Animal House

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Loaded was originally conceived as a magazine that combined music and football. Brown had been interviewed for the NME editor’s job, but ended up being offered the chance to make his own magazine instead. Under the mentorship of IPC’s Alan Lewis, he brought together a small team to create a rough sketch of the mag. It tested appallingly in focus groups, but legend has it that Lewis altered the figures, and so the project was greenlighted. Brown notes that he was younger than pretty much all of his staff, and that his mum had died only months before the opportunity to do Loaded arose. “So there was no structure or sense of recuperation. And then – boom! – I create this thing that explodes, and all of the things about me that annoyed people – my ego and my voice and opinions – got fuelled.” I always thought it was like bands when the key member leaves. The songwriter or lead singer. It was my magazine … which everybody else made great There were a few too many drug/alcohol related tales in the book for me, however I would also argue that most of them did feel related to a bigger context (e.g. explaining the tone of the magazine through describing drug fuelled trips abroad). James noted that Loaded is now frequently lumped in with the other later 'lad's mags' such as Maxim and Nuts due to it featuring similar content focusing on alcohol and women but that he felt Loaded was above that genre, it was a brief comment but I would be really interested to read his deeper opinion on that and the genre that Loaded arguably spawned whether intended or not. From dancing down the front at Redskins gigs to brushing shoulders with royalty - has success changed your political outlook at all?

You must have received tons of demos from hopeful bands whilst at the NME . What made the best ones stand out? I was really mercurial,” Brown says. “One minute I would be happy and planning something fun, and the next I’d be chewing somebody out. Quite often that was because something else had happened in my life in between and, instead of being able to understand how to process that, I would take it out on the next person.”You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. Being told that when you know you’ve got no control over yourself was a real wake-up moment,” he says. It helped that Condé Nast were waving heaps of money at Brown for him to edit the upmarket fashion magazine GQ, believing it had got stuffy and needed an injection of fun. Still, leaving Loaded was like splitting up with someone, and he didn’t open a copy for a while. There was not much fun in media before we came along. Older editors said we did things they wish they could have done, but anyone could have done it This strikes me as a somewhat odd statement given that 1) James has had several jobs like this, and 2) it was James that got me this job in the first place. For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial.

Now, I'm not sure if it was the experience as mentioned above or the fact that the book just became a tirade of name dropping and self appreciation but it started to become very dislikeable, to the point where I barely finished it. The first few chapters reeled me in in excited anticipation, so I decided to reach out to the author and applaud him on a good read, and to see if he may have remembered me (I wasn't expecting him to by the way but I wanted to show support). Regardless, my nice message was seen and ignored which irked me. I can imagine popular authors get inundated with enquiries but the authors popularity on this social media platform is fledgling. No one likes to be ignored. Brown isn’t afraid of a brag or two in his book, and he believes Loaded’s decline came swiftly after his exit. “I always thought it was like those bands where the key member leaves,” he says with a mischievous grin. “The songwriter or lead singer. It was my magazine … which everybody else made great.” By 2007, the magazine was taking its staff on a straight pride march around London under the editorship of Martin Daubney, now deputy leader of Laurence Fox’s Reclaim party. It had become everything its original detractors had once claimed it was. If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month.It's an inspiring read of a working-class boy who did really well and lived by the motto that anything was possible. After leaving school with no qualifications it's clear that despite all the fun and the carefree attitude that he attempts to portray throughout the book that he grafted very hard for his success. I think James is a good example of the old adage 'make your hobby your job and never work a day in your life'. It depends what time of the day and what drugs. And I guess it depends on the individual taking them. In my experience it’s extremely hard to write on drugs but you can get a good flow going if you’ve had a couple of drinks.” A combination of a great photograph, strong cover lines and good colours. If you get all three you are perfectly set.”