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.

WELCOME

Classic Pop

OUR CONTRIBUTORS

STEPHEN LUSCOMBE • 29 OCTOBER 1954 – 13 SEPTEMBER 2025

PET SHOP BOYS ADD TO THEIR DISCO SERIES

GORILLAZ GO GLOBAL ON STAR-PACKED NEW ALBUM

Propaganda’s ZTT years compiled

BUNNYMEN HOP ON THE TOUR BUS

SHAUN RYDER • IN 1995, SHAUN RYDER HAD BEEN WRITTEN OFF AS YESTERDAY’S MAN. WITH THE HAPPY MONDAYS BEHIND HIM IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR, NOBODY EXPECTED THE SINGER TO RETURN WITH A NEW BAND AND A NO.1 ALBUM. YET THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HE DID. HERE HE TALKS TO CLASSIC POP ABOUT THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF BLACK GRAPE’S PLATINUM-SELLING DEBUT LP, IT’S GREAT WHEN YOU’RE STRAIGHT…YEAH

MACCA SPREADS WINGS ACROSS NEW ANTHOLOGY

ANNIVERSARY REISSUE OF BLUR’S NO.1 ESCAPE ACT

ROLAND GIFT • FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS BRIEFLY BECAME ONE OF THE BIGGEST BANDS ON THE PLANET AND THEN QUIETLY DISAPPEARED AGAIN. 40 YEARS ON SINCE THEIR FIRST HIT JOHNNY COME HOME, LEAD VOCALIST ROLAND GIFT IS BACK SINGING THE SONGS THAT CAPTURED THE LATE 80S ZEITGEIST…

1-HIT WONDER • CHECK OUT THE GROOVE

I ROBOT CONCEPT ALBUM REVISITED

EBTG’S DEFINITIVE COMPILATION

LOST & FOUND • EDDIE, OLD BOB, DICK AND GARY

STAR-STUDDED HELP RETURNS 30 YEARS ON

KRAFTWERK ANNOUNCE 15-DATE TOUR

Ian Peel’s A to Z of POP • S IS FOR… SELF-TITLED SONGS

This month in POP NOVEMBER 1983 • BILLY JOEL GETS TOP RANKING FOR UPTOWN GIRL, JAGGER IRKS THE CENSORS AND JACKO THRILLS WITH A WORLD-BEATING PROMO

“THE BATTLEFIELD IS LITTERED WITH THE CORPSES OF BRITISH BANDS WHO TRIED TO MAKE IT IN AMERICA AND THEN LOST THEIR IDENTITY. WE PULLED IT OFF.” • With a new joint autobiography and 40th anniversary reissue of Simple Minds’ biggest-selling LP, Once Upon A Time, Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill are in reflective mood as they look back on their five-decade musical odyssey – and enduring personal bromance…

WORDS AND PICTURES

TWICE UPON A TIME

GIVING THE GUY HIS CREDIT

BE YOURSELF TONIGHT EURYTHMICS • THE DUO’S FOURTH STUDIO ALBUM SEES THEM ON FINE FORM, SUPPLEMENTING THE TRADEMARK SYNTHS AND DRUM MACHINES WITH A RAW, TOOLED-UP UPDATE OF THE MOTOWN SOUND

THE PLAYERS

THE SONGS

THE VIDEOS

Appetite for destruction • One of the greatest dark pop records ever made, Soft Cell’s second full album saw Marc Almond and Dave Ball live up to The Art Of Falling Apart’s title. A mixture of fame comedown and gleeful anarchy, the duo tell us how pulp fiction, drugs, a very different New York and, er, Tiswas contributed to a twisted masterpiece.

Torment and tempos

New York nights

MARIAH CAREY • PART OF THE DIVA HOLY TRINITY ALONGSIDE WHITNEY HOUSTON AND CELINE DION, MARIAH CAREY – WHO RELEASED HER 16TH ALBUM HERE FOR IT ALL ON 26 SEPTEMBER – HAS REMAINED RELEVANT BY COMBINING HER TRADEMARK POWER BALLADS WITH CUTTING-EDGE R&B POP

Say NO TO Socks • GIVE THE GIFT OF INSPIRATION!

TOP TEN WEEK ENDING 24 NOVEMBER 1979 • DR HOOK SERVE UP A LOVESTRUCK CHART-TOPPER, WHILE WELLER TAKES A SATIRICAL POP AT ELITE PRIVILEGE AND THE NUTTY BOYS GO ONE STEP BEYOND

LAWRENCE WATSON • CELEBRATED PHOTOGRAPHER...