Plan B Magazine R.I.P.

It was Miss AMP who introduced me to Frances Morgan.

Almost immediately, I got into an argument about her. I wanted to send her to interview Sonic Youth for Careless Talk Costs Lives and the press agent was concerned that I was commissioning an untested music critic (Frances was, and remains, a talented musician) to talk to her flagship band. I responded that I'm just as able to spot intelligence, passion - and something else, being driven - as anyone, and so Frances went down to speak to her favourite band as her first interview as a critic.

Afterwards the PR graciously let me know that she (and the band) thought the interview went great.

For a long time after, I kind of wished I hadn't introduced Frances into the fold - her writing (like that of Neil Kulkarni, Stevie Chick and Miss AMP, for quite different reasons) always made me feel inadequate, in its ability to describe music so imaginatively.

Right from the start, Frances has been crucial, the main part of Plan B Magazine. I might have helped conceptualise and realise the magazine, alongside Chris Houghton and Andrew Clare (and lesser-sung names such as the wonderful Richard Stacey) but it was Frances, right from the outset, who was the driving force behind the title. My role at Plan B has always been advisory, to a lesser or greater degree. It was her vision and dedication and hard work and enthusiasm that have filled its pages, attracted the contributors, kept the title going way beyond what I (and Chris, I suspect) believed to be its natural lifespan. She commissioned the stories, proof-read the stories, oversaw the content and section editors. Even cleaned the bloody offices!

In the past year she moved into the role of publisher to allow Louis Pattison to take a very able crack at being editor - but simply, she did that to try and give Plan B one last chance to survive following my departure to Australia. Tons of other people contributed - very high on my list would be kicking_k, whose examplary taste (i.e. it often agrees with mine) and enthusiasm and ability to discover great music I've had cause to comment on before; but also the ever-reliable and visionary design skills of Andrew Clare, the initial and crucial burst of energy and business acumen supplied by Chris Houghton, and folk like Cat and Sarah and Lauren and Thee Stevie Chick, and Nick Taylor, our ads manager who singlehandedly gave the title at least another year of life, David McNamee, who did so much to help define the character of the magazine at the start, and all the sections editors, and Jesus the contributors, awesome folk who I'm so pleased to have worked alongside, the photographers, interns, illustrators, ad reps, supportive PRs, record industry people...you know this list could go on for a very long time...but without Frances there, every fucking hour of the day, Plan B simply wouldn't have made it to issue 15, let alone 45.

I'm getting choked up. Obviously, I've been aware of the imminent demise of Plan B for some time - but it's one thing just sharing that knowledge among a few likeminded souls, and another having it made public.

I mean, Jesus, we didn't do so bad, did we? Built ourselves into a national magazine from scratch with no outside funding, and lasted four-and-a-half years. Folk are already talking about this as one more nail into the coffin of the print media, but actually I think the advent of web 2.0 had little to do with Plan B's demise. Sure, it's related to the way the music industry is mutating. Sure, it's related to the global recession, localised - but Plan B was too much a niche title for web 2.0 to have that much of an effect.

Don't think of this as an ending. Think of this as a beginning. We're not going to go away. The website and forum are still up and running - and with no intent to close either. And we're still going to be out there, thriving, adapting, inspiring, challenging. There's no fucking way we're going to go away now.

Plan B Magazine R.I.P.
Pulling Shapes
Ned Raggett
Drowned In Sound
Plan B