Between rock and a hard place

Is there room in the market for yet another rock magazine? Yes, say Crispin Parry and Danny Ford. They tell John Plunkett what their new launch Bang will have that the other titles don't

Crispin Parry and Danny Ford are a difficult pair to pin down. How old are they? "Not telling." How did they meet? "Just say we've been friends for a long time." Where did they get their inspiration? "The desert." But the self-styled Gloom Brothers ("We don't remember where the name came from") are about to be thrust into the limelight as the founding editors of the new rock-music magazine Bang.

The launch, from Future Publishing, is aimed squarely at the advertisers' holy grail of 16-to-24-year-old men who are "obsessive about the ugly thrill of great new music". It will be no easy task. The youth-music market is littered with casualties such as Emap's Select and IPC's Melody Maker; the NME – also IPC – survives on a fraction of the sales it once enjoyed. To compound matters, Bang – which is named after Lester Bangs, the legendary American rock journalist – hits the news-stands on 27 March, just months after the London radio station Xfm launched its indie monthly, X-ray.

But Future, publisher of Metal Hammer and Total Film, is convinced that there is a gap in the market between Q's mature readership and the student sensibilities of the NME. "There are so many great new bands at the moment, but there isn't a magazine exciting and good-looking enough to do them justice," says Ford. "Bang isn't just about guitar music – it's about anything with a Keith Richards attitude."

The first, 140-page issue features The Flaming Lips on the cover, a guide to New York by The Strokes, and a "dead fashion" feature about Jeff Buckley. The tone is set by the opening six pages, which carry a picture-led feature, "On the Road", which in the debut edition features The Warlocks. Who? Precisely.

The bulk of the magazine will be devoted to up-and-coming bands such as Ladytron, British Sea Power and The Darkness, rather than established acts such as Coldplay. What about Oasis? Parry shudders at the thought. Features are supplemented by 15 pages of news and about 20 of reviews, with a full page dedicated to the lead review.

Parry and Ford edited the free underground music magazine Circuit for four years until last summer. The last issue promised "pop porn for youngsters" and featured The Polyphonic Spree (Parry and Ford claim to be part-time members) and Derren Brown, of Mind Control fame, with whom the pair spent a bizarre afternoon in Los Angeles in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Circuit had its celebrity fans – David Bowie said it was "fabulous" – but its distribution was limited to about 5,000 copies. With Bang, Future is aiming for a circulation of at least 10 times that.

Can it be done? Andrew Harrison, a former editor of Select and now associate editor of another new men's mag, Word, has his doubts. "There has always been space for an alternative to the hegemony of Q, Mojo and NME, for something covering new bands and new music. That has been neglected recently, but there's a reason for that. Being into bands is a student activity, and there used to be an identifiable group of people in long overcoats who listened to The Smiths and had posters of Morrissey on their wall. Now, students are more mainstream and are more likely to read FHM. The bands are certainly out there, but are people excited enough to go out and buy a magazine about them?"

Parry and Ford, who took their idea to Future on a single sheet of A4, are reluctant to stereotype their target audience but do talk of a core of "21-to-22-year-olds... wielding guitars and making a bit of a racket". Parry argues: "Only 10 years ago, NME and Melody Maker were selling enormous numbers. They were well written and looked great. But kids today are aware that everything is being marketing toward selling things. They are turned off by hand-holding and corporate behaviour. We want to create a new rock royalty, something modern and sophisticated that kids can call their own, a badge they can be proud of."

The two men can take heart from the success of Emap's rock and nu-metal mag, Kerrang!, which has overtaken NME as the biggest music weekly and is now selling more than 80,000 copies a week.

Emap's managing director for rock, Dave Henderson, says Bang will have its work cut out. "It's going to find it really tough in terms of readers and advertising and getting access to the stars. The other area is writers. We have good people here, but the journalists who started on Q are now writing EastEnders or on Radio 2." Bang's early signings include Simon Price, who is also a rock reviewer for The Independent on Sunday, and Dan Silver from Kerrang!.

Conor McNicholas, editor of NME, says he is flattered by the competition. "Not long ago, everyone was saying, 'Rock is dead'; now, everyone wants a bit of the market. Music is brilliant at the moment. It's as exciting for 15-to-17-year-olds now as it was for me when I grew up with Madchester."

On that point, at least, Bang and NME will agree. For now, the editors of the UK's newest music magazine are off to South by Southwest, a new-music conference in Texas. "One thing," Parry adds, with a smile. "Make us look cool, won't you?"