GUILTY PLEASURES – ARTIST PROFILE
May 2nd, 2006 by rui
‘Guilty Pleasures’ is all about the overlooked; the records that the custodians of taste have written out of history in their admirable efforts to guide us towards the ever more cool and obscure. But, just as social history needs to protect everyday ephemera as well as the acknowledged heirlooms of history, so it would be shame if we were to emerge blinking into the cold light of the musical future having mislaid the cosy security blanket of, say, the Starland Vocal Band’s ‘Afternoon Delight’, with only a ‘new’ Nick Drake song to keep us warm.
In many ways, the story of ‘Guilty Pleasures’ is the flip side of the story of punk. In its Year Zero rush to denounce all that had gone before, set to the Clash’s mantra of no Elvis, Beatles and the Rolling Stones, punk swept aside a whole lot more besides. These weren’t bad records. In actuality they were often very good records. And yet for the longest time they have nestled unseen in the far reaches of record collections, sandwiched between the more officially sanctioned presence of ‘Pet Sounds’, Marvin Gaye and a light smattering of Burrito Brothers.
The phenomenon was first identified by Sean Rowley, originator of the gem-disinterring ‘All Back To Mine’ franchise. Rowley was scouting around for a way to obey his instructions to “not get too clever” with what he programmed on his Friday night 8 til 10 show on BBC Radio London, while still playing records he wanted to hear. Thus, Guilty Pleasures was born, with listeners invited to offer up their own suggestions for records they loved almost in spite of themselves. It proved ridiculously popular, soon becoming the station’s biggest hit with on-demand internet listeners.
‘Guilty Pleasures’ is like the polar opposite of ‘Cherrystones’ [too-cool-for-school compilation which collects together rare tunes], says Rowley. “If you added up the money you’d have to spend to buy all the songs on Cherrystones’, you’d be talking about a few thousand pounds. If you did that with ‘Guilty Pleasures’ albums, you’d have change from a tenner.”
