RIP Larry Steinbachek.

Listening to Bronski Beat's 'The Age of Consent' for the first time was a big moment for me back in 1985. It remains a hugely significant and beautiful album.

The 1980s was a bleak decade if you were gay in the UK. It was the time when the Sun called AIDS the 'gay plague'and the progress that had been made in terms of acceptance of gay people was rolled right back by the media and the government.

I was beaten up by my brother, disowned by my family and thrown out of home when they discovered my sexuality. I was not alone, I knew many people who lived through the same during that period.

Watching the video for Bronski Beat's Smalltown Boy now is weird, as it is almost exactly what happened to me.

I used to occasionally bump into Jimmy Somerville and the other Bronskis at The Bell, Kings Cross and some other place (somewhere in the suburbs I can't remember).

The Age of Consent was an album that gave me strength and pride in who I was. Listening to it tonight, the beauty of Jimmy's voice coupled with the wonderful arrangements and angry lyrics make me feel happy.

Jimmy Somerville, Larry Steinbachek and Steve Bronski- Thank you, thank you, thank you.

No offense to Jimmy Somerville, but my favorite track of theirs was probably this one, with Steve Bronski on lead vocals:

tdf wrote:
No offense to Jimmy Somerville, but my favorite track of theirs was probably this one, with Steve Bronski on lead vocals:


Hit that Perfect Beat was a good enough track, but I felt it had none of the edge of the tracks on The Age of Consent.

(Vocals were actually by Jon Foster, who was brought in after Somerville left, not Steve Bronski)