Bands that changed a life – New model army

It’s almost impossible when thinking or reminiscing about the modellers not to look back on their top of the pops appearance.  Lead singer slade the leveller appeared dressed fashionably in his “only stupid b#####ds use heroin” t-shirt. Confrontational anarcho punks conflict then amended this slogan to proclaim that “only stupid b#####ds sign to emi” and the war was on.

My introduction to nma was way before their emi days. They were on abstract records and had just released their debut 7″, the price.  I read the review in sounds and added them to my list of bands to check out when I next travelled across the water to probe records in Liverpool. A year later I got the never mind the jacksons here the Pollocks album of which they had a song, small town England. This prompted me to actively seek out their vengeance lp and I wasn’t disappointed. vengeance was a regular on my turntable in the mid 80’s. There was an intelligent anger about the band and a sound which was infectious  to me.  Heavy bass lines and incredible drumming led a rhythmic rabble that I couldn’t get enough of. Then I heard they were coming to ireland to play in the tv club, to say I was excited was an understatement.  In a way it became my introduction to putting on gigs yourself as I was felt the admission was expensive, £5 for a poor student was the bulk of my weekly spend. I wrote to the band, I interviewed them for my fanzine and asked directly why it was so dear to see them play. Of course the answer I got back was a reasonable one about costs associated with a gig and all that goes into it, promoters, agents, publicists, all those working on the gig need to get paid.  I felt it was too much and resolved to do my own thing – that eventually morphed into hope promotions and I stepped out of that world of the music industry.