Smash Hits! in the 80s "Our Weirdest Cover Stars!"

I remember that Fuzzbox issue! I think I stuck it up on my wall.

Is Vic There? Department S 4EVA!!!!!

Fuzzbox > Switchblade > Deparment S >>>>> Splodge > Hollywood Beyond > Classix Nouveaux > Jimmy The Hoover > Roman Holiday > Nick Berry

Can't remember what the other ones sounded like.

Jimmy the Hoover were sort of the Vampire Weekend of the time weren't they?

http://991.com/Gallery/343485b.jpg

is that your answer Onimo?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/56/Department_S_-_Smash_Hits_May_1981_magazine_cover.jpg

i can't remember Tracie or Matt Fretton but have, at least, heard of the rest.

There's obviously one very clear frontrunner here

Matt Fretton?

If we're voting for the weirdest I think that's the weirdest I remember from that list. I'd have to search around to see all the others though.

Oh wait they mean weirdest artist rather than weirdest cover. I need to learn to read.

Ah well Tracie's got an accidental vote. Good luck to her.

i'm not sure what we're voting for. i didn't this through properly.

Basically I'm voting for best ownership and deployment of Fuzzbox.

'pink sunshine' was great

I've seen Matt Fretton live! Supporting Blancmange, I think it was.

Juggling with blancmange - ah, the great days of light entertainment

I've still got that Tracie one, somewhere.

I don't see Strawberry Switchblade, Nick Berry or Fuzzbox as being surprising choices for cover stars in their time.

yeah, is the vote for "best of these" or "most unlikely of these to appear on Smash Hits at the time"? THE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW.

Tracie was a weller prodigy wasnt she?

nick berry isn't weird for smash hits at all. he had a number one around that time, was on the telly a lot, a teen heart-throb, etc...

i agree about berry, the record was number one for ages. i just went with the list in the book.

vote for...

your favourite?

so that makes tracie onimo's favourite.

The trouble with the original idea (from the Smash Hits book perspective) is that they were probably thinking "what were we thinking?" and guffawing/"Eh? Eh?"ing smugly.

Matt Fretton, though - much adored by Pidda Powell at the time and unfortunately I can still clearly remember his #50 smash hit "It's So High" (original next line: "you can't get over it" and you can guess the rest).

~~~~~~
TRACIE

vote for...

your favourite?

Fuzzbox landslide imminent.

Is there not much of a Strawberry Switchblade following here then? I love them (also love Fuzzbox though)

None of these people are weird in the context of Smash Hits, I fucking hate "lol what were we thinking" revisionism.

Matt Fretton and The Professionals were weird choices even at the time, as Smash Hits otherwise only featured cover stars who had already charted. Matt Fretton in particular was a total nobody.

Well, the Professionals, being half ex-Pistols, were expected to be big at the time but they epically didn't follow through.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Like that wasn't the most obvious winner in the history of polling.

There's obviously one very clear frontrunner here.

i thought it was strawberry switchblade!

fuzzbox deserved to win but tracie's couple of 45s on respond are both not bad! not quite dolly mixture or a craze but not embarrassing

I really wish the kitten in Morrissey's jumper had been on this poll. :-(