Founding SOS...Paul & Ian Gilby
Soundtrack? "Mmm, nice play on words..."
Synthetix? "Nah, people will think it's a haberdashery magazine..."
Recording? "Simple and to the point..."
Multitracker? "Getting better..."
Two hours later, my brother Paul and I were still thinking up names for our dream magazine when we stuck our favourite Bill Nelson album on the turntable and stopped to make another cup of tea. Glancing at the album sleeve, inspiration struck.
"What about 'Sound On Sound', I enquired? "That's the one!" confirmed Paul.
And that's how, way back in May 1985 in a rented bungalow in rural Cambridgeshire, the monthly magazine that recently celebrated its 30th anniversary came to be called Sound On Sound.
Looking back, it seems like only yesterday when two young, enthusiastic lads resigned from their editorial jobs because they were at loggerheads with a publisher who did not understand their vision of a magazine that would encapsulate the converging worlds of recording and music technology.
That's what we were interested in, and it was obvious to us back then at the birth of MIDI that it was only a matter of time before tape recorders were replaced by digital sequencers with random access, ample capacity and resolution to record entire performances, as well as control the entire mix. How could you publish a magazine about recording and not include MIDI sequencers?
So we left our jobs and signed on the dole. Two weeks passed and our rent became due, and that's when 'Red Cross food parcels' and financial subsidies from our parents commenced and we quickly realised that we had to get another job. Encouraged by our father, the obvious solution was to start our own magazine!
We quickly dismissed the idea as foolhardy and a guaranteed way to make ourselves bankrupt, as we knew nothing about running a company, but the seeds were sown that night as we lay asleep, dreaming of what might be. Next morning, we awoke filled with an ingrained sense of passion for the subject that still underpins the magazine today.
The November inaugural issue of Sound On Sound hit the UK streets on October 18th 1985, backed by a TV advertising campaign that aired within Channel 4's cult music programme, 'The Tube'. Tina Turner should have headlined the show that week, but due to illness was replaced last minute by Ultravox lead singer Midge Ure (interviewed and featured on our front cover), whose first solo single had just leapt up the charts to No.1. We couldn't have planned a better launch campaign, and Sound On Sound Issue 1 flew off the newsagent's shelves and into history!
Sound On Sound is very much a team effort, and we have been very lucky over the years to attract some of the most talented individuals in the industry. I cannot let this opportunity pass without thanking and praising all past and present SOS staff and contributors, our loyal readers and advertisers, for it is your contributions and support that have helped shape SOS and make it what it is today: the most respected, authoritative publication in its field. We're immensely proud of that achievement.
Ian Gilby, Paul Gilby
Co-founders, Sound On Sound
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Donated & scanned by: SOS Publications Ltd
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Donated by: Gavin Livingstone
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Donated & scanned by: Bill Blackledge
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Donated & scanned by: Mike Gorman
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Donated & scanned by: Mike Gorman
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Donated by: Rob Hodder
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Donated by: Bert Jansch / Adam Jansch
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Donated & scanned by: Mike Gorman
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Donated by: Bert Jansch / Adam Jansch
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Donated & scanned by: Mike Gorman
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Donated by: Rob Hodder
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Donated by: Bert Jansch / Adam Jansch
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Donated by: Bert Jansch / Adam Jansch
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Donated & scanned by: Mike Gorman
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Donated by: Russ Deval
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Donated by: Rob Hodder
SOUND ON SOUND is the world's premier music recording technology magazine. Based in Cambridge, England and independently-owned, SOS Publications has been delivering the quality monthly print magazine since 1985, and is the only UK publication featured on mu:zines which is still successfully publishing today.
SOS Publications have kindly granted us permission to collect and republish the early years of SOS (1985-1993) that are not in their own digital archive on the Sound On Sound website.
Editors: | Ian Gilby, |
Founders: | Ian Gilby, |
Publisher: | SOS Publications Ltd. |
Published: | 98 (1985 - 1993), |
First issue: | Nov 1985 |
Changes: | Format changes: May 92 (Hard Spine), |
Copyright: | SOS Publications Ltd. |
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