NME sub-editor gets wound up by Hope Of The States fan

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No idea of the original correspondence but i just came across this:

God almighty: I very rarely reply to criticism that falls into the NME
inbox but as i'm still here at 10.20 at night working for thie "big
pile of wank", your letter touched something of a raw nerve. Firstly can I
reassure you that you are free to buy another magazine with a slightly
less glib attitude. I personallly recommend 'Plan B' or 'Loose Lips
Sink Ships'. Those 6,000-word Yo La Tengo retrospectives should be right
up your street.

Now, onto your specific criticisms of NME....

Joy Division: of course we all knew it was the anniversary of his
death. That's why we decided to mark it, rather than ignore it. (How mich
space did it get in 'Kerrang!', for example?) In my opinion there was
nothing disrespectful about the 'Don't Tear Them Apart' line, the posters
look fucking great, and the feature was a rounded celebration of the
man for a young audience who perhaps haven't the
time/patience/inclination to listen to 'closer', let alone read 'Touching From A Distance'.
Maybe they willl now. As for it being a "big memorial" in Manchester,
don't kid yourself. Who else is covering his story in this depth, 25 years
on?

We don't just jack off over shite bands that have met Pete Doherty.
Otherwise The Paddingtons/Rakes/Wolfman etc would be all over our pages
every week. As would Hope Of Ther States, who have only things words to
say about The Libertines. Pick it up next week: we're jacking off over
Saul Williams, Arctic Monkeys, Dungen, The Magic Numbers and - yes - The
Arcade Fire. Not sure if Pete gets a mention at all.

As for us not supporting unsigned bands, there's an unsigned special in
Messageboard next week, too. Alternatively: ask the Kaisers Chiefs. We
played their demo in the office, Tim wrote about it and they got
signed. And rhat is a copper-bottomed fact, my friend,

I could go on in great length, but I'm falling asleep at my machine
having just put the finishing touches to the 50 Greatest Cover Versions Of
All-Time (conplete with a suitably tactful Jeff Buckley retrospective
to mark the eighth anniveersary of his death, too), Check it out next
week: we've pulled out artwork for every single one. Trust me: you really
have no idea how long such "short, shite features" actually take to
execute.

Still, keep reading,

Martin, chief sub-editor

PS/Feel free to post this on the HOTS messageboard too. I fought tooth
and nail to get that band squeezed onto the bottom of my Starsailor
review three years ago, coining the phrase "potentially the most
challenging British band since Radiohead" in the process, which did them no harm
at all. I wish I hadn't bothered now!

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:02 (twenty years ago)

Ha! Despite my hatred for the NME, the was pretty PWNing

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:10 (twenty years ago)

NME should just print things like this every week

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:12 (twenty years ago)

do you think if enough people send enough letters this will happen?;

http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/hyde/images/Nov04/scanners.jpg

― elwisty (elwisty), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:19 (twenty years ago)

think if enough people send enough letters this will happen?;

http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/hyde/images/Nov04/scanners.jpg

― elwisty (elwisty), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:19 (twenty years ago)

woops

― elwisty (elwisty), Friday, 10 June 2005 16:19 (twenty years ago)

NME may be shite sometimes, but a lot of bands DO owe them big time...HOTS included.

― PW, Friday, 10 June 2005 16:56 (twenty years ago)

That's why the NME is shite.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Friday, 10 June 2005 18:04 (twenty years ago)

A little sensitive over at NME.

― jockey, Friday, 10 June 2005 19:52 (twenty years ago)

Pick it up next week: we're jacking off over
Saul Williams, Arctic Monkeys, Dungen, The Magic Numbers and - yes - The
Arcade Fire

DAMN PROUD!

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 10 June 2005 20:42 (twenty years ago)

yay for irate chief subs.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 11 June 2005 16:40 (twenty years ago)

I personallly recommend 'Plan B' or 'Loose Lips
Sink Ships'. Those 6,000-word Yo La Tengo retrospectives should be right
up your street.

I protest this slander, having written for both. In that I would never write such a dastardly article myself.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 11 June 2005 17:37 (twenty years ago)

I personallly recommend 'Plan B' or 'Loose Lips Sink Ships'. Those 6,000-word Yo La Tengo retrospectives should be right
up your street.

yeh, as opposed to the NME which hardly has 6000 words per issue these days

― zappi (joni), Saturday, 11 June 2005 17:49 (twenty years ago)

More from him at http://www.drownedinsound.com/boards/thread/279390 - he posts as laticsmon.

― the informer, Saturday, 11 June 2005 18:22 (twenty years ago)

Can there be a TV show where we berate NME staff for the failings of the music press in general, and they get the chance to answer back in a tired and emotional state..?

Seriously...Ive got some Decline of Mixmag issues i need to get off my chest.

― Danny boy, Saturday, 11 June 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

Passed this onto a friend of mine who is a big wheel down at the Hope of the States messageboard and now shit be goin' down!

http://uk.sonymusic.co.uk/forums/hopeofthestates/viewtopic.php?t=7603

http://uk.sonymusic.co.uk/forums/hopeofthestates/viewtopic.php?t=7231

― elwisty (elwisty), Sunday, 12 June 2005 18:55 (twenty years ago)

Hope Of The States should be overjoyed that their name is being brought up again.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Sunday, 12 June 2005 19:02 (twenty years ago)

I love how most other fora immediately make me appreciate ILX's formatting simplicity all the more.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 12 June 2005 19:03 (twenty years ago)

Perhaps another member of Hope of the States should kill themselves, it might get them another top 40 single?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 12 June 2005 19:05 (twenty years ago)

I'm trying to figure out if we're supposed to be impressed by this or not.

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 12 June 2005 19:06 (twenty years ago)

Sadly, yes.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 12 June 2005 19:19 (twenty years ago)

Perhaps another member of Hope of the States should kill themselves, it might get them another top 40 single?

This is in really bad taste, Dom.

Well done. Carry on.

― Taste the Blood of Scrovula (noodle vague), Sunday, 12 June 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

What was the name of the other band where the dude killed himself, and they didn't even get a hit single out of it? Budapest? Maybe some other European town beginning with a B?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 12 June 2005 19:36 (twenty years ago)

I love how most other fora immediately make me appreciate ILX's formatting simplicity all the more.

not to mention the general quality of its posts. dear oh dear.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Sunday, 12 June 2005 20:07 (twenty years ago)

Michael Bolton? oh, wait...

― Porkpie (porkpie), Sunday, 12 June 2005 20:07 (twenty years ago)

"the feature was a rounded celebration of the
man for a young audience who perhaps haven't the
time/patience/inclination to listen to 'closer'"

trudat, music fans, people who buy a weekly newspaper about music, guitar music, often british guitar music, fairly often moody guitar music for angsty youngsters -- they do find it hard to ram in 40 minutes of, you know, listening to one of the most acclaimed albums of all time, like it's SUCH A DRAG when they could be listening to um the magic numbers.

― n_RQ, Sunday, 12 June 2005 22:17 (twenty years ago)

I think it's only fair we see what it was that caused the sun editor to lose it in such an amusing fashion;

Rant Time

The NME.

now I don't often buy it (generally only if I'm looking for certain reviews/articles), but I've had it for the past 2 weeks and quite frankly, I'm disgusted by it.

Why, you ask? Well, it's the Ian Curtis/Joy Division stuff. For those who don't know, today is 25 years since Ian Curtis killed himself. I don't think anyone sees that as a laughing matter.

Today's NME "6 Joy Division Posters (don't tear them apart!!)

I'm sorry, what?

The guy's a music icon, his death was tragic, it's a big memorial, which is being openly recognised in Manchester, and yet the NME feels the need to take the piss out of it. I can just see them thinking "oh, it's some old band that no-one gives a fuck about and half our readers don't know who the hell he is anyway, let's have a little joke". Well, those writers can fuck right off.

the quality of writing in that magazine has gone down so much, that they, for the past 2 weeks, have published articles (25 things you didn't know about Ian Curtis, A-Z of Motley Crue) which are, quite simply, short shite rip-offs of the books which catalogued them in the first place. They wank over bands they herald, and shit on those they don't. Unfortunately, they aren't following fashion, they're fucking making it. They jack off over shite bands, simply because they may have, at one time, met Pete Doherty, or because, they may, at one time, have met Franz ferdinand.

I mean, give me a fucking break. Why the fuck should I buy a magazine in which the quality of writing is bollocks, the musical range is stupidly small minded, the attitude towards unsigned acts is one of ignorance? Why?

They have an amazingly unhealthy monopoly on the market for music writing, and I can't bring myself to read it again.

I buy magazines to actually think about stuff, to open my eyes to acts I may otherwise not have heard of, yet the NME panders solely to the pre-existing taste of the bands it ahs supported (generally, they get supported about 2 weeks before their first big hit, get the hit and are then told that the NME made them)

And as I hit the last page of this weeks pile of shite, I see they mention Arcade Fire, and about their London performance...

So, wait, they sent a fucking reporter to it and couldn't be arsed to do a live review, instead, they wank about the Ordinary Boys and One Big weekend. Actually, has the NME actually ever said anything about Arcade Fire that wasn't the Album review. The fact that i doubt that is dreadful. And above that atrocity is "what's on the NME stereo" and it says... "Laika". So, they plug the single from 2 months ago today, yet dojn't even grace the magnificent "power out " (out next week) a fucking line as a review.

A copy of this will go to the NME. Somehow, I doubt it'll get published unless I send in a picture of me with a sign saying "I wank over Pete. He's innocent! Love me, Love me, Love me"

― elwisty (elwisty), Sunday, 12 June 2005 22:48 (twenty years ago)

So basically the two people could have been switched and there would have been no appreciable difference in their points.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 12 June 2005 22:50 (twenty years ago)

*sub editor, the sun editor would have probably been a bit confused if he'd received that e mail.

― elwisty (elwisty), Sunday, 12 June 2005 22:52 (twenty years ago)

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