Off Licence Magazine

15/08/2024

14/08/2024

"IT'S NOT ABOUT THAT,¹ IT'S ABOUT THAAAT.²"

Find out what these footnotes are all about in the ISSUE THIRTEEN free sample we just hit our mailing list with.

12/08/2024

OUT SHOPPING THIS WEEK, PERHAPS? 🧐

Support us. Support our stockists. Support the admin of the Offie Mag Instagram account.

Much love to for getting us out there. Much love to you, loyal reader, for keeping us in print.

Contact [email protected] if you own a shop, website, kiosk, newsstand, cafe or museum and are interesting in stocking us.

Offie Mag to the world or at least several parts of it.

05/08/2024

NEXT EVENT… 🎟️

We’re playing our part in ’s UK tour as we welcome the South East London artist to the fine Brighton establishment , alongside and , all the way from Florida via NYC and a tour bus.

Tickets are available via RA and Skiddle. Small cap venue. Big sound.

The tour is hitting several cities, so get out and support it. And of course, you can expect some of that famous Offie Mag hospitality should you choose to pass through the Brighton date.

(BTN poster design by .lovr)

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01/08/2024

FOR OUR NIGHTLIFE ISSUE 🌉

We worked through a range of topics with the DJ, curator and more, as you would expect from any cover feature. But something that resonated heavily was Tash’s take on why radio still matters in this media landscape.

We’ve got a horse in the race, of course, but we can’t help but recommend the work of humans when it comes to curating music to share.

Humans like Tash LC with her show. Humans like Tash LC when she’s playing out to a festival crowd or sweaty dancefloor in the early hours of the morning. Humans like Tash LC that are doing deep dives into genres that you aren’t gonna find on your NEW MUSIC FRIDAY major label-approved playlist.

Humans that are paying their subs, filling yet another folder full of MP3s or a Bag for Life full of records, and doing a radio show just because they want to share music with you, another human.

It’s a simple thing and a beautiful thing and a thing that we shouldn’t take for granted.

Offie Mag.

NOTE: ISSUE THIRTEEN has sold out on our shop, but can be located in our stockists worldwide 🌍

🦆

31/07/2024

24/07/2024

THANK YOU VERY, VERY MUCH 🥹

WE SOLD OUT ANOTHER PRINT MAGAZINE. IN *THIS* ECONOMY.

READERS, SUBSCRIBERS, CONTRIBUTORS, PEOPLE WHO TELL THEIR FRIENDS ABOUT US.

DJs, PROMOTERS, PRODUCERS, VENUES AND PEOPLE WHO MAKE NIGHTLIFE GOOD, SINCE THAT WAS THE THEME.

COVER STARS + . THAMES CLIPPER STAFF AND CREW. .

WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR YOU ALL.

SUBSCRIPTION PLANS NOW START FROM ISSUE FOURTEEN AND ARE AVAILABLE ON OUR SITE… 📑

OFFLICENCEMAGAZINE.COM

17/07/2024

FOR ISSUE THIRTEEN 🎱

Inside what is apparently Sadiq Khan’s favourite building in London, this now bingo hall’s life started back in 1931 as The Granada Theatre. The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, The Rolling Stones and Bee Gees have all played here and now you can too from between 2 and 10 pounds.

We played here (Bingo). Alongside Cardiff-born producer, singer and DJ Elkka over a £2 hot dog and chips and some very confusing pieces of colourful paper. Nans of the world, how do you keep up?

Much like Cecil A. Massey and Theodore Komisarjevsky who designed the grand interiors of Tooting’s only Grade I listed building, Elkka is the architect of something impressive. A debut album in a world of pop remixes and thirty-second TikTok hits.

Released on , ‘Prism of Pleasure’ contains stories of women’s sexuality, q***r love, a nine-and-a-half-minute long masterpiece featuring John Carroll Kirby, and Elkka’s voice itself, reaching deep into her bag and living out her childhood fantasies of being a pop star.

spoke to Elkka about all of the above for the pages of the nearly sold out ISSUE THIRTEEN (unlucky for some).

Photography by . Design by .lovr. Buy the mag via the link in our bio or our stockists worldwide.

16/07/2024

Vans’ Shop Riot is like the Euros of skateboarding. Replace the countries and their respective governing bodies with the best skate shops in Europe, swap the grass with ramps and throw in a waffle-eating contest, and you’ve got yourself an elite continental competition. And one that keeps skate culture at the very centre of things.

Grown out of a grassroots event at Burnside Skatepark in the Netherlands in 2009, Vans Shop Riot has grown and grown since, becoming a celebration and competition for skateboarding long before it found its way onto the Olympic stage.

Next year’s finals are being held in Barcelona, a city that about skateboarding culture. But before that, teams must qualify nationally, so the weekend saw wheels on the floor as the Shop Riot UK Qualifiers arrived in rainy London at .

Our gracious hosts secured victory, a novelty-sized cheque, and a place in the Grand Finals.

Roll on Vans Shop Riot European Finals 2025 .

Photos by 📸

12/07/2024

‘You cannot only take-take-take, you need to give back.’ - Edson of for Off Licence Magazine ISSUE THIRTEEN.

With Nightlife as the theme of this magazine, Edson and Gee took us down Memorystraat, with tales of nights out allowing for the blossoming of their friendship, their community and their brand.

The distinctions between fashion, nightlife and music culture are blurred by the Amsterdam-founded streetwear brand that turns 20 years-old in 2024.

Their clothing, revered for its functionality and cultural reference points that nod to anything from the founders’ Surinamese roots to Erykah Badu’s Four Leaf Clover, is worn all over the world.

A staple of the modern Netherlands’ affinity for Hip Hop, as well as Soho’s queuing-for-kicks culture, Patta is a global brand that retains a family feel.

Having nurtured their own friendship and their own business off the back of nights out and memories soundtracked by touring US rappers and Dutch Hip Hop, we wanted to speak to Patta’s founders about how Patta came to be.

The ethos. The music. The ritual.

🌆 MAGAZINE OUT NOW LINK IN BIO 🌃

(Photos provided by Patta, interview by , design by .lovr. S/o )

10/07/2024

👀

From OFFIE MAG ISSUE NINE: ENGERLAND, 2021.

Photo by .

04/07/2024

Put on your running shorts and go exercise your right to vote 😤 💪 🏋️ 🗳️

20/06/2024

At once a songstress, siren, and masked-up selecta, Fatima () gets real with us about what will most likely come after Enya on a compilation Euro-dance CD single.

Bridging the gap between MTV, and its lesser-known Swedish counterpart, ZTV, Fatima speaks of the music on offer in the Scandinavian city of Stockholm in the ‘90s, citing the heavy influence of American sounds and dancehall genres on the nightlife scene. Be it rap, dance, or some other kind of listener-led battle, Fatima would be there; “sometimes I’d join in”, she chimes in, “but I didn’t take it too seriously back then”.

On receiving a coveted Eminem CD in her early teens, Fatima shares how she would dissect the lyrics and complex wordplay spat by an irate mid-90s Eminem with great interest, asking herself time and again; “but why does he hate his mum and his girlfriend so much?”

Unlike the mom’s-spaghetti renegade, Fatima’s lyrics are gently nuanced as if softly buried in a glass of ice cream.
This was true of her critically acclaimed debut LP which was listed as Album of the Year by Giles Peterson in 2014.

In the decade since the release of Yellow Memories by way of East London label, Eglo Records, Fatima has cooked up a loyal listenership across her NTS show Fatima’s Maple Syrup Waffle Show, and her wider musical practice. Bringing the sounds found in the now closed but still infamous Plastic People basement on Curtain Road in Shoreditch to well above ground level, we’ve seen Fatima propelled into venues with ample roof space, with her pearly disposition now immortalised on the hallowed pages of Offie Mag ISSUE THIRTEEN.

Read the feature, best served with soft scoop. Words by , photography by .

18/06/2024

‘Bar Italia opened in 1949, quickly becoming an integral community hub and coffee hotspot for Soho’s substantial Italian community. More than half a century on, the neon-lit caffè bar is still going strong.’

Fan favourite Spicy Mark’s Culinary Corner is of course on the pages of ISSUE THIRTEEN: NIGHTLIFE. This time, we sent him to one of the surprisingly few late late night establishments in London, .

‘Not much has changed since 1949, a point proven by the vast Gaggia coffee machine – an imposing centrepiece making espressos, cappuccinos, cortados, and americanos for over 50 years. Several tons of jet-black titanium working pretty much all hours of the day and most of the night. It’s enormous and drips out coffees around the clock.’

‘But it’s not just coffee. You can get an espresso martini, Aperol spritz, pizza, premium Italian lager, spaghetti, paninis, tiramisu, and sweet delights from 7 am to 4 am every day of the week.’

‘You might have seen Bar Italia after going to Ronnie Scott’s or Charing Cross Nando’s. Straight out of Italy, this place practically screams the classic mano a borsa pinched fingers hand gesture. Memorabilia spanning from Garibaldi to Rocky Marciano adorn the walls, while a huge wall-mounted flatscreen at the back plays 24-hour Italian news broadcasts and live sport.’

‘Fast and friendly service is the name of the game, but pull aside a stool and you could sit here soaking everything in for hours. As the playwright Dave Stewart once said of this place in a play named after Bar Italia: “This coffee shop is very small, but what goes on in there is as big as the world.” ‘

Words by , photos by , design by .lovr and hospitality by Bar Italia☕️

Grab the mag from our shop and stockists around this world of ours.

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11/06/2024

OFFIE MAG TRAVEL: TOKYO 🇯🇵

I’ve never said no to flyers. I have a real difficulty refusing things after my fair share of questionable street-PR in my teens, so much so that I feel an overwhelming sense of empathetic rapport with flyer-ers. That, and an Asian upbringing in Britain, makes for a very ‘sorry!’ girl. I’ve been polite this whole trip, too: I’ve not eaten on any metro; talked too loudly on the phone; and I didn’t wear a swimsuit at the onsen, although my tattoo coverings were suspiciously pale — but that’s the best (and only) shade Don Quijote could provide.

She passed the paper over like it was contraband. Flyers are likely one of the most efficient forms of promotion here, foregrounding the steady flashing of billboards, scaffolding so high they defend the buildings they foist, and the thick neon panels that jolt and pinch at each other in narrow side streets, all competing for eyes. You’ve got to acknowledge a flyer as it’s granted a little more permanence. There are no public bins in Tokyo.

I arrived in Japan for a 9-day trip with no plan…

…the flyer was for an Amapiano night at Circus, Shibuya, run by collective . My friends Namani and Jianbo also happened to be in Tokyo the same week. As a group of Londoners, already disenchanted by the price and exclusivity of our hometown’s nightlife, we looked to get a taste of Tokyo’s youth culture, which teems with subversive determination to outshine the complacency of Japan’s refrained social norms and a capitalist structure built on humility.

My expectations for clubs were low, I’ve only known them to be expensive and sticky. Once we were let through the doors, underneath an inconspicuous tower which seemed to be a mall, there were no bag checks, pat-downs or stamps. We were led into a red-lit self service locker room, then down one of three neon escalators into the different floors. This was an operation I’ve never experienced: all parameters set in place for a good night.

Words:
Photography:
Design: .lovr

(Full night-out write up in ISSUE THIRTEEN, shipping worldwide from our shop and available from stockists 💌)

10/06/2024

RP BOO FOR OFFIE MAG ISSUE
THIRTEEN 💨

For the Nightlife issue, we met , The Godfather of Footwork 👑

‘It took me years to accept that title,’ he told . ‘I never thought I would be the Godfather of anything. You don’t plan these things, but if you’re a constant at what you do, you might be the person to discover something and bring it to the forefront where people can acknowledge it.’

‘I used to be the type of person who wouldn’t stand on that title, and then somebody told me I needed to hold that throne. They weren’t saying that I was going to lose it, but that I should accept it.’

Before that throne was even created and placed in arm’s reach of a drum machine, RP Boo would pioneer a genre of music with the help of his dancing and producing peers.

Through chopped-up vocal samples at 160 beats per minute, the genre encouraged unadulterated expression that empowered Chicago’s Black communities as soon as it hit the streets.

Over hamburgers at the aptly named People’s Choice Cafe, Kavain Wayne Space told us the story of his career and in doing so, tells the story of how a music genre came to be.
Tuck in to Off Licence Magazine via our shop and stockists across the planet 🌎

offlicencemagazine.com

Photography by 4
Design by .lovr
Words by Matt Leppier (Brickcellphone)

10/06/2024

RP BOO FOR OFFIE MAG ISSUE THIRTEEN 💨

For the Nightlife issue, we met , The Godfather of Footwork 👑

‘It took me years to accept that title,’ he told . ‘I never thought I would be the Godfather of anything. You don’t plan these things, but if you’re a constant at what you do, you might be the person to discover something and bring it to the forefront where people can acknowledge it.’

‘I used to be the type of person who wouldn’t stand on that title, and then somebody told me I needed to hold that throne. They weren’t saying that I was going to lose it, but that I should accept it.’

Before that throne was even created and placed in arm’s reach of a drum machine, RP Boo would pioneer a genre of music with the help of his dancing and producing peers. Through chopped-up vocal samples at 160 beats per minute, the genre encouraged unadulterated expression that empowered Chicago’s Black communities as soon as it hit the streets.

Over hamburgers at the aptly named People’s Choice Cafe, Kavain Wayne Space told us the story of his career and in doing so, tells the story of how a music genre came to be.

Tuck in to Off Licence Magazine via our shop and stockists across the planet 🌍

offlicencemagazine.com

Photography by 📸
Design by .lovr 💻
Words by Matt Leppier (Brickcellphone)

04/06/2024

ISSUE THIRTEEN: NIGHTLIFE 🌃

OUT NOW VIA OFFIE MAG SHOP AND GLOBAL STOCKISTS 🌍

FEATURING IMAGERY COURTESY OF 📸

LINK IN BIO ⛓️ OFFLICENCEMAGAZINE.COM/SHOP 🛒

30/05/2024

It’s been a year since we announced our Long Hot Summer series. Time has absolutely flown, but the need for live music, independent venues and affordable ways for people to access music and culture, has stayed firmly grounded.

The aim of that series was to put on independent artists in small venues in our hometown of Brighton & Hove as a means of supporting the grassroots sector in the post-Covid, cost of living landscape. Tickets were a fiver to help get as many people as possible through the doors of (pictured), , and , whilst recuperating what we could. Our first ever successful funding bid helped, and so did the people buying merch and mags from our tables at the back.

There’s no plans for a Long Hot Summer 2 (yet!), but we’ve done our usual monthly thing of compiling a playlist of new music from independent musicians worldwide that you can tap into. One of them is , one of the shining stars of the series of last summer, who kept a happy, heaving dance floor moving on a rainy night in July.

Hit the link in our bio to find that playlist and have a club night in yer kitchen or something whilst we work out how to make this summer long and hot.

And get out this weekend if you can.

offlicencemagazine.com

22/05/2024

OFFIE MAG X HOODIES SOLD OUT 🍀

Few sweatshirts and tees left on the shop following a quick post pop-up restock.

Shoot styling by , photography by .

offlicencemagazine.com

21/05/2024

FOR THE COVER OF OFF LICENCE MAGAZINE ISSUE THIRTEEN: NIGHTLIFE.

100-pages. Many photographs. Many conversations about why nightlife matters, what we can do to keep it alive and what life would be like without it. One of which is with the NTS resident and horizon-broadening DJ, Tash LC.

Available worldwide via offlicencemagazine.com and our stockists. Save money and get mags direct to your doormat when you subscribe.

20/05/2024

🔗 in bio 🌚

subscribers get it first

issue: nightlife

pages: 100

shipping: worldwide

18/05/2024

GOOD MORNING GOOD MORNING, AND WHAT A MORNING IT IS. YOU’RE TUNED IN TO AMERICAN DREAM NON-PROFIT COMMUNITY RADIO. LIVE FROM THE OFFIE MAG SOCIAL CLUB ALL GOD DAMN DAY.

Sound system from . Few garms left. Drinks by our mate Dan.

If found please return to the…

17/05/2024

THE OFFIE MAG SOCIAL CLUB SO FAR: WE’RE SELLING ASAHI BUT THE LINE-UPS HAVE BEEN STELLA.

& .janko. take over. American Dream Non-Profit Community Radio all stars.

Saturday hours 12pm til 10pm. Line up tomorrow is looking like a snack. Maple syrup and waffles, to be specific 🧇

17/05/2024

Okay so we're live streaming from The Offie Mag Social Club from 12pm til 10pm today, tomorrow and Sunday.

American Dream Non-Profit Community Radio.

Broadcast live to your community of fans and tune in direct to creators from every genre

17/05/2024

OFFIE MAG x Champion Europe 📻

13/05/2024

OFFIE MAG RADIO FOR YOUR MONDAY? ☕️

is steering the good ship this afternoon, celebrating the arrival of warmer weather with a two-hour mix of Balearic melodies and jazz-infused breakbeats.

Feel the summer breeze from 1pm on ☀️

Photo by at 2022 (ISSUE ELEVEN) 📷

offlicencemagazine.com