| Categories | Music, show business |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Weekly |
| Founder | Isidore Green |
| First issue | 17 June 1954 |
| Final issue | 6 April 1991 |
| Company | United Newspapers |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Based in | London |
| Language | English |
| ISSN | 0144-5804 |
| OCLC | 6459252 |
Record Mirror was a British weekly music newspaper published between 1954 and 1991, aimed at pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years afterNew Musical Express, it never attained the circulation of its rival. The firstUK album chart was published inRecord Mirror in 1956, and during the 1980s it was the only consumer music paper to carry the officialUK singles and UK albums charts used by the BBC forRadio 1 andTop of the Pops, as well as the USA'sBillboard charts.
The title ceased to be a stand-alone publication in April 1991 whenUnited Newspapers closed or sold most of their consumer magazines, includingRecord Mirror and its sister music magazineSounds, to concentrate on trade papers likeMusic Week. In 2010,Giovanni di Stefano bought the nameRecord Mirror and relaunched it as an online music gossip website in 2011. The website became inactive in 2013 following di Stefano's jailing for fraud.[1][2]
Record Mirror was founded by formerWeekly Sporting Review editor Isidore Green,[3] who encouraged the same combative journalism asNME. Staff writers included Dick Tatham, Peter Jones[4] and Ian Dove.[5] Green's background was in show business and he emphasisedmusic hall, a dying tradition. He published articles and interviews connected with theatre and musical personalities.[citation needed]
On 22 January 1955,Record Mirror became the second music paper afterNME to publish a singles chart. The chart was a Top 10, from postal returns from 24 shops. On 8 October, the chart expanded to a Top 20, and by 1956, more than 60 stores were being sampled. In April 1961, increased postage costs affected funding of the returns, and on 24 March 1962 the paper abandoned its charts and began using those ofRecord Retailer, which had begun in March 1960.[6]
The first album charts in the UK were published inRecord Mirror on 28 July 1956.[7]
For two months in 1959,Record Mirror failed to appear due to a national printing strike. On its return, Green renamed itRecord and Show Mirror, the majority of space devoted to show business. By the end of 1960 circulation had fallen to 18,000 andDecca Records, the main shareholder, became uneasy. In March 1961, Decca replaced Green with Jimmy Watson, a former Decca press officer. Watson changed the title toNew Record Mirror and eliminated show business. Circulation rose, aided by an editorial team ofPeter Jones, Ian Dove and Norman Jopling. He brought in freelance columnists James Asman,Benny Green and DJDavid Gell to implement a chart coverage including jazz, country andpop music. This eventually included the official UK Top 50 singles, Top 30LPs and Top 10EPs, as compiled byRecord Retailer. The paper also listed the USA Top 50 singles, compiled byCash Box, and charts such as the Top 20 singles of five years ago andR&B releases.
Features such as Ian Dove's "Rhythm & Blues Round Up", Peter Jones's "New Faces" and Norman Jopling's "Fallen Idols and Great Unknowns", combined withNew Record Mirror's music coverage, helped circulation rise to nearly 70,000.New Record Mirror was the first national publication to publish an article onthe Beatles,[8] and the first to featurethe Rolling Stones,the Searchers,the Who, andthe Kinks.Bill Harry, founder and editor of theLiverpool publicationMersey Beat, wrote a column on Liverpool music. Other columnists reported onBirmingham, Manchester,Sheffield andNewcastle.New Record Mirror took an interest in black AmericanR&B artists. The paper maintained articles on old-stylerock and roll.
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During 1963 Decca Records' chairmanEdward Lewis sold a substantial share of Decca's interest toJohn Junor, editor of theSunday Express. Junor was looking for a paper to print by four-colour printing developed byWoodrow Wyatt inBanbury, before printing theSunday Express in colour. Junor movedSunday Express production toShaftesbury Avenue andNew Record Mirror became more mainstream. In November 1963, the paper returned to the nameRecord Mirror, and featured a colour picture of the Beatles on the cover, the first music paper in full colour. Although the first run of 120,000 sold out, the following issue fell to 60,000. Junor replaced Jimmy Watson by Peter Jones. Circulation recovered and the paper successfully continued with the same format throughout the 1960s. Following acquisition in 1962 ofNME byOdhams,Record Mirror was the only independent popular music newspaper.
During 1969,Record Mirror was acquired byRecord Retailer and incorporated intoRecord Retailer offices inCarnaby Street. The acquisition saw the magazine change printers, drop full colour pin-ups and increase its size to a largertabloid format. Jones continued as editor, supported by Valerie Mabbs, Lon Goddard, Rob Partridge, Bill McAllister (the first music journalist to heraldElton John andRod Stewart), and broadcast-specialist Rodney Collins, who had moved fromRecord Retailer. Collins's links withpirate radio gaveRecord Mirror a continental circulation and a Dutch supplement was frequently included. Terry Chappell resumed as production editor and Bob Houston supervised the change in format. Group editorial managerMike Hennessey contributed the first interview withJohn Lennon. TheRecord Mirror photographic studio became independent, underDezo Hoffmann.
In a studioouttake of a recording of "Sally Simpson" on the 2003 release of the deluxe edition of the Who's 1969 albumTommy,Pete Townshend said, "I've read theRecord Mirror". WhenKeith Moon presses him to tell what he read in theRecord Mirror, Pete says, to the rest of the band's laughter, that the paper said that he was known by the other members of the Who as "Bone".
In 1975Disc was incorporated intoRecord Mirror – among the items brought toRecord Mirror wasJ Edward Oliver's cartoon, which had been running inDisc for five years, and which continued for a two years inRecord Mirror. By 1977Record Retailer had becomeMusic Week andRecord Mirror was included in a sale byBillboard magazine to the Morgan-Grampian Group. Both offices moved toCovent Garden. Morgan-Grampian moved toGreater London House, north London in 1981.
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In 1982, the paper changed from tabloid to glossy magazine. During the next nine years it had a more pop-orientated slant and containing features anda tone of voice that was one part Smash Hits, one part the NME. Part ofRecord Mirror was devoted over to comic articles as a rival to the NME's Thrills section (infamous for Stuart Maconie's Believe It Or Not column which claimed thatBob Holness was the saxophonist on Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street).[9] Features in this section ofRecord Mirror included:
In 1987, Morgan-Grampian was acquired by United Newspapers (nowUBM). On 2 April 1991,Record Mirror closed as a stand-alone title on the same day as its United Newspapers sister publicationSounds closed, with the last issue dated 6 April 1991. The final cover featuredTransvision Vamp. Eleanor Levy, the final editor, believed the decision to close the magazine was "taken by accountants rather than people who understand music. When I explained to one of the management team that our strength was dance music, he thought I meantJive Bunny."[10]
As United Newspapers decided to focus on trade papers,Record Mirror was incorporated intoMusic Week as a pull-out supplement with the title concentrating on dance music and with the Cool Cuts, Club Chart and James Hamilton'sBPM column continuing to be published.[11][12][13][14][15] Hamilton continued to review records for theRecord Mirror Dance Update until two weeks before his death on 17 June 1996, with the supplement running an obituary in the 29 June issue with tributes from Pete Tong, Graham Gold and Les 'L.A. Mix' Adams.[16][17][18]
By the 21st century, theRecord Mirror Dance Update had been abandoned with the dance charts incorporated intoMusic Week (with the Music Week Upfront Club and Cool Cuts still being published in 2020 byFuture plc, though this may change in 2021 when the publication goes monthly).[19][20][21] However, in 2011 Record Mirror was re-launched as an online music gossip website but became inactive two years later following trademark owner Giovanni di Stefano's jailing for fraud.[11]
Record Mirror became the second magazine to compile and publish a record chart on 22 January 1955. Unlike theNew Musical Express who conducted a phone poll of retailers for a chart,Record Mirror arranged for its pool of retailers to send in a list of best sellers by post. The paper would finance the costs of this survey and by 1957 over 60 shops would be regularly contributing from a rotating pool of over 80. The chart was a top 10 until 8 October 1955. It then became a top 20; which it stayed at until being replaced by theRecord Retailer top 50. It also inaugurated the country's first Long Player chart, which commenced as a top five on 28 July 1956.
By March 1962,Record Mirror adopted publication ofRecord Retailer's top 50 from 24 March 1962. After 21 April 1966,Record Mirror published a "Bubbling Under List" right under the main chart (at the time, the Singles Top 50, the Albums Top 30 and the EP Top 10). "The Breakers", as it was called later in the year, were 10 to 15 records (for the singles chart) which had not made the top 50 that week, but were poised to reach the main chart the next week, ranked in sales order, i.e. as if they occupied positions 51 to 64. "The Breakers" list was ceased whenBMRB took over chart compilation in February 1969, but by September 1970, it was re-instated (for singles only) appearing off and on under the main chart, up until May 1978 (when the top 75 was introduced). In the years 1974 and 1975, the list even expanded to 30 titles, of which the first 10 were called "Star Breakers" and given in order of sales, with the other 20 listed alphabetically.
In January 1983, when Gallup took over chart compilation, the singles chart extended to a Top 100, with positions 76–100 as 'The Next 25' – excluding singles dropping out of the Top 75 or with significantly reduced sales. 'The Next 25' was discontinued byMusic Week in November 1990 who decided to only include records that were hits (that is, inside the Top 75).Record Mirror continued printing the Top 100 until it became part of the trade paper in April 1991, withMusic Week continuing to print the hits, though the full Top 200 singles chart and Top 150 albums chart could be accessed by subscribing toMusic Week's spin-off newsletterCharts Plus and also toHit Music which superseded it. (Note: As of December 2020 the Official Charts Company website is still missing a lot of the data on regards to records in positions 76 to 100 from 1991 to 12 February 1994)[22][23]
In addition to the Gallup charts (the future Official Charts Company Top 100),Record Mirror was the only magazine during the 1980s to print the weekly US singles and album charts, with analysis by chart statistician Alan Jones.[24]
In June 1975, DJJames Hamilton (1942–1996) started writing a weekly "disco" column, which in 1980s expanded into a general dance music section known asBPM. Later, Hamilton introduced theDJ Directory, including theBeats and Pieces news section and four charts: "Club Chart", "Cool Cuts", "Pop Dance", andHi-NRG Chart.
Hamilton had started DJing in London in the early 1960s, and had been writing about US soul and R&B forRecord Mirror since 1964, originally as Dr Soul.[15][16] After a visit to theParadise Garage in the 1970s to seeLarry Levan play, he came back to the UK a convert to mixing records, unknown at the time. To promote his views, he developed hisonomatopoeic style of describing a record, and from 1979 he started timing and including thebeats per minute of records he reviewed.[16]
Jack Edward Oliver, 1970–1977
Business team