I’ve had my own struggles and triumphs writing songs sensitively and honestly dealing with the experiences of being gay. I can trace a real change in my approach to songwriting back to the mid-2000s when we first started tracking down all these amazing 1970s and 1980s queer artists, and most of what we discovered came from JD Doyle’s incredible Queer Music Heritage website. These musicians were brave enough to sing openly gay songs in different, more hostile times, and it gave me strength to try to do the same 30 years later. The reissues we’ve done are partly my way of saying thanks.
‘This new interest blows me away,’ adds John ‘Smokey’ Condon. ‘I’ve done like 25 interviews, a photo shoot and now my music is going to be used in a film about Tom of Finland! All I wanted to do was sing, and sing songs about what I knew about, you know?’
In 2016, 35 years after Finally hit the streets, Blackberri is back, performing live, recording and starring in the short film Eat the Rich. ‘I feel like I’m starting all over again,’ he says. ‘There’s a whole group of young people who are discovering me and that’s really kind of interesting. I’ve always had a young audience: when I used to travel across the country I would often meet some of those people, and now I’m meeting adults who say “I heard you when I was younger on the radio”: I feel like I’ve raised about three or four generations of gay youth!’ Chief among the songs being laid down for his new album is the track ‘Your Boyfriend is My Girlfriend In Bed’, a hysterically funny little song which has Blackberri has been including in his live set for a while now. It’s easy to see how his use of humour and biting satire influenced LGBT artists Romanovsky and Phillips, the San Francisco-based act dubbed ‘the gay Simon and Garfunkel’.
On 24 February 2017, Blackberri received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work with the black LGBT community in the Bay area. The following day, Patrick Haggerty announced that he had recorded a new Lavender Country track, ‘Red Dress’, for the various artists’ Our First 100 Days project, a benefit album for good causes under threat from the Trump administration. Other artists are also seeing the benefits of this renewed interest in our musical heritage. ‘I’m absolutely gobsmacked,’ admits Paul Southwell of Handbag. ‘I thought it was dead and buried, I really did. I’m absolutely amazed that anybody is really interested.’ ‘It’s wonderful, and I just knew we were right,’ adds Paul Rutherford. ‘I knew we were right to go through all of that angst. Frankie burnt twice as bright but lived half as long; it was like a big, mad firework and it couldn’t have gone any further really.’
‘I think it’s fantastic that today’s artists feel able to be open about their sexuality,’ says Tom Robinson:
It’s marvellous that people can just make music and it’s kind of incidental what their sexuality is, certainly in the rarefied atmosphere of today’s music industry on this side of the pond. Take Sam Smith: it’s really good that he’s done what he’s done and has been as open as he has been and been as successful as he has been. It remains to be seen in post-Trump America whether a lot of those freedoms and tolerances do get whittled away. For myself, I’d like to live in a world where we don’t have to have a label. Labels are all very well, but they help with the process of “othering” other people; it makes it “us and them”, and we’ve suffered long enough from being a “them”, with the other people excluding us because they put these labels on us. Be yourself, be proud of whoever you are and don’t let anybody tell you how to live your life is the key advice to anybody, whether they’re a musician or not.
Acknowledgements
A book like this could not have been written without the sterling work of countless other authors, whose books have been invaluable, occasionally frustrating but always inspiring. I hope I’ve covered all of them in the Bibliography; my profuse apologies to anyone I’ve missed. A personal note of thanks to John Aggy, Chris Albertson, Jonno Andrews, k. anderson, Andy Bell, Blackberri, Guy Blackman, John Condon, Ray Connolly, St. Sukie de la Croix, John Deane, Sean Dickson (HiFi Sean), Alix Dobkin, JD Doyle, Robbie Duke (Patrick Pink), Richard Evans, John Grant, Dean Griffith, Patrick Haggerty, Drake Jensen, James Lawler, Ian Leak, Dane Lewis, Mista Majah P, David Marshall, Michael Morin, Holly Near, Ben O’Connor, Andy Partridge, Phranc, Gemma Read and the team at the LSE for helping with access to the Hall-Carpenter Archive, Tom Robinson, Paul Rutherford, Paul Southwell, Rod Thomas, Mandy Weetch, Cris Williamson, Mitchell Winn, and the Women’s Liberation Music Archive.
A big ‘thank you’ to the amazingly supportive teams at Duckworth in London and Overlook in New York, especially Gesche Ipsen, Peter Mayer, Matt Casbourne, Thogdin Ripley, Liz Dexter, Josh Bryson, David Marshall, Chelsea Cutchens and Shannon McCain. I am forever humbled and will always be grateful for your faith in me.
Finally, thank you, Niall, for your unending love and support. Now, where’s that cup of tea you promised me?
Bibliography
Abbott, Lynn and Seroff, Doug – Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, Coon Songs, and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz (University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, MS, 2009)
Albertson, Chris – Bessie: A Biography (Barrie and Jenkins, London, 1972)
Aldrich, Robert and Wotherspoon, Garry (eds.) – Who’s Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History (Routledge, London, 2001)
Alpern, Tyler – Bruz Fletcher: Camped, Tramped & A Riotous Vamp (Tyler Alpern, 2010)
Amico, Stephen – Roll Over, Tchaikovsky!: Russian Popular Music and Post-Soviet Homosexuality (University of Illinois Press, Chicago, IL, 2014)
Armstrong, Louis – Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans (Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1954)
Baim, Tracy (ed.) – Out and Proud in Chicago (Agate Surrey, Evanston, IL, 2008)
Baumgardner, Jennifer – F’em!: Goo Goo, Gaga, and Some Thoughts on Balls (Seal Press, Berkeley, CA, 2011)
Beatles, The – The Beatles Anthology (Cassell & Co, London, 2000)
Blesh, Rudy – They All Played Ragtime (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1950)
Brothers, Thomas – Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans (W. W. Norton & Company, London, 2007)
Bullock, Darryl W. – The World’s Worst Records, Volume One (Bristol Green Publishing, Bristol, 2013)
Burns, Pete – Freak Unique: My Autobiography (John Blake Publishing Ltd, London, 2007)
Cassidy, David – Could It Be Forever? (Headline, London, 2012)
Chauncey, George – Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (Basic Books, New York, 1995)
Clarke, Donald – Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon, (Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA, 2000)
Cowton, Michael – Pet Shop Boys: Introspective (Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1991)
Cullen, Frank – Vaudeville Old and New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performances in America (Routledge, London, 2006)
De le Croix, St. Sukie – Chicago Whispers (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 2012)
Dobkin, Alix – My Red Blood: A Memoir of Growing Up Communist, Coming Onto the Greenwich Village Folk Scene, and Coming Out in the Feminist Movement (Alyson Books, New York, 2009)
Dubowsky, Jack Curtis – Intersecting Film, Music, and Queerness (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2016)
Duchovnay, Gerald (ed.) – Film Voices: Interviews from Post Script (State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 2004)
Earles, Andrew – Hüsker Dü: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock (Voyageur Press, London, 2010)
Faderman, Lillian and Timmons, Stuart – Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians (Basic Books, New York, 2006)
Garber, Marjorie – Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life (Routledge, London, 2000)
Goblinski, Gene (ed.) – The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time (Rosen Publishing Group, New York, 2009), p. 162
Hadleigh, Boze – Hollywood Babble On: Stars Gossip about Other Stars (Penguin Group (USA), London, 1995)
Hajdu, David – Lush Life: A
Biography of Billy Strayhorn (Granta Books, London, 1997)
Hannaford, Alex – Scissor Sisters (Artnik, London, 2005)
Harbin, Billy J., Marra, Kim and Schanke, Robert A. (eds.) – The Gay & Lesbian Theatrical Legacy (University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI, 2005)
Haslam, Dave – Life After Dark: A History of British Nightclubs & Music Venues (Simon & Schuster, London, 2015)
Hasted, Nick – You Really Got Me: The Story of The Kinks (Omnibus Press, London, 2013)
Herzhaft, Gérard – Encyclopedia of the Blues (University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, AR, 1992)
Hobson, Vic – Creating Jazz Counterpoint: New Orleans, Barbershop Harmony, and the Blues (University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, MS, 2014)
Holmes, Thom – Electronic and Experimental Music: Technology, Music, and Culture (Routledge, New York, 2016)
Houlbrook, Matt – Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 2005)
Jones, Lesley-Ann – Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury (Touchstone, New York, 2011)
Kirby, David – Little Richard: The Birth of Rock ’n’ Roll (Continuum International Publishing, New York, 2009)
Kliment, Bud – Billie Holiday, Singer (Chelsea House, New York, 1990)
Levin, Floyd – Classic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians (University of California Press, Berkeley, CS, 2000)
Lieb, Sandra R. – Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey (University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, MA, 1981)
Lomax, Alan – Mister Jelly Roll (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1950)
McAuliffe, Mary – When Paris Sizzled: The 1920s Paris of Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker and their Friends (Rowman and Littlefield, London, 2016)
McNeil, Legs and McCain, Gillian – Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (Grove Press, New York, 1996)
Marko, Paul – The Roxy London WC2: A Punk History (Punk 77 Books, London, 2007)
Marquis, Donald M. – In Search of Buddy Bolden: First Man of Jazz (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, LA, 1978)
Midlebrook, Diane W. – Suits Me: the Double Life of Billy Tipton (Peter Davidson, Boston, MA, 1998)
Miles, Barry – London Calling: A Countercultural History of London since 1945 (Atlantic Books, London, 2010)
Miller, Neil – Out Of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present (Alyson Books, New York, 2006)
Morris, Bonnie J. – Eden Built by Eves: The Culture of Women’s Music Festivals, (Alyson Publications Inc., New York, 1999)
Morrissey – Autobiography (Penguin Books, London, 2013)
Myers, Paul – It Ain’t Easy: Long John Baldry and the Birth of the British Blues (Greystone Books, Vancouver, 2007)
Norman, Philip – John Lennon: The Life (HarperCollins UK, London, 2009)
O’Brien, Lucy – She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Popular Music (Jawbonew Press, London, 2012)
O’Meally, Robert – Lady Day: The Many Faces Of Billie Holiday (Arcade Publishing, New York, 1993)
Oliver, Paul, Russell Tony et al. – Yonder Come the Blues (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001)
Prono, Luca – Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Popular Culture (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 2008)
Pryor, Richard and Gold, Todd – Pryor Convictions And Other Life Sentences (Pantheon Books, New York, 1995)
Repsch, John – The Legendary Joe Meek: The Telstar Man (Cherry Red Books, London, 2001)
Richards, Matt and Langthorne, Mark – Somebody to Love: the Life, Death and Legacy of Freddie Mercury (Blink Publishing, London, 2016)
Riva, Maria – Marlene Dietrich (Bloomsbury, London, 1992)
Rose, Al – Storyville, New Orleans, Being an Authentic, Illustrated Account of the Notorious Red-light District (University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, AL, 1974)
Shapiro, Nat and Hentoff, Nat – Hear Me Talkin’ To Ya: The Story of Jazz As Told By the Men Who Made It (Courier Corporation, North Chelmsford, MA, 1955)
Shapiro, Peter – Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco (Faber & Faber, London, 2005)
Sinfield, Alan – Out on Stage: Lesbian and Gay Theatre in the Twentieth Century (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1999)
Slide, Anthony – The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1994)
Spoto, Donald – Blue Angel: The Life of Marlene Dietrich (G. K. Hall, Boston, MA, 1993)
Steele, Robert – Careless Whispers: The Life & Career of George Michael (Omnibus Press Limited, London, 2011)
Street, John – Rebel Rock: The Politics of Popular Music (Viking, New York, 1986)
Summers, Claude J. (ed.) – The Queer Encyclopedia of Music, Dance and Musical Theatre (Cleis Press, Jersey City, NJ, 2004)
Wald, Elijah – Escaping The Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues (HarperCollins, New York, 2004)
Wald, Gayle F. – Shout Sister Shout! The Untold Story of Rock-n-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe (Beacon Press, Boston, MA, 2007)
Watson, Steven – The Harlem Renaissance (Pantheon Books, New York, 1995)
White, Charles – The Life And Times Of Little Richard: The Quasar of Rock (Harmony Books, New York, 1984)
Whiteley, Sheila – Women and Popular Music: Sexuality, Identity and Subjectivity (Routledge, London, 2006)
Wieder, Judy (ed.) – Celebrity: The Advocate Interviews (Advocate Books, 2001)
Wilson, James F. – Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies: Performance, Race, and Sexuality In the Harlem Renaissance (University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MA, 2010)
Wintz, Cary D. and Finkelman, Paul (eds.) – Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Routledge, London, 2004)
Wirth, Thomas H. (ed.) – Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance: Selections from the Work of Richard Bruce (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 2002)
Worden, Helen – The Real New York (Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1932)
Work, John Wesley – American Negro Songs: 230 Folk Songs and Spirituals, Religious and Secular (Crown Publishers, New York, 1940)
Image Credits
David Bowie on the cover of Gay News, 1973. Photo from the LSE Library collection.
Freddie Mercury performing in New Haven, November 1977. Photo by Carl Lender/Creative Commons.
Fred Barnes in The Black Sheep of the Family. Author’s own collection.
The Brass Rail, postcard reproduction.
Camp Records order form, c. 1965. Author’s own collection.
Joe Meek graffiti. Author’s own collection.
The Campaign for Homosexual Equality group march during London Pride, 1974. Photo from the LSE Library collection.
Jobriath, 1974. Photograph © John Michael Cox, Jr. Image originally appeared in Omega One magazine.
Janis Ian press advert, 1967, originally printed in Billboard.
Press advert for Lavender Country. Author’s own collection.
Drake Jensen, photo by Jonathan Edwards. © Corvidae Photos. Used by permission.
Early press photo of the classic Village People lineup, early 1978. Author’s own collection.
Press advert for ‘I Was Born This Way’. Author’s own collection.
Poster advertising GLF fundraiser, December 1970. Photo from the LSE Library collection.
Press advert, 1978. Author’s own collection.
Publicity photo, c. 1975. From the collection of Paul Southwell. Used by permission.
Wayne County and the Electric Chairs Blatantly Offenzive E.P, 7” sleeve, by Safari Records.
NBC-TV advertisement for Boy George’s guest star appearance on The A-Team, 1986. Photo from TV Guide Magazine.
Klaus Nomi in concert, 1981. Author’s own collection.
Noti Flow, still from ‘Same Love’ video by Art Attack.
George Michael performing on stage during the Faith World Tour in 1988. Courtesy of Special
Collections, University of Houston Libraries.
Mista Majah P, 2011. Copyright Mista Majah P. Used by permission.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood postcard 1984. Author’s own collection.
Sia, 2011. Photo by Kirk Stauffer/Creative Commons.
Sam Smith, 2015. Photo by Pistenwolf/Creative Commons.
HiFi Sean, photo by Paul Grace. Copyright Paul Grace. Used by permission.
Beth Ditto, 2011. Photo by Rama/Creative Commons.
Conchita Wurst, 2014. Photo by Albin Olsson/Creative Commons.
Olly Alexander, 2014. Photo by Pawel Marynowski/Creative Commons.
Rod Thomas, aka Bright Light Bright Light. Used by permission.
k anderson. © k anderson. Used by permission.
Mural of David Bowie in Brixton, UK, created by James Cochran in 2013.Photo by Darryl Bullock.
A rare advertising flyer for Camp Records, circa 1965. Author’s own collection.
Advertisement for The Isle of Love starring Julian Eltinge with Rudolph Valentino. Public domain.
Advert for ‘Prove It On Me Blues’ (circa 1928) shows Ma flirting with two young women while a cop looks on. Public domain.
Advertisement for Bessie Smith, Columbia, circa 1929. Public domain.
Advertisement for The Divine Mr. J, starring Bette Midler. Author’s own collection.
UK press advertisement for Jobriath’s second album, 1974. Author’s own collection.
Jackie Shane performing with Frank Motley and the Motley Crew. Copyright Jackie Shane/Numero Group. Used by permission.
An early issue of Broadway Breveties, featuring Julian Eltinge in full drag on the cover. Public domain.
David Bowie Made Me Gay Page 35
