In 2009, super-fan Brian McCloskey, an 80’s kid who had hung on to his copies of Smash Hits since youth, decided to rescue his collection from his parents’ attic at his childhood home in Derry, Ireland. McCloskey had the magazines shipped all the way to his home in California, tracked down copies he was missing in his collection from the magazines inception, then took on the painstaking process of scanning and uploading every page of every issue he had to his blog, Like Punk Never Happened. McCloskey’s collection of Smash Hits represents every issue of the magazine from 1979 to 1985.
As he says of his collection, in a recent article on Dangerous Minds:
"Smash Hits took music very seriously, but they didn’t take musicians seriously. A very sensible distinction. I think that people have either forgotten or didn’t realize to begin with that Smash Hits was quite a serious magazine. During their peak years they would receive thousands of letters - handwritten letters! You could read great interviews with real artist like Paul Weller or Ian Dury. After the magazine’s redesign at the end of 1981, the snark really took over. I’m glad that the my archive has reminded, or opened people’s minds to the early days of Smash Hits."A good enough excuse, methinks, for another "timeslip moment"...
From the UK charts of thirty years ago this week, here's one of the stalwarts of Smash Hits in the 1980s, the gorgeous Limahl and his theme from the movie Never Ending Story:
Given in the lines, written on the pages
Is the answer to a never ending story.
Indeed.
Visit Like Punk Never Happened - Brian McCloskey's Smash Hits archive
Limahl official website
Oh, the lovely Limahl
ReplyDeleteand
Wow, well done Mr. McCloskey.
Now, to start reading all those back issues - oh, the nostalgia! Jx
DeleteI was unfamiliar with Limahl, who is rather lovely. I actually thought the song was sung by a woman.
ReplyDeleteHeavens - he's one of those eternal "images of the 80s" icons over here, at once mocked and adored.
DeleteI had such a massive crush on him... Jx
"The Never Ending Story" was my favorite song in the world when I was about 5 years old. I called the local radio station every day to request it - aaah, memories...
ReplyDelete(I am saving that link for a rainy day, BTW)
"About 5 years old". Oh dear, now I feel really old. "The Never Ending Story" was one of my first assignments to review when I was in journalism college...
DeleteSigh.
Jx
Did I say 5? I obviously meant, erm, 35? 45? You are young at heart my dear and that's all that matters (besides, "thanks to Cher's pioneer efforts, you probably haven't even reached puberty yet" ;)
ReplyDelete"Young at heart"!? A "younger tart"? An "old fart"? Who cares...
DeleteI live by Miss Bette Davis's mantra: "I will not retire while I've still got my legs and my make-up box!"
[Or indeed Dame Joan Collins: "Age is just a number. It's totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine."] Jx