jimmy somerville bronski beat communards - the first international fanpage

Historie > Jimmy Somerville > official, personal Biography Page 2 of 4

Back
Home Next

Don't regret a single scrounging second. Gave me the time to grow, discover and subvert! It's now the summer of '83. Squatting at Coptic Street by the British Museum. I can still smell the honeysuckle that grew in the courtyard. It was one of the original alternative scene babies. I lived with and was influenced by some truly wonderful people. Left wing would be an understatement. And of course I had all the makings of a little militant. The Labour party young socialists. The Anti-Nazi League. I wore my heart - or should I say numerous badges on my sleeve. I was never one to keep my tounge in my pocket, I was out - like truly out there. An angry young gay man.I wanted to right the world. I really believed, and still believe it can be done. Friendships were forged and many of them are still going strong.
It's now the summer of '83. Met Larry and Steve through Jill. Jill was one of the people I was working with on a community video - funded by the G.L.C "Red Ken funds one-eyed black single lesbian mother creche shock" as the tabloids would have us believe. It was called "Framed Youth" [revenge of the teenage perverts]' I had sung [although at that time I didn't really think of myself as being an experienced vocalist, as it was the first time I had ever really sung (I look at it more as my first singing lesson). A song, accompanied only with a drum machine, called "Screaming". They heard, they liked. The monster was born - you can blame Richard Coles for that! - Told me they had some synthesisers, I had an obsessive fascination of synthesised sound, and would I like to come over and mess around. How exciting I thought. It was. I was suddenly part of something I had only ever heard on record before.
The world of "Me Giorgio - Utopia" [as in Morrodor] was at my fingertips...Bronski Beat were born. One album. "The Age Of Consent" a soundtrack for isolated homos everywhere. 'Smalltown Boy', 'Why?', 'Need A Man Blues', not lyrical landmarks but the honesty and straightforward sentiment meant something to so many people. It was exciting and fun. Here i was one minute on the dole, the next at number three in the charts and on top of the pops, an institution, a religious experience on a thursday night at 7 o'clock and I had only done it for a laugh! Then it all went squiffy. A lack of understanding of each other's needs and the realisation, well for me anyway, that to work.
So intimately our friendships had to be strong plus there was to much intimate history between the others.The chance to support Madonna on the 'Like A Virgin' tour and me saying no and truly pissing everyone off prompted my decision to call it a day. I was not a popular man. Still, needs must I had already met Richard Coles a few years previous as we had worked together on 'Framed Youth'. It was Richard who had encouraged me to sing. I was very close to Richard at this point. He made me laugh so much. And who else would hang out with a man with a pink triangle dyed into the middle of his hair!

	Historie > Jimmy Somerville > official, personal Biography Page 2 of 4
		Back	Home	Next

Don't regret a single scrounging second. Gave me the time to grow, discover and subvert! It's now the summer of '83. Squatting at Coptic Street by the British Museum. I can still smell the honeysuckle that grew in the courtyard. It was one of the original alternative scene babies. I lived with and was influenced by some truly wonderful people. Left wing would be an understatement. And of course I had all the makings of a little militant. The Labour party young socialists. The Anti-Nazi League. I wore my heart - or should I say numerous badges on my sleeve. I was never one to keep my tounge in my pocket, I was out - like truly out there. An angry young gay man.I wanted to right the world. I really believed, and still believe it can be done. Friendships were forged and many of them are still going strong. It's now the summer of '83. Met Larry and Steve through Jill. Jill was one of the people I was working with on a community video - funded by the G.L.C "Red Ken funds one-eyed black single lesbian mother creche shock" as the tabloids would have us believe. It was called "Framed Youth" [revenge of the teenage perverts]' I had sung [although at that time I didn't really think of myself as being an experienced vocalist, as it was the first time I had ever really sung (I look at it more as my first singing lesson). A song, accompanied only with a drum machine, called "Screaming". They heard, they liked. The monster was born - you can blame Richard Coles for that! - Told me they had some synthesisers, I had an obsessive fascination of synthesised sound, and would I like to come over and mess around. How exciting I thought. It was. I was suddenly part of something I had only ever heard on record before. The world of "Me Giorgio - Utopia" [as in Morrodor] was at my fingertips...Bronski Beat were born. One album. "The Age Of Consent" a soundtrack for isolated homos everywhere. 'Smalltown Boy', 'Why?', 'Need A Man Blues', not lyrical landmarks but the honesty and straightforward sentiment meant something to so many people. It was exciting and fun. Here i was one minute on the dole, the next at number three in the charts and on top of the pops, an institution, a religious experience on a thursday night at 7 o'clock and I had only done it for a laugh! Then it all went squiffy. A lack of understanding of each other's needs and the realisation, well for me anyway, that to work. So intimately our friendships had to be strong plus there was to much intimate history between the others.The chance to support Madonna on the 'Like A Virgin' tour and me saying no and truly pissing everyone off prompted my decision to call it a day. I was not a popular man. Still, needs must I had already met Richard Coles a few years previous as we had worked together on 'Framed Youth'. It was Richard who had encouraged me to sing. I was very close to Richard at this point. He made me laugh so much. And who else would hang out with a man with a pink triangle dyed into the middle of his hair!