BLITZ 40 years old: “When the first Vicious Five interview came out, I couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t a little corner, it was 2 or 3 pages”, Xinobi
As we enter the countdown to the big party for BLITZ’s 40th anniversary, at Meo Arena, in Lisbon, on December 12th – with concerts by Xutos & Pontapés, Capitão Fausto, Gisela João and MARO –we asked musicians, promoters, journalists, radio hosts and other personalities to go to the trunk to retrieve memories from four decades of history, also leaving us a message for the future.
“I would love for there to be a physical publication again that is not one-off, like you do, dedicated to an artist, to a festival. I loved it. I don’t know if it would catch on or not, but I would really like it”, declares Xinobi, musician, DJ and electronic music producer who the country knew as guitarist for the band Vicious Five, after revealing that he has been a regular reader of BLITZ since the time he was newspaper, “I hope they continue. I hope you can continue to navigate through this randomness everything that is the internet and the algorithm. I continue to read BLITZ publications. Maybe the biggest challenge is to keep up with today’s super youth, who can’t pay attention to anything… it doesn’t mean they aren’t interested, but there isn’t enough time”.
The oldest memory he has of the publication is “a mysterious newspaper that my uncle bought”. “I knew it was about music, but I still didn’t have a deep understanding of what it was. Then, as a consumer, it was the magic of Tuesday morning. It was the thing that made me move that half hour to school. I was always dying to buy the BLITZ. As a music lover, it had a big impact on me because I followed it a lot. It was my source of musical knowledge, it encouraged me to buy or research music. I often followed the reviews what BLITZ did to look for music. There was one or two moments when I became a little less interested, I also have to say. It was during the nu metal phase. As I didn’t get into nu metal, there was a moment when I was angry with BLITZ, but I continued, religiously. It wasn’t a complete rejection, otherwise I would stop buying, but no, I continued.”
“As a consumer, it shaped, or helped shape, my journey in music, my musical knowledge, etc. And then, later, as an artist, I also started to be a bit part of BLITZ”, continues Xinobi, “I remember when Vicious Five’s first interview on BLITZ came out… I couldn’t really believe it. It wasn’t a corner or a reviewit was two or three long pages. I was really like ‘I’ve made it to the Blitz!’. Similar to ‘Mondo Bizarre’, for example. When we were on the cover of ‘Mondo Bizarre’, I didn’t really want to believe it. They were the two music publications I had on my pedestal. I was like ‘what’s going on here?’. Afterwards, I followed when BLITZ became BLITZ. I have a bunch of endless magazines there that I keep with great care and, from time to time, leaf through.”
Regarding the importance of the publication, Xinobi has no doubts: “when talking about music publications in Portugal, BLITZ is always the name that appears first”. “At school, the newspaper… was not a bible, obviously, but people were very guided by the knowledge of journalists, critics, by the records that arrived at the newsroom, to which you had access, and about which they published things. When the magazine appeared, I feel like it became more of a history publication. The reports became more in-depth. Despite there being a criticism section, etc., I really felt that the focus became two, three artists, in depth, and then the rest, around it, was like the newspaper. And I really like magazines with substance, with history. It was the coolest thing I saw when BLITZ ran the magazine.”
