Record Mirror was a British magazine that was circulated between 1954 and 1991. Last week we blogged about the November 3rd, 1990 edition, featuring Sean Dickson from the rock band The Soup Dragons. At the time of writing the blog article, we did not realize that Record Mirror actually ran an entire series where they asked celebrities about the meaning of life. The series ran from September 1990 until its final issue in April 1991 (if other issues featured the meaning of life, please let us know). After 37 years, the magazine couldn't overcome its midlife crisis and became defunct. Below are all the celebrity responses to the question, "What is the meaning of Life?"
April 6, 1991: Martin Coogan from The Mock Turtles - Hang on—I've run out of skins.
March 30, 1991: Boy George - If I knew the meaning of life I would be floating out somewhere in the cosmos with my head up my bum. Meanwhile, I'm trapped in the vile body having tortuous relationships and hot curries. Sooner or later, somebody's got to get the shit out!
March 23, 1991: MC Kinky - If I knew that, la-di-da-di-da...Loads and loads of love to everyone and everyone I love. Oh yes, indeed, we are vacating the building. Several syllables to your mother.
March 16, 1991: Holly Johnson - I've forgotten.
March 9, 1991: Soho - Being nice and copulation.
March 2, 1991: Steve Mack from That Petrol Emotion - Un-death.
February 23, 1991: Julian Cope - Ask Sting.
February 16, 1991: Tim Freeman of Frazier Chorus - This is a trick one isn't it? You're not getting me like that.
February 9, 1991: Tom Jones - To be blessed with all your faculties and to be able to do what you want to do—to find your niche. To be happy with yourself, to think you're doing the best you can. A lot of people buy things thinking it'll change them, but when you look in the mirror you're still you. You can't run away from yourself.
February 2, 1991: Clint Mansell - Don't worry, be happy. 'Is it all worth it,' I ask myself?
January 26, 1991: Les Adams (from L.A. Mix) - Love.
January 19, 1991: Seal - Unconditional love.
January 12, 1991: Simon Mayo - Bhajis and winning the Record Mirror Readers' Poll.
January 5, 1991: Kym Mazelle - Who knows.
December 15, 1990: Jimmy Helms from Londonbeat - To keep asking the question until we find out.
December 1, 1990: Caron Wheeler - To live it, and try and breathe tomorrow.
November 24, 1990: Paul Heaton from The Beautiful South - Only the magic baby knows.
November 17, 1990: Inspiral Carpets - To sell more records than T-shirts and keep a straight face.
November 10, 1990: David Was from Was (Not Was) - All right, now you've done it. Life is a constant battle between evil and evil. If you're looking for goodness it's under G in the Yellow Pages.
November 3, 1990: Sean Dickson - The meaning is: there is no meaning.
October 27, 1990: Terry Christian - The meaning of life is not to look for any meaning in it.
October 20, 1990: David Gedge from The Wedding Present's - Active principle of existence of animals and plants (Collins Gem English Dictionary, 1987).
David Gedge responded to our meaning of life survey in 2023, check out what he said here.
October 13, 1990: MC Tunes - I was just discussing that with me mates. I suppose it's just getting through the next day without being hurt or hurting anyone. Throughout your life, whenever trouble comes, you just get up and get on with it.
October 6, 1990: The Cocteau Twins: Robin - 17.
September 29, 1990: Trevor & Simon - Viscose. If we can find the aliens who eat viscose then they'll be able to tell us, 'cause they're more intelligent than us. "It'd be terrible if they all looked like Jeremy Beadle though wouldn't it?"
September 22, 1990: Stevie V - Well it's just a learning thing really.
As shown above, most of the responses were frivolous to say the least. Some, like the one from The Cocteau Twins don't make a lot of sense. Perhaps it is a play on Douglas Adams' 42 answer. A few, like the one from Boy George, Tom Jones, and MC Tunes had a bit of depth, but nothing too deep. This was an interesting historical find on the subject and we hope you enjoy. If you have any additional insight into some of the more obscure answers above, let us know by commenting below.