X-Press Magazine set to celebrate 40 years of publishing with bumper coffee table book and a huge party

If you’ve lived in Perth for any amount of years, you’d be familiar with street magazine, X-Press, which launched in 1985 and this year celebrates its 40th anniversary.

This particular writer is very a fait with the music/entertainment title since it was at X-Press that I got my very first writing jobs. I used to pop in a couple of times a week to write the club/social pages, ensure the news pages were filled, review the occasional album, and score my first interviews with music artists that would later feature in a couple of anthologies I have authored. So, thank you big-time X-Press for the express lane into a rock’n’roll writing career.

But to news at hand.

Since X-Press has always been at the forefront of Western Australia’s music and arts scene, the four-decade anniversary will see the release of a limited-edition coffee table book which will be revealed at a celebratory event at the Astor Theatre in March 2026. The event will feature local bands, industry legends, avid X-Press readers and supporters.

Rewind: 40 Years of X-Press Magazine is currently being written by former X-Press editor and contributor of 18 years, Bob Gordon. (Hello Bob!). Expected to be a mountain-high task, the commemorative 200-page book will be a deep dive into the X-Press archives to unearth our favourite gigs, talented artists and the stories that defined the Western Australian (and international) music and arts scene from 1985 to 2025.

It’s certainly going to be a beaut addition to the coffee table and ought to tell quite a few cheeky tales of shenanigans and good times on the ever-exciting entertainment scene.

Antonino Tati

To pre-order a copy of Rewind: 40 Years of X-Press Magazine visit xpressmag.com.au/rewind.

The book will be available in soft cover for $50, and hard cover for $75. Paper well used.

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