Tabla de contenidos para May - June 2023 en Classic Pop

81 @ClassicPopMag LISTEN NOW As far as ultimate pop statements go, a career-spanning deluxe singles boxset from the Pet Shop Boys is an unbeatable proposition. This summer sees the release of SMASH: The Singles 1985-2020, a remarkable behemoth that rounds up their peerless work in its purest form. When Classic Pop heard a whisper that this long-gestating singles project would finally be seeing the light of day in June, we made sure that we were in pole position for a world exclusive interview with Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe that takes a deep dive into their back catalogue and picks the duo’s brains about their philosophy on pop, the current state of the charts and much more besides. Alongside Neil and Chris, we’ve also sought out the thoughts of Noel…

Boy George strikes it lucky with The Lottery Winners Manchester quartet The Lottery Winners have teamed up with Boy George for their latest single, Let Me Down, from new album, Anxiety Replacement Therapy. The song came about when frontman Thom Rylance was researching “what it is that makes a song a classic.” “I’m intrigued by pop icons and the idea of classic songs, so I was listening to a lot of Boy George,” he says. “I wrote Let Me Down for George without knowing it. The song has a light and sunny 80s feel, with a lot of the same colours as other Boy George songs. When the penny dropped that he should sing it, I couldn’t rest until he agreed – which I’m sure wasn’t very fun for him.”…

Paul Cattermole, who topped the charts as a member of S Club 7, has died aged 46. Cattermole was a member of the group from their formation in 1998 until quitting the group in 2002. He’d recently rejoined his former bandmates and was set to embark on a 25th anniversary tour. One of the most successful pop acts of the late 90s and early noughties, S Club 7 notched up 11 Top 5 singles in the UK. Their debut LP, S Club, went to No.2 on home soil, while its follow-up, 2000’s 7, topped the album charts. They also won Best British Breakthrough Act at that year’s BRITs and later scooped the Best British Single award for their chart-topper Don’t Stop Movin’ in 2002. Born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in…

Dannii Minogue is to release a special 20th anniversary version of her fourth album, Neon Nights. Arriving in stores on 16 June, fans will be able to buy a special CD+DVD version as well as a limited edition 7CD boxset and picture disc vinyl LP. First released in 2003, the album spawned four UK hits with Who Do You Love Now?, Put The Needle On It, I Begin To Wonder and Don’t Wanna Lose This Feeling. The album was Dannii’s first release in six years, since parting ways with her label Eternal after 1997’s Girl. “I knew the crazy world of music was not always fair, but I also knew I’d had amazing experiences and done a lot of awesome stuff,” the singer states. “I didn’t think my music career…

21 Prince scored his first ever UK No.1 album on 21 May with Lovesexy. The record, Prince’s 10th, caused controversy from the get-go, with its provocative cover image (by fashion photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino) featuring the singer in his birthday suit with his hand rested erotically on his chest. Some stores refused to stock it or wrapped the album in black paper. Though the album was Prince’s first to top the UK chart, it was his worst performing long-player in his homeland since 1981’s Controversy. In the US, while lead single Alphabet St cracked the Billboard Hot 100’s Top 10, the record’s subsequent 7”s – Glam Slam and I Wish U Heaven – completely failed to chart. In the UK, however, both singles performed better, with Glam Slam hitting No.29 and…

Although Pet Shop Boys are reconciled to their own non-appearance in the singles chart nowadays, they are concerned about its increasing irrelevance. “Do kids take any notice of the singles chart now?” wonders Neil Tennant. “I don’t know that they do.” Chris Lowe adds: “I noticed the other day that As It Was is still in the Top 20.” Neil: “It’s a huge hit.” Chris: “Yeah, but it’s an old huge hit. That’s what annoys me about the singles chart. It’s why I no longer look at it, because it’s the same old stuff. Years ago, the album chart was always the same, with Dark Side Of The Moon always there. Now it’s flipped, so it’s the singles chart that always has the same records.” Neil responds: “It does mean…

These days you’ll have to hold out for 20-plus years for the latest Peter Gabriel album of fresh material – give or take the odd soundtrack or obligatory orchestral reimagining. At least early cuts from the long-overdue I/O suggest it will be worth the wait. But there was a time – that sweet spot either side of the 80s – when he was knocking albums out with the reliable regularity of a bi-annual anthology. Each self-titled release – delivered with the same masthead – was differentiated only by its Hipgnosis-designed feature image, and of course, the music within. Gabriel even went to the effort of recording several German-language versions at the same time. For ease of reference, fans, critics and subsequent reissues have assigned each a number and nickname: Peter…

GAMES WITHOUT FRONTIERS Of course Peter Gabriel would go on to conquer MTV with the ground-breaking Sledgehammer video (with help from stop-motion animator, Nick Park of Wallace & Gromit fame) and, before that, Shock The Monkey. But not one to shy away from the bright lights, Gabriel was already demonstrating a knack for the video format on Games Without Frontiers, before video was really even properly a thing. This cuts new scenes of him singing the track against archive footage of educational videos and propaganda-style promos, marching uniformed figures and athletics tournaments (that brings to mind the 1936 Berlin Olympics). The visuals play upon the lyrical contrasts of the childlike naivety and military threat. In fact, three incarnations or edits exist, including a 2004 reworking for his Play DVD, which…

Sparks adore their coffee, so it was perhaps inevitable that one day they’d write their preferred caffeinebased beverage into one of their album titles. The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte is the brothers Mael’s 26th long-player and its lead-off single, their first ever coffee-based song. “Latte’s not our favourite, though,” a fully coffee-d up Russell Mael tells Classic Pop over Zoom from his home in Los Angeles, “but ‘The Girl Is Crying In Her Soy Cappuccino’ didn’t have a good ring about it.” It’s been three years since Ron and Russell Mael’s last album, A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip. A new Sparks LP is always a big deal, but this time it feels different. Not only is The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte the pair’s first album since…

Lloyd Cole joins Classic Popon FaceTime from his home studio in Massachusetts to discuss his new album On Pain– a suitably sardonic title from the acclaimed singer-songwriter. Matters were nearly very different for Cole’s 13th solo album, though. The record was fi nished last October, but it wasn’t until the mixing stages that the title arrived, thanks to a visit from Lloyd’s son William. “The album was initially called ‘Pain And The Untrained Heart’, after a song that got merged into what’s now the title track,” reveals Cole. “Then my son came over and told me: ‘That sounds like a bad Paul McCartney album title.’ I was like: ‘OK, thanks for that...’ “What became the title track was then still called ‘I Can’t Be Trusted’, which I already knew wasn’t…

SPICE GIRLS DOCTOR SPICE LONDON Q Whendid you first become a Superfan of the Spice Girls and why do you like them? A In1997 – my grandma told me that she knew Mel B’s mum so I started to pay them more attention and my love for the group developed quickly. They were a breath of fresh air. A world of positivity, cheekiness, celebration and great music. Q Whatdo you have in your personal collection? A Everythingthat you could imagine. Records, signed items, newspaper cuttings, one-off pieces like costumes from their movie and the Wannabe winner card from The Brit Awards 1997. I even have a bicycle, framed discs, a movie script and, most recently, a floor rug. Q Howmuch have you spent on it? A It’shard to say, but…

EARMUSIC ★★★★★ Lloyd Cole’s previous album Guesswork in 2019 saw him venture back into synth-pop, 26 years after Bad Vibes was such a disastrous experiment. Guesswork was terrific fun, with a clutch of unexpected bangers. This time out, Cole is getting serious. Not in a pretentious manner, it’s simply time to gel the marriage of his songwriting with the modern classical music he’s been composing for around 15 years. What results is beautiful and special, the kind of minimalist adventure we hoped Mark Hollis would return with one day, only with added tales of bloodthirsty wolves and drug-addled rockers. Elsewhere this issue, Cole discusses his reverence for humour and, for all its beauty, On Pain can be killingly funny. The Idiot is a touching tale of Iggy Pop and David…

MUTE Five years after his glorious self-titled debut solo album was unfairly overlooked, Scissor Sisters’ singer returns with his band’s hiatus now looking increasingly permanent. Although the Sisters are still mothballed, album two sees Shears take listeners back to their clubland origins in a way that never quite materialised on the whole band’s studio ventures. With Boys Noize among the producers, the second side of Last Man Dancing is essentially a suite of fabulously messy club tracks where Shears largely keeps his voice in reserve to let the percussion bounce. A choppy wah-wah guitar and Freeez-style bass ushers in 8 Ball to start Shears’ extended disco tribute, with a trademark Jake yelp two minutes in pretty much his only vocal incursion, bringing a hypnotic percussion breakdown into the mix. Built…

LIVE HERE NOW ★★★★★ With a delayed 40th anniversary boxset of one of the all-time great albums due on 30 June, Martin Fry offers fans the chance to join in with ABC’s other great celebration of their towering achievement, a live homecoming album recorded at Sheffield City Hall 40 years to the day that The Lexicon Of Love was released. With the album’s original strings maestro Anne Dudley conducting the Southbank Sinfonia orchestra, Many Happy Returns and 4 Ever 2 Gether bounce along with the grandeur the occasion deserves, while Fry’s voice is still supple enough to handle the intricacies of Date Stamp and The Look Of Love as well as instilling a more reflective tone in All Of My Heart. The only downside here is we already know how…

CHRYSALIS ★★★★★ Although Go West have been happily touring since reforming almost 20 years ago, Peter Cox and Richard Drummie admit they find it hard to co-exist in the studio, hence only releasing (the newly reissued) Futurenow and 3D in their second incarnation. While Cox had been prolific in releasing five albums as a solo artist, Seaglass is his first without Drummie since Damn The Brakes reunited him with Go West’s original producer Gary Stevenson in 2013. A decade on, Stevenson is back for a quietly excellent album that, if this were 1987, would take up residency on Radio 1’s A-List for months. Low-slung rocker Things We Never Did and power ballad Jupiter deserve to be bolted onto daytime Radio 2, but that’s obviously a separate debate on pop ageism.…

MODERN SKY ★★★★★ They’re hardly the highest-profile band, but Manchester quartet The Lottery Winners have snuck their way past the cultural gatekeepers, with previous album Something To Leave The House For reaching No.11 in 2021. You’d call their stock-in-trade simple singalongs, but that’d be a disservice to just how many infectious choruses and the smart wordplay they fit in, or the naked emotional heft of the confessional Sertraline and Not Alone. They recall The Wonder Stuff’s rabble rousing in Jennie, while Burning House has the sonic exuberance of The B-52s, despite telling of singer Thom Rylance’s struggles with anxiety and ADHD. Having previously featured Sleeper’s Louise Wener, this time Boy George takes over on Let Me Down’s summery sway and Shaun Ryder reprises his “Call the cops!” refrain in the…

VIRGIN MUSIC/NOTHING BUT LOVE MUSIC ★★★★★ With a back catalogue that has regularly oozed elegance, James are as good a fit as any for what’s now pretty standard practice among legacy artists – the ‘orchestral overhaul’ album. Marking their 40th anniversary as a band, they’ve drafted in the 22-piece ORCA22 Orchestra as well as the Manchester Inspirational Voices choir for this expansive 20-track double LP. Eschewing the regular concept of merely revisiting the greatest hits, instead they’ve mixed trademark songs with deep cuts and rarities from across their career. It’s a smart move that allows for the odd surprise along the way. As is often the case, it’s the more radical treatments that prove to be the most rewarding; a gorgeous, gliding Sometimes, Laid taken at glacial pace, and a…

COOKING VINYL ★★★★★ A recent recruit to Blondie, the punk veteran harks back to his Pistols days on a politically astute album with music as flinty as his attacks on the establishment. While Matlock’s anger is palpable, strong riffs and choruses prevent him being heavy-handed, with the title track and Speaking In Tongues rattling good rock’n’roll more than treatises. Vamping vaudeville and sleazy blues on OTT tales of heartbreak have a glint in their eye, as he even finds room for a barroom take on kd lang’s Constant Craving. It’s a worthwhile rare solo trip. JE…

DISTILLER ★★★★★ After six years away from the studio, the Sheffield collective return with extra purpose. Their most varied album, there’s Balearic grooves in the title track, a bossa nova smoothness underpinning The Exception and a Fun Boy Three bounce to I Hate It When You Lie. A new mature beauty holds aloft A Letter To My 21-Year-Old Self and You Don’t Love Me, but the intensity in Jon McClure’s vocals and sharp production keeps the Makers vibrant. This will surely see them have their moment again. JE…

BLUEPRINT Following their career revival with Indian Summer in 1992, Go West promptly capitalised by living in different continents and not releasing anything for the next 16 years. Comeback album Futurenow was issued at just the wrong time in 2008: the nostalgia festival scene was only just starting to emerge and nobody had quite realised how good the 80s were yet. It meant Futurenow failed to chart, with Richard Drummie too distraught at its failure to want to carry on. Peter Cox joined Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. A first-time vinyl release shows Futurenow deserved better. True, the self-produced album sounds a little demo-y at times: there’s a better song within Faded than its primitive drum patterns imply, while someone more irie needed to work on Lolita’s reggae groove. But Cox’s…

TAPE MODERN/PARLOPHONE Made to keep busy while Simon Le Bon was suffering writer’s block, Nick Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo’s album as TV Mania didn’t emerge until 2013, and was only then given a limited release by boutique label, The Vinyl Factory. A decade on, Record Store Day gives the duo another outing. It’s probably the closest we’ll get to hearing the inside of Rhodes’ head, as fractured ambience is given further dissonance by a barrage of vocals sampled mostly from high fashion TV shows. Closer to Warp Records and Boards Of Canada than Future Past, it’s not as emotive as Arcadia but a worthwhile experiment. Less successful is the first British release, also for Record Store Day, of Duran Duran’s 1982 import EP, Carnival, based on their influential Night Versions…

UMC/MERCURY ★★★★★ The past couple of years has seen most of Marc Almond’s albums, from 1988’s The Stars We Are to 2007’s Stardom Road, get some overdue reissue attention. Other than that period’s three covers records, 1991’s Tenement Symphony and its belated successor Fantastic Star five years later were the notable reissue omissions. If the former remains neglected, Fantastic Star finally gets the treatment – but not in the way that you’d expect. Subtitled ‘The Artist’s Cut’, this Record Store Day reissue features a different tracklisting. Having taken five years out from pop, Almond had returned with his most sprawling material outside of Marc And The Mambas, working with producers including The Beatmasters, Martyn Ware and Soft Cell mentor Mike Thorne. The new sleeve, seamier and more teasing, is a…

DEMON ★★★ Compiling remixes released from 1987 to 1991, extended versions of Leave A Light On and (We Want) The Same Thing or Little Black Book’s Casio keyboard treatment could hardly be seen as essential. But William Orbit’s reworkings of Circle In The Sand and World Without You show flickers of the electronica he’d master with Madonna, while Justin Strauss’ Moroder-esque Summer Rain, Steve Beltran’s Latin house of La Luna and the roller-disco pop of Shep Pettibone’s Heaven Is A Place On Earth are fun excursions. Jon O’Brien…

SCOPITONES Thirty years after they spent 1992 releasing a new single every month, David Gedge decided to repeat the feat. Not encountered The Wedding Present for the past 30 years? Well, not much has changed. They still specialise in strumalong old-school indie-pop, although the band do diversify into funk on We All Came From The Sea and there’s even a rare ballad in Monochrome. As ever, Gedge’s vocals are an acquired taste, though they’re leavened by female harmonies these days. Whilst this project is unlikely to make many new converts, fans will be delighted. BS…

NINE EIGHT BOOKS ★★★★★ Whether in the role of creator or commentator, Bob Stanley has established himself as something of an expert in the art of pop music, making him the ideal candidate to tell the story of its most successful underdogs. While it seems absurd to deem a band who have sold more than 220 million records as underrated, the fact that the Brothers Gibb aren’t as revered as The Beatles, Beach Boys and Abba is a slight that Stanley succeeds in putting right in Children Of The World. Told with the delicious lyricism and candour we’ve come to expect from Stanley, the band’s extraordinary story is recounted in meticulous detail, documenting their rise, fall and rise again –taking in the triumphs and (no pun intended) tragedies of their…

Technically, Tubeway Army are the ultimate one-hit wonder. Formed in London in 1977, the Gary Numan-fronted outfit released just four singles in the course of their brief two-year life, with only the group’s last 7”, Are “Friends” Electric?, peaking higher than No.97 in the UK. But with their final, spellbinding single spending four weeks at No.1 in the spring of ‘79, Tubeway Army suddenly found themselves bona fide stars, and their enigmatic frontman, the pale-skinned face of the burgeoning electropop movement. “The lyrics came from short stories I’d written about what London would be like in 30 years,” Numan told The Guardian in 2014. “These machines – ‘friends’ – come to the door. They supply services of various kinds, but your neighbours never know what they really are since they…

The winner of the Best Writer, Specialist category, in 2022’s British Society of Magazine Editors Awards, for our latest issue John Earls meets the Pet Shop Boys for our world exclusive cover feature and also checks in with Lloyd Cole before overseeing our new albums and reissues reviews sections. Paul Kirkley makes his living from interviewing famous people with much more interesting and glamorous lives than his own. He is also, to the best of his knowledge, the only paid TV critic for a national supermarket chain. This issue, he catches up with Ultravox’s Midge Ure and Billy Currie to go behind the scenes of the making of their 1982 LP, Quartet. Steve O’Brien has written for such publications as The Guardian, Radio Times, Esquire, The New Statesman and Empire.…

What was the first song you remember loving? The first single I bought for myself with my own pocket money was Dancing Queen by ABBA when I was six. But there’s a whole bunch of other stuff that I liked at the time. In the room I’m in now, I’ve got a lot of my dad’s old records. He worked in the construction industry but also DJ-ed at nightclubs. My mum would sit at home and listen to the radio and give him advice on what new stuff to play. If your parents are quite cool and into music and you’re four, five, six, you tend to imbibe what they were listening to, so there was a lot of Beatles and Motown. Did you have any pop star posters on…

17 JANUARY 1952 – 28 MARCH 2023 Electronic music pioneer Ryuichi Sakamoto has died at the age of 71. Over the course of a 50-year career, he would prove a restless creative spirit, working in genres as diverse as classical and techno, and collaborating with some of the greatest musicians of the late 20th century, including David Sylvian, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Thomas Dolby and Brian Wilson. Sakamoto first came to prominence as one-third of the electronic outfit Yellow Magic Orchestra. YLO, as they were commonly known, would prove a lasting influence on hip-hop, electronica and house and counted Duran Duran, The Human League and Japan amongst their fans. Japan’s David Sylvian, was so in thrall to Sakamoto’s work with YLO that he asked the musician to contribute to his…

Christine McVie’s death has been confirmed as being from an ischemic stroke. When the Fleetwood Mac singer and keyboardist passed away in November 2022, her actual cause of death was not disclosed, with a statement from her family detailing only that she had died peacefully in hospital following a short illness. An ischemic stroke is caused, according to Healthline, “by a blockage in an artery that supplies blood to the brain”, occurring “when an artery that supplies blood to the brain is blocked by a blood clot or fatty build-up.” McVie’s death certificate also revealed that the 79-year-old had been diagnosed with “metastatic malignancy of unknown primary origin”, meaning cancer cells had been detected in her body but doctors were unable to locate where they had originated from. Speaking with Rolling…

Between 1986-2007, PSB released four albums in their Disco series of remix compilations. Initially focused on remixes of the duo’s singles by other producers, Disco 4 switched to compiling their remixes for artists including Madonna, David Bowie, Yoko Ono, Rammstein and The Killers. “Disco 4 came about after a phase in the early 2000s of doing a lot of remixes,” remembers Neil Tennant. “We’ve done quite a lot of remixes again recently, and I’ve got a tracklisting for Disco 5 on my phone. We’ve done some great ones people maybe haven’t heard, for Wolfgang Tillmans and Claptone.” Chris Lowe adds: “We did one for Paul Weller’s Cosmic Fringes, which was a bit more than he was expecting: a two-and-a-half minute song that we made into nine-and-a-half minutes.” Neil: “I think…

PETER GABRIEL The album’s sole songwriter would go on to expand his palette of instrumentplaying skills over the years on later studio work to include bass, guitar and even wind instruments. Here on Melt, though, Gabriel supplies synth and piano in addition to his emotive lead vocal parts. KATE BUSH Everyone will remember Don’t Give Up and its emotional video but Bush’s cameo on Melt, although fleeting and buried within the melee, are standout earworms that help to elevate the record to its dizzy heights. PHIL COLLINS Gabriel’s ex-bandmate lays down drums – and inadvertently invents the 80s in the process. If this record was the only thing that Collins ever did, it alone would be a considerable contribution to popular music. Phil’s often underappreciated contribution also gives Melt the…

How’s this for a musical time capsule? It’s the summer of 1982, and in Air Studios, high above Oxford Circus, Ultravox – who are recording their latest album with producer George Martin – are invited into the next-door studio to witness a product demonstration of an exciting new music format called the compact disc. “I think McCartney was in there as well,” recalls Midge Ure, four decades on. “I can’t remember if it was Phillips or Sony, but they played this thing and we all went, ‘Wow, that sounds amazing’...” And if that’s not pure, distilled 1982 enough for you, mere weeks after Duran Duran had sailed around Antigua in pastel Antony Price suits shooting the video for Rio, Ultravox decamped to mix their new record on the Caribbean island…

BOYZLIFE 4–27 MAY WHERE: 12-date UK tour WEBSITE: premier.ticketek.co.uk The pop supergroup formed by long-time pals Boyzone’s Keith Duffy and Westlife’s Brian McFadden head out on the road in May following the success of their 2022 UK tour. First joining forces in 2020 for their debut studio album Strings Attached, which saw them revisit their previous groups via a collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the pair followed it two years later with Old School. Accompanied by a full live band, the duo are jumping aboard the tourbus once more to promote the latter album with a clutch of live UK shows that will also feature a selection of hits from the back catalogues of the multi-platinum-selling Boyzone and Westlife. The 12-date Old School Part Two tour kicks off in…

SONY ★★★★★ Depeche Mode may have felt rather aggrieved when Sony released their muchanticipated comeback album in the same week as labelmate Lana Del Rey’s latest identikit long-player. Not only was going up against LDR ill-advised, Sony charged £46 for Memento Mori’s vinyl version, which had a blank fourth side, rather than including any of the five unreleased songs from the album sessions. Small wonder that Del Rey outsold Depeche by nearly 2:1. It all left rather a bad taste, when otherwise album 15 is a fitting tribute to the late Andy Fletcher, down to the simple black rectangle in the inner sleeve next to portraits of Dave Gahan and Martin Gore. Broadly speaking, Gahan and Gore have returned to pop without their comrade. If there’s nothing else to quite…

ISLAND ★★★★★ Though they weren’t exactly absent during the 21st Century’s first decade – as recent reissues of five commercially fruitless albums attest – it feels in contrast like, for the last half decade or so, Sparks have barely been out of the spotlight. The seeming ubiquity began when Franz Ferdinand reminded us of their indispensability with 2015’s collaborative FFS project, and it peaked over the last couple of years with Edgar Wright’s documentary, those aforementioned reissues and, of course, Annette, their recent quasi rock opera film. Naturally, the world – or at least the UK – has welcomed this renaissance, with Sparks’ last two albums going Top 10. But, given the sometimes-formulaic nature of their songwriting, the Maels’ appeal is in danger perhaps of wearing a little thin through…

21ST CENTURY ★★★★★ Mike Peters’ story is one marked by resilience and perseverance. Diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia in 2005, the Welsh rocker has maintained a steady touring and recording schedule with The Alarm in the years since. In fact, that pace has only slowed a little now, despite coming on the heels of a challenging year in which Peters contracted pneumonia and had a leukaemia relapse. He certainlydrew on this time for Forwards, The Alarm’s first album since 2021’s War. Peters brought his guitar to hospital, writing songs there as he was having treatment. But, as has been the case since the band broke out in the 80s with anthemic, punkish songs such as 68 Guns and Strength, a spirit of triumph prevails. Meditative moments, such as the U2-esque,…

WARNER ★★★★★ After channelling Burt Bacharach and various soul greats on his previous two LPs, Mick Hucknall attempts to rediscover his own voice on Simply Red’s 13th. That voice has certainly got a little hoarser, but Manchester’s blue-eyed finest still has plenty to say, whether waxing lyrical about domestic bliss on euphoric lead single Better With You or getting political on Too Long At The Fair. While lines such as “It seems democracy is suffering a major shakedown” are unlikely to give Billy Bragg sleepless nights, you can’t fault the sense of ambition. Indeed, Time is far from your average Simply Red affair, essentially traversing through the last century of pop. Slapbang is a rollicking harmonica-driven number, which evokes the classic blues of Leadbelly. Originally for Cyndi Lauper, the finger-clicking…

TLR ★★★★★ Only the Motown great’s second LP of all-new music since 1991’s Double Good Everything, his return has been overshadowed by that icky album title. Sure enough, the title track and semi-spoken I Wanna Know Your Body are deeply peculiar. Not only does Gasms feature lyrics about “hard to find gasms” like an ill-advised Steve Coogan character, it sounds cheap, more Bontempi than Berry Gordy. Thankfully, the album then eventually settles down. There’s nothing wrong with an 83-yearold man “knocking on wood”, to quote the title track, and the closing six-minute R&B excursion, I Fit In There, finds a George Benson-style groove and subtler lyrics to ensure its title doesn’t flag up another horror show. First single If We Don’t Have Each Other had shown Robinson can still motor…

EMI ★★★★★ Jessie Ware’s fifth album begins with friends including Róisín Murphy, Aisling Bea and an unmistakable Kylie Minogue saying its title in a breathy collage. For anyone more used to Ware’s smash food podcast Table Manners, with her mum Lennie, which has guests of Paul McCartney and Robert De Niro’s calibre, it’s disconcertingly sensual. But Ware’s world has always been about the good times and, sounding more confident than ever, That! Feels Good! is an imperious celebration of vintage 70s funk and disco, often with a wide-eyed delivery to match: the “Na-na-na” on the high-camp Pearls is pure Gladys Knight, while the proto-rap driving Shake The Bottle is Debbie Harry continuing Rapture to take down assorted cheaters. There are five producers, big names Stuart Price, Clarence Coffee Jr and…

TRANSGRESSIVE ★★★★★ Leaning into her pop side after winning Brits and the Mercury Prize with 2021 debut Collapsed In Sunbeams, the Londoner crafts soul-pop anthems including Dog Rose and Devotion to join poetic insights like the touching Room. The self-lacerating I’m Sorry and Phoebe Bridgers duet Pegasus show Parks can break hearts. But, for all its lyrical power, My Soft Machine is mostly about bringing joy and weightlessness. Rather than feel the pressure of success, Parks is using acclaim to dream bigger. She might want to make room for more trophies. JE…

4AD ★★★★★ The National have doubled down on their collective strengths for studio album number nine. Stylistically, we’re on familiar ground, from Aaron Dessner’s chiming guitar figures and Bryan Devendorf’s skittering rhythms to Matt Berninger’s none-more-indie lyrical references on New Order T-Shirt. Taylor Swift pops up on pretty piano-led ballad The Alcott while the introspective Your Mind Is Not Your Friend featuring Phoebe Bridgers sees Matt return to picking at the scabs of his ever-present anxieties. SH…

★★★★★ Begun on a songwriters’ camp hosted by Beck, where she created the escapist Puppy And A Truck – the video features a Harry Styles cameo – Jenny Lewis’ fifth solo LP is up there with Rilo Kiley’s More Adventurous among her finest. Lewis embraces her country moods, most explicitly on the joyous Love Feel, but she’s also divine as Dusty on Essence Of Life, while Cherry Baby is perfect featherlight pop. Always expert at conveying the maximum of emotion with the minimum amount of fuss, these largely acoustic waltzes have the musical poise to match. JE…

UMC/MERCURY ★★★★ Aside from 2020’s Self Civil War, Julian Cope has largely retreated from anything resembling tunes since his properly adventurous Peggy Suicide album 32 years ago. With Cope long lost to ley lines and dronerock, a boxset of his old band is a welcome reminder of how he once wrote songs that were powerful enough to enable him to front a band featuring such forceful personalities as Blur mentor Dave Balfe and manager/KLF godhead Bill Drummond. Of course, nothing is straightforward in Julian Cope’s world, and Culture Bunker isn’t quite a regulation boxset: with the band’s two main albums, Kilimanjaro and Wilder, readily available, here instead is everything else the Teardrops did in their tumultuous four years, including posthumously released final album Everybody Wants To Shag... The singles discs…

SMUGGLERS WAY ★★★★ Originally part of Music Sounds Better With You collective Stardust, if French house maestro Alan Braxe hasn’t gone on to be as famous as his bandmate Thomas Bangalter became in Daft Punk, in 2005 Braxe showed his influence with his compilation The Upper Cuts. That showed how, alongside collaborator Fred Falke, Braxe was crucial in keeping French dance culture vibrant. Available on streaming and vinyl for the first time, Braxe & Falke’s tracks burble ecstatically, full of joie de vivre and, above all, doof. The 2023 edition isn’t so much a reissue as a complete overhaul, with seven bonus cuts worthy of the original. The two additional Braxe & Falke tracks, Voices and You’ll Stay In My Heart, are floorfillers, while remixes for Britney and Annie are…

DEMON The Appleton sisters’ sole album is reissued 20 years later, including a first-time vinyl release. Whilst no neglected classic, time has been kind to it. Thoroughly grown-up sounding, there are a few hidden gems – bittersweet ballad All Grown Up and the wonderfully autumnal 5am in particular. What let the album down at the time was a certain sameyness in the production and a lack of strong singles – it’s hard to believe the chosen lead track was Fantasy, a flat-footed retread of the All Saints sound with none of the subtlety of the group’s best work BS…

CHERRY RED ★★★★ If you need reminding of just how big a deal Toyah were in 1981, their Christmas Eve concert, broadcast live on BBC2, was watched by a whopping 12 million people. Last available as a cut-down VHS, the full performance is now making its DVD debut, along with a bonus live CD that mixes hits like It’s A Mystery with rarely performed tracks including Stand Proud and Pop Star. As a document of the band and their iconic singer at the height of their powers, it’s a welcome late Christmas present, 42 years on. PK…

UMC/MERCURY ★★★ Although it’s welcome to have the duo’s 1996 rarities album finally out on vinyl, its Record Store Day release doesn’t solve the omission of early flipsides such as Wino and The Conflict. It’s great to have standalone smash The Way You Are, and who could argue that complex Seeds Of Love out-take My Life In The Suicide Ranks isn’t among the great B-sides? But someone needs to assemble a more comprehensive rarities set and update SM&L to give fans a proper assemblage of Smith & Orzabal’s hidden world. JE…

PALAZZO EDITIONS ★★★★ It’s hard to believe that it has been over two decades since Alecia Moore burst onto the music scene – a self-confessed rough diamond amidst the perfectly packaged teen pop idols of the day, Britney, Christina, Jessica and Backstreet Boys. In Raise Your Glass, author and Classic Pop contributor Annie Zaleski, traces Moore’s transformation into Pink – from her beginnings in unsuccessful girl group Choice to the globeconquering icon she is today. With individual chapters dedicated to each of her many incarnations, Raise Your Glass illustrates what a remarkable career the superstar has enjoyed. From the R&B starlet of breakthrough hit There You Go, replete with trademark fuchsiacropped hair and washboard abs, to the purveyor of power-pop anthems tailor-made for the enormodomes she hurtles around attached to…

Pet Shop Boys cover image: Erik Weiss Anthem Publishing Suite 6, Piccadilly House, London Road, Bath, BA1 6PL Tel +44 (0)1225 489 984 www.classicpopmag.com WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE PET SHOP BOYS SINGLE? EDITOR Steve Harnell steve.harnell@anthem.co.uk Being Boring *1 ART EDITOR Debra Butler debra.butler@anthem.co.uk Suburbia ADVERTISING MANAGER Leah Fitz-Henry leah.fitz-henry@anthem.co.uk It’s A Sin SUB-EDITOR Rik Flynn I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind Of Thing DIGITAL EDITOR Steve O’Brien Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots Of Money) *2 CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jenny Cook jenny.cook@anthem.co.uk Domino Dancing MARKETING EXECUTIVE Rosie Pankhurst rosie.pankhurst@anthem.co.uk What Have I Done To Deserve This? FOUNDER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE Ian Peel Love Comes Quickly CEO Jon Bickley jon.bickley@anthem.co.uk Left To My Own Devices MANAGING DIRECTOR Simon Lewis simon.lewis@anthem.co.uk It’s A Sin CONTRIBUTORS…

They split mysteriously in 2021, but now Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter has explained why, after nearly three decades together, he and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo decided to go their separate ways. The 48-year-old was speaking to the BBC’s Mark Savage where he revealed that he wanted to distance himself from technology-based music. “Daft Punk was a project that blurred the line between reality and fiction with these robot characters,” he told the BBC website. “It was a very important point for me and Guy-Manuel to not spoil the narrative while it was happening.” “I love technology as a tool,” he continued, “[but] I’m somehow terrified of the nature of the relationship between the machines and ourselves. Now the story has ended, it felt interesting to reveal part of the creative process…

HOW ’BOUT US CHAMPAIGN “Some people are made for each other...” sang vocal duo Rena Day and Pauli Carman at the helm of Champaign, a smooth soul band named after their hometown in Illinois. Champaign were an immediate success, with their debut single How ’Bout Us catching the ear of club DJs everywhere as the ideal track to slow hectic dancefloors down at the end of a set. The song boasted a particularly wholesome harmony on both chorus and backing vocal as well as some understated saxophone and a gentle tone reminiscent of the best early-70s soul groups. In the UK it was championed on specialist radio before it made a swift climb to No.5 in the summer of 1981, spending five weeks in the Top 10 and a quarter…

GET CLOSE PRETENDERS Get Close might be on record as the fourth album of the Pretenders’ career, but in reality it marked the stumble of Chrissie Hynde into an enforced one-woman show. Their New Wave beginnings overcome by ageing bones and ever-changing line-ups, the band essentially now consisted of a maturing Hynde and numerous session mates after the deaths of two high-profile members and the difficult departure of grieving drummer Martin Chambers. However, Hynde’s voice was at its most resonant. Her vocals, especially on huge hit Hymn To Her – a female empowerment ballad written by an old schoolfriend – are arguably the greatest of her career. Album opener My Baby has a pleasant lilt and brilliant work from go-to session player and Haircut 100 drummer Blair Cunningham, while Tradition…

Noel Gallagher is happy to rhapsodise about his love of Pet Shop Boys for Classic Pop and explain the future of those remixes of his song Think Of A Number. There are, in fact, four remixes of the New Romantic-tinged anthem, which closes Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ new album Council Skies, out on 2 June: 7” and 12” versions for both the Magic Eye and Timeless Classic PSB mixes. “I love Pet Shop Boys, they’re one of the great British bands,” raves Noel. “I’ve known them since the 90s. The idea of a remix was after I saw them headline the Other Stage at Glastonbury last year. While everyone was going one way to see Kendrick Lamar at the Pyramid Stage, I was going the other way to see…

1 INTRUDER The album kicks off with that thunderous Phil Collins beat, which shares more than a little DNA with NWA and early hip-hop. Then the sonic palette is split right open with a frenetic, skittish percussive marimba sound. What follows is a creepy, skincrawling track that pre-empts Lullaby by The Cure in its eerie, whispered vocal that later strains like an animal in pain. Gabriel plays the role of the intruder, creeping across those creaky floorboards at night. The production is close and claustrophobic, as a plectrum scrapes across muted guitar strings in scratchy dissonance. The angular verse resolves into a more melodic chorus refrain, while the tumbleweed whistling part at the end sounds like a country and western film soundtrack. It’s seriously weird and unsettling, though strangely addictive.…

“One of my favourite tracks on Quartet is Cut And it, then said, ‘no thanks’. Real Del Boy stuff! But on this Run, ‘cos it’s a bit rough,” says Billy Currie. “It was one, we had to do it all through samples. knocked together at the end of the writing sessions, “There’s lots of stuff I like on the album, though. when we were all going a little bit nuts. I’m very proud of my instrumental middle section on “Serenade, with all that crazy classical stuff, is Mine For Life – and also When The Scream Subsides. where someone should have taken me to one side I remember recording that one with Geoff Emerick, and shot me,” he laughs. “I wanted Synclavier strings, and us both being really blown away by…

What is it? Though it’s one of the few sub-genres of music even yer mam would recognise, many of the artists that the world considered part of Britpop have always been eager to distance themselves from the tag. A few years earlier, that raft of bands the media attached to the scene – Pulp, Blur, Suede, Oasis, Elastica – would have simply been passed off as indie. Britpop, however, made homegrown indie into a movement with a flag-waving manifesto, celebrating, reflecting and sometimes critiquing Britain in all its loopy, seedy, kooky, stuffy, parochial glory. Opinions vary on the origin of the word itself. Certainly, rock scribe John Robb was using it in the 80s, but it was Select’s Stuart Maconie who exhumed the term in the early 90s specifically to…

Prior to the rise of pub rock in the late 70s, internationally-successful Antipodean pop acts were something of a rarity. Certainly, The Seekers were one such success story, while emigrants such as Olivia Newton-John and the Bee Gees, who had arrived from the UK via the so-called ‘Ten Pound Pom’ scheme, also left their cultural mark. The musical landscape altered significantly in the wake of punk, while MTV’s launch provided a platform for a new generation of global stars. Covering the period 1980 to 2002, here we select some of the most revered, iconic and biggest-selling singles from the land Down Under. 20 PSEUDO ECHO FUNKY TOWN (1986) Inspired by the synth-pop of Japan, Simple Minds and Ultravox, Melbourne act Pseudo Echo (whose name was sourced from a keyboard user…

RATINGS EXCELLENT ★★★★★ VERY GOOD ★★★★ GOOD ★★★ PATCHY ★★ POOR ★ THE HOT LIST 84 T.Rex, M & Robin Scott, Rick Astley, Eddie Piller, Ocean Colour Scene NEW RELEASES 85 Depeche Mode, Everything But The Girl, Lloyd Cole, Sparks, Alison Goldfrapp, Jake Shears, Shakin’ Stevens, The Alarm, ABC, Simply Red, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Peter Cox, Smokey Robinson, The Selecter, The Lottery Winners, The Damned, James, Jessie Ware, Andy White And Tim Finn, Arlo Parks, The National, Glen Matlock, Reverend And The Makers, Jenny Lewis, Rhoda Dakar, Tom Meighan REISSUES 94 Ultravox, OMD, The Teardrop Explodes, Now That’s What I Call Eurovision Song Contest, Now Yearbook ‘78, Now Yearbook ‘86 Extra, B.E.F, Britney Spears, Louise, Philip Bailey, Go West, Ace Of Base, Alan Braxe, TV Mania, Duran Duran, Marc Almond, Appleton,…

BUZZIN’ FLY ★★★★★ “Do you sing to heal the broken hearted, faces to the wall?” Tracey Thorn wonders on Karaoke, Fuse’s final track. “Do you sing to get the party started, or not at all?” They’re questions she’s probably asked herself, given Thorn and husband Ben Watt have taken 24 years to reunite in song, but she answers both in the affirmative. Listening to Temperamental’s belated follow-up, one reaches the same conclusion. Neither miseryfest nor hedonistic rave, Everything But The Girl’s 11th long-player confirms the pair’s ability to combine pleasure and pain, if not in equal measures. That’s evident on Nothing Left To Lose, the cavernous, drum’n’bass-flavoured single which marked their comeback in January. “Kiss me while the world decays,” Thorn sighs over a rubbery bassline, “Kiss me while the…

SKINT ★★★★★★ With Goldfrapp having seemingly dissolved without warning after seven albums, Alison Goldfrapp adds her first name as an indication that Will Gregory has quietly been binned off. In the press biography for her debut solo album, Goldfrapp explains: “It feels like a new era, I feel very strong.” Alison’s music has always radiated strength, and that continues on an album that’s firmly in the primal synth-pop mould of Black Cherry rather than Goldfrapp’s early folk roots. The teasing “Do you know how the stars were made?” refrain in first single So Hard So Hot – written about last summer’s heatwave, rather than filth – is an indication that Goldfrapp is channelling her self-aware Grace Jones side. The first half of the album is especially poptastic. NeverStop and The…

BMG ★★★★★ Despite being the UK’s biggestselling singles artist of the 80s, Shakin’ Stevens isn’t quite the titanic pop cultural name he should be. Maybe it’s because, despite that blizzard of Top 10 hits – This Ole House, Green Door, You Drive Me Crazy, Oh Julie et al – there was never any sense of evolution in Shaky’s musical journey. Even when he briefly returned to the Top 20 in 2005 with an unlikely cover of P!nk’s Trouble, somehow Stevens made even that song sound like Diet Elvis. But then came 2016’s Echoes Of Our Times. Shaky’s 20th album, which threw that rockabilly-lite formula out the window and won the Welshman some of the best reviews of his career. It’s more of the same here. Musically, we’re on Americana terrain,…

COOKING VINYL ★★★★★ In the seven years since previous album Familia, Sophie Ellis-Bextor has stayed busy, writing her acclaimed memoir and hosting a podcast about working mothers, both called Spinning Plates. Lockdown cemented her national treasure status, thanks to the Kitchen Disco livestream. She’s even had cameos in Neighbours and Game Of Thrones. New music? Not so much. Someone with as varied a life as Ellis-Bextor needs to really want to do pop music before bothering. Luckily, she’s waited to have something to say. That doesn’t mean she’s gone overly worthy, though floaty opener A Thousand Orchids is the album’s sole misstep, indicating we’re in for holistic wellness rather than poptastic bangers. Fortunately, a minute into the following Breaking The Circle, album seven takes flight. Its euphoric piano kicks in,…

REPUBLIC OF MUSIC ★★★★★ Fronted by mainstays Pauline Black and Arthur ‘Gaps’ Hendrickson, The Selecter celebrate the return of their original drummer, Charley ‘Aitch’ Bembridge, with a dozen inspired tracks on their remarkable new record. While it’s been 43 years since the original line-up burst out of Coventry with their seminal debut Too Much Pressure, the band have gone on to deliver some stellar releases in recent times. On album 16, they continue to fight the good fight. From the title track’s commentary on knife crime and Armchair Guevara’s takedown of keyboard warriors to the hard-hitting Black Lives Matter stance of Stay Rebel and condemnation of unprincipled politics on Scandalous, there’s a familiar vigour running throughout Human Algebra. Produced by Neil Pyzer, who also contributes saxophone, guitar and keyboards, The…

EARMUSIC ★★★★★ Punk’s original creepy ghoulies escape from the studio with a dozen devilish delights on album number 12. Some 46 years after their groundbreaking debut, Damned Damned Damned, Dave Vanian continues to play the role of master showman to perfection on Darkadelic, while his cohorts Captain Sensible (guitar), Paul Gray (bass), Monty Oxymoron (keys) and William Granville-Taylor (drums) deliver a majestic display of musicianship throughout. From the anthemic stomp of The Invisible Man and glorious gothicism of Bad Weather Girl to the haunting From Your Lips and sombre sorrow of poetic closer Roderick, this is a record bursting with memorable moments which will rattle around your skull long after you first press play. Multiple bands who only come out at night – The Misfits, Alkaline Trio and Creeper –…

FLOATING WORLD ★★★★★ Belfast singer-songwriter Andy White and ex-Split Enz frontman Tim Finn last recorded together in 1995 as ALT with Hothouse Flowers’ Liam Ó Maonlai. Minus Liam, they reunite for the stellar AT. Mixed by John Leckie, it begins with the piano-heavy folk highlight The Sea Holds The Memory and amasses intensity, ending with the roiling The Happiness Index and orchestradriven Rock’n’Roll Star. In between is plenty of dreamy introspection, like the Church-esque beauty of Save Me A Weekend. AZ…

TOWNSEND ★★★★★ Ejected from Kasabian for domestic violence, a repentant Tom Meighan addresses past failures on powerful ballad Scared and the bluesy Don’t Give In. His old band’s gonzo glam is present in Acrobat and Better In The Dark but, for someone who didn’t contribute to Kasabian’s writing, he has a superb variety. Daytona Racing’s Muse-meets-Slade is particularly fun, and his voice has the escapist holler of Kasabian’s early years throughout. Determined to make a fresh start, this is the best answer a newly focused Meighan could give on where his future belongs. JE…

SUNDAY BEST “From 1980, back in the day, I took an old song and did it our way,” opens Rhoda Dakar on her new covers album, Version Girl. Referencing her debut 45 with The Bodysnatchers, Let’s Do Rock Steady, she celebrates her passion for reggae and ska by eschewing the predictable. These 12 songs salute her inspirations, with tracks by Elvis Costello, The Pretenders and David Bowie all receiving makeovers. “I wanted to go a little leftfield,” she says, as highlights include unique interpretations of Walking After Midnight, As Tears Go By and Morrissey’s Every Day Is Like Sunday. DB…

UMC/EMI ★★★★ Despite Radio Prague’s opening fanfare, OMD’s fourth album didn’t provoke much celebration. Less than 18 months after the platinum-selling Architecture & Morality, hopes were high to replicate such success, but Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphries had other ideas. Initially, in fact, they had none. So, hamstrung by writer’s block, they turned to musique concrète’s techniques, turning in a less than commercial and the Cold War. The results, to no doubt everyone involved’s distress, achieved a tenth of its predecessor’s sales. As is often the way, these days Dazzle Ships is considered little short of a masterpiece. Rightly so, as it happens. Sure, there are experimental cut-and-paste vignettes, with ABC Auto-Industry all kettle drums and vocal samples, while Time Zones is built from phone calls to concept album about…

CHERRY RED ★★★ Side-stepping Philip Bailey’s solo gospel output, Cherry Red revisits the legendary Earth, Wind & Fire vocalist’s pop output with expanded editions of his first three solo albums. Having performed on hits such as Fantasy and September, the singer went it alone in 1983 after EW&F were put on hold. Surrounding himself with members of his former collective, debut album Continuation is exactly what it says on the sleeve: a continuation of that distinctive vibe created by EW&F. Originally released in 1983, it’s possible the success of Bailey’s Phil Collins-produced second outing Chinese Wall was hampered by the release of Prince’s unparalleled Purple Rain just four months previously. While there are echoes of the Purple One throughout, the album would earn Bailey a No.1 single when Easy Lover…

DEMON ★★★★ Ace Of Base were not-so-secretly one of the most influential bands of the 90s. Not only did the Swedish quartet become global stars on the strength of synth-pop gems like The Sign, but 1995’s The Bridge was one of the first LPs to feature production from Max Martin, soon to dominate pop. Beautiful Life: The Singles also makes a good case for Ace Of Base’s status as dancefloor dominators. The 26CD(!) boxset features a staggering 340 tracks, encompassing B-sides, demos, instrumentals, alternate versions, and literally hundreds of remixes, including about 50 unreleased reworkings. The compilation spans Ace Of Base’s entire career, from the primitive 1991 reggae-pop demo Mr Ace which morphed into the global phenomenon All That She Wants, to a bubbly, synth-frosted 2023 Matt Pop radio mix…

BMG ★★★★ After the acclaim surrounding 2009’s The Liberty Of Norton Folgate, Madness’ follow-up was somewhat in its shadow when released three years later. An overlooked treasure, every band member seems relaxed and assured, a confidence hinted at by titling the first single My Girl 2. How Can I Tell You is vintage Nutty yearning in particular. As with its predecessor, the new vinyl edition adds seven bonus tracks, with 1978 and Big Time Sister especially worth dusting down. A shame that Peter Blake phoned in the artwork, mind. JE…

BMG ★★★★ Long before Elvis vocals were placed atop orchestras and Pete Tong coined it in with Ibiza Classics, Don Reedman – the exec behind K-Tel’s compilations – was the man behind getting the London Symphony Orchestra to perform orchestral takes on rock classics. That original 1978-81 series of Classic Rock albums still sparkles. A well-chosen set where strings actually add some bombast – Jet, Vienna, Whole Lotta Love – it’s updated with six new tracks. Reedman still has A&R skills, as Coldplay’s Viva La Vida and Muse’s Uprising fit in snugly. JE…

CHRYSALIS ★★★★ Not an obvious contender for a 4CD/2LP deluxe edition, but noughties indie staples Athlete’s Mercury-nominated debut album deserves the treatment. Singer Joel Pott has since become a songwriter for George Ezra and Mabel, and his ability to make quirky rhythms sound addictive was there from the start on earworms such as El Salvador and Shake Those Windows. As well as two CDs of live recordings, the vinyl and CD2 house some terrific B-sides and a gorgeous Elbow remix of Westside. Athlete didn’t last the distance, but they briefly deserved a medal. JE…

NINE EIGHT BOOKS ★★★★★ As a magazine that was itself born to celebrate the art of pop music, we know better than most the inherent snobbery and derision that has often accompanied its success. Credit has usually been given grudgingly in hindsight or patronisingly slapped with the ‘guilty pleasures’ tag for example. Michael Cragg sets out to right those wrongs in Reach For The Stars, a fantastic, fizzy oral history of pop music’s last party. Kicking off in 1996 with the Spice Girls, the book is a raucous romp through the next decade on Planet Pop, celebrating the likes of Girls Aloud, Steps, S Club 7, Sugababes and A1, as well as Billie, Westlife, Five, Hear’Say, Liberty X, Busted, McFly and Blue among many others. Compiled from hundreds of interviews…

NINE EIGHT BOOKS ★★★★ While the 80s are often best remembered as being all about day-glo outfits or icy synth-pop, Cathi Unswerth’s black celebration of all things goth in this fascinating study of pop’s dark side is a welcome reminder that it was also one of music’s most eclectic eras. Tracing goth’s roots from the literature and mythology that informed its aesthetic and ideals, Season Of The Witch also examines its social and political relevance – the spectre of Margaret Thatcher and her destruction looms large throughout – and pays homage to the key figures that spearheaded its rise from punk’s ashes to become a soundtrack for misfits and outsiders in the 80s and beyond. Relaying the fantastic music in great detail, the book documents goth figureheads such as Siouxsie…