UK Indie Charts - Music Press

[Modgod67]

Hi there,

I'm trying to find, locate the Indie charts from the 80's & 90's from publications like, NME, Melody Maker , Sounds.

I do have the Indie A-z book, which is great, but I seem to remember that each of the pubs had slightly different chart placings at times.

Have got quite a bit from the WorldRadioHistory website, but still missing quite a load to make full sense, Sounds for one.

Anyone have any idea if available on line anywhere or data held somewhere in a format ?

Cheers in advance

[Robbie]

Someone at ukmix has some scans of the Sounds chart page from the early 80s which includes the MRIB Indie charts which are the main source of the charts in the Indie A-Z book. They were posted at ukmix a number of years ago and by whom I can't remember.

The MRIB indie charts were in No. 1 / Number 1 magazine for many years. Scans of many issues of the magazine can be found at https://michaelmouse1967.wixsite.com...r-one-magazine

[navi]

i manage to preserve some copies of NME from 1982, 1984, 1985, 1988 and most of the magazines
from late 1989 onwards to 1995 and i intend to post the indie charts here, but the start depends on Metalweb
(if there will be more people interested in)

[kingofskiffle]

Do please post these if you can. I have some scans from 1982 from Sounds and the original Indie charts in Sounds (at least in 1982) where from Record Business.

[Metalweb]

i manage to preserve some copies of NME from 1982, 1984, 1985, 1988 and most of the magazines
from late 1989 onwards to 1995 and i intend to post the indie charts here, but the start depends on Metalweb
(if there will be more people interested in)

Ah, yes! Forgotten about this....

I've got most of the NMEs from the late 70s and early 80s so I can post (most of!) their indie charts.

Unfortunately my music paper collection flat out refuses to stay in chronological order so they'll take a while to sort out.

Hopefully I can make a start soon...

[navi]

Ah, yes! Forgotten about this....

I've got most of the NMEs from the late 70s and early 80s so I can post (most of!) their indie charts.

Unfortunately my music paper collection flat out refuses to stay in chronological order so they'll take a while to sort out.

Hopefully I can make a start soon...

great
will keep my eye on this,
jump in when you need to and continue with

[braindeadpj]

i manage to preserve some copies of NME from 1982, 1984, 1985, 1988 and most of the magazines
from late 1989 onwards to 1995 and i intend to post the indie charts here, but the start depends on Metalweb
(if there will be more people interested in)

I'm certainly interested in seeing the Indie charts

[Blondini]

Someone at ukmix has some scans of the Sounds chart page from the early 80s which includes the MRIB Indie charts which are the main source of the charts in the Indie A-Z book. They were posted at ukmix a number of years ago and by whom I can't remember.

The MRIB indie charts were in No. 1 / Number 1 magazine for many years. Scans of many issues of the magazine can be found at https://michaelmouse1967.wixsite.com...r-one-magazine

this great thread has the 80s MRIB charts from the Cherry Red book - https://www.ukmix.org/forum/chart-di...arts-1980-1989

the self-searching archive of it is here http://web.archive.org/web/200502040...hits/index.htm

[Passing_Strang]

Can anybody tell me if the indie charts in Music Week were their own or reprinted from somewhere like Sounds or NME?

[Metalweb]

Can anybody tell me if the indie charts in Music Week were their own or reprinted from somewhere like Sounds or NME?

From the introduction to Barry Lazell's Indie Hits book:

" A major change came in the late Spring of 1985, when Music Week, having established an in-house research department very much along the lines of Record Business' pioneering effort of 1978, decided to produce its own indie charts and also supply them internally to Sounds, and so ceased licensing those produced by MRIB."

[Passing_Strang]

From the introduction to Barry Lazell's Indie Hits book:

" A major change came in the late Spring of 1985, when Music Week, having established an in-house research department very much along the lines of Record Business' pioneering effort of 1978, decided to produce its own indie charts and also supply them internally to Sounds, and so ceased licensing those produced by MRIB."

Aha, thank you! So we have three separate indie charts - from MRIB (and that book), NME and Music Week. Interesting!

[Robbie]

Record Mirror published an indie chart in the mid to late 80s which carries the credit "Compiled by Spotlight Research". I don't know if that chart is the same as the one published in Music Week. The publishers of both magazines was Spotlight Publications.

[BobPatience]

Record Mirror published an indie chart in the mid to late 80s which carries the credit "Compiled by Spotlight Research". I don't know if that chart is the same as the one published in Music Week. The publishers of both magazines was Spotlight Publications.

Comparing their indie charts from February 1989, they do not line up at all. Music Week's chart seems to be way more inclusive, including a wider variety of labels. Basically Record Mirror's chart is mostly modern rock, whereas Music Week's chart also has a ton of dance records.

[kingofskiffle]

Record Mirror published an indie chart in the mid to late 80s which carries the credit "Compiled by Spotlight Research". I don't know if that chart is the same as the one published in Music Week. The publishers of both magazines was Spotlight Publications.

They are - Spotlight Research seems to be what they used when not wanting to credit another magazine....

[Blondini]

Aha, thank you! So we have three separate indie charts - from MRIB (and that book), NME and Music Week. Interesting!

And TV's The Chart Show used the MRIB specialist charts for several years until they ended up compiling their own. Their indie chart ended up being a genre chart eventually many years down the line.