Back Pass Magazine

[Ian Moore Gone Little]

Anyone else on here who is a fellow reader of Back Pass magazine will be aware that its future has been in doubt due to rising costs, etc. In the latest issue (no. 90) they said they were looking at ways to keep funding the magazine but issue 91 might be the last one. I checked their website last night to remind myself when issue 91 was due and saw that they are offering readers a chance to help fund the magazine towards at least reaching the milestone of 100 issues. So in case anyone here is interested, you can become a Friend or a Patron at a (one-off) cost of £25 or £50 for which you get your name listed in the magazine but, more importantly, you contribute to the preservation of what, in my view, is only rivalled by When Saturday Comes as the best football magazine out there.

For those not familiar with Back Pass, it’s a glossy retro football magazine, which concentrates almost entirely on the years before the Premier League. It covers British football properly, ie it includes but doesn’t unduly favour the rich big city teams and features plenty of lower and non-League players and teams. The most interesting stories are, of course, often from the latter. One of its main contributors is the former County player turned journalist David McVay and over the years there has been plenty of Forest content.

I have no association with the magazine other than as a subscriber and now a Friend, but I thought it was worth publicising their fundraising efforts to help secure the magazine’s future.

 

[Captain Sinister]

Anyone else on here who is a fellow reader of Back Pass magazine will be aware that its future has been in doubt due to rising costs, etc. In the latest issue (no. 90) they said they were looking at ways to keep funding the magazine but issue 91 might be the last one. I checked their website last night to remind myself when issue 91 was due and saw that they are offering readers a chance to help fund the magazine towards at least reaching the milestone of 100 issues. So in case anyone here is interested, you can become a Friend or a Patron at a (one-off) cost of £25 or £50 for which you get your name listed in the magazine but, more importantly, you contribute to the preservation of what, in my view, is only rivalled by When Saturday Comes as the best football magazine out there.

For those not familiar with Back Pass, it’s a glossy retro football magazine, which concentrates almost entirely on the years before the Premier League. It covers British football properly, ie it includes but doesn’t unduly favour the rich big city teams and features plenty of lower and non-League players and teams. The most interesting stories are, of course, often from the latter. One of its main contributors is the former County player turned journalist David McVay and over the years there has been plenty of Forest content.

I have no association with the magazine other than as a subscriber and now a Friend, but I thought it was worth publicising their fundraising efforts to help secure the magazine’s future.

The dead tree press is, sadly, passing into extinction.
Resuscitation is unlikely to bring it back to life.
I shall have to retrieve my back copies of Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly from the attic.
That periodical was the epitome of football journalism.

 

[duncanmckenzie]

The dead tree press is, sadly, passing into extinction.
Resuscitation is unlikely to bring it back to life.
I shall have to retrieve my back copies of Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly from the attic.
That periodical was the epitome of football journalism.

I used to subscribe to Backpass and a lot of my copies I passed on to Rocka. Very good magazine but sadly the Captain is correct.

 

[Ian Moore Gone Little]

I used to subscribe to Backpass and a lot of my copies I passed on to Rocka. Very good magazine but sadly the Captain is correct.

Oh yes, I know it’s getting harder and harder for print media to survive, but I don’t think that means we should stop trying to preserve things we value. I’m encouraged by the resurgence of interest in vinyl records (albeit the prices for new records are eye-watering) and hard-copy books, though, as people realise there is much to be said for having the physical artefact, for all the convenience of digital platforms. In the case of Back Pass I would hope that with sufficient support they would be able to keep going as a digital presence even if they can’t keep the physical magazine going.

 

[Captain Sinister]

Oh yes, I know it’s getting harder and harder for print media to survive, but I don’t think that means we should stop trying to preserve things we value. I’m encouraged by the resurgence of interest in vinyl records (albeit the prices for new records are eye-watering) and hard-copy books, though, as people realise there is much to be said for having the physical artefact, for all the convenience of digital platforms. In the case of Back Pass I would hope that with sufficient support they would be able to keep going as a digital presence even if they can’t keep the physical magazine going.

Last year saw a 33% fall in the sales of new vinyl.
The industry executives cannot understand why.
The fact that many bands release multiple variants to con the "collectors", and the price of new albums is prohibitive might be contributory factors.
However, i think a lot is down to fact that old lags like me already possess original copies of stuff being reissued, and that , in my humble opinion, most of the new music is not very good.
New pressings have a tendency to be very poor quality, and the target market seems to be aimed at the younger generations, who don't have the kit, the attention span or the cash to indulge in vinyl... and they all subscribe to digital streaming services as well.
I spent an hour in the Melton record store "Love Records" yesterday... int record shops brilliant!

 

[duncanmckenzie]

Oh yes, I know it’s getting harder and harder for print media to survive, but I don’t think that means we should stop trying to preserve things we value. I’m encouraged by the resurgence of interest in vinyl records (albeit the prices for new records are eye-watering) and hard-copy books, though, as people realise there is much to be said for having the physical artefact, for all the convenience of digital platforms. In the case of Back Pass I would hope that with sufficient support they would be able to keep going as a digital presence even if they can’t keep the physical magazine going.

There was a great copy a while back that featured Eddie Gray and he listed the greatest players ever in his opinion and he put Robbo. He wrote that his brother Frank told him that when Frank was at Forest Cloughie used to tell him that he was merely a hod carrier and when he had the ball pass it to Robertson who was the craftsman. And in his final comment Eddie wrote that in his opinion Robbo was one of the best players ever. Praise indeed

 

[Captain Sinister]

Another thing: I was given as a present when it first came out, a subscription to the Athletic.
Through mismanagement, the defection of decent sports journalists that too is now struggling.
I don't know if the articles are any good these days - it went downmarket pretty quickly after I didn't renew my subscription, so I haven't read anything in it since then.
Online is chock-full of free channels these days (subsidised by advertising), so any subscription based web site is likely to struggle, just like the traditional paper-based journals have.
I never thought in my youth that Melody Maker, Sounds, and New Musical Express would be lost to the newsagents.
They were "must haves" when I was young.
I think they exist on-line somewhere, but I can't say for certain.
Everything is becoming so instant these days that traditional media just can't keep up with the pace.
I occasionally used to buy a copy of What Hi Fi... but I can get that for free with my Apple Family subscription.
Same with Classic Rock and Guitar Player...
I hope Back Pass gets enough subscribers to reach its goal of 100 issues, but it will be a stretch.

 

[Ian Moore Gone Little]

There was a great copy a while back that featured Eddie Gray and he listed the greatest players ever in his opinion and he put Robbo. He wrote that his brother Frank told him that when Frank was at Forest Cloughie used to tell him that he was merely a hod carrier and when he had the ball pass it to Robertson who was the craftsman. And in his final comment Eddie wrote that in his opinion Robbo was one of the best players ever. Praise indeed

There have been some great Forest-related things over the years - maybe having David McVay on board helps with that as he will have known many of the people involved with Forest in the 70s. I waited patiently for us to be the club featured in The Third Quarter (a long feature looking at the key players, managers and matches during the period from the end of WWII to around 1970, ie roughly the third quarter of the 20th century) and eventually our turn came. ISM was the feature interview one issue, though annoyingly in the cover photo he was in his Man U kit, rather than that of the team he made his name with and spent 80+% of his pro career. And of course you’re never very far from a Clough story…

 

[Otis Redding]

There have been some great Forest-related things over the years - maybe having David McVay on board helps with that as he will have known many of the people involved with Forest in the 70s. I waited patiently for us to be the club featured in The Third Quarter (a long feature looking at the key players, managers and matches during the period from the end of WWII to around 1970, ie roughly the third quarter of the 20th century) and eventually our turn came. ISM was the feature interview one issue, though annoyingly in the cover photo he was in his Man U kit, rather than that of the team he made his name with and spent 80+% of his pro career. And of course you’re never very far from a Clough story…

I bought the ISM-interview copy and like you, I was a bit pissed-off to see that a photo of him wearing the wrong shirt was used. The piece itself was interesting however, as was the magazine as a whole. I'm sorry to see it's on its last legs but that's partly down to nostalgic old codgers like me not subscribing often enough.

Like Captain Sinister, I grew up with Charles Buchan's Football Monthly, and had his annual been the only Christmas present I'd received as a kid I'd still be more than happy.

Soccer Star was another must-read in the 50s and 60s, along with World Soccer. I'm convinced I've retained lot more of what I read in those magazines, and in Football Monthly than ever I have from online sources.