... at least, the print edition. Fond memories of my teenage pop addiction in the 60s, when its appearance was the high spot of the week (I had somehow persuaded my father to get it delivered with his Daily Telegraph as part of my pocket money.) I even delivered it to my own house for a while when I got a paper round). It was essential to us at a time when there was almost no pop music on the radio apart from Radio Luxemburg and later the pirate stations. Glorious black and white like a tabloid newspaper. I kept back numbers, of course, and was quite upset when my mother late threw them out when I left home, along, infuriatingly, with my Beatles Monthly mags. After several years I did move on to Melody Maker which I probably thought was more appropriate for a budding intellectual.
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I used to buy it during the 70s. I still have some of those somewhere. I preferred it to the Melody Maker why I found rather stuffy.Steve -
I thought that this had happened a few years ago and that the story had been bumped up by someone on BBC news. However, I may well be confusing it with the moment it was made available for free. For the first time in ages, I looked at the website the other day. As with Q and several other publications, it embraces new pop in a way that it would never had done even when parts of it were worth embracing while continuing to feature rock and indie bands that are now middle aged or elderly. If that were not proof enough that the guitar music from the mid 1950s to the late 1990s no longer has its same place in culture, the sheer amount of emphasis on films, celebrities, information technology etc so sadly reinforces it. To paraphrase Buggles: computers, being very visual, killed the music star. Unusually, I always heard "star" in "radio star" as meaning it was radio that was the star. Now it "was" music.Last edited by Lat-Literal; 07-03-18, 19:05.Comment
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One of the highlights of the week back in the day, when information from any other source was almost non existent. Thursday mornings were something to look forward to ( did it come out on Weds in London?)
The news of new releases and tours was always the most important thing for me. Reviews were important, and a thumbs up from a trusted journo often moved an album into the " buy" category, since short of hearing a friend's copy, the best you might hear on the radio was the singles, and a couple of album tracks on John Peel .
Interviews were fine, but I don't recall them usually being too enlightening, probably all said in the music in the main.
There was some great and some terrible writing, but the NME of my teenage years produced some fine writers, and others who have had good careers. And Julie Burchill, who used to put a downer on almost every edition, with her relentlessly self absorbed negativity, sad to say.
Worst thing for me, apart from bad reviews for favourite bands, was the deeply entrenched trendiness that led to some bands getting less attention than they deserved. But for all that, it was always miles better than the competition,Sounds being too Heavy Metal orientated, and Melody Maker was just for older people, really*.
* people in their mid 20's and upwards.
Last edited by teamsaint; 07-03-18, 19:23.I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
I am not a number, I am a free man.Comment
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As with world music and classical music today, I was two thirds there but I worked hard in a rewarding way to "get" its full angle. It meant an awful lot to me because I assumed it was the real world. That turned out to be one-to-one relationships. Those are not always so reassuringly predictable from what I saw in other people. People like Ms Burchill and especially Swells seemed so extreme to me. Now those sorts of people are everywhere on television. They would be better being safely away from the spotlight. Mostly, though, they can't write.
NME's politics was probably a good thing - Half Man Half Biscuit very in; the non politically correct The Macc Lads banished to where they belonged. But just as with radio folk and record executives, they did all wield enormous power. If someone upset one of them, they were utterly condemned even if they half-met the music criteria. Jackie Leven was not proud of the culture around Doll By Doll. It was often violent. He was on serious drugs and he could be arrogant beyond the pale. But it does annoy me that his falling out with NME prevented the coverage to guarantee at least three top twenty singles. When I discovered them several decades later, I realised that I would have had them all at No 1 in the Lat-Literal pop charts.
British Rock's Lost Masterpiece:
The Thin Lizzy One
The New Order One
The Simple Minds One
But these are all approximations.....they were very much one of a kind and incredibly diverse with it. I doubt that it helped that some 6-8 years earlier, he had produced under a pseudonym what has to be among the best of the weird slightly hippyish things that none of the public has ever heard of. NME hated hippies. I think this is his earliest masterpiece:
Control
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veAGj6h874s
Last edited by Lat-Literal; 07-03-18, 20:35.Comment
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Similar here with a graduation from NME to Melody Maker which was better for Pprog and Jazz.Originally posted by gurnemanz View PostComment
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I gave NME up and shifted to 2000AD instead, which was distinctly more zarjaz.Originally posted by cloughie View Post
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By the time I was of an age to read the NME and related journals, their focus was almost exclusively on the then-emerging (and, now, all-encompassing)' Indie' genre. It was the early 80s and the musical 'scorched earth' policy with which that decade began was in full throe.
The only copy of NME (if it was NME) I ever bought was the 'Ever Feel You've Been Cheated?' one with Tony Blair on the cover.
Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill? What a horrible legacy.Comment
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'Infanticipating', the only thing I remember from the writing in the NME - no idea who coined it.Last edited by gradus; 08-03-18, 22:05.Comment
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While not quite in the Jackie Leven class (and, although JL died too young, he managed to deal with his many demons). Watching the Y/T clips reminded me of another Scottish-born singer, who, alas, didn't do so, as in:Originally posted by Lat-Literal View PostAs with world music and classical music today, I was two thirds there but I worked hard in a rewarding way to "get" its full angle. It meant an awful lot to me because I assumed it was the real world. That turned out to be one-to-one relationships. Those are not always so reassuringly predictable from what I saw in other people. People like Ms Burchill and especially Swells seemed so extreme to me. Now those sorts of people are everywhere on television. They would be better being safely away from the spotlight. Mostly, though, they can't write.
NME's politics was probably a good thing - Half Man Half Biscuit very in; the non politically correct The Macc Lads banished to where they belonged. But just as with radio folk and record executives, they did all wield enormous power. If someone upset one of them, they were utterly condemned even if they half-met the music criteria. Jackie Leven was not proud of the culture around Doll By Doll. It was often violent. He was on serious drugs and he could be arrogant beyond the pale. But it does annoy me that his falling out with NME prevented the coverage to guarantee at least three top twenty singles. When I discovered them several decades later, I realised that I would have had them all at No 1 in the Lat-Literal pop charts.
British Rock's Lost Masterpiece:
The Thin Lizzy One
The New Order One
The Simple Minds One
But these are all approximations.....they were very much one of a kind and incredibly diverse with it. I doubt that it helped that some 6-8 years earlier, he had produced under a pseudonym what has to be among the best of the weird slightly hippyish things that none of the public has ever heard of. NME hated hippies. I think this is his earliest masterpiece:
Control
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veAGj6h874s
And then I thought of poor Stuart Adamson. And reading about the demise of the NME in print form was like experiencing another part of my 15 year old self die, never to return. But that's enough gloom for one morning. Great post, as ever, Lats - really enjoyed hearing Jackie Leven again.Comment
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Thank you Highland Dougie. Yes. Both situations were very sad. Stuart Adamson's Big Country will always be remembered for their mainly upbeat singles. Billy Mackenzie was a unique talent whose problems became worse when his mother died. I will always remember Party Fears 2 as being R4's "Week Ending" theme tune. The Associates are in my CD collection as is the excellent solo disc by Mackenzie which I believe from memory was completed and released after his death. As always with these matters, it leaves me wondering a big "what if?"Originally posted by HighlandDougie View PostWhile not quite in the Jackie Leven class (and, although JL died too young, he managed to deal with his many demons). Watching the Y/T clips reminded me of another Scottish-born singer, who, alas, didn't do so, as in:
And then I thought of poor Stuart Adamson. And reading about the demise of the NME in print form was like experiencing another part of my 15 year old self die, never to return. But that's enough gloom for one morning. Great post, as ever, Lats - really enjoyed hearing Jackie Leven again.
Beyond The Sun
Last edited by Lat-Literal; 08-03-18, 18:44.Comment
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There were always two essential purchases across the 1980s - NME and Smash Hits.
I would make a show of reading the NME ostentatiously wherever I bought it, (say in Sainsburys for a larger audience) in my shiny black jeans, squinting, pouting and sagely nodding my head. I was very into Indie anyway though, so I did get a lot out of it, listened to Janice and John, bought the records (...Pete Murphy, That Petrol Emotion, Colourbox...). I recall my intense looks-and-locks-envy of Boy George on the cover at his most girlish, beautifully made-up with impossibly voluminous blue-black hair extensions. The brilliant Smash-Hits-style coverline for that was "Wiggy Pop"....
But that often collusive send-up of the chart-topper stars themselves was the essence of Smash Hits.... (Dame David Bowie "gawd bless yer, ma'am", Lord Frederick Mercury of Lucan, Mark Unpronounceablename of Big Country, Fab Macca wacky thumbs aloft etc...)...you could never get away with that now with those protective PAs in the room. There was a happy balance between the two pop-rags.
Some writers on the NME went on to other music-journalism areas. Steve Sutherland currently writes a monthly piece for HiFiNews on a classic rock/pop vinyl rerelease, not always the obvious suspects either; and does so in a very witty, anecdotal, learning-worn-lightly manner. .Last edited by jayne lee wilson; 09-03-18, 16:44.Comment
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A friend of a friend says that he kept his copies of New Musical Express next to his TV, just in front of his favourite American sitcom DVDs...He liked to keep his Friends close, but his NMEs even closer.
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[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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My friends bought Melody Maker. I bought Gramophone, for which I was ribbed ever so slightly.Comment
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