The first time NMA really stuck out for me was watching 'No Rest' on 'Top of the Pops' - I was an impressionable fourteen year old living in the rural Midlands, bored and wanting excitement. They blazed into my consciousness with a mix of attitude (the 'Only stupid b*stards use heroin t-shirt' scored extra points to my teenage mind!) , long hair and this catchy tune. They were clearly so different from the prevalent moustache, short hair and 'sports casual' look that dominated the market towns in the eighties - here was someone daring to be different! It seemed like the song was written just for me. I was hooked.
I didn't get to see them live until September 1987, when a close mate and I got a lift to Northampton station (courtesy of his dad in a Ford Cortina) and then a train up to Birmingham New Street, where we mooched along to the Powerhouse venue (now a gym!) and had a magical evening. I was my second gig (the first being 'The Fall' in May at Leicester Poly), but it was INCREDIBLE. It was the 'Whitecoats' tour and it blew me away. I remember my mate and I staggering back to the last train, somewhat worse for wear on the beer, giddy with that special sense of belonging, that someone out there had finally given us words to describe our existence as we felt it to be. Our excitement was short-lived as we had a drunken near-panic on the train, thinking we were on the wrong train, and deciding to leap off the train as it departed the station. The train did an emergency stop, and the guard came bustling along, but ended up laughing gently at us before clarifying that this WAS the right train, and all was well.
I followed the Army a lot from 1989 - 1995 and had a fantastic time, with very memorable events. (Playing five-a-side against / with the band outside venues on a 'small town village halls' tour sometime in the early nineties, sleeping rough outside Cambridge Station because the Police had caught us sleeping in a mate's car etc), an incredible tour of cities and towns and the very best of friendships, inspiration and music that even now sends a shiver up my spine and takes me to a higher place.
My music tastes have diversified as I have got older, but it's a rare week that I don't listen to a NMA album, and it will always hold a special place in my heart and head. I'm hoping to go see them live again this coming tour - my first time since seeing them at the King's Hall in Bradford in 1995. Happy days!
