It was tough being a punk or metal obsessive in a small town. Seven fans who sought love or friendship via music mag ‘lonely hearts’ ads tell us if they found what they were looking for
From headbangers in Hastings to new romantics in Norwich, pen pals and lonely hearts columns were a staple of music magazines from the 1970s to the 1990s. Hopeful, passionate and bored fans sent in their photos, names, addresses and obsessions for publication and crossed their fingers, hoping for a big response. Decades before the advent of online forums, fans would then exchange handwritten letters, gushing over the likes of Pat Benatar and Whitesnake. Teenage goths from Scunthorpe and Southend could fall in love, the ice broken by their shared love of Siouxsie and the Banshees. The ads would generally convey a passion for music, but between the lines were cries for connection, pleas for love.
As a music obsessive from a small Yorkshire town, I saw my own thoughts and feelings echoed in them and started wondering: what became of the seekers? Did they find rock’n’roll romance? Do they still love Bauhaus and Alien Sex Fiend? How did life work out? So I tracked some down.
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