The current financial woes of Team Rock Ltd. has shocked much of the rock and metal world with their publications (‘Metal Hammer‘, ‘Classic Rock‘ & ‘Prog‘) having long been institutions in the UK metal scene and around the world. ‘Metal Hammer‘ magazine in particular had been celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year.
If you missed the news, earlier this week it was revealed that the company has entered administration, with 73 people being let go. Essentially this is the UK version of bankruptcy, with only a skeleton crew of seven remaining on while a team of administrators make a decision to sell, liquidate or restructure the company.
A recent BBC report suggests that they are currently pursuing a sale of the company and its assets to have it continue on. However, with the majority of the staff already let go, such a sale would come with big changes.
In the wake of the news, the metal/hard rock community have banded together via a Justgiving page put up by Orange Goblin‘s Ben Ward, raising money for the staff who were let go without severance before the holidays. Avenged Sevenfold themselves are one of the outfits who have contributed to the cause, commenting on the matter:
“Heavy Metal music has been a huge part of our lives for the last 22 years or so. In the beginning the only way we were able to get news on our favorite bands was through print magazine. We would put posters on our walls and learn of all the happenings in the metal world by reading the monthly print. We would scour Tower Records (which no longer exists) for any new information we could find on our favorite bands.
One of those championing magazines was Metal Hammer. Unfortunately, the world is changing and people no longer want to pay for a real product they can hold in their hands. Metal Hammer, Classic Rock magazine and Prog Magazine will no longer exist. This may not seem like a big deal to some of you but if you have ever traveled in the UK (which has one of, if not the best metal scenes in the world) you would notice that on every magazine stand heavy metal was prominently featured by these three magazines next to all of the other print that is acceptable in the mainstream.
Now that it’s gone it pushes metal and rock even further away from the average consciousness. Some believe in keeping heavy music underground, we don’t. This music means so much to so many including us. Our music should be inclusive and losing Metal Hammer is a major blow to all of us.
We have met many great people through the years at Team Rock and we are sure they will find great jobs soon enough. For now though, we hope you can help out the people who have dedicated their lives to promoting our favorite type of music through this crowd funding site. These are good people that don’t deserve this just before Christmas. We have donated £1000 and hope you can give a little if you can find the means.
A7X”
You can contribute yourself at justgiving.com.
