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  1. Culture
15 October 2009updated 12 Oct 2023 10:56am

A celebrity endorsement

Where do cultural icons get their political fix?

By Daniel Trilling

Production on the NS culture desk this week has slowed to a crawl as we explore the riches on offer over at the Archived Music Press blog. Some dedicated soul has scanned in pages from old issues of Melody Maker and the New Musical Express, dating from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s.

A niche area, you might think, but this was a time when the UK music press was a more adventurous beast than it is today. Amid the bad puns and profiles of long-forgotten bands such as Menswear or Lush (whose single an interviewer breathlessly describes as “the ‘Wake Up Boo!’ of 1996 . . .”) there is loads of passionate, clever and wilfully subjective writing.

Among the highlights are Caitlin Moran’s interview with Courtney Love in 1994; David Stubbs’s prescient review of Oasis’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, which deconstructed the band’s schtick just as everybody else was going crazy for them; and Everett True’s review of a Tricky and P J Harvey gig in 1995. You can also see the work of acclaimed photographers such as Kevin Cummins, whose work we’ve recently featured.

Oh! But what’s this? A 1988 interview with the Fall’s Mark E Smith where, in between diatribes on Britain’s north-south divide and the state of Labour (good reading for anyone in the current, opposition-bound party), he delivers this choice soundbite:

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Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com Our Thursday ideas newsletter, delving into philosophy, criticism, and intellectual history. The best way to sign up for The Salvo is via thesalvo.substack.com Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates. Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team. The best way to sign up for The Green Transition is via spotlightonpolicy.substack.com
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