Smash Hits, December 1978

Bibliography   72 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 UK & Ireland weeklies UK & Ireland magazines UK & Ireland newspapers US newspapers US rock magazines US music magazines US magazines US alternative weeklies European magazines European newspapers Canada  •  Mexico  •  Asia Australia  •  New Zealand South America  •  Africa Blogs  •  Fanzines  •  Books Online publications Smash Hits   1978 December 1979 January 1979 February 1979 February 8 1979 February 22 1979 April 5 1979 May 17 1979 November 29 1979 December 27 1980 January 10 1980 January 24 1980 February 7 1980 March 6 1980 March 20 1980 April 17 1980 May 15  1980 June 12   1980 September 4 1980 October 16 1980 December 11 1981 January 8 1981 January 22 1981 March 5 1981 June 11  1981 October 1 1981 October 29 1982 January 21 1982 April 15   1982 June 10 1982 June 24  1982 July 8 1982 August 5 1982 September 16   1982 December 9   1982 December 23 1983 March 17 1983 May 26 1983 June 9 1983 June 23  1983 July 7 1983 July 21 1983 August 4 1983 September 15 1984 January 5 1984 April 26 1984 June 21 1984 July 5 1984 August 16 1984 October 25 1985 April 24   1985 May 8 1986 February 26 1986 August 13 1986 August 27 1986 September 24 1989 February 22 1989 March 8 1989 May 16  1991 May 29 — Biting the hand and biting back! Smash Hits Since it's absolutely vital for a single to get played on the radio if it stands any chance of being a hit, it takes a lot of nerve to release a record which describes disc jockeys and radio bosses as "fools." It sounds like commercial suicide, but that's precisely what Elvis Costello has done on his single "Radio, Radio." Whichever way you look at it, it's a pretty scathing attack on the people who control what you hear on your radio. There aren't many people we can think of aside of Costello who would try it on in such a blatant fashion — and still expect to get radio plays. It's called "biting the hand that feeds you," as Costello himself says in the lyric. So what happened when "Radio, Radio" fell into the hands of the people it was calling fools. We don't know what went on in the corridors of radio power, but when Tony Blackburn (who you might imagine Costello regarding as Fool No. 1) first played the single on Radio 1 he felt compelled to comment on the lyrics. He called Costello "a silly little man" and commented, "I wonder what radio would be like in the hands of people like Elvis Costello." In fairness to Blackburn, however, he did go on to say that, despite the words, he liked Costello's single and thought it was his best so far. And in fairness to Radio 1, at least one of their DJs — Paul Gambaccini — named it his Record Of The Week. Tony Blackburn, nevertheless, kept returning to his attack on Costello as a "silly little man" on other occasions when he played "Radio, Radio." It was a lovely irony then when chance paired Elvis Costello as performer and Tony Blackburn as compere on an edition of Top Of The Pops. We would loved to have heard what they said to each other behind the scenes. What we did see on the screen was amusing enough. Observant viewers might have noticed that when Elvis came to the line about "such a lot of fools," etc., he changed it so that he sang, "The radio is in the hands of silly little men trying to anaesthetise the way that you feel". As he did so, he waved an accusing arm towards Blackburn off-screen. Tony looked a shade put out when he came to introduce the next act. "Oh well, we mustn't take these things personally," he joked weakly. Tags: Radio, Radio  •  Tony Blackburn  •  Paul Gambaccini  •  Top Of The Pops << >> Smash Hits, No. 2, December 1978 Smash Hits reports on EC's Oct. 26 appearance on Top Of The Pops. Page 3 features the lyrics to "Radio, Radio." Images Page scans. File:1978-12-00 Smash Hits photo 01.jpg Photographer unknown. Cover.

External links

• Wikipedia: Smash Hits
• elviscostello.info
• Flickr: Brian McCloskey's Smash Hits archive