I have been interested in Pop music since I was a little girl, singing into my mum's toothbrush, wearing her high heels, while dancing in front of my dressing table vanity mirror.
But that was a long time ago and I am now a fully grown up lady of 43 years. Well almost. That little girl that grew up singing along to Dusty Springfield and the Beatles never quite went away, and I never threw away my Dancette.
When I was 10, my family moved back to London from Cleveland, and my passion for all things pop grew and grew. In the early 1970's I was dazzled by the wild flamboyance of Mr David Bowie and Mr Elton John, and from then on the British music scene never failed to captivate me. The British Press too, were always there to feed my insatiable appetite, not just for the musical exploits of my idols, but also for the continually unfolding drama and soap opera that was born out of their personal lives.
I used to read about my Pop Stars triumphs and troubles in the pages of the News of World and latterly in the pages of Record Mirror and Smash Hits. The NME never went in for that kind of thing.
Could I ever get enough information. No not really. I would read stories again and again, hoping to find a morsel of vital information that perhaps I had missed. Of course I had already read every word, and all these repeated readings simply fuelled my over fertile imagination.
In the 1970's I used to read in between the lines of every piece of copy written about the Beatles, convincing myself that they would reform for that one final opus, that last classic album.
In the very early 1980's I dreamt that the members of Abba (in spite of living out a very public soap opera of courtship, marriage, children, then separation and divorce, and then documenting this pain in in classic songs), would continue to stay friends and make perfect pop forever.
The 1980's too, were a perfect time for the British supergroup accompanied by unforgettable drama.
Culture Club, Duran Duran, Soft Cell, and latterly Frankie goes to Hollywood all thrilled me with their legendary tabloid friendly exploits, and sparkling pop.
The early 1990's by contrast were a relative lean time for this type of classic pop. The dance floor ruled supreme and guitar bands began to claim back the charts. I spent a few good years crippling my knees whilst grinding to pulsating beats.
I guess we all needed a holiday from pop, especially when the Stock Aitken and Waterman turned the pop industry into a streamlined hit machine, bombarding us with the likes of Sonia, Sinita and company. It took Kylie years and hard work to shake off the legacy of that association.
But for me and many others something very special happened in 1996 when an unknown girl band named the Spice Girls exploded onto the scene, chalking up almost simultaniously, huge No.1 hits in the UK and US, and then around the world. Loud, brash, unfashionable to some, but pumped with energy they were impossible to ignore. They reclaimed and recreated the pop genre, and the charts haven't been the same since.
Because of their meteoric and instant worldwide fame(and in America too which only happens a couple of times a generation), they have also produced a vast and fascinating tabloid narrative that is pure pop pyschodrama, and we haven't seen that level of sustained obsessive media since the Beatles.
Now is a very interesting time and I wonder if pop will once again eat itself as it did in the late 1980's.
In these days of 'Pop Stars' and 'Pop Idols', mass produced, recruited live on tv by popular vote, and being tied into ludicrously constrictive management contracts, the public is actually being shown a behind the scenes peek of how the least creative part of the pop industry is run. Today this factory approach even makes the Spice Girls look like 'Old Skool' grafters.
But as Boy George has recently pointed out, 'Real talent comes from the gutter' I agree, at least there needs to be hardship, fights and hard creative choices to battle out to produce something of real worth, even if it is pure pop.
The truth is that these TV talent expose, is that this lifeless side of the recording industry hates to take risks, it goes for blandness rather than uncertainly. Playing it ultra safe may well produce a hit single, or with enough relentless promotion a high charting album, but it is the real gutsy risk taking that produces unexpected rewards and the chance for longevity.
Because I have seen all this before and love to observe the unfolding narratives of the music and the human narrative of the UK pop scene, I have been, in various guises an enthusiastic poster on several pop messages boards. I send and receive thousands of words every month.
This is way I decided to produce the small site. It offers simply my opinions and ongoing thoughts about this deliciously engaging ongoing story.
It is not a news site. I have provided links for that kind of thing. Nor do I apologise for my likes or dislikes of certain acts or artists.
I do not know anyone in the recording industry, performing or behind the scenes.
On these pages you will find what I hope to find by scouring the news stories and features that I read, but know will never find.
Let me know what you think, if you agree or disagree with my thoughts, either way I will be happy to read them, and sometimes include them on my pages.
Many many thanks
Miss Sue Popmander