Growing up it was a ritual.

Every Thursday morning first thing, I’d cycle to the local deli in Claremont to pick up my copy of X-Press Magazine. From there I’d be happy for hours, reading the latest CD reviews, news of upcoming tours, letters to the editor, movies, classifieds, socials, and of course the weekly X-Press Interview.

Before the internet and social media placed all the hottest news at our fingertips, that’s just how we knew who’s who and learned what’s what. We might hear rumours of news or spot latest releases at the record store, but nothing meant anything until it appeared in the hallowed pages of X-Press.

Years later, in 2016 I’d go on to become Editor for four years, memories I cherish. There was something full circle about devoting my time and energy to the publication that had coloured so much of my youth. Completely online by then, as it is now, X-Press has weathered the transformation from local music street press bible to become an important portal for the arts and music more broadly around WA. It’s still all there—the gig guide, latest news, arts focus and reviews, just with less newsprint on our fingers.

Of course, these days there’s more competition with everybody starting a zine or being a content creator, but no one knows just how important X-Press was on a weekly basis in its heyday better than three-time editor and local industry stalwart, Bob Gordon.

Starting off as a contributing writer in 1991, he was officially on staff from 1993 and had his first stint as editor in the publication’s heady days of 1998 until 2001. He’d return twice more, from 2006 until 2010 and again to see off the final days of the print edition from 2012 to June 2016. And he’s got stories to tell.

We’re celebrating Rewind: 40 Years of X-Press and there’s a real buzz about it around the wider entertainment industry. What can you tell us about the book itself?

The book is a look back at how X-Press covered what was happening in Perth, but also about X-Press itself. The early-to-mid 80s was an interesting time here, Perth was still something of a Sleepy Hollow—a term used in the book. The city was coming to the end of its simpler times. X-Press was preceded by a weekly magazine started by Joe and Larry Cipriani called Five O’Clock News which lasted 17 issues. They licked their wounds and emerged in mid-1985 with a free street press model. This was at a time when Observation City was being built on the Scarborough Beach waterfront and the outcry against the development even led to a bomb threat. It was the old versus the new right there and this is the state of Perth that X-Press walked into.

Live music at the time was thriving for both original and cover bands. The feeling was that the local industry needed coverage. Many bands advertised in the Daily News but there wasn’t a lot in the way of editorial coverage, certainly not the amount a dedicated magazine could offer. So X-Press started as a fortnightly publication, eventually going weekly in 1988. When X-Press started it wasn’t with music writers, as such, more enthusiasts. Wendy Allen was the first actual editor from issue #3 and stepped up the quality of writing alongside a young writer named Guy Ryan. A lot of pseudonyms were used to disguise that much of the magazine was being written by the two of them. Wendy really upped the ante as Editor and the industry was very supportive.  

By that time, it had established itself with actual editors and writers and expanded its coverage from live music to the arts, movies, fashion, clubland and beyond. Wendy moved on and Guy Ryan – who by this point was in the Northern Territory – was recruited to be the new Editor. Tragically he was killed in a car accident on the Nullarbor on the way back to Perth. Scott Howlett was recruited from Sydney and he became a huge force in his two stints as Editor in the late 80s then 1993-98.

So the book documents the evolution of the magazine and how we reported what was going on in the world of arts and entertainment here in Perth. It’s not a detailed history of the Perth music scene, but there’s a lot of memories from over the years. From all of the sections, actually. Going through the archives again, I could see quite the evolution as X-Press tracked Perth’s changing cultural tides.

As arguably X-Press Mag’s best-known Editor over the years, and longest-serving in the role, you seem well placed to curate/author the book. How did you get involved?

As a teenager I read rock magazines obsessively. So when I was handed the very first copy of X-Press as a 19-year-old at 1am inside the Underground Nightclub in Northbridge, I was all for it. I was working at the Commonwealth Bank at the time and playing in a band with my schoolmates and in that era picked up every edition of X-Press. By 1991 I left the bank and was doing a degree in Media Studies at ECU Mt Lawley. A bunch of my friends were doing a video production unit, where they filmed interviews for a studio assignment. I would do the interviewing as I was the one who was going to be a ‘journalist’. My friend Ben Woodward brought his brother Brett in to be interviewed at a time when he was the Staff Writer for X-Press.

After that experience I knew it was time to have a go at this myself. I went to Dada Records and bought a copy of Doughboy Hollow by Died Pretty as it had not yet been reviewed, and penned a piece. I got Ben to give it to Brett to give it to the then Editor, Michael Dwyer. He took me on immediately and I was writing all sorts of reviews for albums, gigs and films. I became the guy who covered for people when they went on holiday. A year later Brett moved to Melbourne and I became Staff Writer aka Staff Reporter aka Local Music Writer. I essentially wrote about anything and everything going on and I was a sponge for all of it. Local music was a huge part of X-Press and indeed my life.

After so many years of pulling together the weekly publication, I can imagine this must feel similar albeit on a much larger scale and with more of an archival feel. What were your aims and processes in pulling the material included in the book together?

As a writer you’re always on a deadline of some sort, but this one really reminded me of the intensity of print deadline days at the old X-Press. Every page of every edition has been digitised, but I was also keen to get amongst it and go through the physical archive. Just like I did back in the old days to find things and just like in the old days getting ink all over my fingertips.

So there’s very much an archival feel, a lot of imagery and a lot of front covers. The book is written from my perspective, firstly as an invested reader and then as an emerging full-time writer, and then Editor in the midst of the changing times and personnel. X-Press meant many things to many people though, so it was important for me to get as many voices as possible to comment on their thoughts and memories. That meant contacting colleagues from decades ago, arts and fashion editors, dance music writers, photographers… people I once worked alongside every day but haven’t seen now in years. Speaking to them was as if time hadn’t passed at all. We all worked very hard at X-Press to make the weekly deadline with quality coverage and we all played hard too. I mean, we were invited to everything. The camaraderie was tight and the banter was something else. Aspects of that are covered in the book, too.

I wanted to highlight what X-Press covered, the changing nature of culture in Perth. The rise of the print magazine, how it maintained its pivotal position in entertainment media and the arts scene, then how the tide of cultural change and commercial realities brought about the end to the beloved print edition. It happened to street press all over Australia, but X-Press was ours!

X-Press is celebrating the release of Rewind with with a huge celebration party featuring big names including Kav Temperley from Eskimo Joe, Donna Simpson from the Waifs, Gyroscope, Carla Geneve, greats Dom Mariani and Dave Hole, and many more. I’m guessing with such a stacked line up the acts won’t all be playing full sets and there will be some other celebratory MCs, what can you tell punters about what’s in store for this night of nights?

Yeah, the lineup is a really lovely representation of artists whom X-Press has championed and had a relationship with from the early days to now in the online age. We’re also really stoked to have Katy Steele, Boox Kid, Cal Kramer from The Southern River Band and Dave Warner on the stage. There’ll be lots of chats about the days of yore and a song or two from each from each of the artists, plus imagery and video shoutouts from our friends in the music scene across the country. It will genuinely be a unique event that only X-Press with its four-decade history could conjure.

We’ve revisited the old ‘X-Press Interview’ here in honour of this feature which was long a staple of the physical edition of the weekly mag. Are there any other old traditions that you’ve particular enjoyed revisiting—letters to the editor or the Salt dance section perhaps—in the book?

The Reactions letters section would be a book of its own and not a very appropriate one in this day and age. I wanted to focus on the arts and smarts of the matters at hand. So yes, the rather belated X-Press embrace of dance and DJ culture in 1998 has its own chapter. The Rock X-tras local music section and exhausting process of putting that together each week is another. The Fashion section was often derided by the local music community but in actuality it grew the pages of the magazine to help focus on more original music, as did full-page ads for cover bands. I feel there’s some fascinating recollections from the arts editors and writers, not what you may expect. The same with the fashion editors from back in the day.

What are some of your significant memories from being part of X-Press?

That’s a hard one because looking back, all of it was significant. I was not all that confident in the early days and I felt I was constantly having to prove myself to everyone, all the time. It was like calling out for attention and instantly regretting it. I’d be at record company offices or backstage at festivals interviewing artists I’d long looked up to and it was all about maintaining one’s cool. I eventually learnt that the best way to learn the ropes is to jump in the oven and just roast. Mmm… roast. After a while the imposter syndrome subsided and it simply became who I was and what I did.

The camaraderie is something I’ll remember. I had many mentors such as Joe Cipriani, Michael Dwyer, Scott Howlett and Di Bauwens, and made great friends along the way. Many great friends were made and some sadly are no longer with us… Richard Lane, Michael Lock and Matt O’Connor RIP.

What were the main challenges in your role?

There were many challenges. The competition for each week’s front cover was a tricky juggle. Promoters were incredibly competitive with each other and sometimes we were accused of favouritism. We really did try to be fair across the board in terms of coverage but it could be a complicated recipe each and every week.

How would you describe X-Press Magazine and the role it played in Perth during your various stints as editor?

I think X-Press Magazine was perfect for Perth for the time in which it arrived and the era that the print magazine existed. It reflected what was going on from the street view and even gave voice and expression in a time when what it was difficult for the quieter voices to be heard. Nowadays everyone’s a publisher.

What would you say were the main cultural forces and shifts in Perth during your time at X-Press?

We went from a duopoly of live bands at the pub or going to the drive-in movies to a city with an ever-growing cultural menu. Certainly the rise of the internet changed things, then the onset of social media signified the dimming of print publication. We had a damn good time though!

Did it open doors for you?

t totally did. From X-Press I was able to then also write for publications such as The West Australian, Rolling Stone, Melody Maker, Q Magazine, The Guardian and many more. I worked at the Perth International Arts Festival, the WA Museum, WASO, Curtin University and all manner of freelance gigs. It all stems from the immersive experience that X-Press gave me.

Do you have any anecdotes you’d like to share?

We put the band Holy Fuck on the cover without censoring the f-word and all hell broke loose with advertisers. The Salt dance music section was called that because I didn’t like any of the proposed names for it and before the meeting to decide the name I saw a Saxa salt container on the top of the fridge and had a welcome epiphany. When I told Jeff Buckley at the end of an interview that I wouldn’t be able to see his Perth show because I was getting married that day he said, “Congratulations. And don’t worry, I’ll be back.”

Any final thoughts in general about X-Press Magazine? 

I gave my all to it, but it gave so much more back.

Rewind: 40 Years of X-Press Magazine launches on Wednesday 18 March at the Astor Theatre featuring Gyroscope, Kav Temperley, Dom Mariani, Katy Steele, Dave Hole, Donna Simpson, Cal Kramer, Boox Kid, Carla Geneve and Dave Warner. Tickets from Ticketek. Copies of the book available on the night and via https://xpressmag.com.au/rewind, with retail outlet such as Planet Books to follow.