Thursday, February 02, 2006

R.I.P Smash Hits Magazine

My early teenage years were full of buying pop magazines and collecting the posters of my fav bands, and reading the lyrics to my fav songs before dancing about my bedroom. One of the main magazines I would buy every 2 weeks was Smash Hits. Full of pop gossip, posters, interviews and song lyrics. Today, I heard on the news that Smash Hits magazine is to close after 28 years of publishing. The Smash Hits brand will continue via Smash Hits music TV, a website and a digital radio station.

Smash Hits was first published in September 1978 with Belgian one-hit-wonder Plastic Bertrand - real name Roger Jouret - on the cover. The fortnightly magazine regularly sold 500,000 copies in the early 1980s, but its biggest-selling edition featuring Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan was bought by more than one million readers in 1989.

Although I've not bought this magazine in years, it still holds a lot of memories for me. I use to cut everything out that had Take That on it. I would keep the front covers with them and then added them to a folder full of other stuff I had collected. It's a shame that they are now stopping the mag. I can imagine how sales have declined now that kids can use the internet to get their celeb gossip and song lyrics. It's the end of an era!

4 comments:

LuNaMooN said...

SMASH HITS IS GONE?????
I remember buying my first copy of Smash Hits in 1981. That was when you could still get the British version. I became addicted. If I couldnt afford a copy, I'd steal one. No joke. My top drawer of my dressing table soon became full of copies. So I started on the second drawer. Within a few years, I had 3 drawers full. I never threw out a copy. My walls were covered with pictures cut out from them. When they brought out the Australian version, I still demanded my newsagent get the British version imported in. Didn't matter that they were 3 months old. I kept all my copies until I turned 25. (Along with my copies of the NME and Number One)It was a sad day when I threw them out. Part of my love of music came from Smash Hits. Sad to see it go.

Mr. D said...

never heard of this

nenni said...

OMG. I use to buy Number One too!!!!! Wasnt as good as Smash Hits.

I use to have a huge box full of Smash Hits. Kept it for years. I was sad too, when I threw them out =(

I use to buy Smash Hits, Number One, Just Seventeen, Live and Kicking, More...and a few others that I cant remember the name of. I would buy most of them for the stuff they had of Take That. I had tins full of little pics I cut out, posters all over my walls. You couldnt see the walls for the posters...good times!

Michele said...

I had never heard of it either.