NMA... as good as they ever were?

[CROWMAN]

I first started following the band on Impurity Tour in 1990 same as Mr Stone and Lot of others on hear and for me NMA have allways Been a great live Band .And still got Something about them which i think alot of other bands HaveNot.
I not seen the New line Live as yetDue to Not working ect But sounds like it Still as good as it ever was. I keep meaning to go and see Motorhead  live but will it be as good as was in 79/80?
Take it easy   

[Master Ray]

I first started following the band on Impurity Tour in 1990 same as Mr Stone and Lot of others on hear and for me NMA have allways Been a great live Band .And still got Something about them which i think alot of other bands HaveNot.
I not seen the New line Live as yetDue to Not working ect But sounds like it Still as good as it ever was. I keep meaning to go and see Motorhead  live but will it be as good as was in 79/80?
Take it easy 

Hey, I've only gotten back into Motorhead over the last few years, and I can guarantee to you that it's well worth getting a ticket.  Never saw them back in the late seventies, I was quite a bit too young for gigs back then, but, from when I've seen them, they are still the best pure rock and roll band on the planet!

Wow... should have thought of Motorhead when I was doing my original post!

[MARKXE]

Demented are Go, not everyones cup of tea I know but still here since 82 and the last album was quality.

[Stoney]

Demented are Go, not everyones cup of tea I know but still here since 82 and the last album was quality.

Couldn't agree more Mark! The last 2 cd's have been possibly their best ever I think...........
Sparky is a mad man, and a Keyside Strike friend n fan aswell! Obviously a visionary! lol

[Belza]

Stiff Little Fingers still put on a cracking live show after 35 years on the road but their recorded output has been sparce over the last few years.  Apart from that no-one I can think of has the longevity of NMA or as you say has continued to make quality album after quality album.

[declan cowdrey]

The last AMEBIX album was as good if not better than their previous ones!
Also finally got to see them live a few times and was not disappointed.....😲
ARISE....,,..........,.,....

[Jonesy]

Not quite in the same musical sphere, but MACHINE HEAD are as strong or stronger than they were in the first couple of releases. The Blackening is a masterful display of metal/thrash....... Call it what ya like.

I've tried so hard to get into Machine Head, but I can't help but think that both guitarists were in Vio-Lence. Vio-Lence were amazing and what they write/release now is nowhere near on par with that stuff.

[Stoney]

I wasn't sold on VIOLENCE I have to admit, BURN MY EYES is still my favourite Machine Head release I have to admit. It's ferocious and I love the production. The drums are especially mesmerising.......
Have a listen to the first minute and a halfof this to see what I mean............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_MFfyevGks

My personal favourite track by them is this tho'.........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=mR8FG_NJmp0&NR=1

The last couple of minutes sees me knock the tar out of my steering wheel n dashboard regularly.    At a minute 30 the drums do that huge tribal thing again aswell.

[Neily]

I followed Spear of Destiny around the country until  5 or 6 years back. Then the music just stopped hitting the right buttons. I still keep an ear out and i'm pleased for KB that there appears to be a new lease of life. Maybe we change as we get older rather than the bands losing it, although of course they are getting older as well....
Those that continue to do it? NMA (obviously) Bob Mould, Mike Peters, Wedding Present. Reading Vive Le Rock is sometimes depressing - bands still living in the 80's, but still a good read! Saw Therapy? last year, bloody brilliant, still as mad as badgers. Spend 50% time listening to new 'stuff' now (Rise Against streets ahead of most things modern) .

[Jonesy]

My personal favourite track by them is this tho'.........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=mR8FG_NJmp0&NR=1

The last couple of minutes sees me knock the tar out of my steering wheel n dashboard regularly.    At a minute 30 the drums do that huge tribal thing again aswell.

Whoaaaah!!! That end section is the mutts nuts. I can see where you're coming from. I'll borrow the whole thing off a mate and give it a try.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-NgkLYbQ0U

[Stoney]

I followed Spear of Destiny around the country until  5 or 6 years back. Then the music just stopped hitting the right buttons. I still keep an ear out and i'm pleased for KB that there appears to be a new lease of life. Maybe we change as we get older rather than the bands losing it, although of course they are getting older as well....
Those that continue to do it? NMA (obviously) Bob Mould, Mike Peters, Wedding Present. Reading Vive Le Rock is sometimes depressing - bands still living in the 80's, but still a good read! Saw Therapy? last year, bloody brilliant, still as mad as badgers. Spend 50% time listening to new 'stuff' now (Rise Against streets ahead of most things modern) .

Two members of Rise Against used to be in 88 Fingers Louie. Saw them in Leeds years n years ago and they were pretty damned good. They put a few cd's out on FAT Wreckords. Well worth a look if you like Rise Against. =) See where they came from.

[NickyG]

Stiff Little Fingers still put on a cracking live show after 35 years on the road but their recorded output has been sparce over the last few years.  Apart from that no-one I can think of has the longevity of NMA or as you say has continued to make quality album after quality album.

Just saw a couple of dates on the recent SLF tour – great sets, great nights, great times...   but then I got to thinking that while some of the newer  songs are undoubtedly good, what I really wanted to hear is Inflammable Material, a bit of Nobodys Heroes and the early singles....  which  backs up the post at the top of this thread.

With the Army it doesn’t feel like that. Every album has had classic songs and personal favourites on it, including the most recent ones. It’s good to hear a mix of old and new in the sets, but I don’t spend all the time waiting for stuff off the first 4 albums which is what I might do with other bands and it wouldn’t be the end of the world if they didn’t always play them.

I don’t buy the line that every NMA album is unquestionably faultless and an instant ‘hit’ (eg it took me some time getting into Carnival), but they are prolific writers and continue to come up with the goods. So if something comes out that is a bit more ‘difficult’ or ’adventurous’ then I think, well, give it a go, and if you get into it then that’s great, but if you don’t like it so much, well fine there’s still a whole catalogue there that  other bands could only dream of anyway.

[Pazza]

What he said and a lot of the rest of you said.

As I gradually dropped a lot of back in the day bands off the back of the (Red Lorry Yellow Lorry) van, the band I always came back to were NMA.

I like a number of the 'newer' albums at least as much if not more than the older ones. T&C is and always will be a classic. But then Impurity is just such a great album. As is TGOC and NRFTW etc etc. But then so are Carnival, High and TIAGD.

So they pretty much all dropped off and every so often I see a band that can briefly ignite something more than the amorphous pack (Sonic Boom Six live in front of 40 people in a tiny subterranean bar in Bournemouth as a warm up for Sonisphere ranks right up there).

But noone, for me, writes songs like the ones JS writes. NMA live are just awesome, who else not only gets you outta the pub on time (Barty!) but makes you feel like you're about to watch a major cup final - night after night?

That's why we all do what we do I guess.

[Master Ray]

Pazza and NickyG, you have put it into words far better than an idiot like me ever could. 

The old stuff is great.  The new stuff is great.  Not all of it hits the spot for all of us (prsonally, 'Love Of Hopeless Causes' is an album that didn't exactly float my boat... I'll take some brickbats for that one, I'm sure...) but we're all still here and we're all as passionate as we ever were...

And I hope a lot of us will be there at the Christmas gigs, dying to hear what the lads have come up with next... and even if it doesn't meet our personal tastes, we know damn well we'll be getting that album!

I can't think of another band that inspires that passion after over 30 years...

[Ron B]

Yes New Model Army is still as good as when I 1st saw the White Coats video on MTV a very long time ago. That tells you how far back I remember them .For the longest time I never got the chance to see this great band live until 2005  from that point on whenever they play NYC I try to catch the show and I have never been dissapointed .

As for other bands that have lasted as long as NMA well not to many bands can last 30yrs in particular with the changing sound and times and still sound as fresh and put out New material without them being labeled as their reunion tour or their comeback where they play only their classics or all their old stuff.

Having said that at least from the bands I have seen here Rush still kicks out new stuff and sound just as great as they did 30 yrs ago. We have the WHO coming in a few days and they are going to play Quadrophenia in it's entirety and they are also putting out New material.

The Thing is that a lot of British bands do not come here anymore to play. it's very expensive to bring the group, the managers. the roadies etc,to play a gig in NYC then pack up and head to the next show maybe Philly or Boston. Touring the US  the country is so big that at the most  some bands can only do a few gigs here and those will mostly be in or near the big cities.

Groups that I would love to see play here. I am a giant Hawkwind fan but they have not played the US in very long time. I understand because their music is not played on the radio so no one has heard them and really it would only be die hard fans that would go to see them. others that  have not been in the states  for a while Killing Joke, Fields of Nephilim,The Fixx these bands are still active in Europe but very rarely do I see them with a US Tour