Goodbye Plan B

2003 suddenly seems like a long, long time ago.

I took a week off in Feb 2003, to basically follow Low around the country for a week, partly with my friend Jason. We saw them play four times and had a great time touring record shops in the cities we visited. Almost all of those record shops are now closed. I also remember discovering a couple of new magazines back then...

'Comes With A Smile' was a terrific fanzine, which seemed to focus mainly on bands I really liked...or bands that I would learn to love after reading about them in CWAS. I became a subscriber and was so upset when CWAS folded back in 2006.

'Foggy Notions' was a decent indie mag from Ireland. No new issues have appeared since 2008 although it is to relaunch as an online mag soon.

'Careless Talk Costs Lives', edited by Everett True, became 'Plan B' which was the last bastion of quality alternative music mags. It was sometimes a little too alternative for my own tastes (I often hadn't heard of a lot of the artists featured) but I discovered several new bands through it and always bought it. It was a magazine that reviewed albums honestly and passionately, which is more than can be said about certain other more mainstream magazines that I have heard various horror stories about.

June's Plan B will be the last. Its another sad day.
Keep buying records people, before this gets even worse.