Before Simon Curtis, before Darren Hayes, before Justin Timberlake, there was Tommy Page. For those of you who haven’t heard of Tommy Page before, he was a massive popstar in the late eighties/early nineties due to his collaboration with New Kids On The Block on his US number one Billboard smash single, ‘I’ll Be Your Everything’. Electroqueer was a massive fan before his commercial success came to fruition and we have always followed his career very closely. Let us take you on a trip back to our youth to introduce you to one of the original Electroqueer artists, Tommy Page…
When we were a wee young chap (ok late eighties), we were mesmerized by Tommy’s electronic sound on his debut self-titled album ‘Tommy Page’ which gave us some synth-house anthems like ‘Turning Me On’ and ‘A Zillion Kisses’, ‘I Love London’ and ‘Hard To Be Normal’. Proving that he could not only fill a dancefloor, Tommy also had some poignant ballads in the way of ‘Minetta Lane’ and our favourite song of all time (yes it truly is), ‘A Shoulder To Cry On’. He had an amazing look, a sense of androgynous club style and the voice of an angel that beckoned us to him as if he were our musical pied-piper.
Tommy later went on to be a massive superstar in Asia, releasing over 7 albums in that market off the success of working with New Kids On The Block and Tiffany. We had the chance to meet Tommy backstage at his headline show in Tacoma, Washington with Sweet Sensation and Linear and he was the nicest guy ever. We practically had to whore ourselves to the Linear roadie to get backstage, but hey — it’s all for the love of music right? Below is that magical moment for us captured on Kodak – god, we looked so innocent back then and check out the matching hair quiffs! LOL.
One thing that came from that incredible encounter, was our conversation — I told Tommy that I loved ‘Minetta Lane’ immensely and he told me that if I was ever in New York City that I’d have to take a walk down that beautiful street. It was this moment in life that made me ambitious enough to do actually that and I had it in my mind to one day move to the big city and fulfill this request that was given to me by Tommy Page himself.
Fast forward quite a few years. I was working in Boston and was partying in New York rather frequently in what we call our ‘experimental years’. On my last weekend in New York city before officially moving to London, myself and a group of friends (Pedro included) decided to have one last jont in the big apple before I moved. In the middle of the village on a cold winter’s night, I stumbled across Minetta Lane (the street) and I turned to my friend Louis (of which knew all about my Tommy Page obsession) and said ‘Hey – this is Minetta Lane!’ We squealed with excitement (or at least I did) and really my day was truly made at that point.
Later that evening, we went to go see Pedro perform at Lips, went to a house party and decided to have one last disco danceup at Splash. About an hour into the evening, Louis and I were dancing and I noticed Tommy Page sitting at a sofa. Can you imagine my excitement?! I went right over to him and we chatted for hours — once again proving he was the nicest guy in pop. I told him of the ‘Minetta Lane’ encounter earlier in the day and we laughed as he revealed that the song is really about his dog! Again the moment was captured on Kodak above and Tommy later personally sent me his CD ‘Ten Til Midnight’ in London and we have enjoyed the occasional email back and forth over the years.
I can’t explain to you what an inspiration Tommy Page has been in my life and how he is also part of the backbone of the Electroqueer blog. Today, Tommy has now taken a behind the scenes position in music and is now a Vice President for Warner Bros A&R in which he helps to bring new talent to the world like vocalists Michael Buble, Mis-teeq and Ashley Tisdale (from High School Musical) – whose debut album ‘Headstrong’ will be out in February of this year.
Visit Tommy Page’s official website for more information, music videos and his complete discography. If you are new to discovering Tommy Page, we highly recommend you download or purchase any of the songs mentioned in this posting as well as ‘Ten Til Midnight’ as copies can be bought on eBay from time to time. We hear that there also may be a new album in the works too and if you’re reading this Tommy – you can count on Electroqueer to behind it all the way.
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I’ll Be Your Everything |