re cost-cutting, didn't someone* upthread (or on another thread?) say something abt a fairly good nme website and comments ecology being devoloped in the late 90s and then more or less abandoned, at least in terms of maintenance or further development or even tweaking? -- which definitely suggests significant cost-cutting (as does the closure of MM of course)
*michael jones? koogs? sorry guys i'm usually quite good at telling you apart (applies double if it was someone else)
re publishers/brand-managers etc -- matt is right here of course, i'm half-projecting from my own (much much earlier) time at nme when the publisher was also more or less the brand-manager, and very much not a former writer or editor (at least not a music-press editor)
― mark s, Monday, 7 September 2020 14:36 (four years ago) link
That happened right across the board after the dotcom bubble and might be a separate issue to the question of print budgets, or it might just be a case of sinking all boats. Pre-2000 NME had maybe twice as many words in it than the later version.
― Matt DC, Monday, 7 September 2020 14:50 (four years ago) link
Also fwiw the NME message board was seriously terrible in ways the people running it probably couldn't control. Like it would be a thread entitled 'BEST BAND EVER' and you'd click through the first post would go 'STONE ROSES' and there'd be a loads of 'yes mate' type responses and then maybe a 'fuck off, Manic Street Preachers' and then there'd be a half arsed fight. There's only so much you can do when your readers are right there in large numbers telling you what they are (also why Pitchfork's best move was to allow no comments or community engagement ever).
― Matt DC, Monday, 7 September 2020 15:02 (four years ago) link
Best Band Ever. Official Poll
― mise róna (seandalai), Monday, 7 September 2020 23:31 (four years ago) link
Faux Starp
― Mark G, Monday, 7 September 2020 23:34 (four years ago) link
Tell me more about the GYBE! cover feature at NME and why it was disastrous.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 8 September 2020 02:23 (four years ago) link
i'd like to hear about that, too
― alpine static, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 07:26 (four years ago) link
https://www.brainwashed.com/godspeed/deadmetheney/images/nme/nme1.jpg
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 07:47 (four years ago) link
it was a about a band that (almost) no-one listens to, with no singer, one blurry photo and a couple of short quotes. so no-one really cared
haha just noticed the same issue attempted to stoke the "fight" between Mogwai (see gybe, above) and Blur which was Blur and their fans and whatever NME readship was left not giving a shit and Mogwai getting a good run on merch
― オニモ (onimo), Tuesday, 8 September 2020 13:54 (four years ago) link
I believe at the time it was the lowest-selling issue ever? Also wow they were really going hard on post-rock at that point, the implied 'well if GYBE's not your thing here's some Mogwai!'
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 13:58 (four years ago) link
At that point NME was reviewing quite a range of stuff, from chart pop to post-rock (that's my memory of it). I started posting on ILM two years after that issue and it didn't seem like a massive leap.
I also remember reading angry letters, some of which I thought were made up but maybe not, given our Landfill future.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 14:08 (four years ago) link
NME cover connections
https://sites.create-cdn.net/siteimages/5/5/8/55872/69/7/2/6972232/246x317.jpg
― nashwan, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 15:46 (four years ago) link
Cover connections continuedhttp://lucyobrien.co.uk/content/5-journalism/youth-suicide-nme.jpg
― Piedie Gimbel, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 16:08 (four years ago) link
not quite but
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/8CsAAOSwwiVfEtYY/s-l400.jpg
― オニモ (onimo), Tuesday, 8 September 2020 16:14 (four years ago) link
I did like the long blondes
― Quit It And Hit It Sideways (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 8 September 2020 17:37 (four years ago) link
occasional poster Raw Patrick is married to one of them, iirc, yes
― imago, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 17:46 (four years ago) link
The only Google hits for the phrase "radar in a bikini" are that 1986 NME cover and an excerpt from a 2015 romance novel:
"And we couldn't do that from the Bahamas?" She stroked his neck, letting her thumbs play lightly along the edge of his jaw. "Just picture it. Under the radar...in a bikini."
Wonder what the NME thing was about.
― anatol_merklich, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 19:59 (four years ago) link
Not married but we do have a joint mortgage, a dog and chickens so that's near enough.
I met Kevin P in NY once and discussed obscure Slampt act the Kid Lemon.
― Animal Bitrate (Raw Patrick), Wednesday, 9 September 2020 09:04 (four years ago) link
radar was the name the nme's media section (films, tv, comics etc) -- i think there was a special (written by edwin pouncey aka savage pencil) on trashy bikini-beach type movies? blast-off girls and so on? "radar in a bikini" is very much the kind of title they wd have used to trail that
i mean there WAS a special on this, i just don't remember if it was in this issue -- i do remember that the editor of the section misplaced (and possibly completely lost) all of pouncey's precious visual material, posters and stills and such and spent days tidying up his corner of the office in the hopes of turning them up
― mark s, Wednesday, 9 September 2020 09:49 (four years ago) link
Radar in a Bikini would be a great band name.
― Dan Worsley, Wednesday, 9 September 2020 09:55 (four years ago) link
i had the youth suicide cover up on my bedroom wall
lol
― A Short Film About Scampoes (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 9 September 2020 09:58 (four years ago) link
in fact there was a run of 4 "issues" issues of the NME that it belonged to, me and my friend rechristened our semi-hypothetical musical project BLACK YOUTH SEX SUICIDE to mark the occasion
― A Short Film About Scampoes (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 9 September 2020 10:00 (four years ago) link
i'd forgotten most of this until i saw that cover, including what year these things happened
― A Short Film About Scampoes (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 9 September 2020 10:01 (four years ago) link
I remember the reviews section featured headshots of each of 'The Critics' in the late 90s/early 00s which was very comical
― PaulTMA, Wednesday, 9 September 2020 11:56 (four years ago) link
I like the Long Blondes too, pass it on!
― kinder, Wednesday, 9 September 2020 12:09 (four years ago) link
lol i forgot how hard critics hyped those first couple gybe! albums at the time. it would’ve worked if gybe! weren’t fucking awful.
― Mr. Snrub, Wednesday, 9 September 2020 16:33 (four years ago) link
radar was the name the nme's media section
ah right that rings a bell, thanks!
― anatol_merklich, Wednesday, 9 September 2020 21:28 (four years ago) link
Randomly thought of this momentous thread yesterday and it turns out it's ten years old :/
― hiroyoshi tins in (Sgt. Biscuits), Wednesday, 17 February 2021 13:31 (three years ago) link
Big thanks to kitchen person in this thread for putting me on to The Radio Dept. - have been thoroughly enjoying their output since last September.
Noodle Vague's run-down of the CONTENDERS from 2011 belongs in some sort of ILM Hall of Fame. It really is staggering how many verifiably awful bands all conspired to become famous and inescapable around the same time. I moved to the UK from Oz in 2005 so I blame myself.
― Uncle Boomer Who Can Recall His Past Wives (Adept), Wednesday, 17 February 2021 15:47 (three years ago) link
Am I a dumbass for thinking “Shut Your Eyes” by Snow Patrol is a good song?
― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 18 February 2021 16:09 (three years ago) link
Remember the band South? I actually liked them and it holds up tbh. Are they a CONTENDER here? Or outside the category entirely?
― Evan, Thursday, 18 February 2021 16:30 (three years ago) link
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-65558954
― Critique of the Goth Programme (Neil S), Thursday, 11 May 2023 15:40 (one year ago) link
pretty funny pearl-clutching in the article:
Fan Saffie Yates, who had waited six years to see the band, said she first thought it was some sort of stunt.She said: "It was very scary to see someone you respect behave like this."The bass player normally plays a couple of songs and it was his birthday yesterday. He wanted to play a third song and the lead singer went for him."He punched the bassist. I didn't know if it was part of the act."The band left the stage and the fans were hanging around waiting to see what would happen.
She said: "It was very scary to see someone you respect behave like this.
"The bass player normally plays a couple of songs and it was his birthday yesterday. He wanted to play a third song and the lead singer went for him.
"He punched the bassist. I didn't know if it was part of the act.
"The band left the stage and the fans were hanging around waiting to see what would happen.
― Critique of the Goth Programme (Neil S), Thursday, 11 May 2023 15:41 (one year ago) link
funny to see athlete at the bottom. the keyboardist went to my school - he gave a presentation about how the band got started, their influences etc
what was really funny was him talking about how their main influence was, of all things, grandaddy - they were apparently really keen on getting the same kind of decayed, lo--fi vibe as you get on songs like AM 180. i've listened to a few athlete tracks, scouring them for the remotest sign of that influence, and i've never been able to find anything. just another mediocre britpop band
for what it's worth, mornings eleven by the magic numbers still rockshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwobxaEoVaM
― tremolo, Wednesday, 6 September 2023 11:10 (one year ago) link
I interviewed that Athlete guy - Tim W - just before the release of their third album and he was super excited about some of the subtle production tricks on it; they’d just built their own studio and were self producing for the first time. I haven’t revisited it, but we talked about The Outsiders and Flying Over Bus Stops in particular. https://mikeatkinson.wordpress.com/2007/09/29/interview-tim-wanstall-of-athlete/
― mike t-diva, Wednesday, 6 September 2023 19:24 (one year ago) link
congratulations to Toploader for their very late challenge for the title
― no gap tree for old men (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 4 October 2023 07:52 (eleven months ago) link
When the revolution comes they can be put on the queue for the guillotine
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 4 October 2023 09:28 (eleven months ago) link
No queuing for Toploader, I'll open a new guillotine especially
― kinder, Wednesday, 4 October 2023 18:20 (eleven months ago) link
I think in the name of a fairer, non-partisan class enemy cull, it would be quite equitable and justified to execute any bands that play at the Labour conference as well.
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Wednesday, 4 October 2023 18:43 (eleven months ago) link
i'm pretty sure anybody that performs at a Lab or Tory conference was already on my gulag list on aesthetic grounds alone
― no gap tree for old men (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 4 October 2023 19:45 (eleven months ago) link
I thought you liked The Strawbs?
― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Wednesday, 4 October 2023 19:56 (eleven months ago) link
Ok, saw a tweet saying Toploader are playing at the Lab conference and...it's sort of perfect?
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 4 October 2023 21:27 (eleven months ago) link
No matter who you vote for, Toploader always get in.
― the world is your octopus (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 4 October 2023 22:41 (eleven months ago) link
isn't truss on record as liking Onka's Big Moka?
― koogs, Thursday, 5 October 2023 02:16 (eleven months ago) link
her legacy was more Magic Hotel
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 5 October 2023 02:38 (eleven months ago) link
this twitter account that posts old photos from getty images is doing a weekend dedicated to 00's UK indie , and it's quite something
https://twitter.com/shitbritishpics
― soref, Sunday, 22 October 2023 13:14 (ten months ago) link
wow.until now, i have never ever seen a picture of clor before.
― mark e, Sunday, 22 October 2023 18:07 (ten months ago) link
ha that Kevin Bridges pic
― StanM, Sunday, 22 October 2023 18:35 (ten months ago) link
I'd totally forgotten about the landfill-ized version of the Hollyoaks theme music
If you aren’t sure what any of these bands sound like, then just put this on as it could be 90% of them https://t.co/rTnLZO1AoP— Great British 00s Indie Images (@shitbritishpics) October 22, 2023
― soref, Sunday, 22 October 2023 22:15 (ten months ago) link
You mean they haven't been using that theme for the entire 21st century?
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 23 October 2023 03:20 (ten months ago) link