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.

WELCOME

Classic Pop

SOUNDBITES

OUR CONTRIBUTORS

OBITUARY BONNIE TYLER 8 JUNE 1951 – 8 JULY 2026

THE ALARM REUNITE TO HONOUR MIKE PETERS

Duran Duran resurrect Halloween arena show

Talk Talk classic blooms again

Q + A WANG CHUNG • WITH THE RELEASE OF A DELUXE 2LP VINYL EDITION OF TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A., FEATURING A RESEQUENCED TRACKLISTING AND ADDITIONAL REMIXES, CP MEETS WITH WANG CHUNG’S JACK HUES TO DISCUSS WORKING WITH MOVIE DIRECTOR WILLIAM FRIEDKIN ON THE EVOCATIVE SOUNDTRACK AND ACHIEVING STATESIDE SUCCESS

UNLOCKING AN ICONIC SMITHS ALBUM

JOY DIVISION’S UNKNOWN LIVE PLEASURES UNVEILED

Suede are Coming Up again

1-HIT WONDER

OBITUARY CALVIN HAYES 27 NOVEMBER 1962 – 9 JULY 2026

Collins album gets a Facelift

my POP life: Mandip Gill • THE DOCTOR WHO AND COOPER & FRY STAR ON BEYONCÉ, BOLLYWOOD MUSIC AND HER QUIET LOVE FOR LEWIS CAPALDI

LOST & FOUND

PROCLAIMERS GO ON THE OFFENSIVE

Howard Jones is taking a Stand

Ian Peel’s A to Z of POP • THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE SPANS TITLES FROM IRON MAN TO SPIDER-MAN. THE BBC HAS ITS WHONIVERSE FRANCHISE. SO WHY HAS POP STORYTELLING ALWAYS BEEN SO LINEAR?

This month in POP SEPTEMBER 1988 • ELTON’S PERSONAL MEMORABILIA GOES UNDER THE HAMMER, TALK TALK RELEASE A CLASSIC AND JAMES BROWN ENDS UP ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE LAW

“WHENEVER DAVE AND I DID SOMETHING, IT ALWAYS FELT LIKE AN EVENT” • Soft Cell’s final album Danceteria was completed just weeks before the death of Dave Ball last year. A return to their early hedonism in New York and an incredible send-off, it marks a full-circle moment for the duo. In his first major interview since his bandmate’s passing, Marc Almond movingly discusses Ball’s legacy and how he cherished their creative chemistry.

NON-STOP ECSTATIC DANCETERIA

MADONNA MASH-UP

WAVING GOODBYE?

PROMISE SADE • THE SMOOTH-OPERATING SOPHISTI-POP LEGENDS TOPPED THE ALBUMS CHART ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC AND PICKED UP A GRAMMY WITH THEIR ELEGANT, SOUL-INFUSED SECOND LONG-PLAYER, RELEASED IN 1985

THE PLAYERS

THE SONGS

THE VIDEOS

“We spread our wings across the world” • Forty years after True Confessions turned Bananarama into global stars, Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin reflect on the hit-making pop alchemy of Stock Aitken Waterman, celebrity encounters and the surreal highs of international fame

Vamping it up

The full Confession

RICK ASTLEY • WITH A 10TH STUDIO ALBUM ON THE WAY, WE DIVE INTO THE BACK CATALOGUE OF THE SINGER-SONGWRITER WHO CONQUERED THE WORLD IN THE 80S WITH AN ENDURING STOCK AITKEN WATERMAN CLASSIC THAT THREATENED TO OVERWHELM HIS ENTIRE CAREER BEFORE BOUNCING BACK IN ADULT CONTEMPORARY STYLE

DEVOTED FANS SHOW US THEIR COLLECTIONS AND POP MEMORABILIA

HAPPY HOUR AGAIN • THE MAN WHO WROTE OF THE PEOPLE WHO GRINNED THEMSELVES TO DEATH HAS RECENTLY LACKED REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL. BUT WHATEVER OTHERS MAY THINK OF HIM, PAUL HEATON FINDS PLENTY TO SMILE ABOUT AS HE READIES HIS NEW WORK OF JENIUS.

KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY

A NEW CHAPTER?

TOP TEN WEEK ENDING...