Sylvia Patterson
Sylvia Patterson was born in the "Fair City" of Perth, Scotland. She became a music journalist aged 20, working for Smash Hits magazine in its million-selling, late 80s heyday and went on to freelance for NME, Q, Glamour, the Face, the Word, the Guardian Guide, the Sunday Herald and the Sunday Times.
Her 2016 memoir I’m Not With The Band (Sphere), a 30-year adventure through music journalism, was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award, the NME Awards Book of the Year and the Penderyn Music Prize, winning BBC Radio 1 Annie Nightingale's Book Of The Year. She’s appeared on Woman's Hour, Scotland Tonight, Radio 5 Live, BBC6Music, Channel 4, ITV and across the nation’s festivals from Edinburgh to Wigtown, Port Eliot, Laugharne, Hull, Sea Change and Latitude.
In April 2023 she published her second memoir, Same Old Girl (Fleet), an odyssey through the mid-life misadventures: about facing death (with cancer) and surviving, about best mates, growing old, the miracle of normality and why staying alive is even better than the Bee Gees make it sound.
37 articles
List of articles in the library
Sigue Sigue Sputnik: Shelley's Night Club, Stoke-on-Trent
Live Review by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 26 March 1986
IMPATIENCE! Tension! Crazed gothic-types leaping up and down! Yes, in a few seconds Sigue Sigue Sputnik will be taking the stage for the most exciting, ...
We've Got a Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It: We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna To Use It
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 7 May 1986
No, it's not a strange Smash Hits "headline", it's the name of the group... They're all 17 (except one), they can't play their instruments, they ...
Big Audio Dynamite: Haçienda, Manchester
Live Review by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 21 May 1986
A BACKING tape is switched on, four billion people surge towards the stage and a recorded voice asks "Do you like music?" Another recorded voice ...
Big Country: City Hall, Newcastle
Live Review by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 21 May 1986
A FEW weeks ago Big Country played a concert in this very hall, but the show was so beset with technical problems (i.e. wonky equipment) ...
Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious: Sid And Nancy (Dir. Alex Cox; Palace Pictures, 18, 92 minutes)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 30 July 1986
ALEX COX, film director: "In 1980 I tried to write a screenplay called 'Too Kool To Die'. It was about an English rock 'n' roll ...
Report and Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 30 July 1986
Tinkering with model cars, booting footballs through giant weeds, musing about alien beings from beyond the galaxy and trying to catch a carp... It's all ...
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince: These men are Sensitive, Romantic Souls!!
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 5 November 1986
("Oh no they're not," says Sylvia Patterson) ...
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 5 November 1986
The Mission might have a big hit with 'Stay With Me', but they still can't afford their own make-up bags — so they have to ...
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 19 November 1986
That's what Nick Kamen says when he looks in the mirror. "How can this possibly be?" asks Sylvia Patterson. ...
Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Is this the end of Frankie Goes To Hollywood?
Report and Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 25 March 1987
Just two years ago they were one of the biggest pop groups ever. Now, it all seems to be going horribly, horribly wrong. V. sad ...
Curiosity Killed The Cat: "This Is A Brilliant Album!"
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 6 May 1987
Ju: "We've put our hearts and lives into this." Ben: "I could paint a picture of it." Nick: "Star Wars was a very profound film." ...
Depeche Mode: Fzss!... Zwiing! Aaargh!... Hahahahah!!
Report by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 6 May 1987
Hark! Depeche Mode are having a party — i.e. they're having "a" drink, scoffing streamers, pretending to be space-men, cavorting under tables, stealing "a" drink ...
Wet Wet Wet: Stupid Sports of the World Part 112: Ten "Pin" Bowling featuring Wet Wet Wet
Report and Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 20 May 1987
They used to be "punk" "rockers" with horrible hair but now they're four "nice" "lads" who love their parents and take their washing home with ...
Terence Trent D'Arby: Madman or Genius?
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 17 June 1987
"Em, both probably," pipes Sylvia Patterson ...
Report and Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 17 June 1987
(except for Ad-Rock, that is, who's a weed...) ...
Diana Ross: A Living Legend Speaks!
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 1 July 1987
She's been dazzlingly famous for over twenty years, she natters to Michael Jackson on the phone all the time, she's unbelievably rich and at 43 ...
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 15 December 1987
...Love? Peace on earth? Goodwill to all "man" kind? Not ruddy well likely, say Wet Wet Wet (except for Tommy because he's a weed). It's ...
T'Pau: "I was always a bit of a Tragedy-Drawers"
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 13 January 1988
How can this possibly be? Carol Decker from T'Pau is renowned for her "feistiness", being sick in her cowboy boots etc., and yet she's "terrified ...
Eighth Wonder: Lookin' The Way You Like And Likin' The Way You Look
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 23 March 1988
... the Patsy Kensit way (i.e. wrestling with bits of steel "piping", scoffing plenty of bubble-gum (?) and being booted out of the school netball ...
Report and Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, April 1988
Why are lots of "journalists" and "jugglers" waiting to get on a train to go and see A-ha playing live? Sylvia Patterson "investigates"... ...
Climie Fisher: Clime Fisher: Crazy Name, Crazy Guys!!
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 6 April 1988
Climie's got a corrugated head, Fisher's an ex-manure shoveller (?), and now they're pop stars with a hit single, 'Love Changes (Everything)'. "Crivvens!!?" squawks Sylvia ...
Tiffany: Pizzas! "Fairy" Lights! Cosy Jerseys! Grammar "Lessons"!
Report and Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 6 April 1988
What does Tiffany get up to while she's knocking 'em dead on the rock'n'roll highway with her "fairy" light extravaganza? "Erm... ahoorgh, well...""reports" Sylvia Patterson." ...
The Housemartins: Now That's What I Call Quite Good (Go! Discs)
Review by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 18 May 1988
THEY CAME, they saw, they thought "Pthrthrthr! I'm off..."and they left. (Snirfle.) But not before they left us this — a double LP of the ...
The Fat Boys: "We Got A Little Fat Over The Vacation"
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 29 June 1988
Pthprhpt! Would you have noticed any difference on the lard front, listeners? Possibly not, but the Fat Boys are all "on diets right now". "So ...
Dannii Minogue, Kylie Minogue: Kylie Minogue: Une Popstrel de "Unmistakable Teeth"!
Report and Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 19 October 1988
How right you are "ma'am", for you are Kylie Minogue and you've come to Paris to rock n' roll and to be pestered by pervy ...
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 2 November 1988
There's Salt, there's Pepa and there's DJ Spindereila, and between them they've become one of the most successful dance groups in the world. Indeed, such ...
Rick Astley: "You Shouldn't Take Rick Astley Too Seriously!!"
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 30 November 1988
And not many people do!! (Ho ho, just a wee jest there, Rick.) Come with us, if you will, as Sir Dick Spatsley takes us ...
Yazz: Hello Trees, Hello Sun, Hello Flowers, Hello Yazz!!
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 25 January 1989
There's lentils in the air, readers, as Yazz delves into her "cosmic" psyche and tells us we should love ourselves and that our voices are ...
The Reynolds Girls: It took three days to turn them into pop "stars"!!!!!
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 22 February 1989
★ Once there were two wee lassies from Liverpool with "funny" hair and no one had ever heard of them. ★ Then they met a ...
Bobby Brown: He's... Bobby Brown
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 14 June 1989
• He wibbles and wobbles because he's the new Michael Jackson! • He's got a bullet-hole in his knee because he's a "kid" from ...
Simply Red: What a strange bloke!
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 12 July 1989
• He has a ruby set in one of his teeth! • He eats seaweed and all sorts of extraordinary foreign grub! • His hair ...
Wet Wet Wet: Four blokes, a "beard" and a three-legged dog in a bush...
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 20 September 1989
★ Aye! The Wets return with a brand new tune they're calling "lover's rock" and a dubious saga of superstitious chins, bathing with Buddha, a ...
Happy Mondays: Madchester vibes in the area... it's the Happy Mondays
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 4 April 1990
Shaun! Bez! Gaz! The other blokes! It's the Happy Mondays! And they're such rock 'n' roll degenerates they make Guns N' Roses look like Yell! ...
INXS, Kylie Minogue: INXS: "People make me out to be some Aussie hell-rocker!"
Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 11 November 1990
Poor old Hutch. He might be the singer from INXS with an "unfortunate" beard and a girlfriend called Kylie Minogue, but people just don't seem ...
Blur: A Day At The Seaside With Blur!
Report by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 7 August 1991
★ One of them bought a singing "hose"! ★ One of them was sick on a Knickerbocker "glory"! ★ One of them turned ...
Manic Street Preachers: The Manic Street Preachers: Manics 1, Society 0
Report and Interview by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 1 April 1992
Angry? Confused? Legless? Then you're probably in the Manic Street Preachers. ...
Dannii Minogue: Don't wait up!
Report by Sylvia Patterson, Smash Hits, 22 July 1992
Party on! The X- rated story of a wild night out in New York with Dannii. ...
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