1986
- 04/01/86 The Cramps
- 11/01/86 Andy Warhol and Debbie Harry
- 18/01/86 Billy Bragg and Junior (Red Wedge issue)
- 25/01/86 Easterhouse
- 01/02/86 Punk - Ten Years On
- 08/02/86 John Lydon
- 15/02/86 Big Audio Dynamite
- 22/02/86 Keith Richards
- 01/03/86 Comics
- 08/03/86 Sigue Sigue Sputnik
- 15/03/86 Mantronix
- 22/03/86 Absolute Beginners
- 29/03/86 The Shop Assistants
- 05/04/86 Hipsway
- 12/04/86 Samantha Fox
- 19/04/86 Test Dept
- 26/04/86 Prince (blurred image)
- 03/05/86 Sade
- 10/05/86 Barry McGuigan
- 17/05/86 Boy George
- 24/05/86 Janet Jackson
- 31/05/86 The Mighty Lemon Drops
- 07/06/86 Morrissey
- 14/06/86 Why British black music has no chance - polemical piece by Paolo Hewitt
- 21/06/86 Sonic Youth
- 28/06/86 George Michael
- 05/07/86 The Jesus and Mary Chain
- 12/07/86 Matt Johnson of The The
- 19/07/86 Run-D.M.C.
- 26/07/86 Zodiac Mindwarp
- 02/08/86 Jam and Lewis
- 09/08/86 Chicago house
- 16/08/86 Mick Hucknall of Simply Red
- 23/08/86 David Sylvian
- 30/08/86 Daley Thompson
- 06/09/86 Dwight Yoakam
- 13/09/86 The Yo Boys (article about hip hop by Paolo Hewitt)
- 20/09/86 Sex (themed issue), also a free EP - Phil Oakey of The Human League
- 27/09/86 Trouble Funk
- 04/10/86 Blackie Lawless of W.A.S.P.
- 11/10/86 Big Audio Dynamite
- 18/10/86 Courtney Pine
- 25/10/86 Voting (themed issue)
- 01/11/86 Shinehead
- 08/11/86 Youth suicide (almost all-black cover, later voted the worst cover in its history by the NME itself)
- 15/11/86 Cilla Black
- 22/11/86 Swing Out Sister
- 29/11/86 Sly and Robbie
- 06/12/86 Elvis Presley (though the cover story in this issue, written by Stuart Cosgrove, was actually a criticism of the US military presence in Britain using Presley's image as symbolic, not an article about Presley himself)
- 13/12/86 Madonna
- 20/12/86 Pet Shop Boys
Read more about this topic: List Of NME Covers