POPFESSIONS

Seán McGann

 
All of a sudden I feel like I’m in an AA meeting, well what better way to start: Hi, my name is Seán and I’m a Smurf Addict.
 
I was sitting in the smoking area of a bar in Dublin with two friends and the topic of “What your first album was” came up. My two friends admitted to Kylie Minogue and Blue (both were male, by the way). I went on to say that my first album was The Smurfs Go Pop. We quickly came to the conclusion that everyone’s first album is, well, tripe (now admittedly, The Smurfs Go Pop is no OK Computer but I still maintain its a hilariously fun album).
 
We ended up asking everyone that came out to the smoking area what their first album was and after an hour or so, we had a full smoking area discussing their first albums and that is quite incredible, considering it was January and freezing. Needless to say, they were all terrible, except for some guy who claimed he’d bought Nevermind but we decided he was lying and tarred him with the Donny Osmond brush.
 
In general though, they were “awful”. We had everything from Leona Lewis (yes, those people are old enough to drink now) to Bread (anyone know them? I didn’t). There was one thing in common though, apart from the fact that they were all terrible; everyone was proud of their purchase and said they would still listen to it if it came on. Me? I am absolutely no different. I still have my Smurfs Go Pop (on cassette) and I don’t listen to it often but when I think of it, it goes straight on (like now!). Is there anything more ingenious than replacing ”boom” with “Smurf” for the timeless classic, ‘Mr. Smurftastic’?
 
Nostalgia is a great thing and what is better, the question of ”what’s the first album you ever bought” is one hell of a conversation starter when you’re out.