‘Real Life’ is the debut studio album by English rock band Magazine. It was released in June 1978 by record label Virgin. The album includes the band’s debut single ‘Shot by Both Sides’ and was also preceded by the non-album single ‘Touch and Go’, a song from the album’s recording sessions. ‘Real Life’ has received critical acclaim and is considered a pioneering post-punk record. It has also been described as new wave and art rock. The album peaked at 29 in the UK Album Charts. Enduringly credible, Magazine have always been the connoisseur’s choice and frequently name-checked by some of the most gifted musicians of recent years, including Radiohead, Morrissey, Jarvis Cocker, U2, Johnny Marr and MGMT. NME.com went so far as to include Magazine in a poll as one of The Most Influential Bands Of All Time. Magazine’s front man, Howard Devoto, co-formed Buzzcocks with Pete Shelley after the pair had seen The Sex Pistols in early 1976 and promoted the now legendary Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall gigs. Devoto left in 1977, after the seminal ‘Spiral Scratch’ EP had been released, and created Magazine. Their first record was the post-punk anthem ‘Shot By Both Sides’. Leading the vanguard of post-punk, Magazine’s sound focused on the double barrels of Dave Formula’s swirling keyboards and John McGeoch’s ahead-of-its-time innovative guitar work, underpinned by Barry Adamson’s pulsing yet deviously irregular basslines. Atop of which came Howard Devoto’s lyrics. Aloof, articulate, tersely ironic and about as pliable as a garden rake. Too literary for the mass pop environment. Too poppy for the literary landscapes beyond it. Doomed to exist in that tiny, undersubscribed hinterland where artful wordplay meets the crunching riff. ‘Real Life’, ‘Secondhand Daylight’, ‘The Correct Use of Soap’ and ‘Magic, Murder and The Weather’ – four ground-breaking albums and then the band parted company, leaving behind an influential body of work to critical acclaim. A fifth studio album, ’No Thyself’, was released in 2011 following a 2009 reformation.

“Devoto, let’s just say, for the hell of it because the story has to start somewhere, with a bang, or a legendary punk gig, was the man who changed Manchester because he had an idea about what needed to happen at just the right time in just the right place.” – Paul Morley (The Observer, 2006)

“Magazine are the most criminally underrated band in the past 25 years of British pop in my view. Howard Devoto was a total pop genius” – Jeremy Vine (The Daily Telegraph, 2007)

“Saying that Devoto has a cult following is like saying that King Kong was a big hairy gorilla: it’s superfically accurate but doesn’t really convey the full scale picture.” – Charles Shaar Murray (NME, 1978)

“Mmm… not bad, for New Wave.” – Bob Harris (The Old Grey Whistle Test, 1978)

The album is repressed on red coloured vinyl for the first time in ‘Batch 1’ (‘Real Life’ ‘Secondhand Daylight’ and ‘The Correct Use Of Soap’). Each LP will feature unseen images and new notes from band members, compiled and curated by Rory Sullivan- Burke. Released later, ‘Batch 2’ consists of ‘Magic, Murder And The Weather’, ‘No Thyself’ and ‘Rays & Hail 1978-2011’.