Raw (music Magazine)

''Raw Magazine'' was a British music magazine, which was published from 1988 until 1996. Established to rival ''Kerrang!'', ''Raw'' focused on rock music for most of its history.

Founding

''Raw'' was founded in the summer of 1988 by Dante Bonutto, Malcolm Dome, Mark Putterford and Steve McTaggart and photographer Tony Mottram drafted in from ''Metal Hammer''. They had come together on ''Metal Hammer'' magazine having split from ''Kerrang!'', where Bonutto had been deputy-editor. The collective feeling there had been that ''Kerrang!'' was becoming too narrowly focused on heavy metal and that ''Metal Hammer'' would allow them more scope to explore other areas of rock music. This quickly proved not to be the case and the idea for a new magazine was born, a title that would be a true rock magazine, featuring heavy metal acts but not dominated by them.

To that end they teamed up with marketing man Pete Winkleman and created ''Raw'' alongside Phil Alexander, Kirk Blows, Dave Dickson, Dave Ling, Sylvie Simmons, Maura Sutton and Paul Suter, most of whom had also worked on ''Kerrang!'' under the byline of `RAW` Rock Alive Worldwide.

The first issue went on sale on 31 August that year, as a fortnightly publication, featuring Ozzy Osbourne on the cover tattooing the RAW logo on himself, photographed by Tony Mottram. ''RAW'' was based in London and steadily grew to become a serious rival to the more established ''Kerrang!''.

Acquisition by EMAP

But within the year, EMAP publications, having failed in their bid to take over ''Kerrang!'', decided to acquire ''Raw'' instead. The idea, at that stage, remained that the new magazine could overcome the heavyweight ''Kerrang!'', and that EMAP's money and publishing clout would allow the ''Raw'' team to achieve this. In the end, though, EMAP simply bought ''Kerrang!'' wholesale.

The original ''Raw'' magazine, the staff, writers and photographers, remained largely intact, with the addition of Liz Evans, until the end of 1989 when Dante Bonutto announced he was leaving. He had been poached as an A&R man by East West Records. The EMAP-appointed publishing director, David Hepworth, was assigned to find a new editor, and Dave Henderson was appointed.

Decline and discontinuation

The beginning of 1990 ushered in a new regime and ''Raw'' established itself as a viable alternative to ''Kerrang!'', with a fresh, more contemporary editorial approach, championing bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, Hole, L7 and Alice in Chains, alongside the more traditional rock stable. However, as soon as ''Kerrang!'' became part of the EMAP stable of publications, Raw's survival, like Sounds, no longer mattered and despite changes of editor and editorial policy, making ''Raw'' a Britpop magazine in December 1995, among the proliferation of music magazines during the 1990s, eventually it folded. The magazine published its last issue on 13 March 1996.

Television programme

In 1990, a weekly television programme named '' Raw Power'' was launched to accompany the magazine. It later changed its name to '' Noisy Mothers'' and was defunct in late 1995.

References

Defunct music magazines published in the United Kingdom
Heavy metal publications
Magazines established in 1988
Magazines disestablished in 1995
Magazines published in London
Music magazines published in the United Kingdom

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