Right on cue, er, Q….
Well, it must be a magazine editor’s worst nightmare…
The latest issue of Q Magazine dropped through my door today. It had a full page front cover of Michael Jackson. Well, at first I didn’t give it a second glance because Jackson’s picture has been everywhere. But then it occurred to me that it was impossible that the magazine could have been printed and posted so quickly. Then the horrible truth dawned on me as I ripped oven the plastic cover …
The cover story is billed as “Michael Jackson Unmasked”.
On the masthead page, the editorial declares in large type: “It’s the month of Jacko”. Well, I suppose he wasn’t wrong. Indeed, Editor Paul Rees peers into his crystal ball and editorialises thus:
“At the time of going to press, the self-styled king of pop was due to play the first shows of his proposed 50-night stand at London’s O2 arena within a matter of days. But, as Q has learned in the process of putting this issue together, there are no certainties in Michael Jackson’s world – besides the one that suggests that anything that can go madly, will go madly.”
This is the prelude to a 16-page full colour extravaganza on Michael Jackson billed as “The tale of the biggest comeback in history!”
On 13th July 2009 Michael Jackson is set to play the first of 50 dates at London’s O2 Arena. It is the most ambitious comeback in thehistory of popular music, but several questions still hang in the air. Will he turn up? Will he sing more than a few lines? Can Michael Jackson really survive 50 shows or will his body, mind, both seemingly so fragile, disintegrate under the pressure of it all?
And then the article goes on to talk about the man “gambling his reputation on Jackson turning up for the shows”. Ouch!
As a footnote, the writing on the magazine spine says: “Michael Jackson | The Enemy | The Dead Weather | Spinal Tap | The Horrors | Dead Rock Stars”
Alas, the “dead rock stars” story has a CSI-style forensic investigator re-examining famous rock star deaths, including Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Buckley and Bob Marley. It couldn’t be more ghoulish following the 16-page Jackson extravaganza.
Oh, and its dated “August 2009″. So now bizarrely, Michael Jackson must be the first rock star to have a front page story in a music paper of record announcing a new concert series dated a month after his death.
Comments
| 29 June, 2009, 6:28 pm |
Ah I saw the issue at tesco’s in Surrey Quays yesterday. As you said the first thought was “God they were quick.”
Not sure it was “dated “August 2007″” though!
| 29 June, 2009, 8:43 pm |
Oddly reminiscent of the way I found out about princess Di karking it.
I’d had the girlfriend over for the weekend and we went straight out for a walk in the morning without watching any telly or hearing any radio. Popped into the shops and the newspaper headlines gave various accounts of the crash from ‘royal leg accidentally injured’
Upto the Times which as befits the paper of record had it right. The Mail iirc was going with a trademark immigrant scare story or similar.
On the shelves above were the celebrity paperazzi magazines with the famous grainy picture of a distant, unrecognisable couple on a boat captioned ‘DI! SO IN LOVE!’. I bought the Times as a souvenir. When I went back later on the celebrity mags had all been removed from the shelves.
| 29 June, 2009, 9:54 pm |
“Well, it must be a magazine editor’s worst nightmare…”
You’re joking, aren’t you? Still, Bauer should be able to afford a spectacular wreath paid for by all those extra sales.
| 30 June, 2009, 12:58 am |
At least it was an obvious choice of cover story from Q.
Whereas the people at World Finance Magazine who decided to make Allen Stanford their man of the year have a wee bit more explaining to do.
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2009/02/13/magazine-cover-of-the-year
World Finance’s 2008 Man of the Year award was bestowed upon Sir Allen Stanford as he clearly stood out when, two years ago, he began cautioning those in the financial services industry that an impending global economic storm was brewing. His ability to lead the Stanford Financial organisation through this current turbulent environment unscathed and his commitment to philanthropic causes in the cities around the world where Stanford conducts business were the deciding factors in selecting him as this year’s award recipient.
You know what happened next. As the editor later wrote:
When we took the decision we felt we had to discount unproven accusations from various sources that were in the news at that time. We determined that if those speculations had come to nothing it would have been an error to count them in our decision. It was a calculated editorial risk.
| 30 June, 2009, 11:20 pm |
Oh, and its dated “August 2007″.
August 2009, surely?
| 30 June, 2009, 11:28 pm |
“August 2009, surely?”
Indeed! Fixed. Ta!
| 1 July, 2009, 12:39 am |
Ah, the perils of publishing. Something similar happened to Roger Morris, whose biography of Reagan’s first Secretary of State General Al (“I’m in Charge) Haig* was published just after Haig was fired by Reagan!
*No relation of and not to be confused with Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig.
| 1 July, 2009, 11:31 pm |
Always confuses me how monthly music mags such as Q are dated two months hence – something to do with the release date of the product under review perhaps.
MJ is not really my scene and the current wall to wall coverage irks betimes. But he is huge in popular music up there with the Beatles who incidentally are not my scene either.
Yet it was the collective singing of a song from the latter, by a troop of Manhattan toddler school kids as they were being shepherded through the Upper East Side, which really made me stop and think about the value of popular music.
People in their millions love Jacko for his musical talent and this is transferred to the next generation. (In this context Jarvis -common people – Cocker is a jealous tosser),
In the world of bank bailouts where monetary concepts of value are rendered meaningless, the value of artistic endeavour is more negotiable than ever. Such a shame that MJ had to “kick it in the head” by the time he was fifty and that his creativity is counterposed by primae facie acute psychological dysfunction.
Should be emphatically on school curricula, this seemingly ubiquitous downside of greatness.
Write a comment