NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS (NME) is a British music journalism magazine published since 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the edition of 14 November 1952. In the 1970s it became the best-selling British music newspaper. During the period 1972 to 1976, it was particularly associated with gonzo journalism, then became closely associated with punk rock through the writings of Julie Burchill, Paul Morley and Tony Parsons. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s and 1990s, changing from newsprint in 1998.
An online version of NME, NME.com, was launched in 1996. It became the world's biggest standalone music site, with over seven million users per month. With newsstand sales falling across the UK magazine sector, the magazine's paid circulation in the first half of 2014 was 15,830. In 2013, the list of NME's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and the way it was conceived was criticized by the media.
NME magazine was relaunched in September 2015 as a nationally distributed free publication. The first circulation figures published in February 2016 of 307,217 copies per week were the highest in the brand's history, beating the previous best of 306,881, recorded in 1964 at the height of the Beatles' fame.
26 March 1965 |
23 April 1965 |
30 April 1965 'Dylan speaks!' |
7 May 1965 |
6 September 1969 |
20 June 1970 |
5 December 1970
|
11 December 1971, 1 page |
1974 (early), NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS BOOK OF ROCK - A GUIDE TO ROCK IN THE '70s was
part-work.
It has 80 pages and the readers collected the parts from successive issues of
New Musical Express over 8 weeks, some time in early 1974. One issue of NME
included a card cover, shown here: you could gather your pages together
and put a piece of cord through at the appropriate place to form
a sort-of mini-encyclopedia.
It was an alphabetical listing of the
principal groups and individual performers, with a brief history of each and
details of their albums, including a few bootlegs. Other musicians were
mentioned under headings such as "Singer/Songwriter, American", "Bluegrass" and
"Chicago Blues". There were also record company names and addresses and details
of a few music venues.
The Beatles got a full page, Dylan a bit less. "Skyline
Bob" is there on the cover.
Thanks to Ian Woodward for the scan and information.
15 November 1975, 1 page |
13 December 1975 |
25
September 1976 |
25 December 1976 |
22 April 1978, 5
pages |
24 June 1978, 5
pages |
15 August 1981, 3 pages |
25 May 1991 |
1 April 1995 |
8 September 2002
|
2005, volume 2, issue 5, NME ORIGINALS: BOB DYLAN AND THE FOLK ROCK BOOM 1964-1974. 146 pages |
2010, 9 October
|
2016, issue 1. THE NME INTERVIEWS, BEST OF THE 1960s, 2 pages about Bob Dylan |