A Brief summary and history of some key music magazines.
PART 1 – AUSTRALIA
GO-SET (1966 – 1974)
Go-Set was the first Australian music magazine (newspaper), published weekly from 2 February 1966 to 24 August 1974. Founded in Melbourne by Phillip Frazer, Peter Raphael and Tony Schauble it became an influential publication, providing the first national charts of pop record sales (from October 1966). http://www.poparchives.com.au/gosetcharts/covers.html + https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-Set
RAM (1975 – 1989)
RAM or Rock Australia Magazine was an Australian newspaper style music magazine issued fortnightly between 1975 and 1989. Founded in Sydney by Anthony O’Grady who had been a contributor to Go-Set, it was styled on (and got copy from) UK publications, New Musical Express and Melody Maker.
A willingness to integrate Punk and New Wave coverage in the late 70’s gave it an advantage over it’s rivals Juke and the Australian edition of Rolling Stone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Australia_Magazine
JUKE (1975 – 1992)
Juke magazine was Melbourne published weekly rock and pop newspaper founded by a former Go-Set editor Ed Nimmervoll. It gave a more Melbourne based perspective compared the the Sydney published RAM. It featured a detailed Gig Guide which focused initially on Melbourne but extended to a more national coverage.
ROLLING STONE AUSTRALIA (1972 – 2018)
The Australian Rolling Stone was first issued as a supplement in Revolution Magazine from 1970 before becoming a stand alone publication from 1972. It ceased publication in Jan 2018 but began as an online edition in Feb 2019. https://www.vinylgroovemusic.com.au/?product_cat=magazines + https://au.rollingstone.com/
The Record (a folded newspaper) was a temporary off shoot of Rolling Stone.
ROADRUNNER (1978 – 1983)
Published from Adelaide, Roadrunner covered Australian and Overseas music and counterculture, including Punk and New Wave. Founded by Stuart Coupe and Donald Robertson, and named after the Jonathan Richman song, Roadrunner ran to 48 monthly editions. https://ro.uow.edu.au/roadrunner/
OTHER NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS
Other publications (mainly) from the 1980’s included:-
VOX (1981-82)
Virgin Press (1981 – 83)
Juice (1993 – 2003)
The Edge (1989 – 90) https://www.vinylgroovemusic.com.au/?product_cat=magazines
Stiletto (1983 – 89)
and also “Retrozines” such as:-
Prehistoric Sounds (1976 – 90)
From The Vault (1986 – 90)
IT: The Australian record collectors guide (1992 – 2020)
