Kylie is in town and Kylie fever is breaking out all over but how did it all happen? Here Paul Taylorreveals the Wilmslow man who made those hotpants the hottest property in showbiz.
WILL Baker thinks long and hard about his part in making Britain go barmy over Kylie's bottom, then muses: "Sex sells, doesn't it. But the bottom line is that image sells. Pop these days is a very visual industry and I think that is certainly the success of, say, Madonna. Kylie had the benefit that, when she started in the late eighties, the pop video was still quite a new thing and she has grown up with that."
The pop anecdote goes that Baker bought some gold hot pants from Oxfam for 50p, put Kylie into them for the video to Spinning Around and - hey presto - she was popularly elected Rear Of The Year for the duration of the Naughty Noughties.
"I didn't buy them," he explains. "She bought them years ago from a market stall and I unearthed them from the bottom of her drawer when we were scrambling through the wardrobe looking for something."
All of which leaves the indelible impression of Baker rooting through the drawers of a multi-millionairess pop icon, playing dress-up in a professional capacity. Now, how do you get a job like that?
Will Baker, 28, was brought up in Wilmslow. His father Graham is a confectionery manufacturer's agent, and his mother Jane Bonner (the couple split and have both remarried) is a teacher, living not far from Neil and Christine Hamilton in Nether Alderley.
Young Will was a good scholar at Manchester Grammar School for Boys, but the life-shaping moment of his school years did not happen in the classroom.
"I was a huge Madonna fan even at school and I saw the Blonde Ambition tour. We went down to Wembley - someone's dad drove us. I was so inspired by the show, by the way it was done. It was more the show than the music. That is the only thing from my youth which points to what I do today. I am more of a visual person. I do not sit at home listening to music."
Baker headed off to Kings College, London, to study theology.
"I never wanted to be in the Church and was never particularly religious," he says. "I think the end in view was to get me to London. I had always wanted to go to London because I had always been interested in fashion and a lot of my friends were at fashion college."
By the age of 19, he had a Saturday job in London''s Vivienne Westwood shop.
"I had always liked Kylie and always felt drawn to her, so I called her record company at that time, DeConstruction, and asked whether she had a stylist and whether she would be interested in coming in to get some clothes. Two weeks later she came in and I bombarded her with ideas like an over-excited puppy. It was weird because she automatically trusted me and we got on staight away."
From helping out on the odd photo-shoot, Baker''s interest in Kylie blossomed into a full-time job, overseeing all the creative aspects of her career, and a full-blown friendship. He has, indeed, been known to crash down at Kylie's.
"There have been times when I have lived at her home for periods ... when I had nowhere to go," he laughs. "We are really close friends, though the last couple of years it has been work, work, work and there has not been much time for social life."
Some may forget that in between that first Stock Aitken Waterman-fuelled run of success and her current popularity, there was a period at the end of the nineties when the petite Australian''s career looked in danger of going bottom-up.
"She was disheartened because she had put her soul on the line," says Baker. "She had written songs on those albums which were critically well-received, but they did not sell in England. Obviously it hurt."
The last Kylie tour (on which, says Baker, the Manchester dates were the best) was all about re-introducing people to her.
"It was like treading water for all of us," he says. "This tour is a lot more forward looking."
THAT means a hundred-strong cast with seven themed "acts" hinting at A Clockwork Orange, Dr Who, Star Trek and the like. But all the best-laid artistic plans almost came to grief because of dust at the rehearsal venue which aggravated Kylie''s throat.
Working with Baker now is his 26-year- old sister Georgina. The other major client for his styling advice is Jamiroquai singer, Stretford-born Jay Kay. "He is a really energetic person and trying to keep up with him is hard work," says Baker.
The styling guru may have gone south as soon as he could, but he remains a passionate Mancunian, and insists: "Everything that is in London is in Manchester."
He adds: "I grew up in the period of the Smiths and the Inspiral Carpets - I was really into that. There was a sense of family about Manchester. My youth was in Affleck's Palace and the Hacienda.
"I worked in Manto when it first opened, and the whole opening up of the Manchester gay scene was so exciting."
Now Baker lives alone in London, but is in a long-term relationship with one of the male dancers in Kylie's show. He seems genuinely thrilled to be back in Manchester with Kylie.
"The last couple of years have been brilliant - a total pay-off," says Baker. "She has been a fantastic friend over the years and really supportive of me."
Kylie plays at the Manchester Evening News Arena tonight, tomorrow, Friday and Saturday, returning again the following Saturday and Sunday. Some tickets still available from the box office on 0161 930 8000.