Possibly the second greatest music paper this country has ever produced.

(Zigzag was, of course, the first ;-))

"Smash Hits" only works if you believe there was anything in the early 1980s "new pop" to start with. Though I will certainly state that Pet Shop Boys and Wham! knock "Birdland" and "The Fall" into a cocked hat (barring the wonderful Mr E Smith's ever amusing observations) it really was a load of coke-addled fluff. Unlike the sulph-addled student fluff of the NME.

When the NME was my bible - from '97 to around 2000 - there wasn't much of a 'scene' to write about. This was the post-Britpop wilderness years, pre-Strokes, pre-Libertines, pre-indie landfill, so instead it was covering the likes of Mercury Rev, the Beta Band and Bonnie Prince Billy. (Oh, and nu-metal too, but in a kind of despairing way.) There was a bit of a campaign to get Mick Head from Shack recognised as the UK's greatest living songwriter if I remember rightly. NME probably considers it an era best forgotten but I discovered so much great music through it, new and old.

For me it began dumbing down seriously from the early 00's onwards, with the garage rock revival or whatever it was called - but then again, that also happened to be when I hit my mid-20s, so I probably just outgrew it.

at the old NMEs now, it's shocking how amateurish they seem. I've got copies dating back to the early 70s and the layout and standard of the journalism is little better than a badly written student magazine.

Sure we had Charlie Murray, Nick Kent, Burchill and Parsons, all of whom were clearly gifted writers, but the bulk of the paper was full of naff in-jokes and laboured topical references, many of which seem awkward, dated and all but unreadable now.

For example, a mid-70s issue I pulled out at random has the NME editor apologising for calling Rod Stewart "a big girl's blouse" in a previous issue.

Cutting edge stuff, or what?

Sigue Sigue Sputnik cover with headline 'Would you pay £4M for this cr*p?'

Of course, The Levellers could be annoying little twerps but let us not forget what an astonishing phenomenon they were. They progressed from grotty liitle pubs in New Cross to three-night stints in an Enormodome near you in little more than three years. All by word of mouth, no TV or radio to speak of, and the deserved reputation of one of the best live bands on the circuit.

In fact, there was hardly any press at all, and what there was tended towards the derogatory. The point is that 'Zeitgeist' was pipped to No.1 in first week of release by the Charlatans: to number one in the NME chart second week, and from there downwards. The NME amended the 'last week ' chart to show that they had in fact never been number 1 at all. They did 'fess up to this, but this sort of airbrushing out of history just about summed the NME up. This, and the sycophantic adulation of bands like the Charlatans and (gulp) Elastica did for me.

Such bile! Like it or hate it, the NME was undoubtedly a core part of the music scene from the late 70's to the late 80's. Great writers - Burchill, Parsons, Barney Hoskyns, Ian Penman, Morley, Nick Kent - doesn't matter if you violently disagreed with them, but they all had a passion for music and championed their favourites. I enjoyed the ride myself, and it opened up many areas of music for me that I had never heard of. If you lived in a small town in the provinces it was an eagerly awaited despatch from somewhere far more exciting than we could possibly imagine. I don't care if it reads badly in retrospect, or if you have an aversion to some of the writers and the bands they championed. But it made the whole scene a lot more fun, and promoted bands who might never had made it otherwise - yes, some of them were good. NME and John Peel - a great combination and an education for those of us in our formative musical years.

...in the early 90s.

A friend of mine used to buy the NME so I would read his copy and buy the Melody Maker for myself. Subsequently I’ve found it difficult to remember what I read in the NME and what I read in MM. Either way I’m guessing that for many of us, the inkies were at their most potent in our late teen years. For me they were a guiding light from 16 through to 18 (in my case about 1990 – 1992). Highlights were anything to do with Suede, Ride, The Roses or The Mondays. Oh and the highly amusing Mr Abusing / Mr Agreeable in the MM

During the Britpop era I got into House music and while some good records were made during the mid 90s, I’m not sure that Blur, Oasis, et al did anything then that hadn’t already been done by the bands I mentioned above??

- from about 1978 - going into my (state) school and the NME readers all abruptly changing their appearance in unison every six months - and jesus christ the way they sneered at the rest of us for - in my case - still liking the Ruts for example. It was not very 'independent', in fact it seemed like capitalism in action to me, finding new ways to get into middle class pocket money. But there was a huge variety in the music at the time and even if the NME seemed to be written by miserable sods who patronised seven kinds of shit out of you, FOR miserable sods who patronised seven kinds of shit etc., it was still a part of it, and there weren't that many ways of finding out about music or hearing it.

Can't forgive them for the cow-punk nonsense and there were plenty of other ones like that, dead ends nobody else charged up... it was a badge of sorts and nothing wrong with that but a bit, well, joyless

Never read Smash Hits or Record Mirror because it seemed a bit like snidey gossip about the latest consumer products - like making smart remarks about the new spring fridge lineup - but I definitely subscribed to the idea that its supposed to be FUN then and now.

Also the bastard NME ink always came off all over you

Couldn't stick Julie Burchill then or indeed now.

finished with it when the front cover was a Bikini clad cleavage with the word Ibiza written across it in cocaine.

I bought the NME every week from about late '75 until the summer of '85. I visited Los Angeles for the first time in '85. You could find the NME in LA if you looked hard enough, but it would be 2 weeks old and 5 times the price. By the time I got home in October I didn't really miss it any more.

I do remember looking forward to the Christmas edition and the giant crossword, though.

Aye, them were the days.

There were two bands that seemed to be in the NME gig guide every week back in those days, and for some strange reason they've stuck in my mind after all these years.

Juan Foot 'N' The Grave and the other one was The Entire Population Of China.

I've never bought a copy of NME, and have never felt the need to. The only reason I read it now is because it's at work.

for a few years recently, but I'm going to stick my head above the parapet and say that the latest restyling is actually pretty good. Well, a lot better than it was under the previous editor (Conor someone). More content, more to read (still nothing I can't polish off on the average lunch break), and just generally less of the feel that it's a shillsheet for whatever label bought the coke in exchange for a cover

I have fond memories of the NME. I bought it between about 1984 and 1999. It shaped not just my music tastes but politics and humor. I still occasionally buy a copy for old times sake but am quickly reminded why i don't get it every week as i used to. In fact Wednesday Mornings were greeted with excitement, which seems incredible when you see what it's become. I clung on way past it's best but the end seemed to roughly coincide with the shrinking of it's size and the on-set of nasty shiny paper. Also the tabloidisation of it's stars the Gallaghers, Albarn, Jarvis etc, brought that culture with it and the Alternative or Indie of old were no more.

Used to love the Christmas end of year review/piss-up, usually involved Mark E Smith, Shane McGowan and Nick Cave drinking each other under the table whilst slagging of the years highlights.

The NME was never the same after they stopped printing his letters every week.

Whatever happened to Adrian Thrills?

1983 through to probably 1991 for me - anyone remember the 'Youth Suicide' cover?! Some articles have stayed with me - a 4 parter on record collecting and an interview with Tim Roth (1986?).

What I'll remember most fondly are the cassettes, usually around three quid a pop and introduced me to some great stuff. Loved and still play the Dept of Enjoyment compilation - Nick Cave, Smiths, Papa Levi, Night People was a great introduction to all things jazz and The Tape With No Name was as good a country compilation as any.

.........and haven't even mentioned C81 and C86.

and no-one did them better than the NME. I remember loads of them but I was recently pleased to discover that the lovely Stuart Maconie penned my two absolute favourites:

"Hacienda That!" - when the famed nightclub closed and, when reviewing a Bruce Springsteen tribute competition - "You wait an hour for a Boss then three come along at once!"

Bloody marvellous.

Nick Kent talked them up in a big feature after he'd seemingly run out of excessive activities to report from the Stones' camp.

Think NME lost me about then.

But I always had a chuckle at the Lone Groover and even bought some T-shirts.

quite right with some of the writers at the NME in the late 80's when I read the following sentence, in an article about Northern Ireland, which I was so shocked by I can still remember it word for word. If anyone can corroborate I'd be grateful.

"You can almost see the meanness of their thoughts on their pinched, protestant faces"

This from the right -on bible of the late '80s. Did I dream that? Can anyone really have been capable of such bigoted garbage and, even worse, have managed to get it published? I also dimly remember an interview with the Proclaimers which was one prolonged sneer at Scotland generally and the concept of devolution in particular.

I think the deeply sinister and totalitarian SWP were having a bit of an influence at the time through Steven Wells which may be one explanation. The other might be that it had turned into a fanzine for cunts.

Lost me about 98, no particular reason, think I just got old.

I had been an avid reader from 74 - 85, an intermittent reader after that.

Dont think I have bought it in 10 years or more.

Is the lone groover still going ??

Being told that bands like Tiger, Linoleum, Bis and Ultrasound were the next big thing when they were clearly pants.

I should never have given them a second chance after they'd told me S*M*A*S*H, These Animal Men, Combat and The Stupidz were the future of rock n roll a decade earlier.

Were my NME years. CSM, Nick Kent, Tony Tyler, Ian McDonald, Ray Carr, early Danny Baker etc al. these were the great writers and the classic NME years, though I think everyone thinks the era they were in was THE one. I lost interest with the Penman / Morley years, not, I think, because the writing was bad but rather the whole post punk thing (stiff, grooveless guys in shorts with silly haircuts) just passed me by.

I was pretty addicted to NME 1977-1985ish… Yeah, Penman & Morely did get tiresome, but recall emergence of the great Barney Hoskyns early 80’s. In New Zealand, we’d get the surface mail editions 2-3 months after UK, but I recall NME being so cheap, it was easy to keep buying.
However, my favourite memory of the whole thing was the “Where is Beatles band?” in the letters page, I think. I’d love to read that again.

They complemented each other nicely throughout the 80s for me. I do recall a long and meandering Paul Morley NME interview of David Sylvian which I was struggling to get through. Then came the question: "What, then, is life?". Oh boy. I admire both gentlemen tremendously, but I do have a tosh threshhold.

the recent overhaul and new editor have worked wonders - it's moved closer to what it used to be.

I think it does what it does pretty well these days.

I read it in the late 90's - early 2000's, when I was a teenager. Opened my eyes to some great bands, genres etc, including the aforementioned Mercury Rev, who I still love. It's hard to imagine these days that a Mercury Rev album was NME's album of the year a little over a decade ago.

I find the NME to be a bit like Radio 1 these days. Whenever I tune in or browse, both of them appear to be shouting at me

I pretty much read it weekly between 1991 and 1998 - 14 to 21 and only if it looked like it had something interesting in it from 1998 to around 2006 - so increasingly less.

I think the day it dawned on me that I was only buying it for the excellent crossword was the day I stopped for good.

Regarding the new look - I did buy the first issue out of curiosity, but there wasn't that much in there to excite me. It's going to take a lot to help it recover from the pigs arse that Conor McNicholas made of it and, even though I have no wish to buy it, I don't want to see it lost from the newsstands.

of the cache of NMEs sold onto a kindly fellow who finds them useful for research had the cover strapline

"Voulex-vous dansez avec moi"

as a come-on for a survey of what they deemed Euro-rock or something similar in the early 80s.

I could live with creative abuse of the english language on a regular basis, but not pig-ignorance regarding the French language (though I'm sure it wasn't the reason for hanging up my NME-buying boots in the early 80s). Said cache (1973 - early 80s) was endlessly diverting to pull out from time, in both good and bad ways ...

…have saved me a lot of money by making their respective journals unreadable.

McNicolas, as discussed turned NME into a flimsy gossip rag with sponsorship logos dominating every last inch of paper.

Rees has turned Q into something that looks more like a website than a friendly journal…

Meanwhile Alexander (formerly of Kerrang!) inevitably tipped the balance of Mojo way too far in the rock direction (so more a case of not being to my taste than an outright sabotage)

Doubtless all three have acted at the behest of so many focus groups and so much pressure from sponsors that the magazines have lost much of their character. I really hope Word can maintain its…

Mid 70s - 80s , it did at least open me up to stuff thats now easily accessible via media/ internet ( independent American cinema , US TV, politics , obscure literature , European films- Herzog ,Wenders,)Also pretty supportive of decent soul/jazz .

Remember broadsheets didnt have multiple sections in those days - even sport had no more than a couple of pages - so any vaguelly intelligent writing on these subjects was limited .

Lost it for me once I realised I was fed up with being told how "important" or "essential" a band were - usually some self important , arty student mob who had one decent track and then obscurity .

The tapes were pretty good.The Northern Soul one still gets a spin.

Finally : I remember when Adrian Thrills loved the UK Subs .Hes actually a Daily Mail reviewer now .

NB:I hate the Mail but it appears as a freebie with Tesco shopping deliveries.We toyed with asking it to be witheld - but its useful on a Know Thy Enemy basis and is as bad / scaremongering as expected .

Started with Blur/Oasis/Pulp...I forget who it ended with.

There's no doubt that the NME was a signifier of who/what was cool, which is pretty important when you're 14, and it was also a way of liking bands no-one else had heard of. It seems quite embarrassing, looking back.

The thing I always remember is that there were two types of interview: the fawning and the piss-take. I recall one interview with Bobby Gillespie where they just denigrated everything he said, and I remember one with Oasis - at the time of Be Here Now - where they practically acted as Noel's own personal toilet roll, they'd ventured so far up his arse. You still see Noel on the cover now, 'cause they know the bugger sells.

A friend had a copy of the NME about a year ago, so I had a glance through. It seemed to be desperately craving some sort of coherent music scene, but the industry is so fractured, the mag just seemed to be dying on its arse.

C86 All Stars - Tallulah Ghosh, The Weddoes, Grebo, The New Wave of New Wave and Collins & Maconie editing the chortlesome Thrills! page. I lost interest with the arrival of Elastica and then Britpop.

1980 and 1983. Then I went to Art School and had to economise my life.

Liked the 'Gasbag' letters page. There was a particularly nasty Gasbag spat between Robert Elms and Paolo Hewitt because, I think, the latter had called the former a 'Spandau Lickarse' in some article. Arf!

I remember the very first NME compilation cassette. It was called 'Dancin' Master' and you had to send away for it - I think I've still got it somewhere.

Those great christmas editions which had single page interpretations of various songs of the year. I particularly remember Serge Clerc's illustration of 'Stool pigeon'. Would love to see his work on the cover of Word.

Anton Corbjin's lovely photography, often on a single full page in that large format. I used to put them on my wall.

In '82 Paul Du Noyer wrote a brilliant and touching feature on Liverpool, my home city. I'd love to read that again.

The po-faced, pretentious, snobby side was there post-punk, but amidst that there was much to amuse. As Noel Gallagher has said, the Morrissey interviews were usually highly entertaining and often hilarious - due to his considerable wit. Danny Baker's singles reviews regularly championed the uncool, not indie-rock type releases, e.g. disco, and not just to be a contrarian but out of a genuine love for the record I felt. I tried the other rags but found them comparatively dull, lacking the mischevious fun of the NME. And of course there was no where else to read about this stuff, or even see it, back then (other than at a gig).

Loved this cutting jibe from Ian McCulloch when some hapless hack from Sounds was sent backstage to interview him at a Bunnymen gig in the early 80's

"'Oo are you?" asked McCulloch.

"I'm from Sounds" replied the scribe.

"Sounds magazine?!!" chortled McCulloch, "Aren't they still printing centrepage posters of Brian Connolly of The Sweet ?"

Ouch.

...on The cover of the 1989 Christmas edition: "On Top Of The World", it screamed - blind to the obvious irony - marking the end of the hip-hop wars and the beginning of an era in which British music became wilfully insular, backward-looking, and inexplicably self-important.

The NME completely lost their identity and any kind of critical distance in the rush to anilinguise the Roses, and they consequently spent the next 20 years flip-flopping from one fad to another in search of the next big thing. They never even bought into The Smiths that much.

obituary for Alex Harvey, "The Faith Healer", from the NME is one of my favourite pieces of writing in any genre.

... I recently moved and found a box of NME tapes I thought had been lost. There must be at least a dozen of them. I even bought a used boombox so that I could play them again. Blimey! It took me back to what seemed like a former life. Fantastic!

Those NME tapes were tremendous and broadened my listening palate profoundly - though there was always SOME student shouty bollocks to be found - hence the genre tapes were best (and still are, Word cover disc compiler note).

On the downside: who remembers "rockism" and "rockists"? PC appropriating popular music selectively is never pretty, and the berks who tried this one on needed a good slap.

The occasional bit by Robert Elms was enough to have me throw down the paper like my dad was reading somethign about trade unions. Was there ever a person more deservedly told "see you next Tuesday"?

Has there ever been a more deluded twerp in music journalism than Elms?

Suggestor of possibly the worst pop band name ever in Spandau Ballet? Check.

Presenter of one of the most cringey amateurish Yoof tv shows in the Oxford Road Show? Check.

Editor of fashion-wank Face Magazine at it's most ludicrous and pretentious? Check.

Musical director for The Worst British Movie Ever in Absolute Beginners? Check.

Any one of the above "achievements" in your cv would make most sensible minded people cringe with terminal embarrasment now, but anyone who's listened to Elms' BBC London show will know the arrogant oaf still thinks he's some important significant fashion visionary from all his dubious 80's achievements (in between all the Sade records he still insists on playing)

Idiot.

some NMEs from the early-mid 70s today, I was intrigued and charmed in equal measure by the small ads.

Everything from bootleg LPs (sold openly) to loon pants, army greatcoats (ideal for those chilly Wishbone Ash gigs) and all manner of drug paraphernalia was ready available to the young and impressionable NME reader back then.

And ceiling tiles. My whole bedroom between the ages of 13 and 17 was covered with NME covers on the ceiling and posters and clippings on the walls. I usually salivated at the prospect of getting my mitts on the double bumper Christmas edition and read every copy from cover to cover. The Melody Maker was like my Daily Mail of the teenage years. I wouldn't touch it even if it had the Stuffies/ Kingmaker/ Thousand Yard stare on the cover. Don't know what the aversion was. Could have simply been the layout. Stroppy little opinionated brat I was.

It has pretty much all been said already, but I lived for the weekly thrill that was my NME, and when I started working in London in 82, it meant I could get my inky fingers on a copy one evening earlier, and devour it on the train journey home. I would read from cover to cover, and used to keep every issue, until they yellowed and decayed. I wish I had kept a few select issues for nostalgia alone, especially those double Christmas issues.

The tapes were wonderful, and somewhere in my store room I have a box that must contain over 30 of them. I keep meaning to search them out and convert for iPod consumption, though I don't even have a tape deck that functions. I would buy every one indiscriminately, they were issued in batches, and compiled by Roy Carr if I remember correctly. There must be a Word article in these somewhere, they opened me up to so much music outside of the relatively narrow genre of the paper itself.

Of all the writers that ever graced the pages, Danny Baker will always be number one for me, he never ceased to bring a smile.

I still buy a copy once a year, to read about Glastonbury, and see how far the standards have fallen. This year I can even make out my hat in the full page photo of the Pyramid Stage crowd for Rolf! So after 5 decades I finally made it to the once revered pages!