Number One

Number One (initally written as No1! then No1) magazine was a weekly publication aimed at the teenage market, focusing on pop music and pop culture in general. First published in May 1983, it openly considered itself to a competitor to Smash Hits, although appeared weekly rather than fortnightly. Content and style of the two magazines were often similar, as they were based on chart pop music, celebrity interviews, song lyrics, record and live concert reviews, full colour pages etc. As a weekly publication, Number One had the advantage of being able to feature the single and album charts, however sales of the more established, and in many ways, better quality Smash Hits were consistently higher than those of Number One. The magazine folded in 1992.

Links to Peel
In a letter to the magazine in June 1986, a reader named "An Ardent Collector of Brain Cells From Around The World, Co. Durham" suggested that the BBC re-name Top of the Pops as 'The Janice and John Show', as the couple were, apparently, dominating the presenter rota. He described Long as being "...like a demented Japanese flamenco dancer..." while Peel: "..stands there with his expressionless vocal range and dry sarcasm, about at home in the fun-loving, balloon-popping screaming teenagers, bottom-wiggling atmosphere as Morten Harket is in a slaughterhouse." Two weeks later another reader named "Bitter Lemon, Scotland" added further insult by describing the pair as "nauseating" and stating that "both of them suffer from baldness (especially Janice)", adding "And as for John (Blah Blah I'm so jaded and witty but I'll take the money all the same) everyone's uncle Peel!" The latter issue carried a picture of Long captioned "Keith Chegwin's sister" and one of Peel captioned "An old baldie".

In its earlier years the magazine frequently featured former Peel session artists who had achieved mainstream pop success on its front cover (eg. Madness, Bowie, Sting, Ian McCulloch, Big Country, Frankie Goes To Hollywood).