I know I’m always going on about how the NME of the 1980s was far superior to the current version. Part of that is nostaliga, part of it is the sheer breadth of stuff that was covered, which couldn’t be catered for elsewhere. All fair enough, and done to death here. But then I remembered Smash Hits! I put it to you, dear reader, that Smash Hits of the 1980s was better than the NME of right now. Admittedly I don’t have any copies to hand, but I do remember it being a hotbed of debate, funny but interesting pieces on people as diverse as Bronski Beat and King Kurt. Debates on censorship…
Also, slightly amazingly, this little lot:
Questions, questions! What were L.A.Y.L.A.H. Antirecords (who were, incidentally, based in Belgium) doing sending records to Smash Hits? What were Smash Hits doing giving them coverage? What sort of media climate is it that allows vast numbers of teenagers to be made aware of these records even existing?
All I’m saying is that the first NWW record I bought, some years later, was Brained by Falling Masonry. And I’ve still got it, and it’s ace, especially the B-side “A Short Dip in the Glory Hole”.
Is the NME currently covering the modern day equivalents to Nurse With Wound? My guess would be “no”.
dubversion
i dumped a load of old copies the other day (maybe i should have done the E-Bay thing, but i couldn’t be arsed.. ) – but lo! interviews with the likes of Kurt Vonnegut, a Reggae Primer, columns about US hardcore, a combination of giving people what they want and suggesting what they ought to want. now it’s just the former… and there’s just SO little text now…
2004/10/28 @ 10:27 pm
John Eden
It would be too good to be true for you to mean Smash Hits here, wouldn’t it? 🙂
2004/10/28 @ 10:51 pm
dubversion
sorry..
NME.. 🙁
2004/10/29 @ 12:12 pm
martin
Regarding LAYLAH sending records to Smash Hits, it’s a great marketing ploy. I suppose with so many artists and musicians considering “underground = good, popular = bad”, NWW wouldn’t have had much competition in grabbing attention from Smash Hits that month. On a similar note, was quite amused to find out that Whitehouse actually used to send promo copies of their LPs to ‘Spare Rib’ – talk about being desperate for disapproving press cuttings.
2004/10/29 @ 02:44 pm
kekw
Respek’ due: Smash Hits. It was (almost) crucial reading round that era. I’d occasionally buy it to read on the bus to Crewekerne back then, and not feel (that) embarrassed. But L.A.Y.L.A.H. …crikey! I think I’ve got an early Hafler Trio record that they put out.
2004/10/30 @ 11:49 pm
craig
Tibet at one point was a journalistic contributor to some fairly recognized underground zines around the UK if my memory serves me right. Never read even an excerpt but I’d love to. Laylah was such the precious imprint label. To this day the only one I had to be a completist…removing Robert Haigh.
2004/11/04 @ 06:55 am
John Eden
Yeah – Tibet used to write for Sounds in the 80s, which was the competitor of the NME and Melody Maker.
2004/11/04 @ 10:01 am
craig
BTW. Thanks for the post.
2004/11/05 @ 07:32 am