What is George's List?

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Category: Current News

Published on Saturday, 27 August 2011 12:09

Written by George Lawrence

Well, the simple answer is that it's the short text only simple little newsletter that we send out every so often - but it's not that simple.

Not so Modern Drummer was started in 1988 as a simple newsletter, hammered out on a typewriter, copied on a xerox machine and sent out through the U.S. mail. It was THE marketplace for vintage drum collectors, traders, buyers, sellers, builders, players and enthusiasts. Subscribers paid a very small fee to receive the newsletter and to place free ads in its pages. They would send in letters to the editor, John Aldridge, that were helpful hints, recommended products, criticisms, announcements of drum events, and the general brouhaha that collectors of our ilk tend to brou and haha about. It was the Ebay of its day; the watering hole, the coffee machine, the gathering place of those who are excited by old shiny round objects of percussion like so many crows drawn to jewelry. It grew over the next twenty years to become a full color legitimate magazine known round the world.

Things have changed drastically since that humble beginning. Along came the internet and Ebay and wireless internet and smart phones. The whole landscape of vintage drums and drum building looked much different in the 2000s, with millions more drummers becoming involved. Not So Modern Drummer did not keep up with this evolution of communication until recently. Yes, there was a website in the nineties, but it was little more than a bill board. Ebay alone seemed to capture the whole market in vintage drums. Bill Ludwig III bought the business from Aldridge in 2005, ran it for three years with the help of David Anfuso, and then offered to sell it to me in late 2008. At the time I was running my music store, George's Drum Shop in Akron Ohio, and playing a lot of tour gigs with Poco. I was too busy to give all my attention to Not So Modern Drummer, but I bought it anyway because I wanted to see it continue and because I had been looking for a brand name in the drumming world to own. It also fit in with my proclivity for writing and for communicating with drummers. My dad was a newspaper editor too.

The magazine needed a drastic overhaul, It needed modernizing and I knew it would take some time for me to figure out how to bring a vintage drum magazine in line with the changing communications needs of drummers. I spent two and a half years improving the quality of the print magazine, experimenting with different distribution ideas, building a new website, etc. But it wasn't until 2011 after I closed George's Drum Shop and Poco had slowed down that I started working full time on Not So Modern Drummer and get serious about changing the modus operandi.

I did a lot of research on the internet, read a lot of magazines about publishing, and talked to a lot of people in the magazine business and learned about the revolution going on in print media. The magazine and newspaper industry had turned into the "information delivery" industry almost overnight. There was a noticeable decline in the sales of news magazines and print that started around 2005. In the music retail industry the sales of drum and music magazines slowed to a crawl. I quit carrying drum magazines in my drum shop in 2007 around the same time that smart phones were really starting to become popular. People were starting to get their news online, not "on paper". But at the same time, some content rich magazines that were not based on news were actually growing and thriving. By 2011 I knew what I needed to do for Not So Modern Drummer to recapture its audience:

1. Deliver news and other time sensitive information digitally, not in the print magazine

2. Deliver the kind of high quality photography and deep, rich content that was more satisfying to see and read in print.

3. Become a newsletter once again, resuming NSMD's original purpose of serving the vintage and drum building community in a person to person manner.

This newsletter, George's List, is that newsletter. You'll notice that it is all text and does not have images. This is the influence of Bob Lefsetz, who sends out an almost daily email newsletter with his no holds barred analysis of the music industry. it's very popular. Each email has one subject and one article; that's it. Some of the text is links to relevant sites and articles but it is not a magazine, which too many newsletters try to be. I recommend you subscribe to his newsletter at Lefsetz.com . It is also the influence of the original NSMD newsletter, which was all text with a few hand drawn pictures. It was fun to read.

My part in this is listing the latest drums and gear for sale in the website classified section along with a few of my musings about drums, drumming and life in general. Any subscriber is welcome to send in emails, letters, articles, helpful hints about collecting and building, observations, news, events, births, deaths, marriages, recommendations, hangings....., whatever. It's a newsletter for the drumming community. Almost all drummers are interested in vintage, rare and used drums and many of us are interested in the building of drums. It's a big community - worldwide in fact - but the brotherhood of drumming has historically been a very close and accepting one. All it take is to say "Are you a drummer?" and you've made a new friend.

If it isn't already up you will see a subscribe box on the home page of this website. Please sign up and try my simple little newsletter.

thanks,

George Lawrence

Publisher, Editor and chief bottle washer of Not So Modern Drummer
Drummer for Poco

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