BIOGRAPHY

Guilty Pleasures is all about the records that the custodians of taste have written out of history in their efforts to guide us towards the ever more cool and obscure.

In its rush to denounce all that had gone before (set to The Clash's mantra of no Elvis, no Beatles and no Rolling Stones), punk swept aside a whole lot more besides. These weren't bad records. In fact they were often very good - and yet for a long time they have nestled unseen in the far reaches of record collections.

The phenomenon was first identified by Sean Rowley, originator of the All Back To Mine franchise. Rowley was looking for a way to avoid being "too clever" with his Friday night show on BBC London, while still playing records he wanted to hear. 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.

Sean is now a Radio 1 DJ and Guilty Pleasures is now an established name at clubs and festivals both in the UK and abroad.

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