The French film The Magnet (Comme un Aimant) by Kamel Saleh and Akhenaton depicts the aimless life of some disenfranchised young men in Marseille. This soundtrack could easily offer a compilation of hip hop chartbusters, but the creators didn't sell out. Akhenaton, from the French rap group IAM, and soundscore composer Bruno Coulais teamed to create some soul strong, tragically tinged, original music using French rappers and top American soul and R&B artists such as "Issac Hayes," Millie Jackson, The Dells, Marlena Shaw, and Dennis Edwards, lead singer for many years of The Temptations. Akhenaton's French rap labelmates Shurik'n, Bruizza, and Tony & Paco represent the Marseilles scene. Bruizza's deep voice on the tongue twisting "S" (all words begin with S) is an amazing vocal accomplishment, but with no printed lyrics nor translations (a significant flaw, since the music is in two languages) the meaning lisps away. The funkiest rap track is "Prime Example," performed by New York rapper Talib Kweli. Here Kweli sings as a rapper, tired of being idolized. His vocal parries against the string and trumpet syncopations makes for intriguing listening, even if you don't like rap. The bulk of the songs veer toward soul/R&B/gospel, and Coulais provides strong melodic lines against taunt rhythms and intriguing orchestral/brass treatments. The backup singers, Hearts of Soul, offer a unifying strength, stepping into the spotlight on "What's Your Answer," a riveting gospel rallier sung by Marlena Shaw. The songs here wrestle openly, pitting life's troubles against redemption, meaning, or salvation. Jackson and Shaw, with five tunes between them, keep valiantly close to the heart; and the male vocalists are not stereotyped into ganstas. Soul legend Issac Hayes offers the poignant "Is It Really Home?" portraying a man who returns to his turf to find nothing familiar, while Gerald Alston agonizes sweetly about his adulterous love affair in "Sugar." Dennis Edwards ends the album with the upbeat "Riding in My Car," the vehicle of escape from a hard life. According to one reviewer who caught the film at Cannes, the movie characters don't have the depth of the soundtrack. "Lock your car doors," she advises. To which I add, keep this album with you at all times. ~ Carol Wright, All Music Guide
The Magnet was a United Kingdom weekly boys' story paper published by Amalgamated Press. It ran from 1908 to 1940, publishing a total of 1683 issues. Each issue contained a long school story about the boys of Greyfriars School written under the pen-name of Frank Richards. The vast majority of the stories were written by author Charles Hamilton, although substitute writers were sometimes used; The most famous Greyfriars character was Billy Bunter, of the Remove. Most issues of The Magnet also included a shorter serial story (a variety of detective, scouting, and adventure yarns were featured), and many issues also included a newspaper ostensibly produced by the characters themselves and called the Greyfriars Herald; these parts of the paper were not written by Charles Hamilton.
It was created by the editor Percy Griffiths, building on the success of The Gem . The early years saw the creation of nearly all of the characters who would populate Greyfriars for the remainder of its history.
Blue and White era - 1915-1922
The cover changed from salmon pink to blue and white, purely as a result of the unavailability of red dye due to the war. This era saw a profusion of stories written by authors other than Hamilton, one of which was the editor JN Pentelow, the only substitute writer whose work was given preference over that of Hamilton. Paper shortages reduced the size of the stories.
Blue and Orange era – 1922-1937
Blue and Orange covers were introduced and a growing proportion of stories was written by Hamilton as he came to see the Magnet as the main focus of his attention. The idea of a series of several linked stories appearing in consecutive issues started to dominate and become the key ingredient if this period, allowing increased complexity of plotting and stimulating finer writing. Most of the best remembered stories appeared in this period, including the Courtfield Cracksman, Methuselah, Lancaster and Brander rebellion series, as well as several ambitious travel series to places such as India, China, South Seas, Egypt and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Salmon Pink era – 1937-1940
The use of long serials continued, albeit often recycling the plots of earlier years. The covers changed to salmon pink for the last four years. A decline in circulation coupled with paper shortages meant that the Magnet could not survive the Second World War. The final issue was the opening story in a new series; at least four other issues are known to have been already completed, but these were never published, and are now presumed lost.
Post closure
After 1940, the stories continued to appear in book form until Hamilton's death in 1961 and in a television series that ran from 1951 - 1961 on the BBC.
Most of the Magnets were reprinted in hardback form under the Howard Baker and Greyfriars Book Club imprints from 1969 to 1990.
Editors
Percy Griffiths - 1908-1911. Nicknamed 'Pushful Percy' owing to his dynamic character. He left Amalgamated Press suddenly in 1911 and nothing is known of his subsequent history.
Herbert Allen Hinton - 1911-1916. A military man who left to take up a commission.
John Nix Pentelow 1916-1919 - A cricket authority and writer who took over when many of the editorial staff were occupied with the war. He contributed many stories himself owing the shortage in supply from Charles Hamilton on other writers. His writing is remembered for one story when an established character, Courtney of the Sixth Form, was killed off.
Charles Maurice Down - 1919-1940. A public schoolboy, conceived the idea of the very popular Holiday Annual.
Illustrators
A large part of the appeal of The Magnet lay on the illustration of which there would typically be five per issue as well as the cover.
Hutton Mitchell - 1908. Produced the original drawings of Billy Bunter.
Arthur H. Clarke - 1908-1911.
C.H. Chapman - 1911-1940. First gave Bunter check trousers. Carried on illustrating Greyfriars stories after the Magnet closed.
Leonard Shields - 1926-1940. Often produced covers.
References
Beal, George (Editor) (1977). The Magnet Companion. London: Howard Baker.
Cadogan, Mary (1988). Frank Richards - The Chap Behind The Chums. Middlesex: Viking.
Fayne, Eric & Jenkins, Roger (1972). A History of The Magnet and The Gem. Kent: Museum Press.
Hamilton Wright, Una & McCall, Peter (2006). The Far Side of Billy Bunter: the Biography of Charles Hamilton. London: Friars Library.
Lofts, W.O. & Adley, D.J. (1975). The World of Frank Richards. London: Howard Baker.
McCall, Peter (1982). The Greyfriars Guide. London: Howard Baker.
