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.

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Classic Pop

OUR CONTRIBUTORS

STEDMAN PEARSON • 29 JUNE 1964 – 10 MARCH 2025

GENE UNVEIL LONDON REUNION SHOW

BILLY IDOL DREAM INTO IT • THE PUNK ROCK VETERAN RETURNS WITH HELP FROM A TRIO OF FEMALE STARS TO OFFER UP HIS FIRST NEW MATERIAL FOR MORE THAN A DECADE

Royal upgrade for Prince’s Purple Rain

Cult act paints London Red

Kemp hits the wheels of steel

RIALTO Q +A • IT’S 24 YEARS SINCE THE BAND LAST RELEASED A RECORD THOUGH LEADER LOUIS ELIOT HASN’T BEEN TWIDDLING HIS THUMBS. HERE HE TALKS TO CP ABOUT TOURING WITH GRACE JONES AND FINDING “LIBERATION” AFTER A BRUSH WITH DEATH WHILE ON HOLIDAY IN SPAIN.

RICK BUCKLER • 6 DECEMBER 1955 – 17 FEBRUARY 2025

my POP life Helen Serafinowicz • THE CO-WRITER OF SITCOM MOTHERLAND AND SPINOFF AMANDALAND TALKS ABOUT HEARING MICHAEL JACKSON FROM HER BACK GARDEN IN LIVERPOOL AND HER LOVE OF INDIE MISFITS WEEN…

DARYL HALL Q + A • FOR FIVE DECADES, DARYL HALL HAS BEEN THE VOICE BEHIND SOME OF POP’S MOST ENDURING HITS. NOW, HE’S EMBRACING NEW HORIZONS. THE SINGER-SONGWRITER TELLS CLASSIC POP ABOUT HIS SOLO JOURNEY, MUSICAL LEGACY AND THE DRIVE THAT STILL PUSHES HIM FORWARD.

SMITHS ARCHIVE GOES UNDER THE HAMMER

PLEASE, PLEASE SMELL ME NOW…

LAURA BRANIGAN

Ian Peel’s A to Z of POP • A DIVE INTO THE POWER OF PICTURE DISCS, OLD AND NEW, ROUND AND SHAPED. WERE THESE RECORDS REALLY THE ULTIMATE COMBINATION OF MUSIC, MERCH AND GRAPHIC DESIGN ALL IN ONE SINGLE PRODUCT?

This month in POP MAY 1983 • WELLER EMBARKS ON A NEW MUSICAL JOURNEY, BOWIE DOUBLES UP WITH A CLASSIC NO.1 AND JACKO MOONWALKS HIS WAY TO LEGENDARY STATUS

TOP 5 UK ALBUMS CHART

MAD! WORLD • AS SPARKS RETURN WITH THEIR 28TH ALBUM, RON AND RUSSELL MAEL TELL CLASSIC POP ABOUT TAKING THE LONG WAY ROUND TO ICON STATUS – AND WHY, IN THEIR SIXTH DECADE, THEY HAVE NO INTENTION OF SLOWING DOWN. “OUR APPROACH WAS TO ASK, ‘WHAT WOULD NATURALLY BE THE SORT OF RECORD WE WOULD MAKE AT THIS STAGE OF OUR CAREERS?’ – AND THEN NOT DO THAT…”

DUMMY PORTISHEAD • THE BRISTOL GROUP’S DEBUT LONG-PLAYER IS A SULTRY, SMOKY AND FIERCELY ORIGINAL CLASSIC THAT BLENDS LOPING BEATS WITH TWANGY GUITARS AND SEDUCTIVE VOCALS. IT CONQUERED BRITPOP TO SCOOP THE MERCURY PRIZE – JUST DON’T CALL IT TRIP-HOP.

Let’s Stick Together • If you thought Bryan Ferry was easing into semi-retirement, forget it. For his first album of new songs in more than a decade, he’s teamed up with performance artist Amelia Barratt for the remarkable genre-shifting Loose Talk. The pair tell us of their shared bleakness and mischief.

ALBUM BY ALBUM THE CURE • FRONTED BY THE IRREPRESSIBLE ROBERT SMITH, THE CURE QUICKLY OUTGREW THE POST-PUNK SCENE TO FORGE THEIR OWN DISTINCTIVE WILD-HAIRED PATH ON A STRING OF CLASSIC ALBUMS THAT SET THE BENCHMARK FOR GOTHIC ROCK

A BRUSH WITH ROYALTY • IN THIS EXTRACT FROM JENNIFER OTTER BICKERDIKE’S AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY OF THE BANGLES, ETERNAL FLAME, THE BAND REFLECT ON HOW PRINCE CHANGED THEIR LIVES FOREVER WITH CLASSIC SINGLE MANIC MONDAY…

MUSIC SOUNDS BETTER WITH YOU • OUR PICK OF THE BEST CLASSIC-POP-FRIENDLY FESTIVALS TO LOOK...