Awards Years:
- 1950s
- '60
- '61
- '62
- '63
- '64
- '65
- '66
- '67
- '68
- '69
- 1970s
- 1980s
- '90
- '93
- '94
- '95
- '96
- '00
- '01
- '02
- '03
- '04
- '05
- '06
- '07
The History Of The NME Awards
A no-holds-barred romp through six decades of rock 'n' roll excess.
1980
In the 80s the NME gave no awards to anyone, for two main reasons:
1) The first half of the decade was unredeemably crap, so Elvis Costello and Prince would have won absolutely everything.
2) By the time Stock Aitken and Waterman killed the pop charts in the latter half of the decade and indie rock was getting underway in earnest, the best bands of the era – Pixies, Fugazi, The Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Echo And The Bunnymen, The Smiths, The Wedding Present, The Cure, etc. – were so miserable that we were worried, were we to give them an award, that they’d try to beat themselves to death onstage with it, or be so overwhelmed with self-esteem that they’d stop making decent music. So The Wonderstuff would have to win everything. Not a good thing.
