TheNME Tours consist of a variety of tours organised byBritish music industry publicationNME. Throughout the year,NME sponsors numerous tours of the United Kingdom by various up-and-coming and established bands in a variety of formats. The tours are titled to reflect the genre and type of bands playing on them.
TheShockWavesNME Awards Tours (known without sponsorship as theNME Awards Tour before 1999, and theBrat Bus Tour before 1998) normally took place in the lead up to the officialNME Awards themselves. The tour was known to sell out in just a matter of hours.[1] The tour normally showcast the main protagonists of theindependentalternative rock scene, with a number of relatively unheard of bands usually supporting more mainstream acts. A number of previous support acts on the tour went on to become very successful commercially, such asArctic Monkeys (support act in 2006) andFranz Ferdinand (who played the opening slot in 2004). From 2005, the tour was sponsored byunisex hair product companyShockWaves.
In 2007, the mainNME Awards tour was split into two different tours of four bands each. The first tour, theShockWavesNME Indie Rock Tour was created to reflect the growingindie rock scene in Britain throughout 2006–2007. The second tour, theShockWavesNME Indie Rave Tour, displays the small number of bands currently associated with thenew rave music genre.NME editorConor McNicholas stated that the reason for the tour split was to allow more fans to gain tickets to the Awards tour, and allow them to display more bands at the one time.[2] The tours were played in a number of intertwined dates at the same time. This format was kept for one year, before reverting to one tour in 2008. In 2017, rather than organise a tour themselves,NME sponsored a series of previously announced headline dates by the bandBlossoms. In 2018, for the first time in 23 years, anNME sponsored tour did not take place. ThoughNME are yet to make a statement about the cancellation of the tour, they have run articles about the demise of the Warped Tour on their website.
TheNME Radar Tour (formerly known as theTopmanNME New Noise Tour in 2008,[11] and theTopmanNME New Music Tour before 2008[12]) has taken place in venues throughout theUnited Kingdom since 2005. The tour is played by relatively unknown bands to gain them more mainstream exposure. In 2009, a second "Autumn Radar Tour" took place during September and October.[13] In 2014, the event was rebranded theNME New Breed Tour;NME and headliners Superfood handpicked a different support act for each night of the tour. The tour did not return in 2015.
TheNME Rock 'n' Roll Riot Tour (sponsored byO2) started in 2003. The tour usually takes place later in the year compared to the main awards tours, taking place in September–October of each year. Some of the bands have even gone on to play in otherNME Tours;The Horrors, following their support slot on the 2006 Riot Tour, would later play on the 2007NME Awards Indie Rock Tour.
On 20 August 2007,NME announced they would be adding a further Rock 'n' Roll Tour, this time as a tour of theUS.[19] The inaugural tour features mainly bands from areas of the US, such asNew York City,Brooklyn andLos Angeles.[20]
TheNME Freshers Tour is taking place around "Freshers week", the week in which Universities in the UK begin their first academic term. 2007 marks the debut of this tour.
TheNME New Rave Revolution Tour was a tour that took place throughout September to October 2006.[22] The line-up consisted of bands who were closely related to the "new rave" music scene which appeared throughout 2006. Klaxons would go on to headline the Indie Rave leg of theNME Awards Tour in February 2007
It is unknown whether or not another New Rave Revolution Tour will take place, due to the small number of bands and the short-lived nature of the genre.
