NME student guide rubbish shocker

I have to buy the NME for the student guide every year as I enjoy get annoyed with it.
"Elsewhere in the area....Loughborough"

Yeah and they edited what i wrote so i said the resistance sounded like a cross between MBV and fucking Muse. Cunts.

Yes, I noticed that. They left in your WAN mention though :)

My god - have I actually achieved one of my lifetime ambitions to be mentioned in the NME?? Other than having two stupid letters published. Which doesn't count.

The NME student guide has been going since the early 90's and it's always terrible. It wallows in the woeful stereotypes of student cliche behaviour and it's always embarrasing.

You'd think that all students in Cambridge went to Cambridge University, there's no mention of ARU.

Leicester is a footnote to Nottingham despite having a massive student population.

Is it available on the web this thing or just in the actual NME *shudders*

Just in NME I think. The student guide usually means the paper is wrapped in plastic and that you can't read the NME in the shop like I usually do.

I do the reading it in the shop thing now as well. Though we (myself, Bag, Steventtg-etc and Lozzy) did read last weeks NME in a cafe in Oxford on Monday. It featured the bloody Wombats about a hundred times. Rubbish! I love to be enraged by the NME. Especially whilst drinking Lapsang Souchong.

Georgina's was ace, although I was upset M Feller Son and Daughter didn't have any animals hanging outside the shop. Sorry, tangent.

can someone transcribe or scan this so i can have a laugh without (shelling out/ getting introuble for ripping the bag open in store)?

yeah I second that. :-)

Summary:

Portland = good. Fopp = good. Ballare = bad. Cambridge = a bit posh. There is punting charity shops, balls and big issues. Bedford and Loughborough (apparently) are quite close. Shivers, Hamfatter, Cheekbones, Midnight Schemes. Simon_b's face.

Does it really say we sound like Muse???

*loads shotgun* *prepares to go to Kings Reach Tower*

No, they claimed i said it. Cunts.

I had those "Editing" probs with NME and Kerrang! years ago.

"they sound nothing alike"

re-written as:

"They sound alike".

Cutting back for a word count really can cause some problems... it still "scans" OK after the edit... no one will know... apart from the writer.

Don't worry all. Next week there will be a bit at the bottom of page 5 saying

"Correction: In the student guide last week we implied that the Resistance sound like Muse. We have been informed that the Resistance do NOT sound like Muse and we were twisting Simon_B's words in a malicious fabrication and we are happy to make this clear. We apologise for this error and regret any inconvenience caused. Can you stop waving the shotgun around now Rob? We're really quite frightened and it stops us snorting coke in Camden being lazy journalists."

Please, please, please burst into the nme offices with replica firarms and threaten journalists. :D

I'll lend you some if you want :D

Bloody hell! The NME! Is that still going?

Yeah I brought it Today - venue - corn exchange - dear oh dear

clothes - ede and fucking ravenscroft !!

/unhelpful

I scanned last year's in for its Um content and it's pretty bad (mention of 'Cindy's', Bedford as the nearby town). Captain were the guest 'reviewers' or whatever.

http://www.possible-area.org/nmestudentguide2006.gif

Disclaimer/excuse: Even with my levels of WANerie I am not posting this from work but because I am at home having the hot water fixed.

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Yeah, i wondered about that. I don't think i've ever been to the Hat Club or even heard of it til then...

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I know ... I remember Ruby Nicholls having their own night (Minimal Animal) at the Port, so maybe this is what they mean.

http://www.myspace.com/clubhat looks like it is Captain's London night.

I think the whole thing sounds like they've got a preconception of how they think Cambridge actually is and find things to write about that fit that.

Glad the NME has never gotten their hands on any of my money, worthless bastards to a man.

http://www.myspace.com/clubhat looks like it is Captain's London night.

Then again, if I was asked to write about Cambridge in the NME student guide, I'd probably say the clubnight I help run was the bedrock of the Cambridge music scene, too.

Is it quite as bad and innaccurate as last year's (Fat Poppadaddys being "the best indie night in Cambridge" and the only other clubs mentioned being Ballare)?

It mentions Fat Poppadaddys and The Soul Tree as clubs.

No mention of the Kambar again, then, despite it being right up the NME readership's street?

I quite like the fact that students aren't told where the kambar is because it means I can go there and not bump into people I teach!

Right *cracks fingers*:

There's an interview with james Garner from TCS, info about university of Cambridge (not APU)
Mentions Varsity, TCS papers and CUR1350.
Portland is the best place for Booze, Fopp for records, Galloway and Porter for Discounts, Fudge Kitchen for Food, Ede Ravenscroft for Clothes :)

5 things to do in the first year are: Go Punting, Join the Cambridge Union, save up for May Balls (Suede played in the past apparently!!), Visit Burligh Street (charity shop alley) and Buy a Big Issue from Chris outside Sainsburys. Avoid Ballare.

Fat Poppadaddies at Fez is the best club, Soul Tree is "stylish, has a healthy range of clubs and has intimate gigs". Corn Exchange is best venue, along with the Junction. Digital Village best for gear along with Millers Music.

Pick of the local bands are The Shivers, Hamfatter, The Midnight Schemes and The Cheekbones (who I've never heard of but apparently sound fantastically awful). Got to check em out.

There's an interview with Simon B and a photo of him looking suave. He (apparently) likes The Portland, The Graduate, The Junction and especially Cellar Bar. New bands he recommends are The Resistance (who indeed sound like Muse), The Mono Effect (Emo, but in the proper Jimmy Eat World sense) and the Tuplev Ghost (aggresive, Spikey, Shellac meets Fugazi Rock).

You don't have to buy it now.

We have the NME at work so I flick through now and again. Christ, what balls! It's not how I remember it as a whippersnapper. It's like Just 17. I prefered it when it was all terrible poems about the manics and interviews with Asian Dub Foundation. Wait, or was that REPEAT ;)

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I never said as an overall thing i liked the fucking cellar bar either. I said i liked it as a club and then mentioned BTF. Grrr.

Lol. Yes Simon LOVES the Cellar Bar.

Actually i like it a lot more than i did, although it seems the new person running it is determined to fuck it up again.

He wants to have all it's babies laaa laa laa :)

I've edited my post to add the word "apparently". Legal things, libel, all that sort of thing.

Digital Village best for gear...

Haha, what kind of music gear do they expect Cambridge Students to be buying? Can't imagine there's much call for ridiculously expensive rack compressors or whatever in most student bands. Except for the music tech students.

All they need is a decent system and set up for DJ's. Why oh why oh why is this often bottom of club owners priority lists?

Spend 2 grand for gods sake, it's an investment you will make back.

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I never said as an overall thing i liked the fucking cellar bar either. I said i liked it as a club and then mentioned BTF. Grrr.

Thank you for the attempted plug, anyway. We tried to do the same for Goo and Bad Timing when we were on 6 Music, but it never got broadcast.

All they need is a decent system and set up for DJ's. Why oh why oh why is this often bottom of club owners priority lists?

When we did our first night there, the younger guy who looks after the sound system said most of the DJs they have down there are utter shit. I guess if you're mainly getting really bad DJs there, it wouldn't seem much of a priority to get decent decks down, especially as apparently when they do get decent DJs down there, they tend to bring their own decks.

To be honest, that account sounds better than last years. If you are a student wanting to see reasonably big bands, you are looking to go to the Junction and the Corn Exchange. If you want good music gear, Digital Village isn't too bad- its the only place in town I've seen where you can get the excellent Takamine electro acoustics for 279 quid- they are amazing guitars for the money. The Portland is actually very good for booze (not as good as the Castle, but only because its got a smaller bar).

I've not heard of The Midnight Schemes and The Cheekbones, but Hamfatter and The Shivers are bands who have lots of fans in the city (as many or more as any other band that posts on here). Any account is going to miss out loads of stuff that happens in Cambridge (they've not mentioned anything about the folk scene or the amazing and cheap orchestral music for example) but they've covered a few bases.

oh and Fat Poppadaddies at Fez is a very well run night that is massively popular with students. It should definitely be in a student guide!

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If you want good music gear, Digital Village isn't too bad
My surprise at it being mentioned wasn't that it's a bad shop, more that it's a very very specialised shop who mainly deal in (relatively) esoteric studio gear. There's guitars there, but relegated to a small corner of a shop dominated by rackmounts of channel strips, EQs, compressors and whatever.

Any account is going to miss out loads of stuff that happens in Cambridge (they've not mentioned anything about the folk scene or the amazing and cheap orchestral music for example) but they've covered a few bases

The main complaint is usually that, for who it is, they don't mention or at least highlight what their readership would actually want to read about. You'd not really expect the NME to go into the folk scene or orchestral music, but as much as I don't especially like the place, it's ludicrous for the NME, a magazine that covers mainstream indie, never seems to mention the Kambar.

oh and Fat Poppadaddies at Fez is a very well run night that is massively popular with students. It should definitely be in a student guide!

Yeah, it should, but so should lots of other things that are as much, if not more in line with what the NME writes about.

yeah maybe. But they have limited space right? And Fat Poppadaddies plays a lot of the mainstream indie that the NME writes about (as does the kambar granted).

If you want students to find out about stuff, just get hold of college event officers. Every college has one and they'll let you put posters up, etc. Better still, dump some fliers in the college. Students tend to go where their friends go I guess, which is why most of them tend to stick to more safe bets like the Fez.

I think Rob's point is that FP only plays indie as a (fairly small) part of it's music selection, so if you're looking for a night for NME readers, it's not the logical one to feature.

True. They tend to play that funky organ grinder monkey bollocks for ages whilst people queue to get in.

I'd still rather have the students dancing elsewhere from their supervisor. ;-)

Im not even going to start. *helps SR load up weapons*

I m freelancing at the NME this week, its quite amusing to read all of this! i was flicking through the student guide left on my desk just today....lets hope noones reading my screen...

They tend to play that funky organ grinder monkey bollocks for ages whilst people queue to get in.

That's quite possibly the best genre description I've ever seen. Being fair, I'm not especially up on what Fat Poppadaddys plays these days, last time I went was about 4 years ago. I get the impression from people who have gone that its the most mainstream of mainstream indie mixed with the most mainstream of mainstream rock mixed with the most mainstream of mainstream dance...etc. It's not that it shouldn't be featured, because I think it certainly should, it's just that giving new, indie inclined students the impression that their clubbing options are either that or the Soul Tree (which apparently puts on some good clubnights, but ones that probably wouldn't appeal too much to NME readers, bar the ones that the Shut Up And Dance people put on) is selling the city a little bit short.

Plus, they well shouldn't have cut out the BTF mention, we're new rave, innit, humping the zeitgeist and all that.

http://www.myspace.com/thecheekbones

No audio. Booo

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http://www.myspace.com/thecheekbones

No audio. Booo

Or friends. Or content at all. I'm thinking they're a new band. Probably one that the person they got most of their info from is in.

I hear what you're saying Robadob. Maybe it would be a good idea for the future for local people to write their own student guide. I guess its similar to the fanzine that lozzy is doing- it would be great to get that into students hands.

I'm not a student here but I work for the university, so I'll help in any way I can.