When I started reading the music press in the 80's Sounds was always my go to read in WHSmith aisles. It always covered more of the music I was into at that time than NME.
When I started reading the music press in the 80's Sounds was always my go to read in WHSmith aisles. It always covered more of the music I was into at that time than NME.
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
If that was the final cover, I hope it suffered terribly before it died...
My only knowledge of it was that every interview I read in the 70s with Brit musicians seemed to carry a gripe about either NME or Melody Maker. Or both.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
I think it went to press before the decision to close was made, but that's the way the covers have been since it became free - always with the horrible MUSIC FILM STYLE label on it too.
I just feel sorry for the Steely Dan fans who picked it up without their reading glasses on.
Not having that, sorry - the Pistols had played 10 gigs at the time of this review - hardly bandwagon-jumping to be lionising them within a few weeks.
You can't over-estimate just what an impact the Pistols had, & how quickly, on British cultural life. They knocked the door off its hinges, & punk lurched through in the midst of the pandemonium. It was brilliant. The music business had become stale & bloated. This was utterly exhilarating.
I think this is such a fascinating review, in hindsight. Spencer almost gets it - almost - but not quite. There's something there - but it's nothing like the epiphany that the 13 folk who were at the Manchester Free Trade Hall experienced - & who all went on to form ground-breaking bands, or set up record labels like Factory!
?
I didn't say they hadn't played 10 gigs. My bandwagon comment wasn't referring to the Pistols, but to what was to follow in their wake, when almost every band of two-chord spotty herberts were indulged without discrimination.
ETA Which isn't to say there were no good bands to come out of the British punk revolution, or that the NME turned completely to shit. There was just too much willingness to embrace everything.
Last edited by Luckie; 03-09-2018 at 04:43 PM.
^^^Honestly, I think that was the point, & that's what made that period so extraordinary - uncritically embracing whatever two chord spotty herberts were thrashing around - that's what was so transformative. If they hadn't done that, the brilliant explosion of post-punk wouldn't have happened.
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
There's a lot of flaky revisionist history going on here. Most punks read Sounds - but in respect of the wider cultural transformation that punk drove, it was as much about what was happening in suburbs & towns outside of London as it was about the metropolitan scene. Most of the real buzz was communicated by fanzines. What was really exciting was the absolute explosion of bands making music - it was gloriously democratic. Suddenly, it was like everyone was in a band. And that's what made it so transformative for young people - it felt like anything was possible, you no longer had to have access to a cultural elite to make music (or art more generally) - whether you read NME or you didn't.
To be honest, there's not much to choose between the elitist disdain of old proggers for punk & the sneering resentment of punk poseurs for prog.
There was an interesting opinion piece in today's Times (London) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-...iend-rr7zkhnzj .
It's mostly paywalled (I can cut and paste the whole thing if anyone asks), but this nugget was new to me, and might be of interest to prog fans:
Like all journalism, NME set up icons, then smashed them, then pieced them together again and fed the readers what they wanted to hear. My faith in NME never recovered from the discovery that a readers’ poll in 1976 was manipulated so that the Sex Pistols were “the brightest hope for 1977” rather than Phil Collins’s Brand X. That was the last time I ever voted. I felt I was the victim of a great rock’n’roll swindle.
I always felt that part of 70s journos hatred of prog was that they were all frustrated/aspiring musicians themselves but knew they'd never be good enough to be in a prog band. Along comes punk and it's like, "Hey, even I could do that (and it's an easier way to pick up chicks!)"
I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.
Regarding the '76 Brand X vs. Pistols controversy — Genesis won the 1977 reader's poll in Melody Maker. When asked about this accolade inspite of the newer wave of bands, Phil remarks in this Oct. '77 interview that MM has always drawn a more musical readership, whereas readers of Sounds and NME are typically younger (teenage) and therefore less developed in their listening skills.
In-depth History of Music from Around the Globe (1967–1985)
Music from the British Isles A–Z (1964–1988)
Jazz-Funk/Fusion Albums from the United States: 525+ titles, semi-annotated
TriMax Soul Albums from the United States: 950+ titles, semi-annotated
Albums from Germany: 1,150 titles, semi-annotated
Albums from France: 1,000 titles, semi-annotated
Albums from Italy: 700 titles, semi-annotated
Zolo Sound Collage
I remember Rick Wakeman and an out-of-it Nick Kent interviewed on the OGWT together; as Wakeman said later, Nick could barely sit on his chair without falling off.
Nick Kent was the one, I believe, who wrote the infamous review of Pink Floyd's Earl's Court show in 74, where he not only knocked the band's performance but also felt obliged to comment on David Gilmour's hair. Gilmour later responded by saying "I don't need good hair to play guitar!". A few years back, tehre was a documentary about the making of Wish You Were Here. At one point, the person interviewing Gilmour asks if he remembers the Nick Kent review, and Dave smiles diplomatically, and sarcastically says "Of course! How could one forget?!"
Actually, if your band's not too ugly and has been moving the girls' hips & bottoms, it's been known to work, but they'll let you know instead of you asking them.
Yup, it's amazing that Nick Kunt is still alive today (not just the dope, but he's made millions of enemies, not just amongst musicians, but readers & writers), but that showsalso the shallowness of his tastes.... Though I must say the man does have a good pen, when he's saying something intelligent (which is not often)
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
Nick Kent's collection of writings 'The Dark Stuff' and his autobiography 'Apathy for the Devil' are required reading, I'd say. The latter has an appendix called 'Soundtrack for the Seventies' in which he lists the 10 tracks or albums in each year that meant, and still mean, the most to him. I doubt many people here would take issue with many of his choices. Eg 1971 includes At the Chime of a City Clock and Led Zeppelin IV, and 1972 includes Laura Nyro and Siberian Khatru!
This what I had to say about the demise of the print NME on Facebook - sums up pretty accurately how I feel about it. Once the likes of Tony Parsons took over it was a vile rag that constantly trumpeted a nigh-on totalitarian musical agenda that many of those responsible have admitted they never actually believed in, and it bears responsibility for cultivating successive generations of smug, self-satisfied student readers who thought they were the last word in cutting-edge cool, but were really incredibly musically conservative, self-righteous arseholes. I for one won't miss it at all
"So, the print version of the NME has finally gone the way of the dodo. Good. Its idiotic, fundamentalist 'punk' agenda has done immeasurable damage to British guitar music over decades. Moreover, any miserable rag that gives a platform to the inane, narcissistic drivel of the likes of Julie Burchill deserves what eventually comes to it. Good riddance."
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