Classic Pop

Classic Pop magazine is the ultimate celebration of great pop and chart music with star interviews, features, news and reviews. From pop to electronic and new wave, dance and indie – it's all here…

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OUR CONTRIBUTORS

CHINA CRISIS RETURN WITH 40TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

Black Grape are getting fruity on studio album No.4

SINÉAD O’CONNOR LAID TO REST IN ADOPTED HOMETOWN

ABBA movie is back on the big screen

MY POP LIFE • THE RADIO 2 DJ AND FORMER TOP OF THE POPS PRESENTER ON HIS MUSICAL PASSIONS…

1 HIT WONDER

Q+A WILL SERGEANT • THE ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN MAINSTAY HAS SCRIBED HIS SECOND MEMOIR, WHICH CHARTS THE BAND’S RAPID RISE TO POP STARDOM AND REVEALS CHANCE ENCOUNTERS WITH ROCK ROYALTY ALONG THE WAY…

DENIECE PROVES SHE’S STILL YOUNG AT HEART

LOST & FOUND

COULD OMD BE WAVING GOODBYE ON THE BAUHAUS STAIRCASE?

IAN PEEL‘S A TO Z of POP • THEY SAID IT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN. IN FACT, THEY DIDN’T JUST SAY IT, THEY ASSURED US THAT NO WAY, NOT EVER, WOULD IT HAPPEN. BUT THEN… IT HAPPENED!

THIS MONTH IN POP • UB40 RAISE A GLASS, GARY NUMAN ENTERS BATTLE MODE AND KISS TAKE OFF THEIR MAKE-UP

TOP 5 UK ALBUMS CHART

A NEW DECADE • AFTER RULING THE 80S, DIAMONDS AND PEARLS PROVED THAT PRINCE COULD BOSS THE 90S, TOO. WITH A MAMMOTH NEW BOXSET OF THE MASTERPIECE LP ON THE WAY, CLASSIC POP ASKED NEW POWER GENERATION, PRINCE’S ENGINEER, PLUS HIS ESTATE’S ARCHIVIST AND NEW OWNER, HOW THE PURPLE ONE CONQUERED HIP-HOP.

TANGO IN THE NIGHT • A MOSTLY AWOL STEVIE NICKS WAS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG WHEN IT CAME TO THE DIFFICULT BIRTH OF THE BAND’S 14TH STUDIO ALBUM. SO HOW DID A MASTERCLASS IN POP COME OUT OF SUCH AN APPARENT TRAINWRECK?

HOT PROPERTY • FITTINGLY FOR THE MOST HOTLY-ANTICIPATED POP ALBUM OF THE YEAR, THE BULK OF KYLIE MINOGUE’S TENSION WAS RECORDED DURING A THERMOMETER-MELTING, RECORD-BREAKING SUMMER. WE MEET TWO OF THE LP’S KEY COLLABORATORS, RICHARD ‘BIFF’ STANNARD AND DUCK BLACKWELL, TO HEAR HOW THEY KEPT THEIR COOL DURING THE MAKING OF A REMARKABLE GENRE-SPANNING RECORD.

ORCHESTR AL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK • THE SYNTH-POP ICONS WHO MASTERED THE BLEND OF EXPERIMENTALISM AND MELODY

“Being a pop star was a weird secret I had to keep to myself” • RE-EXAMINING WORK FROM BOTH ENDS OF THEIR CAREER, SOFT CELL HAVE JUST RELEASED TWO COMPANIONS TO LAST YEAR’S COMEBACK ALBUM *HAPPINESS NOT INCLUDED AND ARE SET TO UNVEIL A MAMMOTH BOXSET OF THEIR INFLUENTIAL 1981 DEBUT, NON-STOP EROTIC CABARET. MARC ALMOND PONDERS WHETHER THIS MEANS SOFT CELL ARE A PROPER BAND AGAIN, WHILE DAVE BALL DISCUSSES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN DETAIL THE HORRIFIC ACCIDENT WHICH LEFT HIM IN AN INDUCED COMA.

POP TOP TEN

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING • AS HIS DEBUT SOLO ALBUM IS REISSUED AS A LAVISH BOXSET, MIDGE URE RECALLS HIS ANNUS MIRABILIS – WHEN NOT EVEN JOE DOLCE COULD STOP HIM HITTING THE UK TOP SPOT...

DEVOTED FANS SHOW US THEIR COLLECTIONS AND POP MEMORABILIA

Story Behind The Song: Ashes To Ashes • IN THIS EXTRACT FROM HIS BOOK SILHOUETTES AND SHADOWS: THE SECRET HISTORY OF DAVID BOWIE’S SCARY MONSTERS (AND SUPER CREEPS), ADAM STEINER TAKES A DEEP DIVE INTO THE ICONIC SINGER-SONGWRITER’S SEMINAL 1980 SINGLE

THEY’RE BACK!

Backbeat Books

THE THE -INFECTED • IN A YEAR’S TIME, WALL STREET’S GORDON GEKKO WOULD DECLARE “GREED IS GOOD,” BUT IN 1986 MATT JOHNSON WASN’T SO SURE. ACCOMPANIED BY A ‘VISUAL COMPANION’ 30 YEARS BEFORE BEYONCÉ’S LEMONADE, THE THE’S MASTERPIECE’S SCATHING STATE-OF-WESTERN-CIVILISATION ADDRESS IS STILL FRIGHTENINGLY RELEVANT TODAY.

TOP 2O DEBUT SINGLES • YOU NEVER GET A SECOND CHANCE TO MAKE A FIRST IMPRESSION AND, FOR MANY ARTISTS AND BANDS, THEIR DEBUT SINGLE PROVED TO BE THE FOUNDATION FOR A LONG-LASTING...