Front-page / index woes

I’m having a fair bit of trouble I wonder if someone has come across before.

I’ve got a front-page.php that I’m using to create a magazine style home page. I’d intended to then have the more traditional “blog” style follow behind from /page/2/ etc, only this isn’t happening. It appears home.php and index.php are being ignored.

I’ve tried using static pages – both with explicit pages and relying on the hierarchy. Nothing seems to work though.

Has anyone come across this before and managed to get it fixed?

Thanks for help!