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The Latest Breaking News from Smash Hits

‘Barbara Windsor smacked our bottoms!’ Pet Shop Boys on showstopping visuals, horrified bosses – and snubbing the queen

As a 600-page doorstopper celebrates their groundbreaking costumes, gigs, sleeves and videos, the duo talk about ‘side-stepping the pop-star thing’ – and the naked trampolinist EMI had to censor

The Guardian - UK

‘I don’t miss the clamour of people’s adulation’: Transvision Vamp’s Wendy James on scandals, reunions and her beef with Elvis Costello

She became an 80s pop icon – and a media hate figure. Now, reforming her group after more than 30 years, James recalls her painful path through through the music business, surviving ‘Harvey Weinstein-type’ situations, and working with punk’s finest

The Guardian - UK

Barry McIlheney was joyously rock ‘n’ roll, memorial service told

Mr McIlheney, originally from Belfast, died in May at the age of 65.

Evening Standard

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Barry McIlheney obituary

Journalist and publisher who was editor of Smash Hits and Empire magazines and known for his lively, irreverent style

The Guardian - UK

Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant says copy of Smash Hits inspired him to go classical

Sleep Of Reason, which Tennant will release with Mark Springer, will see him sing over classical arrangements.

Evening Standard

Typewriters, stinky carpets and crazy press trips: what it was like working on video game mags in the 1980s

Powered chiefly by enthusiasm and primitive publishing tech, these publications shaped the future of video games media

The Guardian - UK

The dark world of Nineties boybands: ‘They put a bucket by the stage so I could spew’

IN FOCUS: Screaming girls. Sudden riches. Your face on the cover of Smash Hits magazine. Life in a Nineties boyband sounds like a dream, but one survivor of the maelstrom likens it more to being in the military. Jessie Thompson goes behind the scenes of revealing new BBC documentary ‘Boybands…

The Independent UK

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“Nile Rodgers said, ‘Let’s make a music video together,” and we ended up supporting him on tour!”: Deco on their new album, ‘80s covers and attracting the attention of both Noel and Liam Gallagher

“Rick Astley told us in person that our Never Gonna Give You Up mashup with Teenage Dirtbag is ‘very good, by the way’”

MusicRadar

The week in audio: Courtney Love’s Women; Kicking Back With the Cardiffians; The Belgrano Diary; Word in Your Ear – review

The grunge grand dame tells her anarchic life story through the music she loves, while Charlotte Church has a tender chat with her ‘dada’. Plus, a deep dive into the Falklands war and Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits days

The Guardian - UK

"Tony Iommi ain't got charisma, it's like watching a lamp post with a guitar on": in 1986 Ozzy Osbourne invited Smash Hits magazine to join him on tour in Japan. The Prince of Darkness had a lot on his mind

Ozzy Osbourne wasn't afraid to speak his mind when interviewed in Tokyo by Smash Hits magazine in the summer of 1986

Metal Hammer

Offending Ringo and probing Thatcher: Tom Hibbert, the man who ‘brought the bonkers’ to Smash Hits

As a new collection of his work, Phew, Eh Readers?, is published, former colleagues including Neil Tennant recall the irreverent music journalist’s phrasemaking genius

The Guardian - UK

Phew, Eh Readers? The Life and Writing of Tom Hibbert review – the PG Wodehouse of pop journalism

As this collection illustrates, the late Smash Hits and Q scribe was an inimitable master of mischief whose interviews skewered everyone from Bros to Margaret Thatcher

The Guardian - UK

The lost art of letter writing – and why it still matters

It’s the 10th anniversary of Letters Live, where stars read funny, moving and sometimes surprising letters of note on stage. Miranda Sawyer reports from the green room

The Guardian - UK

Giving in a material world: Madonna super fan shares incredible collection

The iconic singer isn't bringing her new tour to Australia. Here's a way to join in.

The Canberra Times

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The Conversation

The rise and 'whimper-not-a-bang' fall of Australia's trailblazing rock press

People under 30 don’t need to care about – or even understand – this. But there really was a time when exposure to culture was mediated by curators who had far too much power over what we all saw, heard or experienced.

The Conversation

Grayson Perry: exploring what it is to be human with humour, irreverence and excess

Smash Hits, the new Grayson Perry retrospective at Edinburgh’s National Galleries, spans the 40-year career of the recently knighted artist. It’s an exhibition packed with scrutiny of the entanglements of self and society, as Perry casts up snippets of the institutional landscapes that formed him: family, England, the art world.

The Guardian - UK

‘We each need what the other has’: five of the hottest new podcasting duos

Podcasting is known for its famous double acts, but who are the latest ones to listen out for? We talk to the hosts of our favourite new shows

The Guardian - UK

‘On reflection, it’s very uncool’: readers’ scrapbooks of pop fandom

With the Wham! documentary showcasing Andrew Ridgeley’s mum’s scrapbooks of their career, readers share their own shrines to Roxy Music, Metallica, David Bowie and more

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The Guardian - UK

Paul Cattermole was the endearing wild card in S Club 7’s peppy pop pack

The enigmatic singer, dancer and actor, who has died aged 46, was cheekily self-aware about the mechanics of his industry

ABC News

40 years of Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams, the 'home recording' that took the world by storm

The story behind Eurythmics' 1983 smash hit single Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) starts, in some ways, in a hotel room in Wagga Wagga.

Daily Mirror

Ex-Smash Hits editor looks back at iconic mag's heyday as it makes one-off return

Smash Hits was never 'slick', but it was read by millions of British teenagers every fortnight and definitely left an impression, says former editor David Hepworth

Daily Mirror

'My best line is still I was once the editor of a magazine called Smash Hits'

Smash Hits was never 'slick', but it was read by millions of British teens every fortnight and definitely left an impressed, says former editor David Hepworth

Glasgow Live

Channel 4 Derry Girls revives Smash Hits magazine ahead of season three release

In collaboration with the third and final series of Channel 4's Derry Girls, the broadcasters have teamed up with 4Creative and Bauer Media to revive the iconic Smash Hits Magazine

Belfast Live

Derry Girls feature on special Smash Hits magazine edition ahead of final series

What a blast from the past this is!

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