Showing posts with label Celeb Spotting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Celeb Spotting. Show all posts

...so my time at nme came to an end

And this makes me very sad (as I have repeated on my facebook status many a time).

My last day was fantastic, a great end to a great experience. I had a meeting with NME.COM's editor, David Moynihan, and i'll tell you what, this guy knows what he's talking about. He studied something random like ancient history at uni...he didn't study journalism! But he's gone on to work for FHM, Uncut and NME...now that's a CV for you.

Talking of CVs, during the meeting I asked him for some tips on creating an impressive media one and he told me exactly what companies like NME look for. He also gave me some great advice on how to become a successful journalist:
  • 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.

...the start of week two at NME goes like this

Okay so this morning I was set more photo captioning - I think this is basically my job there now! I don't mind, it's quite fun.




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


As South By Southwest fest 2009 has now ended, there were a fair few pics to be captioned, including Metallica's 'secret' gig there and backstage with Johnny Borrell and LOTP - oh how I long to have been there for all the chaos in the Texan sun...



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

Take a look at the full gallery HERE.

After this, my next job was to write biogs for the four bands playing the NME Radar Tour, kicking off at the end of April - La Roux, The Chapman Family, Heartbreak and Magistrates. Can't say I'm a fan of any of these acts but meh I'd have a wiggle to em. The biogs aren't on the website yet, so I will post the link on here as soon as it goes up for you lovely readers.

Now, onto the more exciting stuff!

BBC3 were in the office all day sticking cameras in everyone's face. They were filming for a documentary 'How to be a music journalist' - interviewing editors and writers alike. It was quite nerve-wracking...I was trying to ignore the camera in my eyeball whilst writing the biogs and attempting to look all cool and 'wordy'...when I was really concentrating on not laughing and looking incredibly STUPID. I think it worked...


Not sure when this documentary is going on TV...no-one really knew. As soon as I know, you will know.


And then another dream of mine came true...meeting the wonderfully witty (and beautiful...i'm not gonna lie) ALEX ZANE!!!


Yes girls, he is even more stunning in the flesh, and full of banter about being a "very unfulfilling lover" (after getting a marriage proposal from fellow 'workie' Charli) and his passion for the awful J-Lo rom-com 'Maid in Manhattan' - he's seen it 5 times, oh dear.

I'm now doing overtime - gotta caption some more pics for a forthcoming gallery 'The songs they tried to ban' - watch this space.

Over and out.

....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.