I didn't watch the programme about the NME last night - I don't have BBC4-, but it did get me thinking to when I was a teenager in the 70s and I use to buy a music paper every week to keep me informed about what was going on in the world of music. I never liked the NME, which I thought was fully of posers - Cokehead Kent, Pretentious Morley, Julie Bitchkill, Tony Pratsons, etc. I much prefered the Melody Maker, which covered Jazz and folk week in and week out and which was to whet my appertite for both forms of music. I have great affection for Richard Williams, Colin Irwin, and Karl Dallas who wrote regularly in the Melody Maker and who compelled me to check out a lot of music - Bob Davenport, Roland Kirk, Gil Evans, Rico - that I might never have come across. I am curious to know what other Mudcatters in the UK read.
|