The magazine gets a fair few questions nowadays, and you can contact us directly at any time through the contact page. This page has your questions and my answers!
I am the one (Benny) who usually answers these, as that is one of my roles. And as a few came up a bit, I decided I would put up a Q and A page to cover some of them.
Simon from Bradford asks Do you invite comments?
We love comments about the musicians and the music. However, we should make it clear that we do not accept irrational rants that have nothing to do with the music that crazy people send! Nothing gets in the magazine that doesn’t hit the filter first; we read and decide if it goes up. So please send us chat about the articles, but not spam or loonyness!
For spammers, we don’t know why you wasted your time; we will not put your spam up. Even though you place all these compliments or send these thoughts about your own sites, We are not allowing these up!
Only share your thoughts on the content, the musician or the music we cover. Thanks.
Jeremy from Louisiana (USA) asked: What type of music do you cover?
We set out to cover rock, melodic punk, blues, and country. We have added to this some prog rock, jazz, and soul. It’s quite a wide umbrella. Many, but not all, of our artists are independent acts, some are at the very start of their careers, and some are well established. We have to like the music to review it or do a feature. We get a lot of music sent to us to review, and we love it when we find a new artist we like and can get behind. We politely don’t review death metal, rap, or club music, among others.
Vanessa from Segovia (Spain) asked if we accept music sent in for review.
Yes, we do. Send in music through to our email, admin@rockthejointmagazine.co.uk We will have a listen, and if it falls under our umbrella, then we will listen to it. You can also contact us on our Instagram page, rock_the_joint_magazine.
Give us a follow, say hello, and send in that music! We have done reviews for a number of artists that we liked, and gave them a push for their first singles.
Stuart from Ross-on-Wye (UK) asked why there is no big picture of the team on the site.
Perhaps we like the mystique. Look, you can believe I have the looks of James Bond, the style of a French male model, and the strength of an Olympic athlete. Or perhaps I’m an overweight balding man in my late forties Lol. We want the focus to be on the artists and the magazine, we are not in it for some form of self-promotion. Actually, I am happy my photograph is not in the magazine, my words matter, my looks do not.
https://rockthejointmagazine.com/merchandise/
Samantha from Ayr (Scotland) asked who does what at the magazine.
The magazine is run by myself and Mark, our idea, and we are both in charge. I do emails, respond to social media (we do Twitter and Instagram, as I am not really a fan of social media, but I accept it is necessary), and help write up features. Mark sorts out reviews that are sent in and sends them to Lorraine (who also does the quiz page) or Stevie to do. Mark tends to do the interviews, I tend to write them up; although that changes sometimes. Behind the scenes, we have John and Roy, who help with the website side of things and the commercial side of the shop. Lorraine and Stevie are our regular reviewers.
A rare picture of Benny (the Ball) Benson carrying a snare drum. Also available in the merchandise.
Bryan from Glasgow (Scotland) asked which artists we thought deserved a much higher profile.
A lot of the artists we cover are at the start of their careers, we have the first reviews for a couple of artists giving them their first promotion, Anita Bonsu for example, Rosie Hollins (aged 14, with her first record), or Ava Toton (aged 13). What can I say! These are names that will go on, and we will, for sure, hear about more. Otherwise, I know Mark has been pushing Nushka as he loves her material. One of the pleasures of doing this magazine is that we come across talent all the time that blows us away.
Chris from London asks whether the designs we have in the shop are ones done by us.
Yes, we have a few designs that are exclusive to us, and we use them in the shop. A couple were bought from an artist friend of ours. We love all of them and are building up some new ones to use in designs so we can expand the shop side of things a bit.
Colin from Gravesend asks why we have a poetry page and why the poems seem so angry.
Sometimes there is a lot to be angry about! I don’t subscribe to the theory that poetry has to be about love or flowers. We have a poetry page because it’s in our magazine, and it’s there because we like it. It is also because we like to give people something extra, which is why we have the quiz page there, we want people to hang around a bit and read.
Thanks for the questions, I will add a few more to the Q and A in a couple of months as more come in.
Benny (the Ball) Benson.