According to co-founder John Burgess, he and Paul Benney (the other founder of the magazine) intended "Jockey Slut" to just be a slogan for a T-shirt. The expression was coined while both were studying at Manchester Polytechnic University (currently Manchester Metropolitan University) and frequenting the city's clubbing scene, notably at The Haçienda. The two main inspirations for it were Manic Street Preachers' recurrent slogan "culture slut" and the increasing attention DJs were getting from fans at the time. Burgess said: "Disc jockeys were attracting as many groupies as pop stars. Except, unluckily for the DJs, their groupies were usually after one thing; the name of the label that wicked tune was on".