Lifelines were a staple of teenage magazines in the 60s and 70s. They were short hits to the stars - ‘What’s your favourite colour? Favourite meal? Film? Trivial innocence for an innocent generation, but eminently readable.

Flexipop! re-invented Lifelines and made it a regular, integral part of the publication. At first we trod the same paths as Jackie and Blue Jeans. The questions were safe and answered by an entire band – in our case, Madness, ABBA, the Boomtown Rats and The Police. They had to be completed by the band themselves and passed through a PR because it would have been a huge pain in the arse to interview each one individually. Consequently, the questions had to be simple and straightforward.

By issue 5, we discovered it was more interesting to feature two entirely different artists and interview each one individually asking the same innocuous but nonetheless interesting questions. Sheena Easton and Toyah were the first pair. By issue 12 we were comparing Berni Nolan with Jello Biafra and asking about vices and most hated person. In Issue 16, we introduced four lifelines across an A4 spread – Nick Heyward, Annabella Lwin, Bob Cotton of The Jets and John Cooper Clarke. The response was positive and we continued with that format until the very last issue. Meanwhile, the questions got heavier.

This was a whole new kind of Lifelines experience. Short, intense, hugely personal – ‘When did you lose your virginity?’ ‘Have you got a criminal record?’ ‘What's your favourite perversion?’ ‘What do you read on the loo?’ Some stars refused to answer or tried to deflect the question with a witty remark. Others embraced the concept with open arms. The results were often revealing but always hugely entertaining.

Oh, and look out for Len Fairclough…

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