My parents recently chanced upon copies of the 1984 & 1985 Smash Hits Yearbooks (£2 the pair - a snip!) at a car boot sale, and, correctly surmising that these books would be right up my strasse, so to speak, bought them for me.
And what a marvellous find they were. The '84 book is especially enjoyable: from Boy George's mock-pugnacious pose on the front cover (he makes fists like a girl!), to the behind-closed-doors features (one of JoBoxers was living in a squat, even while they were enjoying chart success; and Bananarama all shared a poky eleventh floor council flat in London, despite having been pop stars for two years), there really was something for everyone in this publication. Well, something for everyone with an interest in the mid-80s UK pop scene, at least.
My favourite feature of all - there are so many! - undoubtedly has to be the Fifteen For Eighty-Four feature, in which writers from ver Hits predicted the up-and-coming bands and artists who they thought would make major breakthroughs in the coming year. Most notable among these at-the-time unknowns were Prince and Madonna - who ended up having reasonable enough sorts of careers, I suppose!
At the other end of the spectrum there were a few predictions that didn't quite come off - hands up who remembers Physique, Virginia Astley, or Naked Eyes, for example? Me neither. And then there was Seona Dancing, a dumper-bound synth-pop duo notable now only for the identity of their lead singer - one Ricky Gervais.
In fairness to the Hits, though, most of their predictions turned out to be remarkably prescient. As well as Prince and Madge, other Fifteen For Eighty-Four bands who ended up carving out successful careers in the industry included: Everything But The Girl, The Waterboys, Billy Bragg, The Alarm, and today's featured combo, Aztec Camera.
And what a marvellous find they were. The '84 book is especially enjoyable: from Boy George's mock-pugnacious pose on the front cover (he makes fists like a girl!), to the behind-closed-doors features (one of JoBoxers was living in a squat, even while they were enjoying chart success; and Bananarama all shared a poky eleventh floor council flat in London, despite having been pop stars for two years), there really was something for everyone in this publication. Well, something for everyone with an interest in the mid-80s UK pop scene, at least.
My favourite feature of all - there are so many! - undoubtedly has to be the Fifteen For Eighty-Four feature, in which writers from ver Hits predicted the up-and-coming bands and artists who they thought would make major breakthroughs in the coming year. Most notable among these at-the-time unknowns were Prince and Madonna - who ended up having reasonable enough sorts of careers, I suppose!
At the other end of the spectrum there were a few predictions that didn't quite come off - hands up who remembers Physique, Virginia Astley, or Naked Eyes, for example? Me neither. And then there was Seona Dancing, a dumper-bound synth-pop duo notable now only for the identity of their lead singer - one Ricky Gervais.
In fairness to the Hits, though, most of their predictions turned out to be remarkably prescient. As well as Prince and Madge, other Fifteen For Eighty-Four bands who ended up carving out successful careers in the industry included: Everything But The Girl, The Waterboys, Billy Bragg, The Alarm, and today's featured combo, Aztec Camera.
The history of Aztec Camera has been well documented many times - Roddy Frame's remarkable achievement in writing one of the decade's best albums, High Land, Hard Rain, while still at school, before going on to enjoy sporadic success in the rest of the decade - so I won't dwell on that too much here. But if you've never heard the album in its entirety you're really missing out on something special, and I'd recommend that you snap up a copy as soon as poss. In the meantime, here's a couple of my favourite tracks to tide you over - The Boy Wonders and Down The Dip.
Aztec Camera - The Boy Wonders mp3 (available for seven days)
Aztec Camera - Down The Dip mp3 (also available for seven days)
Buy Aztec Camera stuff here
More Swedes on the menu today. A couple of the finest songs of the past decade or so, these, for me. First off, there's Starfriend by Freewheel, which is quite possibly the best song you've never heard; three minutes and forty seven seconds of pure pop perfection (honestly!). Mere words can't do justice to its sheer wondrousness, so I won't even try. Just suck it and see. The fact that the song - which is now 10 years old - never became a worldwide smash is, and shall remain, a complete mystery to me. Was it even a hit in Sweden? If not, then there really is no justice. Pah
