BLOG: Happy Birthday to the NME !

Dear NME,

This is as much a birthday blog as a thank you note.

I'm wishing you the greatest birthday for your big 6-0. I have to say I didn't realise you were getting well past the half century. Well 60 is not THAT old, just old enough to have witnessed and even sometimes created the cultural movements and bands that shaped generations.

Well, I've known you for about 20 years now. I first discovered you in 1994 at a time when I was just a European teenager exploring the UK and you were my beacon. From then on, articles, journalists, photos, even your lists of gigs I couldn't go to as I was living in my little French town kept amazing me. Your covers were stuck on my bedroom walls, your articles on my copybooks and your rock n'roll attitude well rooted inside me when I had to justify (yes, justify!!) why I would spend so much on CDs of unknown bands.

Well, years went by, I kept coming to the UK every summer, sharpened my point of view on music, sometimes did not agree with you, sometimes thought you were properly brilliant and used you as a shield against musical ignorance. I saw bands come and go, witnessed the demise of the last great British rock band (oh how I wished it could have been Coldplay but I guess you can't expect any high-blood reaction from a free-trade vegetarian), even started writing about music for a French webzine.

Now, reaching half your age, I still buy music, I still keep a sharp eye on new bands and still believe musicians can change lives.
You were my beacon and still are.

Happy birthday, NME!