The Velvet Mafia: the gay men who helped shape mic the 60s | Mic | The Guardian

Contents:

• THE VELVET MAFIA: THE GAY MEN WHO HELPED SHAPE MIC THE 60S
• THE VELVET RAGE BY ALAN DOWNS | SIX LSONS ABOUT GAY NARCISSISM | PART 01
• ‘IT WAS AN ELECTRIC TIME TO BE GAY’: SARAH WATERS ON 20 YEARS OF TIPPG THE VELVET
• PRI AND PREJUDICE FOR GAY MEN
• ABOUT THAT GAY MAFIA...

THE VELVET MAFIA: THE GAY MEN WHO HELPED SHAPE MIC THE 60S

But the people who shaped and advised those artists – the on who managed the stars of the classic rock age – were, by an outsized marg, gay terwoven muny clud Brian Epste (who brought the world the Beatl), K Lambert (who -managed the Who), Simon Napier-Bell (the Yardbirds, and a young Marc Bolan), Robert Stigwood (Cream, the Bee Ge), Billy Gaff (Rod Stewart), Ken Pt (David Bowie), Barry Krost (Cat Stevens), as well as Tony Stratton-Smh (who formed the visnary label Charisma for bands like Genis). In fact, was a gay man, Larry Parn, who svengali-d Bra’s very first rockers, om Tommy Steele to Billy Fury to Marty Wil.

A new book tled The Velvet Mafia: the Gay Men who Ran the Swgg Sixti aims to tell the Brish si of this story by focg on several key players the scene, cludg a few of the aforementned nam along wh the novative producer Joe Meek and the head of the UK’s most powerful label at the time, Sir Joseph Lockwood.

”At the same time, the rich, powerful and fluential men faced the nsirable nsequenc of beg gay at a time when homosexual acts were still outlawed the UK. ”There were, fact, a few powerful gay women the Brish rock scene at the time as well, cludg Vicki Wickham, who booked the acts on the semal TV show Ready Steady Go and who later managed Dty Sprgfield and LaBelle. ”Bullock’s book don’t lve to the eper cultural and psychologil issu volved the relatnships between the gay and straight men.

THE VELVET RAGE BY ALAN DOWNS | SIX LSONS ABOUT GAY NARCISSISM | PART 01

Still, ’s clear to any stunt of the era that the edgy liv of gay men at the time fascated the straight artists they worked wh. ”In some ways, managers like Epste and other others uld sulate themselv om the everyday life of gay men at the time – throwg their own exclive parti and circulatg elevated circl where they uld do as they pleased. Ironilly, after the law agast homosexual acts changed Bra 1967 – crimalizg them certa circumstanc and for those of a certa age – the harassment of LGBTQ people actually tensified.

“But post-67, and wh the formatn of the Gay Liberatn Front 1970 Bra and wh gay people beg more outspoken, the raids and the psdo-polil attacks started to happen more. Straight or gay, the prsure is on om the time we're very young to bee our culture's John Wayne-style of man. It jt ma him feel like a double failure: first, he turned out to be gay; and send, he uldn’t keep a long-term relatnship.

“The roots of our trma wh men e om two distct sourc: beg a man a hypermascule culture and beg a gay man a cidly straight world. “A gay man’s first romantic relatnship wh another man is almost as fluential our liv as our relatnship wh our fathers.

‘IT WAS AN ELECTRIC TIME TO BE GAY’: SARAH WATERS ON 20 YEARS OF TIPPG THE VELVET

The Velvet Rage was first published 2005 and that time the book has bee notor wh the gay muny as one of, if not ‘the’ book to gui gay men toward fulfilment and self-actualisatn.

PRI AND PREJUDICE FOR GAY MEN

The 2nd edn blurb stat that The Velvet Rage has “helped shape the inty of an entire generatn of gay men. If the inty of gay men has already been altered, do the sights offered wh the book still have relevance today? One of the prcipal theori that he outl wh The Velvet Rage is that a gay man’s life n be broken down to three stag.

ABOUT THAT GAY MAFIA...

This three-stage ncept appears to be an origal one nstcted by Downs himself, based upon his work wh gay clients.

Although Downs largely wr about a universal gay experience, there are wele extracts om his own personal story that brg honty and humany to what n sometim be generalised and prcriptive. Downs expounds upon trop associated wh the muny and why gay men may be drawn toward particular attus or behavurs. He walks a lite le between the 90s stereotype of the gay man and behavurs so general they uld apply to anyone wtern society.