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Northeast Ohio's "Alternative Press" Rocks Our World For Thirty Years

Mike Shea and the home-made first issue of Alternative Press from 1985

by David C. Barnett

Stars of the indy rock world are coming to Northeast Ohio to help celebrate the success of Alternative Press.  Over the past thirty years, A-P has grown from a fan magazine created in a suburban Cleveland home into an internationally-read music journal. That history is highlighted, this week, with an awards show and a new exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Mike Shea says he and his high school buddies were devotees of MTV during the mid-1980s, but many of the bands they saw were never played on the radio or reviewed in local newspapers.  "I just realized there was this missing gap," he says.

So, the Aurora native and his eastside suburban friends used their high school newspaper skills to produce a music paper devoted to the emerging punk and alt-rock scene.  They called it Alternative Press and they laid out the early issues in Shea's bedroom.  A mohawked friend was fairly successful in selling ads, although issue Number One still faced some financial challenges.

"We were 20 dollars in the red on the very first issue," Shea recalls, "and so my grandmother who lived with my mom and me out in Aurora said, 'I'll buy an ad for $20.00'.  And so, I just popped it in there as 'Good Luck, from Anonymous'."

With Grandma’s ad in place, they printed a thousand copies and dropped them off at an underground music club.  Thirty years later, Alternative Press can be found on magazine racks across the country, along with an online edition.

The work desk from Mike Shea's home, plus all his production tools are now on display at the Rock Hall at a special exhibit that also features videos, and some classic AP covers.  Some musicians from those covers, including Weezer, Panic at the Disco and Rob Zombie will appear --- along with some up-and-coming bands --- at the second annual Alternative Press Music Awards in downtown Cleveland, Wednesday night.  

David C. Barnett was a senior arts & culture reporter for Ideastream Public Media. He retired in October 2022.