Thursday, March 17, 2011

It was the little touches that got me into Smash Hits

"People keep writing to me via the blog to tell me they've wasted days on a 1981 copy of Smash Hits," McCloskey says. "That's fine by me. I mean, what a great way to waste a day!"

4 comments:

  1. Great stuff I keep finding loads of my mags Smash Hits, Flexipop, Zig Zag - while going through some old loft boxes. No New Sounds, New Styles strangely..

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  2. Lemme know if you find Smash Hits #4, the one with Elvis Costello on the cover; that one is now the only gap in my 78-85 collection.

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  3. I love this blog. It's fun but it's also an important historical document. Things like the advertising, letters page and so on are so revealing. How many adverts are there for forgotten acts that the majors clearly invested money in? How many now classic tracks receive derisory reviews? The peak of the magazine IMHO is from "now" (early '81) to sometime in 1983, when pop started to become so much more corporate as the more edgy (almost young NME) vibe was lost and Smash Hits focused on pure pop. I love the era 1981 to 1983, it was when I first got seriously into pop and there was so much to enjoy. I saw Blancmange this week and it's shocking to think that they were part of the pop mainstream.

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  4. Excellent.

    And, Brian, you know you have to do Record Mirror after this. You just have to. ;-)

    Focus on August '85 thru' to December '89, if you must.

    Failing that, Number 1 magazine.

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