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1990-1995 |
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The Edge magazine
The Edge was born in 1990 in Islington with a European Community and Islington grant as the two were extremely keen in promoting the image of Islington as the "Real London". The Edge had then a circulation of 25 000 ex. The Edge used a special imported Kraft paper from France made out from 100% recycled textile with green and red ink. Swatch was one of the main sponsors.
Nirvana, Blur and Bowie were always battling to reach the number one position in its charts.
Vivienne Westwood after loving the magazine infamously ended up despising it publicly after an interview were she said that she would not renounced the use of fur and the then editor Nick Peterson/Virtual Alien turned her
into ridicule.
The relationship with Islington also turned sour when The Edge was the only publication to specifically condemn Islington
for abusing children in their care for decades.
[The Times was actually the second publication to report the scandal. The Guardian -based in Islington- kept quiet until much later]
The editor also accused the then leader of Islington of lying to him over the quasi non-existence of recycling facilities.
The leader of Islington declared at the time to The Edge that Islington had the best records on the environment in the UK but The Edge conceded that it was the worth environmental borough ever.
The Edge collected so many enemies that it was nearly time to move out from the borough, not to mention that the printer was threatening court action over massively inflated bills.
It was a common occurrence for printers to print the magazine with 6-8 blank pages. Most readers thought it was an Art form so it didn't matter to them. However
it did matter to the Editor and there were constant clashes.
In 1993 Lola D'arling based in Paris took over the magazine and it was somehow
a radical departure. A drag Queen wearing fur!
The Edge offices have been burgled 4 times during its existence in Islington. After
the last break-in The Edge used a typewriter to produce issue no 6. It looked like the worst possible fanzine.
But MTV saw a copy and sent a fax saying how "fabulous" it was to the new editor at the Paris office. MTV started a new sponsorship.
At the same time Tower Records in Sacramento, California
wanted to order thousands of copies every month for their 350 stores in the U.S. and the rest of the world.
The Kraft paper became too expensive and eventually was no longer available and somehow everyone was getting really bored with it. Even if the magazine sold well
no publication with such a circulation can survive on its own. The cost of producing 5 different magazines could be the same as producing one and in Britain all magazines are printed on reliable printers like
St Ives, Cornwall where the paper is ordered by the ton a year in advance. This requires a major infrastructure.
Whilst the magazine was not a commercial success the format changed to a normal white but recycled paper, with an A3 size folded-poster format with yellow pages of small ads inside.
For 3 years 45 000 copies were mainly exported to the U.S. and the rest of the world whilst only a handful of selling points survived in Britain.
During that intervening time The Edge collected a mine full of images, photography, artwork, graphics, stories, cartoons from various writers and artists and over 300 interviews (most saved on tape).
By 1995, The Edge magazine was selling but wasn't commercially viable so it was time to pull the plug.
A series of periodicals came after that published by The Edge Press;
it showcased short novels and Art collections.
The periodical was published until 1999 when the Y2KDiary.com was conceived in London with Tom Norwood.
The site was initially designed for one year then dragged on for a few more years until DiaryUnlimited the database-diary
and networking site came along.
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Whilst the trademark on the title is still valid many magazines with the same title have proliferated around the world since the original Edge magazine.
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There was a unique American version of the magazine
called The Globe of America inserted inside the Edge magazine and printed in Canada.
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Main staff: Nick Peterson AKA Virtual Alien, Lola D'Arling -Laurent Mercier-, Janet Priest, Jane D'Arbanville,
John Malkovich, Cherry Wellesley,
Dominic Bentham, Sam Bradford.
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