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Underground > Radio & Music >

New Model Army

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:22 / 09.01.05

I just picked up today Justin Sullivan/Dave Blomberg's "Big Guitars In Little Europe", put it on my walkman and cried in the pub. And it got me to thinking...

NMA are probably (all usual Stoatie hyperbole aside) my favourite band- since I was about 17, there's never been a point in my life when I haven't listened to them, when they haven't seemed relevant, when they haven't, for those minutes while they're actually on, seemed like the best music ever.

There's something that always makes me, not ashamed to like them, but feel like I should be ashamed to like them... not sure what that is, exactly- although, yes, I did used to be guilty of the majority of cliches attached to them- the shaved sides, huge dreaded ponytail hairdo... the kitbag... hitching to gigs... and yes, I've even been known to wear clogs.

I've probably seen them more times than any other band, save (possibly) the Bad Seeds, and I've never seen them play a bad gig.

I think it's the blend of the personal and the political- for every "Vengeance" there's a "Ghost Of Your Father", for every "51st State" a "Green And Grey".

There's just something about the passion and anguish Mr Sullivan puts into every fucking syllable of every fucking song that gets me every time. Many's the time I've been found, while going through a bad patch, lying on the floor shitfaced singing along to NMA with tears in my eyes.

Quite frankly, my response to this band is just plain embarrassing.

So why do I feel I should be embarrassed about liking them? (Note- I wear my NMA fanhood with pride, hence this not being in the "musical confessions" thread.) As I'm prone to saying in my drunker moments, "what? Why don't you get New Model Army? They're fucking ace?"

Sorry. This was supposed to be a question, not a fucking love letter. Who else on the board likes NMA, and why haven't I, or anyone else, started a thread about them before? Share your responses to the band, or the questions, here.

14:26 / 10.01.05

Working at the sharp end of the cultural and entertainments scene in Bradford as I do, I'm in pretty regular contact with Justin and his partner Joolz Denby (so much so that she's doing the cover tag-line for my novel - sorry, couldn't resist getting a plug in).

NMA are pretty much universally ignored in the UK, which is a crying shame as they've got to be one of the hardest working and consistently brilliant bands of the past 20 years.

They're constantly on tour, mainly on mainland Europe where they go absolutely crackers for them and they're still selling out huuuge venues. But over here, well, probably three out of five music fans you'd randomly poll in the streets would think they've split up long ago, I'd reckon.

But, yes. Great staying power and nary a dull song among their set.

BTW, Stoatie, if you're up North over the next ten weeks or so there's an exhibition of NMA artwork and memoribilia at the Cartwright Hall museum in Bradford, which would be worth checking out.

15:41 / 10.01.05

I don't know... I really don't want to tread on anyone's toes here, but don't they just basically sound a bit like The Alarm ?

And while I'm on the subject - being this coked-up media vampire who's never done a days decent graft in his entire jaded, ineffectual, A Rebours type existence, who probably sat there laughing in his sailor suit as Dad closed the last mine, so this open to question, - but Sax, are you totally sure that jacket copy from Joolz, the poet, is going to play well in the Groucho ?

All I'm saying is, beware of coming across as too overtly Northern. It's probably fun for a couple of weeks, and Portia, Suzzie and J-J-Jane will almost certainly try and have you in the lavs - " God, he's so exotic, they have trucks up there ! " but after a while, unless you're prepared to really get with the programme, you, as a talented writer from past the M25, may well fade a bit, unless you're prepared to discuss, in public, your plans to spend a lot of your next advance on bombing Yorkshire.

Word to the wise, and all that.

16:40 / 10.01.05

NMA will always be a great band. I also agree stongly about the stronger following in Europe. This was shown when, about 8 years ago they did a lo-key gig at the Tivoli in Buckley, North Wales where they were trying out new material. Anyway the night was definately memorable as i ended up talking to people from all over Europe, from Germany to Spain to Sweden.

Great night, great memory.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:08 / 10.01.05

don't they just basically sound a bit like The Alarm ?

Outside.
NOW!

06:53 / 11.01.05

Alex - (while not wanting to rot the thread any further) - Joolz is a Southern laydee and I'm from Lancashire. So I'd quite happily bomb Yorkshire.

09:36 / 17.08.05

One for Stoatie... Just had the new NMA album Carnival drop into my sweaty mitts. Out for the rest of youse proles on September 5.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:41 / 17.08.05

Ooh! Can't wait!
What's it like?

(Incidentally, I just got Mr Sullivan's solo album "Navigating By The Stars". It has the shipping forecast on it. It is ace.)

20:40 / 23.08.05

NMA are fantastic and, he said echo chamber-like, criminally ignored. I can honestly say that I've only ever met one other person who liked them, other than people I managed to brainwash.

Plus their fans used to kick the shit out of people who liked the Mission. Superb.

J...

Mon Oncle Ignatius

21:30 / 23.08.05

As Stoatie knows, I quite like NMA when I've heard him play them (a lot). I can't say I recall right now what The Alarm sound like, but I've not heard them nearly as much as NMA.

The image of Stoatie forming part of a sweaty pyramid full of huge muscley Northern cloggies at NMA gigs is quite disturbing (as anyone who has ever met the chap will no doubt confirm), so the only occasion on which I bought a ticket to see NMA, I sold it outside The Marquee (the Charing X Road one). At face value I hasten to add, plus a UFO as an extra incentive.

Anyhow, back to NMA. I think I lke them well enough to listen to a whole album, and have done, sometimes while watching Stoatie lie on the floor. However, I haven't got a single record by them, not even that remix of "Vengeance" Zion Train did. Maybe I should...

23:46 / 27.08.05

Though I've never really fit the "NMA fan" stereotype as described above (actually most strangers seem to mistake me for a bonehead these days), they're in my top five of all-time favourite bands. Cranes and Joy Division are still fighting for the top spot, but NMA usually occupies 3rd place. Haven't yet managed to see them live, unfortunately.

(Was playing Snelsmore Wood just now. Great song.)

14:12 / 01.09.05

I've never gotten around to hearing them yet, but based on the above endorsements, I just bought a ticket to go see them on the 26th...

...not having a clue what they sound like makes it more fun!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:40 / 01.09.05

Nice one, Baz. Hope you enjoy it. To my mind, they're one of the best live bands around at the moment. Christ knows how many times I've seen them, but I've never seen them play a bad show. Let us know what you think, yeah?

Tom Paine's Bones

12:58 / 05.09.05

I adore New Model Army with a passion. Unlike many of the bands I was into when I was 16, who still bring back good memories, but I can’t actually listen to their records all that often anymore (step forward Crass) I still get as excited and happy listening to NMA now as I did then.

I’ve always had a rather embarrassing belief that their lyrics were written specifically for me as well.

And I actually like the Northerness. It’s nice to see a Northern band who don’t hide the fact, particularly considering they’re from a less ‘fashionable’ part of the North. I do think it’s been a major factor in the music presses hostility to them however. Strangely enough, I don’t remember the same journalists ever criticising Blur or the Kinks for being too southern.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:33 / 05.09.05

Bought "Carnival" this morning. And I've only listened to it twice, but it's astounding. In particular, the last track, "Bonfire Night"- a tribute to the late Rob Heaton, who died on November 4th- is beautiful:

"And by now you'll be further out than I ever went, and is it still painless?
Do you get to float and look down and do all of that?
Tonight would be as good a night as any
You'll see the city alive like a great resting animal
lying in the lea of the hills and the moorland
and breathing little patterns of fire into the cold dark coming of winter"- I only wish I could make something as lovely as that track in memory of the dead.

It's an ace album- it's generally more raw than the last couple, fairly punky, like a bigger, more epic version of the early NMA, but with a couple of wonderful guitar crescendos putting me in mind of Cope's Safesurfer (never a bad thing, really)... lyrically, of course, it's brilliant- timelier than ever, really, with the war on terror and man's effect on the environment (two of NMA's major concerns) being quite so apparent right now...

Of course, hardly anyone will buy it, which is a tragedy... I can't wait to see this stuff live (haven't seen 'em for about three years, but I'm definitely feeling that urge again...)

Along with NIN's "With Teeth", this looks like it could be my favourite album of the year. Predictable? Me?

15:01 / 05.09.05

i dunno, i'm from yorkshire, love music with passion, politics and grit, even used to hitchhike all over england when i were a lad but, just always found NMA too damn dour and badly dressed to ever be contenders. for me dexys did it so much better and did it with, dare i say it, soul.

and better shoes.

and the fall, despite being from lancashire, just had a mercurial wit that was a joy, and gang of four were just so smart and funky.

saying that NMA fans were alwys very pleasant when you met them on services on the M1 and seemed to follow the band with a passion that was a joy to see but it just never clicked. however, many years later i could be convinced. where do i start?

Tom Paine's Bones

15:08 / 05.09.05

I'd say the best album to start with if you're not sure is probably Thunder and Consolation. In many ways it's the most accessible.

Tabitha Tickletooth

05:19 / 09.09.05

Just got this for my birthday (Carnival, that is) - first listen verdict: ace. Particularly loved Prayer Flags for some reason. Seems to combine wonderfully familiar, comfortable woolly jumperishness in all the good ways with newness and relevance. V v cool. More reasoned assessment to follow after multiple listenings.

08:09 / 09.09.05

Prayer Flags very good, I agree - a nice upbeatness about it.

This is NMA's "hometown" album - BD3 and LS43 are Bradford postcodes, Carlisle Road is a street in the city, scene of the riots of three years ago. Particularly liked the agit-pop of Another Imperial Day.

I'm interviewing Justin next week sometime - any questions you lot would like me to put to him?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:13 / 26.09.05

How'd the interview go, Sax?

I knew this would happen... NMA albums have a way of catching me after a few weeks. First it's the novelty of having new Army stuff, so I listen to it over and over... then I don't hear it for a week or so. And when I put it on again it's become as classic as any of their other stuff, and I find I know all the words. Absolutely fucking beautiful. (I'm saving my proper analysis for the review I'll do for Freq... will post link when it's up).

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

17:17 / 20.10.05

Stoatie can I have my taste in music back?

"Plus their fans used to kick the shit out of people who liked the Mission. Superb."

Militia vs. Eskimos?

Perhaps we should trade NMA myths, two casuals clogged to death as a result of vengeance?

Possibly my favorite band and in my opinion the last British rock band, once they've gone we can wrap it up and call it a day (as I say this is just my opinion I'm not looking for a fight). Thunder & Consolation, where I came in, my favorite album. Family is my favorite song then Green & Grey. Favorite gig was Bournemouth I think in '93 on the Love of Hopless Causes tour (my least favorite album). A few of my friends are big fans as well, nobody seems to just dip into the catalogue either, you're either in or out.

I met Rob Heaton once he was a really nice guy, very quiet and thoughtful.

I've spent a lot of time in Bradford and seemed to have a habit of being in the same room as Justin Sullivan and not realising until after the fact. I used to get annoyed with an ex of mine who came from Bradford but didn't like NMA. Seemed somehow disloyal.

I think the reason they never got on with the music press was they seemed to be something of a contradiction in terms of their politics. The left was their but it was complicated by songs like the Hunt, Liberal Education and Heroin which were the bands very open and honest response to what they saw going on around them but didn't seem to fit in with the liberal nature of that the music press felt the alternative scene had.

I'll be at Leeds on Dec 17th to see them this time round.

I agree with Stoatie they figure very strongly in my soundtrack.

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

17:47 / 20.10.05

The thing about NMA, and I doubt I'll be able to express this properly, is they seemed to have aged in synchronous with myself. From my angry teens with Notice Me, Small Town England and the Hunt slowing down with Bury the Hatchet and then Strange Brotherhood and Eight, still angry but quieter more reflective. Perhaps that gets back to that feeling of all the lyrics being written for you,that Figroll was talking about and maybe that feeling's what singles them out for their fans as Figroll is not the first person I've heard say something like that.

Whenever I go to Bradford of Leeds (and often Scotland or Hull) I've always got at least one of their albums in the car.

18:46 / 29.10.05

They could be very good of course. I liked them (holding my nose a bit) cos you could actually /dance/ to them. There was something about them prefigured rave I think.

But... I was friends with a lot of Militia, a lot of nice people, but as a /body/... it was just so much macho toss. An excuse to act like a cunt. They were just goths with muscles really.

And musically it was really /white/ and terribly, terribly conservative. Yes I know at the time the band were quite into conscious hip hop, as well as folk, but they were just a greasy rock band really. Which isn't terribly interesting.

I'm glad they're now unknown in the UK but sell well abroad. It means they can make a living without being hassled in their home country. Good for them, seriously.

Their worse song was White Coats -- a nasty excuse for prejiudice against braincells.

Their best song was Green and Grey -- simply the perfect paean for Yorkshire landscape.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:03 / 30.07.07

Listening to the new album now.

And so far it's FUCKING AWESOME.

12:18 / 31.07.07

Hmm, I'll have to check it out Stoats. Been a while since I bought an NMA record. As for the comment about White Coats above, have to agree, can't listen to that without cringing though pretty much everything else has stood the test of time.

Anyone for a ltd ed. 12" of White Coats?