In the mid-1990s, a brash new men’s magazine burst onto the British publishing scene, capturing the hedonistic spirit of the era with a potent blend of football, music, and unapologetic “laddishness”. That magazine was Loaded, and its wild rise and eventual fall is chronicled in the new BBC documentary Loaded: Lads, Mags and Mayhem.
The 90-minute film focuses on Loaded’s iconoclastic founding editor James Brown, who launched the boundary-pushing mag at age 26. “For men who should know better”, read Loaded’s famous tagline. Under Brown’s direction, the magazine revolutionized the men’s media market, reaching a peak circulation of nearly half a million with its irreverent mix of stunts, sports, and scantily clad models.
The Making of a Cultural Phenomenon
Loaded was a product of its time. Birthed in the “Cool Britannia” era of Britpop and New Labour optimism, it served as a backlash against the sensitive “new man” archetype of the late 80s and early 90s. Brown saw a gap in the market for a magazine that spoke to ordinary blokes. “The country was rotten… it was like – pick a fantasy!”, he explains in the documentary, highlighting the escapism Loaded offered.
With a skeleton staff of hungry young writers and an anything-goes attitude, Loaded quickly made a name for itself with outrageous content. Writer Martin Deeson recalls being dispatched to Cannes without a press pass, while others recount drug-fueled misadventures. “You don’t know you’re in a cultural moment when it’s happening,” Deeson marvels.
Pushing the Boundaries of Taste
Not everyone was enamored with Loaded’s bawdy sensibilities. Journalist Miranda Sawyer, an early contributor, remembers challenging Brown on the magazine’s casual sexism. But those criticisms fell on deaf ears as Loaded’s circulation climbed. When competitors like FHM and Maxim entered the lad mag fray, they escalated the arms race with even more nudity and lowest-common-denominator content.
From there, more than one of the Loaded old guard note, it was just a race to the bottom. When Nuts and Zoo launched, the race only accelerated.
The Burnout and the Breakdown
The documentary reveals the toll the hard-partying Loaded lifestyle took on its staff, especially Brown. “Drink, drugs and non-stop partying took their toll,” with Brown at one point coughing up blood on the office carpet after a bender. His erratic behavior grew worse, like the time he dosed the whole staff with LSD before an awards show.
Looking back, a softer-spoken Brown links his manic drive to unprocessed grief over his mother’s death and a chaotic childhood marred by her mental health struggles. It’s a rare glimpse of vulnerability from the former enfant terrible. Shorn of his trademark curls and speaking with the halting cadence of a man thrice his age, Brown cuts a strikingly diminished figure.
The Legacy and the Lessons
While Loaded’s star has long since faded, its DNA lives on in the DNA of men’s media. The lad mag boom it set off changed the face of publishing in the 90s and early 2000s, making celebrities out of editors and earning fortunes for publishers. But it came at a cost – to civility, to equality, and to the health of those at the eye of the storm.
In the cold light of 2024, Loaded’s story feels like a cautionary tale – about the dangers of excess, the toxicity of unchecked “lad culture”, and the collateral damage of pursuing success at any cost. Yet for all its darkness, there’s also a twisted nostalgia for an era when magazines mattered. When print was king and the antics of a few oddballs in a Soho office could capture the spirit of a generation – for better and very much for worse.
While Loaded’s star has long since faded, its DNA lives on in the DNA of men’s media. The lad mag boom it set off changed the face of publishing in the 90s and early 2000s, making celebrities out of editors and earning fortunes for publishers. But it came at a cost – to civility, to equality, and to the health of those at the eye of the storm.
In the cold light of 2024, Loaded’s story feels like a cautionary tale – about the dangers of excess, the toxicity of unchecked “lad culture”, and the collateral damage of pursuing success at any cost. Yet for all its darkness, there’s also a twisted nostalgia for an era when magazines mattered. When print was king and the antics of a few oddballs in a Soho office could capture the spirit of a generation – for better and very much for worse.
