Eleven years after his death and punk legend Joey Ramone is still one of the most oft-referenced, highly regarded musical icons of our time. Next week, his second posthumous album ‘…Ya Know?’ gets a release, and to celebrate we’ve dug behind the scenes, talking to the people who knew him best, to learn the real story of the man who changed rock’n’roll forever. [blogbigpic][/blogbigpic]

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Following the sad death of Beastie Boys legend Adam Yauch, NME salutes one of hip-hop’s true innovators and a man who never stopped believing in breaking rules, expanding his genre and fighting for his principles. Read tributes from The Strokes, Krist Novoselic and more. [blogbigpic][/blogbigpic]

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We might be living through a monsoon in the UK right now, but here at NME we’ve got our eyes set firmly on the summer with our Ultimate Festival Guide 2012 issue. That means sun (hopefully), fields (definitely) and Biffy Clyro being “middle-aged fat guys with their shirts off”. [blogbigpic][/blogbigpic]

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Has a 20 year wait for a new PiL album mellowed John Lydon? What do you think? Yep, the biggest gob in music is back, and he’s just as pissed off and antagonistic as ever. On the government: “Two cunts for the price of one”. On society: “It’s about to go off like a bomb.” On Simon Cowell: “Poisonous, bitter and evil.” As he says on the cover, “Who can I offend here? There’s always, someone…” [brightcove]1564900528001[/brightcove] [blogbigpic][/blogbigpic]

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Here at NME, we’re certainly not averse to a swiftly-delivered MP3 file, but if you’re asking where our hearts lie, it’s in the grooves of a vinyl record and in the racks of our local record shop. For this reason, we’ve put together a very special issue to celebrate the ever-growing EVENT on the calendar that is Record Store Day. We’ve got a special pullout of all the amazing stuff that’s happening, and all the mega-limited releases up for grabs (see you in the queue for that Arcade Fire 12-inch!). Most importantly, though, we’ve got a huge host of stars – Arctic Monkeys, Pete, The Horrors, Jack White and loads more – talking about the little bit of black plastic that first rocked their world. [blogbigpic][/blogbigpic]

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Heroes! Everyone’s got one, even rock stars. So in this week’s NME, we asked Miles Kane if he’d like to mod it up with Paul Weller, and he said yes. Then we put in a call to see if Blaine from the Mystery Jets fancied sinking some pints with The Fall’s Mark E Smith, and it turned out he did. Felix from The Maccabees hitting the library with Clash legend Mick Jones followed and before we knew it, The Horrors’ Rhys Webb was meeting John Lydon in the former Sex Pistol’s manager’s flat and Vaccines’ Freddie Cowan was off to a greasy spoon café with Graham Coxon. [blogbigpic][/blogbigpic]

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