From humble beginnings in 1952, the New Musical Express became an essential weekly purchase for generations of music fans, populated by characters as notorious and celebrated as the stars they wrote about.
The 1970s and 1980s were arguably its golden age with such great writers as Charles Shaar Murray, Nick Kent, Julie Burchill, Tony Parsons and Paul Morley.
In tandem with John Peel’s radio shows, the NME was an unfailing barometer of cool; later triumphs such as their on-the-pulse coverage of Madchester, Acid House and Britpop kept it in the eye of music’s ever-changing storms.
It is unlikely the NME will ever be such a vital part of the fabric of pop culture again. In 2012, its weekly sales average of 27,000 copies was 1/10th of what the record-breaking issue after the death of Ian Curtis in 1980 shifted.
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