RIP NME

[Sebastian Cobb]

Even though I was too old for it at the time and didn't buy it by then (I read the 13th Note's copy) I'm nostalgic for it's last 00s gasp of relevance circa 2002-09 as an indie rock fashion pamphlet. Yeah it's remit was already horrifically narrow compared to what it had been but I thought it captured that zeitgeist pretty well, felt happening. In some ways it was a lot more honest about what their readership actually was and wanted than in the days when it aspired to something more meaningful. I also liked how the first page listed all the bands covered inside, that was a good idea the earlier versions missed out on.

I'd have been about 15 in 2002. Some of my more indie mates read it (we were mostly into hip hop and dnb by then) and I certainly listened to bands that used to be in the NME around then, but I certainly got the feeling it was far less important than what it had been prior to britpop even then.

I felt it lacked relevance then because of this fancy new internet and soulseek where you could both crowdsource opinion and try before you buy (or not).

[Jockice]

My first ever one had Bob Marley on the cover. 10th November 1979. Single of the week was Brass In Pocket by The Pretenders with a big picture of Chrissie Hynde smoking a fag on the page. Which I found quite...er...interesting.  I used to hide it under the wardrobe because it had articles on drugs in it and I was only 14, so I didn't want my mum to see I was reading such filth.

[the ouch cube]

I preferred Melody Maker, though looking back, both papers were crewed by some of the most insufferable prats imaginable. It never seemed to occur to any of them that they were just as egotistical and self-satisfied as any of those they interviewed. NME probably had the edge in letting loose the wankers of war given that it was them that gifted us Julie Burchill.

The thing is, that generation of journalists won't be affected by this at all; they've long since moved on into stinking up the broadsheet papers with their Terribly Sensible Opinions, while those at the NME currently are/were either rich interns or, I suspect, bots.

[Wet Blanket]

I used to like Johnny Cigarettes and the late Steven Wells. My NME days were the mid-to-late nineties, between the ages of roughly 13 and 17; the arse end of Britpop. They covered a lot of dance music and whatnot, too, and there was a film review page. I've gotta say, I loved it. Before YouTube and Spotify I'd follow the rise and fall of bands without ever hearing their music, as if they were characters in a comic.

I chucked it when it turned into a 'fashion mag', even though this was the point where I actually had just turned old enough to go to gigs and I did like bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and White Stripes or whoever. So if I was representative of most readers in their late teens and early 20s at that time it's no wonder they suddenly skewed younger.

Nevertheless, it's been getting some stick but it's thanks to the NME that I first became aware of people like Mark E Smith, the KLF, Mogwaii and other left-field artists.

Melody Maker was good too because it had articles about musical gear and reviewed demo tapes.

[wosl]

I never bought the thing because it always seemed to have sodding Oasis or Blur on the cover, neither of whom I could stand. At least Melody Maker would put, I dunno, 3 Colours Red on the front. They were crap too, but at least it was a change.

I've got a copy somewhere in the loft with Throwing Muses on the cover!

It's a Sounds, not an NME. 



As you were.

[Vodka Margarine]

My first issue was the Manics (as a three) on the cover. I was fourteen. Loved it at that point - Swells, Sylvia Patterson, Stephen Dalton, Cigarettes. Bought it religiously for another five years, then began growing weary of it circa 2002 when it got all 'No Name', vests-with-a-tie, Converse trainers and Top Man suits. I somehow lasted another year or so due to some kind of misguided brand loyalty but my final straw was 'The Cool List' which included Preston from the Ordinary Boys, who was dead trendy because he'd read some books, liked Morrissey and had tattoos. I've definitely said this somewhere before but I found myself in the bizarre position of being too old for the NME at the ripe old age of 21.

[Wet Blanket]

That's just what I said!

[Vodka Margarine]

Sorry, Wet Blanket. I did read your comment earlier but it's only now I've vented my own frustrations I realise the similarities. Guess there's only so much spleen that can be vented per generation.

[Vodka Margarine]

Oh god, I've only just seen your most recent one on this very page. Bloody hell.

[Wet Blanket]

Pretty much proves that the change of style must have lost them a goodly portion of their hippest readers, such as ourselves

[kidsick5000]

Reading the replies, I can't help but feel that Britpop proved to be the catalyst for the demise.
It was too much of a good thing. Too much of a drug.
In the mind of NME, it had not felt such power in a Long time. Put Oasis on the cover, sales go up. The national press get in touch because you nurtured these acts. In a way, you created Britpop, and if you did it once you can do it again, right?..

[Sebastian Cobb]

There's probably some truth to the rumours about the industry wanting to get attention back from american bands post-britpop and them throwing all that weight behind the libertines.

[itsfredtitmus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClcwKgxu2wk

[Phil_A]

My first issue was the Manics (as a three) on the cover. I was fourteen. Loved it at that point - Swells, Sylvia Patterson, Stephen Dalton, Cigarettes.

I fucking despised Johnny Cigarettes. He was only just beneath the appalling Mark Beaumont in the pantheon of absolute wankers. Even the picture in his bio made him look a total dick.

[Desirable Industrial Unit]

I feel slightly sad about this, as - particularly when I was on the dole - the NME was the highlight of my week, and sitting down to pore over the pages while slurping on a pack of 10p noodles was something approaching bliss in those parlous days.

Pretty much the same for me, and the feeling is a bit like hearing about an old school friend dying, after severing all ties with them years ago because they turned into a monumental arsehole.  Suddenly you remember the good times.

[SavageHedgehog]

I liked a lot of that 00s era landfill indie (despite me being a bit too old for it, ie as old as the bands who produced it) and reckon the main reason it's so viciously despised right now (as in the post above) is that it's from the last decade; the old last decade:'shit', 2 decades ago; 'ah, that was actually alright' process that's happened since at least the 70s. Expect a proper re appreciation of this stuff circa 2025.

The MTV Rocks compilation of American Pop-Punk Stuff from around the same time is selling well at the moment. Maybe the landfill indie revival isn't as far away as we might think and/or hope.

[Leo2112]

Not sure how but this sums up my dislike of 00s indie and the NME - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzE9YvJpsSg

[Huxleys Babkins]

My favourite NME memory was picking up a free one with Suicide Squad on the front from Top Man a couple of years back. I rolled it into a slim paper tube and started casually slapping my girlfriend's arse with it as we wandered around the shops.

Fifteen minutes later, to both of our surprise, she's soaked through to her jeans and we're off to Costa's toilets to finish her off.

Tried it again since to zero effect. RIP NME.

[Bronzy]

My favourite NME memory was picking up a free one with Suicide Squad on the front from Top Man a couple of years back. I rolled it into a slim paper tube and started casually slapping my girlfriend's arse with it as we wandered around the shops.

Fifteen minutes later, to both of our surprise, she's soaked through to her jeans and we're off to Costa's toilets to finish her off.

Tried it again since to zero effect. RIP NME.

Don't use Radio Times, she won't get wet she'll shit herself

[DrGreggles]

First they came for Sounds.
Then they came for Melody Maker.
Then everyone stopped giving a shit.
THEN they came for the NME.

[greenman]

Yeah, that's what definitely killed any interest for me - but, thinking back, it was their New Wave of New Wave nonsense that probably kickstarted my scepticism after treating what they said as gospel for so much of my adolescence.

Honestly I think it had a decent period directly post Britpop around 97-98 before it jumped on New New Wave/Strokes bandwagon. Pior to that any dalliance with the mainstream had tended to be a temporary thing for them, often undercut by pushing more leftfield options but from around 2000 onwards it seemed permanently locked into indierock aiming for the mainstream and died the same kind of diminishing returns death as said music did losing an audience after more obscure music to the net.

[Shit Good Nose]

Reading the replies, I can't help but feel that Britpop proved to be the catalyst for the demise.
It was too much of a good thing. Too much of a drug.
In the mind of NME, it had not felt such power in a Long time. Put Oasis on the cover, sales go up. The national press get in touch because you nurtured these acts. In a way, you created Britpop, and if you did it once you can do it again, right?..

Yep.  I was in the upper years of secondary school and then into 6th form when Britpop kicked off.  Being the odd kid who liked jazz, prog, 60s and 70s rock and stuff you generally couldn't tap your foot to, it was VERY noticeable to me that almost everyone else went for Britpop and started buying NME, and everything else (except, perhaps, grunge) was considered by both NME and its readers as worthless.  The last laugh has proven to be mine, of course, with magazines like The Wire, Classic Rock and its more niche sister publications doing very nicely, thank you.

As it is, I never read NME, Melody Maker or Sounds, I was more into Mojo (which was about the only decent music related published media in this country at the time - Rolling Stone was in the middle of a major downer), and occasionally bought Q when they had an article I was interested in.

[Funcrusher]

I have no idea who that is.

[Vodka Margarine]

It's Michael Head of Shack, also of The Pale Fountains in the eighties. I forgot about that issue but even when they were doing the right thing by putting someone unglamorous but talented on the cover (for a change) they had to screw it up with a completely idiotic headline.

[JoeyBananaduck]

I have no idea who that is.

One of Black Lace, I reckon. Unrecognisable when not wearing a Hawaiian shirt,

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I fucking despised Johnny Cigarettes. He was only just beneath the appalling Mark Beaumont in the pantheon of absolute wankers. Even the picture in his bio made him look a total dick.

Johnny Cigarettes ended up shagging Emma from Lush, though, so fair play to him . Not bad for someone from Hull.

[Norton Canes]

Yeah but you'd always be thinking it's not Miki.

[Wet Blanket]

To me that cover sums up the period just after Britpop when the indie music scene was so barren and dreary that Embrace had a career.

[Beagle 2]

I got it every week for six or seven years and it did pretty much shape my record collection in that era (94-2000), although it's kind of telling that I now find all the music I listened to back then completely disposable.

The first one I bought had Elton John on the cover, which seemed a bit odd right as Britpop was kicking off. It was a great interview as I recall.

Always hated Melody Maker. Tried too hard, sucked the joy out of everything. I never really cared what some writers in London hated.

It used to smell really nice. Glossy covers were when it died for me.

Days are gone.

[kngen]

Yeah but you'd always be thinking it's not Miki.

My mate shagged Miki from Lush but was too pissed to remember it.