The Pipeline Instrumental Review, also known as Pipeline Magazine, is a British periodical magazine that focuses on instrumental rock music which was most popular in the 1950s and 1960s with bands and performers such as The Shadows, Duane Eddy, The Ventures, and The Spotnicks among many others. The title of the magazine comes from the 1963 surf rock instrumental hit, "Pipeline" by The Chantays. Although electric guitar instrumental music is the main focus of the magazine, it also publishes articles on other rock, R&B, jazz and country instrumental music from the 1950s to the present.
The Pipeline Instrumental Review was started by editors Alan Taylor and Dave Burke in 1989 after the discontinuation of several other magazines that covered the instrumental rock music scene and served as a replacement for fans of the genre.
The Pipeline Instrumental Review has been published quarterly since 1989 and edited by Alan Taylor and Dave Burke. It reviews the latest instrumental releases and others related to the genre. The magazine also features interviews with musicians and performers such as with Hank Marvin when he was on tour in 1997 for example. The first issue of the magazine featured a review of the latest compilation album by The Surfaris. The Tornados were featured in 1996 who were described by the magazine as "the only UK instrumental group to provide a serious chart challenge to The Shadows". The Lively Ones, whose music was featured in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction, were also interviewed in 1997 and their discography was showcased, which was a regular part of Pipelines features of the bands they interviewed. The story of The Packabeats was featured in 1997 who provided the theme tune to the 1962 film, The Traitors. Bert Weedon was interviewed for issue 42 in 1999.
Although the initial print run of the magazine was only 200 copies, it soon sold out and had to be reprinted. The magazine soon became more popular and the print run was more than one thousand copies per issue with subscribers world-wide. As well as being subscription based, the magazine was also available at retail in places such as Midnight Records on East 23rd Street in Manhattan.
The Ventures, who having sold over 100 million, are the biggest selling instrumental band of all time, were given extensive coverage by Pipeline magazine from 1990 to 2009. Joe Moretti was interviewed by Pipeline magazine in 2002 and he gave details about the recording of the number 1 hit "Shakin' All Over" on which he played guitar for the band Johnny Kidd & the Pirates in 1960. In 1999, Canadian newspaper The Georgia Straight reported how unusual it was that Canadian band The Falcons beat the genre's two biggest bands, The Ventures and The Shadows, to win the Pipeline magazine award for best album of the year in 1998. Several publications have cited Pipeline magazine as a source for a 1960 instrumental tune being named after the M1 motorway. Pipeline magazine has also been quoted as giving extensive coverage to Nero & the Gladiators such as how band leader Mike O'Neill went into the music business to avoid doing national service and how a tour lasting seven months in Italy gave him the experience of being a touring musician as well as being a recording artist and potentially being a popstar.
Each year from 1993 to 2014 the magazine held the Pipeline Instrumental Rock Convention at venues in London and Hertfordshire. From 1995 onward the Conventions were filmed by Intec Services and made available commercially on VHS but from 2006 all, including from 1995 onward, were made available in superior quality on DVD. Sometimes the Duane Eddy Convention would take place on the same day and at the same venue as the Pipeline Instrumental Rock Convention.