• 20th anniversary of the original Guilty Pleasures compilation and London club night
• 70 tracks from the ’70s on a new 4CD set that takes a deep dive into the UK and US charts
• Extensive track-by-track sleeve notes from Sean Rowley
• Embrace the guilt and be set free

To mark the twentieth anniversary of its original release, Demon Music are proud to present ‘Sean Rowley Presents Guilty Pleasures’ as a deluxe 70 track 4CD set (‘The Red Album’). The Amazon exclusive includes a print signed by Sean Rowley limited to 1000

At the start of the new millennium Sean Rowley was a DJ on BBC Radio London (then called GLR), when he introduced a new slot featuring the records he loved in his youth. Records he had to hide when friends visited his home after school. While those same friends were into Bowie, Slade, Bolan and Roxy, Sean spent his hard-earned pocket money on David Cassidy’s ‘Could It Be Forever’. He wasn’t into the alternative universe of John Peel or the NME. He thrived on upbeat and sunny Pop songs. ELO trumped The Sex Pistols in his world (uncanny given Paul Cooke from the Pistols later blagged a copy of the original ‘Guilty Pleasures’ compilation, saying, “We always secretly loved these songs”).

This new slot began with the playing of Alessi’s ‘Oh, Lori’. The response was extraordinary – listeners were so keen to share their own guilty pleasures that playing them all required a show of its own. Demand dictated that Sean should compile a ‘Guilty Pleasures’ album – the first of two titles followed in 2004 (all 22 of the tracks on that original release are included on both of our new formats).

The phrase ‘guilty pleasures’ moved into the public domain. National newspapers devoted columns to it, music magazines gave over numerous pages to discuss the best songs in this new sub-genre. The Guardian declared a ‘Guilty Pleasures’ night “the future of clubbing”. ITV came calling with a demand to make a one-off Saturday TV show.

Fast forward twenty years and Sean has partnered with Demon to make ‘Guilty Pleasures’ available and expanded the guilt over four themed CDs adding deep cuts, one-hit wonders and exotic recordings that perfectly soundtracked a sun-kissed ’70s U.S. west coast life style, less so in ’70s Britain.

Welcome to a ’70s Pop odyssey. Welcome to a collection of records that were swept under the carpet of cool. Welcome back, Guilty Pleasures.

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