Straight No Chaser (magazine)

Straight No Chaser was an influential British music magazine, based in London, which covered various forms of black music and electronic music.

The magazine was started by music lover, journalist, and general clubgoer Paul Bradshaw, to cover the emerging black music scene that he saw expanding in London and the UK around the time house music hit British shores in a big way around Summer 1988 [ [http://www.straightnochaser.co.uk/issues.php?id=27 First issue, Issue 1 Vol 1, released in March 1988] .] .

Publishing

It was published in the UK and distributed for sale across the whole country, much of Europe, and also metropolitan areas of the US. It also had a slightly differing version that was published and distributed for sale separately in Japan. Starting out life being published quarterly, it moved to 5 times a year on its second volume, however the actual amount of issues released would fluctuate year on year and it didn't have a regular release date, so regular purchasers of the magazine often had to keep an eye out for its release when it happened [ [http://www.straightnochaser.co.uk/backissues.php List of "most" Straight No Chaser issues with month of release dates] .] . Very occasionally a covermount CD was also included with the magazine either only for a limited amount of copies for it's initial print run for that issue, or only for sale on the Japanese edition.

Content and themes

SNC magazines' slogan was "Interplanetary Sounds: Ancient To Future", which basically meant it covered Jazz music at the center, with other black music's from around the world --especially soulfull electronic music-- forming the core of its focus. While most of the magazine contained charts from eminent DJ's "on the scene" (including a regular chart from Bradshaw's DJ friend Gilles Peterson [ [http://www.straightnochaser.co.uk/featuredetail.php?id=127 Peterson / Bradshaw podcast feature] .] ) or articles on underground music scenes around the world, it also had an eye on contemporary artwork, and underground fashionable trends in & ouside various music communities usually not generally well-known about outside of the worlds' big urban centres (London, Paris, Tokyo, New York, San Francisco, et al).

The magazine was often compared with the US magazine publication "Wax Poetics" which came along later, and many believed copied Straight No Chaser's style in some ways.

Ending

For various reasons, not least the spread of the internet and declining magazine sales, plus the changing effects in the general music culture from vinyl and CD collecting to more digital downloading, Bradshaw decided to shut the magazine down in 2007 with the last issue being number 46 from volume 2, the Summer edition released around August that year [ [http://www.beyondjazz.net/viewtopic.php?p=41666 "Post subject: The end of Straight No Chaser Mag"] from the Beyond Jazz music forums, posted: 2007-06-22, 11:37pm] [ [http://www.straightnochaser.co.uk/issues.php?id=current "The Final Issue", Issue 46 Vol 2, released in August 2007] ] .

References

External links

* [http://www.straightnochaser.co.uk Straight No Chaser] - the main British edition's website (generally inactive -- back issues available only).
* [http://www.straightnochaser.co.jp Straight No Chaser] - the Japanese version's website (inactive).