Recently I received a notice from a great Beatles friend of mine from Virginia informing me of an exciting new quarterly Beatles magazine entitled “The Beatles Magazine.”
The novel approach this magazine was taking was that the issue dates were going to correspond with the time that the actual events occurred back in the sixties. Based on the description offered for the magazine, I decided to subscribe and when I received the first issue, I was amazed at the content I was reading because the stories were written as if we were in the year when the actual events occurred.
John Lennon and Bob Wooler
For example, A few sample stories are an account of Paul’s 21st birthday party with John’s confrontation with Bob Wooler which almost put a stop to the Beatles before they climbed to the pinnacle of fame. Another superb article is an account of Paul’s writing an early Beatles song entitled “Pinwheel Twist”. Another fascinating article from the first issue is Pete Best’s assessment of why he was let go by the Beatles.
It is a quarterly magazine that takes a unique perspective to the articles written about our favorite group. If you notice the cover of the first issue shown below, you will notice that the date provided in the magazine for the first issue is 1963. It is a unique perspective for the mag because it highlights information that occurred back in 1963 as if it were being written today with additional information provided. After receiving the first issue, I was heartbroken to hear that not enough people subscribed to the magazine to be able to provide the funds in order to finance future issues of the magazine.
Single Issue
To me this was a disheartening revelation as this magazine was clearly aimed at a very serious and knowledgeable Beatles fan base. Because of economic realities, the one-issue magazine became an instant collector’s item. Ironically, it is the fan base that suffers as this magazine was both innovative, informative and clearly original and unique in its approach to Beatles information. I thank the publisher for the opportunity to have received and read this excellent magazine. It is my sincere wish that this idea be revisited at a future date as the premise of the magazine was simply too good of an idea to disappear.
Such a shame that the magazine only had a single issue, but what a collector’s item!
What is your favorite Beatles magazine? Do you subscribe to one at the moment?
Buzz
Memorabilia
Beatles books about Memorabilia
I’ve been subscribing to Bill King’s Beatlefan magazine since the fall of 1980. (it started in 1978, I found out later) Still have every issue! I also purchased a book that contained the first two years that I’d missed.
Had I known, I would have subscribed as well! (I’ve got a pretty god network of Beatles info…I am also surprised that I didn’t hear of this before it was too late!)
“good” that is!
Rob:That is why anyone promoting a new Beatles book or magazine needs to find the best wide-ranging Beatles-related sources to disseminate the information about the new work. Remember, I only found about this fanzine/magazine from a good Beatles friend via word of mouth exchange of emails! The Beatle information network is generally very good about spreading the news about such things, but sometimes things that are very good slip through the cracks! This apparently was clearly one of those!
I so wish there was a regular, quality Beatles magazine in the UK.
Unfortunately, there are only a few Beatles magazines left. I have been reading the monthly German Beatles magazine “Beatles Things” from the Beatles Museum in Halle/Saale, Germany, for decades. The magazine is now also available in English. It keeps me up to date and I also get reviews of “It was xx years ago….”. The magazine has 40 pages and comes in colour and black and white.
https://www.beatlesmuseum.net/magazin-things/
Like Mike, I also wish I’d heard about this! I’d also like the link if you have it as I’d hope they might continue if they know there’s interest out there that they didn’t know about. And yes, Eddie, BeatleFan is the best!
Ginger-The editor/publisher immediately shut down after the first issue due to the lack of subscriptions! The link is no longer Online. I certainly agree with both Mike and yourself that awareness of the magazine in it’s earlier stages was what was sorely lacking. I was made aware of it because I have a network of Beatle fans looking out for things like this for me plus I am always scouring the internet for new books, magazines and other print material about the Beatles. I wanted to take the opportunity to tell this story because there is a lot of quality stuff out there that gets lost in the sands of time for one reason or another.
Too bad there was not more promotion for the magazine. I’m in the States and never heard about it. If the single issue still available. Can you post a link? I couldn’t find it in a Google search.
A single issue was produced and because not enough orders were placed in the pre-orders to cover the costs for subsequent issues, the creator of the magazine was forced to cease publication. Trust me when I tell you it was a true tragedy that this magazine did not proceed forward. I know, because I have the single issue that was produced and it was EXCELLENT!!!
Bill King,s BeatleFan. There is no other.
It is an excellent fanzine/magazine. I collect them since the 80’s. Such a nice work.