Sounds was a UK weekly pop/rock music newspaper, published from 10 October 1970 to 6 April 1991. It was known for giving away posters in the centre of the paper (initially black and white, then colour from late 1971) and later for covering heavy metal (especially the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM))[1] and punk and Oi! music in its late 1970s–early 1980s heyday.[2]
History
It was produced by Spotlight Publications (part of Morgan Grampian), which was set up by John Thompson and Jo Saul with Jack Hutton and Peter Wilkinson, who left Melody Maker to start their own company. Sounds was their first project, a weekly paper devoted to progressive rock and described by Hutton, to those he was attempting to recruit from his former publication, as "a leftwing Melody Maker". Sounds was intended to be a weekly rival to titles such as Melody Maker and New Musical Express (NME).
Keith Cameron wrote about Nirvana after Robb carried out the first interview with them.[7]
The Obscurist Chart ran for about a year, first appearing on 5 September 1981 issue,[8] as an alternative to the main, sales-driven record charts, allowing bands and music outside the mainstream to be recognised.[8] The chart was started by Paul Platypus, who played with Mark Perry in The Reflections and compiled the first nine charts. The last chart appeared in 11 December 1982 issue.[8]
In 1987, Morgan-Grampian had been acquired by United News and Media (later to become United Business Media), first as part of the United Advertising Publications (UAP) division and later as part of the then CMP Information portfolio. A legacy of Sounds was the creation of the heavy metal/rock magazine Kerrang!, which was originally issued as a supplement before being spun off as a separate publication.[1]
Sounds was one of the trinity of British music weeklies, along with NME and Melody Maker, that were colloquially known as 'The Inkies'.[9]Sounds folded in 1991 after the parent company, United Newspapers, decided to concentrate on trade papers like Music Week and so sold most of their consumer magazines titles to EMAP Metro, with Sounds being closed at the same time as its sister music magazine, the more chart and dance music oriented Record Mirror.
Among editorial and advertising staff were Billy Walker, editor, Alf Martin, chief sub and Ralph Spavin, advert production.
Notes
^Journalist and BBC Radio 6 Music radio presenter Stuart Maconie is credited with first using the term Britpop in 1993 in relation to a new "Great British pop" movement which would counteract the success of alt. rock and grunge from America. The term "Britpop" arose when the media were drawing on the success of the Young British Artists, collectively also referred to as "Britart", and applied a "Britart-esque" label to a number of new British indie musicians, coming up with "Britpop", though recounting the event in a BBC Radio 2 programme from 2020, Maconie believed "Britpop" was a term used in the 1960s, around the time of the British Invasion.[5]
References
^ abTucker, John (2006). "Denim and Leather – 1979". Suzie Smiles... The New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Church Stretton, Shropshire, UK: Independent Music Press. pp. 22–23. ISBN978-0-9549704-7-5. Sounds (...) produced more and more features as the editorial staff realised that metal was one of the main reasons the paper sold
