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Siblings. Many of them appeared on the cover of Smash Hits throughout the 1980s: there were sisters Mel & Kim and brothers-and-sisters Five Star and, of course, Brother Beyond… well, maybe not that last one. But brothers were the most-represented siblings. Here’s the Top 5, according to If You Were There:
5 The Reid brothers
“We’ve got a typical brother love/hate relationship,” Jim Reid said when Smash Hits went to interview him and his brother William (16 July 1986). “Obviously I find him incredibly irritating like today [they had clearly just had a row before the interviewer arrived] and obviously he does with me too. When I was younger I used to pour boiling water over his back. Children are incredibly cruel.” Some early press reports suggested they were no better as young adults: The Sun described their band The Jesus And Mary Chain as “the new Sex Pistols”, due to their surly attitude towards the audience at gigs (performing with their backs to them, refusing to speak to them directly) which often led to fights, bottles being thrown, etc. By the time of this Smash Hits interview, they admitted this deliberately manufactured image was probably counterproductive.
4 The Mael brothers
The Mael brothers grew up in an affluent suburb of Los Angeles and were educated at UCLA. Ron is the keyboard-playing older brother with the moustache who writes Sparks’ songs; Russell is the singer with the falsetto voice.
3 The Goss brothers
When Bros released their first album there were three of them; by album number two, Craig Logan had been dropped and twins Luke (drums) and Matt (vocals) carried on as a duo.
2 The Campbell brothers
“The eight of us in the band, we’re all brothers you know, not just me and Robin,” Ali told Smash Hits (2 July). That was the position in 1986, anyway. Today there are two rival bands of brothers playing UB40’s music, one featuring Robin and one with Ali: when Ali quit the original UB40 in 2008, he was replaced another Campbell brother, Duncan.
1 The Kemp brothers
Why are Gary and Martin Kemp our number one pair of brothers? Because not only did they work together in Spandau Ballet, they also went on to begin their acting careers as a partnership: playing another pair of famous brothers:
NEW SINGLES on sale from Apr. 20
1987
The CULT (Ian Astbury) Lil Devil (Beggars Banquet BEG188)
The JESUS AND MARY CHAIN April Skies (Blanco Y Negro NEG24)
If You Were There 