Loaded with controversy! '90s lads' mag announces a comeback after sparking uproar in 21 years in print - from spreads so racy it was moved to the top shelf to apologising to Heinz over 'spaghetti swastikas' story
- Loaded is launching a new digital platform - nine years after it went out of print
- READ MORE: Loaded is BACK... and so is Liz! Iconic lads' mag gears up for a digital comeback featuring original cover star Elizabeth Hurley, now 58
Loaded magazine, one of the most popular '90s 'lads' mags', has announced it's set to make a comeback in digital form.
After launching in May 1994, the last physical copy of the controversial magazine - known for its scantily clad female celebrity cover stars and non-PC humour - was published in April 2015; a brief version online quickly fizzled out.
At its 90s and Noughties height, the magazine, which had the strap line 'for men who should know better', was one of Britain's biggest and bestselling publications, rivalled by FHM and copycat magazines Later, Maxim, Nuts and Zoo.
Its journalists bagged the biggest industry awards, and it was lauded for its fashion pages - although it also garnered plenty of criticism for its unapologetic 'laddism'.
Columnists were high profile with Jack Dee, Peter Crouch and Irvine Welsh among those writing for the magazine.
Alex Best poses in a gold bikini for the February 2004 edition of Loaded magazine
Now, Loaded will mark 30 years since it was first published with 'a digital rebellion' via the website loadedworld.com.
The social, environmental and political landscape may have vastly changed - and its original readership are now nudging 50 or over - but the newly launched outlet claims it'll be a space for 'straight talk, epic experiences, and a community that aims to celebrate who men really are.'
It'll have to go some way to make a mark as memorable - often for the wrong reasons - as its first incarnation.
Here, MailOnline looks back at some of the controversies that Loaded sparked in its first 21 years of being published...
THE 'WE LOVE BOOBS' SPECIAL - FEATURING 200 NIPPLES - THAT SAW LADS MAGS MOVED TO SIT WITH PORNOGRAPHIC MAGAZINES ON THE TOP SHELF
Lucy Pinder and Michelle Marsh during Loaded Magazine 10th Anniversary Celebration in London
Liz Hurley originally featured as Loaded cover girl when the print edition of the magazine launched across the United Kingdom in 1994
Model Sophie Anderton attends a party she is hosting to celebrate her making the cover of Loaded Magazine's September 'summer nude' edition on August 10, 2004 in London
Former Loaded editor Martin Daubney revealed in 2012 how he and colleagues had plotted in 2004 a 'We love boobs' special after realising that rival magazine Maxim had featured more bare nipples than them in a previous issue.
The ensuing issue, which featured the late footballer George Best’s wife, Alex, as the cover star, proved a sales hit... but Daubney reflected later that such issues 'had turned a generation on to porn'.
By 2006, 12 years after its first issue was published, there was so much female nudity in Loaded that it was deemed not suitable for the lower shelves of magazine racks, where children might see them.
A voluntary code of practice drawn up by the Periodical Publishers Associations (PPA) and the Home Office that year recommended retailers display lads mags well above children's eye level and away from children's titles or comics.
That meant Loaded ended up being placed amongst pornographic magazines until its closure in 2015.
THE MAGAZINE'S OWN PUBLISHER WORRIED ABOUT 'STAFF'S DRUGS'
The magazine's (pictured) strap line 'for men who should know better', mirrored the editorial team's 'sex, booze and drug-fuelled lives', according to The Guardian
The magazine's strap line 'for men who should know better', mirrored the editorial team's 'sex, booze and drug-fuelled lives', according to The Guardian.
Loaded founder James Brown even revealed in his 2022 book Animal House: Music, Magazines and Mayhem how the publisher at IPC became concerned the drug squad would turn up at any moment due to the amount of references to narcotics in the magazine's pages.
He recalled how he was told by management to tell the team that any staff members who had drugs in the office should return from the pub and remove them. Every single person stood up, according to Brown.
He wrote: 'It was an "I’m Spartacus" moment. The look on the publisher’s face was priceless.'
CLAIMING HEINZ MADE ALPHABETTI SPAGHETTI SWASTIKAS IN GERMANY
In the summer of 2008, with sales tumbling below 100,000 a month, the magazine was forced to apologise to food giant Heinz after it published a story claiming that the brand had produced a swastika version of Alphabetti Spaghetti - small canned pasta shapes in tomato sauce - into the German market.
The next edition of the magazine carried the following apology: 'In the May 2008 edition of Loaded, we published an article on page 32 called 'Pointless But True' in which we alleged that between 1937 and 1945, Heinz produced a version of Alphabetti Spaghetti especially for the German market that consisted solely of tiny pasta shaped as swastikas.'
The apology went on to clarify that 'Heinz has never produced swastika-shaped spaghetti nor did it support the Nazi regime in any other way.'
Loaded said the article had been 'false and irresponsible' and accepted that 'Heinz was a major contributor to the Allies' war efforts'.
SUPERMARKET REFUSED TO STOCK MAGAZINE WITHOUT 'MODESTY COVER'
At times during its 21-year life, Loaded ran into controversy by attracting criticism over the number of scantily-clad women it included in each edition
The Co-op covering up 'lads' magazines. In 2013, the Co-op declared war on lads' mags and said publications which featured near-naked models on their covers would not be sold by the supermarket chain unless they were packed in protective ‘modesty covers’
At times during its 21-year life, Loaded ran into controversy by attracting criticism over the number of scantily-clad women it included in each edition.
In 2013, the Co-op declared war on lads' mags and said publications which featured near-naked models on their covers would not be sold by the supermarket chain unless they were packed in protective ‘modesty covers’.
The move came after parents complained they had to cover their children’s eyes as they walked past the near-pornographic covers in the magazine aisle.
Co-op gave an ultimatum to so-called lads’ mags, such as Zoo, Nuts, Loaded and Front, saying they needed to deliver them in pre-sealed bags or face having them removed from its outlets.
Following the Co-op's announcement, Tesco said it would sell lads’ magazines only to over-18s.
The supermarket said it had struck a 'modesty deal' regarding the front covers of the magazines.
LOADED EDITOR ORGANISED A 'STRAIGHT PRIDE' MARCH
When editor of Loaded, Martin Daubney launched a controversial 'Straight Pride' march in London in 2007
Abigail Clancy and then Loaded Magazine editor Martin Daubney attend The Loaded Laftas Comedy Awards 2006, at Sketch on October 4, 2006 in London, England
When editor of Loaded, Martin Daubney launched a controversial 'Straight Pride' march in London in 2007.
Daubney, who was deputy leader of Laurence Fox’s Reclaim party from 2021 until August 2022, said the march protested against heterosexuality being 'undermined and unfashionable', according to the Press Gazette.
The editor insisted to FrictionTV that the demonstration wasn't 'anti-gay' and that it celebrated 'our right to be heterosexual'.