We like magazines. We like free things. So it stands to reason that we'd like free magazines.
Or so you'd think.
Ok, Vice was required reading for a while there, if only for the novelty value, but their conservative hipster schtick gets pretty old pretty fast (plus, if you don't subscribe you're are pressed to find the thing).
Young pretender Good for Nothing was a little bit of a disappointment. There was no doubting that their heart was in the right place but it took about a week to get the stench of Hoxton off our hands after reading it. Style over substance is not a good trait in a magazine.
Imagine how chuffed we were then to be sat having a drink last week in the Social on Little Portland Street, when one of the bar staff came up and plonked a copy of Socialism on our table.
The Summer-Autumn issue of Socialism is the third issue so you'll have to excuse us for coming late to the party, but now we've found it we love it.
Looking like a fanzine with its black and white A4 pges and 'varied' typefaces, Socialism is one of those precious magazines that can literally be read from cover to cover becasue there's hardly any advertising (about three pages out of fifty-five and most of them are for beer), and (thank the Lord) no 'fashion editorials'.
It's just interesting articles one after the other: Jeremy Deller in Conversation with Nicky Wire ("I hate Robert Elms. I could have run him over the other week; I saw him crossing the road."); Ian Brown on how his Peyote Trip was ruined by Ian Botham; the 20 Greatest Performances in Rock Cinema; and 'London Pleasures' "a users guide to the corners of London as yet untouched by the dreaded word 'refurb'".
If you didn't already have an excuse to go out and have a couple of pints tonight, then Socialism is it.
