Apparently no more printed versions:

[amp.theguardian.com]

sad but inevitable.

Since it was downgraded to a freebie handed out outside railway stations its been all but unreadable. You wouldn't wipe your backside with it.

Sadly it died a death many years ago. The website is mostly clickbait and celebrity gossip, and has been for a few years. And, as the chap above says, the freebie hint version was sh1te. A real shame as, in its heyday, it was the home of some great music journalism.

Used to love it in the 70's . .

I remember about 50 years ago, was 15 back then, it was the most important paper for me.
I still have a few issues of it, e.g. the one with the report about the 1969 Hyde Park Concert.
Great memories. Sad, but time goes by.

NME was a great read back in the day with many pages of news and advertisements. It was somewhat exotic for me living in America.

I could not begin to estimate the influence and effect it had on me from 16 to about 20. Essential in my life at that time. The choices I made under its influence stay with me to this day and will always.

Declan

That's sad to read, I recently gifted a collector 350 NME, Sounds, Melody Maker, Record Mirrors from 1975-1985 that I had stored away. They were great reads in the day.

They used to take 3 months to ship to New Zealand



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-03-08 03:30 by midimannz.

Age. Life and death. Many things life circled around decades ago now calls it quits. Not just human beings but also phenomena like record stores, LP:s and CD:s, audio cassettes, VHS,
video stores, magazines, newspapers, top lists on the radio, big hifi-sets and so on. One thing that becomes perfectly clear to you the day you'll start cleaning up your stores and archives.

One of my favorite interviews with KR was in NME, must have been about the time of promoting Dirty Work.

Titled An English Werewolf In London, it was brilliant , Keith was on his second bottle of Jack at the Ritz Hotel and tearing into the latest pop stars like Duran Duran , he told this story of Simon Le Bon and John Taylor coming into the Stones studio while they were working on the album, Simon and Roger had this look of disdain and then amusement as the Stones were all playing the track and recording live together at the same time.
So Simon Le Bon goes up to Keith after and says why are you all playing together at the same time, and Keith says to him "piss off you snotty little turd" .

Sorry but i just love that, Acts of that time in the 80's would record all the necessary parts separately over each other at different times. I suppose the Stones were seen as old fashioned.

Anyway does anyone have any idea as to how i can find that interview, the pictures that accompanied the controversial interview were brilliant, Keith red rimmed eyes at his wasted best, he looked like he'd been partying for days. Keith was in an evil mood throughout but very witty, i'll never forget that one. If i remember right the interviewer upset him about something and Keith says don't worry about it not many people get to me but you just did. A bit menacing lol.

Really sad, loved the mag way back when, when still in my teens

Sue in Spain

My coat is torn and frayed, it's seen much better days, but as long as the guitar plays ....

Very sad as NME and Melody Maker were rare magazines when I was growing up in a small town in New York State in the 60's, early 70's. I used to bum rides to go to a magazine stand 30 miles away which carried imports to buy them when I had money left over from buying LP's.

Sadly I expect Rolling Stone magazine, which was my source of music news in the late 60's early 70's, to eventually meet the same fate as it has been slowly wasting away the last 10 years.

In the UK back in the 1960s and 1970s, music was so important to our lives that we had several weekly papers devoted solely to it: NME, Sounds, Record Mirror, Melody Maker and Disc.
They were necessary because the BBC ignored the muic we loved, both on radio and TV. The music papers were how we found out about bands, tours and new records and so much more that mattered to us. These publications also gave writers and photographers an opportunity to flesh out the images we had of these musicians we loved and they did it every week! As and when it was taking place. I'm so glad I lived through such an exciting period where I got to enjoy those publications.
Today with the internet there's no shortage of platforms for bands to publicize their work, however in the days of clickbait passing as jounalism we've lost a great deal of substance and depth. Music has become somewhat less important and vital. I know that there are still magazines like Q and Mojo where music jounalism is hanging on in quiet desperation but their monthly schedule leads to a loss of immediacy that we had back then.

I feel so old. . .

Well put, ElGeordie. Music papers filled a mission then. Today there are other (digital) sources for that. Most music mags in stores today are nostalgia magazines.
Aimed for old timers. Like us... But I have stopped buying them. Too much nostalgia for me...

In the old times (well, the 80s...) you had to order foreign mags (like NME) if you lived in a small town (or medium size). It took some time and came at a prize. 2-3 times more expensive than face value.
Just an anecdote from the far beyond past...

[www.amazon.ca]

The NME in the 70’s was my look forward to music paper every week. This book on the paper is a really good read. I found a quality used copy at Powell’s Books (great store for music books) in Portland 2 years ago at a good price.

Invaluable for many years, but no-longer necessary. It is sad, but this was inevitable. Where as the likes of the NME, Melody Maker and Rolling Stone were only source for credible news on popular music, everything is now a tap of a touch-screen away. Rest in peace, New Musical Express.

Used to have a subscription to NME and it would thump through the letterbox on a Thursday morning in 1973 and for 5 years afterwards. I remember those album reviews introducing those amazing 70's albums...Horses ...The Clash ...I could go on. Sadly missed

Quote
wuzznbuddy
Sadly it died a death many years ago. The website is mostly clickbait and celebrity gossip, and has been for a few years. And, as the chap above says, the freebie hint version was sh1te. A real shame as, in its heyday, it was the home of some great music journalism.

You've said it all.

If anyone is getting withdrawal symptoms I can recommend the following from the finest writers to ever grace the NME:

Mick Farren
[www.amazon.co.uk]

Nick Kent
[www.amazon.co.uk]

Charles Shaar Murray
[www.amazon.co.uk]

Ian McDonald
[www.amazon.co.uk]

Quote
stone4ever
One of my favorite interviews with KR was in NME, must have been about the time of promoting Dirty Work.

Titled An English Werewolf In London, it was brilliant , Keith was on his second bottle of Jack at the Ritz Hotel and tearing into the latest pop stars like Duran Duran , he told this story of Simon Le Bon and John Taylor coming into the Stones studio while they were working on the album, Simon and Roger had this look of disdain and then amusement as the Stones were all playing the track and recording live together at the same time.
So Simon Le Bon goes up to Keith after and says why are you all playing together at the same time, and Keith says to him "piss off you snotty little turd" .

Sorry but i just love that, Acts of that time in the 80's would record all the necessary parts separately over each other at different times. I suppose the Stones were seen as old fashioned.

Anyway does anyone have any idea as to how i can find that interview, the pictures that accompanied the controversial interview were brilliant, Keith red rimmed eyes at his wasted best, he looked like he'd been partying for days. Keith was in an evil mood throughout but very witty, i'll never forget that one. If i remember right the interviewer upset him about something and Keith says don't worry about it not many people get to me but you just did. A bit menacing lol.

Here you go.







"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

Thanks for that Deltics very much appreciated.

Wow, I didn't know this one, a real great one. Thanks for sharing

This is indeed a sad, yet inevitable day.
I remember the first issue of NME I ever got, it would have been Spring 1980 when I was 11 and helping my Dad work in Manchester during the Easter holidays;
as a reward for helping him (he delivered bales of cotton around the dye houses of Manchester and West Yorks; even that sounds antiquated!) he took me to a newsagent on Oldham Rd and said he'd buy me some football stickers or something;
I saw the NME with Sting on the cover (the article was covering their then unusual tour of the East); I was a big fan of the Police and the cover was striking, Sting was holding an old sword (I still have the issue to this day)
Even tho I didn't know most of the music covered, I was hooked,
got it sporadically during the early 80s and then religiously from mid 80s to the end of the 90s when I moved to the US....
Time waits for no-one...

Just reading that NME interview with Keith again after 30+ years, it was just as i remembered it. ( i got the name of the hotel wrong it was the Savoy not the Ritz ) Only read it the once on its release but it left an impression on me.
Poor Mat Snow was caught inside a raging hurricane, Keith in a really shitty touchy mood, maybe because this was at a time when Mick refused to tour with the Stones.

Its so nice that Keith lived to grow out of that negative aggression, he seems like this constantly elated Buddha figure these days ( although i'm sure he still has his angry moments ) He's worked out his demons against all the odds with addiction etc.
Man could he drink though, just prior and throughout that two and a half hours interview sinking two bottles of JD and still being incredibly articulate.The mind boggles.

Gonna miss NME, what a music paper, brilliant, turned me on to so many bands over the years.

Many thanks Deltics.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-03-09 12:20 by stone4ever.

Great interview... Most Highest Thanks Deltics for the NME scan and never forget that Keith "Took Ry Cooder for all he was worth"

"His tuning the @#$%& lot I ripped him off" All in that interview which is 200 times better than anything I might read Mick or Keith saying today when they are out promoting X Y or Z.