Nineteen Ninety Three.
It's a country we've visited on a number of occasions in this particular parish of variously compiled pop. And it's always one that welcomes us back warmly.
There's our strident, shiny boybands working up a sweat down at your local nightclub or hanging around the street corners looking menacing.
There's the noticeably older relatives who had hits back ion the 80s and are back, Back, BACK with familiar hits that now nestle comfortably on shiny new CD greatest hits tucked under their sensibly dressed arms. Is that a remix I hear?
And of course there's the Europop exchange students. Fearless, no pretence, no baggage and a selection of smiles, beats and bleeps that - let's face it - we loved then and love now.
And all of these guests - and much more - can be found on the twenty-fourth volume of the nation's favourite compilation album - the one we cleverly call NOW24!
And revisiting this fascinating (did we once describe Pop Hinterland, Mr Hodgkinson?) year is songwriter and performer Ray Harris.
Join us we head back far too many years to care for all of the above, and Ray cherry picks tracks that trigger those his pop memories including 2 Unlimited, The Bluebells, Lenny Kravitz, World Party, kd. Lang and Ultravox to name a few.
Ray shares his stories of growing up which surely involves a Back to NOW first - is that Frédéric Chopin waving at us?
We also hear about his adventures supporting (amongst others) Sister Sledge AND James Brown, which member of Genesis he shared a bus journey with (yes, really!) and why he believes (rightly, of course) Paul McCartney is our greatest living musician.
And we find out more about Ray's latest album, Prelude and what it means to be touring and performing after a seven year hiatus - from Glasgow to Vietnam!
NOW 24 - as Macca said, delivering hope. And let's be honest, we could all welcome that.
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