Smash Hits Magazine 1979-2006

[Deleted]

It has been announced that Smash Hits Magazine is closing down after 27 years, and the last issue goes out on Feb 13th.

Sad news. Generations of readers must have read this over the years, although it's best days were in the 80s...and early 90s when they had the now classic logo.

That logo can now be seen every night on Smash Hits Classics on Smash Hits TV, which play videos from the 80s and early 90s.

Anyway just thought i would make a post about the demise of an legendary pop magazine.

R.I.P.

[greendemon]

i used to be into it when i was younger... 'tis quite sad

[Robin]

I used to live for Smash Hits when I was young, it was one of the highlights of my week!

[Deleted]

The lasting legacy of Smash Hits
By Caroline Briggs
BBC News entertainment reporter

from bbc.co.uk

The first ever Smash Hits was prepared on a kitchen table

Smash Hits, which is to close after 28 years, was the bible for many teenagers discovering their musical tastes in the 1980s and 1990s.

Every fortnight, Smash Hits thumped through the letterbox dishing out gossip, interviews, pull-out posters - and perhaps most importantly - lyrics to the top tunes of the day.

The whole kit and caboodle was served up in a typically playful house style that would go on to set a new standard in magazines.

In 1981, it is rumoured that the then Smash Hits editor David Hepworth sent a memo to record companies saying he intended "to reverse the entire direction" of pop music publishing in favour of trivia, demanding to know the colour of their artists' socks.

The approach worked.

Before long, Smash Hits' irreverent and witty style was pulling in a regular readership of half-a-million readers.

Nicknames

Hepworth - and the two editors before him - had gathered together a sharp team of writers, including Mark Ellen and Neil Tennant, who would go on to front the Pet Shop Boys.

They helped shape the tongue-in-cheek style of the magazine that triumphed throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

Where else would the pop royalty of the day be known as Dame David Bowie, Sir Clifford of Richard and Fab Macca Wackythumbsaloft?

SMASH HIT EDITORS 1970s/1980s
Nick Logan (Chris Hall)
Ian Cranna
David Hepworth
Mark Ellen
Steve Bush
Barry McIlheney

Bros were nicknamed Matt, Luke and Ken - after third member Craig was declared irrelevant - while Brother Beyond were somewhat shortened to The 'Yond.

Corky O'Reilly! It's Kylie and Legs akimbo! were often used phrases among it vernacular.

Pop stars were not pandered to on the pages, but asked both probing and silly questions of the "do you have smelly feet?" ilk.

They often received equally silly replies.

But the magazine also succeeded in appealing to the teenager with a wide taste in music, as anyone who was anyone in the charts making it onto the hallowed pages.

Morten Harket's Bottom

Interviews with artists like The Cure and the Cocteau Twins were sandwiched comfortably between gossip on pop acts like Duran Duran and Wham!

Letter writers to Black Type mused on the songwriting ability of their favourite stars, wrote poems, and argued amongst themselves.

SMASH HIT EDITORS 1990s/2000s
Richard Lowe
Mike Soutar
Mark Frith
Kate Thornton
Gavin Reeve
John McKie
Emma Jones
Lisa Smosarski
Lara Palamoudian

They signed their letters Morten Harket's Bottom, Neil Tennant's Chest Wig, or Jesus and Mary's Chainstore.

Smash Hits was the brainchild of former NME man Nick Logan who called his protégée pop bible Disco Fever.

The first test issue - featuring Belgian one-hit-wonder Plastic Bertrand on the cover and Sham 69 as the centre spread - was put to together on Logan's kitchen table.

But unsure of how it would go down, Logan refused to print his name as editor, using instead the pseudonym Chris Hall - a combination of the names of his children Christian and Hallie.

After just three issues, Smash Hits moved from monthly to fortnightly, and its impact was immediate and lasting.

During the 1980s, appearing on the Smash Hits cover equalled BBC show Top of the Pops in determining when an act had finally arrived.

Morrissey wearing a hearing aid and holding a kitten inside his cardigan was just one of the memorable covers of the time.

Even footballer Paul Gascoigne made the cover when Gazza-mania gripped the country during the 1990 world cup.

"End of an era"

Smash Hits not only launched the careers of the pop stars on its pages, but it also gave its creative editorial team a leg up the ladder.

Founding editor Logan went on to launch The Face in 1980, while broadcaster and columnist Miranda Sawyer began her writing career at the magazine.

Perhaps the most high-profile editor was X-Factor presenter Kate Thornton who took the helm in 1996 aged just 21.

She said the magazine's closure was "the end of an era" but added that "times were changing".

In recent years the magazine was sold with free gifts from notepads to coloured pens for its increasing pre-teen readership, as teenagers turned to new technology to influence their musical direction.

Mark Frith, who now edits Heat magazine, said the music industry itself may also be to blame for the demise.

"I think these days, a lot of pop music is invented in boardrooms at record companies and it kind of ticks all the boxes and appeals to the right demographic," he said.

"The rogue element...where are the characters coming through now and making pop music? It's not just there.

"I think Smash Hits particularly thrived on those kind of people."

[Admin]

I have never bought this. Shame though, where will the kids get posters for their walls now?

[ChartFreak]

Anyone know if the Smash Hits channel will close as well

I hope not coz I love the "Smash Hits Classic" section at night

[ROBERTLEE]

Scratches head in amazement.

My pop music reading was NME, Disc and Record Mirror

[Dory]

chartfreak said:

Anyone know if the Smash Hits channel will close as well

I hope not coz I love the "Smash Hits Classic" section at night

From Brand Republic :

Emap to close Smash Hits magazine after 28 years
by Jennifer Whitehead Brand Republic 2 Feb 2006


Smash Hits: brand will live on

LONDON - Emap is to close Smash Hits magazine after 28 years, succumbing to the trend of young readers deserting magazines to spend time online and their money on mobile phone content.

In the last set of circulation figures, published by the ABC in August 2005, Smash Hits reported a drop of 4.4% to report sales of just over 120,000 copies an issue -- hundreds of thousands of copies fewer than it sold in its heyday in the late 1980s.

Smash Hits will live on as a brand in the form of a music television channel, which is available on cable and satellite, and a digital radio station, which launched on Freeview in 2002. The last issue of the magazine will appear on February 13.

As well as being the music and entertainment bible for a generation of teenagers, the magazine famously counts a number of celebrities among its former staff. These include Pet Shop Boys frontman Neil Tennant, who once boasted of having introduced the phrase "pur-lease" to the magazine, and the 'X Factor' host Kate Thornton.

The magazine was founded in 1978 by Nick Logan, who had previously edited the NME. Logan went on to create 80s fashion bible The Face.

Things are tough in the market for teenage publications. The Sunday Times is considering closing its children's supplement The Funday Times, while Hachette Filipacchi abandoned ElleGirl magazine after four years because of its dwindling circulation.

In the August 2005 ABCs, not one of the teenage-targeted magazines recorded a rise in circulation.

Publishers blame a variety of factors for the desertion of readers, including more diverse tastes in music and fewer exciting stars, and more competition for pocket money as teens turn their mobile phones for entertainment.

[ChartFreak]

dory said:

Smash Hits will live on as a brand in the form of a music television channel, which is available on cable and satellite, and a digital radio station, which launched on Freeview in 2002. The last issue of the magazine will appear on February 13.

Fab! Thanks Dory!

[musicgirl224]

i use to buy smash hits i like the biscult tin feat very funny quit sad rellay but htings move on i suppose too much compition these days plus other ways to find out about music the internet also i remember when it was 50p to buy it also use to get top of the pops and sugar magazine now its q magazine music one and woman or pick me

[Robin]

There's a new Best of Smash Hits book in the shops now! It's very cheese an features many excerpts from Smash Hits magazines over the years. It's a bit expensive at 14.99 but worth at least flicking thru in the shop as it brings back some great memories!

[hotpotato]

I preferred 'Number One' magazine but when that disappeared I made the switch every fortnight to Smash Hits.
First thing to do was always see if there was any 'Five Star' posters inside ,then head stright to the singles reviews and see how many 'blobs' the new releases recieved.

[Stewie]

I loved Smash Hits 89-94. Shame is gone but they had no idea what to do with it

[Hullboy]

rmbod said:

There's a new Best of Smash Hits book in the shops now! It's very cheese an features many excerpts from Smash Hits magazines over the years. It's a bit expensive at 14.99 but worth at least flicking thru in the shop as it brings back some great memories!

Yeah I spent a few minutes flicking through it in Waterstones yesterday! Brought back a lot of memories.

Will probably buy it if I can get it cheap somewhere.

[gazbaz]

looks like the poll winners party has been axed as well

[kimberley]

, i miss this mag, i use to get mine though the post when ever the was a new issuse out

[abbafan1982]

musicgirl224 said:

i use to buy smash hits i like the biscult tin feat very funny quit sad rellay but htings move on i suppose too much compition these days plus other ways to find out about music the internet also i remember when it was 50p to buy it also use to get top of the pops and sugar magazine now its q magazine music one and woman or pick me

very true used to but smash hits for posters good mem now i buy q