Pet Shop Boys Community

This from "remember the 80's email:

SMASH HITS MAGAZINE's output between 1978 and 1985 is to be celebrated at a new London club 'Smash Hits 7' devoted to the music covered during the magazine's first seven years and promising new wave, electro and pop music from the heavyweights of the scene alonside 'a handful of one-hit wonders that time forgot'... the first night of the club will be on Spetember 22nd and will take place at Nambucca on the Holloway Road between 7pm and midnight. Admission is free and a percentage of bar takings will go to Save The Children.

Wonder if Neil will be involved or make an appearance?

The decline in the standard of Smash Hits is a paradigm of how the UK has dumbed down since the late 1970s.

Discuss.

*although Texan bars are being re-released on Monday; I get excited*

Janet Street-Porter wrote:The decline in the standard of Smash Hits is a paradigm of how the UK has dumbed down since the late 1970s.

Discuss.

*although Texan bars are being re-released on Monday; I get excited*

You could replace "Smash Hits" in that sentence with "NME".

Smash Hits was certainly rather fab in those days, and I was lucky enough to be able to read all my sisters old copies for free. I remember a lot of articles fondly...they even did a piece and and interview on Depeche Mode about Black Celebration when it came out (which as anyone into DM will know, is a very dark and depressing album)...for a pop mag aimed at teens, it had some real substance. As well as lots of pop nonsense that was unpretentious and equally interesting, of course...

smash hits used to be awesome! i'm glad i have a few copies i found out most of the initial stuff i know about DM, PSB etc.. from that magazine...starting of course, with the band members names

I have at least 4 PSB-posters from Smash Hits. One of them is my favourite one of all my posters.

Janet Street-Porter wrote:The decline in the standard of Smash Hits is a paradigm of how the UK has dumbed down since the late 1970s.

Since Smash Hits took a nosedive in the late eighties, I don't think that's really the case. I think the main dumbing down happened in the mid-nineties, with lads taking over. Oasis have so much to answer for. In an overnight, it suddendly became uncool to be witty and intelligent and to actually have read a book sometimes in one's life.

Smash Hits has always been for the teen crowd, but in the late eighties there was a paradigm shift, when "manufactured" bands (S/A/W stable, New Kids On The Block, Bros) took over from early eighties teen heroes like Duran Duran, A-ha and synth-pop heroes who were actually musicians in their mid-twenties, crafting their own career. Of course there is a drop in quality of the reportage when you move on from interviewing Marc Almond or Nick Rhodes to having a word with 19-year Kylie or Jason Donovan. The mag just reflected that.

But then again, I haven't even seen Smash Hits for a decade now. It might be The Times Book Review now, for all I know.

I do agree with you that the acts they wrote about in the post-punk era were a more varied bunch but even when I read it in the late 1980s, it was entertaining. And of course many people would argue - one not a million miles from here - that the S/A/W acts were actually more interesting.

I suppose lad culture must have played its' part but surely there is more to it than that. After all Kate Thornton was editor during the 1990s so it wasn't just the lads.

Jack's point about the NME is salient; how did that become the comic it is now? 'Indie' acts sell more records now than they ever did yet the only 'inky' weekly left is little more than a Pete Doherty and Chris Martin propaganda sheet.

Wow, that was really a great magazine when I was a teen- I only read it from 83-86 or so, imported UK copies as well as the US spinoff "Star Hits".

Amazing pics of Madonna, PSB, every theatrical freak on the UK pop scene-there were lotsa them..

Also, for a mag for yoof, it was refreshingly frank: When Dead or Alive broke in the US in 85, they were quoted by the writer:

Pete Burns:"When we got here, we asked the record co. to get us some dope. They're so stupid, all they do is coke here. Eventually someone said-"I know, I'll go over to the Black Music department!".

I remember not knowing what he meant by "dope", but I think now he must've meant cannabis..

Sting: "What you really wanna know is whether I lick pussy. 'Course I do."


Wow, them's the days. With Marilyn centerfolds, lol..
should be a fun party.

Smash Hits in the 80s was the pop 'bible' to me back int he 80s (not much of a choice as its the cheapest, compared to THE FACE)....it started when imports of this magazine appeared on my dreary small hometown. The 1st issue I saw and bought had Nick Heyward (Haircut 100). Sadly the supply was inconsistant and in very limited copies. Which meant rushing to the newstands regularly after school.

SM (in those days) to me revolutionised the pop & graphic marketing way to teens and overall market. Which eventually led me to make my career in graphics AND music industry the best of both worlds! Lotsa exclusive pictures, posters , posters , posters , posters ..... some good interviews, innovative concepts (the tin box? - questions from readers; genius popstar challenge; pop puzzle, etc)

I still have some / most of them if they have not yet rotted in storage.


Chang

Janet Street-Porter wrote:I do agree with you that the acts they wrote about in the post-punk era were a more varied bunch but even when I read it in the late 1980s, it was entertaining. And of course many people would argue - one not a million miles from here - that the S/A/W acts were actually more interesting.

I suppose lad culture must have played its' part but surely there is more to it than that. After all Kate Thornton was editor during the 1990s so it wasn't just the lads.

Jack's point about the NME is salient; how did that become the comic it is now? 'Indie' acts sell more records now than they ever did yet the only 'inky' weekly left is little more than a Pete Doherty and Chris Martin propaganda sheet.

With lad culture I wasn't referring to Smash Hits, because I have not seen one issue of it since the early nineties.

I for one fail to perceive S/A/W acts more interesting than the previous Smash Hits fodder: in 1985 the magazine had a joint interview with Pete Burns and Morrissey, for instance - even if they had pumped Kylie and Jason full of crack in 1989, their meeting couldn't have been even close as interesting. The antics of New Kids On The Block couldn't have been on par with Duran Duran's delusions of grandeur (Wild Boys et al).

It can't have been a coincidence either that in the late eighties many writers leaped from Smash Hits to start Q - that really was the point when the UK music press started to divide into "adult" and "teen" mags. Nowadays we have only music magazines for fifty-year-old Bob Dylan fetisists or dim teenagers. Quality music writing is really hard to find, and I really long for the Melody Maker circa 1987-1997.