STACK #236 June 2024

SPECIAL STACK

Ye s! at

Roving reporters Our regular readers will know about our fun monthly interviews with JB team members from the music, movies, and games departments. We love compiling these questions as they give us – and the STACK readers – a great insight into what the JB team members are watching, playing, or listening to. The answers we receive each month reveal how deeply invested and knowledgeable these team members are in their relevant categories. If you haven’t read one yet, we recommend checking them out. You can often glean what’s hot and trending at store level in the world of entertainment!

STACK ’s history at a glance

T he very first issue of STACK was little more than a pamphlet. It was just 16 pages long, with Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai on the front. Initially proposed as a bi-monthly ‘collectable publication’ and a ‘buying guide to what’s hot on DVD’ as noted in the inaugural intro page, it featured reviews of Pulp Fiction , Die Hard , Starship Troopers , and Scarface . Two more flyer-sized issues followed; the first would promote a fresh, original Star Wars box set release on DVD. The third was themed around slasher movies and had to be requested from behind the counter. After just three issues, STACK moved to its current size, increasing from 32 pages to 64 in a little under a year. Over the following 20 years and some 236 issues, we have interviewed hundreds of prominent actors, directors, game developers, and musicians, some of which you’ll see mentioned over the following pages. When our first issue rolled off the press in 2004, The Bourne Supremacy , Spider-Man 2 , and Shrek 2 were the hot movies to own on DVD. In music, The Killers, Gwen Stefani, and Franz Ferdinand all released debut albums, while Green Day unleashed the outstanding American Idiot . Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was the best-selling game, closely followed by Halo 2, Half-Life 2, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater . The original Xbox and PlayStation 2 were the consoles of choice. And in tech, Motorola’s RAZR V3 was ruling the mobile telecommunications waves. Plasma TVs were still the rage, and 42 inches was considered the big screen size to show off in the lounge – if you could lift it onto the TV cabinet. This month is 20th STACK ’s birthday, and we’re celebrating two decades of bringing our readers the best in entertainment and tech releases every single month. We’re turning 20!

We press start on games in 2006 When JB introduced video games and consoles, STACK followed suit with coverage in the mag. Regular trips to events like E3 and the Tokyo Games Show soon followed. Let’s get digital – in 2007 STACK took its entertainment coverage online with a website launch in March 2007. We drop the needle on music in 2011 JB has long been known for music, so in November 2011, STACK began its own music section with big name interviews and reviews hitting the pages. The tech step The final piece of the STACK /JB jigsaw was the introduction of tech, which kicked off in 2019.

More magazines? Yep. Yep, it wasn’t just STACK in Australia that the team at HQ worked on. In 2009, we started STACK New Zealand, which ran for four years. We also produced a STACK Blu-ray periodical highlighting the best movies and TV on that format and a publication called Cornerstones . This one explored the essential 100 albums at JB that deserve a place in every record collection.

While technology has changed, bands have come and gone, consoles have evolved through multiple generations, and Hollywood stars have burned bright and then dulled, one thing has remained constant: STACK has continued to cover the best in home entertainment as passionately in 2024 as we did back in 2004. Thanks to you, the reader, for your ongoing support.

Name Game Once we’d formulated a

plan for what would become the magazine, we had to come up with a name. That came when someone looked at a stack of DVDs on the floor of the office: “Let’s call it STACK ”.

so a big thanks to the following (in alphabetical order): With thanks

Many people have been involved along the journey with STACK ,

Adam Colby, Alan Netherclift, Alesha Kolbe, Andre Eivik, Anthony Horan, Bec Summer, Ben Sheehan, Bill Craske, Cameron Trainor, Chris Allen, Ellie Johnson, Fleur Parker, Gary Siewert, John Ferguson, Jonathan Alley, Justin Buxton, Karl Lock, Kerrie Taylor, Linda Patterson, Lisa Di Giacomo, Mark Ankucic, Michelle Black, Mike Glynn, Rebecca Rowlands, Sachi Fernando, Sally Hull, Savannah Douglas, Simon Wells, Tilo Grieco, Tim Lambert, Todd Avery, Tracy Kingman, Zoë Radas, and to all of our freelancers. And last but by no means least, a huge thanks to the brands that have been such an important part of the 20-year journey.

3