Entertainment For Lively Minds
A Smash Hits Archive
Posted by Auntie Beryl on 10 February 2010 - 11:21pm.
For those of a certain age, discovering a bunch of issues of Smash Hits (1979-80, natch) that some gent has meticulously scanned in for the purposes of nostalgia is quite a coup.
This really isn't my doing, by the way.
http://likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com/
I was particularly taken by this page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51106326@N00/4318194500/sizes/l/in/set-7215...
with a mention of "Old Heppo (D.H. to his friends)" who is quoted as having quite a downer on all this new fangled synthesizer business. It'll never catch on, you know.
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Oh blimey trousers..
Proustian rush time. I had all of these. The best magazine from my best time in music.. I can remember huge chunks of lyrics and even the page setups from so many of these mags. How many of the centrefold posters ended up as covers for my school exercise books? Scary.
And who was Red Starr? Not a DH AKA, I hope. I remember him triggering many an irate letter, particulaly after he rubbished Spirits Having Flown by the Bee Gees.
Red Starr exposed
It was the nome de plume of Ian Cranna, so adopted because in the early days he was based in Scotland and records used to find their way to him, very slowly, via the parcel delivery service of the same name. Younger readers may not recall but this was in the days when, if you wanted to send anything any distance at all and it had to be there on the same day (and here I'm talking about bits of paper as well as bulkier objects) you had to take them to the Red Star office at your nearest mainline station and pay for them to be put on the next train. The person at the other end would then turn up at their local station and take delivery. Before the advent of the fax (it cost me a thousand pounds to be an early adopter of that life-changing technology) I seemed to spend large portions of time waiting around at railyway stations for copy or pictures.
From now on I'm only going to shop at Gringos
9.50 pounds for a Parka. What a Bargain!
What's the chance of getting one if I send off a Money Order to Bedford?
I see that the writer shared
D.H.'s current view of Prince [*] --- "O'ill give it foive ..."
[*at least based on this week's Podcast]
The world may have changed a great deal since 1980...
but it is reassuring to note that Jon Anderson's lyrics were described as 'cosmic drivel' back then and they still are to this day.
calll me sentimantal old hippy fool
but I'll still give this a bit more than 4 ...
though I'd also admit they did better
I *love* that song!
And I like listening to cosmic drivel!
Like Lenny
I had every single one of these too - in fact until quite recently they languished in a cardboard ring binder at the Aged Ps. Apart from the ones I had scissored to make an enormous bedroom wall montage of my favourite stuff, that is. It was a tribal time musically but Smash Hits' 'can like disco and new wave' ethic still persists round my place.
Smash Hits was Brilliant
It was really funny , and it wasn't just pop music they covered.
I remember the Jesus and Mary Chain being rather narked about being asked what was in their fridge.
I had a great Smash Hits compilation book of interviews , it had everyone you could imagine in it , it was a prized posession , till i lost it.
I think
there is a box in my mum's attic which has my copies of these magazines. If they haven't crumbled to dust or been eaten by something, that is.
Eaten by...
Sir Rat of Attic.
Oh those madeleines
My parents finally got me to take away the last of my things from their garage, namely 5 years worth of Smash Hits. 1980-1985, currently residing on my bedroom floor waiting for me to sort through them. Just took a peek, Pete Burns with black contact lenses, a cross-eyed Boy George.
Inside a 1984 issue a picture of Matthew Wilder - relax girls, he's married!
Anyone remember Scribble Hits, when the logo was changed?
Best music magazine ever!