The Rockabilly Ripper (Flexipop! 6, May 1981) was Flexipop first fusion photo story, combining the talents of The Damned’s Dave Vanian and rockabilly rebels The Polecats. Shot on location at Highgate Cemetery, it also featured the not inconsiderable charms of Flexipop! regular, The Baroness. Denis O’Regan took the zombie snaps.
Our photo stories really set us apart from other magazines. Again, we used a girl’s teen mag regular – the romantic photo story played out by young models and unknown actors – and Flexipopped it by injecting a whiff of sex, a dash of violence, a famous tale and a host of pop stars.But then we went one step too far. For our second anniversary issue, psychobilly band the Meteors were the stars of a Mad Max skit, Bad Bax, so named because of the obvious pun and the fact that Flexipop! designer, Mark Manning, had a ferocious looking bulldog called Baxter, a pussycat in reality. Baxter featured heavily in a photo story that contained totally realistic scenes of stabbings, limb hackings and cannibalism courtesy of a local butcher’s shop that provided a shitload of offal in return for a plug in the mag.The Flexipop! photo stories reflected the fun that was inherent in pop music in the early 80s. The punk snarl had turned into a skanking smile. There was a new romance in the air as Goths discovered melody.
By: FlexiPop!
