Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2025 i Classic Pop

Video Killed The Radio Star by The Buggles ushered in a whole new way to consume music when it became the first song played on MTV in 1981, and its chief creator would soon initiate new technicolour ways of listening as the decade’s producer-du-jour. u-jour. Trevor Horn is often described as the man who “invented the 80s”, armed with a Fairlight synthesizer and a crack ck team at his label ZTT that included NME journalist Paul Morley, and the now celebrated string and orchestral arranger, Anne Dudley. Horn deconstructed and remade pop in his own image, taking artists as diverse as Dollar, ABC, Pet Shop Boys, Seal, Grace Jones and Frankie Goes To Hollywood up the charts, while his own group – Art Of Noise – smuggled avant-garde pop into…

Following the success of their support slots at Oasis’ landmark comeback shows (see review on pages 94-95), Cast have revealed details of their new album, Yeah Yeah Yeah. An unexpected opportunity to start recording with producer Youth at his Space Mountain studio emerged late last year, when frontman John Power travelled to Spain with bandmates Liam Tyson and Keith O’Neill. Power said: “Yeah Yeah Yeah just arrived out of the blue. There was a window of opportunity – Youth was free, the studio was free, and the band were free – and I thought, let providence prevail. It was more than just trying to capture a vibe – it was about trying to record something majestic, which is how Youth describes the new record.” Due for release on 30 January…

Deacon Blue’s keyboard player, James Prime, has died aged 64. A statement on the band’s website said: “We announce with great sadness that our brother, James Prime, passed away this morning after a short struggle with cancer. Thank you so much for the messages of support you shared over the last two weeks; they meant so much to Jim, his family, and us.” The Kilmarnock-born keyboardist learned piano at a young age and went on to hone his skills as a session musician, performing with Altered Images on their 1980 US tour. Sharing a picture on social media of Prime on stage with the band, Clare Grogan wrote: “Jim Prime was part of the Altered Images family for a short but very memorable time. I had great fun with him…

1 LOOK OUT LIVE! JOHNNY MARR Recorded at Marr’s sold-out headline Hammersmith Apollo show in 2024 during his Spirit Power Tour, the legendary guitarist’s latest live album traverses highlights from his Smiths and Electronic back catalogues plus solo years. Also featured is a cover of Iggy Pop’s The Passenger and two duets with special guest Neil Tennant on David Bowie’s Rebel Rebel and Electronic’s Getting Away With It. Released on 19 September via BMG, it’s available on 18-track limited edition orange double vinyl and black double vinyl, as well as a limited edition 22-track 2CD version and digital incarnation. 2 GENTŌ BIOSCOPE Marillion’s Steve Rothery has teamed up with Tangerine Dream’s Thorsten Quaeschning to form Bioscope. The pair’s first release as part of the new project is instrumental album Gento.…

WARNER FOR ITS 40TH ANNIVERSARY, PHIL COLLINS’ BIGGEST ALBUM NOW SOUNDS EVEN BIGGER, THANKS TO HALF-SPEED REMASTERING AND IMMERSIVE ATMOS MIXES. IT’S A SHAME ABOUT ITS OTHER EXTRAS, THOUGH. Has anyone ever been so violently in and out of favour as Phil Collins? Beloved in the 80s as the chirpy superstar-next-door, then derided throughout the 90s and Noughties as the epitome of white-loafered yuppie rock – there’s a reason why serial killer Patrick Bateman chose Sussudio to blast from his $15k sound system in Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho – Collins’ stock is once again soaring, thanks in part to being embraced by a generation of young music fans with none of their parents’ silly hang-ups. And now, to cap his critical rehabilitation, here’s the 40th anniversary edition of his…

PRINCIPALITY STADIUM, CARDIFF 4 JULY OASIS’ MUCH-ANTICIPATED COMEBACK SHOW IN THE WELSH CAPITAL WAS CATHARTIC AND EMOTIONAL – A HISTORIC LIVE MUSIC MOMENT WRIT LARGE Rewind back to August 1996 and Noel Gallagher strides onstage for Oasis’ first hotly-anticipated night at Knebworth proudly declaring: “This is history! Right here, right now!” Fast forward 29 years and that same feverish sense of expectation has returned – arguably even more so – for another momentous night as the band reconvene for the first of their reunion tour shows in Cardiff. As the Gallaghers wander on stage, Liam takes his elder brother’s arm and raises it in the air – it’s a gesture of solidarity that every one of the 70,000 fans packed inside the Principality Stadium was yearning for. Noel looks moved…

BRISTOL SOUNDS, BRISTOL HARBOURSIDE 25 JUNE BRITPOP FAVOURITES CELEBRATE THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR STUNNING I SHOULD COCO DEBUT ALBUM BY DELIVERING A CROWD-PLEASING, HIT-PACKED SET “My daughter got married last night!” Gaz Coombes proudly informs the crowd as Supergrass headline the opening evening of the latest Bristol Sounds series on the city’s harbourside. “I was off me tits. ‘One more drink’…” debut album I Should Coco. It remains a set text from the era. A straight-out-of-the-box slice of brilliance, the LP was a hugely confident opening statement packed with hooks galore as well as a youthful sense that anything was possible. If the fourpiece’s frontman is still feeling the after-effects of his family celebrations the following day, you’d never have known it. The band’s crowd-pleasing set barely missed a…

SWEET LOVE ANITA BAKER One of the great voices of the jazz-influenced ‘quiet storm’ era of 80s soul, Anita Baker’s only UK Top 40 hit remains a go-to example of passionate balladeering. Released in 1986 from her second album, Rapture, it was her breakout success everywhere, with Baker’s rich vocals delivering a poignant verse and a fiery, fervid chorus that was instantly memorable. It was a crossover smash in the States, a staple of the aforementioned quiet storm radio format that gained mainstream attention, reaching No.8 on the Billboard Hot 100. Sweet Love made the UK Top 20 and Baker undertook a successful world tour, including gigs in London, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester and Wolverhampton. The track later won the Grammy for Best R&B Song and Rapture for Best Female R&B…

Wendy James has shared that she’s reforming Transvision Vamp with a new line-up for an Australian tour next February. The band will include returning bassist Dave Parsons, along with guitarist Alex Ward, drummer Jim Sclavunos and Callum Duffy on keyboards. Speaking on her website, James said: “I am so excited to be coming back to Australia to play the songs which started my whole musical journey. I remember vividly so many moments across Australia, moments of enormous success and enormous love. Mayhem, laughter, adventures, incredible gigs and some of the best audiences in the world.” Hinting at what fans can expect, James added: “We’ll be playing all your favourite TVV numbers and for those of you who’ve followed my entire album output, we’ll be [performing] songs from across all 10…

Robert Howard has been impressively prolific since The Blow Monkeys reformed in late 2007. The collective’s new studio LP, Birdsong, is their eighth album in the 21st century alone, and the singer has also managed to maintain a concomitant solo career, which includes a recent collaborative release with Matt Deighton called The Instant Garden. Born in Scotland and raised in King’s Lynn in Norfolk and Sydney, Australia, Dr. Robert has now been an expat for 25 years, living just south of Granada, Spain, where he breathes the same Iberian air as Killing Joke legend Youth. Classic Pop finds him in fine form, both musically and spiritually, as he takes us through some of his starry collaborations, as well as the impulses and motivations that led to the band’s new record…

Ash will release their ninth studio album, Ad Astra, on 3 October via Fierce Panda. Featuring 11 new songs alongside their raucous take on Jump In The Line, Ad Astra also includes guest appearances from Blur’s Graham Coxon on two songs: the title track and Fun People. Following 2023’s Race The Night, the band’s highest-charting album for 20 years, Ash recently gave fans a taste of what to expect with catchy lead single Give Me Back My World. Frontman, Tim Wheeler commented: “If I told you this song dates back to 2020 you’d hardly need a degree from the school of Marple, Holmes and Poirot to figure out what it’s getting at. And although those sentiments may be just a memory from the standpoint of 2025, the song’s heart still feels relevant.…

As Dolly Parton once remarked, it takes a lot of money to look this cheap. The same might be said of Blur’s fifth, self-titled record, whose lo-fi aesthetic belies the sophistication of the artistry at play. Beneath the cacophony and confusion, it fizzes with energy and innovation, though not of the sort typically associated with the band. It was one of the greatest pivots of the era, as effective as it was unexpected. It silenced the Britpop circus, helping Blur finally break through in the US, and even laid the foundations for the world’s most successful virtual band. Surely everyone knows the backstory by now; it was even considered worthy of the 9 O’Clock News. Just a few years prior, the country was polarised as the two Britpop heavyweights went…

Initially synonymous with the Madchester scene, The Charlatans actually formed in the West Midlands. It was only after guitarist Jonathan Baker, bassist Martin Blunt, keyboard player Rob Collins and drummer Jon Brookes replaced original frontman Baz Ketley with Tim Burgess in 1988 that they upped sticks and moved to the latter’s Northwich hometown. Self-described in The Guardian as “like The Spencer Davis Group on E,” the group’s early sound did indeed flirt with the acid house revolution. But released through Beggars Banquet offshoot Situation Two, debut album Some Friendly had more to offer than the hedonistic pills, thrills and bellyaches of their peers. Indeed, capturing the anxieties of big city life (“There’s that car that I used to swerve/This town traffic is knocking me over”), opener You’re Not Very Well could…

Some 36 years since it kickstarted admission, in 2021, that Wonderwall is “not finished”), shis career, Ian Broudie still hasn’t got round to finishing his breakout song, Pure. The dreamy indie-pop track reached No.16 on the UK Singles Chart in 1989, laying the groundwork for The Lightning Seeds’ place in the Britpop scene of the following decade, as Broudie’s brand of bruised optimism set him apart from the chest-out braggadocio of many of his peers. “My favourite track that I ever did is Pure,” he tells Classic Pop, “and that’s not even mixed! I haven’t really sorted the solo out – I would have changed the solo in the middle. We never finished it. I said to the engineer, ‘We shouldn’t finish this one.’ He said, ‘I’ll just do a…

Ending a musical career on a high note isn’t a common phenomenon, with many acts releasing a number of lacklustre singles in the last knockings, but there are plenty of exceptions in our latest countdown. Certainly fate often played a leading role in the final chapter of a career, but many artists were able to dictate the terms of their exit. To qualify, each act had to be well established and have released at least two studio albums. Our list doesn’t include posthumous or opportunistic releases; nor does it feature singles by bands who split and then subsequently permanently reformed, even if the track itself was actually intended as a swansong. 20 THE HOUSEMARTIN THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING THERE TO REMIND ME (1988) Following two studio albums and a series…

HEAVENLY BOWING OUT AT THE TOP, SAINT ETIENNE’S FINAL ALBUM SUMMARISES THEIR MANY STRENGTHS, THOUGH IT ENDS ON A SLIGHTLY DEFLATING WHIMSICAL NOTE JUST WHEN IT SEEMED AN IDEAL FAREWELL When International was announced in May, Saint Etienne fans were genuinely shocked that the trio were calling it a day. They were still getting on, the quality hadn’t dipped in recent albums and… BLUB. There’s no one overarching rationale for the split – “We didn’t want to keep going for the sake of it,” as Sarah Cracknell told CP last month – however the time does maybe seem right: recent experimental albums like I’ve Been Trying To Tell You and The Night have barely featured what you’d call pop songs. Thankfully, while International features a host of collaborators including Xenomania,…

NOW THE STERLING QUALITY OF THE YEARBOOK SERIES HIGHLIGHTS TWO UNFAIRLY DERIDED YEARS, BEFORE ROUNDING UP A FLAWLESS ARRAY OF CLASSIC SOUL Often dismissed as some form of flimsy lightweight buffer between glam and punk, 1976 was in reality a much stranger and stronger 12 months than its reputation suggests. A hot year of pop, soul and disco, what 1976 lacked in edgy gobbing, it more than made up for via gold standard classics such as Candi Staton’s Young Hearts Run Free, The Real Thing’s You To Me Are Everything, Sailor’s A Glass Of Champagne and Kiss And Say Goodbye by The Manhattans. There’s ageless FM magic here, too, including Don’t Go Breaking My Heart and If You Leave Me Now, plus the frisky sauce-disco of Andrea True Connection’s More,…

The Charlatans have revealed details of their first studio album in eight years, We Are Love, set for release on 31 October via BMG. The band debuted the forthcoming LP’s title track live at their Castlefield Bowl show on 3 July. A celebratory statement of intent, the song is described by frontman Tim Burgess as “like an open top car ride in the credits of your favourite movie driving along the coast to somewhere amazing.” One of the first tracks to emerge while making the album, it became a pathfinder for the record, as guitarist Mark Collins explains: “Early on we thought it felt right. And it turned out that way: first single, title track, second song on the album. Things started forming around We Are Love. There was a…

Terry Hall’s acclaimed second solo album, Laugh, is being reissued on 19 September as an expanded double vinyl edition as well as a 2CD 7” gatefold deluxe set via Dinked. A 1LP black vinyl version, in its original sleeve, will also be available. Originally released in October 1997 on the Southsea Bubble Company label, Laugh was the follow-up to Hall’s debut solo outing, Home, and featured the singles Ballad Of A Landlord and I Saw The Light. Much of Laugh was co-written with former Smiths guitarist Craig Gannon, alongside further collaborations from the likes of Stephen Duffy, Sean O’Hagan (The High Llamas) and Damon Albarn. Produced by Hall with Gannon and Cenzo Townshend, the special editions expand Laugh across two discs and include B-sides, live recordings and acoustic versions. This…

Buckingham Nicks, the only studio album by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks as a duo, will be reissued for the first time on 19 September. Recorded at Sound City Studios and originally released in 1973, the LP has been unavailable for decades. This reissue has been sourced from the original analogue master tapes for its long-awaited return to vinyl, and from hi-res digital files for its CD and digital release. Though their later work with Fleetwood Mac would eclipse the record commercially, Buckingham Nicks endures as a testament to the pair’s creative partnership. “It stands up in a way you hope it would,” says Buckingham in the Rhino High Fidelity liner notes, written by David Fricke. Available exclusively via Rhino and internationally at select Warner Music Group stores, the album…

BOYS AND GIRLS BRYAN FERRY Bryan Ferry’s first solo work for many years and also the first since the demise of Roxy Music needed to be an event, an indication of new beginnings, and it was. With vocals much more concentrated and solid, and songs replete with cool, suave gestures, the album made Ferry dreamier and more magnetic than ever, if that were possible. Luscious lead single Slave To Love boasts a tempo that lilts at the perfect pace for slow dancing while never feeling like a ballad. The smooth, pacier follow-up Don’t Stop The Dance, with a compelling sax and Nile Rodgers on guitar, was also a hit. Rodgers is one of an impressive array of recruits – Mark Knopfler and David Gilmour also feature – and their handiwork…

Producer Trevor Horn has paid tribute to his long-term collaborator Luís Jardim, who passed away last month at the age of 75. Horn told CP: “When I first moved to London in 1970, one of the first next-level musicians I met was Luís Jardim. A friend took me to a jazz club one night, and there was Luís, a year younger than me. He was 21, with hair down to his waist, playing bass and singing, then playing drums, then playing tambourine. He was big, with enormous hands. Those hands could play a tambourine like you had never heard before, but if you complimented him, he’d say that there were kids on the street in Brazil who could play a symphony on a tambourine. “We were friends from that night.…

1 BEETLEBUM Blur kicks off with a simpler, rawer sound than casual listeners were accustomed to. Coxon’s sliding riff has since become a classic, leading into the huge, glam-infused chorus, featuring a particularly melodic bassline from James. Lyrically, Beetlebum is ambiguous, in stark contrast to their previous single, Charmless Man, which saw Albarn still entrenched in observational character mode. Damon later admitted Beetlebum was about his flirtations with heroin. The crowning moment is the gorgeous coda that plays out on the singer’s sweetly-cooed falsetto. The first single from Blur, it made UK No.1, to a huge sigh of relief from all in the band’s camp. 2 SONG 2 “Woo-hoo!” That’s the sound Blur’s bank manager made when this firecracker was released in North America, finally giving them a break-out hit,…

Time waits for no man, which, in the autumn of 1987, must have been galling for Art Of Noise. Here they were with their third album, exploiting their well-established, ahead-of-the-curve talent for incorporating samples into pop. But something had changed. These artful abusers of technology, futurism, musique concrète and humour – once skilfully encapsulated in their early hits, the radical Close (To The Edit) and sumptuous Moments In Love – appeared to be yesterday’s news. Only three years earlier, their Top 30 debut long-player, 1984’s Who’s Afraid Of The Art Of Noise?, had been received with glee, NME declaring it “a pleasure dome and a treasure trove”. Melody Maker, too, had described it as “touched with spontaneous invention, troubled by the sounds of a dark Metropolis, spurred on by the…

WHO IS THE SKY? MATADOR AFTER NEARLY 50 YEARS, DAVID BYRNE APPEARS TO KNOW HIS PURPOSE IN LIFE AND MUSIC. ON HIS FIRST ALBUM SINCE 2018’S AMERICAN UTOPIA, THAT CLARITY MAKES FOR A RELAXED MOOD – AND FOR SOME CHEESY JOKES. Given that David Byrne’s Who Is The Sky? is his first album for seven years and only his second solo record since 2004’s Grown Backwards, his first LP for new label Matador is undeniably an event. Heck, Talking Heads have even appeared together, with their admittedly awkward Q&As in North America for the reissue of Stop Making Sense sparking hopes that, just maybe, a tour might happen. Instead, Byrne has enlisted Kid Harpoon, an inspired choice of producer for his ability to cajole good albums from virtually everyone he…

EVENTIM APOLLO, HAMMERSMITH 19 JUNE STILL DOING THINGS THEIR OWN WAY, THE AGELESS MAEL MEN DELIVER A CAREER-SPANNING SET WORTHY OF THEIR CONSIDERABLE MUSICAL LEGACY It’s a sticky evening in West London, and Ron and Russell Mael are here for the second of two nights at a venue they first performed at in November 1974 (where a stalls ticket cost just £1!). It’s been a veritable rollercoaster ride since then, but they’ve managed to maintain their mystique, occupying that space between household names and cult favourites. Since dropping Balls at the start of the millennium, the enigmatic brothers have released several studio albums, and dipped their toes into the movie world, with both Annette and documentary The Sparks Brothers, whose esteemed director Edgar Wright is here to take the traditional…