tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post4358912889698444530..comments2024-02-06T16:17:25.826+00:00Comments on THE GRĂNMARK BLOG: RIP New Musical Express (print edition) - and how it got me my first job in TV NewsScott Gronmarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-15799337713189799632018-03-11T08:32:39.514+00:002018-03-11T08:32:39.514+00:00I rarely bought any of these (unless of course Ada...I rarely bought any of these (unless of course Adam Faith was on the front page) until the British invasion and my interest in lists in all shapes and sizes urged this impatient teenager to try and find some form of statistical analysis of their conquest of Billboard - chart positions ,record sales in good old fashioned US dollars etc without actually going to the trouble of reading an article, together with some unquantifiable stuff like which group had the best vocalists, writers, guitar players, drummers, most influence on the contemporary music scene, even to how their enormous earnings, providing it hadn't been dispersed amongst shady agents and various hangers on,had been divvied up amongst four or five band members.And,indeed how was this filthy lucre spent - not all on pot, Jack Daniels and broads gracious me no. At least Jagger was pretty savvy about finances. <br />Anyway I could never quite find what I wanted.<br /><br />southern mannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-18385450427824497582018-03-11T06:42:48.161+00:002018-03-11T06:42:48.161+00:00Great post. I can remember the 'infinitely coo...Great post. I can remember the 'infinitely cooler' imported Rolling Stone arriving at the newsagents with bits cut out of it occasionally, presumably to avoid the distributors falling foul of our more challenging libel and obscenity laws. This was after all the time when WH Smith refused to stock Private Eye for essentially the same reasons. The major impression the revamped NME made on me in the 70s was to leave ink all over my hands. <br /><br />Having said that, for a while it was an independent spirit in a field mostly full of PR puff pieces. What always struck me about the music press was how limited the range of its interests was, based on the assumption that if you were into West Coast bands like Buffalo Springfield, you couldn't possibly want to know what the Temptations were up to. Eventually, the obsession with artists who appealed mostly to rock journalists - Zappa, Beefheart, Lou Reed, Talking Heads etc - left the impression that the NME was written for an exclusive clientele of the truly hip which obviously didn't include me. Like you, I returned to it during the Burchill/Parsons era but only briefly before once again the editors assumed that no one who liked the Clash would mind if they sneered at anything with four or more chords and a keyboard player.<br /><br />Still, something has gone. As we have discussed before, Mojo and Uncut are still bought but only half-read before lying on the coffee table until it's recycling time.<br /><br /> Ex-KCSnoreply@blogger.com