Brandon Flowers - I Can Change

I recently posted a message from Pet Shop Boys vocalist Neil Tennant, who had alerted his fans that he'd contributed to a coming Brandon Flowers track that samples the 1984 Bronski Beat gay classic, Smalltown Boy. The track appeared on YouTube this week and you'll have to listen closely for Tennant's spoken line. I quite like this.

(Tipped by JMG reader Blobby)

A Note From Neil Tennant

Killers frontman Brandon Flowers is probably the most famous Mormon in pop music and he and his family are featured in a video on the LDS website. While he's known to be gay-friendly, Flowers said little during the Prop 8 fracas. It will be interesting to hear his take on what is arguably the most famous gay anthem of all time.

UPDATE: Here's the first single from the coming album.

Jimmy Somerville - Some Wonder

Jimmy Somerville's disco tribute album Homage will be released on Tuesday and today we get the first production video. I interviewed Somerville back in November and you can check out a great fan video from album's glorious first single, Travesty.

JMG Interview With Jimmy Somerville Plus Worldwide Debut Of Travesty Re-Edit

I recently had the privilege of speaking with groundbreaking dance artist Jimmy Somerville about his new album and his history as one of the loudest and proudest gay artists. 

JMG: Hi, Jimmy! Let's start with today and work backwards. Tell us about your coming album, Homage, and its first single, Travesty, which made its worldwide debut on my site last month to much acclaim from my readers. From the first single, this feels like a total throwback to the lush orchestrated disco sound of the 70s.

Jimmy Somerville: That's it, exactly. This is the album I've always wanted to do. This is the album that if it came out when I was 15 years old, I'd have been dancing around my bedroom to it.

JMG: I've been dancing around my bedroom to it and I'm a few multiples of 15 years old. It's been five years since your last album and a decade since one was released in the US. Why the long break? 

JS: Well, it all had to do with money, confidence, and direction. After my contract to London [Records] came to an end - my relationship [with them] was so toxic - it destroyed my belief in myself as a writer and performer. Only in the last two and half years did everything turn in my head. It was like, "I can do this. I'm doing this for me." It's like I'm starting my career all over again.

JMG: Speaking of starting your career, you came out as a proud gay artist in the early 80s when few others would. At that time you publicly slammed artists like Boy George who were still being coy about their gayness. How do you think things have changed for young gay artists today?

JS: It all depends on how you want to further your career, sadly. When it's all about your sexuality that sometimes means it's automatically turned into a negative. You create this smokescreen and that's kind of sad. I was coming from a political agenda and different mindset. I was very much a radical at the front of a political awakening.

JMG: Sam Smith has been out pretty much from the start.

JS: He's out there, he's really successful, and you know what, nobody gives a shit. But even today it's a brave thing to do. I take my hat off to him.

JMG: As to your political awakening, like many gay men my age, 1984's Smalltown Boy was part of my own political awakening. For so many of us, that song was so painfully personal but also truly beautiful. I can't think of any other song that was so simultaneously heartbreaking and empowering.

JS: It never fails to move when I hear that. It never fails to make me tearful. It's not even really my song anymore. It means too much to so many other people.

JMG: When Bronski Beat was touring back then, my friends and I drove hundreds of miles to hear you at Fort Lauderdale's Copa. But when we got there, no Jimmy Somerville.

JS: Yeah, sorry about that. It was just Frank [Bronski] and Larry [Steinbachek] at that point. The club didn't tell you?

JMG: Nope. People were pissed and they let the other guys know it by chanting,  "Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy."

JS: (Chuckles.) I'm sure that went over well.

JMG: Last year you appeared in a wildly viral video in which you seemed to surprise a Berlin street busker as he was singing Smalltown Boy. Was that really just a happy random circumstance?

JS: Um...half and half. He knew I was nearby.

JMG: A Bronski Beat concert is a major plot point in the movie Pride, which is in US theaters right now. How did that come about?

JS: Mark, the main character, was my best friend [in real life]. He kept hitting on my boyfriend. We had a massive fight and then we were inseparable. I wrote For A Friend [Communards, 1987] for Mark when he died.

JMG: Since you mentioned a Communards song, dare I ask if you keep in touch with [bandmate] Richard Coles?

JS:  We keep in touch by email. You know, he's an Anglican priest now and he's written a book. Look it up on Amazon, there's actually a halo on the cover.

JMG: So what's next for you?

JS: Basically I'll just keep writing material for another album. Some touring for this one, but there's no band. I'm not on a label and this album cost hardly anything to do. It was just made with so much love and friendship.

JMG: My San Francisco readers are dying for a concert.

JS: San Francisco! I'd love to play there.

JMG: Thanks very much, Jimmy. Before we go, since your new album is old school disco, I'm wondering what your personal all-time favorite disco song is?

JS: Oh, that's so hard!. There's so many, it's impossible to say, really. But if I had to pick just one...hmm...I'd guess I'd say Divine's Native Love. You just can't hear that without wanting to move.

The single and extended 12" version of Travesty are now available for download. Homage will be released in early 2015. Below is the worldwide debut of legendary Saint DJ Robbie Leslie's eleven-minute re-edit of Travesty.

Jimmy Somerville - Back To Me

JMG Worldwide Exclusive Premiere:Jimmy Somerville's New Single Travesty

Via press release:

The euphoric joy of disco has been one consistent thread, which has run through the diverse, illustrious thirty-year career of pop legend Jimmy Somerville. Famous for re-making disco classics as his own, “Travesty”, Jimmy’s first original disco-styled single will make its debut on JoeMyGod on Sept. 15th and will be serviced promotionally (single version and extended mix) to media outlets and clubs. “Travesty” will be available from all digital retailers on October 28th (via Membran). “Travesty”, written by Jimmy and produced by long-time producer John Winfield, is a taster of his forthcoming album Homage that as the title suggests, pays homage to the disco era.

The emphasis throughout the recording of the new album has been on achieving the musical authenticity of the original disco era Jimmy grew up with and loves so much. A proud Jimmy Somerville comments: “I've finally made the disco album I always wanted to and never thought could. If I was 15 again I'd buy it, sit on my bed, slowly open the gate-fold, slide out the vinyl, place it on the turntable then jump off the bed and imagine someone just passed me a tambourine...I'd be in heaven! The horns, the strings, the bass, the guitars, the drums, the backing vocals and the melody....the escape. So open your ears embrace the groove and pay homage to an all too easily derided sound ... I LOVE Disco!"

I've been playing this track nonstop since Friday and as you'll hear, Travesty does indeed live up to its old school disco billing. You'll have to wait a bit to hear to the fantastic full eight-minute 12" version - but disco-heads are guaranteed to flip for it.

Jimmy Somerville Reprises Landmark Hit On 30th Anniversary Of Smalltown Boy

In the summer of 1984 my roommate and I returned from one of our twice-weekly record hunts bearing the 12" of Bronski Beat's Smalltown Boy - which we'd initially fished out of the import bin purely because we were intrigued by the cover's pink triangle. The mournful lyrics on the flip side of that 12" sleeve only hinted at the plaintive, painful disco bliss that turned Smalltown Boy into what would become the most well-known pop hit about gay bashing and being rejected by one's family for being gay. (Maybe the only well-known one?) Smalltown Boy was a global smash, topping the pop charts in several countries and hitting #1 on Billboard's dance chart during February 1985. Today, on the 30th anniversary of Smalltown Boy's release in the UK, former Bronski Beat vocalist Jimmy Somerville, now 52, has released a gorgeous, spare version. He's still got it. Get it on iTunes. Below is the original 1984 video. Dance the pain away.


(Tipped by JMG reader Bear Bob)

Dido - Smalltown Boy

A lovely acoustic cover of the Bronski Beat classic.

(Tipped by JMG reader Dwight)

Busker Meets Jimmy Somerville

Gawker's Neetzan Zimmerman writes:

"While performing the classic '80s synth pop anthem "Smalltown Boy" by Bronski Beat, a Berlin street musician is joined by the song's original singer, Jimmy Somerville, who just happened to be walking by with his dog."

If you've somehow never heard the still-stunning Smalltown Boy, go here. It truly was a landmark musical moment for the movement. (Image above via Towleroad)

(Tipped by JMG reader Russ)