Not the first edition of the magazine to become available to the public, I don’t seem to have that one. Or have it to hand at this point in time at least. Popular music in 1989 was slowly becoming more electronic due to the influence of club culture and DMC were wise enough to put the previously DJ only magazine on to the shelves of John Menzies & WH Smith for the great unwashed to devour and dream big of an Ibiza holiday next year. Don’t want to dwell too much on the content of the magazine as I’m mostly looking for music of the era in the little chart boxes, but I do have to mention the cartoon.
Dressing up like Level 42 to get in the club thankfully died away around this time, and really this wasn’t the sort of place one would actively want to go. Anyway, I note this because it’s drawn by Ian Gibson who is likely better remembered for his collaboration with Alan Moore on The Ballad of Halo Jones for 2000AD.
Rather young looking Paul Oakenfold & Pete Tong (among others) pictured at the Mixmag public launch party.
The magazine wasn’t just content with covering House, Rap, Soul etc and had a healthy look at the Indie scene too, see here an interview with Shaun Ryder although I must warn you it did remind me of that inner cover image which near traumatised me back then.
One article that is worth looking at follows, not mentioned on the cover but is an interesting counter to the cartoon above describing why one might not get into a club and why they might instead end up in a warehouse.
Kind of looks like Jason Statham, this guy, no? Or that bloke that played the Punisher recently.
Anyway, on to the music. World Dance Chart first. Individual country charts are listed (although not posted here today) and I assume this is made of all of them put together and as such seems a bit on the pop dance side of things. The individual Euro charts look like a lot more fun comparatively, but maybe that’s for another post. Just Keep Rockin’ is the only thing over 120 BPM so all a bit slow on this dancefloor.
The Bluebird House Chart, iirc Bluebird was owned by the editor of Mixmag so the store tended to be the main choice when it came to these charts, but as you can probably guess it had decent taste. Well, maybe other than White Horse but I seem to remember it was a perennial dancefloor botherer for years before. Nothing really new here so I’ll skip over this lot for now, but must mention 2 Without Hats – Try Yazz as an overlooked favourite here.
Pixies had some of the most lovely sleeves on 4AD. Decent Indie chart other than weirdly unexpected appearances of The Beatles & Manfred Mann. Mohammed – Ham Safar was remixed by 808 State and played by Peel, and can be found below.
Mix selection below, tracklisting as follows:
Madonna – Express Yourself (Shep’s Dub #1)
Dynasty Of Two – Stop This Thing (Dub)
101 – Move Your Body (Instrumental)
Buster Poindexter – All Night Long (Bass Dub)
E-Zee Possee – Everything Starts With An ‘E’ (Renegade Soundwave Dub)
Liz Torres – Payback Is A Bitch (Lugo Dub Mix)
Virgo Four – In A Vision
Richie Rich – Salsa House(Dub Zone)
Crystal Vortex – Money You Are My Slave (Dollar Mix)
Charvoni – Always There (Dub)
Nightwriters – Let The Music Use You (Original Dub)
Voodoo Doll – Women Beat Their Men (Bones Sycho Dub)
Information Society – Lay All Your Love On Me (Prohibited Dub)
Rufus & Chaka Khan – Ain’t Nobody (David Morales & Frankie Knuckles Hallucinogenic Dub)
Smattering of Hip-House & Italo House across these selections, Leo Mas once occupying a 6AM-11AM slot at Space. These days I think I’d only manage that slot if I got up at 0530
And if you’ve made it this far, here’s a bonus upload on youtube : Snub TV episode one. Just curious if this can avoid the banhammer.