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Q Magazine RIP

Started by pigamus, July 20, 2020, 03:09:51 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Brundle-Fly

I'm sad to see it go. It was nice to read on the train with a can of lager and crisps on a balmy Friday evening, listening to The Orb on my Discman. I stopped reading it regularly around the same time as the inkies in the early 00s. Too many Paul Weller interviews or pieces about the hot new bands called 'The somethings'

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: steveh on July 21, 2020, 05:11:48 PM
Some of the people involved said it went through a particularly tough time when its new German owners decided to focus group everything, I think back in the 2000s, so it turned more into a big name legacy artist magazine whereas before it was a reasonably comprehensive slice through what was being released as albums each month.
I do wonder if most of us on here packed it in at the same point. Must have been late 2001/early 2002 for me - think the Foo Fighters were on the cover.

Over Christmas, I was clearing out some junk from my parents' attic and found the Q that had their (first?) readers' top 100 albums in it, from 1997/98 time. I chuckled at some of the entries that showed the pointlessness of such things - 'Be Hear Now' got in the top 20, for instance. The Stone Roses' s/t album in the top five seemed to be the start of my awareness of the retrospective hype around them.

Ambient Sheep

One more thing.  It would be utterly remiss of me to mark the passing of the magazine without, once more, calling Adrian Deevoy a cunt for the cruelly dismissive one-paragraph review he gave Throwing Muses' second album proper, House Tornado.

He was also very mean to a wide-eyed young teenage me when I spoke to him on the IMRW stall at some music fair or other.


Fake EDIT:

Me being me, I thought I'd dig out what I said.  Was perversely thrilled to find out that if you Google "Adrian Deevoy cunt", even without a site specifier, a CaB thread is second:

Quote from: The Mumbler on September 29, 2006, 07:39:36 PMApparently, the Who The Hell...? feature was dropped because they were running out of suitable people to do.  Tom Hibbert commented, They were just doing people in soaps and things.  Actually, that's probably how they ended up having Mark & Lard and John Peel in that section - absolute desperation.  No excuse, of course.  In fact, I only brought that up so that we could remember Peel describing the interviewer (Adrian Deevoy) as "a complete cunt".  But there were plenty of contenders for that feature - it's just that PR people got wise to it.

with my own contribution third:

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on February 07, 2006, 01:16:16 PM
Adrian Deevoy's Q review of Throwing Muses' rather lovely "House Tornado" album was an evil, lazy, borderline-mysogynistic piece of abusive shite from a cunt who'd obviously got out of bed the wrong side that morning with a pile of albums to wade through that he should have got through weeks earlier, and I shall never forgive him for it.  I even remember exactly where I was when I read it.

The sort of shite he wrote I might have expected in the NME, but not in Q, which at the time was a good magazine that didn't give out unconstructive criticism (that was the first such review I'd ever remembered reading in it, in fact).  That's what made the review so particularly horrific...any casual reader would have assumed that it must have been a really DREADFUL album.

If there is a hell, I hope that Adrian finds himself there with the album on loop.  (OK, not really, but...)

I guess you'd like to read it now.  Well I still have that issue of Q, and I even know where it is, nicely filed on a bookshelf.  Which is behind a pile of boxes, a kitchen table, and an African Grey parrot.  So not now.

But thank you for allowing me to vent.

My my my, what an angry young man I was.  Aged 41¼, I was.  Got at least one reply, from The Mumbler again:

Quote from: The Mumbler on February 08, 2006, 12:03:41 AMAh, the bloke who wrote the rather ill-judged Who The Hell Does John Peel Think He Is? in the same magazine.  Later described by J. Peel as a "cunt who we made tea for, and who then went off and slagged off my dad who's dead".

So there you go.

And yeah, I know this is a bit obsessive (just a bit!) but I was only 22 when he wrote that review, and I still remember eagerly buying my copy of Q, opening it, flipping through to find the review of that wonderful new album, and how I felt when I read it.  Clearly hit my amygdala hard!

I suppose it's all come back to me because, reading the Twitters last night, Deevoy's name kept coming up as being in the last two commemorative issues.  Call me a triggered snowflake.

Nevertheless, RIP Q.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on July 21, 2020, 06:06:50 PMI do wonder if most of us on here packed it in at the some point. Must have been late 2001/early 2002 for me - think the Foo Fighters were on the cover.

Yeah, I'm now thinking it might have been a bit earlier than the mid-2000s for me.  All mine are in storage, so I can't check, but I'm willing to bet it didn't long survive The Word arriving in Feb 2003.

Egyptian Feast

#64
Quote from: Ambient Sheep on July 21, 2020, 06:07:54 PM
One more thing.  It would be utterly remiss of me to mark the passing of the magazine without, once more, calling Adrian Deevoy a cunt for the cruelly dismissive one-paragraph review he gave Throwing Muses' second album proper, House Tornado.

He was also very mean to a wide-eyed young teenage me when I spoke to him on the IMRW stall at some music fair or other.

Haha, this (very funny) post has finally cleared up something that confused me years ago. In a thread about the music press a bunch of us were reminiscing about 'Who The Hell..?' and I said something about "that cunt" Adrian Deevoy taking it over. You quoted that bit with something like "Whoever you are, I love you" and I wasn't sure how to take it. Most likely you disliked his writing and heartily agreed, which would've been fine, but a tiny, overthinking part of me was worried (and please don't be offended by this next bit, though that may be unavoidable) that you might actually have been Adrian Deevoy and were being sarcastic. I've always enjoyed your posts so I would've felt awful had you been he (not just for calling you a cunt, lol). I hasten to add your posts have never ever reminded me of his writing, so I was like 99.9% sure you weren't him anyway, but it's good to know for sure.

Of course, now I feel I've insulted you even more by thinking in some small part of my brain that you were Adrian Deevoy, but maybe that's some kind of ironic punishment for bearing a grudge.

*runs away*

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on July 21, 2020, 06:07:54 PM
One more thing.  It would be utterly remiss of me to mark the passing of the magazine without, once more, calling Adrian Deevoy a cunt for the cruelly dismissive one-paragraph review he gave Throwing Muses' second album proper, House Tornado.

He was also very mean to a wide-eyed young teenage me when I spoke to him on the IMRW stall at some music fair or other.


Fake EDIT:

Me being me, I thought I'd dig out what I said.  Was perversely thrilled to find out that if you Google "Adrian Deevoy cunt", even without a site specifier, a CaB thread is second:

with my own contribution third:

My my my, what an angry young man I was.  Aged 41¼, I was.  Got at least one reply, from The Mumbler again:


So there you go.

And yeah, I know this is a bit obsessive (just a bit!) but I was only 22 when he wrote that review, and I still remember eagerly buying my copy of Q, opening it, flipping through to find the review of that wonderful new album, and how I felt when I read it.  Clearly hit my amygdala hard!

I suppose it's all come back to me because, reading the Twitters last night, Deevoy's name kept coming up as being in the last two commemorative issues.  Call me a triggered snowflake.

Nevertheless, RIP Q.

Great post.

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on July 21, 2020, 06:07:54 PM
One more thing.  It would be utterly remiss of me to mark the passing of the magazine without, once more, calling Adrian Deevoy a cunt for the cruelly dismissive one-paragraph review he gave Throwing Muses' second album proper, House Tornado.


People are allowed to think different things about things you like.

Or do you want to live in a world of bland ★★★★ reviews for, like everything?

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead on July 21, 2020, 06:36:20 PM
People are allowed to think different things about things you like.

Or do you want to live in a world of bland ★★★★ reviews for, like everything?

Like most specialist music mags? Vive La Rock will give any old aging punk band's new album the thumbs up. 

Ambient Sheep knows it's all subjective. There is nothing wrong with defending the honour of something you like, is there? Christ, I've done it enough times on here.

Are there any online archive sites for Q?

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: Special K on July 28, 2020, 03:36:25 PM
Are there any online archive sites for Q?
I feel like hitting up a few car boot sales will net you most of the run of Q for like 50p.

Twonty Gostelow

Quote from: Special K on July 28, 2020, 03:36:25 PM
Are there any online archive sites for Q?
Not that I know of. Readly has every issue from the current one back to March 2014, but that's it. https://gb.readly.com/products/magazine/q

Rizla

My band's old manager's missus was Mark Ellen's ex, they were still friends so I met him a few times. Extremely nice man. Watched Tom Waits with him at the Playhouse in the special VIP box, with all free drinks and snacks and stuff.

EDIT mind you I've just remembered that Word magazine offered to put us on their cover CD if we gave them £500 or something.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Rizla on July 28, 2020, 03:59:37 PM
I used to be somebody you know. Sniff.

Yes in a private box full of music journalists I imagine there would be!

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Rizla on July 28, 2020, 03:59:37 PM
My band's old manager's missus was Mark Ellen's ex, they were still friends so I met him a few times. Extremely nice man.

I've met him a couple of times too. Very warm. His book Rock Stars Stole My Life is a top read, if you like that sort of thing.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

I've met Mark Ellen on a few occasions too, and he is indeed a lovely man. Kate Mossman from The WORD is a really warm, friendly, decent person too. Both of them living proof that you can make a name for yourself in the media without being an arsehole. So that's nice.

famethrowa

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on July 21, 2020, 06:06:50 PM
I do wonder if most of us on here packed it in at the same point. Must have been late 2001/early 2002 for me - think the Foo Fighters were on the cover.


I think about the same time for me. I started when Britpop was riding high, and lasted until all "The" bands came along in the wake of The Strokes. The hype for The Vines finished me off, I think.

Still, some things I remember:

- The 2-star review for Whats the Story Morning Glory

- Their relentless backing of Gary Barlow over Robbie Williams

- The review of a Spiritualized album that proclaimed it a work of unparalleled genius, finally got to listen to it last year and meh

ollyboro

Anybody remember the Q 5 Star CD booklet reviews? The idea was you put their extended review in your CD jewel case. I recall Brothers In Arms, The Unforgettable Fire, Hounds Of Love and The Stone Roses getting the honour.

The "Who The Hell..." feature was cancelled not just because PR people didn't want their charges getting the treatment, but also because some celebs actively wanted to be in it. Neil Tennant being one I can vividly remember bemoaning not being a Who The Heller. Cliff Richard's interview was memorable due to him banging on about being robbed at Eurovision. Like any fucker cared.

I stopped buying Q at about their December 2000 issue. In a short space of time they did a boy band special, had a Spice Girl (or even the whole band) on the cover and produced yet another top 100 list. Most of their lists could have been knocked together in the pub. The last issue I bought published my letter giving the answer to the spinal message ( fucked if I can remember what it was) and my promise never to buy Q again. A mere 20 years later and Q is soon to be defunct. Do not fuck with me.


PaulTMA

I've got loads of Words somewhere, and I may be wrong about this, but there was a vague whiff of smugness about it's "At last! Something to read" tagline.  Can also remember a bunch of pointless articles like some Andrew Collins efforts about how believe it or not it's sometimes great to walk around without your iPod, isn't it, and some weird midlife crisis thing he wrote about becoming a fan of the Arctic Monkeys.  Perhaps the 2000s were just a crap decade to exist in, whoever you were.

Twonty Gostelow

Quote from: PaulTMA on July 29, 2020, 02:19:12 AMCan also remember a bunch of pointless articles like some Andrew Collins efforts about how believe it or not it's sometimes great to walk around without your iPod, isn't it, and some weird midlife crisis thing he wrote about becoming a fan of the Arctic Monkeys.

Andrew Collins, like Mark Twain, is the author of three volumes of autobiography. Show him some respect.

famethrowa

Quote from: ollyboro on July 29, 2020, 01:14:16 AM
Anybody remember the Q 5 Star CD booklet reviews? The idea was you put their extended review in your CD jewel case. I recall Brothers In Arms, The Unforgettable Fire, Hounds Of Love and The Stone Roses getting the honour.

Remember when Smash Hits gave Brothers in Arms "10 out of 0"?  Hilarious stuff. Unless it was a misprint...

Anyway, one thing I did appreciate in Q was the CDs on the cover, quite a gift when you were far away from the action.

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: famethrowa on July 29, 2020, 12:41:51 AM- The 2-star review for Whats the Story Morning Glory
Which in turn may well have caused them to panic and give 'Be Here Now' a gushing two page, five star review.

Quote from: ollyboro on July 29, 2020, 01:14:16 AM
Anybody remember the Q 5 Star CD booklet reviews? The idea was you put their extended review in your CD jewel case. I recall Brothers In Arms, The Unforgettable Fire, Hounds Of Love and The Stone Roses getting the honour.
I'd be staggered if they gave the Stone Roses album five stars on release, so I'm guessing all the reviews were from the safety of long after the fact (plus that the U2, Kate Bush and der Straits albums came out before Q's first issue).

Pranet



QuoteThe 2-star review for Whats the Story Morning Glory
-

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on July 29, 2020, 08:35:51 AM
Which in turn may well have caused them to panic and give 'Be Here Now' a gushing two page, five star review.


David Cavanagh said that review damaged his career.

From his Telegraph obit-

QuoteCavanagh's career suffered after he savaged in print (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, Oasis's second LP, which became a multi-million seller.
"Suddenly it was No 1 and stayed there," he recalled. "The readers went for it and voted them for the Q Awards. At that point Q phoned Creation and the band's management and got the response: 'We see. You want Liam and Noel [Gallagher] to come and get an award for an album which you said was no good.' They were told: 'One of our freelancers said it was no good. We love it.' I didn't get any work for three months.

Custard

Just read the final issue on Readly, and it's basically a load of old interviews and articles from the past thrown together in a seemingly random order. The Lou Reed one is quite good though, as he seems to have been in a good mood that day!

The editor was saying he's gutted he will be known as the last editor of Q, when the truth is he's unknown now and will be unknown after this. Bit weird that he's basically asking someone to give him and his mates a job at the end of his column too. Tough times I know, but seemed a little inappropriate for his final address. Should've made the last page his CV

Bye Q, magazine of hearts

Jockice

Quote from: Twonty Gostelow on July 29, 2020, 02:30:52 AM
Andrew Collins, like Mark Twain, is the author of three volumes of autobiography. Show him some respect.

Ah yes, but by the third it was all: "Gosh, how did this sweet little middle-class boy from Northampton manage to become editor of Q and meet all the stars?' By being just like them - very ambitious - I should imagine.

Jockice

Quote from: ollyboro on July 29, 2020, 01:14:16 AM
Anybody remember the Q 5 Star CD booklet reviews? The idea was you put their extended review in your CD jewel case. I recall The last issue I bought published my letter giving the answer to the spinal message ( fucked if I can remember what it was) and my promise never to buy Q again. A mere 20 years later and Q is soon to be defunct. Do not fuck with me.

Yeah, well the NME turned me down for a job in 1989. That certainly ushered in its demise.

Twonty Gostelow

Quote from: Jockice on July 29, 2020, 11:23:01 AM
Yeah, well the NME turned me down for a job in 1989.

"Would you ever review albums you hadn't listened to and gigs you weren't at?"
"Of course not!"

Custard

Andrew Collins made the mistake of thinking his voice was fit for podcasting. When it really, really isn't

Had a brief Twitter exchange with him years ago, and he ended his reply to me with "OK mum". I'm not your mum Andrew!

Jockice

Quote from: Twonty Gostelow on July 29, 2020, 11:32:25 AM
"Would you ever review albums you hadn't listened to and gigs you weren't at?"
"Of course not!"

I used to know a guy who did freelance live reviews for the NME. He gave his own band an absolutely glowing review.  Cheeky bugger.

ollyboro

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on July 29, 2020, 08:35:51 AM
Which in turn may well have caused them to panic and give 'Be Here Now' a gushing two page, five star review.
I'd be staggered if they gave the Stone Roses album five stars on release, so I'm guessing all the reviews were from the safety of long after the fact (plus that the U2, Kate Bush and der Straits albums came out before Q's first issue).

Yes, the Q sleevenotes were all about albums from the past. A bit of research tells me the first 4 came free with the May 1991 issue. The featured albums were: Tunnel Of Love, Revolver, Blonde On Blonde and Brothers In Arms. The next issue also contained four more;  dunno which albums were reviewed. The next two appeared  in August 1992 and were concerned with a Bowie album (Ziggy, I would assume) and The Stone Roses. There doesn't appear to be any more after that.

By the way, I'd bet my testicles that Q gave What's The Story....a three star review upon its release.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Shameless Custard on July 29, 2020, 09:18:31 AM

The editor was saying he's gutted he will be known as the last editor of Q, when the truth is he's unknown now and will be unknown after this.

A little unfair. He's not proclaiming to be Lester Bangs here. He meant the ignominy within the industry, not with the general public. As a music press reader for many years, Ted Kessler has been a presence in NME/ Q throughout the 90s/00s, so I've heard of him.