OperatingThetan said:

Not since '94, no.

They even panned 'The Gold Experience' tour (despite carrying an interview of that period).

NME have given him a few positive concert reviews.

Besides, NME is considered a very UK-centric, indie magazine. They fellate shitty-sounding UK rock bands basically. That's what is funny about their review stating '20TEN' was a 'xerox of a xerox'. Nearly all the bands NME praises are blatant copies of Bowie, Stones etc, with no or little originality.

I live in the Uk, and I can't imagine anyone except indie and UK rock fans buying NME.

True.

unique said:

nme had some great articles about prince, so did Q. you wouldn't get many publications let bill oddie from the goodies write an article about his favourite prince albums would you? you would really need to know who he is, and have lived and experienced british tv and life to understand how fucking bizzare something like that would be (he is a big fan and i've seen him at a couple of different tours)

Yep, Bill Oddie has been a Prince fan longer than most of us... at least in Europe. He became a fan after attending Prince's first ever UK gig in 1981 and was completely blown away.

As for NME, I recall them being generally positive especially in the period 86-88. Paolo Hewitt's SOTT review isn't particularly positive but as it states in the article he was only allowed to review it whilst listening at the offices of WEA Records and admitted that most Prince albums grow on you after a few listens.

I personally remember hearing it for the first time and paying more attention to "Sign", "Housequake", "U Got The Look"... songs like Dorothy Parker and It bacame favourites later after the album had grown on me.

[Edited 7/15/10 5:18am]

British press got Prince in 1986. Before that they weren't quite sure about him. Also, Steve Sutherland who wrote "Prince is parody on himself"-spirited review to "Purple Rain", has later said that if he has ever regreted anything his written in the past it was that review.

And about NME. I guess you could say NME had a love affair with Prince at the end of the 80s, as well as Melody Maker had.

NME writers end of the year charts:

1986 single of the year "Kiss" / album of the year "Parade"

1986 single of the year "Sign o the Times", single of the year nr 15 "If I As Your Girlfriend" / album of the year nr 2 "Sign of the Times" (nr 1 was Public Enemy "Yo Bum Rush the Show", not a really indie record...)

1988 single of the year nr 3 "Alphabet St" / album of the year nr 7 "Lovesexy".

With such unconditional love - they were mad about his live-shows as well - they even managed to chart the turdy "Batman" on their end of the year list (it was nr 38). And "Graffiti Bridge" (30), and Diamonds & Pearls (33).

The same goes with Melody Maker. Thou they didnt chart the Batman album, and i remember the headline of the review of Batman: CROWN TIME IS OVER. But in 1988 (or 89) they published a pull-out special Prince magazine, which they usually did about Smiths, The Cure etc, because that was their core audience.

And i big up both magazines for that - they were seen as indie-papers, their main readership were indie-heads, but they still hyped up Prince a lot, and other different black musicians (Cameo, house, techno - and of course - hip-hop!)

On NMEs end of the year list even Purple Rain and 1999 charted, 8 and 28 respectivly - that didnt happen in Melody Maker. And if you look who made the albums of the year for NMEs writers in early eighties... they were: Grace Jones, Marvin Gaye, Bobby Womack, and, ok, Elvis Costello.

UKs style-magazine The Face was even more madly in love in 80s - hey, at the same time that we were! - in 1987 on their TOP 30 album of the year list: nr 1 was Sign of the Times, nr 8 Madhouse "16", nr 25 Jill Jones "Jill Jones"

okei

Huggiebear said:

Maybe, and their 1990s headlines are worse, Such as "The history of the sex dwarf" and "My name is and I am completely bonkers".

But if you look at their sister publication "Melody Maker" it does the opposite and praises everything he does, the same magazine in which Sign o the Times was called "Seriously godlike, this man is a genius" and Parade was referred to "This eclipses anything you will hear this year"

The British music press (Away from the Sun CHAV level media) has always been supportive, heck even Q magazine gave Prince 3 stars for Newpowersoul and Rave un2 the Joy fantastic.

Are you sure this was about SOTT? I'm pretty sure this was Parade too.

i just read the NME review to "20ten", and i'm 100 % with the writer. As far as i think "Laydown" is the best track on that album

pacey68 said:

unique said:

nme had some great articles about prince, so did Q. you wouldn't get many publications let bill oddie from the goodies write an article about his favourite prince albums would you? you would really need to know who he is, and have lived and experienced british tv and life to understand how fucking bizzare something like that would be (he is a big fan and i've seen him at a couple of different tours)

Yep, Bill Oddie has been a Prince fan longer than most of us... at least in Europe. He became a fan after attending Prince's first ever UK gig in 1981 and was completely blown away.

As for NME, I recall them being generally positive especially in the period 86-88. Paolo Hewitt's SOTT review isn't particularly positive but as it states in the article he was only allowed to review it whilst listening at the offices of WEA Records and admitted that most Prince albums grow on you after a few listens.

I personally remember hearing it for the first time and paying more attention to "Sign", "Housequake", "U Got The Look"... songs like Dorothy Parker and It bacame favourites later after the album had grown on me.

[Edited 7/15/10 5:18am]

i was hanging out with paolo hewitt at a weller gig at the barrowlands once. i didn't realise who he was until afterwards. it turns out he was taking photos of the tour for a book or something. he might have done a weller bio too

thedance said:

BartVanHemelen said:

Parade was voted by NME's writers as the best record of the year, FYI.

Writers? did you type wrong?

do you mean the NME journalists were voting for Parade?

(a bit strange after that negative review in NME)

or - do you mean NME's readers?

When I say writers, I mean writers. End of year list of best albums is decided by all writers voting for their favorite top 10 (or so). Results are added up et voila. Review = opinion of reviewer, not the stand the magazine takes.

OperatingThetan said:

Not since '94, no.

They even panned 'The Gold Experience' tour (despite carrying an interview of that period).

NME have given him a few positive concert reviews.

Besides, NME is considered a very UK-centric, indie magazine. They fellate shitty-sounding UK rock bands basically. That's what is funny about their review stating '20TEN' was a 'xerox of a xerox'. Nearly all the bands NME praises are blatant copies of Bowie, Stones etc, with no or little originality.

I live in the Uk, and I can't imagine anyone except indie and UK rock fans buying NME.

Yet guess which mag Prince gave interviews to? Hint: it wasn't Melody Maker.

unique said:

pacey68 said:

Yep, Bill Oddie has been a Prince fan longer than most of us... at least in Europe. He became a fan after attending Prince's first ever UK gig in 1981 and was completely blown away.

As for NME, I recall them being generally positive especially in the period 86-88. Paolo Hewitt's SOTT review isn't particularly positive but as it states in the article he was only allowed to review it whilst listening at the offices of WEA Records and admitted that most Prince albums grow on you after a few listens.

I personally remember hearing it for the first time and paying more attention to "Sign", "Housequake", "U Got The Look"... songs like Dorothy Parker and It bacame favourites later after the album had grown on me.

[Edited 7/15/10 5:18am]

i was hanging out with paolo hewitt at a weller gig at the barrowlands once. i didn't realise who he was until afterwards. it turns out he was taking photos of the tour for a book or something. he might have done a weller bio too

He's written a few books about Weller, although the most recent "The Changing Man" was viewed negatively as a kind of kiss and tell... Hewitt wrote it after his friendship with Weller had ended and was seen by many as a final attempt to make money out of his Weller connection.

Personally I thought it was ok, it didn't reveal anything scandalous. Just a portrait of what Weller is like in private. A flawed, contradictory person just like the rest of us.

pacey68 said:

unique said:

i was hanging out with paolo hewitt at a weller gig at the barrowlands once. i didn't realise who he was until afterwards. it turns out he was taking photos of the tour for a book or something. he might have done a weller bio too

He's written a few books about Weller, although the most recent "The Changing Man" was viewed negatively as a kind of kiss and tell... Hewitt wrote it after his friendship with Weller had ended and was seen by many as a final attempt to make money out of his Weller connection.

Personally I thought it was ok, it didn't reveal anything scandalous. Just a portrait of what Weller is like in private. A flawed, contradictory person just like the rest of us.

you know you can draw a few comparissons between weller and prince. both are about the same age and have a similar length career that changed in directions a few times. they aren't that similar really, but weller split the jam at the height of fame to start the style council and dress like a twat, and none of the jam fans liked it apart from the major arse lickers. he drew a new crowd that were into the capuccino music and then alienated them all by making a garage house record that the record company wouldn't release, with a lead single which was a cover of a classic garage house tune, wellers version being near identicle. he then split the style council, went "solo" and started making some music that was critically acclaimed and brought him big audiences, then his albums started to slide a bit and he did the covers album that no-one liked apart from weller and myself, and then did a few more self indulgent records and stuff. his last couple were okay, but a bit weller by numbers really. i enjoy most of the stuff from jam to council to solo, he's quite a talented guy. probably a right cunt if you were to meet him in the wrong mood, but he's earned the right to be a cunt and so has prince. now that would make a good quote for the next weller book

btw i used to know the guy who ran a/the weller fanclub. he got an advance copy of one of wellers albums and gave it a bad review in the fanzine (yup paper) before it was released. weller wrote him a personal reply telling him basically that he was a cunt for doing that, and i think he gave up being a fan from that moment on. there's been one or two die hard prince fans in similar circumstance from what i hear. the weller fanclub guy had a shitload of excellent soundboards and stuff that hadn't been bootlegged, but i never saw him after the letter to take advantage of his connections

unique said:

there's been one or two die hard prince fans in similar circumstance from what i hear.

EVERY person who's ever run a decent Prince fanmag has gotten screwed by Prince. And not just an unfriendly letter, but actual threats and letters from lawyers.

BartVanHemelen said:

unique said:

there's been one or two die hard prince fans in similar circumstance from what i hear.

EVERY person who's ever run a decent Prince fanmag has gotten screwed by Prince. And not just an unfriendly letter, but actual threats and letters from lawyers.

but only one or two stopped being a fan as a result. i was sitting front row at a prince gig when i got a txt saying prince's lawyers were trying to stop something i was helping to organise

That review was even more pompous that Parade itself, and that's saying something! The critic was obviously biased. He didn't have anything to say at all other than "this album is below me because I have better taste than you!" The job of a critic is to analyze, not complain.

unique said:

pacey68 said:

He's written a few books about Weller, although the most recent "The Changing Man" was viewed negatively as a kind of kiss and tell... Hewitt wrote it after his friendship with Weller had ended and was seen by many as a final attempt to make money out of his Weller connection.

Personally I thought it was ok, it didn't reveal anything scandalous. Just a portrait of what Weller is like in private. A flawed, contradictory person just like the rest of us.

you know you can draw a few comparissons between weller and prince. both are about the same age and have a similar length career that changed in directions a few times. they aren't that similar really, but weller split the jam at the height of fame to start the style council and dress like a twat, and none of the jam fans liked it apart from the major arse lickers. he drew a new crowd that were into the capuccino music and then alienated them all by making a garage house record that the record company wouldn't release, with a lead single which was a cover of a classic garage house tune, wellers version being near identicle. he then split the style council, went "solo" and started making some music that was critically acclaimed and brought him big audiences, then his albums started to slide a bit and he did the covers album that no-one liked apart from weller and myself, and then did a few more self indulgent records and stuff. his last couple were okay, but a bit weller by numbers really. i enjoy most of the stuff from jam to council to solo, he's quite a talented guy. probably a right cunt if you were to meet him in the wrong mood, but he's earned the right to be a cunt and so has prince. now that would make a good quote for the next weller book

btw i used to know the guy who ran a/the weller fanclub. he got an advance copy of one of wellers albums and gave it a bad review in the fanzine (yup paper) before it was released. weller wrote him a personal reply telling him basically that he was a cunt for doing that, and i think he gave up being a fan from that moment on. there's been one or two die hard prince fans in similar circumstance from what i hear. the weller fanclub guy had a shitload of excellent soundboards and stuff that hadn't been bootlegged, but i never saw him after the letter to take advantage of his connections

I've made those comparisons myself...

Born in 1958

Gemini

First album in 1977

Both had debut UK chart entries at No 40

Weller split The Jam to form TSC, P split The Revolution and ended up with The NPG

Both married backing singers: Weller with Dee, Prince with Mayte

Both have released music since 95 that has divided both fans & critics

Was the guy who ran the fan club David Lodge? I'm friends with Iain Munn who penned TSC biography, he's on good terms with Weller and the rest of TSC.

pacey68 said:

unique said:

you know you can draw a few comparissons between weller and prince. both are about the same age and have a similar length career that changed in directions a few times. they aren't that similar really, but weller split the jam at the height of fame to start the style council and dress like a twat, and none of the jam fans liked it apart from the major arse lickers. he drew a new crowd that were into the capuccino music and then alienated them all by making a garage house record that the record company wouldn't release, with a lead single which was a cover of a classic garage house tune, wellers version being near identicle. he then split the style council, went "solo" and started making some music that was critically acclaimed and brought him big audiences, then his albums started to slide a bit and he did the covers album that no-one liked apart from weller and myself, and then did a few more self indulgent records and stuff. his last couple were okay, but a bit weller by numbers really. i enjoy most of the stuff from jam to council to solo, he's quite a talented guy. probably a right cunt if you were to meet him in the wrong mood, but he's earned the right to be a cunt and so has prince. now that would make a good quote for the next weller book

btw i used to know the guy who ran a/the weller fanclub. he got an advance copy of one of wellers albums and gave it a bad review in the fanzine (yup paper) before it was released. weller wrote him a personal reply telling him basically that he was a cunt for doing that, and i think he gave up being a fan from that moment on. there's been one or two die hard prince fans in similar circumstance from what i hear. the weller fanclub guy had a shitload of excellent soundboards and stuff that hadn't been bootlegged, but i never saw him after the letter to take advantage of his connections

I've made those comparisons myself...

Born in 1958

Gemini

First album in 1977

Both had debut UK chart entries at No 40

Weller split The Jam to form TSC, P split The Revolution and ended up with The NPG

Both married backing singers: Weller with Dee, Prince with Mayte

Both have released music since 95 that has divided both fans & critics

Was the guy who ran the fan club David Lodge? I'm friends with Iain Munn who penned TSC biography, he's on good terms with Weller and the rest of TSC.

i forgot to draw the wham! comparisons. weller married a member of wham! and prince became friends with another one when they got greedy and wanted more money from their record companies, just when people stopped wanting to buy their records

this was about 10 years ago and my memory is pretty bad, but david lodge rings a bell. short black haired slightly chubby guy. he had a similar long haired chubby girlfriend from what i remember

unique said:

BartVanHemelen said:

EVERY person who's ever run a decent Prince fanmag has gotten screwed by Prince. And not just an unfriendly letter, but actual threats and letters from lawyers.

but only one or two stopped being a fan as a result.

Is Eileen still a fan?

Is Diana still a fan?

Is Vicki still a fan?

BartVanHemelen said:

unique said:

but only one or two stopped being a fan as a result.

Is Eileen still a fan?

Is Diana still a fan?

Is Vicki still a fan?

you know if you learned engligh you would understand things like phrases, tense, sarcasm, irony, wit, humour, examples, and analogies

do you know how many times your posts make you look like a dick because you don't understand what people have posted? that's why some people give you flack in return, because it makes you seem like a child with autism