The other day I was at my local Dymocks bookstore and in the music section I was delighted to discover a book called 'The Best of Smash Hits - The 80's'

Covering the English version, this is a near 200 page hardcover tome featuring interviews, articles, posters, a detailed look at Band Aid/Live Aid and plenty of fantastic photos from over the decade.

There's one particular pic of Boy George dressed as a Geisha that's brilliant! All of this is foreworded by the Pet Shop Boy himself Neil Tennant who worked at the magazine during its early years.

Without sounding like an ad - it's a great purchase.

I also purchased a copy of the autobiography of ex-Duran Duran member Andy Taylor called 'Wildboy: My Life In Duran Duran' - interesting reading so far....

So if anyone is into either or both of those I would recommend checking them out.

I know the Smash Hits book you are refering to. I was going to buy it in January this year when I was up in Sydney for a few days, Red Eye Records had it. It's not bad, I didn't end up buying it though!

As fas as Andy Taylor's autobiography is concerned, I saw that at Borders early this year to, I sat there and read a bunch of selected stuff from it. I have wanted it since, but still have NOT got it either. I MUST get it, so much goss in there, it's GREAT!


Speaking of Duran, just being released is a FABULOUS Hammersmith Odean 1982 Concert plus bonus Rio era video's including FGINALLY "My Own Way" on DVD (video) and TOTP performances. PLUS an extra cd 1 and 2 with early Rio demos. I dont know quite how to order it, I may try amazon.co.uk!

I wish there was a local version of the Smash Hits book - that would be a very fine purchase indeed.

Thinking of that though - I reckon a book exploring the history of various Australian music magazines would be worth doing. Each chapter could focus on a decade/or magazine and their impact on the music buying public.

Sections on Juke, Smash Hits, TV Hits, Star and even TV Week with their various music pages over the decades could be discussed.

I think there's potential there...certainly the wealth of material should be enough to fill even 2 books or a series of them if need be.

It's got Kylie and Jason in this English version.

Yes that's the one Nicholas, with them, Adam Ant and Wham! on the cover - and a good book it is too.

Andy Taylor's Wildboy autobiography is fantastic so far - I'm about halfway thru and his writing style ensures that it's a definite page turner.

Even Molly and Countdown are mentioned which is nice -borrow or buy this one, definatley worth purchasing.

Well that does sound like a good book,Patrick.

I myself have just purchased a copy of Never Enough the story of The Cure.(Jeff Apter)

I'm not much past the first chapter and will get back to you in couple of years when I've finished it as to whether it is a good read. So far I'm impressed.

I decided a few weeks ago that I would start my own collection of books on singers/bands etc. Stuff the house repayments.
Hey! How good is the spelling in this post!!

Very impressive spelling Redacted Adjective!
Have read bits and pieces of that Cure book(mainly from the "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me" period to the "Wish" period)recently and found it enough to make me seek that book out next week,seeing as I've got the new book on Steve Kilbey & The Church waiting for me to pick up as well.

Mmm, a book on The Church would be pretty darn cool too. My local book store is only wee, with the occasional cool music book available. I should get out more.
Oh and John, do keep an eye on your own spelling won't you. There's a boy. Would positively hate to have to point out anything amiss...

Having read half of Wildboy thus far, I have a question.

In it Andy Taylor mentions during shooting the videos for Save A Prayer and Hungry Like the Wolf, they shot a third video for a song titled 'Lonely In Your Nightmare'.

I've never heard of a video done for this before and was wondering if anyone has seen it?

I would imagine it will appear on that upcoming 1982 Hammersmith CD/DVD Jason was talking about....I'm interested in seeing it now. Presumably it would be in the same style as the first 2 - if that's the case it should be worth checking out.

I'll take your spelling advice to heart Redacted Adjective and since I've been a good boy,I'm off to treat myself to a bone in the form of John Fogerty's new album.
Have a good weekend!

Well I did not really have a good weekend thank you John. But I hope you did.

Hi John,

What's the name of the Steve Kilbey/Church book you mentioned?
Sounds like a book I would enjoy as the Church have always been one of my favourite bands.
Steve is an amazing songwriter...

Hi Christina!
The book's called No Certainty Attatched:Steve Kilbey & The Church

A-T-T-A-C-H-E-D John!-that's what I get for being so smug in the spelling department.
We're even now Redacted Adjective and for being so smug,I'm off for some just desserts!

Thanks John,

I look foward to reading it when I get my hands on a copy...

Hi Christina!
Picked up No Certainty Attached today.Too early to comment on it as I've only just started reading it but am looking forward to doing so when I get a chance.

Lol. Yes, you certainly were smug!! Serves you right!!
And what desserts would that be, pray tell?

A bloody good smack on the bottom Redacted Adjective!

Hey John,
Let us know what you think when you finish reading it.
Look foward to your book review...

Oh!! Well...hmmn. Nup. No comment.

Hi Christina!
Mind if I give you "progress reports" about No Certainty Attached?
The story so far-about to start on Chapter 12(Seance era),all the chapters are named after Steve Kilbey lyrics,have learned some new facts,like...
1)Kilbey and Peter Koppes paid their dues in a couple of bands prior to The Church(always assumed The Church was their first one)
2)Richard Ploog doesn't play on Of Skins And Heart,nor does Peter Koppes do the high harmony on The Unguarded Moment-Nick Ward's drumming and high harmony
3)Robert Dean Lurie,the book's author,reckons Almost With You is "a relatively inferior offering" and "a fairly lifeless Church-by-numbers exercise"(certainly not my view)
and most of all,I'm enjoying what I'm reading.Pity my one and only experience of seeing the band live was unpleasant,but that's another story for another time.
More later....

Hi John,
Sounds interesting so far...

So what was this unpleasant experience you had the one and only time you got to see the Church??
Do tell!!

Hi Christina!
Here's what went wrong with seeing The Church-
1)The day-April Fool's Day('twas a Saturday,in 2000 and at the Newcastle Workers Club)
2)Wet weather(generally,wet weather and a night out together means trouble.Still true to this day)
3)During the support act Wingspan's stint,security were,if you can believe this,stopping people from dancing.I wasn't one of the unfortunates subjected to this,but it felt like Footloose all over again the way security carried on-absolute disgrace
and worst of all,sorry to say
4)The Church themselves.From start to finish,they gave off this attitude to the crowd that said "we don't wanna be here".From the way they hardly interacted with the crowd,to their setlist,which was largely devoid of their best known songs(should know-I swiped the setlist after they were done).I knew full well I wasn't gonna get The Unguarded Moment,but I would've loved to have heard songs of theirs I was familiar with(too many to list here).The ultimate insult-the band coming out on stage to the sounds of a lounge version of Under The Milky Way and not treating us to a live version of that song at all!
Now,a couple of hours earlier,I spotted The Church treating themselves to dinner at the bistro.
Had I have known they were gonna carry on with such standoffish behaviour,I would've left then and there content with seeing them stuffing their faces,though you could argue if I did leave,I wouldn't've got a setlist,a T-shirt and be here talking about it.
After that night,I vowed never to see them again-and I've stayed true to my word.

Progress report #2 on No Certainty Attached Christina-
Chapter 26 is next(we're almost in Box Of Birds territory-the album that was out round the time of that horrible night in 2000),still an entertaining read and some more interesting tidbits I either discovered or found odd-
1)Richard Ploog didn't play on Under The Milky Way.A drummer named Russ Kunkel does
2)Steve Kilbey did 2 albums with a singer named Donnette Thayer under the name Hex
3)Amazingly,no mention of Kilbey working with Stephen Cummings on Falling Swinger and Escapist
4)No mention of The Church winning an ARIA for Under The Milky Way either
More later....

Hey John,
Interesting to hear about your disappointing night out at that Church concert!
Sounds like absolute crap from start to finish!!
I have heard/read quite a few stories over the years about various other shows where the Church appeared distinctly ****** off at even being there!I remember hearing about one show at the State Theatre in Sydney where Steve started throwing bananas out to the audience!
Steve,in particular,has been notorious in the past for being a fairly difficult and aloof character at times.
He can come across as a bit arrogant and "above it all" but I think he's mellowed a bit over the years..

I have seen them a few times, back in the early days and at the Palace in the early 90s and I was lucky enough to see them at their best on those occasions. They were actually quite nice and even smiled once or twice and they played all their best songs - I especially used to enjoy their rendition of "Reptile" and "You Took"...

Hi Christina!
I've now finished reading No Certainty Attached.Your take on Steve Kilbey's pretty much the same as what I got from that book and after what you said about stories of other shows where The Church appeared to not wanna be there,you reminded me of a show Marty Willson-Piper did at the Northern Star Hotel in Hamilton a few years ago.
Firstly,I wasn't at this show-I read about it.
Secondly,here's what I read-about 30 minutes in,Marty Willson-Piper apparently pulled the plug on the show,claiming there was no connection between him and the audience.
Had he and his Church bandmates did this in 2000,that would've done me a big favour.
Glad you got to see the good side of the band and when you get No Certainty Attached,hope you get a good read out of it like I did.
P.S.If there were any time I would've loved to have seen The Church,it would've been round the time of Starfish.Out of all the albums I have of theirs,Starfish remains my favourite.

Hi John,

Yes, Starfish is definitely one of the Church's better albums- "Reptile"and "Under the Milky Way" are brilliant.
I never tire of UTMW no matter how many times I hear it- such an ethereal,atmospheric song.
I do like all their earlier albums too -so many good songs on albums like Seance,The Blurred Crusade,Of Skins and Hearts and Remote Luxury.
A couple of my favourites from that era are "Electric Lash","You Took" and "Columbus."
"Grind" is another good song from a bit later on.

IMO Steve has always been one of Australias's best song-writers and I thought him very good-looking, (almost "pretty"), in his younger days....

Thanks for your book review-sounds well worth reading!!

Why OH Why are ppl discussing The Church in here when this entry is about Smash Hits!

Yes, Jason,
We have tended to meander away from the original topic!
Sorry about that!
It's all John's fault for mentioning that Church book...

Yes I was getting rather confused as to how the UK Smash Hits book turned into a debate about The Church.....

I'm still hopeful someone enterprising enough will release an Australian version of the Smash Hits book - it's a bit too late for this year's 25th Anniversary of its first publication but maybe in time for its 30th?

Some of the 80's issues are great, the earliest one I have has Pseudo Echo in the cover.

Speaking of which - looking at the covers from the UK and Aus. versions I was struck at how good they are - they certainly don't do magazine covers as well as they used to - the 80's oozed colour and glamour everywhere you looked it seemed - which isn't a bad thing at all.

Patrick,
Apologies for hijacking your Smash Hits discussion for a while there!!
Anyway, looks like it's back on the straight and narrow now...
Yes, an Aus. version of the UK Smash Hits book would be an excellent idea!!

A collage of Smash Hits posters would be great. I could imagine some of the covers being sold as posters - some of the photos are classics.

I could imagine a montage of Boy George Smash Hits covers would be a seller - he always knew how to have each shoot look as different as the last - which in the fast game of music is a wise thing to do.

Colour me well and truly DONE with The Church,apologies to everyone for my hijacking the original topic,and unintentionally rubbing some up the wrong way.

Patrick,
I haven't seen the Smash Hits book but thought that the magazine perfectly summed up the pop era of the time with their layout featuring artists, pin ups, songwords etc.

I was fairly poor in the 80's and could never afford to buy them but once I started working I would look for old back issues at trash markets and the like. When ebay came along I was able to complete a number of sets - although I only collected up until the end of the Countdown era in 1987. I bought whole collections from the UK which cost a bundle to get sent over but they are worth it.

I now have a complete run of the UK Smash Hits (No 1 November 1978 Blondie on cover - 1987) and Oz Smash Hits (No.1 Dec 3 1984 Wham on cover to Dec 1987) although some are missing posters. Others that I like are Countdown (I have the complete set except for the first newsletter in 1982), UK and Oz "No.1" magazines (the Oz version only ran for 7 issues in 1985), Record Mirror (UK), Juke (Victoria), RAM (NSW), Roadrunner (SA). I have the complete sets of No1 and Record Mirror but am still missing many issues of the Australian publications like Juke, RAM etc.

It is great reading. If you pick up an issue and start reading you will find yourself there for hours.

I read on another forum , that they are working on a deluxe versions of Duran Duran's first album, seven and the ragged tiger and Notorius for early next year.Will have to get the Deluxe Rio album and live dvd. There is also a Kajagoogoo CD/DVD out in England, but it's a shame that there are only a handful of clips on the DVD.

Yes Guru I totally agree with your sentiments.

It's always interesting looking back at some of the old Smash Hits issues. I've often found some of the more recent 'retrospective' magazines looking back on the 80's miss out on a lot of the details that the older Smash Hits mags have.

I certainly think that the period the you've collected was where art and music came together in a big way and that's definately reflected in some of the more colourful covers of those times.

I'm always on the look out for old magazines like that - visits to 2nd hand bookstores are always on my list! Although I have to be careful as space issues and where to put them always arise...

Anyway those older Smash Hits issues had a more 'honest approach' in their reporting instead of the puff pieces some tend to favour these days. That's certainly clear while I've been reading this UK Smash Hits book - well worth a look.

I bought my first issue of Smash Hits back in May '87 and continued up until mid '92. I thought it was time to stop as I was approaching 18. But I found it was the best music mag on the market. I still have them all, some are damaged and cut up and some are in mint condition. It had some silly parts and serious parts (the interviews) but covered the whole genre of pop music extremely well. My favourite part of the mag was 'Ask Daz' close to the back of the mag. You could write in and ask him stuff on things you wanted to know about the artists and/or songs and how they fared in the charts etc.

Now, I've gotta check out this UK Smash Hits book. I've tried a few book stores so far, but nothing. I guess next time I will have to ask!

Michael,

I know that red eye records in Sydney had the Smash Hits book when I was there in January. Try them online and type it in the index, you may be able to get a copy there.

I was going to buy it when I was there but I didn't think it was THAT amazing...

The UK Smash Hits from the 80s themselves, now THEY were HEAVEN!

I was always a BIG NO.01 fan in the 80s from the UK. It was a FABULOUS magazine indeed!!!!! *****