Classic Pop

Classic Pop magazine is the ultimate celebration of great pop and chart music - featuring both the stars of yesteryear and the classic pop-inspired acts breaking today, Classic Pop brings you closer to the genre and music you love. Each issue – with 80s pop at its core – brings you the very best exclusive artist interviews, in-depth features, music news and reviews celebrating the finest acts from the late-70s post-punk scene through to the pop, synth-pop, New Romantic, ska, indie, electronic and guitar greats of the 80s and chart stars of the 90s – plus the best new acts that embrace our classic pop heritage.

CLASSIC POP WELCOME

Classic Pop

SOUNDBITES

OUR CONTRIBUTORS

OBITUARY CLEM BURKE • 24 NOVEMBER 1954 – 6 APRIL 2025

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL AN ERA: THE ALBUMS • NOW MUSIC NAILS IT WITH A NEW COMPILATION OF NON-SINGLE TRACKS FROM ICONIC 1980-84 ALBUMS

80s pop comes with strings attached

Sisters reborn in expanded form

Blitz revisited

CLAUDIA BRÜCKEN Q+A • XPROPAGANDA’S TRIUMPHANT THE HEART IS STRANGE WAS A HUGE HIT WITH FANS AND CRITICS ALIKE BACK IN 2022. NOW ONE HALF OF THAT ACCLAIMED SYNTH-POP GROUP RETURNS IN REFLECTIVE MOOD WITH LONGTIME COLLABORATOR JOHN WILLIAMS FOR HER LATEST SOLO ALBUM, NIGHT MIRROR.

“THIS IS BROKEN MUSIC FOR BROKEN PEOPLE”

MODE’S MEXICAN WAVE MOVIE

RHYTHM OF THE NIGHT DEBARGE

MIKE PETERS • 25 FEBRUARY 1959 – 29 APRIL 2025

LIVE AID MUSICAL ALBUM LAUNCHED

Robbie gets a Rocket from Black Sabbath legend

LOST & FOUND

SCISSOR SISTERS REVISIT CLASSIC DEBUT

Ian Peel’s A to Z of POP • YOU CAN TRACE A HISTORY OF 80s POP BY ITS BASSLINES. IN FACT, THERE’S NO OTHER DECADE WHERE MORE INVENTIVE, EXPERIMENTAL AND DOWNRIGHT DEXTEROUS BASSISTS CAME TO THE FORE.

This month in POP JULY 1982 • TALK TALK AND BILLY IDOL UNVEIL THEIR DEBUT ALBUMS, ABC HIT THE NO.1 SPOT, BOB GELDOF STARS IN PINK FLOYD’S BIG SCREEN OUTING AND OZZY GETS HITCHED TO SHARON

TOP 5 UK ALBUMS CHART • 17 JULY 1982

“WE DON’T OFTEN FOLLOW THE EASIEST PATH FOR SUCCESS. WE’D RATHER TAKE AN INTERESTING ROUTE.” • It’s time to rejoice! Heaven 17 exclusively unveil brand new music to Classic Pop. To celebrate the fiendishly addictive Something About You, Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware reveal all about their upcoming ‘electropopumentary’ project, trying to work with Philip Oakey again and sneaking socialism into mega-selling albums.

THE MAN WHO RESOLD THE WORLD

A GRADUAL WITHDRAWAL

IN ILLUSTRIOUS COMPANY

THE RAW & THE COOKED FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS • THE BIRMINGHAM NEW WAVERS’ ECLECTIC SECOND ALBUM WAS A HOTCHPOTCH OF STYLES AND SESSIONS, THAT DEFIED ALL THE ODDS TO BECOME A WORLDWIDE NO.1 SENSATION

THE SONGS

THE PLAYERS

THE VIDEOS

“The first thing Sting said when he walked into the studio was: ‘What’s wrong? Nobody is arguing.’” • FOREVER THOUGHT OF AS THE ALBUM THAT LAUNCHED THE CD FORMAT, DIRE STRAITS’ BROTHERS IN ARMS WAS A RARE EXAMPLE OF A MEGA-SELLER WHOSE RECORDING WAS LARGELY AS UNTROUBLED AS IT GETS. AS IT TURNS 40, BASSIST JOHN ILLSLEY AND THEN-NEW KEYBOARDIST GUY FLETCHER RECALL THE HAPPY COINCIDENCES WHICH LED TO A CLASSIC – AND HOW THE BAND’S FRIENDSHIPS CONFUSED THE HELL OUT OF STING.

TALKING HEADS • EMERGING FROM NEW YORK’S THRIVING PUNK SCENE IN THE LATE 70s, THE BAND SOON DISTANCED THEMSELVES FROM THE CBGB CROWD WITH AN ENERGETIC AND HIGHLY IDIOSYNCRATIC MIX OF AFROBEAT, AVANT-FUNK AND ARTPOP WHICH BROADENED ROCK’S PERIMETERS

ONWARDS CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS • WITH A NEW ALBUM ON THE WAY AND A JOINT TOUR WITH THE BLOW MONKEYS SCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER, THE CHRISTIANS ARE ADDING AN EXCITING FRESH CHAPTER TO THEIR STORIED CAREER. FRONTMAN GARRY CHRISTIAN REVEALS ALL ABOUT THE BAND’S...