Pinched from somewhere else. If you need something to read in these dark times, knock yourself out with this extensive catalogue of magazines and weekly like the NME, Melody Maker, Disc etc, going back years.
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dai says
Wow, that’s amazing. Hope it is ongoing and they will continue, particularly with NME in 70s and 80s.
Carl says
I’m not sure if that will be possible because I would imagine that RocksBackPages have paid for the copyright to those later publications.
I would like to subscribe to RBP, but it is really effin’ expensive. I can only imagine the costs are for the copyright, because It can’t be for the production costs.
dai says
Ah I see. Do they have full issues or just selected articles?
Carl says
I think they just have selected articles from the main newspapers and magazines.
There are free articles, but you have to register to read those.
Colin H says
Well, as a writer who has stuff on RBP, it’s a commercial resource based on writers being the copyright owners of their work, so everything on RBP will be by a living writer or estate that has given permission for their old stuff to be used. (Plus some ‘anon’ pieces from 60s papers.)
Occasionally, I’ve sent electronic copies of old stuff to RBP, other times RBP has created e-text by scanning the original magazine and using character recognition software. For instances, last week I sent in an interview feature on Peter Green I’d done for ‘The Glasgow Herlad’ in 1998 – I didn’t have an electronic version, but I’d come across the cutting. RBP has a vast collection of music papers itself.
Writers can benefit financially from RBP – from either pieces being licensed for reprint somewhere in the world or from the pool of funds generated by the service (from subscriptions).
The URL in Jazzer’s post is basically flouting all of these ideas of copyright, but as a writer of books drawing from primary print sources in the 50s / 60s, I’ll find it a useful additional resource. I also subscribe to the British Library’s ‘British Newspaper Archive’ online resource, where a vast amount of UK and Irish national and regional/local newsprint from the 1700s to the early 2000s has been uploaded – by arrangement with copyright owning organisations (hence, some major titles are not there) – and is searchable by character recognition software. Not perfect, but an astounding resource, especially if one is researching a subject with an unusual/rare name (i.e. not ‘John Smith’).
Colin H says
Fantastic – I hadn’t come across this resource before. I have an extensive collection of British music mags myself, from the 1940s – early 70s, but there are certainly some here that I don’t have, which will be useful for a current long-finger project. Thanks Jazzer! 🙂
mikethep says
Blimey, that’s a rabbit hole I’m not going to emerge from any time soon – happily reading my way through Disc in 1960 at the moment. “Pinky and Perky challenge Chipmunks…”
Vulpes Vulpes says
Wow, there’s Rolf, topping the charts with a song he picked up on a visit to Aboriginal lands. Unbelievable, yet resolutely familiar history. Such changes. Marvellous find, thanks!
NigelT says
Oh my word, this is fairly amazing! Thanks! I wouldn’t have had a clue from the website name. I am already deep into 1963….
daff says
Thanks for this!👍
I just had a quick look at a couple of mid-sixties NMEs & Melody Maker. I Shame I got rid of mine…….great to see again.
Slug says
Fascinating stuff. It’s a real treasure trove.
Browsing randomly at the February 4th 1967 edition of MM, I see that The Misunderstood, the (very) psychedelic American band who were managed by John Peel, have placed an advert for a new lead singer to replace the really cool and, like, y’know maaan, really far out Rick Brown, who had just been, as the advert puts it, “inducted into the US forces”.
He would have certainly been amongst the “hell no, we won’t go” brigade so the idea of him with a buzz cut and being shipped out to Vietnam makes me quite melancholy.
dai says
Wonder if he came back
rexbrough says
Just googled it. His story is quite interesting. India, amnesty and gemology
Ainsley says
I’ve bookmarked that – I need 1972 – 1979. When that’s there I’ll be diving in
nogbad says
Muchas gracias !
I’ll update my skiffle hard drive
Rigid Digit says
Good resource – hope it expands.
There have been many times when I’ve been writing stuff, or just thinking about it, and recall an old interview I read somewhere.
It’d be nice to read back and make sure I’m quoting myself right.
Freddy Steady says
Where is John Connolly from Barnet?
jazzjet says
“why all the fuss over the Beatles ?Their records just get worse and worse.They should retire now before they get any more embarrassing.Paperback Writer was easily the worst song of 1966 ”
John Rae,Hill Street ,Glasgow
dai says
WonderfuI! Read somewhere it wasn’t immediately universally loved, and took longer than usual to get to no. 1.
mikethep says
There used to be a fellow who lived in the Isle of White, Leslie something, who had a letter in the NME what seemed like every week, saying you can keep your Stones, Beatles, Kinks etc, Bing Crosby is what everybody needs. How we laughed!
johnw says
Being a keen music paper reader from about 1975 to around 1999 I’m ashamed to say that, as usual, the things I found most interesting was the adverts! I’m the same when I’m presented with a newspaper from, say 1960…. and, come to think of it, commercial radio recordings (specifically Capital) from the 70’s.
Twang says
Brilliant, cheers!
There are other inkys from the 70s – just looking at Record Mirror from 1974 – they report “much vaunted US new wave leader Steely Dan return for a tour…”.
Uncle Wheaty says
A full collection of Record Mirrors from 1980.
I used to buy that for the charts and Sounds for the NWOBHM in 1980.
The first edition lists the best selling 100 albums and singles of the 1970s in the UK.
100th best selling album of the 1970s was…Going For The One by Yes. I would not have guessed that!