The Shock Of The New

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Ronnie Scott
[...]
[...]
[...]
Cliff Richard
Craig Douglas
Emile Ford
John Leyton
Frank Ifield
Gerry Marsden
Mick Jagger / Rolling Stones
Donovan / Seekers
Steve Winwood / Spencer Davis Group
Engelbert Humperdinck / Bee Gees
Mary Hopkin / Love Affair
Clodagh Rodgers / Jethro Tull
Elton John / McGuinness Flint
Rod Stewart / New Seekers
Focus
Golden Earring
Bad Company
Bruce Springsteen
Eddie and The Hot Rods
Tom Robinson Band
Public Image Limited
The Specials
UB40
Altered Images
[...]
[...]
Bronski Beat
The Jesus And Mary Chain
The Housemartins
[...]
The House Of Love
The Stone Roses
The Charlatans
Kingmaker
Suede
Elastica
Oasis
Supergrass
Kula Shaker
Embrace
Gomez
Muse
Coldplay
The Strokes
The Libertines

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Saturday, 10 January 2004 13:07 (twenty-two years ago)

This is everyone the NME ever named "best new act," isn't it?

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 10 January 2004 13:20 (twenty-two years ago)

That would make sense.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 10 January 2004 13:21 (twenty-two years ago)

NME readers yes.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Saturday, 10 January 2004 13:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Amazing how, at first, it seems like a really really wretched list. Then you go name by name and realize that a good percentage of them are actually good/great/interesting. And then...it still seems like a wretched list.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 10 January 2004 13:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Interesting omissions (allowing for Brit band bias): Beatles, Who, Clash, Sex Pistols, Police, Smiths, black people (for the most part).

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 10 January 2004 13:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh uh Jam, Joy Division, U2, Happy Mondays...

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 10 January 2004 13:34 (twenty-two years ago)

The Smiths may well be in one of the [...] years where rocklist.com doesnt provide data.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Saturday, 10 January 2004 13:35 (twenty-two years ago)

So it seems: "Post-Jam, New Order hold off U2 and Echo And The Bunnyman in 1984, but running away with Best New Band are a Mancunian combo destined to take and subsequently retain the coveted Best Band title for the next four years, The Smiths."

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 10 January 2004 13:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I had to google to discover who Clodagh Rogers is. She's an Irish singer who had a massive hit with 'Come Back and Shake Me' in 1969, which is presumably why she got the vote. No i've never heard it either.

― pete s, Saturday, 10 January 2004 13:45 (twenty-two years ago)

so it turns out that Guy Chadwick is the real reason NME became so indie/rock-biased - damn his eyes

― stevem (blueski), Saturday, 10 January 2004 13:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I like that John Leyton is on there. But the major blast from the past for me is...Kingmaker. Not a name i thought i'd ever see again.

― pete s, Saturday, 10 January 2004 13:59 (twenty-two years ago)

kula shaker!! that one backfired on them, didn't it?

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Can anyone tell me who McGuinness Flint were?

The increasing desperation of the late 90s readership is a sad sorry and sickening sight.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Any idea who won/will win it this year?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:09 (twenty-two years ago)

The Franz Ferdinand i expect

― stevem (blueski), Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs at a guess.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

It's interesting to note how they can be broken down into four year "blocks" of the NME's history, as if a seismic shift kinda occurs what kind of music the NME wants to write about like clockwork.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

so few American acts

― stevem (blueski), Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Only Bruce Springsteen and The Strokes!

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Bad Company were American, weren't they?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)

McGuinness Flint:
It says here they were a UK country-rock band formed by ex-Manfred Mann guitarist Tom McGuinness, and ex-John Mayall drummer Hughie Flint. Benny Gallagher and Graham Lyle who'd previously been writing hits for Mary Hopkin amongst others then joined. They had hits with 'mandolin-heavy stompers' 'When I'm Dead and Gone' and 'Malt and Barley Blues' , which were both UK top 5 in 70/71.
Gallagher and Lyle left, became successful soft-rock duo.
Band added Dixie Dean (!) on bass, and struggled on 'til 74 when they split.

― pete s, Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Bad Company were American, weren't they?

No, they only dressed like they were.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Seriously, though, they were made-up of ex-members of King Crimson, Mott the Hoople and Free, all quite Brit.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Dom is OTM about the four year thing - the 'alternative' sector uses exactly the same planned-obsolesence marketing model as the pop one, except for 'boy band' read 'big trend'.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I also think Dom is OTM about Bad Company, who were always much bigger in the US anyway; something in me wonders whether Paul Rodgers of Free and Bad Company being Tony Blair's favourite singer has anything to do with Blair's 51st State mentality. Both bands had members from the old industrial North (Middlesbrough) *and* the Marches (Shrewsbury / Hereford), which might just have something to do with the NuLab belief that formerly industrial and agricultural areas should be homogenised around Americanism ...

The inclusion of Engelbert Humperdinck (for 1967!) is astonishing, but it's a good reminder of just how different the NME was before it became a "serious rock magazine" at the start of the 1970s. The Bee Gees deserved it for "New York Mining Disaster 1941" alone, though, as did the Specials, the 1971-model Rod Stewart, Bronski Beat (just about), Altered Images (ditto).

Two consecutive Dutch winners in 1972-73 says a lot about the essentially "European" impulse behind a lot of prog rock - I do like the fact that they had an award for "Best Dressed Album" around this time.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:52 (twenty-two years ago)

What the trend cycle goes to show is that surely we're due for another change in the "indie" world this year? The NME has been trying to set itself up as some kind of defender of the pop flame recently (mainly as a way of trying to not admit it made a massive mistake with The Darkness, their defence is now "Ah, people that listen to The Darkness are all rock snobs, unlike us, we write really long and turgid articles on "Crazy In Love"), whether this is just due to certain staffers influence on the writing policy, or IPC pressure, or they actually like the music, I really don't know.

What it does mean though is that a large number of the "new for 04" bands are going to fall down the back of the sofa, as Ultrasound, Electrasy, Medal, and a vaste swathe of other bands whose names I've forgotten did at the end of the 90s when post-Brit pop was out and nu-garage was in. My God, Muse sparked a shift in musical tastes in the UK. Wussupwidat?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Robin C - interesting stuff re Bad Company. What do you make of half of them being out of Free (the English Creedence Clearwater?), the other half from Mott the Hoople (pub-glam x Dylan [ie cod US folk]) and King Crimson (!? in this context, interested in your view) respectively? (Wonder what Blair's favorite BadCo tune is. The subversion-of-principles-as-principle "Movin' On", or the more explicitly utilitarian "Live for the Music"/"Rock and Roll Fantasy"? Altho those were late-period and he probably had more 'elevated 'concerns by then, but I'm still curious)(btw yr blog is ace)

― dave q, Saturday, 10 January 2004 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.badcompany.com/Photos/tonyblair/PRPaulSimonTonyWife09.jpg

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 10 January 2004 15:19 (twenty-two years ago)

bad sight of the week, easily.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 10 January 2004 15:24 (twenty-two years ago)

The King Crimson one wasn't from Wimborne, was he? If he was, that would be incredible for me ... I suspect Blair prefers the likes of "Can't Get Enough" and "Feel Like Makin' Love", which came out before he became immersed in his "career", just total US rockism as a unifying force (TB being of the only Brit generation to see Americanism both as natural/universal *and* somewhat rebellious). thanks for the praise, Dave.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 10 January 2004 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it was just greg lake and bob fripp who were from wimbourne, but i'm not 100% about that.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 10 January 2004 15:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I think you're right there, though they did have other members from Bournemouth. Boz Burrell, who went from King Crimson to Bad Company, was born in Lincoln.

I once went past a house in Wimborne which had a "Mr and Mrs Fripp" old-style sign outside, and I still wish I'd rung the doorbell ...

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 10 January 2004 16:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow, my tastes are really not NME at all.

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 10 January 2004 17:51 (twenty-two years ago)

[...] were a band of constant re-invention.

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 10 January 2004 17:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't believe I've never heard of some of the recent picks. Muse? Embrace? Britain is a musical alternate reality.

― sym (shmuel), Sunday, 11 January 2004 01:13 (twenty-two years ago)

"I had to google to discover who Clodagh Rogers is. She's an Irish singer who had a massive hit with 'Come Back and Shake Me' in 1969, which is presumably why she got the vote. No i've never heard it either."

You may be more familiar with her from her 1971 Eurovision Song Contest entry and (I suspect) biggest hit "Jack In The Box".

No?

Ah well, you weren't missing much.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Sunday, 11 January 2004 01:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Muse are... worthy of discussion. I despise them, I think that they're one of the worst acts this country has ever produced, but they are amazingly popular. Their album got to number one. That's something that not even Busted, who are meant to be the biggest band in Britain at the moment, managed. They're at the forefront of that "I've read a book I have" teen angst pop movement, music for people who spent too much time in their parents record collection. None of them are dead, that's Feeder.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 11 January 2004 01:23 (twenty-two years ago)

ehehehehe...

Dom, I was at school with Muse. You think their success confuses you? Nothing.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Sunday, 11 January 2004 01:27 (twenty-two years ago)

You may be more familiar with her from her 1971 Eurovision Song Contest entry and (I suspect) biggest hit "Jack In The Box".
No?

Ah well, you weren't missing much.

I and all other Monty Python fans know it as both her and said song were running jokes in the 'Cycling Tour' episode from the third season (concluding with two Gilliam animated monsters awkwardly dancing along with the tune).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 11 January 2004 01:46 (twenty-two years ago)

um, no i don't know it

― pete s, Sunday, 11 January 2004 01:47 (twenty-two years ago)

there's a bust of Cherie Blair at LSE. it doesn't really look like her, but it still looks quite weird.

― lid, Sunday, 11 January 2004 01:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to fancy Clodagh Rogers when I were a nipper. At least that's what my mum tells me whenever she wants to wind me up.

I'm amazed to see Altered Images on that list. I was an NME reader in them days and a big fan of theirs but I don't ever remember them being that popular. Maybe it was John Peel's ecstatic championing of them that did it.

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Sunday, 11 January 2004 22:12 (twenty-two years ago)

that Blair pick, huh? the missus seems sorta scared and positively gritting her teeth, no?

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Sunday, 11 January 2004 22:36 (twenty-two years ago)

she probably preferred Clodagh Rodgers back in the day :).

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Monday, 12 January 2004 06:31 (twenty-two years ago)

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