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ABBA make the most of time in lockdown

ABBA have recorded more new music for their

DUFFY’S POST-DURAN BAND THE HAWKS FINALLY TAKES FLIGHT

Material from Stephen Duffy’s first band after leaving

BOY GEORGE SET TO REVISIT TABOO PRODUCTION

Boy George is planning to write a sequel

ENO BROTHERS TO MAKE THEIR LIVE DEBUT

Brian and Roger Eno are set to perform

CROSS THAT BRIDGE

THE WARD BROTHERS

DURAN DURAN TALK UP NEW ALBUM FUTURE PAST

Planet Earth has become a very different place

PET SHOP BOYS’ BANGING REMIX FOR PAUL WELLER

Pet Shop Boys are no strangers to unusual

SO EXCITED!

POINTER SISTERS

PEPSI & SHIRLIE REVEAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Top of must-read lists for 80s pop fans

CLARE GROGAN READIES SOLO ALBUM DEBUT

Altered Images singer Clare Grogan is finally making

Q+A KIM WILDE

MARKING THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF HER UK DEBUT HIT KIDS IN AMERICA, KIM WILDE TALKS TO CLASSIC POP ABOUT A BRAND NEW AUDIOVISUAL GREATEST HITS PACKAGE

THE POD SQUAD

CHECKING IN WITH OUR FAVOURITE CLASSIC POP-FRIENDLY PODCASTS

ROGER TAYLOR DRUMS UP SUPPORT FOR NEW SOLO ALBUM

Roger Taylor has announced his first live performances

BONO SCORES WITH EURO 2020 ANTHEM

Bono had to completely rewrite the lyrics to

IAN PEEL‘S A TO Z POP of

LIS FOR… LINER NOTES

THIS MONTH IN POP

JULY 1987

13

© Getty When Terence Trent D’Arby’s debut LP

TOP 5 UK ALBUMS CHART

19 JULY 1987

SUPER FAN

DEVOTED FANS SHOW US THEIR COLLECTIONS AND POP MEMORABILIA

POPARAZZI

READERS SHARE THEIR FAVOURITE PHOTOS AS THEY GET UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH SOME OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN PLANET POP

TOP TEN 12 JULY 1986

MADONNA HITS THE TOP SPOT, WHILE WHAM! SAY SAYONARA AND OWEN PAUL ENJOYS HIS ONLY CHART HIT…  

CLASSIC POP MOMENTS

11 JULY 1980

“I’M CREATIVE, OPTIMISTIC, BELLIGERENT. I’M BOY GEORGE, DARLING…

WHEN BOY GEORGE TURNED 60 IN JUNE, HE RELEASED 60 NEW SONGS TO MARK THE OCCASION AS HIS “CREATIVE DIWALI FESTIVAL”. MORE THAN EVER BEFORE, GEORGE’S NEW DECADE SEES ONE OF POP’S GREATEST PIONEERS AT EASE WITH BOTH HIS PAST AND FUTURE. WITH A NEW BIOPIC ON THE WAY, IS THE SINGER – WHISPER IT – COMFORTABLE? “IF I AM, IT’S A FIGHT,” HE TELLS US

BACK FOR THE FIRST TIME

WILL “ILL WILL” LAVIN

BEHAVIOUR

PET SHOP BOYS

“I WANTED TO EXPLODE MY OWN MYTH”

THIRTY YEARS AGO, MADONNA INVITED CAMERAS BACKSTAGE, INTO  HER DRESSING ROOM AND EVEN HER BED FOR TRUTH OR DARE, WHICH LIFTED  THE LID ON WHAT WENT ON BEHIND THE SCENES OF ONE  OF THE MOST SCANDALOUS  TOURS OF ALL TIME

PREFAB SPROUT

IN A CAREER SPANNING MORE THAN FOUR DECADES, PREFAB SPROUT HAVE EMBRACED PURE POP, FUNK, JAZZ AND OUT-THERE INSTRUMENTALS…

THOMPSON TWINS

LIFE  THROUGH A  LENS

“GOING SOLO? I SAID ‘SURE’... I DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO DO ANYTHING ELSE!”

WITH THREE OF HER ALBUMS NOW BEING GIVEN THE VINYL COLLECTABLE TREATMENT, BELINDA CARLISLE LOOKS BACK AT 1986’S BELINDA, 1991’S LIVE YOUR LIFE BE FREE AND 1996’S A WOMAN &A MAN 

TENSION IN THE DYNAMICS

Another of Belinda’s albums getting the reissue treatment

Transvision Vamp Little Magnets Versus The Bubble Of Babble

TRANSVISION VAMP HAD THE WORLD AT THEIR FEET AFTER REACHING NO.1 WITH SECOND LP, VELVETEEN. BUT THANKS TO THE VICIOUS MUSIC PRESS AND AN INTERFERING RECORD COMPANY, ITS FOLLOW-UP SANK ALMOST WITHOUT TRACE. THIRTY YEARS ON FROM ITS NON-RELEASE IN THE UK, JON O’BRIEN EXPLORES WHETHER IT DESERVED SUCH A FATE

AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY

THREE YEARS AFTER RECRUITING FORMER  LIBERTY X SINGER  KEVIN SIMM AS THEIR NEW FRONTMAN, WET WET WET ARE  FINALLY READY TO EMERGE FROM COVID-ENFORCED HIBERNATION  WITH THE NEW LINEUP’S FIRST ALBUM, THE JOURNEY. “WE’RE ABOUT TO GET INTO THE RING AND START SWINGING.”

Thank You For The Music: A Guide To SCANDIPOP

THE REGION HAS BROUGHT US SOME OF THE WORLD’S BIGGEST CHART STARS, WRITERS AND PRODUCERS, PUNCHING WELL ABOVE ITS WEIGHT. SO WHAT MAKES SCANDINAVIA SUCH A FERTILE GROUND FOR GREAT POP MUSIC?

The cultural fabric

The Cardigans hail from Jönköping, Sweden © Getty

Sweden: The winner takes it all

With respect to our good friends in Denmark

SCANDINAVIAN HIT FACTORIES

© Getty You know that ‘six degrees of

Denmark: Nothing else matters

Danish pop band Aqua, circa 2000 © Getty

THE NORDIC CONNECTION

While Scandinavia specifically denotes Sweden, Denmark and Norway,

The million dollar question...

There’s a danger of retrospectively lumping groups together.

Norway: This is our home

In 2012, a-ha were appointed Knights of the

GREATEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE SINGLES OF THE 80S

GREATEST FOREIGN - LANGUAGE SINGLES OF THE 80S TOP 20

THE HOT LIST

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT ON CLASSIC POP ZOOM CATCH-UPS

CROWDED HOUSE

EMI RECORDS

WILL YOUNG

COOKING VINYL

ERASURE

MUTE

GARY KEMP

COLUMBIA RECORDS

UB40

SRG RECORDS

CHRISSIE HYNDE

BMG

GARBAGE

BMG

DOT ALLISON

SA RECORDINGS

YOLA

EASY EYE SOUND

LAURA MVULA

ATLANTIC

JAMES

VIRGIN MUSIC

JOHN GRANT

BELLA UNION

JAM & LEWIS

BMG

BOBBY GILLESPIE & JEHNNY BETH

SONY

SKIDS

CLEOPATRA RECORDS

PLENTY

BURNING SHED

DURAND JONES & THE INDICATIONS

DEAD OCEANS

THE GO! TEAM

MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES

NICK RHODES & WENDY BEVAN

TAPE MODERN

DOM BROWN

SELF-RELEASED

COLOURSØUND

INGROOVES

TOTO

THE PLAYERS CLUB/MASCOT

SCRITTI POLITTI

ROUGH TRADE

KIM WILDE

CHERRY POP

VARIOUS ARTISTS

DEMON

BRYAN FERRY

UMC/EMI

LEVEL 42

ROBINSONGS

VARIOUS ARTISTS

NOW

YELLO

UMC/POLYDOR 

DESMOND DEKKER AND THE SPECIALS

TROJAN/MUSIC ON VINYL

THE FARM

BMG

LONDON BOYS

CHERRY POP

THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS

EDSEL/DEMON

DONNA SUMMER

DRIVEN BY THE MUSIC

PETER CETERA

CHERRY POP

MADNESS

BMG

THE AVALANCHES

XL

QUINCY JONES

UMC/POLYDOR

DEACON BLUE

SONY LEGACY

TURIN BRAKES

TWO-PIERS

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE

REAL GONE

NOEL GALLAGHER’S HIGH FLYING BIRDS

SOUR MASH

MARK MORRISON

RHINO

DEPECHE MODE BY ANTON CORBIJN

TASCHEN

KIM WILDE: POP DON’T STOP

THIS DAY IN MUSIC BOOKS

SHINY AND NEW: TEN MOMENTS OF POP GENIUS THAT DEFINED THE 80S

WHITE RABBIT

TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK: MY LIFE IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS

JAWBONE