SFX Cassette Music Mag 1982

This maybe a bit obscure, not many people remember it, but in the early 80s there was an audio music magazine called SFX a little on the lines of Smash Hits.

I was more of a Smash Hits reader than and NME or Melody Maker fan myself so this thing appealed to me.
Smash Hits in the early 80s was less of a girly boyband rag than it was to eventually turn into in it's later years and seemed to be the only place that covered anything Electronic. The "Credible" music press hated the likes of Depeche Mode and Orchestral Manouvres in the Dark and as far as i was concerned spent far too much time kissing the backsides of bands sporting long hair and playing guitars during a time when synthesizers were king.

Looking back i think i probably only bought Smash Hits because they aimed themselves at any type of mainstream mass pop music and printed the top 75 on the back page every week.

Anyway back to SFX. It only ran for about a year and came in the form of a cardboard cover with a cassette tagged to it via a small piece of wire.

The tape consisted of a C60 with two half hour type radio shows each side that included interviews, music clips and conversation.

A sort of audio version of a music paper.

To be honest it sounded very amateurish and a bit tacky, but it was something different and they gave it a good go before it all collapsed and the mag wrapped up sometime at the back end of 1982. (Edition one came out in November 1981).

This particular episode included a cringe worthy interview with a very arrogant Lou Reed where he more or less tells the interviewer off before disappearing up his own backside, Haircut 100 telling us about their new television show ???? EH ?. And an album review with Mary Wilson (Just what i always wanted) plus Toni Basil talking about the time she worked with David Bowie.

I have uploaded a little clip for your listening pleasure below.

See how many of the "Hot Picks" New Releases you remember from March 1982. (More Here)