especially for you

There was sequins, there was 80s disco, there was everyone from grandads to girl friends, to angel-winged seven-year-olds, to three men in matching navy-and-cream stripy jumpers. And there was Kylie.

I can't claim to be the biggest (metaphorically as she is Minogue-sized) Kylie fan in the Starr household but I was very happy to accompany Deb to Manchester last week. Like most of the people at MEN Arena, Kylie's songs span a good chunk of our lives. Cheesy, cool or chic, they invoke moments, even whole eras of our past.

Although pop aims to please, on occasions it turns a bitter-sweet twist as it lays out oh-so-simply the ironies and imperfections of our daily lives, our dreams and ill-matched reality. Not surprisingly it was Nick Cave who compared Kylie's Better the Devil You Know to the juxtaposition of violence and love present also in Psalm 137. Others suggest that it's pop's banality that enables us to grapple with overwhelming emotions by offering us a hold-fast wrapped up in three minutes of pink candyfloss.

So many Kylie lyrics, which to end with? She finished with this one, a perfect proclamation of love's ability to deepen our delights and throw wide our visions:

And everything went from wrong to right
And the stars came out and filled up the sky
The music you were playing really blew my mind
It was love at first sight