Melody Maker

This article is about the music newspaper. For the In 1978, Richard Williams returned again as editor atGibson guitar model, see Gibson Melody Maker.
tempting to take MM in a new direction inuenced by
what Paul Morley and Ian Penman were doing at NME
and
with Jon Savage, Chris Bohn and Mary Harron proMelody Maker was a British weekly pop/rock music
viding arty coverage of post-punk and new wave while
newspaper, one of the worlds earliest music weeklies
(according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest).[2] Vivien Goldman who was previously at NME and Sounds,
reggae and
It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance gave the paper much improved coverage of
soul
music,
an
area
in
which
it
had
fallen
short
of its com[3]
band musicians, by Leicester-born composer, publisher
[4][5] petitors.
Lawrence Wright; the rst editor was Edgar Jackson.
In 2000 it was merged into long-standing rival[2] (and Internal tension came to light, principally between
IPC Media sister publication) New Musical Express.
Williams and Ray Coleman, by this time editor-in-chief,
who wanted the paper to stick to the more conservative
rock music it had continued to support during the punk
era. Coleman had been insistent that the paper should
1 1950s1960s
look like The Daily Telegraph" (renowned for its oldfashioned design), but Williams wanted the paper to look
Originally the Melody Maker (MM) concentrated on jazz,
more contemporary. He commissioned an updated deand had Max Jones, one of the leading British proselytizsign, but this was rejected by Coleman.
ers for that music, on its sta for many years. It was slow
to cover rock and roll and lost ground to the New Musical During this period Melody Maker was described as the
Express (NME), which had begun in 1952. MM began its musos journal, and that Michael Mick Watts emerged
Melody Maker LP charts in November 1958, two years as a prominent writer for the paper.[11] In January 1972,
after the Record Mirror published the rst UK Albums in a dening moment for rock journalism, Watts interChart.[6] On 6 March 1965, MM called for the Beatles to viewed David Bowie for Melody Maker.[12] It was durbe honoured by the British state, which happened on 12 ing this interview that Bowie claimed, I'm gay, and alJune that year when all four were appointed as members ways have been, even when I was David Jones.[13] OH
of the Order of the British Empire (Messrs Harrison,[7] YOU PRETTY THING ran the headline, and swiftly
became part of pop mythology. Bowie later attributed
Lennon, McCartney[8] & Starr[9] )
his success to this interview, stating that, Yeah, it was
By the late 1960s, MM had recovered, targeting an
Melody Maker that made me. It was that piece by Mick
older market than the teen-oriented NME. MM had larger
Watts.[14] During his tenure at the paper, Watts also
and more specialised advertising; soon-to-be well-known
toured with and interviewed artists including Syd Bargroups would advertise for musicians. It ran pages derett, Waylon Jennings, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and Bruce
voted to minority interests like folk and jazz, as well as
Springsteen.
detailed reviews of musical instruments.
A 1968 Melody Maker poll named John Peel best radio DJ, attention which John Walters revealed may have
helped Peel keep his job despite concerns at BBC Radio
1 about Peels style and record selection.[10]

3 1980s
In 1980, after a strike which had taken the paper (along
with NME) out of publication for a period, Williams left
MM. Coleman promoted Michael Oldeld from the design sta to day-to-day editor, and, for a while, took it
back where it had been, with news of a line-up change in
Jethro Tull replacing features about Andy Warhol, Gang
of Four and Factory Records on the cover. Several journalists, such as Chris Bohn and Vivien Goldman, moved
to NME, while Jon Savage joined the new magazine The
Face. Coleman left in 1981, the papers design was updated, but sales and prestige were at a low ebb through
the early 1980s, with NME dominant.

1970s

Critics such as Richard Williams, Michael Watts, Chris

Welch and Steve Lake were among the rst British journalists to write seriously about popular music, shedding
an intellectual light on such artists as Steely Dan, Cat
Stevens, Led Zeppelin and Henry Cow.
Melody Maker supported glam rock and progressive rock
in the 1970s.
1

By 1983, the magazine had become more populist and

pop-orientated, exemplied by its modish MM masthead, regular covers for the likes of Duran Duran and
its choice of Eurythmics' Touch as the best album of the
year. Things were to change, however. In February 1984,
Allan Jones, a sta writer on the paper since 1974, was
appointed editor: defying instructions to put Kajagoogoo
on the cover, he led the magazine with an article on upand-coming band The Smiths.

BANDS USING MM ADVERTS

NME, entered a serious decline.

In 1999, MM relaunched as a glossy magazine, but the
new design did not help. The magazine closed the next
year, merging into IPC Media's other music magazine,
NME, which took on some of its journalists and music
reviewers.

5 Bands using MM adverts

In 1986, MM was invigorated by the arrival of a group of

journalists, including Simon Reynolds and David Stubbs,
Advertisements in Melody Maker helped assemble the
who had run a music fanzine called Monitor from the
lineups of a number of major bands, including:
University of Oxford, and Chris Roberts, from Sounds,
who established MM as more individualistic and intellec Jet Black met Hugh Cornwell (then of the band
tual. This was especially true after the hip-hop wars at
Johnny Sox) after reading an advertisement in
NME, a schism between enthusiasts of progressive black
Melody Maker, and the two helped form The Stranmusic such as Public Enemy and Mantronix and fans of
glers in 1974.[16]
traditional white rock - ended in a victory for the latter,
the departure of writers such as Mark Sinker and Biba
Bill Bruford placed an ad in 1968 that was anKopf, and the rise of Andrew Collins and Stuart Maconie,
swered by Jon Anderson and Chris Squire to form
who pushed NME in a more populist direction.
the founding lineup of Yes.[17]

1990s

While MM continued to devote most space to rock

and indie music (notably Everett True's coverage of the
emerging grunge scene in Seattle), it covered dance music, hip hop and post rock and electronica. Two of the
papers writers, Push and Ben Turner, went on to launch
IPC Medias monthly dance music magazine Muzik. Even
in the mid-1990s, when Britpop brought a new generation
of readers to the music press, it remained less populist
than its rivals, with younger writers such as Simon Price,
Taylor Parkes and Neil Kulkarni continuing the 1980s
tradition of iconoclasm and opinionated criticism. The
paper printed harsh criticism of Ocean Colour Scene and
Kula Shaker, and allowed dissenting views on Oasis and
Blur at a time when they were praised by the rest of the
press.
The magazine retained its large classied ads section, and
remained the rst call for musicians wanting to form a
band. Suede formed through ads placed in the paper. MM
also continued to publish reviews of musical equipment
and readers demo tapes -though these often had little in
common stylistically with the rest of the paper- ensuring
sales to jobbing musicians who would otherwise have little interest in the music press.
In early 1997, Allan Jones left to edit Uncut. He was replaced by Mark Sutherland, formerly of NME and Smash
Hits, who thus fullled [his] boyhood dream[15] and
stayed on to edit the magazine for three years. Many longstanding writers left, often moving to Uncut, with Simon
Price departing allegedly because he objected to an edict
that coverage of Oasis should be positive. Its sales, which
had already been substantially lower than those of the

Rick Davies, backed nancially by Dutch millionaire Stanley August Miesegaes, formed Supertramp,
the band of his dreams in 1969.[18]
Deep Purple found the then-unknown David
Coverdale in 1973.[19]
Depeche Mode placed an ad in 1981 and found Alan
Wilder.[20]
Vince Clarke of Erasure found Andy Bell in
1985.[21]
The original members of Suede recruited guitarist
Bernard Butler in 1989.[22]
Steve Hackett of Genesis put an ad in MM that was
answered by drummer Phil Collins in 1970.[23]
Annie Haslam of Renaissance (band) responded to
an ad in MM and was invited for audition and became the lead vocal in 1970.
Wang Chung got its start when Jack Hues met Nick
Feldman after answering Feldmans ad for a musician in 1977.[24]
Noel Redding, the bassist of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, auditioned for The Animals after responding to an ad. Eventually the bassist of The Animals,
Chas Chandler, introduced him to Jimi Hendrix.
Mike Barson of Madness tried to replace Suggs
when he wasn't turning up to band practice as he was
bunking o to attend Chelsea football matches[25]
Limahl teamed up with band 'Art Nouveau' and
formed Kajagoogoo from an advert he placed in
MM.[26]

3
The Cure posted an ad, answered by Jason Toop
Cooper, who has been The Cure drummer since
1995.

[17]
[18]
[19] Tees Features. BBC. Retrieved 11 August 2014.

See also
Sounds (magazine) (founded 1970 by ex-MM employees)

References

[20] The Ocial Recoil Website. Recoil.co.uk. 17 October

2013. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
[21] Lincolnshire - Stage. BBC. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
[22] Music - 7 Ages of Rock - Suede. BBC. Retrieved 11
August 2014.
[23]
[24] Wang Chung. Wang Chung. Retrieved 11 August 2014.

[1] Moore, Hilary (2007). Inside British Jazz: Crossing Borders of Race, Nation and Class. Ashgate Publishing. p.
26. ISBN 0754657442.
[2] ENTERTAINMENT | Melody Maker to merge with
NME. BBC News. 15 December 2000. Retrieved 11
August 2014.
[3] Herbert, Trevor (2000). The British Brass Band : A Musical and Social History. Oxford University. p. 105. ISBN
0191590126.
[4] Whitcomb, Ian (2013). After the Ball: Pop Music from
Rag to Rock. Faber & Faber.
[5] Powell, Neil (2000). The Language of Jazz. Taylor &
Francis. p. 85.
[6]
[7] The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 43667. p. 5487.
4 June 1965.
[8] The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 43667. p. 5488.
4 June 1965.
[9] The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 43667. p. 5489.
4 June 1965.
[10] Radio 1 - Keeping It Peel - John Peel Day. BBC. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
[11] Interview: Out of His Pen: The Words of Richard
Williams. Out Of His Pen. 2002. Retrieved 5 July 2011.
[12] Spitz, Marc (27 October 2009). Bowie: A Biography.
Crown Publishing Group. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-30746239-8.
[13] Jones, Randy; Bego, Mark (September 1976). Interview:
David Bowie. Macho Man (ABC-CLIO). ISBN 978-0275-99962-9. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
[14] Interview: Cha...cha...cha...changes: A journey with Aladdin. Melody Maker. 12 May 1973. Retrieved 5 July
2011.
[15] BBC Radio 6 Music - 6 Music News - Clips. Bbc.co.uk.
1 January 1970. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
[16] Cosmos, Tiger (2013). The Stranglers Biography. Musicianguide.com. Net Industries. Retrieved 24 April 2013.

[25] Saunders, William (2010). Jimi Hendrix: London. Roaring Forties Press. pp. 1719. ISBN 978-0-9843165-1-9.
Retrieved 30 December 2011.
[26] history. kajagoogoo. Retrieved 11 August 2014.

8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

Melody Maker Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody_Maker?oldid=665494517 Contributors: Liftarn, Warofdreams, Twang,

Riddley, Bearcat, RobinCarmody, Bonalaw, Rich Farmbrough, Ogg, Longhair, Sinesurfer, Philip Cross, Ashley Pomeroy, Jheald, Redvers, Tim!, Bruce1ee, FayssalF, FlaBot, M.C. Brown Shoes, Jared Preston, Eddie.willers, Whooligan, Paul Magnussen, Paul Erik, Attilios,
SmackBot, TomGreen, Dwanyewest, Eskimbot, The Gnome, Cavie78, Unint, ArtVandelay13, Derek R Bullamore, Ceoil, John, Misteror,
Durajohnpatrick, E-Kartoel, Raine r pierre, CmdrObot, TimothyHorrigan, Dosbrian, ShelfSkewed, I.M.S., Beagle84, Escarbot, RoMo37,
Jhsounds, Pacon, Dsp13, Gavin Wilson, MartinBot, Rettetast, MrBronson, DjScrawl, Antopi, Sunderland06, ACSE, Nikthestunned, Shortride, Technopat, SteveStrummer, Oxfordwang, Adabow, Lightmouse, Seth Whales, Martarius, Leahtwosaints, ClueBot, Muddyb, Les
woodland, Muro Bot, Mlas, Addbot, Lightbot, Amirobot, AnomieBOT, Kerfuer, Jim1138, ArthurBot, LilHelpa, Stuarthelmer, Mathonius, Jusses2, Rpxadair, RjwilmsiBot, Barnsey Boo, Logical Cowboy, GoingBatty, Artiquities, Werieth, ChuispastonBot, ClueBot NG,
Widr, Helpful Pixie Bot, BattyBot, YFdyh-bot, Synthwave.94, Kind Tennis Fan, Noradolorosa, Tim Allmen and Anonymous: 62

8.2

Images

File:MM_logo.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/be/MM_logo.jpg License: Fair use Contributors:

www.tullturk.com Original artist: ?

8.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0