As this love story to the power of pop music hits the shelves this month, we asked Gummerson to rewind and play for us the gay soundtrack to his life. So sit back, "relax" and enjoy!

'Relax' - Frankie Goes to Hollywood, 1983
That summer everyone was wearing 'Relax' T-shirts. It was big news when Mike Reid banned it on Radio 1. Everyone talked about it at school. “It’s about gay sex". I had no idea what gay sex was. I was 12. I knew I didn’t like girls that way, but who did? I was a boy! I was 12! Brilliant song.

'Hand in Glove' - The Smiths, 1984
I didn’t come to this song and the album Hatful of Hollow until 1987, when I was at college. The song was perfect for those teenage angst years: "And if the people stare, I really don’t know and I really don’t care". I met a boy in a graveyard. He was deaf in one ear. I always had to sit on the same side of him. We listened to music about not fitting in and I wore black eyeliner. It was awful. Brilliant!

'Hideaway' - Erasure, 1987
As this is a song about coming out, it is quite apt that this is the song I listened to ten times in a row in my room before I came out to my mum. I was crying. "I’ve got something to tell you", I said. "Sam’s pregnant", she said. "No, I’m..." And I told her.

'Go West' - Pet Shop Boys, 1993
If I had any doubt over the Pet Shoppers sexuality, this cover of the Village People song tied them up in a big pink ribbon and hand delivered them to Heaven. Originally a song leading the gay men of California to the West and San Francisco, it has been said that this is the PSB’s rally cry for gay men in the fight against AIDS. Who knows? It is both very camp and heart-warming.

'You Have Been Loved' - George Michael, 1996
Older is the album I listened to almost constantly in Japan - I was 25 and living in Tokyo. I’d never been that keen on Wham! but George was gradually winning me round. In fact, he had completely. This record is consistently awesome.

'Believe' - Cher, 1998
And after Japan was Sydney. I walked from my flat in Kings Cross to Oxford Street to buy this album for my boyfriend on the day of release, only to find that he didn’t like it! It didn’t matter, 'Believe' was everywhere. After the relative calm of Tokyo and a few quiet drinks in Shinjuku after work, Sydney was like an explosion - Mardi Gras and gay men everywhere. I mean everywhere!

'Lady of the Flowers', Placebo - 2000
Lady of the Flowers is the title of French writer Jean Genet’s first book. Sartre called it an "epic of masturbation", written while Genet was in prison. Genet became a model for the later Beat writers, challenging sexuality, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Keroac, William Burroughs. I was reading more and more, making connections, working out what I wanted to write. Placebo took the title for a track on their first album. I should add that it’s a great song.

'Friday’s Child', Will Young 2003
When I wasn’t reading or writing, there was the TV. But what had happened to TV? It was all reality shows. They are kind of mesmerising at the time, but ultimately I find that I don’t care - sorry Shane, Leona, Girls Aloud et al. Except for one. Young is a sweet middle-class boy and about as edgy as a cup of tea. But that voice. It’s the real deal. 

'Gay Messiah', Rufus Wainwright - 2004
And if Will Young is the safe Boy George figure (well, Boy George was), then Wainwright is the Holly Johnson. Wainwright is all the things that Young is not - there’s the famous family, the drugs, the spats, the arrogance. But he sure can sing. And wouldn’t it be great - a gay messiah? Whatever, these last two show how times have changed from the early 80s of my youth. Sexuality is firmly out of the closet.

'Neverland', Darren Hayes – 2007
And finally... I saw Hayes in 2006 on his Greatest Hits tour. It was painful watching. It was obvious he didn’t know who he wanted to be, playing up to the girls, acting the pop idol. Then he quit his record label, came out, got married (to a man) and independently released a new album called This Delicate Thing We’ve Made. It was my favourite album last year; great song after great song. And it showed someone who is happy with themself. That’s all any of us could wish for.

Read our review of Me and Mickie James and our interview with Drew Gummerson.

Me and Mickie James, by Drew Gummerson
Publisher: Jonathan Cape, Random House Group
Released: 17 July 2008
ISBN: 0224082442

Buy Me and Mickie James online now and save some money to put towards Drew Gummerson's earlier novel, The Lodger.