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45-46PolandStreet•LondonWIF7NA•UK

Tel +44 (0)20 7439 6422 • Fax +44 (0)20 7287 4767 E-mail info@thewire.co.uk • Web www.thewire.co.uk

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Publisher & Ed1tor-~n-Ch1ef Tony Beuington publlsher@thew~re eo uk

EditOr Rob Young edltor@thew~re eo uk Rev1ews Ed1tor Chris Bohn reV1ews@thew~re eo uk Assrstant Edrtor Pete r Shapiro

Semor Des1gners Kjell Ekhorn, Jon Forss

(Tel 020 7434 3877 1

Des~gn & Layout Slim Smith des,gn@theWlre eo uk PrOjects & Web Editor Anne Hilde Neset protects'

Subscnpuons Ass1stant Phil England

Words Steve Barker, Mike Barnes , Ed Baxter, Clive Bell , Chris Blackford , Ben Borthwick , Julian Cowley, Christoph Cox, Alan Cummings, Brian Duguid, Phil England, Kodwo Eshun, Matt ffytche , Sasha FrereJones , Natalie Gravenor, Louise Gray , Andy Hamilton , Richard Henderson, Ken Hollings, Hua Hsu, David Keenan , Monica Kendrick , Raluna IChazalll, Nick Kimberley , Biba Kopf, Art Lange, Alan Licht, Howard Mandel, Peter Mclntyre, Andy Medhurst , Will Montgomery, Jon C Morgan, Ian Penman, Edwin Pouncey, Sim.on Reynolds, Tom Ridge, Stephen Robinson, Chris Sharp, Philip Sherburne , Mark Sinker , Dave Tompkins, David Toop , Dan Warburton , Ben Watson , Don Watson, Val Wilmer, Barry Witherden Images Arn.y & Tanveer, Frank Bauer, Dean Belcher, Nigel Bennett, Vince Dolm.an , Mattias Ek , Melanie Grizzel , Oily Hewitt , Tim. Kent , Sim.on Leigh , Joe Miles, Savage Pencil , Michele Turriani , Eva Vermande l , Johnny Volcano, Wandy Cover photo of TOnOise In ChiCago Frank Bauer

Thanks thiS 1ssue to R1chard Dwori

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Thursday 21 December 2000 was a htstonc date tn The Wire magaztne's 18 year ltfespan On that day, the stx current full-ttme members of The Wire staff completed a management buy-out of the title, purchastng tt from tts prevtous owners, Namara Ltd .

Namara had ongtnally bought The WJre tn 1984 from its founder, Anthony Wood, who had started the magazine two years earlter. The deoston by Namara to sell the tttle after 16 years was taken due to the tmpending retirement of tts Chatrman, Natm Attallah. Rather than see the magaztne be taken over by another publtshtng house, the staff put together a bid in order to factlttate a management buy-out That bid was successful and the ftnal buy-out price was raised by way of a combtnatton of secured loans, outside tnvestment and capttal raised by the staff. The staff has formed a new company, Current Media Ltd, which wtll functton as a holdtng company for The Wire Magazine Ltd The WJre Magaztne Ltd will continue to operate as a ltmtted company

So there you have it Ownershtp of The Wire by the people who actually work to produce the thtng month tn, month out represents the best possible news for both the magazine and tts readers We want to assure all readers, subscrtbers, adverttsers, mustoans, labels, distnbutors, promoters, and other Interested parttes, that there wtll be no change to the magaztne's level of coverage of the world's most creattve and challengtng musics in al l genres If anythtng, that coverage wtll grow even more tntense and wtde-rangtng The magaztne IS tn sound ftnanoal health and wtll conttnue to publtsh monthly We wi ll also continue to offer readers and subscrtbers a selectiOn of exclustve free new mustc CDs, as well as pursuing our Involvements tn vanous international music festivals and concerts and substanttally expanding the parameters of our Webstte. Above al l, The Wire is now 100 per cent Independent, not owned by any larger publtshtng consorttum, a factor which we think is essenttal gtven the conttnued asstmilation of more and more mustc tttles under fewer roofs. Thts means that The W1re ts now the most wtdely read independent mustc magazine produced tn the UK, and one of the few that actually has a readership that is growing tn stze.

Cotnctdentally, ou r buy-out occu rred tn the same week that two of the UK's most htgh-profile music publtcattons, Melody Maker and Select, were closed down by thetr respecttve publishers, IPC and EMAP. The failure of these tttles ts yet another ind ictment of a publtshtng tndustry whtch conttnues to reduce and streamltne the chotce of mustc coverage available to the public. and to neglect so-called marginal sounds and speoaltst ltstentng - exactly the ktnd of amaztng mustcal creattvity and dtverstty which rocks The Wire's world, tn fact We rematn commttted to a global perspecttve on the music of our time; our content is never dnven by PR or the bottom line; and we refuse to underesttmate the Intelligence of our readers. Pursutng that poltcy has enabled us to turn the magaztne tnto a healthy, vtbrant enterprise over the past stx years, and as The Wire enters a dynamic new phase, the road ahead appears wtder than ever CHRIS BOHN, TONY HERRINGTON, BEN HOUSE, ANNE HILDE NESET, ANDY TAIT, ROB YOUNG Dtrectors, Current Medta/The WJre

4 TheWtre