Who is Mark Keen?
Hopefully you have read a few of my ‘where are they now’ posts and I am sure a few of you have thought ‘who is this geek?’. Well, here I am, warts and all.
I was born at the very end of 1969 and being the youngest of a large family I was exposed to whatever my brothers and sister were listening to at the time, which ranged from Hot Chocolate, Olivia Newton-John, Supertramp, Dire Straits (never a favourite) and quite a dose of Simon and Garfunkel with a topping of ABBA somewhere along the way. However, my pop leanings were always clear.
Growing up in Jersey was quite an isolated experience with not much exposure to pop. I remember Frankie Goes to Hollywood coming to Jersey to record their second album around 1986, but apart from that my only brush with anyone famous was getting Glenda from Crossroads autograph in the local department store.
However, I soon found my way to Woolworths which was where I purchased most of my pop collection, although I remember buying my first single in Boots (Paul Young – Everything Must Change).
My early favourite were Howard Jones, Nik Kershaw and Janet Jackson, before SAW came along and Kylie emerged from Neighbours. I was 16 at the time, and remember watching Neighbours in General Studies lessons rather than the expected diet of programmes about poverty and inequality! Other early favourites were Kim Wilde and many of those I have written ‘where are they nows’ on. A friend in Jersey introduced me to Hazel Dean (not in person unfortunately) and also contributed to my life long obsession with Five Star, and ensured I was familiar with other great artists at the time such as Joyce Sims.
After coming to England in 1988 for a year living in Bath and then university in Hull from 1989, I now am ready to join the illustrious club entering their 50th year along with Kylie and Jason etc. I can now usually be found in charity shops rooting through the vinyl to fill my jukebox. My favourite find was Janet Jackson and Cliff Richard ‘Two To The Power Of Love’.
There can’t be many copies of those about as I am sure Janet found them all and burnt them. Hopefully, I will do some more writing for you all and have Jody Watley and Cyndi Lauper in my sights next. I might then start my autobiography! That will be an exciting read I’m sure.
If my life could have a theme song then this would be it.
Take a look at my posts here.
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