Entertainment For Lively Minds
Smash Hits: Back! Back! Back!
Posted by Five-Centres on 3 July 2009 - 11:29am.
I'm cheered by the news that Smash Hits is back in magazine form, albeit as a one-off Micheal Jackson tribute special, edited by Word fave Barry McIlheney who used to work on it (Edit it? And was he gossip columnist 'Barry'?), and with a Mark Ellen interview inside.
I used to love Smash Hits. In fact, I bought it until I was 22. It was hilarious and covered everything I was interested in. I still own a fair chunk of issues from its imperial period that are still a good read 25 or so years on.
Were you a fan too?
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me and my bro
are in an ongoing custody battle for the SM Panini sticker books and the NME photos of Susanna Hoff from the Bangles were in Black and white!
it's an ill wind
etc.
Yes
And it's sorely missed.
My sister bought me my first copy (Jimmy Pursey on the cover I believe) and I had it saved at my local newsagent from then on until I had the pleasure of working there for a bit (sort of late 90s Westlife grisliness era) and then had it sent free.
It informed my pop life, made me laugh out loud, inspired my alleged journalistic path and even now I occasionally pull out an old yearbook or a poll winners issue for a fond chuckle.
It's a shame in this world of Girls Aloud, Take That and people like Lily Allen, Lady Gaga, Little Boots and Mika that it isn't around, but popjustice fills that hole now (and that's brilliant).
Perhaps if we could arrange pop legends to die on a fortnightly basis, then it may come back for good?
My long-suffering Sister.
The only girl amongst a load of boys would buy Smash Hits and so held a lot of power every other Wednesday (or was it Tuesday?)
I'm sure she was irked by 1 brother after another queueing up to ask " ooh can I read it after you. "
Incidentally wasn't it clever to make it a fortnightly rather than a weekly or monthly. Just long enough to build up that extra anticipation and make every issue a bit of an event.
Truly the finest of all pop mags.
The Word would make a good “fortnightly“
I know the very idea would fill the people who do it with horror - because they’re a small team working flat out, I imagine - but I think The Word would make more sense as a fortnightly, or even a weekly. I know it started out with one foot in the “rock nostalgia monthly” camp but it’s evolved into something rather different: a smart and funny take on the passing show with a pretty broad beat (so it’s not as if there’s a shortage of stuff to write about). Why a glossy perfect bound monthly (the magazine equivalent of a coffee table book which suits some subjects more than others) rather than a saddled stitched weekly/fortnightly bulletin on good quality newsprint? The podcast is weekly and topical; this board is practically a 24/7 rolling news/views operation. And yet the magazine itself makes its stately progress just once a month.
Not a criticism, just an observation,
And..
...it had lyrics. Helped me sing along to "I wont Let The Sun Go Down On Me" by Nik Kershaw.
Good Days.
The Art Of Noise - Close To The Edit
Was one of the songwords finest moments
Also Madness's 'Return Of The Los Palmas 7'.
"Waiter!"
Back! Back! Back!
On sale Tuesday! A mere £2.99 (a snip!) . . .
You!
Box!
Oh yes.....
Compulsory purchase from 1981 to 1990!
T'was fantastic!
81-84
I think the first issue I bought had the words to Kim Wilde's Kids In America, which sort of kick started my 80s and my adolescence.
Ah Kim.
Oooooh
I did not know that. I'll look forward to that. I still use Smash Hits-eze in my everyday speech (not that anyone else ever picks up on it, but it makes me happy).
My first issue had Stray
My first issue had Stray Cats and Adam Ant in it. I remember reading about Teardrop Explodes in the same issue. The annual poll winners issue was an essential purchase. Aaaah, halcyon days.
I continued to buy it all the way through my teenage years. In 6th Form, every other Wednesday a posse of us would walk down to the newsagent in out free period and buy "ver Hits" and a big bag of Revels. Some thought we were being ironic but of course we weren't. I had a Smash Hits mug ("Put the kettle on Mother, I'm parched!", "It's a tip top pop cuppa", etc). One of my mates from 6th form's nickname was "Black type". I still have my Live Aid copy somewhere (cover headline "He Did It!") which also included a glowing review of The Cure's "In Between Days".
I finally stopped when i went to University in 1989 as it just wasn't cool to buy NME AND Smash Hits. However thanks to SH I have followed the careers of the various writers ever since (always the seal of quality) leading me to Q, Select, Mojo (briefly), Empire and of course this mighty organ.
There, go that off my chest.
I bought the first pilot
copy. Had the lyrics to 5705 by City Boy in I think. Carried on until the days of Bros.
I'm buying it
Bought my first one with Rod Stewart on the cover (issue 5?). Loved it more than the NME or any other.
I've Just Finished . . .
. . . putting the special MJ tribute issue of Smash Hits to bed (under my "professional" name of Barry McIlheney). It's been heartening to witness the level of warmth and affection there still seems to be out there for the old girl, judging by the posts here and on other sites. Fair bit of meejah interest too, and went straight from finishing the last page to record a couple of pieces, one for the 1-2 pm slot this Sunday on 6Music and another, bizarrely, for Steve Wright In The Afternoon next Tuesday, when the issue hits the shops. I just hope I've managed to stay true to the original vision, while somehow turning round a 52-page mag in, er, four days. Anyway, thanks, and I'm sure the massive will not be slow to make their feelings known in just a few days time . . .
So were you 'Barry'?
Do tell.
Out of interest
who was Red Square/Star? Apols over name confusion as my memory is playing tricks once more, but I loved their stuff - my fave hack afore the avent of Bushell (ahem) and Wells (RIP).
good stuff
I used to love Ver Hits, I'm really looking forward to it. No pressure then ;-)
Where's it going to be on sale? Newsagents? Online?
It was a wet Thursday thirty years ago, less a couple of weeks
And I was on a family holiday camping just outside Plymouth. The weather was awful, the tail of the terrible storm which would claim fifteen lives in the ill-fated Fastnet race. I was twelve and bored. The day was not wasted for I had a copy of Smash Hits. The one with the lyrics to Reasons To Be Cheerful Part III in it. And I sat in a dripping tent and memorized them.
All together now..
"Some of Buddy Holly / The working folly" (said Smash Hits - I think it was "Summer / Buddy Holly")
I could go on.
I always thought
it was "Some of...", largely because I wouldn't want all of BH.
But you could be right. Even headphones don't make it clear.
And summer *does* make me cheerful...
Lyrics
I've always wondered. Did someone from the record company send the lyrics round or did people sit down and listen to the record until they'd written them all down?
oh good
- cos we're short of magazines with MJ on the cover at the moment.
The Lyrics
The lyrics would come over as part of a deal with the various music publishers, but then have to be meticulously checked by a staff member for every detail, sigh, yelp, bracket, etc. I've just spent a fair part of this week doing precisely that for five of MJ's finest. And no, I wasn't Barry the gossip "hound", I was still working on Melody Maker at that time. Just happen to share the same name, that's all. And yes, there are a lot of mags with Michael on the cover right now. This, though, is Smash Hits.
which according to a poster here
didn't feature MJ on its cover during the 1980s - which, if true, surprised me.
I used to buy SH and enjoy it - there'd often be some left field stuff tossed in among the tinsel. I remember reading a review of Microdisney's Loftholdingswood ep. I think I bailed as the boybands were coming in and pop went sappy.
My dear old Nan knew I liked pop music as a kid and used to buy me Jackie magazine - not realising it was for girls - but it had Sweet Mott and Chicory Tipp posters so I didn't care (Cathy and Claire taught me a thing or two, too). Anyway it once printed a page of pop stars favourite jokes. No idea why, but the one I remember was Michael Jackson's: What lies in the grass and goes ding dong? A dead Avon Lady.
No interviews, no exclusive pictures
The reason Michael Jackson wasn’t on the cover of the Hits in the ’80s is pretty simple: no interviews, no exclusive pictures of a decent enough quality. It does seem a bit odd in retrospect but .. standards, dear boy, standards.
And there was always a better option. Like Climie Fisher. Sold shedloads.
standards.
indeed.
So, this time
they want to Rise to the Occasion?
I must have missed
the Rob Fisher tribute edition.
Will
Messrs Glitter and King have similar eulogies? Oh all right, I know Michael has been cleared, but my legal expert assured me that he was definitely g****y because ..... (sniiiiiiiiip)
Go on.. spill the beans
It's not like he's going to sue for libel, is it?
Ummmm
true, but I write under me real moniker, and said legal beagle reads this which provides a real risk of concomitant wrist/slap scenario. Bassssically, tis all to do with overwhelming evidence from previous cases; kids' evidence being v similar with no evidence of coaching/collusion, and the apparent fact that child witnesses rarely lie in such depositions. Obviously I'm not going to go into graphic detail, but it's horribly distressing stuff - and I speak as someone who saw some of the evidence in the Fred West case.
I'm in Australia
So won't see this for a while yet -
What's the verdict?
Required purchase
From issue 1 to the early 1990s.
Nice antidote to the ferocious sincerity of the NME. I think Smash Hits ridiculed most pop stars and made the reader feel in on the joke. I remember Jon Bon Jovi in awe of how stupid the questions were (in a good way).
The live music section used to be called "Steppin' Out" - which was pretty tragic, even then.