Sunday, July 16, 2006

Benrik diaries - Who's That Boy?

For no apparent reason I jammed my head into one of the kitchen cabinet-doors. So now I've got this big lump and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it.
I really hope this won't effect my ability to dream next week.


On to something completely useless:

I can clearly remember wondering who's that boy? when I first saw him in the Levi's commercial.
And no, I'm not talking about Brad Pitt. There was this other guy named Nick Kamen.
I was about 15 years old and each day after school I went home, made ham and cheese sandwiches in the micro and I'd sing and dance to whatever was on MTV.
This was the childhood of ours, MTV and microwaves and this Nick Kamen-guy played a small part.

Recently he sprung to mind and I wondered what ever happened to him? - He did that commercial and was pretty in pink 10 years before any other male had managed to build up the same amount of courage it takes to wear that colour.
So I wondered where do people like that go afterwards?

I'd like to report that curiosity did not kill the cat.
I looked Nick Kamen up at wiki, I'm still alive and this is what I found:

Nick Kamen (born April 15, 1962) is a model and singer from Harlow, Essex, England, most famous for his 1980s Levi's commercials where he strips to wash in a public laundromat (showing him in boxer shorts, dramatically increasing their popularity). He has also recorded four albums.

Notable was his minor 1986 hit "Each Time You Break My Heart" from his self titled debut album. Written and produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray, it cracked both the US dance chart (remix by Shep Pettibone) and the UK pop singles chart, and even hit the Top 40 in Canada. Madonna also sang on the backing vocals. Her original demo remains one of many Unreleased Madonna Songs.

His second album "Us", 1989 was produced by Patrick Leonard. Madonna again made an appearance as a guest backing vocalist on the song "Tell Me", this time without contributing to the songwriting or production.


I also tried to find any information about what he's up to these days. Result:

- He lives in London (Nottinghill)
- He paints, and has had at least one exhibition. ("I paint for fun" he said - like they all do.)
- He works as a songwriter.


That's all I can do to satisfy any sunday crawings for useless information.
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