[4] Writing in The Observer in 2005, Spencer selected his tenure as editor as the magazine's "so-called Golden Age", for its positioning of music within "a wider oppositional culture in which politics, books, movies, illustration and photography all had a major role".
[5] Spencer's final years at the NME coincided with a period when, as with other established UK music publications such as Melody Maker, Record Mirror and Sounds, the magazine's popularity suffered with the emergence of the more pop-focused Smash Hits.
[7] In November 1985, Spencer helped found Red Wedge with British musicians Paul Weller and Billy Bragg.
According to Bragg, Spencer's involvement was "absolutely crucial" since, further to his support of politically minded artists while at the NME, "He was a child of '68 and still believed that music should say something, and that as a musician you should be able to express an alternative lifestyle to the mainstream.
"[8] In early 1986, Spencer was the press officer for the Red Wedge UK tour, which featured a large cast of musicians, including Bragg, Weller's band the Style Council, the Communards and Tom Robinson.