'The NME mattered to all those generations who grew up with music at the centre of their universe. The NME never had a truer chronicler than Pat Long.' Tony Parsons Since it was founded in 1952, the New Musical Express has played a central part in the British love affair with pop music. Snotty, confrontational, enthusiastic, sarcastic: the NME landing on the doormat every Wednesday was the high point of any music fan's week, whether they were listening to The Beatles, Bowie or Blur. The Sex Pistols sang about it, Nick Hornby claims he regrets not working for it and a whole host of household names - Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill, Nick Kent and Mick Farren, Steve Lamacq and Stuart Maconie - started their career writing for it. This authoritative history, written by former assistant editor, Pat Long, is an insider's account of the high times and low lives of the world's most famous, and most influential, music magazine. The fights, the bands, the brawls, the haircuts, the egos and much more. This is the definitive - and first - book about the infamous NME. Word count: 85,000
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"[A] riveting history." --"Philadelphia Weekly "
Pat Long is a highly fluid writer who can move a narrative along at a brisk pace. --Classic Rock
If Long s book is to be read as a eulogy to music print media s past, it couldn t be more vibrant or loving. --Record Collector
Racy, illuminating and often salutary. --Uncut best books of 2012
If Long s book is to be read as a eulogy to music print media s past, it couldn t be more vibrant or loving. --Record Collector
Pat Long is a highly fluid writer who can move a narrative along at a brisk pace. --Classic Rock
If Long s book is to be read as a eulogy to music print media s past, it couldn t be more vibrant or loving. --Record Collector
Racy, illuminating and often salutary. --Uncut best books of 2012
If Long s book is to be read as a eulogy to music print media s past, it couldn t be more vibrant or loving. --Record Collector
About the Author
Pat Long was assistant editor at NME during the 2000s. He has written about music for, among others, The Guardian, Uncut and Q. He is a features editor at The Times and lives in London.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
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Author Pat Long has done a great job of annotating the history of the New Musical Express in this highly readable, very entertaining and often very funny book. Of course, for me, being in my early fifties, the paper was in its Golden Era in the mid to late seventies, when great writers such as Nick Kent, Charles Shaar Murray, Roy Carr, Mick Farren, Ian MacDonald et al held sway. They were often more rock and roll than the acts they wrote about, and guided me to more great music than I could ever reflect in this review. I've not read the NME in about ten years, and in truth, I felt that it started going down the tubes in the early 80s, when the frankly incomprehensible likes of Ian Penman and Paul Morley were in the ascendant. However, Pat Long actualy enthuses me to perhaps pick up a copy and see how it's going. He doesn't stint in cataloguing the travails of various writers drug use, and the debilitating addictions which derailed the career of Nick Kent, for example, and led to the shock early death of Pete Erskine - a sad waste and loss of talent. There is an underlying melancholia within the story that kind of acknowledges that maybe music has had it's day, that it doesn't carry the same weight or importance as it did thirty-odd years ago, reduced to merely another entertainment option, along with 24-hour TV, computer games and the world wide web. Music was more important when there was only one national radio station, and you had to look hard to find the good stuff, and it simply meant more, a soundtrack to good and bad times, and the NME helped define those times. Long ends on an optimistic note, and confidently predicts that the paper will still be around to celebrate another sixty years. Me, I'm not so sure, but I can wholeheartedly recommend this excellent book to anyone with more than a passing interest in the history of British rock music, and how words can often inform music.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By JIM
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The History of the NME reads like a history of a large dysfunctional family. Many of the journalists had no professionalism and placed their own egos, disestablishmentarianism and serious drug abuse habits ahead of the artists they were supposed to be reporting on to live their own rock star lifestyle.
Alan Smith portrays himself as the saviour of the New Musical Express by hiring hippies and young new writers from the underground press. But then shortly after hiring Nick Kent, Alan calls him into his office to tell him that IPC had done a survey; "We found that they don't read the paper at all. They buy it to look at the photographs; the only thing they bother reading is the f***ing gossip column." (p. 68). Not surprisingly Alan Smith didn't last 2 years in the Editor's seat in the difficult position of balancing the financial needs of a commercial enterprise and the idiosyncrasies of its staff writers. His successors didn't fare much better. Some maturing enough to realize that returning to the suburbs and a supportive family in the evening sure beats partying all night with egotistical wanna be rock stars and workmates.
I purchased the book because I was interested in reading about the first 20 years of the NME during the 50's and 60's, but unfortunately I found that it is superficially covered in less than a quarter of the book. Andy Gray started out as editor of the Record Mirror prior to being hired as editor of the New Musical Express in May of 1958. He led the NME through ups and downs as editor for close to 14 years then was promoted to managing editor when new blood was needed. Yet there is no indication that Andy Gray or his family were ever interviewed for the book. Undoubtedly Andy Gray was a major contributor to the success of the NME for over a decade during the heyday of the 50's and 60's, and yet he is vilified for being middle aged with old fashioned ideas and morals.
Overall, despite the lack of balanced research and detail written for the first couple of decades of the NME, I found the book an interesting, enjoyable read.
Alan Smith portrays himself as the saviour of the New Musical Express by hiring hippies and young new writers from the underground press. But then shortly after hiring Nick Kent, Alan calls him into his office to tell him that IPC had done a survey; "We found that they don't read the paper at all. They buy it to look at the photographs; the only thing they bother reading is the f***ing gossip column." (p. 68). Not surprisingly Alan Smith didn't last 2 years in the Editor's seat in the difficult position of balancing the financial needs of a commercial enterprise and the idiosyncrasies of its staff writers. His successors didn't fare much better. Some maturing enough to realize that returning to the suburbs and a supportive family in the evening sure beats partying all night with egotistical wanna be rock stars and workmates.
I purchased the book because I was interested in reading about the first 20 years of the NME during the 50's and 60's, but unfortunately I found that it is superficially covered in less than a quarter of the book. Andy Gray started out as editor of the Record Mirror prior to being hired as editor of the New Musical Express in May of 1958. He led the NME through ups and downs as editor for close to 14 years then was promoted to managing editor when new blood was needed. Yet there is no indication that Andy Gray or his family were ever interviewed for the book. Undoubtedly Andy Gray was a major contributor to the success of the NME for over a decade during the heyday of the 50's and 60's, and yet he is vilified for being middle aged with old fashioned ideas and morals.
Overall, despite the lack of balanced research and detail written for the first couple of decades of the NME, I found the book an interesting, enjoyable read.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I suspect that the NME is a publication that many people will read but most of them will, at most, have read it for only a few years before moving on either because of change in taste or musical preference. My era for reading the NME was the late seventies when New Wave was at its peak; once the initial New Wave storm had blown itself out and interest started to wane so did my interest in the NME. When I first read the NME articles written by the likes of Charles Shaar Murray, Mick Farren and Nick Kent had seemed not only relevant but also important, but just a few years later much of the stuff churned out in the NME seemed, to my time altered taste, to be practically unreadable.
Because my acquaintance with the NME was so brief I had suspected that the vast majority of this book about its history would hold little interest for me but I was wrong; this proved to be an absorbing book that not only provides a history of the NME but it is also acts as an alternative view of the last sixty years of rock music and youth culture.
The NME has always been a home to some of the most gifted and outspoken names in rock journalism and I found it particularly interesting to read how some of them allowed their egos to outstrip their talent and how others embraced the rock `n' roll lifestyle a little too much, becoming hopelessly addicted to booze and hard drugs.
Whilst I feel that the book could have been improved by a more inventive use of photo's this is still a publication that is well worth seeking out.
Because my acquaintance with the NME was so brief I had suspected that the vast majority of this book about its history would hold little interest for me but I was wrong; this proved to be an absorbing book that not only provides a history of the NME but it is also acts as an alternative view of the last sixty years of rock music and youth culture.
The NME has always been a home to some of the most gifted and outspoken names in rock journalism and I found it particularly interesting to read how some of them allowed their egos to outstrip their talent and how others embraced the rock `n' roll lifestyle a little too much, becoming hopelessly addicted to booze and hard drugs.
Whilst I feel that the book could have been improved by a more inventive use of photo's this is still a publication that is well worth seeking out.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Engrossing - BUT NOT LONG ENOUGH
What a fantastic account of British music's most significant weekly publication. Its all here, the innocent period, then the drugs [ and there appeared to be a lot more heroin... Read more
Published 29 days ago by Paul M
3.0 out of 5 stars
Better than a Crass B-side not as good as a Costello best of
Really looked forward to this as I was a huge fan of the paper for many years, worked better not surprisingly while detailing the personalitys and anecdotes from the papers... Read more
Published 6 months ago by uncle wald
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating history
A confession: I'm not a regular reader of the NME, nor have I ever been one. I'd occasionally buy a copy if the cover caught my eye, but I've maybe bought a dozen or so issues... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Peter Lee
1.0 out of 5 stars
Chapter missing
Where's the chapter on their hatred of Feeder for reasons unknown to man? I think I've found it here:
After passing the NME entry exam by answering `yes' to the test's... Read more
After passing the NME entry exam by answering `yes' to the test's... Read more
Published 8 months ago by spaceagehero
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not essential but very enjoyable.
I ordered this off Amazon Vine as a curiosity. To be honest, the NME and I have never really crossed. Read more
Published 10 months ago by A. Taylor
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Joy to read
Pat Long has put together an absolute brilliant book. Each chapter is fantastically written and captures the music,drugs, fashion, people and politics at that time. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Entropy
4.0 out of 5 stars
New Musical Biography
If you remember the NME and its place in your life as you grew up, then you'll probably really enjoy reading this insight on the magazine. Read more
Published 13 months ago by TheRedBlueBlur
4.0 out of 5 stars
This IS the book about this countrys greatest music mag...
This IS the book about this countrys greatest music mag...great read for anyone who has ever read The NME, as ive have done since i was 14. Read more
Published 13 months ago by A. Kennedy
5.0 out of 5 stars
NME of the state?
With a keen interest in music journalism, and having read the NME on a regular basis during my teenage years, I found this book not only a fascinating insight into the inner... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Flickering Ember
4.0 out of 5 stars
The History of the NME
For those with an interest in the history of music it is no surprise to learn that NME has roots in the accordian and that the Accordian Times merged with Musical Express in 1946... Read more
Published 13 months ago by S Riaz
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