''Fabulous 208'' (retitled ''Fab 208'' from 1969 onwards) was a British
pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...
magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
.
History and profile
Published weekly between 1964 and 1980 by
Fleetway
Fleetway Publications was a magazine publishing company based in London. It was founded in 1959 when the Mirror Group acquired the Amalgamated Press, then based at Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, London. It was one of the companies that merg ...
{{cite news, author=Jon Savage, title=The magazine explosion, url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/sep/06/sixties-60s-pop-magazines-beatles, accessdate=19 November 2016, work=The Guardian, date=6 September 2009 (later
IPC Magazines
TI Media (formerly International Publishing Company, IPC Magazines Ltd, IPC Media and Time Inc. UK) was a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. Most of its tit ...
) and aimed at the
teenage
Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...
market, it ran for almost 900 issues, and oversaw a period of considerable change in popular music consumption, from the early years of
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
' career to the growth of the
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
. Many of its contributors began their professional careers with the magazine including photographers David Steen and Robert Whitaker and writers
Quentin Crewe
Quentin Hugh Crewe (14 November 1926 – 14 November 1998) was an English journalist, author, restaurateur and adventurer. He wrote regularly for the ''Evening Standard'', ''Queen'' magazine, the ''Daily Mail'' and ''Sunday Mirror,'' among othe ...
Neil Aspinall
Neil Stanley Aspinall (13 October 1941 24 March 2008) was a British music industry executive. A school friend of Paul McCartney and George Harrison, he went on to head the Beatles' company Apple Corps.
The Beatles employed Aspinall first as th ...
and
Michael Aldred
Michael Aldred (6 July 1945 – 15 April 1995) was a British record producer, music journalist, and television presenter. He is best remembered as co-presenter of the 1960s music show ''Ready Steady Go!''.
Life and career
Aldred attended Emanuel ...
.
First published as ''Fabulous'' on 18 January 1964, The Beatles appeared on the front cover, espousing the magazine's (then) USP: full-colour pinups. At the time, ''Fabulouss competition - chiefly ''
New Musical Express
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' and ''
Melody Maker
''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...
'' - were newsprint publications. As Paul Jobling and David Crowley note, The Beatles went on to appear in every edition of the magazine for the next two years, and several early editions featured no other artists.Jobling, Paul & Crowley, David (1996) ''Graphic Design: Reproduction and Representation Since 1800'',
Manchester University Press
Manchester University Press is the university press of the University of Manchester, England and a publisher of academic books and journals. Manchester University Press has developed into an international publisher. It maintains its links with th ...
, p.218-9 In June 1966, after a deal with
Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL (for Radio Television Luxembourg).
The English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earlies ...
to carry its programme listings and related items, the magazine was retitled ''Fabulous 208'' - 208
metres
The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...
being Radio Luxembourg's broadcast
wavelength
In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats.
It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, tro ...
. At its peak it had a circulation of 250,000, and for the majority of the 1960s had the biggest market share of its type.
An innovation in the magazine's early years was celebrity guest editors, including
Donovan
Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock and world mus ...
,
Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou; ), commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens, Yusuf, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and, later in ...
,
Gerry Marsden
Gerard Marsden MBE (24 September 1942 – 3 January 2021) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and television personality, best known for being leader of the Merseybeat band Gerry and the Pacemakers. He was the younger brother of fellow ba ...
,
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhythm ...
and
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich were an English rock band active during the 1960s. Formed in Salisbury in 1964, the band consisted of David John Harman (Dave Dee), Trevor Leonard Ward-Davies (Dozy), John Dymond (Beaky), Michael Wilson (Mick) ...
. Although its focus was pop music, ''Fabulous 208'' was the first magazine of its type to cover other pop culture genres: fashion, films and television, and this later extended beyond the media to celebrity footballers such as
George Best
George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United. A highly skilful dribbler, Best is regarded as one of the greatest pla ...
- a trend which was widely emulated in the late 60s and beyond, most notably by the
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
-sponsored ''
Look-In
''Look-in'' was a children's magazine centred on ITV's television programmes in the United Kingdom, and subtitled "The Junior ''TVTimes''". It ran from 9 January 1971 to 12 March 1994.Jackie'' (which itself had launched only weeks after ''Fabulous'') with more fashion features, and models replacing pop stars on the cover in most weeks. By the end of the 1970s it was being outsold by both ''Jackie'' and on the pop front by newly launched titles such as ''
Smash Hits
''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand fo ...
'' (from 1978). After a brief spell as rebranded as ''Fab Hits'' it was published for the last time on 27 September 1980, with The Beatles once again on the front cover.