The Melody Maker turns 85:

[brownie]

Nice article on the Melody Maker which turned 85 today!

A Magazine for Musicians

I have not read it in quite a long time but I remember looking for any issue I could lay my hands on in the '50s (that was before the swingin' 60s).

The weekly was pretty jazz-oriented then!

[A Lark Ascending]

Read it during the 70s, though the NME was my main source.

Although it was by then a mainly rock mag, it still devoted sections to jazz and did jazz interviews. That's where I got some of my first info about jazz.

There was some talk a while back - I think sidewinder had the details - about it being digitalised. That would be fascinating! Edit: Report here

But the Maker would continue to be plagued by its inability to change with the times. As the NME and others identified punk as a death knell for the dinosaurs that came before, the Melody Maker clung to its 10-minute keyboard solos, capes and pantsuits. Sales again flagged as younger readers, especially, began dubbing it the “Monotony Maker.”

The orthodox view of rock history, as usual. As I recall, all the UK music press went over to punk, new wave or whatever - whether as a matter of policy or because all but the biggest bands with international careers folded so there was not much 'dinosaur' music to write about. I stopped buying it around '77/'78.

Edited January 2, 2011 by A Lark Ascending

[sidewinder]

No new news yet about it being digitalised and put on-line. In the meantime I believe that the National Jazz Archive in Essex has back-copies that can be checked in person. OK I guess if you live in or near Essex !

Just wish I had kept all of those great articles and reviews from the 1970s, when people like Steve Lake were on staff.

Edited January 2, 2011 by sidewinder