Kerrang! Shit?,

[Dave C]

Once there was a exciting new rock magazine that went by the odd name off Kerrang! It covered all sorts of new and exciting bands as well as paying homage to the established rock and roll scene.

Unfortunately Kerrang! started beleiving in it's own press and soon became pretentious and well, shite!

Nowadays Kerrang! spends most of its time now brown-nosing new 'stars' and doesn't give a monkeys about proper acts such as the mighty Ginger, it only gives a damn about finding 'the next big thing'.

What say you, the good folk of Gingerland, is Kerrang! still cutting edge? Is it shite? Well?

[SteveP]

Dave, there are a couple of comments on the same vein currently running on a topic on Luis' Corner, here: http://www.thewildhearts.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=156&start=15

Basically, yes, myself and Andy from Middlesbrough agree with you. The magazine is becoming shite (from what I've heard. Ihaven't bought it for about a year) and the channel just plays rap, the stereophonics, Beastie Boys etc.

How about Classic Rock start off a channel!!!!!!!!, now that WOULD be worthwhile (or am I just showing my age????????)

[fonzie]

I'm glad someone has the same views as myself. I buy it week in week out to find out about up coming gigs. Rarely read the whole thing because its full of this american shite like fall out boy and the all american fucking rejects. i fucking detest bands like that. They belong in magazines like smash hits. Ginger does'nt get the credit he deserves not only as a performer, but, also a song writer. For fucks sake he's been doing it for how many years and gets miniscule recogniton, but pish like the bands mentioned above come along and get hyped up so much its unreal.

Sorry gettin a little worked up.

[Michael Wade]

Didn't Kerrang give VDC a nice review earlier in the year? And those 2 bands you mentined, I never heard of them. We got shite for music and shite for press over here. Perhaps Kerrang will becoming as lame as Rolling Stone. I gotta go buy Uncut, Classic Rock, or maybe Q if I want to read about anything happening. Sickening too how I go to the UK to see Ginger I hear rap playing all around London. WTF.

[fonzie]

Your right they did give VDC a good review.

[Damian]

Can't say that Kerrang! is all that to read these days, but they're pretty good to Ginger.

And I like Fall Out Boy. It's just pop rock, innit? Forget the whole 'emo' thing...

[Ross]

I stopped buying Kerrang in about 1998... I still flick through it in Smiths every now and then, but the rock scene in this country, and, well, everywhere, sucks now...

It's the same old same old... Skiffle's where it's at!

[SteveP]

the rock scene in this country, and, well, everywhere, sucks now...

It's the same old same old... Skiffle's where it's at!

I don't necessarily think the rock scene sucks, it's just it gets so marginalised, the proper stuff gets NO airplay, apart from maybe on Bruce Dickinson's show (and occasionally on Phil Jupitus) on Radio 6, and not everybody has access to that yet.
The occasional one gets through, but then they sink without trace again.

Thank god I am among the core, the people who support real music, buy the cds (not download them, does it not fell more satisfying to have the piece of plastic in your hand, rather than a computer file you can never touch???), go to the gigs, buy the merchandise etc

[psychodoyle2002]

To quote a mate "One of these days reality will collapse and there'll be an issue of Kerrang that doesn't feature either Fall Out Boy, HIM, OR fucking Avenged Sevenfold"

They were reasonably favourable of Ginge at Download tho, gave him 3 out of 5 and branded him "explosive pop rock." They didn't like the extended jam sections tho, but I guess that personal preference. Most people know a 3 out of 5 in kerrang means it's probably ace anyway.

[godofhaircare]

Now I'm not old, I'm only 26 but when I read Kerrang nowadays I have no idea who most of the bands in it are. The only time I know a band is when they do a nostalgia peice about an albums 20th anniversary or something. Now I like a wide variety of rock music but can't comprehend some of the bands covered in Kerrang. I'd rather read Classic Rock, every band I know and the new bands they feature always deserve the coverage they get.

Funny thing is my brother keeps getting me a subscription to Kerrang every year for my birthday even if I tell him not to. i wouldn't pay for Kerrang ever.

[twunt]

I personally love alot of the main stream stuff like All American Rejects etc, but have to admit, I find very little in Kerrang worth reading that isn't pretentious horse shit! Just because people like main stream or more modern rock, doesn't mean you can cover the underground or older classic stuff too. One thing I've always hated bout them too is the fact they have to have Nirvana and Kurt Cobain in every fucking poll of greatest gigs etc!!!!!! Why? The dude's dead and the band split! For fucks sake after at least a decade you'd have thought they would have finally found someone else worth writing about.....

[psychodoyle2002]

IMO Rock Sound is wehere it's at, they cover everything underground or not, plus last issue saw 2 mentions of The Wildhearts saying the B-movie heroes are great and take some ideas from them, and a little "What was the first gig you went to" random question thing with Ginger. Plus a magazine that divides reviews by genre gets the thumbs up in my book.

[Damian]

One thing I've always hated bout them too is the fact they have to have Nirvana and Kurt Cobain in every fucking poll of greatest gigs etc!!!!!! Why? The dude's dead and the band split! For fucks sake after at least a decade you'd have thought they would have finally found someone else worth writing about.....

Hmmm. In their defence, if it's a readers' poll then it's not their fault and if it's a staff one - just because they're gone doesn't lessen their achievements any.

They've got to reflect the taste of their readers a little and if you go to Reading Festival, the amount of people with Kurt T-shirts on - many of whom would have been aged in single figures when he died - is astonishing. Not quite sure why they do that (seems a tad morbid to me) but there you go. Any magazine that wants to break even has to strike a balance between reflecting their readers' tastes and also bringing in the new. I'm not sure that Kerrang! does that especially well, and I certainly don't think it's much of a read these days, but that's certainly where they're coming from...

[twunt]

I don't deny Kurt has a massive influence even today, it just really pisses me off that they cant leave the guy in peace. It seems like every so often they get the urge to do some shitty 10 page story on how the 'lost' Nirvana tapes have been found and re-writing his whole life story all over again!
There's fantastic bands out there that cant even get an inch of a column just because people like Kerrang! choose what's relevant. I love alot of the mainstream stuff and the stuff that Kerrang! covers. It would just be really nice if they could cover bands a little less known, or even the bands that influence todays bands. Hell, if anyone's heard the latest Mike Patton project called Peeping Tom, it'll be a miracle. I love the album and would strongly recommend anyone who's so much as enjoyed Faith No more to go buy it. But I only discovered it was being released because I read it in Terrorizer! When a metal magazine like that is more willing than one like Kerrang! to publicise bands that don't even fit their genre, then maybe we should be worrying bout the quality of Kerrang!.....

[psychodoyle2002]

I think it's last weeks, or the week before, they give a bit of coverage to the upcoming Ginger tour basically saying that everyone should go see him because he's a hero and VDC is amazing. They start with "No-one can deny the power of a great song, and Ginger has hundreds of them!"