Magazine 'Rays and Hail 1978-2011' 2xLP

Enduringly credible, Magazine have always been the connoisseur’s choice and are frequently name checked by some of the most gifted musicians of recent years, including Radiohead, Morrissey, Jarvis Cocker, U2, Johnny Marr and MGMT. NME.com went so far as to included Magazine in a poll as one of The Most Influential Bands Of All Time.

Magazine’s frontman, Howard Devoto, co-formed Buzzcocks with Pete Shelley after the pair had seen The Sex Pistols in early 1976 and promoted the now legendary Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall gigs. Devoto left in 1977, after the seminal ‘Spiral Scratch’ EP had been released, and created Magazine.

Their first record was the post-punk anthem ‘Shot By Both Sides’. Leading the vanguard of post-punk, Magazine’s sound focused on the double barrels of Dave Formula’s swirling keyboards and John McGeoch’s ahead-of-its-time innovative guitar work, underpinned by Barry Adamson’s pulsing yet deviously irregular basslines. Atop of which came Howard Devoto’s lyrics. Aloof, articulate, tersely ironic and about as pliable as a garden rake. 

Too literary for the mass pop environment. Too poppy for the literary landscapes beyond it. Doomed to exist in that tiny, undersubscribed hinterland where artful wordplay meets the crunching riff. ‘Real Life’, ‘Secondhand Daylight’, ‘The Correct Use of Soap’, and ‘Magic, Murder and The Weather’ - four ground breaking albums and then the band parted company, leaving behind an influential body of work to critical acclaim. A fifth studio album, ’No Thyself’, was released in 2011 following a 2009 reformation. The plaudits continued.