outgrew some of those styles pretty quickly, but I probably attribute my whole aporoach to collecting music to MM.

tbf, one of the cover mount cds had Campag Velocet's title track from their album, so I shrugged and spent no money..

Xpost yeah, the 'cornerstones' you'd always be able to find later, but those 7" gems would often disappear and you'd as likely as not, never hear anywhere but in your own place.

Exactly!!