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| - Bronski Beat formed in 1983 when Somerville, Steinbachek and Bronski shared a three-bedroom flat at Lancaster House in Brixton. Bronski Beat signed a recording contract with London Records in 1984 after doing only nine live gigs. The band's debut single, "Smalltown Boy", of a young man discovering the joy and hardships of being gay in a small town, was a hit, peaking at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart. The single was accompanied by a promotional video directed by Bernard Rose, showing Somerville trying to befriend an attractive diver at a swimming pool, then being attacked by the diver's homophobic mates, being returned to his family by the police and having to leave home. (The police officer was played by Colin Bell, then the marketing manager of London Records). "Smalltown Boy" reached Nº4
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| - Bronski Beat formed in 1983 when Somerville, Steinbachek and Bronski shared a three-bedroom flat at Lancaster House in Brixton. Bronski Beat signed a recording contract with London Records in 1984 after doing only nine live gigs. The band's debut single, "Smalltown Boy", of a young man discovering the joy and hardships of being gay in a small town, was a hit, peaking at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart. The single was accompanied by a promotional video directed by Bernard Rose, showing Somerville trying to befriend an attractive diver at a swimming pool, then being attacked by the diver's homophobic mates, being returned to his family by the police and having to leave home. (The police officer was played by Colin Bell, then the marketing manager of London Records). "Smalltown Boy" reached Nº48 in the U.S. chart and peaked at Nº7 in Australia. The single featured vocals from session singer Kevin Glancy. The follow-up single, "Why?", while focusing on a Hi-NRG musical formula, was more lyrically focused on anti-gay prejudice. It also achieved Top 10 status in the UK, reaching Nº6, and was a Top 10 hit for the band in Australia. At the end of 1984, the trio released an album entitled The Age of Consent. The inner sleeve listed the varying ages of consent for consensual gay sex in different nations around the world. At the time, the age of consent for sexual acts between men in the UK was 21 compared with 16 for heterosexual acts, with several other countries having more liberal laws on gay sex. The album peaked at Nº4 in the UK Albums Chart, Nº36 in the U.S., and Nº12 in Australia. A third single was released amid controversy[citation needed] before Christmas 1984: a revival of "It Ain't Necessarily So", the George and Ira Gershwin classic (from Porgy and Bess). The song questions the authenticity of biblical tales; the song is a metaphor for African-Americans questioning slavery, Jim Crow and oppression in the USA as the natural order of things. It also reached the UK Top 20. The controversy [citation needed] may have centred around the lyric "David was small but, oh my!" highlighted on record sleeves in some editions of the album. The band's focus on that lyric permits the song to accept the questioning of heterosexuality as part of the natural order of things. As Bronski Beat was openly gay and sex-positive, some listeners might have taken the reference as an allusion to sexual prowess in spite of size, thus turning an iconic biblical figure into a viable object of (gay) sexual fantasy.[citation needed] In 1985, the trio joined up with Marc Almond to record a version of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love". The full version was actually a medley, also incorporating snippets of Summer's "Love to Love You Baby" and John Leyton's "Johnny Remember Me". It was a success, reaching Nº3 in the UK, equalling the chart achievement of "Smalltown Boy". Although the original had been one of Marc Almond's all-time favourite songs, he had never read the lyrics and thus incorrectly sang "What'll it be, what'll it be, you and me" instead of "Falling free, falling free, falling free".[citation needed] The band and their producer Mike Thorne had gone back into the studio in early 1985 to record a new single, "Run From Love". PolyGram (London Records' parent company at that time) had pressed a number of promo singles and 12" versions of the song, sending them out to both radio and record stores in the UK. However, the single was shelved as tensions in the band, both personal and political, resulted in Somerville leaving Bronski Beat in the summer of that year. "Run From Love" was subsequently released in a remix form on the Bronski Beat album Hundreds & Thousands, a collection of mostly remixes (LP) and b-sides (as bonus tracks on the CD version) as well as the hit "I Feel Love". Somerville went on to form The Communards with Richard Coles while the remaining members of Bronski Beat searched for a new vocalist.
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