Smash Hits

[Cat Simon]

Inspired by the GOAL! thread, I was wondering if anyone on here would be interested in this;

http://www.likepunkneverhappened.blogsp ... results=14

Its all the issues of Smash Hits up to 1985 (so far). I started reading it around 1980, and then finished by 1990, as my tastes were getting a bit more mature by then.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

I bought this mag from 1979-1986, it captured the commercial pop of the time perfectly-----I had the entire batch stolen,---my b/w SOUNDS and NME were left alone, I still have these------- which is a shame as there issues often command a fiver a pop or so these days on e-bay.

However I am considering getting them again on 'another format', if you get my drift.

[DavidKW]

I remmeber reading some 1982/3 Smah Hits belonging to my sister in 1989. Made me wish I'd been older in 1983 to enjoy what was around then - by 1989 the music especiallty the charts were terrible! Good escaping at a rubbish time in my life, living an a boring evil county.

Smash Hits when read today does well at capturing the feel of the time of publication.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

The UK music scene of the 80s was not in the same league as that of the 60s and 70s era but it was streets ahead of the conglomorate pap we are saddled with today, with all the major labels having merged into a handful of soul-less cartels.

In the late 70s/early 80s especially there were loads of very quirky independent record labels that were really inventive in a lot of their output [a lot of dross came this way too of course, but the music scene was far more interesting than the sterile download abomination we see today].

[starscape]

Bought a load of these last year. Yes, all chart music but then, that included Smiths, Cure, New Order, PiL etc etc.

[stevezodiac]

I bought Smash Hits in the late 70s and early 80s as I was a Mod and kept cuttings of bands like The Jam, Purple Hearts and The Chords as well as the Two Tone groups. I still have the cuttings as well as fanzines like Jamming.

[japandroid]

I bought these until around '81 and lost interest when punk stopped being covered. I used to cut a lot of stuff out of them, a really great mag. I also bought Noise for awhiel, that was cool too. After that it was Sounds only.

[starscape]

I bought Smash Hits in the late 70s and early 80s as I was a Mod and kept cuttings of bands like The Jam, Purple Hearts and The Chords as well as the Two Tone groups. I still have the cuttings as well as fanzines like Jamming.

The current Vive le Rock has a celebration of all things Mod, including interviews with Secret Affair, Purple Hearts etc.

[DavidKW]

I recently glanced through a best of Smash Hits in the library.

What a disappointment! It failed to encapture a lot of what made the magazine good.

I was particulary disgusted in how it treated as a joke some of the early front cover stars they featured, especially from the punk era like The Prfessionals (with 2 ex Sex Pistols) and Splodgenessabounds (whose "Two Pints..." record would've goen higher were it not for Top Of The Pops being blacked out by a strike). Was also rude about some of the one hit wonders that featured - whom I remembered people thinking were going to be big but were not - like Tracie Ypung and Roman Holday (their debut "Stand By" did better in USA than UK).

It focusssed too much on mid to late 80s, when things got really tacky - such as emergence of Boy George; Duran Duran's "Rio" video summed up when things started to go downhill in 80s. The book also apologises for its scepticism of Band Aid and rather gushes about a record that really seved as the marker when the charts in the 80s went really c***.

Early years I read were better, esp as it featured a lot of new wave/indie up and coming stuiff.

A pivotal point when it all went bad was when Smash Hits started putting TV presenter Philip Schofield on the cover - just a pretty face who was being machine gunned everywhere at us (was terribel as a Radio 1 DJ at the height of Smahie and Nicey/Johnny Beerling era).