Pop Fiend

Taping the Top 40 off the radio as a child made this popsessive the man he is today, when Bananarama's dungarees stirred strange feelings that he's spent 30 years trying to recapture. His dedication to the deadly serious business of the charts means a double-pronged attack of collecting tat (he's got two Nadine dolls, in the faint hope that he can one day swap one for a Cheryl) and preaching to the unconverted, for whom the realisation that Will Young is the natural heir to George Michael does not come so easily. Through hours of lengthy posts in grown-up pop forums, he will convince them. He wears his Janet Jackson lanyard underneath his shirt at the office, but when he gets home, he swaps it for his The Saturdays T-shirt. People think he means it ironically, but he knows it’s for real, always.

Spotter's Guide
Provenance: eBay
Age: 38
Heroes: Lady Gaga, Take That, Pet Shop Boys
Villains: Noel Gallagher
Distinguishing marks: alphabetised Madonna collection, on every format, sub-filed by year
Most likely to: outbid you on that rare Britney keyring, circa ‘99

Pop Fiend is one of ten music tribes illustrated for Q magazine. Text by Rebecca Nicholson. Art direction by Daniel Knight / Salman Naqvi.