One of the richest men in the world started out with a magazine...

Posted March 25 2015

Richard Branson (Net Worth: $4.9 billion*) started his successful career at the tender age of 16 with a magazine he aptly named; STUDENT. His school teacher had told him he would either end up in prison, or a millionaire. Branson went on to prove his teacher right! What we love about his story is that it all started with a magazine launched in January 1968...

   

Wow, wow, wow! David Hamilton cover photography (top left) and Don McCullin (top right). Branson was very much on the ball and STUDENT featured content from lesbianism, censorship in British film to the Nigerian civil war. He also interviewed people like David Hockney, Mick Jagger, Venessa Redgrave, Alan Aldridge and John Peel. What a legend!

An Interview with John Lennon. Illustration by Alan Aldridge.

An Interview with John Lennon. Illustration by Alan Aldridge. 

A fashion shoot photographed by Patrick Hunt - "Joan Ferguson and Dianne Lifton urge women everywhere to throw off their shackles together with their kaftans, and arise against the Rag Trade with a massive show of their new-found armoury"

Editorial photographed by Patrick Hunt - "Joan Ferguson and Dianne Lifton urge women everywhere to throw off their shackles together with their kaftans, and arise against the Rag Trade with a massive show of their new-found armoury: Jumble, multi-national mixups, Easy-to-make, Easy-to-wear."

Marsha Hunt - the first black model to appear on the cover of Queen magazine and Mick Jagger's then girlfriend

Marsha Hunt - the first black model to appear on the cover of Queen magazine and Mick Jagger's then girlfriend. Photography by Terence Donovan. 

 

We've just got hold of a few early issues and they're pretty damn special - what an amazing way to start out, we think! Branson was destined for success. Just 3 years after the launch of STUDENT, he opened his first Virgin record store along on Oxford Street.  

 

*At the time this blog post was published

Ref: B635 and B587