By Steve Newton
Thirty-six years ago today somebody at Circus Magazine sent me a rejection letter.
They could have at least signed it.
Back in the seventies I devoured Circus. It was a total fanzine, but it really covered the bands I was interested in. On any given issue you’d see capitalized band names like MOTT, HEEP, TULL, RUSH, UFO, and MONTROSE gracing the front page.
I distinctly remember getting turned on to Thin Lizzy by a rave review of Vagabonds of the Western World.
So in the summer of ’81 I sent the magazine a request to cover the music scene in Vancouver, where I’d recently relocated to from my hometown of Chilliwack to attend university.
They turned me down, but the cool thing is that in less than a year I was writing for a local paper called the Georgia Straight, and getting assigned to do cover stories on acts like PRIEST, SCORPS, MAIDEN and OZZY.
So suck it, Circus!