Music magazine comes to an end after 35 years

The editor of a free local music magazine which has run for more than 35 years says he is calling it a day because he is "not getting any younger".

Kidlington resident Ronan Munro published the first issue of Nightshift, which covers Oxford's music scene, in 1995, and before that edited Curfew from 1991.

He told the BBC: "It's got harder and harder... delivery days are an absolute ordeal nowadays, financially it's always been up against it, and there's always that nagging feeling you're not really making a difference."

The final issue has been published shortly before Munro's 60th birthday.

Its plain black cover is adorned with the message: "Thank you and goodnight - Ladies and gentlemen Nightshift has left the building."

Munro, who left his job at Oxford's Our Price to sell tour merchandise for the band Ride, started a local music magazine shortly after he returned home and saw a gap in the market.

In their time his publications have featured about 4,000 demo reviews and championed the likes of Radiohead, Supergrass, Foals and Glass Animals, but Munro said it was not necessarily the "big events" on the scene that held the most cherished memories.

"It's being part of an absolutely amazing community and just meeting so many brilliant people, people who are now friends for life," he said.

"It's not just about Nightshift, it's about loads and loads of people, past and present, who have put loads of work in, very often unpaid, just to make Oxford music what it is.

"Oxford's music scene is absolutely incredible and we punch so far above our weight."

Nightshift was at the centre of a crowdfunder in 2021 when the covid pandemic affected advertising revenue and threatened its future.

It reached its £12,000 target in four days, but Munro said the gig climate since had made it even harder for a print magazine to survive.

"We get so many venues closing down, struggle to get people out to see new music when there's loads of tribute bands packing out big venues," he said.

"It gets a little bit demoralising, so I've been thinking about it for a while and in June I turn 60 and I thought that's a good time to do it.

"I don't want to be the weird old guy trying to tell people what to listen to."

A goodbye gig at The Bullingdon on 31 May, with a bill that includes Young Knives and Unbelievable Truth, sold out in under 24 hours.