Like Punk Never Happened - Brian McCloskey's Smash Hits Archive

19/07/2024

17/07/2024

July 16, 1986: Samantha Fox vs. The Fall and The Smiths - just lovely 🤣

16/07/2024

July 16, 1984 🎶

11/07/2024

"I'm very proud of the Police but life outside was better. Now I write film scores, symphonies, I'm on my eighth opera and I still practise drums four hours a day."

As the Police’s biggest hit album Synchronicity is reissued, their drummer answers your questions on punk, his CIA dad and Sting’s ‘magnificent’ pecs

06/07/2024

July 6, 1979 ❤️

30/06/2024

"Smalltown Boy documents in empathetic, kitchen-sink detail the feelings of rejecting one archaic value system and moving to the big gay city to find your own."

What it is about the the haunting classic, Smalltown Boy, that still compels teens to join older generations on the dancefloor?

27/06/2024

June 27, 1989 ❤️

25/06/2024

"I just think you keep going and you find the little things that are joyful."

She’s the subject of a new documentary, has just announced her farewell tour, and is about to play Glastonbury. The singer and songwriter discusses Trump, resilience and why she hated being pitted against Madonna

25/06/2024

June 25, 1984 🎶

19/06/2024

June 19, 1984 🎶

13/06/2024

June 13, 2009: Fifteen years ago today, I spent several hours in the attic of my old home in Derry, sorting through my collections of various magazines - and wondering if it would be possible to send my Smash Hits collection to the USA....

10/06/2024

"After it reached the UK, journalists started coming over to write about the 'house music' phenomenon. It was the 1980s version of viral!"

It became a Chicago house anthem classic – and it was cooked up in just 30 minutes by four postal workers after a tough shift on the letter-sorting machine

04/06/2024

June 4, 1984 🎶

Provided to YouTube by Universal Music GroupTwo Tribes (Carnage Mix) · Frankie Goes To HollywoodReload! Frankie: The Whole 12 Inches℗ A ZTT Records recording...

02/06/2024

"Music was always all-consuming: during one mental-health low, he became obsessed with the idea that the White Album by the Beatles was a live record and the band had to recreate it every time someone played the LP on their stereo."

In his candid new memoir, the guitarist talks about the glory period of Parallel Lines and how addiction and loss altered his life

29/05/2024

May 29, 1984 🎶

23/05/2024

"Fight For Your Right remains stupidly brilliant pop – though the Beasties spent years trying to live it down."

Thirty years after the release of Ill Communication, we celebrate the New York trio’s gonzo blend of hip-hop, funk, punk and pop-cultural flotsam

16/05/2024

"I fell in love with the Beatles when I was six years old."

The Generation X punk turned arena rocker answers your questions on near-misses in Hollywood, his overlooked electronic period and how Marc Bolan helped launch his career

09/05/2024

Over the last few years the genial genius of Derek Philpott has been bemusing pop stars and amusing pop fans with a series of books in which confusion is feigned and explanations are requested for clarification of some of the most memorable hits - and forgotten classics - of the seventies, eighties and beyond.

Now the maverick mastermind behind the endlessly entertaining epistles, Dave Dawson, has slipped off his Derek disguise and stepped out from behind the wizard's curtain with a memoir detailing some of his exploits during a thirty-year career as a professional musician. For over three decades, Dave has crissed and crossed the country, performing in a variety of venues and encountering a cast of thousands, on a schedule that makes Bob Dylan's Never Ending Tour seem like a walk in the park.

Pop Idle is every bit as delightful as the Derek Philpott books - a wry and affectionate look at life on the road, seen through the eyes of one of the many performers who play for thousands of people every year, without ever making the front cover of Smash Hits. It's probably the best account of an aspiring pop star's life - and the best handbook for anybody barmy enough to follow a similar career path - since Giles Smith's classic, Lost In Music.

Links to purchase in the comments ❤️

08/05/2024

May 7, 1984 🎶

04/05/2024

May 4, 1984