A career in music journalism is described with verve mixed with nostalgiaSylvia Patterson used to plaster her bedroom walls with pages from NME and Sounds, then at the zenith of taking themselves deadly seriously, and absorbed the ethos of music as revolution (as well as fun and frenzy). What a blast, then, to find herself, via a desperate stint at hoary Annabel magazine, working as a staffer on Smash Hits, whose relentlessly jokey glossary virtually wrote Eighties pop culture. Patterson’s nostalgia is palpable and she recreates that over-capitalised, “birrova laff” style with joy as she recalls encounters with the biggest music acts in the world as they exposed themselves to the magazine’s particular brand of ridicule in pursuit of publicity. Throughout an illustrious career in music journalism, Patterson has never lost her belief that pop and rock are, or should be, “foamingly important”; she describes the commodification of music into over-controlled “brands” with clarity and regret. Celebratory and elegiac, the book documents the last three and half decades in pop and gives an honest account of an exhilarating and gruelling life. Top read. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2017-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
The news that the music weekly will no longer appear in print is unsurprising. Where should we look for the sense of excitement it once offered?It would be silly to mourn the demise of NME, which is closing its print edition after 66 years, maintaining only its painful digital existence. This is... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A career in music journalism is described with verve mixed with nostalgiaSylvia Patterson used to plaster her bedroom walls with pages from NME and Sounds, then at the zenith of taking themselves deadly seriously, and absorbed the ethos of music as revolution (as well as fun and frenzy). What a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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‘We weren’t part of the fashion world. An intern turned up in a purple velvet Jean Paul Gaultier suit and was so disappointed he left after a week’I’d been editor of the NME for five years, but I was scarred by the experience of being the fulcrum between a maverick staff and a corporate... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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