WoNo Magazine 20 Years

It would have been nice to be able to write:"It was twenty years ago today", but unfortunately we do not know the exact date of publication. It is a fact that somewhere this month it was 20 years ago that Wo. (Wout de Natris) and .No (Wino Penris) released the first issue of WoNo Magazine. At the time we were colleagues at the Dutch regulator for post and telecommunication called OPTA. Management had decided that there was to be a magazine for and by employees and we had suggested to dedicate one page in the by-monthly or quarterly issue, I can't remember, to music and that we would fill it.

We not only got a negative response from the editorial board, but, as often happens, also received the messages below the one replying to our suggestion, where the board ridiculed our suggestion. "However could they think that such a topic would ever get a page in 'Optater'". Reading the response, we decided to start our own magazine, and penned the issue to the last page within days and distributed it among all our colleagues with the invitation to fill the next one themselves: "for and by our readers". Whatever happened to Optater, WoNo Magazine outlived it for many a year. It stopped after nearly 16 years late in 2016. The blog passed its ninth birthday without a sound two weeks ago.

The magazine grew and grew, colleagues brought in friends, family and former colleagues, who became members and with the passing of time the magazine reached a few hundreds of people, several of whom started writing themselves, not seldom coerced by the "evil eye" of the sometimes feared editor Wo. Fear and loathing in The Hague. Despite becoming, over time, a yearly item, the magazine got into its 16th year before the plug was pulled. By then it had outlived itself. The blog is still there. Incidentally you can still find former colleagues writing and a former colleague of a former colleague, Erwin, is a consistent contributor, while HareD or Edwin writes on every live show he goes to (hence his silence the past twelve months).

Twenty years. It is a shocking. On the one hand it shows the love for music and the fun to write personal opinions about music. On the other hand it is shocking to notice the passing of time. When we started in 2001 we were no longer young and today we certainly are not young by a long shot. What hasn't changed is the love and fascination for music. .No makes that monthly utterly intriguing radio program called 'Kairos' on Concertzender, while I, Wo., chaise every young band with guitars combined with great melodies and can still get thrilled by new music that I (am invited to) get to know.

Because of the blog I have got to know many artists personally. I, until Corona got to us all, was able to organise in-home shows for friends by artists that I started to know. It is a privilege and a thrill to be able to see music played in such an intimate setting, something our friends will certainly underscore. To get to know artists, is one of the privileges that came with the blog. One I never foresaw when I started. Yes, artists and record labels from all over the world send me music for years already and through this I have gotten to know artists that I, most likely, would never have gotten to know otherwise. This blog has enriched my life in several ways. But, the fun of listening to fantastic music and to be able to express my personal feelings, intuitions, associations and thoughts tied to that music, is the fun of running this blog. Hopefully I can continue doing this for another ?? years to come.

And the WoNo logo you see at the top? That was designed by my incredibly creative niece Tineke. It was turned into a t-shirt as well. If I remember correctly there are or were five of them in this world. This week mine was at the top of the heap. When I put it one, I noticed that the print had started to fray after 15 years or so. Decay, aarrghh! But okay, time passes.

And that first issue from February 2001, does it still exist? Not in a digital form, as all OPTA's non-essential records were deleted after the merger into ACM. There was however, at least, one physical copy that survived. We scanned it for you. Below is the link to that very first WoNo Magazine. It's in Dutch, but even for our foreign friends, it will be fun to find out what it looked like all those years ago. Among the articles is one on my favourite Spanish band Jarabe de Palo, whose singer Pau Donés died last year at the age of 54. The passing of time alright.

For all following the blog and all those who have contributed in filling the magazine for all those years, thank you! It was great fun. In our own way, let's stay forever young! Onwards to 10 years of WoNoBlog. Let's take it from there and see where it can go. Only 11.5 months to go from today.

Wo.

You find the first WoNo Magazine here:

https://www.winopenris.nl/wono/WoNo%20nr%201.pdf

 

Listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g