— Mark Sutherland
An elephant in the room I've mostly avoided up until now is just what a different magazine Smash Hits had evolved into by the early-to-mid nineties. I've already mentioned how the title of Single of the Fortnight had been replaced by Best New Single but this was one of the subtler changes. The longstanding Bitz section had been replaced by pages of celeb gossip, much of which wasn't even related to the world of pop.
Here is some of what comprised issue 395 of ver Hits:
✔ A teary-eyed editor-in-chief Mike Soutar giving his thoughts on the imminent relocation of the Hits offices from Carnaby St down to Oxford St. Bloody hell, they practically could've carried all the furniture down the road themselves. I bet he regrets chucking away all those Sham 69 and David Bowie reference books now.
✔ Taking the mickey out of actress Juliette Lewis for having hairy armpits. I'd be more inclined to dis her wooden acting myself.
✔ Rating Sting, Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart on how they fare as grandads of rock. Somehow, Mr Peacock Rod comes out with the lowest score making him less of a geezer than his younger compatriots. The Hits makes no mention of their trio single "All for Love" which I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, it used to be their mandate to keep viewers abreast on the hits of the day; on the other hand, the record is crap so it's no big loss.
✔ A photo of Axl Rose swimming with a dolphin which is taken from the video for some useless single from 1991's Use Your Illusion albums which came out in (checks notes) 1991.
✔ Gossip. Loads of it. A celeb gossip round-up from Leesa Daniels, Hollywood gossip courtesy of Sandro Monetti and Soap gossip from Marc Andrews because Australia. Not exactly a crapton of music gossip but the music coverage in general is lacking so much throughout this issue in general that I doubt many even noticed.
✔ More from Marc Andrews as he interviews a couple of the actors from Home & Away. They aren't Frank, Roo, Emma or Dag Dog so this pair means zilch to me. They even shoot down the idea of doing a Kylie & Jason style duet but I imagine the Aussie-soap-star-turned-pop-star pipeline had gone dry by this time anyway.
✔ Oh for the love of god, must I go on with this task that I chose to do??? Let's skip a bit.
✔ The by-now customary pull out songbook featuring lyrics from the following: Def Leppard, Therapy?, Tag Team, Soul Asylum, the aforementioned Sting/Bryan Adams/Rod Steward throat-ripping team-up, Dr Dre and RuPaul. The Leps aside, this about as 1994 as you can get — unless, of course, you wish to consider the good music that came out this year.
✔ Robbie Williams refuting many of the definitely baseless rumours that had spread about Take That. Someone ought to lie down with him on his bed and see what he thinks of them now.
✔ Alex Kadis follows Bad Boys Inc. on tour. Two observations here: (a) why the hell was 'Inc.' so common in the nineties? and (b) it was good of them to have been the "cheeriest men in pop" considering they played RC Cola to Take That and East 17's Coke and Pepsi respectively, wasn't it?
✔ Sylvia Patterson meets with Winona Ryder. Not a pop star but she once dated Johnny Depp...who also isn't a pop star.
✔ Reviews! Mark Sutherland "does" the singles! Age of Innocence and Mrs Doubtfire: I saw them both! Also, Tombstone and Son-in-Law, which I didn't see and probably wasn't even aware of.
✔ Letters. No Black Type and no correspondence of interest.
✔ Finally, a crossword puzzle and a short Q&A with Louise from Eternal. And a small poster for Wayne's World, another movie I've never seen. Because I've never thought Mike Myers was funny. In fact, I think he sucks.
All told, not much from the world of pop. A common complaint I've heard leveled at nineties' Smash Hits is that it went too far in the direction of "manufactured" groups like Take That and The Spice Girls but it seems more like they just wanted to be all things teen entertainment. Bad Boys Inc and Robbie Williams and Louise Nurding weren't everyone's thing but they were in the charts. But try telling that to Mark Sutherland, a rock 'n' roller who was a man out of time.
Whether by design or by chance, this fourth single dressed up as an E.P. (with it by now the dominant format, virtually every CD single was in effect an extended play) cleverly capped off their early hard rock indie sound while guiding listeners in the direction of the bleak, skeletal work that would appear on their pivotal third album The Holy Bible near the end of 1994. Life Becoming a Landslide's second track "Comfort Comes" isn't up to much but it does suggest that their days of sloganeering might be finally drawing to a close, even if they weren't quite done with their tired use of alliteration. In addition, while third track "Are Mothers Saints" does worringly hint at the Welsh lads going through a Red Hot Chili Peppers phase, it's more considered and philosophical lyrics also point the way forward.
But the title cut has next to nothing going for it. Just another Manic Street Preachers song that sounds just like the one that came before it. While their song titles may have once been a strength — just as they would as they awkwardly moved into their trio years near the end of the decade — by now they had become a signpost for why it's best to avoid them at all costs. "Life Becoming a Landslide": why would I ever need to give it a listen when I already know exactly how it's going to sound?
The Manics always seemed like a band who desperately wished to not to make the mistakes of the groups that came with them, particularly The Clash. Some critics fans have knocked Give 'Em Enough Rope for been far too polished and this was about when there were worries that the so-called 'only band that mattered' were going to sell out. Richey Edwards, James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore were well aware of this and made a point that they would never fall victim to the pop/rock machine. Their second album was called Gold Against the Soul for god's sake. Their mostly brilliant first album was then followed by a tepid second release which sounded like they were already running out of material. They had to push on and a good thing too since it resulted in three albums on the bounce at their creative peak — The Holy Bible, Everything Must Go and This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours.
With four Singles of the Fortnight/Best New Singles to their credit from just their first two albums, Manic Street Preachers have been well represented in blog. And there may very well be more to come. "A Design for Life", "Kevin Carter", "If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next" and "The Everlasting" could all be coming in the months and years ahead (well, except for the fact that I know that at least two of them won't be featured but why spoil the surprise, eh?) Pet Shop Boys and, I suppose, Scritti Politti aside, I tend to get sick of groups who pop up on here this many times and ver Manics are no exception. But in this instance, I'm quite sure I would've been mildly fed up with them at the time as well. All that shouting, all that seriousness, all those predictable tunes. I wasn't about to be pretending it was Wembley Stadium with my air guitar while listening to their stuff; doing Hollywood gossip column for a once-great pop mag doesn't even seem so foul by comparison.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
The Charlatans: "Can't Get Out of Bed"
In addition to the Manics, Sutherland also approves of the latest from Inspiral Carpets (they were still around in '94?), Red Hot Chili Peppers, Therapy? and The Orb — so you might say he digs his indie. Pop and hip hop acts don't do so well but he also isn't terribly fond of new releases from Soul Asylum and The Charlatans, so I guess not all guitar bands were to his taste. I've always kind of liked Northwich's favorite sons but I will admit that the country-ish "Can't Get Out of Bed" isn't one of their stronger efforts. It took them a long time to shake off the overstated claims that they were just inferior Stone Roses clones but they were beginning to find their way. The fact that ace organist Rob Collins was coming to the end of a spell in prison couldn't have helped their progress. A firm fan favourite but since when was a group's cult following any kind of authority? Like the Manics, they'd soon be back and better than ever.
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