mac on black

Fan or obsessive? Ian McCann long since crossed the divide

- Ian McCann

Do you know too much? Does your musical knowledge get in the way of having a good time? Do you go to family parties and watch people going mad when Don't Stop Me Now comes on and think, "If only they'd played McFadden & Whitehead's Ain't No Stopping Us Now instead" (a big favourite of RC's advertising department). Does thinking about that put you in a tizzy about what the best version of Ain't No Stopping Us Now is: the original, or maybe further songs inspired by it such as Willie Williams' super-mellow reggae gem No One Can Stop Us, or Ras Midas' syndrum skank Can't Stop Rasta Now, or Risco Connection's reggae disco cut, or Cygnus' elegant lover's rock piece? That's not to mention alternative "sport" versions by McFadden & Whitehead. And if, by some mad chance, Mobile Sounds By DJ Don-Weddings, Parties, Funerals: Please Note: requests by prior arrangement only did happen to play it, would you have thought about these options so much that you'd ended up pondering them for six-and-a half-minutes of the original disco mix and hadn't participated at all? Then as you're belatedly approaching the dancefloor for the final 33 seconds of the tune, someone slops red wine over your white John Travolta flares ("Nah, honest, Gemma, I don't normally wear them, but your sodding brother wound me up and told me it was fancy dress").