James McMahon – Kerrang! Editor from 2011 to 2017 – has died aged 44 from comfortable tissue sarcoma.
James picked up the mantle of Editor on the journal’s thirtieth anniversary in 2011, and would oversee a altering interval in Kerrang!’s historical past and that of the choice scene on the whole, championing a brand new wave of bands like Convey Me The Horizon, Black Veil Brides and BABYMETAL. He was additionally answerable for certainly one of Okay!’s highest-selling points, that includes then-Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn on the duvet alongside Architects’ Sam Carter and Creeper’s Will Gould.
James joined Kerrang! after a spell at GamesMaster journal. Previous to that, he had been a long-serving staffer at NME, serving as their options editor.
James’ editorial imaginative and prescient was a vibrant one. His period of Kerrang! is marked by a choice for larger-than-life photoshoots and issues leaping loudly off the web page. Eager to intersect into all corners of rock followers’ lives, he was additionally eager to usher in the worlds of soccer (the bottom Sunday leagues of which he would insist had been the Ramones of sport), video video games and, particularly, wrestling into the magazine. At one Kerrang! Awards, his love of horror films led to the night taking over a zombie theme, together with a zombie march via the gathered visitors.
After leaving Kerrang! in 2017, James continued writing for music retailers and newspapers, in addition to beginning the James McMahon Music Podcast.
