Ralph Moore – On Tour is available from Velocity Press for £9.99
Ralph Moore On Tour Book Review
Ralph Moore is a well respected music journalist who worked at Muzik magazine during the 1990s and then the once all conquering Mixmag. In Ralph Moore On Tour, Ralph explains his career and access to the leading lights in dance music over an impressive 25 years. Having held enviable positions at the worlds most influential dance music magazines at the height of their popularity, there should be plenty to keep readers entertained. Everyone enjoys tales of debauchery and megastars behaving badly, e.g the success of the Secret DJ series.
The backstory to Ralph’s career is interesting, although its surprising to discover that he spent the mid-90s listening to Simply Red. (Credit for actually admitting this). Like many involved in dance music there was a single life changing event, in this case Tribal Gathering 1997. This means that Moore doesn’t have an association with the febrile acid house, hardcore rave or mid-90s club scene that you would expect. This book is definitely one for those who prefer the more “intellectual” techno, big beat and house acts that Muzik championed, instead of the significantly larger % of the dance music world (in the UK at least) who spent the period the book covers going mental to less “intelligent” tunes.
The most interesting part of Ralph Moore On Tour is the detail Ralph goes into about his time at major magazine publishers EMAP and IPC, and their inner workings. We whole heartedly agree with the line about the advertising teams being the biggest party animals.
Moore clearly prefered his time at Muzik. Muzik always had a London focus, and this book shines in significant depth light on the world of dance music PRs and how the whole magazine world operated from London’s West End. As we have mentioned elsewhere we always preferred Mixmag to Muzik. We always felt that Mixmag was for the clubbers and Muzik was for those into dance music who didn’t necessarily go clubbing. Not that there is anything wrong with that, we bought both magazines religiously but there was a clear divide.
Moore clearly wants to settle some personal scores within the book, with “suits” and some editors alike being dismissed out of hand as crap at their job. This gives a couple of sections a really sour feel, and comes across as having a lack of self awareness, and understanding of the wider picture. This is surprising, and not the sort of revelations we were expecting.
There is a common misconception amongst editorial staff and journalists that those in the Publisher role (people, not the publishing company) don’t understand the editorial process or journalists, and Publishers are just suits. Whilst we can name some where this is true, the majority of Publishers got to that position (essentially heading up the magazine/brand) because they were so in-tune with it, either through time served on the editorial staff, or more often on the advertising team.
There is a fallacy often believed by editorial staff, that Moore perpetuates in Ralph Moore On Tour, that pressure to increase profit is initiated by the Publisher (person, not company). Publishing companies aren’t non-profits, and brands are expected to increase profit, as in any business. If profit doesn’t come from increasing revenue (magazine sales and advertising), then it would need to come from cutting costs ( ie capitalism).
When profit falls then the product, in this case the magazine, has to have costs reduced. This can lead to a decline in perceived quality. (It an also lead to reinvention and fresh outlook). Sadly Moore falls into the trap of blaming the individual Publishers for the brands ills, instead of the fact that he worked at large profit making companies with shareholders.
The book was a great opportunity for Moore’s experience and access to some of the worlds biggest dance music stars to include stories and anecdotes that are usually inaccessible to a wider audience. The book suggests this will be the case, but in reality there are very few of these and we came away feeling sort changed in this department. Maybe Moore did not wish to bite the hand that feeds him. With this lack of insider info the reason to write this book seems nebulous. There are a hell of a lot of people mentioned in the story, quite literally Ralph Moore On Tour, but we found very little to want to tell other people about.
Ralph Moore On Tour Book Review Summary
If you spent the 00’s at fabric, this book is right up your street. If you spent the 90s reading Mixmag to find out who was playing at Sundissential, or gathering flyers at 6am in a field, then this book is much less essential.
NB – If you worked in magazine publishing in the 90s and 00s then there will definitely be something in this that resonates with you, good or bad.
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