Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat

Soul Music

BBC

Personal Journals, Music Commentary, Society & Culture, Music

4.7 • 772 Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This disco classic tells a powerful story: that of a young, gay man leaving his homophobic small town for the freedom of the big city. Released in 1984, Smalltown Boy continues to resonate and has become an anthem for the LGBTQ+ community. The track appeared on their album 'The Age of Consent' which drew attention to the inequality between the ages at which heterosexual people and homosexual men were legally able to have sex.

Taking part in the programme:

Shaun Dellenty, an ex primary school leader and author who developed an award winning LGBT+ training programme 'Celebrating Difference-Inclusion For All' which he now delivers to students and staff around the world.

Paul Flynn, journalist and author of 'Good As You, 30 Years of Gay Britain'.

Diane Anderson-Minshall, CEO and Editorial Director of Pride Media.

Colin Crummy, freelance journalist

Neil Brand, pianist, composer, writer and broadcaster

Adam Carver aka Fatt Butcher, drag artist, creative producer, and community organiser.

Archive: The audio of Jimmy Somerville is taken from the BBC archives

Music:: various versions of Smalltown Boy by Jimmy Somerville, and Bronski Beat. Also covers by Dido, and Orville Peck.

Produced by Karen Gregor for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others.
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0:11.3	It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here,
0:16.3	but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world.
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0:31.8	you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories
0:37.1	from all around the UK. BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories from all around the UK.
0:40.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:47.8	So it's June 1984.
0:50.9	I'm upstairs at my bedroom, my mum's downstairs clattering away with pans in the kitchen,
0:55.6	Dad's out in the garden, and I'm cutting out song lyrics from huge wobbly towers of smash hits
1:01.3	magazines.
1:06.1	As I cut them out, I slot them into the sleeves of my seven-inch singles collection, and I suspect
1:10.7	they're still
1:11.1	there to this day.
1:14.5	And from my radio comes a pulsing electronic sound, and it was a voice like a voice I'd never
1:21.6	heard before.
1:26.7	A new sound.
1:28.3	It just penetrated my soul.
1:41.3	Leave it a morning with everything we honing a little, black case.
	...

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