A conciliatory gesture to his label Warner Bros? Sell-out or heartfelt? A spiritually-motivated artistic statement? Either way, Prince rounded off an extraordinary 1980s with arguably his final masterpiece, 1989’s Batman……
Yello interview: “It’s legitimate to shake our asses”
After more than four decades together, “funny little Swiss boys” Yello are still innovating. In this interview from 2016, they talked to Classic Pop about stagefright, the dangers of success…
Into the valleys: the sounds of Wales
The music of Wales can draw on a rich and rootsy heritage when it needs to reinvent itself… By Jonathan Wright The figure dressed in black has tangled hair and…
Classic Album: XTC – Skylarking
With 1986’s Skylarking, XTC proved that even the most tempestuous recording process can produce magical results… Having already experimented with spiky new-wave, psychedelia and sonically-diverse soundscapes in their first decade…
Saint Etienne interview: “I certainly wouldn’t be embarrassed if someone called us a 90s band”
With their melancholic disco singles and album statements, Saint Etienne were one of the most underrated bands of the 90s. We spoke to them in 2017 as they released their…
Pop Art – Rob O’Connor
Rob O’Connor’s Stylorouge creative studio can arguably boast the largest pop portfolio of clients we’ve ever explored in Classic Pop magazine. From Meatloaf to Morrissey and Bowie to Barlow, we…
Omar interview: fighting his corner
Omar has been at the forefront of British soul since the early-90s after his hit single There’s Nothing Like This. David Burke met the soul survivor in 2017… He was a…
The Art Of Noise remember In Visible Silence
In 2016, The Art Of Noise celebrated the 30th anniversary of the platinum-selling In Visible Silence. That year, the group’s core trio of Anne Dudley, JJ Jeczalik and Gary Langan…
Top 40 pop soundtracks – the definitive movie playlist
From thrillers to chillers, sci-fi to rom-coms, cinema would be nothing without its soundtrack… We’ve looked at all eras of classic pop to chart the most important, beguiling and spell-binding…
The Producers – Mike Howlett
Classic Pop looks at the recording of some of the biggest pop hits of our time by talking to the legendary producers behind them. This time, we meet Mike Howlett,…