‘Flexipop – the book’
Back in the day when the NME was a crucial read, where it competed on a weekly basis with Melody Maker, Sounds and Record Mirror, where Superpop had fallen the short lived (was it called) New Musical News briefly found a space, the newsagent racks where littered with pop periodicals, Smash Hits and Number 1 would spar for the teeny bop market for the best part of the 80’sbut somewhere sandwiched between it was the sore thumb that was Flexipop that turned the heads and caught the eye of the teen record buying market for a short momentous while. The attraction of Flexipop was always its cover mounted flexi disc, each of the 20 odd bendy turntable terrors (do you remember the advice of manufacturers to tape a 2p piece onto them to stop slippage) featured a plethora of in demand chart hugging artists of the day – the Associates, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, XTC, Adam and the Ants, Blondie, Altered Images, the Cure, Bauhaus and more……much scandal ensued the magazine was the subject of a nationwide newsagent blacklisting towards it’s bowing out while by the time of its final issue the magazine had debunked the flexis and gone uber goth with its curtain closing edition featuring a certain Alastair Crowley on the cover – something which until now I was happily ignorant about. Anyway there’s a book reliving all the highs, lows, cock ups and minor disasters with yes a flexi featuring Spandau Ballet and Soft Cell – http://www.flexipop.com/bookhome.html
the sunday experience 