Adam on NME and U2
Adam on NME and U2
Adam on NME and U2

Adam on NME and U2

U2 In Top Ten NME List of '50 Greatest Artists of all Time'.

19 Apr 2002
U2 In Top Ten NME List of '50 Greatest Artists of all Time'.

'In the mid '70's the NME defined the culture and the look and theattitude,' recalls Adam in an interview with the UK music weekly NME, tomark its fiftieth birthday. 'It brought new types of musica sound, a looka manifesto. It put a face on the new musical attitude of ska, reggae, punkand the all-important live scene was covered in depth. It was essential foranyone in a band or interested in music at the time.'

NME have been writing about U2 for 22 years and, as this week's issue putsit, 'the band have been through as many changes as the paper'. Their topfifty poll of 'NME Icons' is based on appearances on front covers, volumeand significance of features, dominance in end of year writers polls,readers letters and the number of actgs who are referrred to as 'the newthem'. It is a quirky, opinionated, eccentric list, notable as much for whois missing as for who is included.

Here's their Top Ten

1: The Smiths
2: The Beatles
3: Stone Roses
4: David Bowie
5: Sex Pistols
6: Oasis
7: Radiohead
8: Paul Weller/The Jam
9: U2
10: Public Enemy

Last year, at the NME Carling 'Brat' Awards, Bono recalled that, 'We wereput on the cover of the NME before we had a record deal, in fact it helpedus get a record deal.'

Asked about the impact that NME had on U2, Adam remembers, 'We were veryserious about what we were doing and NME took its role seriously too. Therewas a passion in the writing and an importance attached to the subject ofmusic criticism. They united people around the idea that some music wasgenius and some music was crap and that that was all that mattered.'

NME, Adam concludes, 'was the important voice of what we were getting into'.'It brought us to a wider audience and made an effort to understand us whenwe were only beginning to understand ourselves.'

Complete Top Fifty list in the latest issue of NME and more atwww.nme.com

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