Sean Rowley’s Guilty Pleasures Live

By rights we should all be sneaking furtively into the Hackney Empire, heavily disguised and glancing over our shoulders, to indulge in the evening of Guilty Pleasures but strangely, people seem quite excited and joyful about the prospect.

Guilty Pleasures is DJ Sean Rowley's baby and the concept of celebrating those songs we feel embarrassed to love has spawned a regular club night, his Sunday afternoon show on BBC Radio London and three albums. Two years ago Sean Rowley started Guilty Pleasures in the Hammersmith Working Mens' Club, it then moved on to the Islington Academy and has since settled into a monthly slot at KOKO in Camden which sells out on a regular basis. This is the first time it has been presented as a live show.

Tonight’s sell out crowd is an eclectic mix from twenty-somethings up to seventy-somethings, and it may be a reflection of the maturity of the crowd that the seats all fill up quickly whilst the area in front of the stage remains empty. The dance floor does eventually fill up to the strains of some of the DJ’s "guilty pleasures" - Toto's 'Africa', Andy Kim's 'Rock Me Gently' and Fox's 'S-S-S-Single Bed'.


The members of the 40-piece BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by David Arnold, take their places with the audience swaying and singing along to the sounds of Glen Campbell's 'Rhinestone Cowboy'. The orchestra is joined by the band The Whore Dogs and three backing singers.

After introductions from Sean Rowley, the first guest singer is Ed Harcourt, resplendent in white suit and hat (the white suit must be a guilty pleasure too as Rowley has chosen a similar outfit!) singing a passionate version of Billy Joel’s 'My Life'.


He’s followed by Les McKeown, of the Bay City Rollers, singing 'Build Me Up Buttercup' by The Foundations. Eon John of The Water Babies sings Charles and Eddie’s 'Would I Lie to You' – he has an excellent voice and delivers a faithful rendition of the original.

Then the opening notes of Chicago’s 'If You Leave Me Now' draws gasps of “oooh” from the audience but I’m not sure that Guy Garvey of Elbow’s delivery lives up to the expectations.


'Forever in Blue Jeans' by Neil Diamond is greeted enthusiastically by the crowd and is sung, country-style, by Alan Tyler, former Rockingbird, and of Alan Tyler and The Lost Sons of Littlefield.


The Guilty Pleasures rules are broken tonight to allow Chas ‘n’ Dave to sing their own song, 'Ain't No Pleasing You', one of their most successful singles which draws rapturous applause from the audience. The duo seem to be fashionable at the moment and they are booked to play several festivals this summer!


Next we are treated to a sweet version of Andrew Gold’s 'Never Let Her Slip Away' by The Magic Numbers, which they have used in the past as the introductory song at their own shows.


An understated Terry Hall, of The Specials and Fun Boy Three (who is rooted to the spot as he’s reading the words from a stand) and an extremely bouncy Cerys Matthews sing 'Islands in the Stream', which was written by the Bee Gees and was a major hit for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton.


Cerys remains on stage to sing a strong rendition of Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart', followed by Sarah Cracknell of Saint Etienne singing the fluffy 'Oh Lori', by the Alessi Brothers.


Ed Harcourt returns to sing a second song and gives us an energetic and charismatic performance of ELO’s 'Sweet Talking Woman'. The audience are ecstatic to see Suggs, from Madness, and he doesn't disappoint with John Paul Young’s 'Love is in the Air' sung in his inimitable style and with some interesting dance moves!

The orchestra is left to play another Andrew Gold track, 'Oh What A Lonely Boy' and then all the guest singers crowd back on to the stage for a group hug and to sing John Miles' 'Music' - “music was my first love and it will be my last, music of the future and music of the past…”.

The show has whizzed past and we have rattled through the acts, although it has been an hour and 20 minutes. The crowd are now warmed up for some dancing and Sean Rowley returns to the decks to play ‘Maneater’, and '9 – 5', followed by ‘Dreadlock Holiday' and then screeches of delight as 'Grease' is played. It's very difficult to drag ourselves away and we dance to ‘Betty Davis Eyes’, ‘Love is a Stranger’ and ‘Brass in Pocket’ before ‘I've Got a Brand New Pair of Roller Skates’ forces us out of the door!

It's great fun, an impressive line-up and a vastly entertaining show - the Guilty Pleasures experience seems geared to being a participative event and the crowd are very happy to sway, sing along and then dance, long after the singers and orchestra have disappeared and the DJs have taken over.

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