Tom Dunne's Music & Me: Demise of Q magazine marks the end of an era

I've been reading the UK music press since the  1970s, so was sad to see this fine magazine become the latest victim of Covid-19 and changing consumer habits 

The final edition of Q magazine, and a Kate Bush cover from the archives. 

Q Magazine has ceased to be. In the ongoing avalanche of Covid-19 change – the dearth of foreign travel, the handshake, live gigs, seeing your mother – it is but a ripple. But it is a significant ripple. It marks the end of the ‘music in print’ era. There are some stragglers still drawing breath but the Big Fellah is gone. The headstone will read: British Music Print Media: 1952 – 2020. RIP.

I came to the music press, like so many others, via a big brother, or to be accurate, a big brother-in-law. He slipped me an NME the way less wholesome siblings might have slipped you a first cigarette or beer. “Read this,” he said, eyeing me up to be sure I was ready for it. It felt as if he’d given me Playboy. My eyes were agog!