THE HISTORY OF ROCK, UK

Two different English magazines wear this name:

    1) The first HISTORY OF ROCK was a British rock music magazine that operated in the early 1980s. It was owned by Orbis Publishing, a publisher that specialised in partworks, and ran to ten volumes, comprising 120 parts and 2400 pages. According to the music journalism website Rock's Backpages, the magazine "provided an encyclopaedic look at the history of contemporary music".

early 1980s, Orbis, 20 pages.
This is #61 (Bob Dylan special)
of what was presented as an encyclopedia of Rock.

    2) In 2015, the title was adopted by the publishers of UNCUT for a new magazine covering key events in rock history by year. This incarnation of THE HISTORY OF ROCK reproduces contemporary articles that originally appeared in the music publications MELODY MAKER and NME. 'A Monthly Trip Through Music's Golden Years'.

August 2015, Uncut, 1966, 'New!', 7 pages: the year 1966. 'From the archives of NME & Melody Maker'

May 2025, 1966, 'Encore!'. Seems to be a reprint of the 2015 issue. Thank you to Jürgen Wasser.

 

 

Page updated on 2026-09-09