Musicians Publications of yesteryear

[Bilbo]

I started playing in 1980 but had already discovered the marvellous world of musicians magazines even before I got my first bass (I had a guitar in 1975 but it was a total piece of driftweod and of no real use). The magazines I remember were Beat Instrumental and, my favourite, Musicians Only!! MO was a newspaper stye publication, similar to the popular music (as opposed to musicians) mags like Melody Maker, NME and Sounds. It had news and articles and I remember them to be intelligent and a great read. Beat Instrumental was great though. I later got into the US Guitar Player which had plenty of bass related stuff and, when it finally appeared, Bass Player was stunningly good for a while.

The best one (which I still have all the copies of) was the shortlived 'Double Bassist' magazine which had absolutely NO space for popular music and was primarily focussed on Jazz, Classical and Avant Garde musics (which explains why it died!!). It was published by Orpheus Publishing and was ultimately absorbed into snother string orientated publication that I cannot recall the name of. Double Bassist would be the one I would love to see return.

[jacko]

Funny. I was just looking for double bassist online last week as I remember reading it some years ago and fancied giving it another go. First 'proper' musicians mag I bought was International musician and recording world. Still have some in the loft - it's an eye-opener looking at some of the gear prices.

[Old Man Riva]

[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Musician_and_Recording_World"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Musician_and_Recording_World[/url]

This was about it in the 70s, as I recall. What the article doesn't mention is that IM&RC appeared to have made an editorial decision to feature Eric Clapton in every other issue..

In the mid-80s there was a decent free monthly magazine that you could pick up at music shops - can't recall the name of it.

[Happy Jack]

I have a 1748 copy of [i][b]Harpsichord Now![/b][/i] magazine, addressed to someone called Johnny Bach.

[paul j h]

The eighties free mag was making music, I had loads and my dear wife decided to take them and all my old gig programmes to the tip when we moved. She thought it was rubbish.

[Freddy Le Cragg]

I have a November1977 issue of Guitar International with a spiffing interview with Rory Gallagher in it. Bit out of place as its predominantly classic stuff...

[FinnDave]

I had quite a collection of IM&RW from issue one onwards, all dumped by either my parents when they retired and moved or by my first wife when we split up. Took up a fair amount of space for the sake of a bit of nostalgia. (the magazines, not the ex...I think)

[KevB]

The used to be a free publication that was in a fairly large newspaper format but in colour and maybe glossy pages? that I used to pick up in Carlsbro Sound, might have been subsidised by them? I recall some decent articles in it, probably better than some of the stuff people pay money for now. I bet BRX remembers it, can't for the life of me remember the title.

[chriswareham]

I miss Music Technology magazine, or MT as it was as more often known. It morphed out of Electronics & Music Making magazine, which had articles on building synths, outboard gear and so forth along with reviews of commercially made gear and interviews. Perhaps because of its hobbyist origins, it was always focused on the how of making music rather than celeb style interviews. Particularly recall the interview with the mysterious fourth member of Front 242, who refused to do interviews with more conventional music mags.

Edited February 12, 2015 by chriswareham

[Beer of the Bass]

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1423761402' post='2688775']
The used to be a free publication that was in a fairly large newspaper format but in colour and maybe glossy pages? that I used to pick up in Carlsbro Sound, might have been subsidised by them? I recall some decent articles in it, probably better than some of the stuff people pay money for now. I bet BRX remembers it, can't for the life of me remember the title.
[/quote]

I think that was the Making Music magazine mentioned earlier - one of the Glasgow music shops used to carry it too, though I can't recall which. It continued through much of the 90's, I'm not sure when it stopped exactly. I remember it usually being as good as the magazines I paid four quid for...

[Old Man Riva]

[quote name='paul j h' timestamp='1423758600' post='2688731']
The eighties free mag was making music, I had loads and my dear wife decided to take them and all my old gig programmes to the tip when we moved. She thought it was rubbish.
[/quote]
Making Music, that's the one. They had some really good stuff in them, and all for free.

If it makes you feel any better, I moved a load of stuff back to my mum's once - magazines, bass bits and bobs etc. She left all the tat alone and threw away covers/ashtrays and thumb-rests belonging to '66 and '74 Jazz basses..

[Mykesbass]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1423755728' post='2688686']
, my favourite, Musicians Only!!
[/quote]

Mine too - great publication with all teh details of what everyone played - the internet of its day!!

[chris_b]

I'd disagree that Melody Maker wasn't for musicians. It certainly was and they covered everything.

MM's greatness was in the sensible, adult and informative writing AND the classifieds. The ad's covered everything and if you were looking for a band then the Musicians Wanted section was the place to be on a Wednesday afternoon.

Everyone advertised for band members in the back of MM, including Fleetwood Mac, Free, Tony Newman, Supertramp, Zoot Money, Atomic Rooster, Python Lee Jackson and many more.

[The Admiral]

One from the bookshelf. There is a price list in the back for amps and you could have bought a Trace 1008 8 x 10 combo (!) for £974.

[BigRedX]

Just been in the attic looking at what I have boxed up.

It looks as though all my old IM&RW and Beat Instrumentals have gone, but I did find some old copies of E&MM and a magazine called The Mix, as well as some issues of Home & Studio Recording.

The free tabloid size newspaper/magazine was called Making Music, but can anyone remember the name of the monthly A4 size mag that proceeded it? Was that Musicians Only?

Edit: Just found a copy with a review of my band of the time in it the publication was called One, Two Testing...

Edited February 13, 2015 by BigRedX

[ambient]

[quote name='The Admiral' timestamp='1423784822' post='2689143']
One from the bookshelf. There is a price list in the back for amps and you could have bought a Trace 1008 8 x 10 combo (!) for £974.
[/quote]

Wow, I was 5

I inherited a load of magazines from my uncle. They all date from the 1980's they're in the loft in boxes, I can't remember what they are now, but they used to make interesting reading when I was growing up.

[Mykesbass]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1423789687' post='2689182']
Just been in the attic looking at what I have boxed up.

It looks as though all my old IM&RW and Beat Instrumentals have gone, but I did find some old copies of E&MM and a magazine called The Mix, as well as some issues of Home & Studio Recording.

The free tabloid size newspaper/magazine was called Making Music, but can anyone remember the name of the monthly A4 size mag that proceeded it? Was that Musicians Only?

Edit: Just found a copy with a review of my band of the time in it the publication was called One, Two Testing...
[/quote]

Musicians Only was a paid for weekly offshoot of Sounds. [url="http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Publication/musicians-only"]http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Publication/musicians-only[/url]

Edit for link

Edited February 13, 2015 by Mykesbass

[Ancient Mariner]

Musicians only was a tabloid newspaper style publication. I remember picking that up regularly, and yes, it was very much the internet for musicians of its day. It was informative and interesting at a time when NME and melody maker were puerile and pretentious, trading on their earlier reputations.

It's not exactly yesteryear, in that the mag is still going, but I also have issue 1 of Total Guitar tucked away somewhere.

[KevB]

Sorry folks I missed paul jh's post. Yes it must have been 'Making Music' but I never used to keep stuff like that. I do have issue 1 of Kerrang at home somewhere, the 'heavy metal special' offshoot of Sounds which became a magazine in it's own right.

[bassace]

In the sixties the must-read was the Melody Maker. The opposition was NME which was not cool at all. MM was still quite jazzy which was very much the music of day. But there was still room for burgeoning pop/rock scene. Remember the Beatles were just breaking and there was lot of stuff about them, plus the Liverpool groups. The ads inthe back were great too: musicians wanted and the bands' itineraries made interesting reading. Georgia Fame and the Blue Flames would be playing 40 gigs each month. I bought an EBO for £90 out of the small ads. Exiting times to live in - and all signposted by the MM.

And can I just mention Crescendo which was a monthly mag for musos. I'm looking at a copy right now dated May 66 with a photo of Sonny Rollins on the cover - and I get a mention inside.

[taunton-hobbit]

I used to have advertising accounts with Melody Maker, so got it free, posted weekly - there is an internet site that publishes large amounts of the old band/gig ads (can't remember the name) - I used to love the band ads - Nos moking -Tony Knights Chessmen - Alexis Korner - Jon Hisemans Colosseum come to mind - The 'old' Marquee always ran a display ad, as did many more. I also used to get 'Blues and Soul' at the time, some good stuff in there...it's a good place to visit, but not so hot that you'd really want to live there (the past, that is)..........

[Huge Hands]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1423789687' post='2689182']
...and a magazine called The Mix, as well as some issues of Home & Studio Recording.
[/quote]

I used to subscribe to H&SR. It was then turned into The Mix, which was a lot thicker, IIRC was supposed to be more DJ friendly and also came with a disc each month with samples and sounds on it. I have a feeling the price shot up to compensate for all this too.

I remember the first few issues I got, it felt like they were trying to go all "Loaded" or "Nuts" in their writing style, and the CDs felt like they'd been cobbled together in 5 minutes. Not something you'd expect from a mag trying to review the best in recording and sound.

Suffice to say I cancelled my subscription after a few issues. I have a feeling I wasn't the only one. Harrumph.

[scalpy]

Used to love making music. I remember one letter said something along the lines of 'did you know right said Fred have used Hendrix's 3rd stone from the sun for I'm too sexy?'

Directly underneath it was a letter that went, 'that bloody Jimi Hendrix, he's only ripped off right said Fred for 3rd stone!'

What a fabulous introduction to the anorak/ wit culture of musicians.