Chris Heath
Chris Heath is a British writer who was a regular contributor to the popular English music magazine Smash Hits in the '80s and early '90s. In the late '80s, he travelled with Pet Shop Boys on their first ever world tour and the result was the book entitled Literally, released in 1990. In 1993, he published Pet Shop Boys Versus America which was written as he accompanied them on a US tour. He wrote the liner notes to the 2001 reissues of the band's first six albums, and assisted in the compilation of additional songs for inclusion. Alongside Pet Shop Boys, he contributed to the commentary track on the 2003 PopArt DVD. He writes and edits the Pet Shop Boys' fan club magazine, also called Literally, and conducts an interview for each of their tour programmes. He has been a staff writer at Details, Rolling Stoneand most recently, American GQ,for which he has interviewed and written profiles of many celebrities. He is also the author of the best-selling biography of Robbie Williams, Feel (2004), and its follow-up, Reveal (2017).
63 articles
List of articles in the library
George Michael, Wham!: "Will George Michael Ever Appear On Stage Again"
Report and Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 3 January 1985
Of course he will. But that didn't stop people asking questions like that on the news the day he strained his back and Wham! had ...
New Order: Finsbury Park Sports Centre, London
Live Review by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 14 February 1985
HOW DO New Order get away with It? If Wham!, Spandau or Frankie stood up onstage wearing their everyday clothes and looking fairly bored, played ...
The Jesus & Mary Chain: The Jesus And Mary Chain
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 14 March 1985
They're all either 19 or 20 years old. They smash equipment on stage. They wear obscene t-shirts. They play chaotic pop tunes and they want ...
Live Review by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 11 April 1985
They're of Irish descent! They play hectic punk-folk music! They leave no table unturned! ...
Bananarama: A few home truths about Bananarama
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 28 August 1985
• Keren phones people when she's in the bath! Siobhan's growing some lovely gladis in the garden! Sarah's been putting up her own shelves! ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 28 August 1985
She had a number one single when she was 18, and followed that with a string of hits. Then she vanished. So what happened? Did ...
Mai Tai: A fashion designer, an ex fare-dodger and someone who tells the rudest jokes imaginable
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 20 November 1985
"I'VE ONLY ever seen one windmill in my whole life," insists Carolein firmly. Only one windmill? But this is Holland, land of windmills, clogs, tulips ...
A-ha: A Day in the Life of A-ha
Report and Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 1 January 1986
Fireworks, gold discs, spots, a lot of snogging, an interview in a pub, a TV-am film crew and two very nosey people from Smash Hits... ...
Tears For Fears: "We're going to weird out like you wouldn't believe!"
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 1 January 1986
1985 was quite a year for Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal. They had a number one single and album in America and massive hits just ...
The Rich Kids, Slik, Ultravox, Midge Ure, Visage: The Midge Ure Story
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 12 February 1986
He's had a hand in almost every type of pop group imaginable: he was number one in 1976 with "teenybop" group Slik, almost become singer ...
Pet Shop Boys: What Does It Take To Make These Men Happy?
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 26 February 1986
A NUMBER ONE RECORD? GETTING ON THE COVER OF SMASH HITS? LOTS OF LOVELY MONEY? WELL, THEY'VE HAD ALL THAT AND THEY STILL LOOK LIKE ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 12 March 1986
Howard Jones is Rich, Famous and Successful. He and his wife Jan have planned their family (the baby was conceived at 60 mph in the ...
Depeche Mode: One Of Those Days...
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 26 March 1986
...you know, when the alarm doesn't go off and you've got a cold and your radio's conked out and the gerbil's chewed the corner off ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 5 April 1986
Nosey? Smash Hits? Well, yes, we are a bit. Like when we spoke to Five Star we couldn't resist asking them how much money they ...
George Harrison, Madonna: Madonna Speaks...
Report by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 21 May 1986
...and what do you think the press do? After weeks spent camping out at airports, breaking into hotels and getting themselves run over to get ...
Falco: "I am a little bit weird"
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 2 July 1986
More like stark, staring bonkers, if you ask moi, says Chris Heath ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 2 July 1986
Ali and Robin Campbell have a lot in common: 1) They've both got the same parents; 2) They both spent almost their entire "youth" stealing ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 16 July 1986
• Loathe Radio 1 • Can't stand A-ha • Hate badly-arranged hotel towels • Don't believe in happiness • Think their records are "wonderful"... Two spotty ...
Phil Fearon & Galaxy: Phil Fearon
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 13 August 1986
• He used to have lots of hits under the name Galaxy! • He was once asked to join the Sex Pistols! • He sleeps ...
Report and Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 13 August 1986
• She was a huge star in the sixties, down the dumper in the seventies and now, at 47, she's a huge star again.• She ...
Frankie Goes To Hollywood: They're Back!
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 27 August 1986
Back! BACK! Yes, after 18 months of faffing about and not making any records and getting married and painting and motor racing and selling egg-cups ...
Go West: "There Are Lots Of Pieces Of Nature To Talk To"
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 19 November 1986
Oh dear. Go West tell Chris Heath how they threw away their vests and learned to love the countryside. Or something like that... ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 28 January 1987
They hit girls over the head with bits of wood. They make up words like 'woogahumpftma'. They change from Gnomes to Fairies. Their fathers pretend ...
Curiosity Killed The Cat: "We've Got Street Cred! Woooooh!"
Profile and Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 11 February 1987
Curiosity Killed The Cat explain they're not posh, they just wear clothes to "keep warm" and they're certainly not just "four models there for the ...
Pet Shop Boys: Neil Tennant: Smash Hits Editor For A Day!?
Report and Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 25 February 1987
Oh no! What to do? The Editor had flounced off to some so-called "conference", with half an issue of Britain's Brightest Pop Magazine still to ...
Report and Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 11 March 1987
Their names are MCA, MIKE D and AD-ROCK. They are the most obnoxious pop stars in the history of the world. They are causing complete ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 27 January 1988
She's just 16, she falls off skateboards, she gets force-fed by her dad, she got called Whiffany at school, she fancies Jon Bon Jovi but ...
The Beastie Boys: What Are They Up To Now?
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 10 February 1988
• Last year hardly a moment seemed to pass without the Beastie Boys releasing brilliant rap-type creation, causing riotous mayhem and larking about on Brighton ...
Michael Jackson: The Bubbles Story!
Profile by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 24 February 1988
Michael Jackson, eh listeners? He's a bit of a rum dude who never talks to anybody in his weeny, whisperish "voice". Except, that is, to ...
Wet Wet Wet: Could you cope with being in Wet Wet Wet!
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 9 March 1988
Well, first of all you get "kidnapped" by a mad taxi driver, then you get attacked by people who want to punch you in the ...
Report and Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 9 March 1988
That's Chris Heath's "considered" opinion of Debbie Gibson's first ever British consort at the Astoria in "downtown" London... ...
Pet Shop Boys: Cheeseburgers, Carrot Cake and Coffee (yum!?)
Report and Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 27 March 1988
That's the rather odd "combination" that the Pet Shop Boys seek out when they have some time to "kill" in New York. "I'll have some ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 1 June 1988
Come on Debbie, time to rise and "shine"! (snooooze...) Out from under the "duvet" with you, missus! (yawn!)... Debbie Gibson tells Chris Heath about her ...
Kylie Minogue: Toothpaste, Thunderbirds And A Chocolate Sandwich?!!!
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 27 July 1988
...And pandas, the planet Pluto and about a million other spook-objects. What do they all have in "common"? They're just some of the things that ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 30 November 1988
Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue, eh? It's the kiss-up of the century, the romance of the millennium, is it not? "Er, no actually, we're really, ...
Debbie Gibson: She's a crazy rock'n'roll vixen from hell!!!(?)
Report and Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 3 May 1989
Actually, she's not. She's a perfectly charming young lass who likes George Michael and wearing glasses and playing the piano and, more than anything else ...
De La Soul: "Chicken sandwich! Hyaphehehe hyupaheehee who ha ha!"
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 1 November 1989
Geddit? Neither do we actually, but then it seems we're not supposed to. That's De La Soul for you. Chris Heath wrestles with the grumpiest ...
Jive Bunny: How to create a Pop Phenomenon called Jive Bunny in 15 easy steps...
Profile and Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 1 November 1989
Just follow this simple step-by-step guide and you too could be a chart-topping pop phenomenon with two number one hits and a potful of money! ...
New Kids On The Block: It's the New Kids on the Block!
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 16 November 1989
IT'S THE Monday morning after their "triumphant" performance of 'You Got It (The Right Stuff)' at the Smash Hits Poll Winners' Party and New Kids ...
Black Box: Daniele Davoli: This is the bloke who invented "Italian House"
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 29 November 1989
THE WORLD of pop is a funny and unpredictable thing, isn't it? If someone had said last Christmas that the biggest pop craze in 1989 ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 29 November 1989
• They're not a group but "a way of life"! • They used to imagine they were on the Planet Ard! • They're building ...
Neneh Cherry: So you think you know everything about Neneh Cherry?
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 13 December 1989
(WELL YOU DON'T... as Chris Heath discovers) ...
Kylie Minogue: N.E.C., Birmingham
Live Review by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 2 May 1990
A SIZZLING X-RATED SHOW! (except it's nothing of the sort) ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 16 May 1990
LINDY FULL NAME: Belinda Kimberley Layton. That's what I was christened but I've never ever ever been called Belinda, always Lindy. My mum wanted to call ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 9 January 1991
She was the toast of the pop world with her spicy Latin tunes! But then, last year, she narrowly escaped death in a coach accident ...
Madonna: Hasn't Madonna Snogged A Lot Of Blokes?
Report by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 1 May 1991
She certainly has! Film stars. Pop stars. Producers. She's had more boyfriends than hot dinners! Here's CHRIS HEATH to tell us about the eight most ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Heath, The Face, December 1991
Apart from his music. Prince never gives much of himself away in public – or even in private. But over six strange days in Paisley ...
Review by Chris Heath, Select, September 1992
PLEASE BE UPSTANDING. Just when the memory of The Smiths is being rekindled by Best...1, an unsettlingly English Morrissey emerges triumphantly from his former band's ...
Special Feature by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 1 May 1997
No Doubt thought they were READY for anything. Then they got FAMOUS and suddenly their singer was no longer just A GIRL. ...
Spice Girls: Too Hot to Handle
Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 10 July 1997
How five British pop tarts built their own world empire ...
The Prodigy: Keith Flint Is the Firestarter
Profile and Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 21 August 1997
How a faceless ass-rumbling hard rock techno band found a voice (and a haircut) and set the world on fire. ...
Fiona Apple: The Caged Birds Sings
Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 22 January 1998
WHEN FIONA Apple pulls into a new town — some place where she has never been before but where tonight there is a theater with ...
The Rolling Stones: Babylon By Jet
Report and Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 5 March 1998
THE ROLLING STONES MOUNT THE MOST SUCCESSFUL AMERICAN ROCK TOUR EVER ...
Marilyn Manson: The Love Song of Marilyn Manson
Special Feature by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 15 October 1998
In which our hero, trapped in the hills of Los Angeles, finds a girl, discovers his emotions and consumes copious amounts of drugs ...
Goo Goo Dolls: Winning Ugly: The story of the Goo Goo Dolls
Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999
Thirteen years ago they were three scruffy punks from Buffalo bent on drinking themselves into oblivion. Then they turned down their amps and dizzied up ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 28 February 2002
The tumultuous past and glorious present of Scott Stapp and America's biggest rock band ...
Christina Aguilera: Has Anyone Seen Christina?
Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 14 November 2002
Because all we can find is Xtina, with her explosive beats, body piercings and broken glass. ...
Interview by Chris Heath, Daily Telegraph, 16 June 2009
No one nailed the rock idol act like Lenny Kravitz. Love god, guitar hero, wild thing, he lived the life — multiple women, homes and ...
Willie Nelson: Willie and the Weed Factory
Profile and Interview by Chris Heath, GQ, 31 August 2015
Marijuana's state-by-state march toward full legalization would never have happened without Willie Nelson. He's 82 now, and he's spent nearly half his life as America's ...
The Smiths: How The Smiths Pioneered Normcore
Retrospective by Chris Heath, GQ, 20 September 2015
They were the original normcores – a band of outsiders who took pains to dress as though they’d found their clothes at a rummage sale. ...
Nick Cave: The Love and Terror of Nick Cave
Profile and Interview by Chris Heath, GQ, 27 April 2017
For four decades, Nick Cave has been at the edge of music, putting his spin on everything from punk rock to lovesick ballads – much ...
The Beatles, Paul McCartney: The Untold Stories of Paul McCartney
Interview by Chris Heath, GQ, 11 September 2018
He's as famous and accomplished as a man can be. He could just stay home, relax, and count his money. But Paul McCartney is as ...
Iggy Pop Still Wants to Be Somebody
Retrospective and Interview by Chris Heath, GQ, 21 October 2019
From the sound of the Stooges to his raw, norm-shattering displays of masculinity, Iggy Pop has been a cultural pioneer for a generation. Now he's ...
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