Retiring: Alan Lewis

A find farewell to Alan Lewis, a man who quietly worked his way through many of the UK's best-beloved and now-defunct music papers.

UK Press Gazette counts them all out:

Lewis started his career as a local newspaper sub before moving to Melody Maker in 1969 from where he went on to become the founder-editor of Black Music and Kerrang!, editor of Sounds, NME, No1 and Vox.

He was also instrumental in the launch of Loaded and Uncut, the former of which he acted as editor-in-chief, and had a hand in the development of Family History Monthly.

Lewis has been editing Record Collector magazine, which he has carefully positioned away from being a magazine solely about collecting circles of plastic; as a result, there's still a title to hand on. Ian McCann - a name whiskery NME readers will recognise as an equally solid pair of hands - will take up the editor's job when Lewis retires.