First NMA Experience

[Pooka-67]

1984, The Roxy in York.  For many weeks 'danced' myself ragged to a track that me and my mates were convinced was called 'Getting The Bastards'.  Eventually found out who it was and it's real title.  Bought the album shortly after that.  The buggers had snared me.  Have had a few wilderness moments in the intervening years, due to work, relationships etc, etc, but never stopped buying the new albums as they were released.  Life wouldn't be the same........

[Mardukas]

A friend from school introduced me to T&C back in 1990. I was totally swept away by "I love the world" and "225".
Later, summer of -91, I bought a Sony Discman in Andorra La Vella during a vacation.
Two CDs were bought as well: Impurity and RMM. The trip back to Sweden was wonderful. NMA all the way.

[JME]

I've been listening to RMM today in the car and I think it's a great CD along with the front cover.

Happy listening.

JME

[Fluffy Wytch]

Would love to say have listened from the start - but would be a lie, my friends found Bros (or something equally bad) and I heard 51st state - boughtGOC and got totally hooked (in about 1986)  but my first live concert was not until 30 April 1993 (at Bournemouth) which was mind blowing!!!! so now in 21st centry finally got my act together and joined the forum!!!

[Jeff Bishop]

I worked in the one record store in my sad little town in southern virginia. we would get lps that would never sell and send them back to the distributor after a few weeks of collecting dust. i, of course, had to open them up first if they looked at all interesting. this would have been 1986 i think. i got fired from there in less then a year. in that year i found NMA's White Coats ep, the Pogues Red Roses, New Order's Substance (maybe) and Black Uhuru. These were all records that were gonna be returned to wherever they came from cause no one in petersburg va wanted to buy em. what a surprise. we had no college radio, or access to anything other then what was top 40 or classic rock on the radio. I had this one friend with an uncle who would play stuff for us. i remember hearing my first smith's song: the boy with the thorn in his side. about a year or two before this i was introduced to the clash, x, generation x and siouxsie by a surf punk from nags head north carolina. 
i kept that White Coats ep, and on my next trip to NYC (ah, you young kids have no idea what we had to do to get records 20 years ago) i came home with the first three LPs and a few bootlegs and 12 inches. i still love the 12inch extended i have of Brave New World I found on that trip...
My first show was 1989 (i think) at the old 930 Club in Washington DC.  I stood behind the pit, mesmerized. I still have one of the two shirts I bought that night. Its barely wearable now....

[Train In Vain]

Hi all - stumbled across the site by way of a nostalgic afternoon via google. It is great to think back to crazy times as a youth in the early 80's. Like others, I was a huge Jam, Clash & Stranglers fan and found NMA in a club in Glasgow called Nite Moves, Sunday nights were awesome following on from the previous nights at either Glasgow Tech or Strathclyde Uni level 8.

Following that outstanding appearance on the Tube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkTFo-AZysQ

 I first saw the guys in May 84 at Nite Moves,  again in December 84' at the Heathery Bar followed by Ayr Pavilion where an altercation with some Skinheads took place and then again in May 85 at Glasgow Uni QMU. Not sure what happened after that but that was the last time I saw them.

Some memories- although a bit fuzzy-  travelling to Wishaw on a Friday night 5 spikey haired leather clad degenerates in the back of an Austin Maxi, Heathery Bar was really small with very low ceiling awesome intimate gig, same team again for Ayr on the Sunday evening, for some reason some skins attended and started causing a bit of bother in the mosh, our mob faced up to them and they backed off.
Travelled down to London in the Feb to see Killing Joke at Hammersmith Palais, spent a day in Camden Market, picked up a NMA bootleg in tape form and a massive Tour poster which was promptly put on my bedroom wall when i got back.

Glasgow Uni QMU- as luck would have it, we blagged our way into the dressing room, and chatted for a good half hour, I remember discussing with Slade the length of time it took for my "Only Stupid B'strds use Heroin" T Shirt to arrive, I can't remember how I ordered it pre web, must have been through a music paper. Had a long chat with Joolz about a recent holiday to Newquay, lovely lady, she signed my T shirt.

Joolz did the support that night and sadly wasn't well received, I think she finally walked off, NMA hit the stage in blistering form, Slade was not impressed by the gobbing from some Idiots.

The idiotic point for me was crowd surfing off the stage, thankfully it was near the end when the bouncers had clearly had enough by my third surf and ejected me , oh well, it was a great night.

I must have a look around my parents house to see if that poster is in the attic, suspect it has probably been binned, I do know though that there is a live VHS video there.


Happy memories - will try and get to a gig soon  

[Darkness]

Listening to John Peel way back in 1982. He played 'Bittersweet', I taped it and was hooked...

[kmjpe2]

I HEARD VENGEANCE AT A FRIENDS HOUSE IN 1985 THEN I SEEN THEM ON TOP OF THE POPS PLAYING LIVE AND LOVED IT .i BOUGHT NO REST AND THEN WAS RIGHT AT THE FRONT AT THE RITZ IN MANCHESTER A FEW WEEKS LATER .

SEEN THEM AROUND TWENTY TIMES SINCE LOVED MOST ALBUMS THINK jUSTIN IS A HIGHLY UNDERATED WRITER .GOD BLESS NMA

[BillyMcann]

My first experience was seeing NMA live in Keithley in the early 80's with a mate who lived near Wharfedale and he had heard good things about 'this new local band'. I was immediately touched by the sheer passion that is still with the band today. My best live experience was Reading 89, I had left the front of the stage as my nose had took an elbow and was bleeding, the drum intro to Love songs started and , for some reason, I was just taken with the whole moment, the sun going down, the festival smells, the damp smell in the air......everything just seemed to be right. Still makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.
Random but memorable experience, driving home from a Derby gig on Bonfire night, I think 1984. Me and my mate had borrowed another friends rather battered 'plastic pig' (Reliant Robin to the unfamiliar, basically a fibreglass car with three wheels, like the Trotter mobile from Only Fools and Horses), anyway, on a dark windy country road, with the Vengance tape blaring out from the tape player (I will not call it a stereo cos I think it only had one pathetic speaker) when we discovered that the Robin did not in fact handle like a motorcycle (at the time you did not need a full car licence to drive a R-Robin, a motorcycle licence covered you) as we tried to take a sharp right bend but ended up on two wheels going sort of staright ahead, straight through an open gateway into a ploughed field ! Iwas thrown around and when the thing came to a halt (on its side) all was dark and eerily quiet. I remember thinking that maybe I was dead, until the Bass harmonic intro to Vengeance seemed to some out of nowhere, flollowed by my friends expletive laced reaction to our mishap. What was even more amazing was the three miners (on their way to a night shift) who saw us go into the field. These three helped us get the car back onto three wheels and push it back onto the road, one even gave me a cup of coffee out of his flask before asking me how I managed to keep my Mohican sticking up like that !! At the same time we could still see fireworks going off all around, what a night. Needless to say, Vengeance brings that night back to me every time I hear it.

[little owl]

My first experience with NMA was so fitting that it should be made into a movie. I was running away from home at 15. I snuck out the window and into my boyfriend's car and as we were driving away from the house and the city, "Family Life" blared out of his stereo.

That was all it took for me.

Over 20 years later now and not only is NMA still my favorite band in the world, but "Family Life" will forever encompass that decision in my life...and the ensuing freedom that came with choosing the amazing Family that I have around me now.

Guess I ought to thank you boys. It's a little late, but thanks NMA.

[richfox14]

When I was about 14 (1990/91) I used to spend any spare money I had on music. Although I was out of my time with it I was really attracted to the 'old school' Goth of the early eighties - I loved the music, the titles and lyrics, and the artwork, I went for it all - it all felt like home, and still does. That isn't to class NMA as being anything to do with Goth, but they certainly had the same cult appeal I was attracted to.

I bought Impurity on tape pretty much on impulse because I'd heard of NMA here and there and was intrigued. They were something of an enigma to me at the time, and I loved the artwork and mystique of it all. I remember taking it back to a mate's house and playing it and I fell for it instantly, it was exactly what I'd been looking for. When I first heard 'Eleven Years' it sent shivers down my spine, and quite often it still does when I listen to it to this day. That song, and the whole album, has so many memories and so much nostalgia attached to it that it's quite hard to put into words. So I won't try too hard to do it, I'll just say a big thank you to everyone that's been involved with NMA since the beginning. I don't have a favourite band, there are far too many that I like so much, but I can honestly say I've never had the same experiences I've had watching NMA live with any other band. They are unique. Thank you x

[Hesperus]

My dad used to go all over the shop to see NMA, so my earliest memory is probably washing the pots about aged 12, listening to the ghost of cain in our old CD player, saw them live for the first time at HMV forum in december, and against in leamington spa recently!
now just want to save up for the anniversary stuff, so i can finally hear some of the more obscure older songs that i havent heard live

[tank]

Being a young 'un, I never had the oppurtunity to listen properly when they were in their heyday, but having parents who adored them helped. First real memory is my Mum bounding through the house singing Vagabonds and me as a 5 year old singing along...
I happened to hear Vengeance a few years later, went straight out and bought Raw Melody Men. The passion and intensity caight me immediately and I've been hooked ever since
Haven't been able to see them live yet, sadly...

[witch]

Hi,
It all started back in 1986 when I was 12 years old and used to hang with a gang of punks ( or those who at least wanted to become punks
One day a guy came along . we`re just killing time in some park, and his jacket immediately caught my attention : it had all kinds of stickers on it and one big of them was the NMA logo.
I was totally fascinated and asked him what it mean.He was kind enough to explainthe band history and the meaning of your work to me-I remeber him saying that NMA wasnt just another 80 ´s punk band but a special project with lyrics that capture your soul and had guided him trough life ever since.Needless to say that I bought my first NMA LP No rest for the wicked the very next day-very much to my parents regrets cause I put it on infinite loop for months.
I should I´ve konwn by then if I got inti this it will be for life -thank God, I ignored the guy warning and here I today , still a soldier on duty, never regretted a second of it.
Now at 36 years of age , my husband and 2 kids have accepted my addiction and even got infected to some level as well.They support me in any way they can,accompany me at the concerts and other activities because they know that thios is my source of strenght.
The NMA family as I liketo call both the followers and the band itself
( Inkluding Joolz  thanks a million for the amazing art work - you totally saved my wardrobe from beeing all plain black, now I can wear a different t-shirt every day of the week) helps to handling my  daily life and keep me inner balance.
At this point I´d like to thank the guys for being one of the rare reliable things in my life-through your music I learned to seeevery day as a good day
cheers witch

[ashpretani]

went with a mate in a customised black ford capri from preston for an adventure,  to a spot in bradford called scamps in 1980 to see a band I'd never heard of....fell in love,   went to the 20:2000 gigs at rock city and  still here after all these years with tix for the 30th in nottingham on the same date it all started for me.

my only wish would have been back in bradford for that date,  esp as my journey has brought me to live within a spit now

sometimes I feel dead old,  then I crank up the music and I'm  a teenager again.  Thanks for the love affair