Wanna Start A Magazine?

Are you completely mad? At a time when advertising revenue is plummeting, circulation is busted and the kids apparently don't care, there are a few bold characters who still care enough to trouble the magazine racks. I first met James Brown when he was a gobby fanzine writer, before his rise into the NME and then his phemonenal launch of Loaded and the generational splurge that nearly cost him his sanity. There's a book about the era, written by Tim Southwell that captures some of the infernal tilt of it all.

James has been keeping the head down of late, but now it seems that he's ready to get busy again. You can read about it here.

Meantime Everett True, aka The Legend! is another fanzine graduate with form behind him. He was my editor for a while at Vox, and you can read some of his musings about corporate publishing over here.

There's even more soul searching over at Drowned In Sound, where a clatter of writers are agonising over a trade that seems in exceptionally poor health. I wouldn't bet too heavily on its survival, but I do like the distinction between music writer and critic. I'll party with the former every time.