Ross Allen

Founder/Editor In Chief

Music has been a constant presence in Ross’ life since a very early age, be it rifling through his father’s record collection or listening to his own 7” vinyl, gathered each week from a supply of white labels and ex-radio station stock that somehow found its way to the local paper shop! The influence of his father’s collection and that of his elder brother helped to form an early identity with the alternative side of the indie music scene in the late 80s/ early 90s, bands such as The Wonder Stuff, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Half Man Half Biscuit, Manic Street Preachers, Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine and The Cure were the staple diet of his High School years. It wasn’t until his college days that the influence of metal was to rear up its ugly head... Bands like Nirvana, Alice In Chains and Faith No More had already planted themselves firmly within his collection but it wasn’t until a friend played him two cassettes in 1991 that the gates to hell’s record collection were finally opened! Those two cassettes were Megadeth - “Rust In Peace” and Anthrax - “Persistence of Time”, this was swiftly followed by seeing Megadeth and Pantera live at the NIA in Birmingham on the “Countdown To Extinction” tour, from that moment on he was hooked...

Throughout his school years and for a long time afterwards Ross tried his hand at becoming a rockstar himself, playing guitar in bands such as Kin, SuMp and Products Of The Fall, with varying degrees of success. Alas, pressures of university and then work put paid to that dream and dropped music down in his list of life’s priorities. For almost a decade music was on the back seat, it was still there in his life but not up front where it should have been. Then, out of the blue a ticket for Download 2009 arrived, courtesy of his sister, and the spark was re-ignited, well it was more of an explosion than a re-ignition! Music was now back at Number 1!

Ross immediately began to write about Download and other shows he attended on his personal blog, where his writing style caught the eye of the Music Editor at OneMetal, Mark Wrigley. For 12 months Ross happily wrote for both OneMetal and his own blog until the itch to take it to the next stage was too great. Using his schooling and acquired skills, and those of a dear friend, ThisIsNotAScene was born... That brings us to today where ThisIsNotAScene has a team of over 40 writers spanning the four corners of the globe.