In 2018, All Saints talked to Classic Pop about their then-new album Testament as well as escaping life in the pop goldfish bowl and learning to deal with the pressures…
The Lowdown – Simply Red
Simply Red emerged from the post-punk scene in Manchester to become a Brit pop-soul sensation, clocking up No.1 singles on both sides of the Atlantic, winning multiple Brit and Grammy…
Joe Jackson interview – don’t look back in anger
Wrongly pegged as an ‘angry young man’, the ever-restless singer-songwriter Joe Jackson has delved into everything from power pop to jazz and classical. In this archive interview from 2019, he…
When British reggae was king
Reggae may have been born in Jamaica, but it grew up in 80s Britain at a time of evolving multiculturalism, finding an unlikely ally in punk and becoming a mainstay…
The Specials Encore interview: “Being at No.1? That’s bonkers!”
In 2019 we spoke to The Specials as they released their stunning comeback album, Encore. “We could have been as mega as U2,” they tell Classic Pop. “What a crazy…
Squeeze – the stories behind the songs
In 2019, we spoke to Squeeze songwriters Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook as they revealed the stories behind some of the band’s mightiest songs… “Glenn and I have a complicated…
Top 20 80s sampling hits
Mining the past to make the music of the future, these singles used 80s sampling to fine effect From the prominence of the Fairlight CMI and the rise in turntablism…
Teenage Kicks: Dave Stewart interview
One of the music world’s great adventurers, even by Dave Stewart’s standards his new project Ebony McQueen is ambitious: a movie with an accompanying triple-album boxset. It also allows him…
Making George Michael’s Older
Inspired by the grief of losing his partner, the third album by George Michael, Older, was amongst the most powerful statements of his career… While the gap between Older and…
The Associates: “We were firing on all cylinders at the speed of light”
Post-punk pioneers the Associates transformed themselves into bona fide pop stars on 1982’s Sulk. Alan Rankine, Mike Hedges, Michael Dempsey and Martyn Ware take us inside their skewed masterwork… It’s…