Sleeping with the NME
A happy new year and such like to everyone, again apologies for the lack of updates and such like, I've been quite a busy beever recently. Anyway for those who are interested enoug, here's a recent article I wrote about the NME

(For those who are interested enough, my attempts to decipher Tom from Kasabian’s views on the death of James Brown can be found in last week’s edition of the NME but that would be blatant self-promotion so I won’t tell you which page it’s on.)

For an aspiring music journalist writing for the NME is the equivalent of playing main stage at Glastonbury for a rock band, so when you’re offered a chance to work at the NME you don’t say no.

Sure, in recent years NME has been widely criticised for focusing less on new music and more on promoting the NME brand, through a seemingly endless series of NME sponsored fad tours. And the magazine’s sale to media giants the IPC group prompted cries of ‘Sellout’ from many former ardent indie fan readers. They see the magazine as being just another gossip rag focusing on ‘celebrity’ couples like Pete and Kate or a lad mag like Nuts (which coincidently is also owned by IPC group). These criticisms aside, the NME still holds a huge amount of sway in the world of music with record companies vying for their bands to be on the front page and positive NME reviews of bands leading to almost guaranteed success. In recent years the NME has also been at the centre of a number of ‘scenes’ such as the New Rock Revolution, No Name, Punk Funk and more recently the much maligned New Rave scene spearheaded by the Klaxons. But what exactly goes behind closed doors at the NME? Is the magazine run by a group of clandestine money men who are looking for the next scene to exploit and then dispose of like a snotty tissue?

Entering the NME offices for the first time was extremely intimidating. Going into a room of journalists who could make or break bands’ careers with the stroke of a pen.

Unfortunately, my time at the NME offices was largely uneventful and devoid of gossip. Some things did occur in the office which could take place at the NME, journalists casually chatting to Willy Mason about his new album on speakerphone or even the News Editor being told by Michael Eavis himself about the headliners for this years’ Glastonbury festival. Unfortunately due to legal reason and a fuzzy memory the key names I heard can be divulged, I will say that there is a strong chance that a Super massive Black hole may be seen over next year’s Glastonbury festival.

The NME offices are situated in Kings Reach Tower on the South Bank which has spectacular views overlooking the whole of London; surprisingly enough most of the NME editorial staff had their blinds drawn or were too captivated by music news to notice the amazing views of the city. The Tower was also home to many other IPC publications such as Marie Claire, Nuts, Shoot (a favourite read for any 9 year old boy) and Uncut as well as some more unusual titles Practical Boat Owner and Motor Caravan Magazine. At lunch times, journalists from all the various IPC magazines converged in the building’s canteen, which created an intriguing spectacle; Marie Claire beauty queens dressed in next season’s fashions sharing tables with Country Life’s gun reviewer dressed all in tweed.

There is a widespread belief that NME journalists are drugged up scenesters who care less about music and more about their skinny jeans and converse. The reality was completely different, well apart from the wearing of skinny jeans. On the whole, the editors and writers were all down to earth and generally nice people, who it has to be said, spent as much time avoiding work and using social network websites as the average student. Some of them also behaved like students, when a certain editor was not given the review of the gig he wanted to go to he snapped at another of the editorial staff and then went off to sulk with his hood up. Other intriguing behaviour was the battle to gain control of the cd player in the NME office. When one cd, finished journalists would scramble to be the first to play the newest release of their choice. James Jam, the Radar editor, seemed to have overall control of the cd player with Mark Beaumont, the Singles Editor, a close second. Albums on the NME playlist that week included the new View album, the Hold Steady album, the new Willy Mason, a new Rakes track which featured not only a female vocalist but also a Muslim rapper, and the new Kings of Leon record which funnily enough was reminiscent of Interpol. The first hand reactions of the NME staff were as interesting as the new music itself.

In an effort to obtain some gossip, I spent quite a lot of time trying to overhear conversations at the News Desk who received all the latest music news long before it was reported on official news source. But disappointingly most of their conversations were about Celebrity Big Brother, Kung-fu and West Ham United.

The jobs given to me at the NME were variously interesting, challenging and immensely dull. One of the first tasks was to find an article about the Ordinary Boys for one of the producers of the show ‘Never mind the Buzzcocks’. The next day, the news desk were talking about how the Ordinary Boys’ front man had walked off the show in response to the joshing he received. It was a good feeling to know that I played my part in getting the smug Big Brother ‘celebrity’ Preston to walk. Perhaps the dullest job of the week was responding to peoples’ Comments and Friends Requests on the official NME Myspace page. Sounds easy? Take into account the fact that there were 750 pages of them, enough to render comatose even the most ardent myspace addict comatose. The prize for the most interesting person I added to NME’s friends goes to a band called ‘Le Dickheads’, I wish them the best of luck in the future. The nature of the comments on the NME’s myspace page did bring home quite who the magazine’s core readership now is. Typical comments featured lines like ‘OMG NME I <3 style=""> Anyone who’s seen the Kasabian front man being interviewed on television will appreciate how hard it is to understand a word he’s saying let alone trying to transcribe it. For those who have not heard him speak, think Father Jack from Father Ted speaking in an excitable Midlands drawl, although Meighan swore a considerable amount more than the latter.

The oddest job of the week was given to me by the albums editor, it was to find evidence to back up the claim made by the NME that the rap group Clipse dealt crack. From my extensive research done, it was pretty safe to suggest they were (lyrics on their album give recipes for cooking crack at home in the kitchen). The highlight of the week had to be talking to the editor of the NME Radar section, James Jam who was not only a lovely guy but was also full of words of advice about getting into music journalism. The advice he gave was to write as much as possible and to get involved in your local bands scene. When I asked him about his tip for this years’ Arctic Monkeys he said “The Twang… they’re the new Oasis”.

So no real intrigue or exclusives to reveal after a week at NME, just stroppy journalists, a lot of quality new music, lots of memories and most importantly lots of valuable contact numbers to pester. My advice in terms of applying for work experience at magazines like NME is to be polite, persistent, not to be disheartened by rejections you receive and most importantly of all to keep on writing about every gig, single or album you can.

Hope you enjoyed it, sorry for the absence of pretty pictures

Cheers,
Wilberforce