Cover of The History of the NME: High Times and Low Lives at the World's Most Famous Music Magazine

The History of the NME: High Times and Low Lives at the World's Most Famous Music Magazine

The Sex Pistols sang about it, Nick Hornby claims he regrets not working for it. The fights, the bands, the brawls, the haircuts, the egos, and much more—the definitive book about the infamous music magazine.For 60 years, since it was founded in 1952, the New Musical Expresshas played a central part in the British love affair with pop music—and has been essential for American connoisseurs to remain in-the-know as well. This authoritative history is an insider's account of the high times and low lives of one of the world's most influential music magazines. It explains the stories behind the stories that kept readers coming back week after week—the office brawls, the former staffers who launched their careers there (Tony Parsons, Julie Burchill, Nick Kent, Mick Farren, Steve Lamacq, and Stuart Maconie), and the bands who owe their success to the magazine. Snotty, confrontational, enthusiastic, and sarcastic: the new issue of the NME was the high point of any music fan's week, whether they were listening to The Beatles, Bowie, or Blur.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 240 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked The History of the NME: High Times and Low Lives at the World's Most Famous Music Magazine? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The History of the NME: High Times and Low Lives at the World's Most Famous Music Magazine. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Qu'en pense Keith Richards ? Shares music
  2. Hallelujah!: The Extraordinary Story of Shaun Ryder and Happy Mondays Shares music
  3. Dancing with the Devil: How Puff Burned the Bad Boys of Hip-Hop Shares music
  4. All the Young Dudes: Why Glam Rock Matters Shares music

“If you want more of the same (history about music), start with these.”

  1. Why Jazz?: A Concise Guide
  2. Star Guitars: 101 Guitars That Rocked the World
  3. Concise History of Western Music
  4. Modulations: A History of Electronic Music: Throbbing Words on Sound

“If it was the music that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Spacemen 3 & the Birth of Spiritualized
  2. Green Day: Rebels with a Cause
  3. Renegade
  4. Playing the Bass with Three Left Hands

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Dancing With Myself
  2. Chapter and Verse: New Order, Joy Division and Me
  3. White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground day-by-day
  4. Deal: My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams, and Drugs with the Grateful Dead