A Statement From Shindig! magazine – Monday 13th April, 2015
Shindig! magazine has officially parted company with Volcano Publishing.
Volcano began publishing Shindig! in 2007 and, initially, both parties enjoyed a fruitful relationship, with Volcano enabling Shindig!’s presence in more retail outlets in the UK and other parts of the world than had previously been considered by the magazine’s editors, Jon and Andy.
However, ongoing disagreements over finances, management and business transparency, combined with unresolvable personality clashes, put enormous stress on both parties, with Volcano effectively threatening to shut Shindig! down on at least two occasions.
In late 2014, Volcano proposed a series of suggestions aimed at restructuring the magazine in order to increase its financial viability and improve working relationships. These extreme, often unworkable, ideas were queried and ultimately rejected by the editors as being too destructive to the editorial process and unfair to them as “employees” of Volcano.
In January 2015, Jon and Andy (and Phil, our live reviews editor) were made redundant by Volcano for a third time.
A temporary agreement was reached which would enable Jon and Andy (and Phil) to put together Shindig! #47 while we planned our escape and courted other publishers. Having produced the new issue in good faith, Jon and Andy (and dozens of other contributors) were horrified to discover that #47 had been rebranded without our knowledge or consent (as Kaleidoscope – Incorporating Shindig!), given a new cover and had elements of its agreed content changed or removed (again, without permission).
Over the course of the next few hours and days, Shindig!’s website had become Kaleidoscope’s website, our email accounts had been shut down, our Twitter account hijacked, our subscriber database withheld from us and our trusted and loyal team of friends, writers, allies and advertisers shamelessly approached about contributing to Volcano’s new venture.
In the seven days since Jon and Andy discovered this gross act of sabotage, we’ve been inundated with messages of support and gestures of goodwill from our readership, our contributors, our allies, our advertisers and people we don’t even know.
Our plight has been broadcast widely across the internet via blogs and social media and we are already well on the way to returning Shindig! to the record shops, newsagents, book shops and newsstands where it has made its mark.
Jon and Andy would like to extend their love, thanks and gratitude to all members of the Shindig! family. You have turned this potential disaster into a golden new dawn.
Beware of pale imitations.
