...so my time at nme came to an end
- Write a blog. About anything. If you want to work in the media and have a blog, put it on your CV.
- Get on twitter. For no particular reason, mainly because most journos are on there now and it's a great way to keep up-to-date with, well, everything and everyone.
- Write your ass off and have the confidence and determination to send it everywhere.
- Be cutting edge with your writing - look around for the different styles of writing and try your hand at them. See which style suits you best - don't just try to write like an NME journalist if you're obviously not.
- Write for the student paper (okay I should probably look into this).
- On the CV front - keep it to one page only and don't worry about putting all your education info (even if it is highly impressive) and past jobs on there if it isn't relative to the job you're going for. Employers don't care if you're "a highly interactive and friendly individual because you worked in a bar" (a quote from David himself) - it's just ridiculous waffle they can spot a mile off...
- And basically get out there and experience life as much as possible, whether it be going to gigs, the cinema or just going to the pub, and you'll always have something to write about.
So hope that helps everyone - I know it helped me a lot.
David and the team at NME were "very impressed" with my work, YAY! He said that they would love to have me back, to keep in touch and let them know when I can come back to London! As I did this work placement for a module for uni, I had to ask him to complete a form for my tutor...basically just grading me on my work there...and I got 5 out of 5 for everything! He even said "maybe I should put 4 for something so it doesn't look like you did so well, but I can't find anything to put it against!" CHUFFED isn't the word.
I hope to go back over Summer, or whenever I can find somewhere to stay in London!
And I hope that this blog has been of some help and interest to the people reading it - I will be carrying it on and sticking up my general ramblings about, well, anything! So I hope you all continue reading...Oh and my last bit of celeb spotting during my time in London was bumping into Jimmi from Doves in the NME canteen and sitting opposite Matt from Teachers on the tube.
Goodtimes.
Over and out from NME.
Sunday, April 05, 2009 | Labels: Celeb Spotting, NME |
...the start of week two at NME goes like this

PJ Harvey at SXSW 09 - what a beaut...(no, that is not the caption I wrote for this one!)

Johnny Borrell (with his top on for a change...) backstage at SXSW with LOTP's synth master Sam

Monday, March 23, 2009 | Labels: Celeb Spotting, NME |
....so Metric blew me away today

So this morning I went in with an evil plan. Well, not so much evil...or a plan. More of a wish, and that wish came true!
I got into the office and was assigned more picture captioning. I'm getting the hang of this. It's also a great way to find out more about bands I don't really like or follow.
As you all (should) know, the festival of the mo is most definitely South By Southwest, held in Austin, Texas. A festival I would literally sell my soul to go to. Jamie Fullerton, NME's assistant news editor, has been avidly covering SXSW (follow him on Twitter for all the goss) and I basically had to caption the pictures sent over by his photographers. Take a look at them HERE.
I then cheekily asked the lovely Carol if she could sort out me going down to NME Radio and watch Metric perform live in the studio....which she managed!
Apparantly, a couple of weeks ago, when Little Boots did a live session for NME Radio, one of the work experience students got the chance to watch her live...and then 'harassed' poor Victoria Hesketh. So they now tend not to let students down there but Carol assured them I was a nice girl and would not try to maul Metric.
Soooo off I went down to the studio and kind of sat there for a while, eagerly awaiting my first glimpse of the beautiful Emily Haines, whilst being forced to listen to some awful Duran Duran sounding noise on air at the time. And then in she came with guitarist Jimmy Shaw. Wow. A pair of beauties, I tell ya.
After an interview with host Neil Cole, they then performed a heavenly acoustic version of 'Gimme Sympathy', which, no word of a lie, silenced everyone in the studio. It was surreal to see all these important radio people staring at the duo in awe, almost holding their breath for fear of missing a note. I could not believe the perfection in dainty Haines' voice as she sang sat down the whole time. Possibly the most magical performance I've seen in my life.
I then left the studio (as I was told not to 'bug Metric') and went to the lift to go back to the office. In the three minutes I waited for the lift, who should stroll out but Metric themselves, asking me to hold the lift! I'm not gonna lie, I didn't speak to them at length but did say hi to Emily and praised her performance, to which she replied 'Thank you sweetie!' The duo then talked about how the lifts in the Blue Fin building were 'huge compared to BBC Radio 6!'
When my knees stopped their wobbling I went back to the reality of work.
This afternoon I then went on to the pretty mundane task of copying the album, single and live reviews out of this week's issue and trawling through SXSW videos to find news stories.
Black Lips "think" they're playing Reading and Leeds fest this year and Little Boots is CONFIRMED!!! I sent quotes and info over to a writer, who has now put them up on the website HERE and HERE
By the way, the NME.COM quiz I wrote the other day is now online! Click HERE to test your music news knowledge.
Marry me Metric
Over and out.
Friday, March 20, 2009 | Labels: Celeb Spotting, Music, NME |