Re: Magazine Mania!

Ok my name is Flynn and im 17 years of age. I recently came accross this band (Magazine) and i think they truly do rock! I mean if you compare them with modern day "New Wave" bands such as Franz Ferdinhand or Kaiser Chiefs....Kasabian etc the difference is that Magazines music is.... how can i put it... FAR BETTER. I mean no offence or disregard for them, i am quite a fan myself! I started listening to Magazine roughly a couple of months back and i realised how good they were and how not so different they are to our modern day bands! Maybe they were just ahead of their time back in the late 70's to the early 80's or maybe they weren't, opinions differ. I also introduced them to my friends at school basically all around me, and of course just like me they got right into the music and now they love it! I have done some research into this band and i have realised that they were so underrated, they did deserve better! I mean come on if you have listened to some of their music, you just have to hear the almost perfect timing and maybe "togetherness" (if thats a word, you know what i mean) of the band. In fact they weren't just one style they were a mixture of many different influences, including: Thematic film type music paticularly that of John Barry (they asked him to produce their second album, but due to expense of making it in L.A it could not be achieved). The drummer (John Doyle) and the bass player (Barry Adamson) just keep the band alive with the funky grooves and riffs! Then comes the awesome talent of Dave Formula on his array of Keyboards, organs... you name it he had it! Then comes John McGeoch on guitar giving the extra bit of drive that the band needed to sustain the tune, including some aswesome riffs. Howard Devoto (previous member of The Buzzcocks) gives the atmosphere and stage presence that the band needs for fan charisma... and if you needed anyone for a interview HE IS YOUR MAN. Throughout the years since magazine many bands have indentified magazine as a key influence in their music making, bands such as: U2, Sisters Of Mercy, Bauhaus, simple minds (who even stole the name of one of magazines album names) right up to Britpop acts such as Supergrass and Blur in places! I have heard of rumours that Magazine were having a reform tour, but you know rumours, anything can be said!
Well, Magazine possible one of the greatest Punk/NewWave bands of all time! An amazing influence to some huge and i might say very succesfull bands, who knows maybe one day with enough support they might reform, so please if you are a magazine fan or someone who wants to hear such a great band back in action support this post!!!

WATCH THIS (MAGAZINES) SPACE!

Magazine was a truly amazing band, no doubt about it.

RIP, McGeoch.

What particularly stands out in my mind are::
Shot By Both Sides
Philadelphia
Rhythm of Cruelty
and the entire Real Life LP.

Yup, McGeoch. Magazine were a band I discovered through TP and it's worth noting that, unlike in the UK, they were a barely mentioned obscurity in the US. I followed McGeoch's career through Visage, Siouxsie, and was able to see him in PIL. Listen closely to Siouxsie's 'JuJu' to get a grasp on the direction he took; difficult to replicate. (The work is there in 'Kiss Dreamhouse' too but the production is mud). He was one of the most influential guitarists in TPdom.



Post Edited (12-01-05 20:29)

> Ok my name is Flynn and im 17 years of age. I recently came accross this
> band (Magazine) and i think they truly do rock!

Flynn, those two sentences alone have made my day.

Yep - "Philadelphia" is one of the best songs ever. That line "I'd have been Raskolnikov/ but Mother Nature ripped me off" makes me laugh every time I hear it. I agree with all the praise about McGeoch (and also agree that the guitar sound on "JuJu" is incredible). And Barry Adamson had an amazing bass sound as well.

Nice find, Flynn. Ya might wanna avoid the Luxuria stuff though so your adulation of Devoto et al won't get unnecessarily tainted....

When XTC came to Australia in 1978 they brought Magazine along as the support band. At every opportunity possible in the presence of the media, XTC made a point a saying their support band was horribly boring. From all reports Magazine blew them away every night of the tour.

flynn,
do you have parents?
if not may I adopt you?

Paganizer said Magazine were a "barely mentioned obscurity in the US." Guess I'm lucky for growing up in LA then 'cause they seemed pretty prominent here - plenty of airplay on KROQ and college stations. And I remember their great performance of "Model Worker" in "Urgh: A Musical War" (out on DVD yet?)

I quite like Barry Adamson's work with Nick Cave, and his solo stuff - I think he was the soundtrack/John Barry nut in the group, judging by groovy releases like "The Negro Inside Me."

Hehe thanks people for the awesome feedback..... it has been truly amazing! I would personally like to see magazine back in action thought, i have no doubt i would be going along to see at least a few of the giggs! Yeah unfortunately i do have some parents.... crazy people! I have to say my fav songs are definitive gaze, motocade, and parade! Please keep the replies coming in!

Good choices. The Light Pours Out of Me and Song from Under the Floorboards top my list, along with Definitive Gaze.

Year two of my other favourites also..... i would really like to create a demand for magazine but i wouldn't know how to go about it... any help?

Demand with McGeoch gone is marginal.

I would've assumed that demand for tickets to a Queen reunion tour, with Freddie gone, would be marginal too. The tour with Paul Rodgers proves otherwise.

Flynn, a well-developed web site may not exactly create demand, but it's one way to get the word out. Links to other suitable sites (such as Buzzcocks fan sites) would help draw attention to your fan site.

When I saw the Buzzcocks a few years ago, there were a few teenagers there who had shown up for the opening act(s), not knowing anything about the headliners. Hopefully, they stayed for the Buzzcocks, and left the venue excited about what they'd heard and seen. If they learned to appreciate the Buzzcocks, then it's conceivable they'd be interested in learning about Magazine.

Good luck, Flynn, and let us know how it progresses!

Yeah will do.... but i also need help setting up a webpage/site etc because of my lack of knowledge for computers.... I admit i am not a computer genuis even though it may not take one, i dont think i can achieve it on my own... If anyone could help me i would be forever grateful!

Is Magazine's singles collection (After the Fact) still in print? If not, their B-side cover of Captain Beefheart's "I Love You Big Dummy" is a killer rarity, one of the best B-sides I've ever heard, right up there with Claudine Clark's "Party Lights." It's the B-side of "Give You Everything," I believe.

definitely an underrated group, and when i saw them live at hurrah's circa secondhand daylight, they were absolutely killer--and i was not particularly a fan of theirs at the time. as i recall permafrost was especially electrifying.

More kitsch (after all this post follows one of the all time greats) from me to report. I read this post right before the need to sleep, I'm dozing off (not passing out mind you) thinking of "dancing on the floorboards" wondering what album the tune was from..."yeah, THE CORRECT USE OF SOAP that's it." Five seconds later my wife comes in and says " Honey I dropped my earing down the sink!" So I says, "Jeez, what happened? Kathleen says, "I had soap on my hand and it slipped out!!!!!HA HA HA HA HA HA