Famous LGBT musicians - Public and Commercial Services Union

a
history
of
LGBT
influence in the
music industry
Welcome
Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans History Month takes
place every year in February. It celebrates the lives
and achievements of the LGBT community.
We are committed to celebrate its diversity and that of the society as a whole. We
encourage everyone to see diversity and cultural pluralism as the positive forces that they
are and endeavour to reflect this in all we do.
This year’s theme is dedicated to music.
Mainstream music has been heavily influenced by the LGBT community since the
movement gained prominence in the 1970s and 80s, however the origins go back much
further in history than you might think.
In this publication we take a look at just a few of those LGBT people and the influence
they’ve had within the music industry. From classical composers through to present day
pop; record producers and radio DJs; the LGBT community has been at the heart of every
part of the industry since its inception.
It’s no secret that the music industry has been influenced by the LGBT community. The
whole Disco movement in the 1970’s had its origins in the LGBT community. Not only
that but the powers that be know all to well that the LGBT community account for a vast
percentage of sales within the music industry and can determine the success of a new
act. Many of today’s mainstream artists have deliberately tailored their act and exploited
their association with the LGBT community in order to boost their appeal and increase
their sales. Artists like Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Lady Gaga and even Take That have all
benefited from this connection.
Music is one of the arts that affects each of us in one way or another. Going to concerts
or just watching the band down the street in the local; listening to the radio or watching
the music channels on TV; music used in adverts or in film scores, it’s all around us.
Whether it’s classical, jazz, blues, country, rock or pop, there’s a genre for everyone.
Of course there’s far too many people to list here and we don’t profess this to be the
ultimate or definitive list, but hopefully you’ll find what you read not only interesting and
informative but inspiring and thought provoking and you never know, it might even tempt
you to try listening to something you’ve not heard before.
So enjoy the read and dust off those LPs, singles,CDs or downloads; crank the volume up
to number eleven (Spinal Tap reference for the oldies LOL) and have some fun!
the
early
years
Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky
1840-1893
Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer
whose works included symphonies,
concertos, operas, ballets, chamber
music, and a choral setting of the Russian
Orthodox Divine Liturgy. Some of these
are among the most popular theatrical
music in the classical repertoire. He was
the first Russian composer whose music
made a lasting impression internationally,
which he bolstered with appearances as
a guest conductor later in his career in
Europe and the United States. One of
these appearances was at the inaugural
concert of Carnegie Hall in New York City
in 1891. Tchaikovsky was honoured in 1884
by Emperor Alexander III, and awarded a
lifetime pension in the late 1880s.
Tchaikovsky
had
clear
homosexual
tendencies; some of the composer’s closest
relationships were with men. He sought out
the company of other same-sex attracted
men in his circle for extended periods,
associating openly and establishing
professional connections with them.
Relevant portions of his brother modest
autobiography which tells of the composer’s
sexual orientation, have been published,
as have letters previously suppressed by
Soviet censors in which Tchaikovsky openly
writes of it.
Best Bits:
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1812 Overture
Romeo & Juliet
The Nutcracker
Swan Lake
The Sleeping Beauty
On 28 October 1893 Tchaikovsky conducted
the premiere of his Sixth Symphony, the
Pathétique In Saint Petersburg. Nine days
later, Tchaikovsky died there, aged 53.
While Tchaikovsky’s death has traditionally
been attributed to cholera, most probably
contracted through drinking contaminated
water several days earlier, some have
theorized that his death was a suicide.
Ivor Novello
1893-1951
Probably better known for the awards
that bear his name, Novello was a Welsh
composer and actor who became one of the
most popular British entertainers of the first
half of the 20th century.
He was born into a musical family and
his first successes were as a songwriter.
His first big hit was ‘Keep the Home Fires
Burning’, which was enormously popular
during the First World War. After the war,
Novello contributed numbers to several
successful musical comedies and was
eventually commissioned to write the scores
of complete shows.
In the 1920s, he turned to acting, first
in British films and then on stage, with
considerable success in both. He starred in
two silent films directed by Alfred Hitchcock,
The Lodger and Downhill, both in 1927. On
stage, he played the title character in the
first London production of Liliom (1926).
Novello briefly went to Hollywood, but he
soon returned to Britain where he had more
successes, especially on stage, appearing
in his own lavish West End productions of
musicals. The best known of these were
Glamorous Night (1935) and The Dancing
Years (1939). From the 1930s, he often
performed with Zena Dare, writing parts for
her in his works. He continued to write for
film, but he had his biggest late successes
with stage musicals: Perchance to Dream
(1945), King’s Rhapsody (1949) and Gay’s
Best Bits:
• Keep the Home Fires
Burning
• We’ll Gather Lilacs
• The Lodger (lead actor)
the Word (1951).
In 1916 he met the 21-year-old actor Bobby
Andrews. They became friends and lovers
and were together for 35 years. They
appeared together in many of Novello’s
plays and musicals. He then travelled with
ENSA to entertain the troops in France
and Belgium. His song We’ll Gather Lilacs
became very popular and was incorporated
later into a musical play.
During the Second World War Novello had
been in serious legal trouble and served
four weeks in prison for misuse of petrol
coupons, a serious offence under rationing
laws in wartime Britain. An admiring fan
had stolen the coupons from her employer,
but the court found that Novello was also
culpable. The prison term, though short,
came as a severe shock to Novello, both
mentally and physically, and had serious
lasting effects
Bobby Andrews was with Ivor Novello when
he collapsed in his flat in the early hours
of the morning of 6 March 1951 and died
of coronary thrombosis. Much loved and
adored by friends and the public, thousands
lined the streets to the funeral at Golders
Green Crematorium, and the service was
broadcast live.
partner Henry Broughton.
After stopping at the accident scene, Dr.
Smith examined Bessie Smith, who was
lying in the middle of the road. He estimated
she had lost about a half-pint of blood
and immediately noted a major traumatic
injury to her right arm; it had been almost
completely severed at the elbow.
Broughton and Dr. Smith moved the singer to
the shoulder of the road. Dr. Smith dressed
her arm injury with a clean handkerchief and
asked Broughton to go to a house about
500 feet off the road to call an ambulance.
Bessie Smith
1894-1937
Nicknamed The Empress of the Blues,
Smith was the most popular female blues
singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often
regarded as one of the greatest singers of
her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a
major influence on other jazz vocalists.
By 1923, when she began her recording
career, Smith had taken up residence in
Philadelphia. There she met and fell in love
with Jack Gee, a security guard whom she
married on June 7, 1923, just as her first
record was released. Gee was impressed
by the money, but never adjusted to show
business life, or to Smith’s bisexuality. In
1929, when she learned of his affair with
another singer, Gertrude Saunders, Bessie
Smith ended the relationship, although
neither of them sought a divorce.
She scored a big hit with her first release,
a coupling of ‘Gulf Coast Blues’ and
‘Downhearted Blues’, which its composer
Alberta Hunter had already turned into
a hit on the Paramount label. Columbia
nicknamed her ‘Queen of the Blues’, but a
PR-minded press soon upgraded her title to
‘Empress’.
On September 26, 1937, Smith was critically
injured in a car accident while travelling
between
Memphis,
Tennessee,
and
Clarksdale, Mississippi. The first people
on the scene were a Memphis surgeon,
Dr. Hugh Smith (no relation) and his fishing
Best Bits:
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Downhearted Blues
Gulf Coast Blues
The St. Louis Blues
Empty Bed Blues
I Ain’t Got Nobody
By
the
time
Broughton
returned
approximately 25 minutes later, Bessie Smith
was in shock. Time passed with no sign of
the ambulance, so Dr. Smith suggested that
they take her into Clarksdale in his car. He
and Broughton had almost finished clearing
the back seat when they heard the sound
of a car approaching at high speed. Dr.
Smith flashed his lights in warning, but the
oncoming car failed to stop and ploughed
into the doctor’s car at full speed.
Two ambulances arrived on the scene from
Clarksdale; one from the black hospital,
summoned by Mr. Broughton, the other
from the white hospital, acting on a report
from the truck driver, who had not seen the
accident victims.
Bessie Smith was taken to Clarksdale’s G.
T. Thomas Afro-American Hospital, where
her right arm was amputated. She died that
morning without regaining consciousness.
After Smith’s death, an often repeated but
now discredited story emerged about the
circumstances; namely, that she had died as
a result of having been refused admission
to a “whites only” hospital in Clarksdale.
However this account was disputed by Dr.
Smith who stated that “the Bessie Smith
ambulance would not have gone to a white
hospital, you can forget that. Down in the
Deep South cotton country, no ambulance
driver, or white driver, would even have
thought of putting a coloured person off in
a hospital for white folks.”
Smith’s funeral was held in Philadelphia a
little over a week later on October 4, 1937
and an estimated 10,000 mourners who
filed past her coffin on Sunday, October 3.
Contemporary newspapers reported that
her funeral was attended by about seven
thousand people. Jack Gee thwarted all
efforts to purchase a stone for his estranged
wife, once or twice pocketing money raised
for that purpose. The grave remained
unmarked until August 7, 1970, when a
tombstone, paid for by singer Janis Joplin
and Juanita Green, who as a child had done
housework for Smith, was erected.
Sir Noël Coward
1899-1973
Noël Coward was an English playwright,
composer, director, actor and singer best
known for his sharp wit and flamboyance.
Coward was homosexual but, following
the convention of his times, this was never
publicly mentioned.
Born in Teddington, a suburb of London,
Coward attended a dance academy in
London as a child, making his professional
stage début at the age of eleven. As a
teenager he was introduced into the high
society in which most of his plays would be
set. Coward achieved enduring success
as a playwright, publishing more than 50
plays from his teens onwards. Many of his
works, such as Hay Fever, Private Lives,
Design for Living, Present Laughter and
Blithe Spirit, have remained in the regular
theatre repertoire. He composed hundreds
of songs, in addition to well over a dozen
musical theatre works (including the
operetta Bitter Sweet and comic revues),
poetry, several volumes of short stories, the
novel Pomp and Circumstance, and a threevolume autobiography. Coward’s stage and
film acting and directing career spanned six
decades, during which he starred in many of
his own works.
At the outbreak of World War II, Coward
volunteered for war work, running the British
propaganda office in Paris. He also worked
with the Secret Service, seeking to use his
influence to persuade the American public
and government to help Britain. Coward
won an Academy Honorary Award in 1943
for his naval film drama, In Which We Serve,
and was knighted in 1969. In the 1950s
he achieved fresh success as a cabaret
performer, performing his own songs, such
as ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’, ‘London
Pride’ and ‘I Went to a Marvellous Party’.
Best Bits:
• Mad Dogs & Englishmen
• London Pride
• The Stately Homes of
England
• Mr Bridger (The Italian Job)
His plays and songs achieved new popularity
in the 1960s and 1970s, and his work and
style continue to influence popular culture.
Coward did not publicly acknowledge
his homosexuality, but it was discussed
candidly after his death by biographers
including Graham Payn, his long-time
partner and in Coward’s diaries and letters,
published posthumously.
Benjamin Britten
1913-1976
Benjamin Britten was an English composer,
conductor and pianist. He was a central
figure of 20th-century British classical
music, with a range of works including
opera, other vocal music, orchestral and
chamber pieces.
In 1935 Britten took a job working for the BBC
Music Department where he met the writer
and poet W H Auden and collaborated on
numerous documentary films including the
well known ‘Mail Train’ which described the
Royal Mail’s legendary postal trains. Auden
was a considerable influence on Britten,
encouraging him to widen his aesthetic,
intellectual and political horizons, and also
to come to terms with his homosexuality.
Britten died of congestive heart failure on
4 December 1976. His funeral service was
held at Aldeburgh Parish Church three days
later and he was buried in its churchyard,
with a gravestone carved by Reynolds
Stone.
The authorities at Westminster Abbey had
offered burial there, but Britten had made it
clear that he wished his grave to be side by
side with that, in due course, of his personal
and professional partner Peter Pears.
A memorial service was held at the Abbey on
10 March 1977, at which the congregation
was headed by Queen Elizabeth The Queen
Mother.
Best Bits:
• Peter Grimes (opera)
• The War Requiem
• The Young Person’s Guide
to the Orchestra
the
rock
‘n roll
years
Johnnie Ray
1927-1990
Immortalised in the opening lyrics of Dexy’s
Midnight Runners “Come on Eileen”,
Johnnie Ray was an American singer,
songwriter, and pianist in the early 50’s and
rose very quickly from obscurity to stardom.
Inspired by rhythm singers like Kay Starr,
LaVern Baker and Ivory Joe Hunter, Ray
developed a unique rhythm based style,
described as alternating between pre-rock
R&B and a more conventional classic pop
approach.
Ray was arrested twice for soliciting men
for sex. He quietly pleaded guilty and paid
a fine after the first arrest, in the restroom
of the Stone Theatre in Detroit, which was
just prior to the release of his first record
in 1951. The incident was not reported in
newspapers and very few people outside
Detroit knew about it during his sudden
rise to stardom in 1952. Ray went to trial
following the second arrest in 1959, also in
Detroit, for soliciting an undercover officer
in a bar called the Brass Rail, which was
described as attracting travelling musicians
and gay people. He was found not guilty.
1952 brought Ray his biggest hit and
dominated the charts with his double-sided
‘Cry’ and ‘The Little White Cloud That Cried’
eventually selling 2 million copies worldwide,
although he is probably best remembered
for the hit ‘Just Walking in the Rain’.
Best Bits:
• Cry
• The Little White Cloud
That Cried
• Just Walking in the Rain
Ray drank regularly and his alcoholism
caught up with him in 1960, when he was
hospitalized for tuberculosis. He recovered
but continued drinking and was diagnosed
with cirrhosis at age fifty. Ray finally died of
liver failure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los
Angeles.
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman
- Born 1932
Little Richard is an American recording
artist, songwriter, and musician. He has
been an influential figure in popular music
and culture for over six decades.
His most celebrated work dates from
the mid 1950s where his dynamic music
and charismatic showmanship laid the
foundation for rock and roll. His music also
had a pivotal impact on the formation of
other popular music genres, including soul
and funk. His biggest hits include ‘Tutti
Frutti’, ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘Keep A-Knockin’
and ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’.
Little Richards’s sexual orientation has
long been a topic for debate. He differed
in depictions of his sexuality; in 1984, while
he noted that he felt homosexuality was
“unnatural” and “contagious”, he would tell
Charles White that he was “omnisexual”
after he was asked about his sex life. In
1995, he told Penthouse that he always
knew he was gay. In 2007, Mojo magazine
described Richards as a “bisexual alien”.
Best Bits:
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Tutti-Frutti
Long Tall Sally
Keep A Knockin’
Good Golly Miss Molly
Johnny Mathis
Born 1935
Johnny Mathis is an American singer of
popular music. Starting his career with
singles of standard music, he became highly
popular as an album artist, with several
dozen of his albums achieving gold or
platinum status and 73 making the Billboard
charts.
Johnny Mathis has sold over 350 million
records worldwide, as confirmed by
Guinness Music charts. Although he is
frequently described as a romantic singer,
his discography includes jazz, traditional
pop, Brazilian music, Spanish music,
soul music, rhythm and blues, soft rock,
Broadway theatre, Tin Pan Alley standards,
some blues and country songs, and even a
few disco songs for his album Mathis Magic
in 1979. Mathis also recorded five albums
of Christmas music.
His biggest hits
include ‘Gina’, ‘What will Mary say’ and his
Christmas standard ‘When a child is born’.
His 1959 hit ‘Misty’ was immortalised in the
1971 American psychological thriller film
‘Play Misty For Me’, directed by and starring
Clint Eastwood, in his directorial debut.
Best Bits:
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Gina
What will Mary say?
When a child is born
Misty
In a 1982 Us Magazine article, Mathis was
quoted as having said, “Homosexuality is a
way of life that I’ve grown accustomed to.”
Us Magazine later retracted the statement.
After more than 20 years of silence on the
subject, Mathis revealed in an interview, in
2006, that his silence was because of death
threats he received as a result of that 1982
article. On April 13, 2006, Mathis granted
a podcast interview with The Strip in which
he talked about the subject once again, and
how some of his reluctance to speak on the
subject was partially generational.
Dusty Springfield
1939-1999
Dusty Springfield, was an English pop
singer and record producer whose career
extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s.
With her distinctive sensual sound, she
was an important blue eyed singer and at
her peak was one of the most successful
British female performers, with six top 20
singles on the United States Billboard 100
and sixteen on the United Kingdom singles
chart from 1963 to 1989.
She is a member of both the US Rock and
Roll and UK Hall of Fame. Her solo career
began in 1963 with the upbeat pop hit
‘I Only Want to Be with You’. Among the
hits that followed were ‘Wishin and Hopin’
(1964), ‘I Just Don’t Know What to Do with
Myself’ (1964), ‘You Don’t Have to Say You
Love Me’ (1966), and ‘Son of a Preacher
Man’ (1968).
Best Bits:
• I only want to be with you
• Wishin’ and Hopin’
• I just don’t know what to
do with myself
• You don’t have to say you
love me
• I close my eyes and count
to ten
• Son of a preacher man
Springfield was never reported to be in a
heterosexual relationship and this meant
that the issue of her sexual orientation
was raised frequently during her life. From
mid 1966 to the early 1970s Springfield
lived in a domestic partnership with fellow
singer Norma Tanega. In the 1970s and
1980s, Springfield became involved in
several romantic relationships with women
in Canada and the US that were not kept
secret from the gay and lesbian community.
In 1994 she was diagnosed with breast
cancer and in spite of vigorous treatments
died in 1999 aged only 59.
David Bowie
David Robert Jones
Born 1947
David Bowie is an English musician, singersongwriter, record producer, actor and
arranger. Bowie has been a major figure
in the world of popular music for over four
decades and is renowned as an innovator,
particularly for his work in the 1970s. He
is known for his distinctive voice as well as
the intellectual depth and eclecticism of his
work.
Best Bits:
•
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•
•
•
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Space Oddity
Starman
Let’s Dance
Life on Mars
China Girl
The Man Who Sold The
World
• Changes
• Ziggy Stardust
Bowie declared himself gay in an interview
with Michael Watts in the 22 January
1972 issue of Melody Maker, a move
which coincided with the first shots in his
campaign for stardom as ‘Ziggy Stardust’.
In a September 1976 interview with Playboy,
Bowie said “It’s true, I am a bisexual. But
I can’t deny that I’ve used that fact very
well. I suppose it’s the best thing that ever
happened to me.”
In a 1983 interview with Rolling Stone, Bowie
said his public declaration of bisexuality
was “the biggest mistake I ever made”
and “I was always a closet heterosexual”.
On other occasions, he said his interest
in homosexual and bisexual culture had
been more a product of the times and the
situation in which he found himself than his
own feelings.
from
glam
to Lang
Sir Elton John
Reginald Kenneth Dwight
Born 1947
Elton John is an English singer-songwriter,
composer, pianist, record producer, and
occasional actor. He has worked with lyricist
Bernie Taupin as his songwriter partner
since 1967; they have collaborated on more
than 30 albums to date. In his five-decade
career John has sold more than 300 million
records, making him one of the best-selling
music artists in the world.
Best Bits:
•
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•
•
Tiny Dancer
Candle in the Wind
Your Song
Daniel
I guess that’s why they call
it the blues
• Song for Guy
• I’m still standing
• Mona Lisas and Mad
Hatters
John was inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in 1994, is an inductee into the
Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and is a fellow
of the British Academy of Songwriters,
Composers and Authors. Having been
named a Commander of the Order of the
British Empire in 1996, John received a
knighthood for “services to music and
charitable services” in 1998. John has
performed at a number of royal events,
such as the funeral of Princess Diana at
Westminster Abbey in 1997, the Party at the
Palace in 2002 and the Queen’s Diamond
Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace
in 2012.
He has been heavily involved in the fight
against AIDS since the late 1980s. In
1992, he established the Elton John AIDS
Foundation and a year later began hosting
the annual Academy Award Party, which
has since become one of the highestprofile Oscar parties in the Hollywood film
industry. Since its inception, the foundation
has raised over $200 million. John entered
into a civil partnership with David Furnish
on 21 December 2005 and continues to be
a champion for LGBT social movements
worldwide and same-sex marriage.
songwriter, Mercury composed many hits
for Queen, including ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’,
‘Killer Queen’, ‘Somebody to Love’, ‘Don’t
Stop Me Now’, ‘Crazy Little Thing Called
Love’ and ‘We Are the Champions’.
In addition to his work with Queen, he led
a solo career and also occasionally served
as a producer and guest musician (piano or
vocals) for other artists.
He died of bronchopneumonia brought on
by AIDS on 24 November 1991, only one
day after publicly acknowledging that he
had the disease.
Freddie Mercury
Farrokh Bulsara
1946-1991
It’s hard to believe that Freddie Mercury was
taken from us some 23 years ago.
Mercury was a British musician, singer, and
songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist
and lyricist of the rock band Queen.
As a performer, he was known for his
flamboyant stage persona and powerful
vocals over a four-octave range. As a
Best Bits:
•
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Bohemian Rhapsody
Killer Queen
I Want to Break Free
Barcelona
Radio Ga Ga
We Are The Champions
Don’t Stop Me Now
Somebody to Love
You’re My Best Friend
These Are The Days of Our
Lives
Mercury was born in Zanzibar and grew
up there and in India until his mid-teens.
Posthumously, in 1992 he was awarded
the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution
to Music and the Freddie Mercury Tribute
Concert was held at Wembley Stadium. As
a member of Queen, he was inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001; the
Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003; the UK
Music Hall of Fame in 2004 and the band
received a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame in 2002.
In 2002, Mercury was placed at number 58
in the BBC’s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.
He continues to be voted one of the greatest
singers in the history of popular music. In
2005, a poll organised by Blender and
MTV2 saw Mercury voted the greatest male
singer of all time. In 2008, Rolling Stone
editors ranked him number 18 on their list
of the 100 greatest singers of all time. In
2009, a Classic Rock poll saw him voted the
greatest rock singer of all time.
Boy George
George Alan O’Dowd
Born 1961
Boy George is an English singer-songwriter,
who was part of the English New
Romanticism movement which emerged
in the late 1970s to the early 1980s. His
music is often classified as blue-eyed soul,
which is influenced by rhythm and blues
and reggae. During the 1980s, Boy George
was the lead singer of the Grammy and Brit
Award winning pop band Culture Club where
he became known for his soulful voice and
androgynous appearance.
flatly denied that he was gay, when asked
in interviews, George gave various answers.
He gave a famous, oft-quoted response to
an interviewer that he preferred “a nice cup
of tea” to sex.
In Take It Like a Man, George told his side
of his secret relationships with punk rock
singer Kirk Brandon and Culture Club
drummer Jon Moss. He stated many of
the songs he wrote for Culture Club were
directed at Moss. However, one of Culture
Club’s biggest hits ‘Do You Really Want
to Hurt Me’ was about Brandon. Moss
acknowledged that he had a sexual and
romantic relationship with George, but
Brandon denies he ever had a relationship
with George.
In 2006, in an episodic documentary directed
by Simon George titled The Madness of Boy
George, George declared on camera he was
“militantly gay”. In a 2008 documentary
Living with Boy George, he talks about his
first realisation he was gay and when he first
told his parents.
When Boy George was with Culture Club,
much was made of his androgynous
appearance and there was speculation
about his sexuality. Although he never
Best Bits:
• Karma Chameleon
• Do You Really Want to
Hurt Me?
• The Crying Game
• Everything I Own
• Church of the Poison Mind
Lou Reed
1942-2013
Lewis Allan ‘Lou’ Reed was an American
musician, singer and songwriter.
After
serving as guitarist, vocalist, and principal
songwriter of the Velvet Underground, his
solo career spanned several decades.
The Velvet Underground was a commercial
failure in the late 1960s, but the group
gained a considerable cult following in the
years since its demise and has gone on to
become one of the most widely cited and
influential bands of the era. Roxy Music’s
Brian Eno famously said that while the
Velvet Underground’s debut album only sold
30,000 copies, “everyone who bought one
of those 30,000 copies started a band.”
After his departure from the group, Reed
began a solo career in 1972. He had a hit the
following year with ‘Walk on the Wild Side’,
but subsequently lacked the mainstream
commercial success its chart status
seemed to indicate. In 2003, Rolling Stone
magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums
of all time included two albums by Reed as
a solo artist, Transformer and Berlin.
Best Bits:
•
•
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•
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Perfect Day
Walk on the Wild Side
Satellite of Love
Vicious
I’m Waiting for the Man
As a teenager, Reed displayed ‘homosexual
feelings’ that alarmed his parents, who
forced him to undergo electroconvulsive
therapy. He vividly described the treatment
in the song ‘Kill Your Sons’. During his
glam rock years, Reed’s on-stage persona
frequently
bordered
on
androgyny,
which, combined with his well known and
tumultuous friendship with the openly
bisexual David Bowie created an impression
of epicene pansexuality.
Rufus
Wainwright
Born 1973
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an
American-Canadian singer-songwriter and
composer. He has recorded seven albums
of original music and numerous tracks on
compilations and film soundtracks. He
has also written a classical opera and set
Shakespeare sonnets to music for a theatre
piece by Robert Wilson.
Wainwright acknowledged that he was
gay while a teenager. In 1999, he told
Rolling Stone that his father recognized his
homosexuality early on. “We’d drive around
in the car, he’d play ‘Heart of Glass’ and
I’d sort of mouth the words, pretend to be
Blondie. Just a sign of many other things
to come as well.” Wainwright later said
in another interview that his “mother and
father could not even handle me being gay.
We never talked about it really.”
Best Bits:
•
•
•
•
•
Dinner at Eight
California
Go of Go Ahead
The One You Love
The Apartment
(as performed by
Shirley Bassey)
At age 14, Wainwright was sexually
assaulted in London’s Hyde Park after
picking up a man at a bar. In an interview
years later, he described the event: “I said
I wanted to go to the park and see where
this big concert was going on. I thought it
was going to be a romantic walk in the park,
but he raped me and robbed me afterwards
and tried to strangle me”. Wainwright states
that he survived only by pretending to be an
epileptic and faking a seizure.
Kathryn Dawn
Lang
Born 1961
Known by her stage name, K D Lang is a
Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter
and occasional actress. Lang has won
both Juno Awards and Grammy Awards
for her musical performances; hits include
‘Constant Craving’ and ‘Miss Chatelaine’.
Lang, who came out as a homosexual
in a June 1992 article of the LGBT news
magazine The Advocat, has championed
gay rights causes.
She has supported many causes over
the years, including HIV/AIDS care and
research. Her cover of Cole Porter’s ‘So
Best Bits:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Constant Craving
Miss Chatelaine
Crying
The Air That I Breath
The Joker
Hallelujah
in Love’ (from the Broadway musical, Kiss
Me, Kate), appears on the Red Hot + Blue
compilation album and video from 1990
(a tribute to Cole Porter to benefit AIDS
research and relief).
Her 2010 Greatest Hits album, Recollection,
also includes this cover of ‘So in Love’.
Lang also recorded the song ‘Fado Hilario’
singing in Portuguese, for the 1999 Red Hot
AIDS benefit album ‘Onda Sonora: Red Hot
+ Lisbon’ a traditional fado from Portugal.
present
day
Jessie J
Born 1988
Jessica Ellen Cornish, better known by her
stage name Jessie J, is an English singer
and songwriter. Born and brought up in
London, England, she studied at the BRIT
School before signing with Gut Records and
striking a songwriting deal with Sony/ATV
Music Publishing where she wrote for artists
including Chris Brown and Miley Cyrus.
After signing with Universal Republic, Jessie
J came to prominence following the release
of her début single, “Do It Like a Dude”,
which peaked at number two on the UK
Singles Charts. In 2011, after topping the
charts in nineteen countries including the
United Kingdom, France, Ireland and New
Zealand, with the song “Price Tag”, she
released her début album, Who You Are,
which charted at number two in the UK.
Other releases from the album included
“Nobody’s Perfect”, “Who’s Laughing
Now” and “Who You Are”, which all charted
within the top 20 in the UK. Release of the
fifth single, “Domino”, resulted in further
international chart success, peaking at
number six on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100
and becoming her second UK number one.
The seventh single released from Who You
Are, “LaserLight”, became the album’s sixth
top ten single, making her the first British
female artist to have six top ten singles from
a studio album. Her second album, Alive,
was released on 23 September 2013 and
reached the top 5 in the UK Albums Chart.
An adapted version of the album is planned
for release in the U.S. in 2014. Aside from
her musical career, Jessie J served as coach
and mentor on television show, The Voice
UK.
Citing various influences, Jessie J is
recognised for an unconventional musical
and performance style that mixes soul
vocals with contemporary R&B, pop,
electropop and hip-hop beats.
Best Bits:
•
•
•
•
Do It Like A Dude
Price Tag
Domino
LaserLight
Jessie J is bisexual and stated in an
interview on the “In Demand” radio show
on 3 March 2011, “I’ve never denied it.
Whoopie doo guys, yes, I’ve dated girls and
I’ve dated boys – get over it.” According
to The Guardian, Jessie J’s sexuality is
valuable to young teens, especially for
young girls unsure of themselves because
of their sexuality and identity, to feel “that
this does happen and this is normal.”
Will Young
Born 1979
William Robert “Will” Young is an English
singer-songwriter and actor who came to
prominence after winning the 2002 inaugural
series of the British music contest Pop Idol,
making him the first winner of the worldwide
Idol franchise. His debut single “Anything Is
Possible” was released two weeks after the
show’s finale and became the fastest-selling
debut single in the UK. Young also came in
fifth place in World Idol performing his single
“Light My Fire”.
As a teenager, Young studied politics at
the University of Exeter before moving to
London, where he studied musical theatre
at Arts Educational School. Young put his
studies on hold in late 2001 to become a
contestant on Pop Idol. After winning the
competition the following year, he released
his debut album From Now On (2002) which
Best Bits:
•
•
•
•
Anything Is Possible
Light My Fire
Leave Right Now
Friday’s Child
went to straight to number one. Friday’s
Child (2003) followed and enjoyed greater
success, eventually going platinum five
times in the UK and spawning three top
five singles. His albums Keep On (2005)
and Let It Go (2008) are also multi-platinum
and his most recent release Echoes (2011)
became his third UK number-one album.
His albums have spawned many songs that
have accomplished top ten positions in the
UK: four of which went to the number one
spot. Young has also undertaken numerous
concert tours. He has also accumulated
multiple honours, including two BRIT Awards
from 12 nominations, and the estimated
worldwide sale of over eight million albums.
Alongside his music career, Young has acted
in film, on stage and in television. For his
performance in the 2013 London revival of
the musical Cabaret, he was nominated for
the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor
in a Musical. He has also participated in
philanthropy and released books Anything
is Possible (2002), On Camera, Off Duty
(2004) and his autobiography Funny Peculiar
(2012).
In March 2002, Young revealed that he is gay,
pre-empting a tabloid newspaper that was
preparing to out him. He also stated that
he had never hidden it and was comfortable
with his sexual orientation.
Dana
International
Sharon Cohen
Born 1972
Sharon Cohen, professionally known as
Dana International; born Yaron Cohen is
an Israeli pop singer of Yemenite Jewish
ancestry. She has released eight albums
and three additional compilation albums,
positioning herself as one of Israel’s most
successful musical acts ever. She is most
famous for having won the Eurovision Song
Contest 1998 in Birmingham with the song
“Diva”.
Assigned male at birth, she discovered that
she was transgender at an early age, and
came out as a trans woman when she was
13. Undergoing sex reassignment surgery in
1993, it was that year that she released her
first album, Danna International, upon which
she based her stage name. Consolidating
Best Bits:
• Winning the Eurovision
Song Contest with “Diva”
her initial commercial success with the
albums Umpatampa (1994) and Maganuna
(1996), in 1998 she was selected to represent
Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest with
her song “Diva”; subsequently winning the
international competition, Dana came to
public attention throughout Europe.
Following this up with the albums Free
(1999), Yoter VeYoter (2001), HaHalom
HaEfshari (2002) and Hakol Ze Letova
(2008), in 2011 she once more represented
Israel in Eurovision, this time with the song
“Ding Dong”, although failed to make it into
the final. That same year she also became
a judge on the Israeli television music talent
contest Kokhav Nolad.
Dana International has been credited
with being one of the world’s best known
transsexuals. In 2005, a poll by the Israeli
news website Ynet to list those perceived
as the 200 Greatest Israelis saw Dana voted
the 47th-greatest Israeli of all time.
toured the US and Canada using biodiesel.
Recently Rolling Stone Magazine reported
that Melissa Etheridge was so incensed by
the Russian government’s recent treatment
of the LGBT community, she wrote a single
specifically about the issue and formed an
entire coalition dedicated to supporting
Russian LGBT activists. However, instead
of an attack, the track “Uprising of Love”
(which shares its name with the coalition), is
a call for unity.
Melissa
Etheridge
In the song, Etheridge mixes her classic
roots-rock with modern pop production.
“Uprising of Love” opens with an ambient,
free-floating beat before Etheridge, in her
powerful voice, urges for unity against
oppression. As she calls out the anthemic
chorus, a stomping drumbeat supports the
song’s slow burn.
Born 1961
Melissa Lou Etheridge is an American rock
singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist.
Etheridge is known for her mixture of
confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock,
and raspy, smoky vocals. She has also
been an iconic gay and lesbian activist since
her public coming out in January 1993.
Etheridge came out publicly as a lesbian
in January 1993 at the Triangle Ball, a gay
celebration of President Bill Clinton’s first
inauguration. Etheridge supported Clinton’s
1992 presidential campaign and since her
coming out has been famous as a gay rights
activist.
She is also a committed advocate for
environmental issues and in 2006, she
“The lyrics of ‘Uprising of Love’ came from
such a personal and passionate spot in my
soul and I’m more than excited to share
this anthem with the world,” Etheridge
told Rolling Stone. “Love is intangible and
unpredictable, but it’s the one feeling that is
universally experienced and desired by all.”
Best Bits:
•
•
•
•
•
Come to My Window
Bring Me Some Water
I’m The Only One
Like The Way I Do
Piece of My Heart
The tune doesn’t only target LGBT
oppression on a conceptual level. All of the
proceeds from the song are being donated
to the Russia Freedom Fund, an organization
that makes direct financial contributions
to LGBT activists in Russia. Meanwhile,
the Uprising of Love coalition, which exists
to raise money for fund, has aligned with
over 50 artists, including Madonna, Cyndi
Lauper, James Franco, Edward Norton, and
Julianne Moore.
The single was released on January 28th.
Joe McElderry
Born 1991
Joseph “Joe” McElderry is an English singer
and songwriter. He won the sixth series of
the ITV show The X Factor in 2009. His first
single “The Climb” reached number one
on the UK Singles Chart and Irish Singles
Charts.
He was also crowned the winner of the
second series of Popstar to Operastar, two
years later in 2011. To date he has released
four top 20 albums - two of them reaching
the UK top three. He is the first winner of
The X Factor to release a fourth album.
McElderry auditioned for The X Factor in
2007 and made it to bootcamp, he then felt
he was too young compared to the other
contestants and opted to walk away. He
auditioned again in 2009 in Manchester and
sang Luther Vandross’s “Dance with My
Father”.
Mentored by Cheryl Cole, he made it
through to the live finals and was announced
the winner on 13 December 2009, beating
runner up Olly Murs with his version of “The
Climb”.
In 2011 McElderry entered ITV’s Popstar to
Operastar and won the show. After the show
it was revealed that, in all of the episodes
in which he competed, McElderry received
more votes than all of the other contestants
combined, never receiving less than 58.2%
of the total public votes. He defeated Cheryl
Baker in the final with 77.1% of the public
vote.
On 30 July 2010, McElderry announced on
his official website that he is gay. The gay
charity Stonewall has listed McElderry as a
gay role model.
Best Bits:
• The Climb
• Dance with my Father
• Nessun Dorma
In November 2012, he became a columnist
for GT, writing about his music and other
recent projects. He wrote columns for 4
issues of the magazines.
He is frequently asked in interviews whether
he is still in touch with his former X Factor
mentor Cheryl Cole, he usually replies saying
they text each other regularly and see each
other whenever they have the chance.
behind
the
scenes
Joe Meek
Robert George Meek
1929 – 1967
Joe Meek was a pioneering English record
producer and songwriter.
His bestremembered hit is the Tornados’ ‘Telstar’
(1962), which became the first record by a
British group to reach No.1 in the US Hot
100. It also spent five weeks atop the UK
singles chart, with Meek receiving an Ivor
Novello Award for this production as the
“Best-Selling A-Side” of 1962.
Meek’s other hits include ‘Don’t You Rock
Me Daddy-O’ and ‘Cumberland Gap’ by
Lonnie Donegan (as engineer), ‘Johnny
Remember Me’ by John Leyton, ‘Just Like
Eddie’ by Heinz, ‘Have I the Right?’ by the
Honeycombs and ‘Tribute to Buddy Holly’
by Mike Berry.
Meek’s homosexuality, illegal in the UK at
the time, put him under further pressure;
he had been convicted of ‘importuning for
immoral purposes’ in 1963 and fined £15;
he was consequently subject to blackmail.
In January 1967, police in Tattingstone,
Suffolk, discovered a suitcase containing the
mutilated body of Bernard Oliver. According
to some accounts, Meek became concerned
that he would be implicated in the murder
investigation when the Metropolitan Police
said they would be interviewing all known
homosexual men in the city.
His commercial success as a producer was
short-lived and Meek gradually sank into
debt and depression. On 3 February 1967,
using a shotgun owned by musician Heinz
Burt, Meek killed his landlady and then
himself.
Meek’s story was immortalised in the 2008
film ‘Telstar’ staring Con O’Neill, Kevin
Spacey, Pam Ferris and James Corden.
Best Bits:
• Telstar - The Tornados
• Cumberland Gap - Lonnie
Donegan
• Johnny Remember Me John Leyton
• Just Like Eddie - Heinz
• Have I The Right - The
Honeycombs
Epstein’s homosexuality was not publicly
known until some years after his death,
although it had been an open secret among
his friends and business associates.
Brian Epstein
1934-1967
Brian Samuel Epstein was an English music
entrepreneur, best known for managing the
Beatles until his death of a drugs overdose
in 1967.
Epstein first discovered the Beatles in
November 1961, during a lunchtime Cavern
Club performance.
He was instantly
impressed and saw great potential in the
group. After being rejected by nearly all of
the major recording companies in London,
Epstein secured a meeting with George
Martin, head of EMI’s Parlophone label.
In May 1962, Martin agreed to sign the
Beatles, partly due to Epstein’s conviction
that the group would become internationally
famous.
The Beatles’ success has been attributed
to Epstein’s management style and the
band trusted him without hesitation. This
unquestioning loyalty would later prove
detrimental, as Epstein had never managed
a music group before and therefore had little
knowledge of the industry. Epstein advised
the creation of Northern Songs, in which
John Lennon and Paul McCartney signed
away their publishing rights to a company of
which they were minority shareholders. The
effects of this deal are still felt in 2013 – Paul
McCartney has to pay royalties to perform
songs that he wrote while in the Beatles.
Best Bits:
• Any of the early Beatles’
hits!
• Also managed Gerry and
The Pacemakers
• Also managed Billy J
Kramer and The Dakotas
• Also managed Cilla Black
While Epstein was in the Army, he
commissioned a tailor to make an officer’s
uniform for him that he wore when cruising the
bars of London, but was arrested one night at
the Army and Navy Club in Piccadilly by the
Military Police for impersonating an officer.
Epstein managed to avoid a court martial
by agreeing to see an army psychiatrist,
who learned of Epstein’s sexuality. After 10
months he was discharged from the army
on medical grounds for being “emotionally
and mentally unfit”. Epstein later stated
that his first homosexual experience was
when he returned to Liverpool after being
discharged.
Epstein spent a year studying acting at
RADA, but dropped out shortly after his
arrest for ‘persistent importuning’ outside a
men’s public toilet in Swiss Cottage, London.
When Epstein first saw The Beatles perform
he noticed their stage attire first, saying,
“They were rather scruffily dressed, in the
nicest possible way, or I should say in the
most attractive way: black leather jackets,
jeans, long hair of course.” McCartney said
that when Epstein started to manage The
Beatles they knew that he was homosexual
but did not care, because he encouraged
them professionally and offered them
access to previously off-limits social circles.
It is rumoured that the Beatles hit ‘You’ve
Got To Hide Your Love Away’ was written
about Epstein in reference to his closeted
homosexuality.
In the last several years, Epstein has gained
increased notoriety for both his influence on
the Beatles and his complicated personal
life. In 2012, Tom Hanks announced that his
production company will back a biopic of
the famed Beatles’ manager. They describe
the movie as “the story of a man who threw
the biggest party of the ‘60s but ultimately
forgot to invite himself.”
a news item describing how Peyton had
finally passed after many attempts.
After joining Capitol Radio, in 1975 Everett
played a pivotal role in getting Queen’s
Bohemian Rhapsody released as a single.
Various executives had suggested to the
band that 5 minutes and 55 seconds was
too long for a single and it would never be
a hit. After acquiring a promotional reelto-reel copy of the track, Everett teased
his audience by playing small parts of the
song on air. Audience demand for the track
intensified when Everett played the whole
track no fewer than 14 times on his show
in two days! Finally the track was released
and the rest is history.
Kenny Everett
Maurice James
Christopher Cole
1944 – 1995
In 1978, London’s Thames Television offered
Everett a new venture, which became the
Kenny Everett Video Show. This was a
vehicle for Everett’s characters and sketches
including Sid Snot, Marcel Wave and Cupid
Stunt.
Kenny Everett was a British comedian, radio
DJ and television entertainer. Everett is best
known for his career as a radio DJ and for
The Kenny Everett Video Show. He began
his career as a DJ for Radio London.
He teamed up with Dave Cash for the Kenny
& Cash Show, one of the most popular
pirate radio programmes. His offbeat style
and likable personality quickly gained him
attention, but in 1965 he was sacked after
some outspoken remarks about religion
on air. Everett returned six months later,
however, before being given his own show
by Radio Luxembourg in 1966.
He was heard in May 1967 on the BBC’s
soon to be discontinued Light Programme
previewing The Beatles’ forthcoming album
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and
was one of the DJs on the new pop music
station Radio 1 from its launch at the end of
September 1967.
In 1970, Everett again found himself sacked,
this time after suggesting on air that Mary
Peyton, the British Transport Minister’s wife,
had bribed her driving test examiner. The
remark was a spontaneous quip, following
Best Bits:
• Any of his radio shows
(listen again/youtube)
• Any of his television shows
(listen again/youtube)
• BBC4 biopic “Best Possible
Taste: The Kenny Everett
Story”
In October 1981, Everett returned to BBC
Radio, this time on Radio 2, on Saturday
from 11.00am–1.00pm. During this time, the
BBC received a large number of complaints
after Everett told the following joke while live
on air; “When Britain was an Empire we were
ruled by an emperor. When we became a
kingdom we were ruled by a king. And now
we’re a country we’re ruled by Margaret
Thatcher.” The show ran until 1983.
Everett married the singer Lee ‘Lady Lee’
Middleton in 1969. By 1979 they had
separated, and in the mid-1980s, he publicly
acknowledged his homosexuality. Everett
was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1989 and
he made his condition known to the public
in 1993. He died from an AIDS-related
illness, in the Royal Borough of Kensington
and Chelsea, London, on 4 April 1995, aged
only 50.
The story of this pioneering radio DJ and
television star is told in the BBC 4 biopic
“Best Possible Taste: The Kenny Everett
Story” which last aired on 27 June 2013.
Scott Mills
Born 1973
Scott Robert Mills is a British radio DJ,
television presenter and occasional actor,
best known for presenting his show on
BBC Radio 1. Since 2011, Mills also
commentates for the semi-finals of the
Eurovision Song Contest on BBC Three with
fellow BBC Radio DJ Sara Cox.
Mills joined BBC Radio 1 in 1998 to present
The Early Breakfast Show which broadcasts
between the hours of 4am and 7am. In
January 2004, Mills shifted to a weekend
afternoon slot for just over 6 months, but in
July 2004, he moved over to the weekday
early-evening slot, initially covering for Sara
Cox, who was on a maternity leave. As she
did not return, the slot became The Scott
Mills Show. As it currently features, the
show runs from 1pm to 4pm, Monday to
Friday.
Mills came out as gay to the press in
2001 to avoid tabloid-style speculation.
Occasionally on the show, deflective
comments are made, and Mills often jokes
that he “doesn’t have much luck with
the ladies”. In his Guardian interview he
explained, “I’d just like to be accepted as a
normal bloke who is gay and is on the radio
and the television.”
Best Bits:
• Scott Mills Daily - BBC
Radio 1
• The World’s Worst Place
to be Gay? - Documentary
BBC3
Mills appeared at number 12 on the
Independent on Sunday’s Pink List for
2010. Mills was the 50th most influential
gay person in Britain the previous year.
In February 2011, Mills presented a
documentary for BBC Three called ‘The
World’s Worst Place to Be Gay?’ which
went on to win the 2011 Stonewall Awards
‘Broadcast of the Year’ award.
That’s all folks!
Well not quite - we’ve selected a few of our favourites and we hope you’ve enjoyed
reading about them as much as we enjoyed researching them but, as you’ve no doubt
realised, there are so many other LGBT artists and people connected with the music
industry that we haven’t been able to mention.
So if we’ve inspired you, why not do a bit of research yourself into some of the others we
haven’t mentioned such as:
•
Kathy Kirby
•
Tracy Chapman
•
Long John Baldry
•
George Michael
•
Liberace
•
Stephen Gately
•
Labi Siffre
•
Jimmy Somerville
•
Dave Davies
•
Joan Armatrading
•
Sylvester
•
Marc Almond
•
Neil Tennant
•
Morrissey
•
Limahl
•
Alison Goldfrapp
•
Holly Johnson
The list is quite literally endless!
So next time you’re listening to a track on the radio or you hear a piece of music in the
background of a movie or TV advert, have a think, there’s a fairly good chance that
somewhere along the line there’s an LGBT connection.
Bibliography
LGBT History Month
http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/about-the-month/
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Designed, written and compiled by Neil Mortson and Andy Barber 2014