Welcome to the end of the eighties! Pop’s greatest (it was, wasn’t it?) decade was getting ready to pack away it’s shoulder pads, leg warmers and Rubik’s cubes (not being too stereotypical are we?) and was heading at breakneck speed towards the nineties, and the latest edition of the Now series absolutely represented the change ahead!

Well, sort of.

As ever the democratic forces behind the UK charts (e.g. the record buying public and more likely the producers of wonderful ‘One’ FM) had different ideas of how Spring 1989 was going to be remembered by pop pundits 33 years in the future, on something called a ‘podcast’. 

Behold, Back to Now listeners, it’s NOW 14!

So, yes the ‘future’ was represented thanks to Detroit’s pop dancefloor duo Inner City, Mark Moore’s fun packed technicolor beats with S-Xpress (we’ve dropped the ‘E’, of course!) and the awesome arrival of Neneh Cherry heralding a new stance for the 90s, right now!

However, as always, this was only part of the story (would we have it any other way?)

In this volume we find the Fine Young Cannibals and INXS swallowing up the global charts only slightly disguised as Prince, Sam Brown and Erasure both commanding us to STOP (only one with an exclamation mark though!), Ver Quo and Ver Minds being, er, Ver Quo and Ver Minds and a smattering of 80s stars dangerously teetering on the edge of ‘the dumper’.

And our guest for this end of decade excursion back to volume 14? Well, it's only editor of Q (twice!), Mixmag (twice!), Select and Word (associate!) and now podmaster supremo Andrew Harrison! Huzzah!

Andrew has also interviewed Madonna, Morrissey (went to his house in LA), Bono (in a fountain) and Stephen Fry (in a bad mood) as well as inventing the phrase "landfill indie". Congratulations, Mr Harrison, you’ve passed the audition!

Join Andrew as we learn about his first music passions (it’s a bit glam and involves jumping off a table), being a student in Leeds (quite a lot of nights out, sometimes with footballers) and of course explore the delights of this wonderful (sometimes) compilation. Along the way, discover which acts would have been in the 3” CD single cheap box (well we all liked a rummage, didn’t we?), what was (possibly) written on a stickie note on Pete Waterman’s shaving mirror, how Q picked their album review adjectives (‘lacklustre!’) and which 1989 acts Andrew will go back and manage when he perfects his time machine. 

And also discover why Living in a Box, Hue and Cry (again) and Michael Ball will probably not be returning our calls.

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