Welcome to a special bonus episode of The Giddy Carousel of Pop. If you heard our last episode with Mark Ellen, you’ll know that we spoke to Adam & The Ants’ guitarist Marco Pirroni about his memories of Smash Hits. But we talked about so much more and thought that you might like to hear it. So here it is!
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The Giddy Carousel of Pop is part of the We Made This network of podcasts.
HOSTS: Simon Galloway and Gavin Hogg GUEST: Marco Pirroni
Simon and Gavin welcome you aboard The Giddy Carousel of Pop!
In this episode we go all the way back to February 1979 to dissect issue 4 of Smash Hits. The last of the mag’s initial monthly issues, it only takes a moment to realise that this actually hit the streets in the January of 1979, tying up the loose ends of 1978 with its mix of pop, punk and disco before moving to fortnightly publication the following month, clearly marking out its future musical territory along the way.
Academic, author and broadcaster Simon Philo joins us to peruse its pages, with artists discussed including: Elvis Costello, Leo Sayer, Generation X, Olivia Newton John, Boomtown Rats, Rachel Sweet, Earth Wind & Fire, The Jacksons, Elton John, Paul Evans, Manhattan Transfer, Bay City Rollers, Sid Vicious, Funkadelic, Racey, Sally Oldfield, The Beach Boys and many more. We even take a look at the horoscopes!