This 40 page weekly mag could easily have been called, “Starlight, with New Spotlight, incorporating Sunday World”. The lady on the left of the cover is not featured or mentioned anywhere in the mag. The colour showband picture below, or “pin up” as it was called, is Bill Ryan & Buckshot. Bay City Rollers fans, fear not, the Rollers in Ireland article will feature in a later post!
See Also: New Spotlight Jan 1972
Pet Kenny hahaha. Pet poodle Kenny would be more fitting – or maybe Pet Kennel
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I was searching for the name of Irish publishing houses from the 70’s when I happened upon this site.
Caught my name, “Jim Palmer – Art Editor” on the list of credits above!
The Bay City Roller “Rollers in Ireland- Picture Exclusive” on the front cover?
That was a set of pictures I took at Dublin’s Gresham Hotel at the height of the band’s fame. Their manager was very particular about photos of the boys and none could be published that were not professionally taken or studio based.
Of course, I assured him that none of the pix would ever be published but this was Dublin in the 70’s and we were the people who produced Starlight each week so there was no way that a promise like that would ever be kept.
I really shouldn’t say that because the promise did indeed last extremely well – until publishing day!
I later took over from Smiley Bolger with a weekly rock music feature called “The Road Rocker with Jim Palmer”.
Great picture above of Marianne Faithfull.
Later that night she simply ‘ordered’ me out of a club and took me back to her hotel. The slagging I got next day from the Sunday World guys about ‘Mars Bars’ was excruciating.( For God’s sake look it up will you? )
En route we stopped the limo at a wee shop where I purchased as many of the aforementioned chocolate bars as they had in stock.
Great days filled with a lot of fun!
Hi from Boston to any of my former fellow Starlight associates.
J.P.
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Some of us Bay City Rollers fans are still waiting for the Rollers in Ireland article that was going to be in “a later post”. 🙂
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Now that you mention it…will do that next week. 🙂
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Starlight magazine’ was great. It probably wouldn’t work now. Ireland had a more versatile music scene’ back then. The showbands were the best. Every style’ was given a chance. I’m delighted to see’ that there are still copies of the magazine around.
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A Mars a day certainly helped Mick Jagger work rest & play anyway ( googled it ) !
Congrats on being asked back for ‘coffee’ by Marianne Jimmy, she was sweet enough as it was.
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Thank you Aidan, but I heard she prefers Toblerone these days!
The Mars company’s marketing dept has already expressed some interest in my proposal that they release a ‘Marianne Faithfull Commemorative Wrapper’ sometime soon. Instead of the “Work rest and play” slogan perhaps they could substitute with the current European one…”Mars, pleasure you can’t measure”
BTW, Testimony to ‘Brand New Retro’ that comments are still active and being read four years on.
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