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Its kind of hard to believe that the music from one of favorite queer bands from the 1980’s still sounds so totally fabulous in its latest reincarnation. Bronski Beat are about to release a 40th-anniversary reissue of The Age Of Consent, their classic debut album. And what it makes it even more fabulous its invited other musicians to join in in the remixes. Such as Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant who can be heard on the new take of ‘Why”:, along with Superchumbo, that is featured below.
Time plays dreadful tricks with memory and we had forgotten that Jimmy Sommerville the lead singer of Bronski Beat left in 1985 (after just two years) and went on to have success as lead singer of the Communards and as a solo artist
Jimmy Somerville told Stereogum Music Blog:
I’ve known Tom [Stephan, aka Superchumbo] for a good few years now, and when I asked him if he’d like to do a remix of “Why?,” he said yes straight away. The song is a part of his story. I was so moved when he shared that story with me. The lyric is our shared experience, as it is for so many others… And forty years later, the lyric still tells the story of LGBTQi+…. the hate, the violence, the discrimination, the imprisonment and state-sanctioned murder of those who dare to be their true selves, and it’s happening somewhere right now as I write this…
I was fucking whooping like a banshee round my kitchen when Tom told me Neil would like to contribute! To speak the lyrics of “Why?” and to hear Tom’s musical reworking of the track is fucking mind-blowing. So to hear Neil, one of our greatest pop lyricists, speaking my words… It brings it into the here and now and also retains its history with my original vocal. I genuinely felt moved.
Bronski Beat’s deluxe Age Of Consent reissue is out 10/18 on London Records.