RECENTLY unearthed from the Adver files is this relic from nearly two decades ago, a young people’s supplement called The Bizz.

When it appeared in 1994, Wet Wet Wet were in the midst of a 15-week stint at number one with Love is All Around, the old Troggs track resurrected for the soundtrack of Four Weddings and a Funeral.

That September the band would delete the single, only for it to be replaced by Whigfield and Saturday Night.

John Major was Prime Minister. Over in America, where Bill Clinton was President, Pizza Hut pioneered ordering through a newfangled thing called the internet.

None of the ads in The Bizz included a web address, not even Swindon Cable, which had been at the forefront of local communications for more than two decades and was touting its latest deal: “From Green Onions to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. See what’s cooking on MTV with Swindon Cable. 24-hour music power to make you rock, rap, funk, dance, trance around the clock.”

As if this wasn’t enough excitement, Swindon Cable customers could also see and hear the likes of Garth Brooks and Mary Chapin Carpenter on country channel CMT Europe. “If you thought Country music was all about rhinestone cowboys,” ran the blurb, “then think again. Country Music Television is Country Music – western style.”

Quite what that last sentence actually meant is anybody’s guess.

Another advertiser was Lloyds Bank, which was inviting 11-to-17-year-olds to sign up for an account called Headway and be in with a chance of winning prizes. These included a £100 mountain bike, a shopping spree at Top Shop or Olympus Sport and a Pentax 35mm compact camera.

The supplement was divided into three sections, a music quiz, a colour fashion spread and a guide to GCSEs.

The music questions were mostly multiple choice and related to acts such as REM, The Wonder Stuff, Stiltskin, Mica Paris, East 17 and – of course – Take That. Readers were also asked to pick out The Proclaimers’ home town from Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Auchter-muchty, Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Slough.

We don’t know whether the young models in the fashion spread were recruited locally or brought in from an agency, but they were decked out in the very latest mid-1990s styles.

For the girls that meant garments such as a crimson crushed velvet jacket for £59.99 from Freemans catalogue and laced slingback shoes at £49.99 from Miss Selfridge.

Items for the well-dressed young man of the era included granddad shirts and linen jackets and trousers, all from Debenhams.

In addition to a page of advice about qualifications and choosing between work and college, there was a section about ways to earn money. Suggestions included busking, recycling aluminium cans, modelling, Saturday jobs, typing up documents and writing youth-oriented pieces in the local newspaper.