The original Lads Mag (Loaded)

Member Name: martyfarty69

Product:	Loaded
Date:	23/02/09 (100 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Titillating for sure, some good content

Disadvantages: A little too messy in its appearance page by page, steering into Daily Sport territory

I am an FHM man, lets get that straight right from the Beginning, I am 30 years old and don't consider myself a "lad" anymore ( sniff !!) so only occasionally do I read Loaded magazine, after reading an issue recently I felt compelled to write a review.

Loaded was founded back in 1994 by James Brown who is a former deputy editor for NME, I started reading it not long after in fact long before I became an FHM convert, mainly because around the 1994 /1995 / 1996 era i was a "Lad" and also the lad culture was in full effect back then, this combined with the rise of Britpop and "Cool Britannia" made loaded the unofficial Magazine for Britain especially as it charted such luminaries as Liam Gallagher, Oliver Reed, Vic & Bob etc.

Over time loaded's format was emulated by FHM which started out as mainly a fashion magazine much in the style of early GQ and was distributed through high class mens fashion outlets, as loaded gained prominence FHM decided to change their editorial style and go more in the direction of Loaded, but still keep its high class glossy feel which proved to be a great idea and before long FHM overtook loaded as the number one "Lads Mag" I must confess I used to buy both simultaneously but over time I found loaded to be a little too like Viz for my liking, and now it seems even more so.

Pick up an issue of Loaded and FHM right now and compare them side by side and the differences are astounding, Loaded quite frankly seems a bit too much of a mess, its pages don't seem to have any structure and just seem to be a mixture of photography and blurbs in a random order, also they seem to be steering into the soft porn direction as the issue I picked up had a couple of features with two page spreads that looked like they could be straight out of Playboy, but without the obvious edge that playboy has with its pictures.

Unfortunately the "Lad Mag" phenomenon has died down considerably and no more apparent is that than in the pages of Loaded, it still has some good content, but nowhere near the quality it had in the mid 90's.

Summary: Fallen a long way from its heyday