So when did the NME lose it for you? I loved it from 1974 to about 1982 when it became horribly right-on even for my horribly right-on student self. It led me to a lot of things cultural I wouldn't have found otherwise, for which i am grateful - but it utterly lost it with the emergence of the following:

Paul Morley (and the whole "Ian Curtis died for you" thing).

Blue Rondo a la Turk and frigging COCKTAILS.

Snide sneering at the non-metropolitan tastes of the provinces (Black Sabbath and Hawkwind are as much the right stuff of rock music as The Stooges and MC5).

Over-rating the whole landfill Indie thing.

"Everything But the Girl" - Everything but a tune and some energy, more like.

In the crapper and later days, it weas only Danny Baker and Stepehn Wells that kept be going. It now looks like a dumbed-down "Smash Hits" without the commercial independence of "Metal Hammer".