If Music Could Talk

Mojo magazine, have issued part one of their Punk Icons series. The first issue features The Clash, with the second featuring The Pistols.

The magazine is housed in a fold out glossy sleeve. Not had a chance to read it yet, but its nice to see in the racks of the local supermarket.

Telecaster wrote: ↑

04 Jan 2022, 5:02pm

Mojo magazine, have issued part one of their Punk Icons series. The first issue features The Clash, with the second featuring The Pistols.

The magazine is housed in a fold out glossy sleeve. Not had a chance to read it yet, but its nice to see in the racks of the local supermarket.

Thanks for the info, checked it out on their website, looks pretty nice. Might have to order one since it doesn't appear to be available here in the states.

I sort of rolled my eyes when I saw this advertised online - Mojo, Uncut and co have done Clash specials before, I thought, is this aimed at new fans, what could there possibly be new to tell, etc etc. But when I was (not lost) in the supermarket and saw a copy on the racks, I couldn't resist.
Pricey at £8.99, but it's not really a regular music mag cos there's no ads in (which keeps the cost down) Think of it as a large format full colour paperback, and it takes the sting out it!
The folder it's in is sealed with a bit of tape, so you couldn't flick through and have a preview, either, so it was a bit of a leap of faith.
Anyway, I'm enjoying it so far. Pat Gilbert is behind it and he knows his Clash stuff of course, and has contacts galore I think.
There are a handful of new pics, some very early ones, plus new interviews.... Pablo La Britain and (gasp) Bernie 'Bernard' Rhodes so far and I'm only a few 'chapters' in. (It's set out as lots of them, focussing on the various characters and turning points in chronological order)
It's definitely a refreshing way to revisit the whole Clash tale.
And I'll probably got the Pistols one when it's published, if it's as well done as this.

They should do one for Wire.

Kory wrote: ↑

05 Jan 2022, 2:28pm

They should do one for Wire.

Most magazines aspire to sell more than 500 copies of an issue.

Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑

05 Jan 2022, 5:30pm

Kory wrote: ↑

05 Jan 2022, 2:28pm

They should do one for Wire.

Most magazines aspire to sell more than 500 copies of an issue.

Fuck them.

They should do one for X Ray Spex.

JennyB wrote: ↑

06 Jan 2022, 12:50pm

They should do one for X Ray Spex.

The documentary by Poly Styrene's daughter is pretty good.

JohnS wrote: ↑

05 Jan 2022, 5:44am

I sort of rolled my eyes when I saw this advertised online - Mojo, Uncut and co have done Clash specials before, I thought, is this aimed at new fans, what could there possibly be new to tell, etc etc. But when I was (not lost) in the supermarket and saw a copy on the racks, I couldn't resist.
Pricey at £8.99, but it's not really a regular music mag cos there's no ads in (which keeps the cost down) Think of it as a large format full colour paperback, and it takes the sting out it!
The folder it's in is sealed with a bit of tape, so you couldn't flick through and have a preview, either, so it was a bit of a leap of faith.
Anyway, I'm enjoying it so far. Pat Gilbert is behind it and he knows his Clash stuff of course, and has contacts galore I think.
There are a handful of new pics, some very early ones, plus new interviews.... Pablo La Britain and (gasp) Bernie 'Bernard' Rhodes so far and I'm only a few 'chapters' in. (It's set out as lots of them, focussing on the various characters and turning points in chronological order)
It's definitely a refreshing way to revisit the whole Clash tale.
And I'll probably got the Pistols one when it's published, if it's as well done as this.

Thanks for the review, John! Not gonna go out of my way to find it, but if I see it somewhere I'll probably buy it.

laxman wrote: ↑

06 Jan 2022, 1:11pm

JennyB wrote: ↑

06 Jan 2022, 12:50pm

They should do one for X Ray Spex.

The documentary by Poly Styrene's daughter is pretty good.

Agreed - I loved the visual style and how it echoed her book.

laxman wrote: ↑

06 Jan 2022, 1:11pm

JennyB wrote: ↑

06 Jan 2022, 12:50pm

They should do one for X Ray Spex.

The documentary by Poly Styrene's daughter is pretty good.

Agreed, it was very well done, learned stuff about her life struggles I hadn't known, she was an amazing woman.

MOJO's also on Apple News, if anyone here subscribes to that — I checked it out and John's spot on with his review. Some new cool stuff alongside some things we've all already seen!

JennyB wrote: ↑

06 Jan 2022, 1:21pm

laxman wrote: ↑

06 Jan 2022, 1:11pm

JennyB wrote: ↑

06 Jan 2022, 12:50pm

They should do one for X Ray Spex.

The documentary by Poly Styrene's daughter is pretty good.

Agreed - I loved the visual style and how it echoed her book.

Yeah, very much so. Poly's personal struggles make her all the more appealing, someone more inspirational because she was challenged by demons and illness.

JohnS wrote: ↑

05 Jan 2022, 5:44am

I sort of rolled my eyes when I saw this advertised online - Mojo, Uncut and co have done Clash specials before, I thought, is this aimed at new fans, what could there possibly be new to tell, etc etc. But when I was (not lost) in the supermarket and saw a copy on the racks, I couldn't resist.
Pricey at £8.99, but it's not really a regular music mag cos there's no ads in (which keeps the cost down) Think of it as a large format full colour paperback, and it takes the sting out it!
The folder it's in is sealed with a bit of tape, so you couldn't flick through and have a preview, either, so it was a bit of a leap of faith.
Anyway, I'm enjoying it so far. Pat Gilbert is behind it and he knows his Clash stuff of course, and has contacts galore I think.
There are a handful of new pics, some very early ones, plus new interviews.... Pablo La Britain and (gasp) Bernie 'Bernard' Rhodes so far and I'm only a few 'chapters' in. (It's set out as lots of them, focussing on the various characters and turning points in chronological order)
It's definitely a refreshing way to revisit the whole Clash tale.
And I'll probably got the Pistols one when it's published, if it's as well done as this.

Thanks for the review! Looks like it’s about $22 to ship to the US- do you think it’s worth it at that price tag? I already own a few books but I’d assume this would have better pictures/graphics/etc.

amj241 wrote: ↑

14 Jan 2022, 7:51pm

Thanks for the review! Looks like it’s about $22 to ship to the US- do you think it’s worth it at that price tag? I already own a few books but I’d assume this would have better pictures/graphics/etc.

$22 shipping seems a lot, although it is a fairly chunky magazine (132 pages) plus outer card jacket/wallet thing.
Do I think it's worth it? Well, how long's a piece of string - it depends on your finances, your fan-dom, what you're familiar with, all sorts. But if it helps, some more thoughts...

The vast majority of the photos will be familiar, but one thing I didn't mention before is that many of the captions are much more detailed than usual, ie dates and locations are given. It's interesting to learn where lots of classic live shots are from. I liked that - good effort, Mojo team.
The front cover photo is, I think, a colourised version of a B/W image - I can see why this was done for a cover, but B/W photos have their own quality and they're left as such elsewhere in the mag. There's tons of genuine colour photos anyway.

General layout and design are great - sympathetic to the various eras - and there's lots of montages of contemporary imagery like posters, badges, flyers etc. Again, you've probably seen it before, so it's up to you if you want to buy it again! And some of the pages are. well, not 'blank'. but just large type headings or oversized headlines so perhaps the total page count could have been reduced, but there you go.

Some of the chapters are reprinted articles from the music press at the time - a Pete Silverton one from 1978 all about recording GEER, a Sylvie Simmons 'on the road' piece about the Pearl Harbour 79 US tour, and a Chris Salewicz feature from 79/80- but done as all-new layouts (ie not reprroductions of the 70s pages) You may find these articles familiar but they were new to me, so a welcome read.

Maybe it's worth contacting Mojo to ask if they do a digital / Kindle version?