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Q Magazine

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Just been announced that the next edition of Q will be the last. I’ve not read it for quite a while because I seemed to get a bit too old for it but I’m still sad to see yet another music rag go to the wall.

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    • Me too, although I never bothered to read it. The only mag I’ve ever noticed leaving Readly was the Spectator, so I guess it still works for publishers somehow. There are several Readly rivals as well now that feature the same mags.

      I suspect it’s COVID and ad revenues going through the floor that did for Q. Most of the mags I read on Readly are pushing the digital model hard, but why would you?

  4. I’ve been a subscriber since the Word folded but the last couple of years I’ve read the album reviews and little else.

    The lockdown issues have all been lists. There are 3 unloved issues on the desk beside me as I type.

    Misters Ellen and Hepworth mentioned Q on one of their podcasts a few weeks ago, I was amazed to see my subs issue fall onto the doormat a few days later.

    A shame but, had it not folded, I’d be considering not reviewing my subs. I switched to Uncut a while ago.

    • I suppose that saves me from having to cancel my annual DD next February, which I was going to do. I’ve even set myself a reminder in my calendar.
      Last couple of years especially, it was just full of far too many people I’d never heard of, nor was I likely ever to be “into”.
      And it was waffer thin, printed on what felt like school loo roll, a far cry from the dead-waking thump it used make when it hit the mat.
      Still, I was in “World of Q” once, sitting in a small boat next to a passing grey whale, so that’s a keeper.

      Shame, it used to be pretty essential stuff.

  5. Back in the 90’s it was essential reading. Worth the price alone for the Tom Hibbert Who The Hell…? interviews. Brilliant, just brilliant. I don’t remember exactly when it all started to go wrong for me but I simply got fed up of the endless “100 Greatest” whatever list issues. Boring and lazy. I’ve noticed recently that regrettably Classic Rock has begun to drift in this direction.

  6. Think I had every issue up to about 2000 (no longer), then I drifted away. All the exclamation marks on the cover became rather tedious and the content inside went downhill quite quickly, way too many lists (even though I am doing a poll right now). I also got old.

  7. True, I haven’t bought it for a while but I have hundreds of well-thumbed issues & I am really sad to see its demise.
    The free CDs were often brilliant & there have been so many superb interviews & features over the years.
    It makes me feel so old to know that the music press I obsessed over for decades is no longer a relevant part of 21st century life. It is just not the same when you get your info online.

  9. I lost interest around the time Word started. Read a copy in the barbers a few years ago but it didn’t convince me the cover price was worth it. Sad to see it go though as I bought a number of albums on the strength of the reviews. I don’t read any of the other magazines now, maybe I should.

    • I think that’s the same for me.

      I used to buy a lot of them after I emigrated, and then I discovered The Word. And having to choose between two mags at about $10 a pop, there was only going to be one winner.

  11. Echoing what’s already been said. I read it from the beginning, was a long time subscriber, and for ten years it was essential reading.
    Around the brit pop time, the articles got shorter & they targeted a younger audience, leaving the more in-depth pieces to Mojo.
    I bailed about 15 years ago when the articles turned more into annotated lists & my subscription copies would frequently go unopened.
    Still sad to see it go, but I don’t know who it would appeal to now.

    • I kept the first hundred or so when I had a clear out the other week. What struck me was just how much text there was in those early issues, and a lot of it was very good writing.

  12. Haven’t regularly bought a music mag since the demise of The Word (is that ten years ago now?!) and probably haven’t bought Q in 20 years. But it was an enjoyable part of my journey:

    Smash Hits: I’ve discovered pop music! ->

    NME/Melody Maker: I’ve discovered indie! ->

    Q: Indie is good but there’s also lots of old* stuff too! (*i.e. people then in their late 30s and 40s…) ->

    Mojo: there’s loads of old stuff to discover but there’s still the occasional new album by someone old* worth a mention (*now in their 40s and 50s…) and there’s even the odd youngster worth talking about, though probably quite influenced by the oldies ->

    (The) Word: there’s loads out there: old, new, good, bad, music and more ->

    The internet and podcasts (and no advertising): there’s everything out there. Take your pick, make your own way and pay way less for any of it. But the lack of a guiding light means more is probably less actually…

  13. Like most, I guess I grew out of it, but it filled the gap after the inkies. I guess I then evolved into Unshod and/ or Boho, which ever came first, each of which I find me reading less and less as the years go by. Word was always an as well, as was F(olk) Roots. Problem is I need something reliable to alert me to new music, even if only 10% of what is reviewed applies to my niche.

  14. I bought it from day one.

    Still have the first 1986 Macca issue in the loft somewhere.

    I think I have saved the first 50-100 issues for sentimental reasons but would have to dig deep in the loft to find them. I guess the sentiment has died.

    There are many trying to be sold on eBay etc but who cares any more?

  15. I bought it from day one, and am a latter day subscriber – still have every issue archived.

    A real shame – it had it’s faults (too many 4 star reviews for one), but was genuinely trying to move with the times and inform on what’s new out there, so it will leave a gap that the others don’t appear to fill.

  16. Another issue 1 guy here. Had hundreds of them with CDs etc and sold them about 10 years ago for a decent price.

    I like Uncut now but don’t buy it every month.

  17. Q regular once upon a time – it really was the grown up music mag in its early incarnation. I swapped out to Word (as many of us did by the sound of it), and returned when Word ended.
    By that stage it was thin reading and didn’t feel quite as “curated” more thrown together and padded with ads (as many mages are – that’s what pays the bills).
    Swapped after a couple of issues to Mojo.
    Mojo remains largely OK, with some good stuff (like this months CD for example, and last months Weller interview was a good read). But mostly re-reading old ground now. Thinking of changing again when sub next due – possibly Uncut.
    Haven’t bought or read Q for years, but a shame to see it go

  19. Sad to hear it’s gone but like many here I haven’t bought it in 15 years. For a while it was the highlight of the month to get the new one and read it cover to cover. I loved the writing as much as the subject matter, but the constant unimaginative lists killed it for me eventually

  21. I bought the first issue to read on the journey whilst starting my honeymoon (which due to the paucity of our finances was four months after the wedding – just in case anyone is counting)
    I’m sad that not enough people bought it for it to survive, but I stopped many years ago (save for the end of year issue) however I’m pleased that my marriage has outlasted it.

  22. Another one bites the dust. I’ve been through Melody Maker, Sounds, NME, Q, Word, Folk Roots and Mojo. Currently get Uncut, but with varying levels of enthusiasm, and only to give me something to read in the smallest room in the house.

  24. It was on its last legs anyway but the “Evil Conker” (TM Taylor Parkes) covid has accelerated its demise for sure – no ad revenue from Live/Festivals and no spot buys at train stations /newsagents can’t have helped.

    Shit news for all concerned. I’m the kind of dinosaur that still buys music magazines but I rarely bought a Q. I guess it went for a contemporary pop/rock focus – artists like Adele, Florence, Muse, Mumford, Killers and so forth – but in a way that was probably true to what Q stood for – except that it’s audience had moved on and while it may have lapped up U2, Sade, Simply Red, Dire Straits, REM and Springsteen in the 80s and 90s it wasn’t sticking around for the next generation of Pyramid Stage headliners . I guess Q had to stick to its guns and try keep its aim at an increasingly disinterested window of 30-somethings who get all their music news on Twitter rather than try and steal readers from Mojo & Uncut. 35 Years is quite a good innings for a music mag though.

  25. I’m also a first member of the first issue brigade but really it’s done and dusted. I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did. It’s a new age. One that we oldies need to just let go of.

  26. I bought the first issue too, and remember being duly impressed with its glossy-ness, and for it making me feel that I really ought to start getting into CDs and leave my unweildy vinyl collection to history (bastards!) but thereafter only purchased it very occasionally, and not at all for at least 23 years. ‘Essential’? Nah.

    I will always associate those early issues with that unpleasant 80s aspirational yuppie culture, probably unfairly because I’m sure that was not Hep and Ellen’s intention.

    One has to wonder how long Uncut, the only comparable remaining print music publication, has left. That will leave a few specialist magazines who seem to operate on expecting very small sales figures and rely heavily on advertising. Of those, Vive Le Rock is pretty good but I wouldn’t miss it.

  27. The Record Collector is the one I have fond memories of from the dire 1980s.
    It, apart from Q, was the only kid on the block.
    Q, far less so, and frankly once Mojo started in 1993 it was game over.

    Given I’m a born magazine buyer (picked up the Neil Young RC and Uncut on Thursday, Mojo dropped through the letter-box on Friday, I’ll get the Neil Young Special this week), I never even think of buying Q. Ever. Not even with a Golden Ager on the cover. Not even Jimi.
    I could be gagging to buy a music magazine, just about to go on a five-hour train journey, nothing to read, and I wouldn’t buy Q!
    For me, it’s the Chelsea F.C. of music magazines.

    Am I the only one on this website, that now has the music press he has always dreamed of?
    Beatles here, Stones there, Bob, Jimi, Nick Drake covers, Judee Sill was on last month’s Shindig! Judee b***** Sill! That wouldn’t have happened in 1986.
    Now, that’s what I call a Music Press.

  28. It’s all my fault – I cancelled my subscription last year and that was clearly where the rot set in. As many have said, I simply found there wasn’t anything much I wanted to read in it besides the reviews.

    I junked piles of Qs a couple of years ago after going through them and keeping some that I will go back to, and selling some which I thought might be of interest to some fans, e.g. a few featuring George Michael and Prince and so on.

    Funny to think I was buying 4 mags at one point…Q, Mojo, Uncut and The Word – how did I find time to read them all as well as working? Now I’m retired I struggle to read just the one (Mojo)…!

  29. Really sad about this but more for what it meant in the past. Looking back at covers from its heyday it was more diverse than you might think i.e. Kate Bush, The Who and a report on warehouse parties in one, Stone Roses, Prince and Rory Gallagher in another, all tied together with that common editorial tone that made you feel you were part of a club.

    The first issue I bought introduced me to both Nick Drake and Can which was pretty mind blowing for a 17 year old.

    Anyone remember the photo supplements they did for a while? I still have some of those images cut out and ready to be framed…

  30. Was it Q who put The Stones on the cover in 89/90 and said “this lot are nearly 50 – lock up your Grandmothers”. They re-titled them The Strolling Bones in true Smas Hits stylee

    • Which is as it should be as, to their credit, they kept current instead of going the Mojo heritage route. Mainstream current, but current. The older readers moved on but weren’t replaced with enough new ones.

      • They weren’t that current to begin with, seemed to be focusing on slightly older readers (30 somethings) with people like Macca and Elton John on the cover in the 80s, once Mojo appeared they headed towards a younger audience.

  32. I stopped buying it sometime in the late 1990s – by then I was really only buying it for the reviews. The last straw was when they printed a review of a Beach Boys album and their photo caption had mis-identified several members.

    I’d honestly thought it had ceased publication a while back as I’d not seen a copy on sale for some time.

      • But, shiver me fingers, who else has just registered with New bloody Statesman, if only for 4 free articles a month. (Of, course I only buy Mein Kampf for the record reviews too, dahling)

  37. SDE sales opportunity here for the lucky owners of a first edition.

    Buy the last edition and keep it mint. Add in your original copy with a link to a “one off subscriber only opportunity” on your thoughts on why Q was great via email or for a more personal touch a Skype call.

    Offer free postage and add in a couple of the free CDs you still have left as “a one off opportunity”.

    £595…any takers?

  39. I too used to love Q – its arrival was indeed a highlight of the month. For me, it jumped the shark with a 5-star review for Be Here Now (having given definitely maybe a 3). I eventually stopped reading when the features seemed to get shorter – it just seemed a bit dumbed down and aimed at a younger demographic.

    And then the Word word started and I found something that excited me about a monthly magazine again. I still feel the loss of the Word. I’ve never found anything to replace it – other than here, to an extent. I read the New Yorker – which I love – but there’s definitely a gap in my life for a music/books/film/tv/stuff magazine.

  40. The thing that gets missed is that the magazine kept the same demographic (people who had grown out of Smash Hits), and the readership got older and exited the demographic. I think the failure was to realise that people who fitted the present day version of the demographic are not remotely interested by pop culture, they have Tinder, video games and internet trolling to keep themselves amused instead.

  41. My eldest son (15) is bang into music. Proper interesting stuff as well. This week alone I’ve heard him play Can, Merzbow, Aphex Twin and Walter Carlos. He’ll play A, Spotify will recommend B and that’s how he discovers new music.

    But can I get him to *read* about music? Can I heck. A while back when Gorillaz were his main jam, I bought him an issue of Q because they were on the cover. He never even picked it up. I’m constantly pointing out books that he might like to read or texting him links to articles, and if I’m lucky he humours me by promising to read at a later date but of course never does. He’s exactly the same with films.

    Hey, each to his own, but it’s not a way of appreciating culture that I particularly understand, and what I wonder is whether it’s an approach that’s unique to him or common to his generation. If the latter, then print media is well and truly fucked, while even things like The Quietus and Pitchfork can’t be far behind.

    • Part of the reason for reading the old music press, was to read around a record to see if you might like it. Going out to buy something you might have only heard a few tracks from was a big commitment, and buying it was the only way to hear the whole thing. You wanted some sort of reassurance first of all that you might like it (this didn’t always work).

      Now, with streaming, you can bypass the “research” stage and hear the whole album straightaway. People on here recommended the new Taylor Swift record, so I didn’t bother buying a magazine to see what it was like, but just listened to it on Spotify. I’ve never read an interview with her or a review in the press – hard to see what they would add.

  42. In passing, I was in WH Smith today, mainly to drop a parcel off at the post office in the back. Had they the new Mojo, I wondered? No, but, for the first time in yonks they had RnR (nee Rock’n’ Reel), me thinking they had gone bust in the last year. But no, there it was. Ok, it is written more with enthusiasm than polish, but I think I may buy me a sub.

  43. Another member of the Issue #1 gang, bought it regularly up until issue 200, still got them all carefully filed on bookcase next to issues 1 to 50 of The Face 🙂
    Quite a few people have already mentioned how Q tried to retain the “current” market whereas Uncut and Mojo concentrate on established acts. So, two things, todays generation of music fans aren’t interested in reading about music but more importantly todays pop stars are…maybe just not interesting, bland even…..

  44. When it first appeared, Q was actually, really, exciting. Not since the heyday of the NME had I looked forward as much to buying a music magazine. Seems strange now. The internet’s great and all that, but it can’t equal the the anticipation and sheer pleasure of turning the pages of a magazine. I haven’t bought mags for, ooh, decades.

  45. Melody Maker then Rolling Stone then NME then Q then The Word. Each and every one of them (including The Word) eventually got crap.
    Last time I bought Mojo/Uncut/Q or whatever it was I was bored in an airport. Couldn’t believe how awful it was.
    There was a time when us nerds couldn’t survive without a “proper” music magazine. Them days long gone

  46. A queue of Qs chez Hairnet esta mañana.

    View post on imgur.com

    I remember spotting the first issue on a platform newsstand at Preston station. I was on my way to Scotland, and as soon as I sat down on the train I immediately got stuck in. Issue 1 came with a CD buying guide, which was a small book in itself. It felt like a magazine I´d been waiting for.

    The mag. was criticised for embracing the more monied music buyer, and for kick starting the whole heritage wave. I guess that partly reflected the interests of the editorial team. But in the early years (86-92) the mag. was just a pleasure, with a great team of writers, and a wonderful, knowing sense of humour. They covered all types of music, and their classical buying guides were incredibly helpful for any newbie. In the early 90s there was a horribly lame article on drugs that just couldn’t find the right tone. That was the first time I started to doubt its primacy.

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