In these days of my declining interest in music magazines ("Hey, another 100 Beatles'best songs poll!") there's a good thing happening: Uncut's Ultimate Music Guide! I have the ones about The Rolling Stones, Kate Bush, Lennon, McCartney, The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, (Small) Faces (and Humble Pie), Dylan, Neil Young, Paul Weller (Jam, Council), David Bowie and The Who. Sometimes it's ''nothing really new'' (Beatles), but most of the time it's a treasure trove of half-forgotten (by me) albums, anecdotes, interviews and facts! I'm into the ''middle'' periode Fleetwood Mac-era now (after when Peter Green left, but yet without Buckingham/Nicks) and I'm happy takes time and effort to list and rate albums like Kiln House!
I do like the archive articles from Melody Maker and NME, but the price per issue has been slowly creeping up and are now a penny shy of £10 which reduces the likelihood of an impulse buy
Agreed, amd also excellent from the same publisher is the monthly 'The History Of Rock' magazine. Each issue focuses on a specific year and features contemporary articles. The series started with 1965, and the latest issue is up to 1973.
I'm currently in the early stages of the recent U2 edition. Another fine entry in the series! (Previous ones read: McCartney, Dylan, Kate Bush)
I have the Tom Waits and Kate Bush issues and they're very good - however I'm not so keen on this increasing trend of "special editions" coming out a few months later, it's putting me off buying any more.
I purchase the digital edition of these. They're a great reference for a band you both like and collect. Keepers for certain.
I have almost all of these, cannot find an affordable copy of the Rolling Stones one, and I think they have been consistently excellent, even on artists I don't like much. I liked the Macca one a lot as a lot of his solo & Wings music has not been covered much in the music press. There were some great in depth interviews in that. The quality of photos they have in these specials is outstanding and the History of Rock idea is inspired too. Just hope they reprint the Stones one soon. I think it's coming soon. Beach Boys next...
The expanded special editions are not essential if you already have the 1st one and also, all of them so far have had gaps of years between the 2 issues, not months.
I have the 1965 and 1968 and as a document of their time theý're insightful, but the rock writing as such is toe-curling stuff sometimes! I guess rock writing grew up with rock itself!
I am also following their History of Rock series: https://nme.backstreetmerch.com/artist/uncut-history-of-rock/ Each issue brings an interesting selection of articles and interviews plus a handful of surprisingly competent album reviews and hilarious blind dates with musicians. Although I would like to see a more variety in the featured artists I appreciate their attempts to cover some of the less mainstream music too (hey, they even managed to squeeze in a full page feature on the 60s free-jazz!). I have also got some of their earlier issues on the general rock history published in the NME Originals series, like "1960s Swinging London", "Mod" and "Madchester". Nme originals: MOD »
There's a feeling that things were moving so fast in the 60s the writers did not really know what to make of it! There's a massive improvement in the quality of interviews and journalism from around 1970 onwards.
The Mode one was superb and unexpected. Would like to see more like that. A Pet Shop Boys one would be good. Always good in interviews & a long successful career. Can't see it though as it's not what I imagine a lot of Uncut readers buying. I'd like a Blur one and can see that happening. Also Blondie.
I rarely read music magazines thoroughly anymore but I have an online route where I check out what's going on and new releases. Sometimes I read interviews with artists.
The regular ones are still £7.99 or at least the recent Byrds one is that I picked up at the weekend. I think they're fantastic, almost completely advert free. I'll only buy artists I'm really interested in, so have only bought Neil Young, Smiths, Kinks and now The Byrds, but I think they would be an interesting read even if you are not that particular artist. I would absolutely love a Prince issue, surely that is possible bearing in mind his relative popularity both here and in the US.
On a side note, the NME "Glam Rock" special is also excellent since it gives great insight how certain bands were (re)viewed back in the day. Hell...it even contains THE BAY CITY ROLLERS.... Plus a great/ tragic interview with Mick Robson from 1973 where he fantasises about his future with Bowie. Little did he know what the man had in store for him
Prince would make a fine issue! Maybe a ''family tree'' of the bands/artists, produced and worked with. I loved what they did with the Kate Bush-issue. Of course there were far less albums to review compared to the bodies of work of Dylan and Young, but they made up for it by longer and more thorough reviews of her albums.
I like the UG's overall , have the Kate one , Bowie , Waits , Mac , Floyd , Clash (i think) , kickin' myself for not snaggin' the McCartney !