The Quiet | Film | Film Featur | Runng Away: Bronski Beat's Smalltown Boy In Gay Cema

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The song vers the opprsn of homosexuals provcial Stland the early mic vio was groundbreakg s pictn of what the song meant. It showed Somerville beg attacked by a homophobic gang and beg brought home by police to the fay whom he is attempted to n away om. “Smalltown Boy” by Bronski Beat is a song about a gay boy nng away om his small town home.

Jt to put to perspective, this song not only was a gay anthem durg the rise of the AIDS crisis, but the song broke to the top 50 the US Pop Charts (as well as landg at #3 the band’s native UK). Released 1984, “Smalltown Boy” remas an immaculate dancefloor gem, which tells the story of a young gay man leavg provcial homophobia behd search of a new life the big ’s ftg, then, that the band formed after they’d ma their own pilgrimag to London.

The short film project followed members of the London Gay Teenage Group, cludg Somerville, as they nducted street terviews wh members of the public about their views on homosexualy. ”Jt months later, on 12 September 1983, the tr ma their live but at Heaven London as part of “September the Pk”, London’s first lbian and gay arts ftival. It was a time when gay artists were jt startg to bee more visible the cultural mastream, a trend that was galvanised that October by the release of Frankie Go To Hollywood’s “Relax”, along wh s bched mic vio set an S&M club.

“There were a lot of artists [ the Eighti] who were gay but not open about , like Boy Gee, Gee Michael, Freddie Mercury, Elton John – the people we now thk have always been out, but they were not out 1984, and they were all at the height of their fame, ” Rose told Yahoo Mic 2019.

“Frankie Go to Hollywood were really the first on who me out and said, ‘Well, yeah, we’re gay. Later, outsi a snack bar, he is ambhed and subjected to a vic homophobic attack by the diver and his iends.