BOOK REVIEW: REWIND: 40 Years of X-Press Magazine by Bob Gordon

BOOK REVIEW: REWIND: 40 Years of X-Press Magazine by Bob Gordon
Vanguard Publishing
January 2026
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
95%

Looking back at my formative years, I wonder if I would have ended up the person I am today without X-Press Magazine, Perth, Western Australia’s flagship street press.

The free magazine was launched in June 1985 by Joe Cipriani; my schoolmates and I were eighteen and hungry for live rock and roll music. It took about twelve seconds for X-Press to become an essential fortnightly – later weekly – addition to the planning of our social lives.

Without X-Press’s feature interviews and articles and reviews I doubt I’d have heard of many bands which quickly became favourites. Without their gig guide and adverts for upcoming tours, I would have indubitably led a far quieter (and cheaper) life.

Many years later I would join the team as a freelance writer, contributing many live and music reviews, as well as interviewing the likes of Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan, Meat Loaf, Steve Harris of Iron Maiden and many more.

But X-Press was always about far more than just rock and roll: over the years they covered fashion, movies and in later years had dedicated sections devoted to dance music and rave culture.

Former editor Bob Gordon brings inestimable experience to the task of writing the magazine’s history: he helmed the good ship X-Press during three tours of duty between 1998 and 2016, when the print edition finally stopped.

Rewind is far from an exercise in nostalgia and promises far more than just an opportunity to reminisce for those of us who were there. Gordon features many quotes from star interview subjects and cover stars; musos whose careers were boosted by the mag; a peek behind the scenes at the chaotic kerfuffle of publishing a weekly newspaper; and thoughts from many contributors and key players over the years.

Ultimately, it’s a historical journey – street press around the world, and X-Press specifically in Perth, changed people’s lives in tiny and huge ways, as I hope my introduction makes clear.

At its peak X-Press was delivering some 40,000 copies every week. That’s a LOT of people’s social lives being directly affected, and I can attest there was a purity to it that you simply don’t get on the internet nowadays.

X-Press continues online, run by Vanguard Publishing, who engaged Gordon to chronicle the magazine’s story, and no doubt this beautifully designed book will feature in pride of place on many coffee tables and bookshelves.

Available in selected bookshops and HERE

Category: Book Reviews