If today is involving any form of reconnection with real life after the festive period, ease yourself back in with variously compiled pop chat. The latest episode of Back to Now with guest @whenisbirths.bsky.social is the perfect January listen! All podcast places or here: linktr.ee/poprambler

Ep 73. Make Christmas Great Again. Gareth @justplayed.bsky.social gets to grip with the new releases. We pick our year-end favourites. News, readers letters, a festive quiz and a heap of crate digging nonsense. pod.link/1456163688 Support the show ko-fi.com/webuyrecords

Some adverts from 1982

@wholehogg.bsky.social @giddypoppod.bsky.social are you and Simon aware of this? I reckon at least one of is.😊

Back to NOW! New Episode! 🎧 Revisit the NOW Yearbook 1980 with special guests Mark Wood and Andrew Harrison (@nndroid.bsky.social) A new decade of pop dawns! Available at your podcast place of choice NOW or via this handy link: linktr.ee/poprambler

Ep 72. A bumper episode... we're joined by comedian James Mullinger, we have positivity in the post bag, @justplayed.bsky.social is back with new releases, quiz, news and all your favourite record collecting nonsense. link.chtbl.com/_MA6rrYD Support the show ko-fi.com/webuyrecords

Great night out seeing Adam in Sheffield. His drummers were superb.

Smash Hits were there for ALL enquiries

Here's Ric talking about the history of the Cuban Boys and criticising the band's competition on the album Now! 45.

UB BLOODY 40 #totp

Look at all the pretty colours and the beautiful music straining inside them straining to be heard! Let's see how much of it I can release into this evening's Soho Radio show. 6-8pm live.

Great project - looking for unheard and obscure albums reviewed in ver Hits and giving them a short review. Take a look at #smashhitsalbumreviews

Ep 71. We go format crazy with @avavsystems.bsky.social. Taylor Swift has done some variants. Madonna has annoyed us, again, counterfeit scams... a gloomy post box...plus news, quiz and all your usual crate digging larks. link.chtbl.com/_MA6rrYD Support the show. ko-fi.com/webuyrecords

New arrival at Giddy Pop Towers... 🎠🎠🎠

Not a glowing review of Geno in Smash Hits, March 1980

It's late December 1980 and the next issue of ver Hits will have a free badge. Which one are you holding out for?

Terrible news - thank you for some wonderful musical memories Dave x

Alexei Sayle and his Comic Strip chums channelling Dexys on their 1981 homage to Pop-Up Toasters

Our very own @simongmusic.bsky.social will be spinning the platters that matter in the glamorous surroundings of Glossop this Saturday. All in support of @bobfischer.bsky.social and The Haunted Generation. It’ll be a hoot!

What a wonderful episode - I've laughed and learned! I've also been saving up hearing Don't Stand Me Down for the first time until I heard @giddypoppod.bsky.social on the subject, and now I can't bloody wait! But in the interests of dressing appropriately while I do it, I'm off to buy a nice suit.

A primer in the Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall from ver Hits.

Love this Smash Hits meets Blake's Seven mash up artwork

40 years and 1 day ago, this issue of Smash Hits came out. And about 5 years and 4 months ago we talked to @juliehamill.bsky.social about it. Morrissey and Pete Burns - an unlikely couple to be on the front cover. open.spotify.com/episode/1neF...

Many thanks to Simon and Gavin at @giddypoppod.bsky.social, @simonprice.bsky.social, Chris Heath and always a pleasure chatting with @oharaviolin.bsky.social Really enjoyed the listen/read of the captions via YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOCR...

A Don't Stand Me Down bonanza. Guests on the latest Giddy Carousel of Pop include Dexys royalty in Helen O'Hara and a rare spottiing of Kev Adams on a podcast. Q. Has there ever been an album so dismissed simply on the basis of the clothes the band are wearing? A. No

A great listen. And a companion piece to Searching for Dexys Midnight Runners.

Excellent way to spend an hour today... Great to hear from former Dexys members @kevadams.bsky.social and @oharaviolin.bsky.social about the making of the album alongside some journalistic insight. Perfectly hosted by @simongmusic.bsky.social & @wholehogg.bsky.social 🙏x bsky.app/profile/gidd...

Well this rather lovely thing made my day. Two band members, a sympathetic journalist from the time & another fine journalist (then a fan) talk to Gavin & Simon about one of the most extraordinary records released thus far in my lifetime. God bless them all

LISTEN TO THIS. The chaps from The Giddy Carousel Of Pop (the Smash Hits-based podcast) have done a 40th anniversary special episode on Don't Stand Me Down, featuring actual Dexys members Helen O'Hara and Kevin 'Billy' Adams, Smash Hits legend Chris Heath, and little old me (a mere fan at the time).

🎠 NEW EPISODE OUT NOW 🎠 We're joined by @oharaviolin.bsky.social @kevadams.bsky.social @simonprice.bsky.social and Chris Heath to discuss all things Don't Stand Me Down on it's 40th anniversary. Listen here podfollow.com/the-giddy-ca.... Also now on YouTube! youtube.com/@thegiddycar...

I never need much encouragement to talk about Dexys...

Reunited! We're back, back, BACK!!

Not to be missed, Kev and Helen are lovely

Looking forward to a listen (read the subtitles in my case of course 😄) Of this later 😊 Many thanks to Gavin and Simon for celebrating the 40th anniversary 👏👏👏

It's #InternationalPodcastDay, so a good day to tell you that a very special episode 'drops' tomorrow, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Dexys great lost album. We're joined by @oharaviolin.bsky.social @kevadams.bsky.social @simonprice.bsky.social and Chris Heath to discuss this unique album! 🎠🎠🎠

Blancmange - Living on the Ceiling. Video filmed in Cairo. RIP Stephen Luscombe.

It's the Giddy Carousel of Parkrun! Si and Gav running 5k together today in slightly blustery Glossop.

Brill night with two PSB films at the BFI Southbank - Battleship Potemkin restoration is just superb and their score a propulsive, elegiac and dramatic accomplishment. It Couldn't Happen Here as charmingly odd as ever and somehow timeless. Nice chat with Neil too @petshopboys.music-social.com

This electro pop tune from 1983 has been making some internet noise lately for being a possible influence on West End Girls. There are definitely some similarities but it's not enough to send the PSB to pop jail. Maybe a few hours community service at the most. youtu.be/DB8HVmFjleU?...

Our next session is on Thurs 11 Sept, when we'll be celebrating the 40th anniversary of Dexys' masterpiece, Don't Stand Me Down. We'll be playing the original album on vinyl and in full and a handful of other Dexys tunes to set the scene. Join us! glossoprecordclub.wordpress.com/2025/08/28/1...

The new Spray Podcast is the band's most in-depth yet. Which one can change a plug, which one likes dragging up and did Jenny ever see Barbara Dickson live? The answers will shock you. Guess which band originally got the Qs (from an 80s Smash Hits) and you might win a prize! linktr.ee/spraypopmusic

Happy anniversary to the brilliant documentary Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland’s Girl Bands. A year ago today it had its global premiere in Edinburgh ahead of screenings across Scotland and beyond. 🧵 www.youtube.com/watch?v=v38p...

Ep 69. Discogs Special. Some unusual goings on over at the popular selling platform....and some fairly shocking discoveries. Plus a quiz with a Lovely Lustre..... link.chtbl.com/_MA6rrYD

The request was IIRC 'Dear Jim'll, Please can I drive around in that little electric car Gary Numan has in his video?' Then, apparently, the kid was in a strop cos they told them to put on some dungarees, his sister's dungarees.

Finally, one of the weirdest music TV clips - as discussed in our episode with @simonprice.bsky.social - has resurfaced. Gary Numan on Jim'll Fix doing Music For Chameleons while a haunted child circled him slowly in an electric car with torches for headlights. youtu.be/ZBa5BsaB2kI?...

Always a thrill to spot a previous guest in your favourite comedy show. Sitting behind Mandy is our lovely pal @ourmanincairo.bsky.social !

It's the 40th anniversary of the release of Don't Stand Me Down this September and @glossoprecordclub.bsky.social will be listening to the original release (the best one of course 😉) in full, along with @giddypoppod.bsky.social Give them a follow and keep an eye out for the September date.

Very eclectic guests (Cate Blanchet, Tom Courtenay, @gregsestero.bsky.social and many more) on this podcast, including previous rider on the Carousel, Mr Marco Pirroni!

Want to know who is to blame for the demise of TOTP? @bubblegumzines.bsky.social has the answer in zine form. Includes contributions from @chartmusictotp.bsky.social people - out now pop kids!!