Don't see how this would be "a good idea". An artist either does have sufficient magazine coverage or not. An "Ultimate Music Guide" for an artist that didn't do interviews seems pretty futile. At least if the idea was to get old articles and interviews - "unseen for years" - back from the vault. If these articles don't exist you can always read a biography. And there are several great ones about Nick Drake.
Seem to recall Sounds being a pretty good read, didn't have the MM /NME cool factor, but they did quite a bit of interviewing /reviews. Though I don't think Uncut has the rights for that publication.
In the UK, the Sex Pistols are revered like Gods, practically. They're considered innovators of Punk, the same way we in America might look at Elvis Presley or jimi Hendrix. I believe that issue also included Lydon's PIL and solo work as well. I'm not making a value judgment ( I happen to love Big Star) or any assertions about the QUALITY of the music, I'm pointing out who a publisher in the magazine BUSINESS might think is popular enough to put a fairly costly magazine covering that subject. Hey, I love the J Geils Band, but I highly doubt there will ever be a UMG on them, as much as I would love to see one.
They'll probably get an article and a lengthy review of any current reissues. If you want a cover story, it'll more likely be in something like Shindig
Didn't John say that Nick Drake didn't have a big enough catalog for a UMG issue ? I was just suggesting a POSSIBLE solution, one that Mojo used years back when they were issuing special editions similar to the UMG
This thread has descended into a meeting of Amnesiacs anonymous. Why do the same names keep getting brought up, are people forgetting they peddled the same names just a few pages back, usually on more than one occasion.? Sorry folks, these acts are no more well known than they were a few weeks ago, and still not likely to shift many copies of the UMG, despite two or three people on here who would buy them. As mentioned before, these magazines do a lot of their business in big supermarkets and the like in the UK. They need to have some 'kerb appeal' for the casual browser to pick up, have a look, and maybe put it in their trolley. With the greatest respect, Nick Drake, Big Star and other acts from 40 years ago that barely registered at the time are not going to sell magazines at nearly £10 a go to very many people. I'll give it until 1 January latest until we go through this again.
I wonder if there are enough interviews in the vaults for an ELO issue? And it is time for weekly George Harrison issue request.
I can't see why an ELO one wouldn't be possible, especially with Jeff Lynne becoming popular again in the mainstream these last couple of years. It surprises me that there hasn't been an Elton one yet.
I agree with you, and have been considering unsubscribing from this thread if it continues - this thread keeps getting bumped not with real news but yet another issue suggestion. Very annoying.
Oh don't be stupid! The reason there are so many issue suggestions is because John Mulvey has been good enough to join this forum and thread, engage with us as music fans and Uncut UMG buyers as well as listen to the suggestions and actually follow them through. The current Steely Dan issue being an example. I know he as well as the rest of the Uncut staff take a lot of other things into account when deciding on artists to cover, but John Mulvey is taking notice of us and how often can you say that about the editor of a major music magazine? Not often if at all. But you find it annoying. Oh well...
While it's great that John Mulvey has interacted on this thread from time to time, I find it doubtful that they will have made any editorial decisions based on the opinion of a handful of music nerds (and I include myself in that before anyone objects) on this thread. And it is only a handful of people in reality. To an extent, we are a captive audience, it's not us that they need to convince to buy the UMG, it's Joe Public. It's true that some of us have hoped for Prince (me included) and Steely Dan in the recent past for instance, but they were fairly obvious possibilities given the circumstances.
I always expected a Prince issue when he was alive, so that wasn't much of a surprise. I was surprised by a Steely Dan issue. When I saw people suggesting them here I thought 'no chance'. I like Steely Dan and have most of their albums but I underestimated how popular they still are in the UK. It's sad that it probably took Walter Becker's death for it to happen. I enjoyed it as an issue because Steely Dan aren't a band that are wrote about much nowadays.
Yeah, finally managed to score The Cure for £6 new. Which is a minor miracle since that volume always seems to fetch £16-20.
I’ve recently read the issues on Dylan, Queen, Cohen, Stones and Zeps and have been surprised by how negative so many of the reviews were at the time for these artists. Granted you can’t expect excellent stuff throughout their careers but this has put into perspective how much garbage even the greatest artists produced! From reading these you would think Queen inparticularly were nothing special at all.
The new Barney Hoskyns Steely Dan book (Major Dudes) makes a nice companion to the Steely Dan Ultimate Music Guide Hoskyns' book is a collection of Dan articles, reviews and interviews by mainly British journalists over the years.
Well, it's the kind of age old attitude this forum is showing too: New music sucks, there's no great new music today, all new music is a blatant rip off, The Beatles did everything first. Etcpp. That's definitely not a new attitude
