Wah!
"First they take your pride."
When I sit and look back on my life I begin to realise there's been a whole lot of chaos and it really is a miracle I've ended up as sane as I am. 26yrs after being born in the same bed in which I was likely conceived, we had to vacate the family home, my birthplace, at very short notice. I won't go into details other than to say it was a situation I wouldn't wish on anyone and years later the loss is still taking its toll. Faced with an Aladins Cave of 50+yrs of junk (our mum had lived there since she was 3mths old) it was like The Generation Game meets The Hunger Games. "On the conveyer belt tonight we have your teenage record collection aaaand your childhood cuddly toys..." Or do you save the lead crystal fruit bowl your siblings and you gifted your parents on their 25th wedding anniversary? "Happy Hunger Games!" The records made it out as did the fruit bowl (hmmm), Tiny Tears and a couple of teddies but, with such limited time, we heartbreakingly left so much else behind.
When I sit and look back on my life I begin to realise there's been a whole lot of chaos and it really is a miracle I've ended up as sane as I am. 26yrs after being born in the same bed in which I was likely conceived, we had to vacate the family home, my birthplace, at very short notice. I won't go into details other than to say it was a situation I wouldn't wish on anyone and years later the loss is still taking its toll. Faced with an Aladins Cave of 50+yrs of junk (our mum had lived there since she was 3mths old) it was like The Generation Game meets The Hunger Games. "On the conveyer belt tonight we have your teenage record collection aaaand your childhood cuddly toys..." Or do you save the lead crystal fruit bowl your siblings and you gifted your parents on their 25th wedding anniversary? "Happy Hunger Games!" The records made it out as did the fruit bowl (hmmm), Tiny Tears and a couple of teddies but, with such limited time, we heartbreakingly left so much else behind.
Why my Smash Hits collection was next on my save list will only be acknowledged & understood by fellow fans of that epic publication which reached the heights of its excellence in the early to mid eighties. The earliest copy in my stash dates from March 1980 although I recall having earlier copies from '79, they must never have made it out. Published fortnightly, it was the best 35p (1981) a girl could spend. It also meant my 50p a week pocket money from Grandad Jack would stretch to an Icebreaker chocolate bar - result!
Have Thursdays ever been as pleasurable as they were back then? Thursday mornings: let's get this school day over with. But Thursdays were the days when the hands on those big old clocks on the classroom wall went backwards, I swear. Tick....Tock....Tick....Tock. Finally, 3 o'clock, the stampede to get out, what's that? A bundle? No time for that, got to go. And there it was on the newsagent shelf, the bible of pop, it's glossy cover pic of Adam Ant or Siouxsie Sioux screaming "Buy Me!" Home to an empty house, in the front door, scaling the stairs two at time, to the oasis of my bedroom where time would stand still as I lay on my bed devouring every page between that pristine cover, before I was snapped back to stark reality and, in my working parents' absence, having to 'get the dinner on'. I was cool with that, I'd had my fix for now, it was Thursday and Thursday wasn't over yet.
Of course I loved the lyrics pages, who didn't? To find out that for the last two weeks you'd been singing the wrong words to the latest Psychedelic Furs song.... But my favourite had to be the Letters. The home of the utterly genius Black Type. They were the first pages I stopped at, always starting my perusing from back page to front, I'd be ecstatic if it was full double pager whammy. I was never, to my knowledge, fortunate to have one of my letters published, not for the want of trying. How we were blessed with such journalistic talent: the likes of David Hepworth & Neil Tennant, pre his PSB days. They used language we understood, that made us hungry for more. They made 'pop' 'stars' accessible and didn't put them on a pedestal. Their interviews asked questions we wanted answered such as 'Have you got any dimples anywhere?' (Helen from Wakefield); 'Do you like hundreds and thousands?' (Helen from Southampton); 'What make of eyeliner do you use?' (Sarah from Bromley) - nice one Sarah! ((All questions posed to Marc Almond 29Apr-12May 1982)). 'Out & About with Barry' was usually found towards the back, often missed by those that read it the usual front first way. Ahh Barry, "Peering through the keyholes of the famous" - who didnt want Barry's job! I also loved RSVP and was lucky to have a couple of long-standing penfriends courtesy of Smash Hits. I later had my own penfriend request published in The Face - I know! - & was blown away by the twenty something responses I received. Thankfully postage stamps were a bit cheaper in those days and by then I had a part-time job. I kept in touch with a few for a number of years and even got to meet one whom worked for the FCO, each time he was back in the UK on leave. We have a lot to thank our mutual love of music and music journalism for.
Have Thursdays ever been as pleasurable as they were back then? Thursday mornings: let's get this school day over with. But Thursdays were the days when the hands on those big old clocks on the classroom wall went backwards, I swear. Tick....Tock....Tick....Tock. Finally, 3 o'clock, the stampede to get out, what's that? A bundle? No time for that, got to go. And there it was on the newsagent shelf, the bible of pop, it's glossy cover pic of Adam Ant or Siouxsie Sioux screaming "Buy Me!" Home to an empty house, in the front door, scaling the stairs two at time, to the oasis of my bedroom where time would stand still as I lay on my bed devouring every page between that pristine cover, before I was snapped back to stark reality and, in my working parents' absence, having to 'get the dinner on'. I was cool with that, I'd had my fix for now, it was Thursday and Thursday wasn't over yet.
Of course I loved the lyrics pages, who didn't? To find out that for the last two weeks you'd been singing the wrong words to the latest Psychedelic Furs song.... But my favourite had to be the Letters. The home of the utterly genius Black Type. They were the first pages I stopped at, always starting my perusing from back page to front, I'd be ecstatic if it was full double pager whammy. I was never, to my knowledge, fortunate to have one of my letters published, not for the want of trying. How we were blessed with such journalistic talent: the likes of David Hepworth & Neil Tennant, pre his PSB days. They used language we understood, that made us hungry for more. They made 'pop' 'stars' accessible and didn't put them on a pedestal. Their interviews asked questions we wanted answered such as 'Have you got any dimples anywhere?' (Helen from Wakefield); 'Do you like hundreds and thousands?' (Helen from Southampton); 'What make of eyeliner do you use?' (Sarah from Bromley) - nice one Sarah! ((All questions posed to Marc Almond 29Apr-12May 1982)). 'Out & About with Barry' was usually found towards the back, often missed by those that read it the usual front first way. Ahh Barry, "Peering through the keyholes of the famous" - who didnt want Barry's job! I also loved RSVP and was lucky to have a couple of long-standing penfriends courtesy of Smash Hits. I later had my own penfriend request published in The Face - I know! - & was blown away by the twenty something responses I received. Thankfully postage stamps were a bit cheaper in those days and by then I had a part-time job. I kept in touch with a few for a number of years and even got to meet one whom worked for the FCO, each time he was back in the UK on leave. We have a lot to thank our mutual love of music and music journalism for.
Amongst my collection I have the 1983 Smash Hits Year Book. It's not seen daylight for years, unlike the magazines, a few of which have been gifted to friends celebrating 'special' (old) birthdays in recent years. It's true to the promise made on the cover - features and photos, fact and fiction - it's usual eclectic mix from a feature on Stevie Wonder, a topless pic of Sting, a 1983 diary telling me that today in 1980 Going Underground by The Jam entered the UK charts at Number One and, possibly requiring an entire future blog post devoted to it, their look at the future: Smash Hits 2023AD - Bucks Fizz Senior Citizen Special!!
Dinner done & dusted, not my turn to wash-up or put-away, time to bagsy the best seat in the house - the floor in front of a roaring coal fire. It's Thursday after all: it's Top of the Pops!
Dinner done & dusted, not my turn to wash-up or put-away, time to bagsy the best seat in the house - the floor in front of a roaring coal fire. It's Thursday after all: it's Top of the Pops!
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