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Kissing boys in the street

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GayTimes

Kissing Boys in the StreetEditorial: ‘Kissing Boys in the Street’,  is a wonderful song, with wonderful and thoughtful lyrics – I wonder how many of our readers feel it pull heart strings and memories about a relationship in their own family.  Why not comment and let us know what happened to you!

Greg Holden is back

Greg Holden is back


 

The brand new track from Greg Holden is certainly an emotional one. It’s a song about a young boys conflict with is father about his sexuality, and “kissing boys in the street”.

His father, dead against any of that sort of behaviour, grows distant with him until the moments leading up to his death.
This is a truly heartbreaking song, but one with real depth, meaning and a little light at the end of the tunnel. Greg has outdone himself with the song, and the video isn’t bad either
Watch it here:

Image Myriam Santos
Words Josh Withey, @josh_withey

Tooji turns up the heat

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Pop Star Comes Out, Causes Outrage By Having Sex With Priest In NSFW Video

Senior Editor, Content Strategy, The Huffington Post
Posted: 06/09/2015 | Edited: 06/09/2015 08:08 PM EDT
A Norwegian pop star came out as gay in a new NSFW music video featuring simulated gay sex with a priest, and the Church of Norway is fuming.
Tooji, a Iranian-Norwegian singer living in Norway and a participant in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, came out when announcing the release of his new music video titled “The Father Project.”

The video shows Tooji enter a church and proceed to have simulated sex with the priest in front of a congregation. But the Church of Norway is not pleased with Tooji’s artistic choices. In a statement published Sunday, the bishop of Oslo condemned the video as a desecration.
“No matter what the video’s message might be or who the artist might be, footage of intimate scenes in front of the altar is unacceptable, and it is an abuse of the church,” he said in a Norwegian statement translated by The Huffington Post. “I was informed about the matter after they decided to rent out Frogner Church and had done the shoot. No matter what the content of the video might be, it is not acceptable to perform these types of scenes in front of the altar. It is a misuse of the holy room of the church.”
The bishop added that this would hold true if a straight couple was featured in the same manner in the video.
“A scene shot between a man and a woman would also be unacceptable,” he added. “What has happened breaks several rules of the church. Besides this, I would not comment any further on the matter.”
Tooji is an advocate for equal rights. In a separate video, he spoke out against religious theology that claims God does not accept gay people.
“I want to stand out as an example and let my voice be heard for all those voices mute, for all those who feel ashamed with their beliefs, that are told that God doesn’t accept them,” he said. “Let me tell you: You are a part of God and what you have is the purest gift. Any love between two grown-up, consenting adults — no matter gender, no matter race — is pure … I am gay and I stand up for my rights and that is why I made the video ‘Father.'”



Ricky Martin sings on The Tonight Show

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We get to see Mr Put It Down

Did you miss it? Were you asleep or in a different country? Well you’ve got no excuse now because it’s online.
Ricky Martin performed his new single on The Tonight Show.
Mr Put It Down ft. Pitbull is the first single from Ricky’s upcoming English project which is arriving later this year.
He’s currently touring around America as part of his One World Tour.
So if you can’t see him live, check out this rather amazing performance of Mr Put It Down.

Music Review – Gagged by Violet Chachki

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Violet needs some attention… (NSFW!)

She’s a good housewife, but needs a hand…

Violet, or more formerly Violet Chachki, top three finalist of RuPaul’s Drag Race season seven, has released the first single from her debut EP Gagged.

We’ll cut right to the chase here, OK? Violet loves her fetish. And that means the video is NSFW.
“The album is dark, dance-y, fun but serious,” explains Violet of the five-track EP of hard-pounding, dynamic club tracks. “I wanted to create something as a sort of soundtrack to the visuals I create.”
She drew inspiration from her real life experience working in dungeons with songs that address gender roles and conformity, power play, exhibitionism, sex and confidence.
“I worked for a mistress,” she reveals. “She was the dominant type, hired to humiliate subservient men. She’d have me dress the men in drag and parade them in front of her friends.”
Blimey.
“Being a part of something that is essentially harmless fun can really give new meaning to someone’s otherwise humdrum life,” continues Violet. “I like the fetish world because the line between right and wrong is blurred in a controlled, safe way. Also, I love the fashion!”
No surprise then that one of the items in her new online store is a jawbreaker candy ball gag…

You can download the single and pre-order Gagged here.

QUIRE Belfast LGBT Singers 10th Birthday Concert

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QUIRE 10: Something Inside So StrongQUIRE10 - Something Inside So Strong
 
This Saturday 6th June, 7.45pm
Theatre at The Mill, Newtownabbey
Tickets £13.50/£11.50 concession from www.theatreatthemill.com or call the Box Office on 028 9034 0202 (Mon-Sat 10am-5pm)
Are you ready to party?! This Saturday, you’re cordially invited to join us, QUIRE Belfast LGBT Singers, to celebrate our 10 year anniversary as Northern Ireland’s only LGBT choir.
With the wonderful Gemma Hutton in charge of the mic, there’ll be plenty of fun and laughter!

Sit back and enjoy a selection of our 10 year repertoire of hits including ‘Like A Prayer’ by Madonna, ‘Let It Go’ made popular by the hit movie Frozen, and the classic by Labi Siffre ‘Something Inside So Strong’.
We’re also delighted to welcome our friends Gloria, Dublin’s Lesbian & Gay Choir, to join us on stage.
Tickets are selling fast so don’t miss out! We need a packed house to…
RAISE THE ROOF AND SING IT OUT LOUD!
QUIRE 10 AND WE’RE STANDING PROUD!
Get your tickets NOW!
Best wishes,
QUIRE Belfast

Facebook icon www.facebook.com/quirebelfast           @quirebelfast

LGBT Musical Facing East Gets Charity Staging

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British Theatreby on 29 May 2015 in Events, LGBT, News, West End 0

Harriet Thorpe narrates Facing East in Concert at London's Lyric TheatreNew musical Facing East will be presented in concert at the Lyric Shaftesbury Avenue in a concert version in aid of Pride In London and Stonewall.
The event will be hosted by the Wicked and Ab Fab regular Harriet Thorpe, and will feature Rebecca Lock, Alasdair Harvey, Peter DiCesare and Michael Vinsen
Based on Carol Lynn Pearson’s stirring play, Facing East is a new and intimate musical by David Rigano and Mark-Eugene Garcia.
The musical follows an upstanding American Mormon couple who unexpectedly meet their gay son’s partner whilst dealing with his death. When they’re forced to face a reality long ignored, they must balance their beliefs with their emotions and make peace with this stranger in order to make peace with their loss.
Now making its UK premiere for one night only at the Lyric Theatre, this is one of the first opportunities to hear the soaring new score of this emerging musical following workshops in Dallas and Chicago and ahead of its first fully staged production in 2016. The concert will star Alasdair Harvey (We Will Rock You), Rebecca Lock (The Phantom Of The Opera), Peter DiCesare (Facing East Dallas), Michael Vinsen (The Book Of Mormon) and narrated by Harriet Thorpe (Wicked).
Announcing the concert, producer Nathan Gardner said “We’re delighted to be able to present our show in London, and with such an incredible cast and team. We believe that theatre can make a difference, and it’s an honour to be presenting Facing East in support of Pride in London, and Stonewall. We’ve always wanted it to be the show that gives back, and it’s a privilege to be able to support these two organisations that do so much for the LGBT community.”
TICKETS ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR FACING EAST THROUGH BRITISHTHEATRE.COM

Gay Country Band Indiana Queen Releases ‘With You,’ Inspired By Lead Singer’s Real-Life Relationship

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Gay alt-country band Indiana Queen just released their newest music video for the song “With You” from the album “This I Do Carry Unto The End.” The video is a melancholy yet hopeful love story shot and edited entirely on iPhones. The video features lead singer Kevin Thornton and his real-life partner.
“We found each other in our 40s,” Thornton says. “We had both given up on love in some ways. The video shows two people like that who have been beat up by love and life. Gay or straight, that’s something anyone can relate to.”
The band has been stirring things up in Nashville since the release of their new album. “We are starting to get lots of messages,” says Thornton. “Gay people out there telling us how much it means to them to see themselves represented in country music.”
Indiana Queen will be headlining Nashville Pride in June.

We All Want The Same Thing

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Republished from Gay Times

Rixton release their new music video

The band give us a flashback to the 70s

Rixton have just released the video to accompany their new single We All Want The Same Thing.

The track is the third single from the band’s widely anticipated debut album Let The Road, following the success of last summer’s number 1 single, Me & My Broken Heart.
The video takes inspiration from US musical variety show Soul Train, channelling a 70s vibe through some eyebrow-raising floral prints, flared trousers and oversized sunglasses. So you know it’s going to very groovy.
A grainy video is combined with a number of clips taken from the original TV show, giving us something colourful and incredibly fun to watch.
Check out the video below…

We All Want The Same Thing is released on 7 June and Rixton’s album will be available from 8 June.

Quire 10

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Fresh from performing with Take That at their Odyssey Belfast arena shows, QUIRE Belfast is ready to entertain you with our most spectacular concert to date…

QUIRE 10: Something Inside So StrongQUIRE10 - Something Inside So Strong
 
Saturday 6th June, 7.45pm
Theatre at The Mill, Newtownabbey
Tickets £13.50/£11.50 concession fromwww.theatreatthemill.com
Are you ready to party? You are cordially invited to join us, QUIRE Belfast, to celebrate our 10 year anniversary as Northern Ireland’s only LGBT choir.
Over the last decade, we’ve been proud to increase the visibility of and to empower the LGBT community through our love of musical performance and to entertain audiences in Belfast, Dublin and London.
So join us for QUIRE Belfast’s most ambitious concert ever. Sit back and enjoy a selection of our 10 year repertoire of hits including ‘Like A Prayer’ by Madonna, ‘Let It Go’ made popular by the hit movie Frozen, and the classic by Labi Siffre ‘Something Inside So Strong’.
Theatre at The Mill is a spectacular modern theatre in an historic setting. There’s ample free parking and Mossley West train station is just a few minutes’ walk from the venue.
QUIRE 10: Something Inside So Strong will include the premiere of our commissioned piece, composed by local artist Loreto McAuley. We’re also delighted to welcome our friends Gloria, Dublin’s Lesbian & Gay Choir, to join us on stage.
http://www.gloria.ie/wp-content/themes/gloria2011/images/gloria-logo.png
A definite must see musical night to remember… Pop on your best party suit/frock and come join our big birthday bash! Get your ticketsNOW!
Best wishes,
QUIRE Belfast

Facebook icon www.facebook.com/quirebelfast           @quirebelfast

Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington’s Gay Composer

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Editorial:  Strayhorn “made” the Ellington ‘sound’ (it is very elegant, just a pity I don’t think jazz should be ‘elegant’), he was despised by the Be-boppers (possibly the fact that he was queer might have had something to do with it), but in a sense they were even worse.  Strayhorn was a Ravelian (though Ravel used jazz ‘tropes’ – so it was mirror flattery, though Ravel was dead before Strayhorn got into his stride. 

   The be-boppers (c 1943[ish] ’til the lat[ish]1950s), were Bartókian.

   That would had been fine, if they had applied Bartók’s procedures (to Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian – and general Balkan / SE Europe ) folk music.  But they applied it to a form of music which was in the very easy stages of development, which could have been disastrous, fortunately it’s idiot (in many ways) child rock grew up to be something substantial.

   Strayhorn was very cute in a cuddly sort of way. Killed himself with ‘drugs’ and smoking – ‘straights’ as it happened.

   A victim of tobacco.

Sean McGouran

 
Reposted from OUT

BY JULIEN SAUVALLE
APRIL 29 2015 4:44 PM EDT

Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington’s Gay Composer

Billy Strayhorn

As the world celebrates Ellington’s birthday, we look back on his openly gay pianist, composer, and friend Billy Strayhorn.
You’ve likely never heard Strayhorn’s voice, but you’ve heard his work: From the early 1940s to his death in 1967, the composer, arranger, and pianist helped Duke Ellington craft his greatest hits, including “Chelsea Bridge” and “Take The ‘A’ Train.”
Strayhorn was born in 1915 in Dayton, Ohio. One of the very few openly gay jazzmen of his (or any) time, he studied at the Pittsburgh Music Institute, and, while still in his teens, began composing the songs “Something to Live For” and “Life Is Lonely”, later renamed “Lush Life”, which opens with the line “I used to visit all the very gay places.”

Though the word “gay” had a different meaning at the time, sexual freedom and personal individuality were a big part of jazz music. Some blues women already alluded to homosexual love in their songs, and Strayhorn’s own lyrics reflected his passions, always in a nuanced and poetic way. “It’s major to know that Strayhorn wrote ‘Lush Life’ as a prolifically gifted, gay black male teenager living in Jim Crow America,” says Candice Hoyes, a soprano jazz singer who recently released her debut album, On a Turquoise Cloud, a compilation of rare Duke Ellington songs that includes two Strayhorn compositions. “Everyone marvels at how wise beyond his years, how introspective the melody and words are. But when you consider his work, you get it.”
Strayhorn met Ellington in December 1938, when the musician and his band performed in Pittsburgh. After the show, Strayhorn got Ellington’s attention by telling him how he would have re-arranged his songs –and then, he proceeded to show him. Impressed by the young man’s skills, Ellington invited Strayhorn to meet the band again in New York. It marked the beginning of a collaboration that spanned three decades.

Strayhorn Ellington

Strayhorn (left) with Duke Ellington (Photo: The Duke Ellington Center)
“Strayhorn and Ellington had a soul connection,” Hoyes says. “Strayhorn’s musical genius with melody, lyrics, and his classical training, all combined with Ellington’s assertiveness and vision to make some perfect music.”  Ellington was particularly fond of Strayhorn, referring to his acolyte as “my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine.” Ellington was also a father figure for him: Strayhorn’s own father was abusive, and Ellington saw and embraced his genius early on, when Strayhorn was only 23.
Among his friends in the New York jazz scene, Strayhorn had the most influence on singer Lena Horne, who wanted to marry him and considered him to be the love of her life. Strayhorn used his classical background to improve Horne’s singing technique, and they eventually recorded songs together, but, to Horne’s dismay, Strayhorn was in a committed ten-year relationship with Aaron Bridgers, a jazz pianist who eventually moved to Paris (alone) in 1947.

Billy Strayhorn Aaron Bridgers Billy Holiday Harlem

Left: Strayhorn (center) with his partner Aaron Bridgers (left) and singer Billy Holiday (right). Right: Bridgers and Strayhorn at a party in Harlem. Pictures viaqueermusicheritage.com
In the 1950s, Strayhorn left Ellington to pursue a solo career, coming out with a few albums and revues. He was also a champion of civil rights: An ally to Martin Luther King, Jr., Strayhorn wrote activist compositions that honored King and his movement, including “King Fit the Battle of Alabama” for the Ellington Orchestra, which was part of the historical revue (and album) My People, released in 1963 and dedicated to King.
A few months before King’s assassination, Strayhorn died from esophageal cancer, at 51. He was in the company of Bill Grove, then his partner of three years. Devastated after hearing the news, Ellington recorded a memorial album, And His Mother Called Him Bill, which included Strayhorn’s beautiful piano balad “Thank You For Everything”, also known as “Lotus Blossom.” Ellington performed the song alone while the rest of his band was packing up, leaving him to reminisce about his creative soul mate, and the timeless music they made together.
For more information on Billy Strayhorn, go to BillyStrayhorn.com.
Candice Hoyes’s album On a Turquoise Cloud, including Strayhorn’s “Violet Blue” and “Thank You For Evertyhing”, is available now at Onaturquoisecloud.com