Is it a guilty pleasure if you are in no way ashamed of admitting you like a tune? I've never been shy about owning up to loving tracks others might see as being 'uncool'. After all as a child I would often be found pretending to be Elton John playing my mum's ironing board in the 'the best room', and my first ever gig was Leo Sayer. With Elt and Leo as early influences there's little point in me ever trying to deny I will always have a soft spot for a style of music that many dismiss as nonsense.
I once had my own page in a national music magazine but got fired one night in a hotel bar in Amsterdam when the owner denied to me that he was a big fan of Status Quo. I took exception and began spreading the word around the conference delegates gathered. He was mortified that other people in the industry were in on his little secret. I was young, immature and couldn't bare the sight of a man in his 50s being embarrassed about people knowing he loved a band that he'd followed for 21 years. It was worth it.
Manilow Magic was a brilliant album. Our Trisha bought it and as was the case with most of the music my older brothers and sisters brought into the house, it ended up in my bedroom on my turntable never to be returned. I remember at the time thinking that 'Could It Be Magic' was the greatest song I'd ever heard, though I was never a big fan of Mandy which was his big hit at the time. Despite what everyone else thought I just loved him. I thought he was ace. I must have had a weird thing for camp blokes on pianos.
Fast forward many years to my first gig on the Space Terrace in Ibiza and out of the box comes Copacabana. If ever there was a venue fitting of such a track it was Space back in the day when it was open air, the sun would shine though and the sound of arriving planes would drowned out the music every 20 minutes. My DJ partner was mortified when he saw it and quickly departed just in case someone thought it was him playing it. Needless to say the track smashed it. The place went mental and when Norman Cook dropped it the following season he was hailed by Mixmag as a genius.
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