jazz writing in Britain. The only other British jazz magazine in print at the time was Jazz Journal, which Wood criticised for its conservative approach: "the reverend gentlemen at Jazz Journal continue, at best, to admit only grudgingly that jazz has got beyond 1948; at worst, deny its current development." In addition, Wood noted, the British weekly magazine Melody Maker had by 1982 virtually abandoned jazz coverage. The Wire would emphasise boundary-pushing musicians; at the outset, Wood declared that free jazz and free improvisation would "be given a loud enough voice to be heard above the dissenters who are still questioning the music's validity." The magazine was named after "The Wire", a composition by American jazz saxophonist Steve Lacy, whose "musical farsightedness" the magazine hoped to emulate. Twenty years later, Lacy's composition was used as the opening track of the box set The Wire 20 Years 1982–2002. 1983–84: Acquisition by the Namara Group In 1984, Wood sold The Wire to Naim Attallah and it became part of the Namara Group. Attallah's other properties included Literary Review and Quartet Books. Wood announced the new owner, along with a switch from quarterly to monthly publishing, in the October 1984 issue. Reflecting on the early years as part of the Namara Group, Tony Herrington said: Attallah's laissez-faire attitude and the magazine's editorial freedom contrasted with the state of other UK music magazines in the 1980s. Competition among weeklies like NME, Melody Maker and Sounds heightened in the 1980s, and these publications began to prioritise circulation, advertising and commercial appeal, which resulted in editorial constraint. The Wire did not impose significant editorial demands or stylistic revisions on its writers and, as such, it became an attractive publication for freelancers who had started their careers at UK weeklies during the post-punk era. 1985–1992: Expanding beyond jazz Former NME staffer Richard Cook took over as editor in July 1985; by September, Wood's name was gone altogether from the masthead. Around this time there was a resurgence of interest in jazz among white British "hipsters"—a trend that lasted until the 1987 "Black Monday" market crash. As editor, Cook refurbished The Wire so it would seem stylish and appealing to the new wave of British jazz hipsters, but he increasingly steered the magazine toward a pluralistic, multi-genre approach. The Wire also began to develop a house style that tended toward the philosophical and cerebral, printing "articles peppered with