Careless Talk Costs Lives was formed by two veterans of the music press, journalist Everett True (real name Jerry Thackray) and photographer Steve Gullick.

It was fortunate that this coincided with a popular resurgence of guitar-based music, in the wake of the success of US bands such as The White Stripes and The Strokes.

At Gullick’s insistence, the magazine used no photographs issued by PR people or record companies, ensuring that CTCL would stand out from any other publication on the shelf.

Despite limited budgets (CTCL was effectively run out of True's house in Brighton), the magazine was printed on heavy matt paper, and production quality was a priority.

From the beginning, it had been decided that Careless Talk Costs Lives would run for 12 issues, and then close, unless it had succeeded in its Quixotic attempt to destroy the rest of the music press.