Received a letter this morning advising that the 1988 issue was the last one. Subscribers are being switched to Uncut magazine for the rest of their subscription (or are having their Uncut subscription extended if they are already subscribers).
I am a tad disappointed with this, because I thought the 88 to 97 period would have been quite interesting, with the rise of hip hop, Madchester, Britpop and so forth, but I guess sales must have dropped off. Uncut are publishing what seems to be a compilation book of articles from the 70s issues, so maybe they’ll go on to do 80s and 90s ones.
Sorry Paul, missed your post so I’ve just blogged the same!
I’ll forgive you, seeing as you’re executive producing a film I’m looking forward to watching!
On that note, I won the centenary society draw again last week. 3 regular wins and a £250 win in less than 20 years, so my mates who have been in from the start without winning a sausage are well chuffed for me [ahem!]. Anyway, we’re a bit skint at the moment and are going on holiday in a few weeks, so it’s come at just the right time, but you should have seen our lass’s faces when I pointed out that the prize money exactly matches the cost of being an exec. producer on Liam’s film…
I didn’t subscribe to the magazine, but does this closure mean that the retro-rock media now really stops with the baby boomers, and no one who came of age in the later 1980s gets a turn?
Comes as no great surprise. Most of them seem to be gathering dust on the shelves of my local WH Smith for months…. and months…. and months…..
You can phone them and get a refund for the remaining amount of your subscription if you want. A quick phone call did it for me.
I picked up and quite enjoyed some of these. I suspect they were testing the water in terms of how long it would sustain- pretty sure they reprinted some of the 60s and 70s ones due to popular demand so they must have done OK?
The concept is fun – reprints of articles from the MM/NME of the time – (albeit without reproducing the original print as they couldn’t secure/afford the photo credits) although The History of Rock is possibly the blandest and most inane title of any publication, ever.
The shit branding of this title might have been it’s downfall in fact as once you get past the early 80s the title looks ever more ludicrous. The last issue then was 1988 – which should probably have had Public Enemy, or a picture of a Smiley Face on the cover (to be fair – both feature inside) but instead insisted that R.E.M were the most important thing in music that year.
I’d have thought they could have reproduced the Stone Roses ‘Never Mind The Pollocks’ sleeve from the NME and sold loads of the 1989 edition – and then you’ve got Nirvana, Britpop etc.
I bet they rebrand it and relaunch it in a couple of years.
I think they have, I noticed yesterday in my local WH Smith, the History Of Rock 1965 is back on the shelves.
The hype logo on the cover states Encore, but flicking through it and then checking my copy from whenever it was (2015??) it does look different. I’ve been on their website but cannot find bugger all about it?
Might have to take the plunge and shell out £10.99 to find out for sure.
It might be worth having a look at Feedly. They used to have (probably still do) the entire set of the last run.
In a bizarre turnaround, 80% of my music expenditure is now on magazines, not recorded music, so I’m up for these, Mojos with a good CD, Shindig, the very occasional Record Collector etc.
It’s true, they’re back. Just bought the 65 one, need 66, already got 67-69. Look good on the shelf.
The tricky business is 1970 with Black Sabbath (eh?) on the cover, any chance of changing that?
If not, I’ll definitely be using the self-service till at a very quiet time for its purchase.
Sadly, WH Smith is likely to close some outlets. I’m guessing you buy your magazines from Sainsbury’s. 😉
The closure of WH Smiths would pretty much kill off the print magazine market in my hometown, sadly, as every other former “news agent”just sells booze these days.