What is your best New Model Army memory?

[Stoney]

Now that's the way to sign up!!!!!!!
Nicely done McBastid!!!!! If yer in England again gimme a shout!

[NickyG]

In ten year's time there's a good chance my favourite memory will be the Forum on last 4th of December.  I hadn't seen the Army in so many years, not since London in 1993 (the Astoria, May 5th, if the old ticket stub in the bottom of my cupboard is telling the truth).  My gig-going tailed off in the 90s, so I don't know what it was about last year, but ever since I found out about the tour I had been looking forward to it so much, and it felt so passionate, so intense, even more so after all the years.  In the end it was just such a great night - I was expecting and hoping for a lot, but it was still better.....

But all that's for the future.  I could reminisce about individual gigs but it's hard to put my finger on why one was better than the others.  So my most precious memory isn't about one night - it's a whole period of time around 1989 and 1990 - nights sat in my flat in Nottingham, listening to Thunder and Consolation over and over and over again.  For me it was period of contemplation, change, and, well, to be honest, finally starting to grow up (I think I may still be working on the last bit - I'll manage it eventually!).  Even now when I can't sleep, and I skulk down to our living room on my own and put that album on, there still seem to be new meanings in those songs that I hadn't noticed before.  What can I say - respect due - thank you so much.

[archway]

Slightly off the track  know but having seen NMA at the Marquee a number of times in the mid 80s I always laugh to myself whenever I catch a glimpse of Whams video for "Im your man" or some dribble or the other shot in no less than the Marquee!! Oh Mr Michael you were always such a ****!!

[McBastid]

Now that's the way to sign up!!!!!!!
Nicely done McBastid!!!!! If yer in England again gimme a shout!

Hah! Absolutley, Stoney.  It may be a couple years off but it'll happen and you'll hear from me

[Stoney]

I'll be here mate....... Count on it!

[marcelo]

I have thousands of great memories, but nothing compares when a friend in Germany send me in 1986 here to Brazil "the gost of caim"... love at first meet... a vinil gift that i have until today.....

[crispian]

NMA had taken position as My Favorite Band some years ago but I was always resistant to any sort of "we're in this together" attitude.  Maybe my cold and unfriendly New England background, maybe being the only punk type kid at school (before Kurt Cobain died and it was cool to be a freak), whatever the reason, any sort of group identification set my teeth on edge.  As deeply as I felt their music and as much as their shows were glorious, raucous and redemptive, I could not help but sneer a bit at the cult of the whole thing.  My sister and best friend came along for the ride and experienced it all much the same way. 

Then I found myself dragging a broken heart across the Atlantic to Ireland.  I remembered Joolz and an exceptional email/mail order encounter with her from a couple years ago so I scheduled a tattoo appointment and extended my tramp to England.  I was intimidated, I was being tattooed by one of my favorite visual artists and a woman I knew to be pretty badass.  Of course, meeting Joolz was nothing short of remarkable.  She even assisted this hapless vegan in experiencing Essential British Junkfood.  I am saving more space on my skin for her because one is simply not enough.

Two days after that I dragged my hungover, tired and road weary carcass to Frome for Tommystock.  I watched Joolz perform a poem called "Boy You Need The Road", as I was on my first ever adventure of that kind.  I watched Ed come out and as he finished his set realized he was leading into Vagabonds; New Model Army took the stage and performed like I'd never seen them and you all know the weight a statement like that, about them, carries.

Later, Joolz would find me and present me with a bag of fruit ("it's hard to be vegan in England") and a book of her poetry.  She pulled me by the arm to show Justin the seahorse tattoo and she introduced me to an acquaintance who offered me his car to sleep in for the night; if you're reading this, thanks again man, I really needed that.  I went to a lock in that night and drank til 4 in the morning with my favorite band in the world and a whole bunch of other fantastic people.

All that, and it wasn't even the charity and genuine friendship offered without reservation.  All that simply solidified the feeling.  It was somewhere in the middle of that first song when it hit me.  This was happening and I was part of it.  I remember thinking "okay, I give in, I'll join the ******* cult, where do I sign?"  It's not a movement, it's not a club or a label.  It's a shared perspective and a mutual understanding and goddamn, it is awesome.  In the year and a half since then, every show I've seen, every story I've told, the release of Today Is A Good Day and the weekend in Brooklyn with my sister; it's all taken on a whole new dimension and I'll be carrying this with me for the rest of my life.  Thank you to everyone who helps create this.

Welcome...
...you're obviously not to know this(me being me,no-one does really), but I'm in a pretty awful mess at the moment and that entry has made such a strong impression on me...18 months ago ,my life was changed(it's only lack of confidence in myself that doesn't let me write 'saved'...) by a woman from New England who came over here a few years ago and after a couple of years was stranded here with a broken heart too...she's NEVER bought band t-shirts herself cos she's so resistant to the idea of being a 'fan'...and then the NMA gig in Leeds,on the Today...tour changed that and she wears it proudly ever since,including at the 3 other NMA gigs we've gone to since...I'm gonna keep this brief cos it could potentially go on forever at the moment,but your entry just helped me see some things I needed to see about my own life,and,y'know-thanx for that.
Thanx xx

[wenzelwolf]

i guess it was 1996.. and the crew and nma played videogames.. and after the concert at the tourbus.. everbody would scream " one big fireball" and would throw it in your direction..

first and last time i send a fireball towards justin. lol.

[Johnny99]

In something like 22 years, I have only actually seen NMA twice and the first time doesn't count because it was Justin, unplugged, in a huge theater in Miami Beach, with something like 60 people present. But it was one of those "life changing" events nonetheless. It's strange to think about because at the time Justin was probably younger than I am now. What I remember most is this sense that, wow, I've never seen anyone express so much, real, punkish passion on an acoustic guitar. This was back in the old days when Justin's chops were not so great, but it didn't matter at all. Everything was there that needed to be there -- attitude, amazing songwritng. It was, if I remember correctly, about a year before Thunder & Consolation came out. I suppose what makes these moments great is not so much what the performer does, as what happens inside of us. Something broke way down inside, like all the tension of my difficult childhood flooding out at once, and for the first time, my own feelings about the world making sense. It is a memory I cherish.

[Heno]

man, all equally the best

although i do have a leaning towards acoustic, small numbers, intimacy

[ruckedout]

I think my best memory was the very first time i saw NMA at the Hummingbird - i think thats the 02 academy now - what a great night, i was only about 16 at the time, being surrounded by 6'6" tatoo sporting beard wearing guys ferociously battling with each other down at the front, then spotting a slightly smaller guy emerge from the fray with a broken nose are images i will never forget, been to see every other concert in the midlands ever since.

[stompy13]

when was the gig as there is a bootleg of a Hummingbird concert kicking about somewhere?

[ruckedout]

Not sure, it was a while back.....maybe 91/92 somewhere around there....my memory is rubbish. I do remember one concert (might not have been the hummingbird) they did a cover of  Summer In The City which was quite good.

[Stoney]

Was the Hummingbird gig on the "Two Dogs" Xmas tour in 91? It was a great gig, tho' bloody freezing in the van that night!

[ruckedout]

Yeah i think it might have been, cant say for sure. I have a feeling it was the love of hopless causes tour in the 90's. I was brought up with NMA before that though, i will never forget asking my foster parents to let me borrow their radio so i could listen to them live at wembely - if i remember rightly whilst "i love the world" was finishing the radio guy who was covering the event said some along the lines of.....'No-one really knows who this band is but they sure can play live'....something like that, i didnt really care what he said to be honest i was mesmorised and still wish to this day that i could have been a part of that crowd....oh well i have been to many great gigs since then and will keep the NMA faith.