Memorabilia Medley: BOP Magazine

I have started to catalog my Duran Duran memorabilia as I mentioned here weeks ago. After looking through the various bootlegs I have, I decided to put that to the side (for now). It felt too overwhelming. Instead, I moved to the next area of my office, which happens to be magazines. Right now, I have my magazines in chronological order (nerdy, I know). The oldest magazine I own is the Rolling Stone magazine from 1984 that I have blogged about before. Since I don’t want to rehash that, what is the next oldest magazine that I own. Yes, indeed, it is a a Bop magazine. Anyone else big Bop readers back in the day? I, for one, loved, loved, loved them.

My childhood memories are filled with going to the grocery store with my mother. I hated the grocery store. (I still do. I may never go into a grocery store again since discovering curbside pick-up.) Yet, there was one solid silver lining, which was the magazine aisle. I would announce, usually loudly, to my mom that I was going to look at magazines while she shopped. She knew that this meant she lost me for the entire shopping trip. I would then flip through the covers to decide which to examine further as I knew my time was limited. From there, I was on a mission. First, I had to decide which one I might beg and plead my mom to buy for me. This sounds like an easy decision but it often felt agonizing. During the height of Duranmania, so many teen magazines catered to Duranies with multiple page colored pin-ups and silly but juicy articles. Anyway, once I had “the one” picked out, I would then spend the rest of the time trying to read as many magazines that would not be going home with me. It was like speed reading while in many cases squeeing out loud in the store over the pictures included.

Where did Bop magazine fit into this process? I have to say that it was often my magazine of choice. I would like to say that I chose them for their intensely informative nature but I would probably be lying. In reality, they often had amazing centerfolds featuring our favorite band members. Then, of course, these pictures would become part of my fandom wallpaper. Those were the days. I miss much of that.

So how about this particular Bop magazine? It is from July 1985. Before I share some details about the specific magazine, I do want to take a minute to acknowledge what was going on with the band at that time. 1985 was the year of side projects with Power Station on tour and Arcadia in the studio finishing up the now classic album, So Red the Rose. July 1985 was also, of course, the month of Live Aid. In my world, it was the month before my family moved from the Chicagoland area to a small town. It was more of a period of transition than we knew at the time.

The particular Duran focused article of this Bop magazine was entitled, “Duran Duran’s True Confessions.” That is a headline that would get any Duranie’s attention, right? Then, there were a lot of photos from the Sing Blue Silver book of photography. Beyond that, the band also included in multiple columns, including “Secrets from Hollywood Boulevard,” “Crank Up the Tunes,” “Super Trivia,” “Slam Bam’s Platter Chatter,” and “Hot from Hollywood”. While all of that was great, the big appeal was definitely the centerfold that featured John Taylor. That kind of thing was all I needed to go for that magazine over others. Which picture was the centerfold? Here you go:

There is no need for me to say anything further. Am I right? So, am I the only one who had this experience with magazine purchases in the 1980s? How did you decide which magazine to buy or could you buy them all? Do you have any magazines still from the 1980s in your collection? Please tell me that I’m not alone in this!

-A