'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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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By Og Oggilby
VINE VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Vine Customer Review of Free Product
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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.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Paul Fillery
VINE VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Vine Customer Review of Free Product
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I confess I was never really an NME man. I first got into music in a big way in the 80's, so my staples were Smash Hits (greatest magazine ever...?) and then, when I hit the 6th form, Q. The NME was always a little too "out there" for my musical tastes; although, to be fair, at that time it was also going through one of its "leaner" spells (as outlined in this book). But this was still a fascinating read. It races through the first 10+ years - understandably so, as it's only from the late sixties that the story starts to get interesting. The golden years of the paper (late sixties to early eighties, and then the brief nineties resurgence) are then outlined in depth, with input from all the names you would want to see. And what a list of names - Charles Shaar Murray, Nick Kent, Mick Farren, Tony Parsons, Julie Burchill, Danny Baker, Danny Kelly, Mark Ellen, Paul DuNoyer, Jon Savage, Steve Sutherland, Andrew Collins, Paolo Hewitt, Stuart Maconie, Steve Lamacq, David Quantick. All brilliant, and responsible for much of the best writing on rock and pop in the last thirty years in the NME, Smash Hits, Q, Select, Mojo, etc. The interviewees are candid about fallouts, drugs, the leftist politics of the paper, industrial action, and the leaner times - and this makes for a thoroughly absorbing read. Ok, it skips briskly through Britpop and the last ten years hardly get mentioned - but then the NME is probably on its last legs as a physical magazine, thanks to the impact of the internet and the paucity of good music at the moment. So this book is as much a memorial to the good old days as a history, which makes me a little sad. I might not have often read the paper - but a world without it would be a much sadder place. If you have any interest in the music of the seventies, eighties and nineties then this is a fantastic and nostalgic read. Now, can we have a similar book written about the mighty Smash Hits please?
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Vine Customer Review of Free Product
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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
5.0 out of 5 stars
A gift for someone in hospital.
For anyone of a certain age who read the NME this is truly a perfect gift. Packed well and posted as agreed. Thank you
Published 4 months ago by P. Keelin
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Mixed History
On leaving journalism college back in the early 70s my ambition was to work for the New Musical Express. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mr. Peter Steward
5.0 out of 5 stars
How things have changed
Really illustrates how music journalism has changed so much ! Very good interesting read! This I would highly recommend folks !
Published 10 months ago by Ian Wilson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Its only rock N roll but i like it
I purchased this as a present for someone middle aged tha would remember tha 70's + rock ldols. it was a nice looking hardback book containing the history and stories behind some... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Mama Chill
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 17 months 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 22 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 on 6 Sep 2012 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 on 1 Sep 2012 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 on 12 July 2012 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 on 8 Jun 2012 by Entropy
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