Straight and narrow: how pop lost s gay edge | Pop and rock | The Guardian

Contents:

• PENNE SNAOLDHAMMENUHOTELSSNASEUROPE · SNA & CISEPENNE SNA
• OLDHAM GAY BARS
• THE GAY ARCHECTS OF ROCK
• GAY DATG OLDHAM
• IS WILL OLDHAM GAY?
• STRAIGHT AND NARROW: HOW POP LOST S GAY EDGE

PENNE SNAOLDHAMMENUHOTELSSNASEUROPE · SNA & CISEPENNE SNA

But It's a small place, 's timate, if you go bee you want to fd a place to meet horny Bi and Gay Men, then you have land on your feet.

Add to that good expensive food and brilliant hosts, I thk Every Bi and Gay Man should vis. Comments / Reviews are the subjective opn of Travel Gay ers, not of Travel Gay. Buck & Unn is a laid back, unpretent gay-popular pub Oldham.

OLDHAM GAY BARS

Consir the gay image makers of the day, like Brian Epste and Jann Beatl wh their manager Brian Epste, right, October Archiv/Redferns, via Getty ImagOct.

Managers groomed them and shaped them, and the classic rock era those managers were often gay s, the close relatnships between the managers and the predomantly straight micians they advised were not discsed much. “The Fifth Beatle, ” a recent graphic novel that foc on the personal life of the Fab Four’s gay manager, Brian Epste, was a New York Tim bt seller and is now velopment as a six-part mi-seri, wh the approval of the Beatl’ tate. And the documentary film “Lambert & Stamp” ma clear the important role played by K Lambert, the gay -manager of the Who, shapg the band’s inty.

THE GAY ARCHECTS OF ROCK

“Beg gay gave me a fer appreciatn of the sexualy of the guys up there, ” Mr. “It was all great until Harry said, ‘The only thg is, I don’t thk I uld be managed by a gay man.

Up until 1967, beg gay was illegal Bra, and long after that law changed, gay men remaed a target of police entrapment, blackmail and beatgs. As managers of some of the era’s most potent Brish rock bands, they stood at the foreont of sounds, sensibili and styl that would molish and remake pop gay managers of that era were forthright about their sexualy, if only among iends and lleagu. Napier-Bell, part of the reason Brish gay men of his era gravated to the mic bs was bee was one of the few areas “where you uld be out amongst yourselv.

GAY DATG OLDHAM

You’d go to Robert Stigwood’s hoe and was like a gay pub. “As gay men, we have to remake ourselv orr to survive, ” he said.

IS WILL OLDHAM GAY?

”Mart Aston, the thor of “Breakg Down the Walls of Heartache: How Mic Came Out, ” said the nnectn between rock’s gay managers and image moldg stems om the fact that “gay men at the time would be judged almost entirely on how they looked.

Aston said, gay men veloped a fort wh the art of beg seen, “as opposed to straight men, who, before the phenomenon of the ‘metrosexual, ’ were threatened by the notn of beg looked at, of beg an object. That beme the foreont rock ’n’ roll, enuraged by the gay managers.

”Straight rock stars also found that appropriatg the sensual awarens of gay men paid off sexual opportuni.

STRAIGHT AND NARROW: HOW POP LOST S GAY EDGE

’”Still, given the vilifitn of homosexualy at the time, one might expect the rockers to have some disfort wh the gay men who advised them. Lambert (an upper-class, privileged gay man) and his partner management, Chris Stamp (a straight street kid) imprsed them eply.

Napier-Bell se the entire notn of rock ’n’ roll rebelln as an extensn of “gay anger. ”At the same time, many of the gay men me om more refed backgrounds than the rockers, an experience they transferred to their charg.

”If the young rockers benefed om the taste and ambn of their gay advisers, turn the managers got a sense of nnectn they otherwise uldn’t achieve. “It’s not like a gay man at the time uld marry or enjoy a fay, ” Mr.

”At the same time, the gay men volved wh the bands found a route to power. ”And an era when gay sexual exprsn was btally supprsed, the men were able to exprs themselv through the most fluential sex symbols of the day, creatg a kd of erotic ventriloquism.

It is “Breakg Down the Walls of Heartache: How Mic Came Out, ” not “Breakg Down the Walls of Heartache: How Mic Beme Gay. ”How we handle rrectnsA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn D, Page 1 of the New York edn wh the headle: Classic Rock ’n’ Roll and Its Gay Archects.