Q is widely accepted as beyond its usefulness. fRoots is too darn serious and worthy, but has occasional good articles and reviews, usually by Colin Irwin. Record Collector has enthusiasts that witter on about such arcane material as to beggar belief as to their sanity (but I invest from time to time) Rock'n'Reel seems to have disappeared. There are positively tens of new kids on the block, mainly of a Rawk and metal bent, but the covers normally scare me off. Clash I picked up in error, being devoted to music and, wait for it, fashion. Way to young for me. So that leaves Word, Slomo and Unshod, which I always get, but only one on sub, but I used to be a Slomo subscriber. Depends on the hook really. Word has better CD bait! And makes me laugh more. And has this.

Classic Rock can be a very good, if inconsistent read. Obviously if that's your bag.

This months edition with Lynyrd Skynyrd on the cover has a truly enlightening, superbly written lengthy piece on said band. I'm biased, I love the Skynyrd but several other well written bits in there.

I used to love Mojo but it seemed to disappear into the nether regions of its back passage a while back and hasn't been seen since.

It's an American music magazine with a fair spread of genres. You can check it on its website.

Bought NME yesterday (for the first time in months) to read the Glastonbury coverage and wish I hadn't bothered. Most of the reviews are so short and shallow, not worth the bother. Very thin issue to all things considering. Poor effort all round. Sometimes buy MOJO bit find it hard work at times.......... Never read Word magazine, worth buying?

Run by a bunch of loonies. Takes ages to read, if you forgot where you put it down. OK if you like Springsteen, Dylan, Costello, Weller, etc. Get my drift?

Lets you vote for who you want to see on the cover and throws a free Christmas party for it's loyal and beautiful readers.

...strikes a good balance between the old and the new. I've been buying it since #7 and have seen the quality go up and down. At the moment it seems to be enjoying an Indian summer. I am looking forward to this month's Sub-Pop retrospective.

It's been a while since I bought Q or Uncut, or even leafed through them in the shops. I did pick up the NME for the free Coldplay single. The magazine was dreadful - worse than I remember, although to be fair I am not in their target demographic. I imagine there will be a few writers on their books who will go on to bigger and better things, but it always seems to be the empty vessels who make the most noise.

Mojo is pretty good - I buy it most months but won't this month as it has Nirvana on the cover, which puts me right off. Uncut is usually ok too but definitely has dumbed down in recent years. Q has dumbed down so much it is nearly worthless, which is a shame as it used to be so good (looked through some very old copies of Q recently - content and quality was similar to today's Word - wonder why?). I've only bought Classic Rock a couple of times - it's not great but it does cover bands which none of the other mags would - UFO in the current issue! Well over a decade since I bought NME - it doesn't even register on my consciousness any more. Word is far and away the best music mag at the moment, simply because it has the best writers - almost always amusing and interesting, regardless of subject.

Songlines ("World music" magazine) is worth a mention, particularly for their CDs. It's a shame Andy Kershaw's articles have disappeared from the back page though. I hope he returns to public life some time soon.

Q, Uncut, Mojo and Word everymonth whether they look interesting or not. It's just habit.
I find Q almost like a comic version of a music magazine, it's all light and frothy as if it is now scared to actually print a serious piece of journalism.
Uncut is drifting into the same territory.
Mojo can be quite dull but does have some good pieces.
Word is the only one of the above that I actually look forward to reading.It has managed a perfect balance between thought provoking pieces and little bit of lunacy.

to Word and Mojo - both virtually from their inception. Used to buy Uncut every month too but not in last 18 months - now usually when they have a themed cd that is appealing. A generalisation maybe but I would say Mojo cd's are more interesting than Word cd's. A question that does intrigue me however - are the cd's genuinely free or if they were not offered would you be able to reduce the cover price? Many people expect a free cd nowadays but to be honest it has little or no bearing on whether I buy the mag or not.

towards cancelling my Uncut subscription, and coming over to Word...(Although I do buy it every month)..

Uncut has just undergone yet another "refresh", surely a sign of ever decreasing circulation..It's getting increasingly mor reliant on short articles and although some of the writing is still good, I am struggling to stretch it out more than two or threee trips to the khazi. The website isn't too sharp either. The Cd is not so bad, but the themed bits annoy the pants off me...I don't know why, but it seems lazy...

Allan's Column at the end gets s bit formulaic as well...To paraphrase: "I got pissed and took drugs with a pop star when I worked on Melody Maker" Cheers Allan.

I haven't bough NME in about 10 years either...It's just Smash Hits for skinny tie wearers (Are they still the clothing choice of the young 'uns?) Like someone said, I suspect I am not in their demographic any more.

I used to work for Emap, but despite getting the occasional free copy of Q & Mojo, I could never really be arsed. However, I did buy Mojo this week, and it's not too bad.

...Record Collector. Yeah, there's an emphasis on vinyl value and the like but the interviews and articles are usually of a good quality IMHO. Reviews are excellent too as there is less of the 'hipper than thou' attitude of some UK music magazines.

I buy Classic Rock but this seems to be out of habit more than the staggering quality of the magazine; I never liked Guns N Roses and thus I find the overt emphasis on their activities (or lack of them) to be deathly dull.

Friends used to buy NME and I'd read it in the sixth form lounge a few years ago but I thought it was awful; very narrow coverage of music, poor writing and plain daft reviews (claiming The Fratellis' debut was 'the most important album you could own' springs to mind!).

Can't stand Q Magazine, really. Used to read Uncut but found it a bit 'rock snob' and when I bought it (2001/2) there was a heavy emphasis on alt-country which isn't my thing. Those Allan Jones columns are the same every time!

Mojo is more mature than most but the same people turning up on their front covers put me off a bit.

The Word is definitely the one I look forward to most when it drops through my letterbox, but Mojo comes a close second. Their breadth of music coverage is wider than The Word in my opinion and the free CDs are consistently better (my view that music on The Word CD has become decidedly average is well documented).

Really like this mag and in a similar vain the Pitchfork website is well worth a look.

Classic Rock - Almost perfect when edited by Mick Wall. He left and it got a bit so-so. Then the current editor took over and it's become pretty poor. Haven't bought it in about six months.

Q - It's a hit and miss magazine. One issue in four is great while the rest are so-so. A decent magazine.

Mojo - I've only bought it twice. Too interested in the areas of rock that I have no interest in (ie. old soul records and 50's rock)

Uncut - Used to be very good. Seems a bit watered-down now. It's alright though.

Until that guy who used to edit Kerrange took over, now it's pretty poor. Their CD's are better then Word's though (sacrilege!). Uncut, again used to be good but both this and Mojo fall way short of Word. Q has become an embarrassment.

Mojo although it's not as good as it was. Uncut I'll buy sometimes, Q used to be good but is just awful these days! Word is miles ahead of any other music mag!

My only subscription is Mojo, at the bargain price of £3.30 an issue. It's been this price since I joined about 3 years ago and got a free Led Zep Photo Book and Song Remains The Same DVD. I've considered subscriptions to others but there has to be a cracker of a freebie, not just a new album that will be £5 next month. Just can't risk that the offer the month after will be better. I don't think Mojo has been as good of late, but I still enjoy it.

I used to always buy Uncut but now only if there is something I really want to read about. Got the last 2 for features on CSNY and The Wire, but I can go a few issues without buying one. Pretty much always buy Word, though it's hard to see it in the same pocket as the others as, for me, the magazine gets sidelined because of the podcast and website. Because I enjoy both these extras on a weekly basis, an element which appears monthly (and is usually devoured in a week) doesn't seem as important. (Sorry, you've practically outdone yourselves!).

Q lost it several years ago, though I must say I bought one recently for the Glastonbury cd and things were looking up. NME, I agree, is awful.

I try not to put too much stock in cover stars, but I must say if any of the above to yet another "Lennon - The Solo Years" or "Lennon's best songs" I swear I'll scream. And I'd consider leaving Word in the shop if they put Van Morrison on the cover again. Don't want his face in my living room...

I don't mean the Sci-Fi mag either. This was a mag available in the 80's that came out every fortnight on cassette. It only lasted about 20 issues and features interviews with the likes of Lou Reed, Suggs, Ossie Ardiles(!) and many more I have forgotten about. I still have the cassettes somewhere so perhaps it is time to revisit and digitize the more obscure snippets.

It made sense at the time to hear a music mag instead of reading one. Now we have free podcasts instead but there must be tons of material that does not see the light of day we would be interested in, like the lost Beatles interviews, for completists.

is a reasonable magazine but can be a bit dull, i think its only a matter of time before Allan Jones is on the cover.

I gave up on Q because every month it just seemed to be top 50 this, top fifty that, nearly all of which were wrong.

Word has every thing i want and it's enjoyable to read.

I've just cancelled my subscription to Uncut. I couldn't bear the endless round of Beatles, Dylan, Stones anymore. They should rename it Unoriginal because it really has lost its way. Conversely I think Mojo has definitely improved over the last couple of years. Having just received my new copy of the Word today (spoiler alert) with a Beatle on the cover I hope this isn't the beginning of some decline into Uncut-style banality.

What about best defunked mag. Sounds by a mile for me!

Not that I read it either but there are other music magazines out there, than the four mentioned - I bought Paste magazine whilst holidaying in the US, which had a good cd and was a bit like an American version of Word (i.e. with a little less humour).

I like Word because even the articles about bands I'm not interested in are well researched and well written meaning I always end up reading it cover to cover.

Of the 3 UK contenders, I got fed up with Uncut for its 20 page articles on why the 1968 tour by Band X resulted in musical differences and break up etc. The revamp replaced this with much shorter but not terribly well written articles. The themed CDs are good though so I still buy it from time to time.

Mojo is a little too pretentious/dull from my point of view and Q a little too poppy - Word seems for this reader at least to strike the right balance, which is why I subscribe.

The very venerable Hot Press from Ireland, although it has seen better days.

Have a look at this one - Sixties psych here we come! http://www.volcanopublishing.co.uk/shindig/
I nearly bought it in W.H.Smiths today but realised I had no money. I'll buy it tomorrow.

I subscribe to (The) Word and used to subscribe to Q (I used to love it when it started but stopped around 120), Uncut (stopped a few months back when the font shrank alarmingly), MOJO (I still have every issue from 1 to stopping a month or so ago... the first few were things of beauty but look at them now).

That's good news, it's a good mag.

Along the same lines, although not so regular, is the superb "Ugly Things" - really in-depth reviews and features on mainly original 60's garage and psychedelic bands.
It's done by Mike Stax who is in a pretty damn good Psychedelic band called The Loons.

http://www.ugly-things.com/

You can get them from the excellent Stand-Out/Minus Zero record stores on Blenheim Crescent just off Portobello Road in London.

http://www.minuszerorecords.com/the%20shop.html

(still can't get the hang of the "The", sorry) and Uncut, although I'm also seriously considering cancelling the Uncut sub. Can't remember the last time I read as much as half of an issue. If I wasn't such a lazy bastard I'd have binned it months ago.

Usually buy Classic Rock. Tends to be well written, and covers a lot of bands you don't see anywhere else (and they gave a couple of good plugs to a charity CD I was involved with a couple of months ago, and as a result I'm now only ever going to say nice things about them)

Buy Mojo occasionally, if the free CD looks any good and if there are any articles which particularly catch my eye.

Buy Q every month, mainly out of a strange combination of habit and morbid curiosity as to how bad it's going to be.

Have bought NME once in the last 18 months or so.

I suppose without realising it at the start we all certainly provided some cheap market research for WORD magazine here then....