THEGAYUK

Day: 10 August 2015

  • New Report Released on Gay Hate Crime Challenges

    A new report has been released by Nottingham Trent University that has for the first time examined the perspectives of police officers and the issues they face preventing hate crime.

    Carried out by Nottingham Law School on behalf of the Hate Crime Steering Group, it involved in-depth interviews conducted with frontline officers from Nottinghamshire Police. The outcomes of this are to be shared among UK forces by the government.

    The reports author, Dr Loretta Trickett, has claimed: “many of the officers I interviewed were not fully engaged with the current format” and that while officers are clear on what hate crime is and know the procedures to follow, more training from external agencies on how to sufficiently deal with complicated cases is vital.

    Hate crime is currently an area of priority for the police, including five monitored areas, two of these being sexual orientation and gender identity. The crime itself makes up 1% of overall crime, with 44,480 incidents being recorded by police in 2013/14.

     

  • CHER: I never really liked doing Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves

    The ever iconic pop goddess, Cher, has made a statement that will likely shock a lot of her fan base.

    Living legend Cher, made the confession that she “never actually loved” recording some of her most iconic songs of the 1970’s such as “Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves” and “Dark Lady’, both of which obtained high chart positions.

    While being interviewed by Billboard to commemorate fifty years in the music industry, the artist claimed:

    “I was doing these kind of poppy songs. I was not content, necessarily, to do them… Like, I never liked Dark Lady, and it was a big hit”.

     

    She went onto say that the reason she put songs such as these out in the seventies was due to a lack of creative control, something she was not able to obtain until later in her career.

    During the interview, she also spoke about how the most fun she ever had making a song was Believe, the dance track that became a global no.1 in 1999 and shot her back into the public eye after a row of flop singles in the 1990s.

    Since the release of the track, she has since gone on to have success with the film Burlesque and her most recent album, Closer To The Truth.

    Whilst she is still very much heralded as a queen of pop, the singer did have to cancel the last leg of her Dressed to Kill tour in 2013 due to a viral infection.

    She has confirmed that she intends to hit the road again soon but admits that she can’t say that she’ll actually be able to, claiming her “will is pretty strong”.

     

    Find Cher’s full interview with Billboard here

  • REVIEW | A Naughty Night With Noël Coward at the Old Red Lion Theatre Islington

    Absurdly polite confrontations, beastly upper-class pompousness, all served up with preposterous hilarity.

    Director Jimmy Walters, co-founder of Proud Haddock, has brought to life two works of one of the most famous actor-director-producer-playwrights, Noël Coward. You’ll feel as though you’ve been pulled back to the 1920s for 70mins with two authentic performances of Noël’s short one act plays.

    In the first – We Were Dancing – Louise (Lianne Harvey), a married woman, supposedly falls pinned-curls-over-oxford-heels in love – without so much as a first name exchange – with Karl (James Sindall), a chap she’s just met on the dance floor of a South Pacific country club. Replace the waltz with bare-chested shape-throwing and that’s just another normal night at XXL.

    Once the euphoric bubble bursts and carnal frenzy fades, what’s left? In today’s world, would they even swap digits?

    Brilliantly awkward with a good old-fashioned, British stiff-upper-lip marriage break-up, all executed with high society etiquette.

    In the second – The Better Half – Alice (Tracey Pickup) is bored, and has fallen out of love with her drippy husband David (Stephen Fawkes). Blunt Alice attempts to rile David with confessions of adultery, and tries to push him into the arms of her friend Marion (Beth Eyre) – car-key swapping partiers weren’t around back then. Drippy David accepts the affairs – in his mind, that’s the honourable thing to do – which leads to Alice’s hysterical hysteria.

    In the speakeasy golden 20s it wasn’t so easy to speak of infidelity. Nowadays it’s a lot simpler, a few words on WhatsApp or a quick Snapchat, and out the door one totters.

    Pickup really picks up Alice’s nuances and breathes life into the character – the crowd sympathised with Alice, no contest.

    By the end of the night the 20s weren’t the only thing roaring in the Old Red Lion’s intimate theatre – the humour is as fresh as the performance, and the audience found the both acts jolly agreeable.

    A Naughty Night with Noël Coward: We Were Dancing and The Better Half

    Old Red Lion Theatre, 418 St John Street, London EC1V 4NJ

    www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk

    Tuesday 4th – Saturday 29th August 2015 Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm

    Saturday matinees, 2pm – Sunday matinees, 3pm