Origin Story
When I was 24 in May of 1990,
my then-boyfriend and I were traveling around Europe on a whirlwind three-week tour of our own making. We kept arriving in different cities and finding that some of our favorite bands had played there the night or two before, which was so frustrating and pissed us off!
Back then, pre-internet, there was no easy way of knowing who was playing where except in your own hometown – especially for the more underground and non-mainstream groups and artists that we loved.
At that time, I was sort of between things in my life – or, rather, my life hadn’t exactly started yet, career-wise. I was one year out of college (complete with a self-designed major combining psychology and sociology focusing on gender issues – interesting but not very useful in and of itself!) and I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.
After missing the 5th or 6th cool band on our whirlwind trip through Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy, and France, I must’ve vented, “I wish there was a guide that listed what bands were playing where, so that when we travel, we wouldn’t miss anyone!”. To which Dave responded with, “Why don’t you make one? Why don’t you publish a magazine?”
Back then, pre-internet, there was no easy way of knowing who was playing where except in your own hometown – especially for the more underground and non-mainstream groups and artists that we loved.
At that time, I was sort of between things in my life – or, rather, my life hadn’t exactly started yet, career-wise. I was one year out of college (complete with a self-designed major combining psychology and sociology focusing on gender issues – interesting but not very useful in and of itself!) and I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.
After missing the 5th or 6th cool band on our whirlwind trip through Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy, and France, I must’ve vented, “I wish there was a guide that listed what bands were playing where, so that when we travel, we wouldn’t miss anyone!”. To which Dave responded with, “Why don’t you make one? Why don’t you publish a magazine?”
And so I did! I had nothing else of substance going on so why not?!
That was May of 1990. The first issue came out October 1st.
Luckily I had some background in printing and graphics that would help me produce the magazine. My last year of college in ‘88 here in lovely Portland, Oregon, I got a job at the downtown Kinko’s Copies, the one across the street from the old grungy Safeway grocery store on SW Jefferson between 10th and 11th. This Kinko’s, part of a nation-wide quick-print chain, was located in a frumpy two-story building where, I found out later, a then-unknown, someday-famous movie director, Gus Van Sant, lived in the apartment right above us. (And while I’m name dropping... while working at Kinko's, I lived on SW Montgomery around 15th near Portland State University, a block away from where another then-unknown, author Chuck Palahniuk, lived at the same time, as documented in his 2003 book, “Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk Through Portland, Oregon. One more name drop: one of my colleagues at Kinko’s would go on to fame and fortune as the co-founder of Voodoo Doughnuts!).
OK, enough name dropping.
I continued my small press trajectory after graduation, learning to run an ABDick 360 printing press at Hallendar Printing, the shop where most of the telephone pole concert posters were produced – though I mostly battled Reflex Blue ink while trying to print Shilo Inn stationary. Occasionally I’d get to do other things. I was thrilled when I got to print a two-color Love and Rockets poster that summer!
I then worked at Clean Copy, a local version of Kinko’s, until Dave and I took off for Europe Spring of 1990.
Upon returning from Europe, between May and October, I had to figure it all out: What was this magazine going to be? What was it going to include? What was it going to look like? How many pages? How would I produce it, print it, distribute it? How would I get the tour info? How would I earn revenue? What would be my expenses? What was it going to be called???
Dave knew many people in the local music community. He owned a used record store (where we met) and was heavily involved in the music scene in Portland, supporting and occasionally promoting bands and various artists. He got me connected with writers and others who would become indispensable to getting the zine off the ground. (Thank you, Dave!).
My dad was willing to give me a loan so long as I put together a proper business plan. The process of putting together such a plan, which took several weeks, was a great experience in and of itself, forcing me to focus on all aspects of what needed to be done. (Thank you, Dad!)
I submitted my business plan July 3, 1990. The first part of the loan arrived July 15 and I was in business.
I don’t remember how I started to get tour information. I seem to recall Dave connecting me with Mike Quinn of Monqui Presents, a great local booking agency. Mike gave me a copy of Pollstar magazine (the trade publication for the live music industry, nation-wide.) From there, I must have gotten access to other booking agencies and record labels & their publicity departments, maybe even clubs. After the first issue, a guy who ran a booking agency in Holland started sending me his listings for my kind of bands touring around Europe. I also had bands send me their info directly. I’m amazed that I got the info I did!
Writers were relatively easy to find. For the first issue, I asked my friends and some of Dave’s acquaintances.
For advertising revenue, I hit up as many alternative record labels as I could across the U.S. and Canada.
After I figured out how to physically produce it, I found a printer who guided me through the production process (see “Production”). I went to the library and looked through yellow pages of various cities to figure out what record stores to send the magazines.
And somehow I pulled all the pieces together in a short three-month period, got the first issue out, and was off and running!
Previous: RATW Home Page
Next: RATW Production