Day 267: Magazine – Real Life

I’ve just realised that I have less than 100 days left to hit my target of doing this for a year. Time really flies, it’s a bit bonkers how much this is just a part of my routine now. And there’s something about publishing things on the internet just for fun, I think the collapse of the internet came when we all started doing too much personal branding. Anyway, I thought I’d explore a bit of post punk history today, it’s one of those genres I always like but don’t listen to enough.

Album cover courtesy of Virgin

Magazine were a pioneering post punk band from Manchester who were formed in 1977 after singer Howard Devoto left the Buzzcocks to form his own group. He was joined by guitarist John McGeoch (who later left the band to join Siouxsie and the Banshees), as well as drummer John Doyle, bassist Barry Adamson and keyboardist Dave Formula.

Real Life was released in 1978 as the group’s debut album, and it peaked relatively high at 29 on the UK albums chart. Critically, it was also well received, with NME declaring that Howard Devoto was “the most important man alive” when the album came out. It was reissued in 2007 before their brief reunion, as they released a new album and toured between 2009-2011.

I didn’t think I’d listened to Magazine before, but I have definitely heard "Shot by Both Sides," and some other songs sound vaguely familiar, but I can’t place where I would have heard them. Maybe it’s just sounding familiar because you can hear how it influenced other artists, I don’t know. It’s one of those bands that you feel you should have known about a lot sooner. High point of it is the lyricism, it’s worth listening to just for that.

I’m once again asking is this band underrated generally or just underrated by me – both, probably. But all I’m saying is that I haven’t heard about Magazine as much as I probably should have. Real Life gets a 9/10.