Why Bronski Beat’s anthem of gay culture resonates 40 years on
What it is about the the haunting classic, Smalltown Boy, that still compels teens to join older generations on the dancefloor? Last Saturday night, Ian Wade was playing records at the storied London gay night, Duckie. “I thought, I’ll play Smalltown Boy, which I’d never played there before,” he says. “It’s Pride month, it’s a gay club, you know? Sod it, let’s go for it.”The reaction was at first familiar to Wade, who is about to publish his first book, 1984: The Year Pop Went Queer, a loving compendium of what happened during the pinkest 12-month patch of pop history. A group of bearded fiftysomethings, men of an age to have had their lives upended by Bronski Beat’s evergreen classic, began singing along, edging their way towards the centre of the dancefloor. A warming result. Continue reading...
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