Magazine: The Biography by Helen Chase

“Magazine were always a connoisseur's choice”, claims guitarist John McGeoch in this vigorous account of their short bittersweet career. As the late McGeoch and others attest, Magazine were a band whose influence far outweighed their sales. Post-punk frontrunners, they paved the way for Gary Numan, and inspired Radiohead, the Chili Peppers and, rather more regrettably, Mansun. In music writing the word ‘seminal’ is often overused; here though, it is appropriate. Chase gives a laconic overview of 24 Hour Party People-era Manchester and manages to breathe life into an overexposed narrative. Her prose is refreshingly unfussy for music writing, and she wisely steps back to allow those who were there to tell their own stories. Magazine’s life and death is plotted through their album releases, from upstarts looking to change the world (Real Life) to ennui-ridden journeymen (Magic, Murder and the Weather). Early on, Chase has an irritating knack of lapsing into Fanboy detail (listing the birth date of band members no matter how fleeting their tenure, for instance), but this is soon ironed out and the book captures the giddy adulation their reform earlier this year prompted. A fitting and overdue tribute to the ultimate cult band. [Daniel Gray]