Category: Comment
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COMMENT: The X-Factory
This weekend’s shock departure of Ella Henderson from the X-Factor competition has created outrage only a few weeks before the final show.
The bottom two acts had to perform again for the judges to decide who would leave the competition. Ella blasted out ‘If You’re Not The One’ by Daniel Beddingfield, followed by James Arthur’s powerful rendition of Alicia Keys’ ‘Falling’. With the final result going to deadlock, it was Ella who received the least amounts of votes and left the competition.
This year there is a clear star, James Arthur, who is a ready-made artist. In some respects, it would have done him a favour to have left the competition this weekend – so that he is able to release a worthy album without the X Factor tagline.
X Factor is in its ninth year, and is in desperate need of a revamp. However, my real complaint is about the longevity of the acts. There have been a handful of successful acts, Leona Lewis, JLS, One Direction, but what about real music apart from this repetitive commercial factory? Not to mention the irrelevance of Louis Walsh; what is he still doing there?
There are two acts in my eyes this year who have the ability to really make a difference in the music industry on a global scale. Jahmene and James, with James leading the way. He is a true artist, refreshingly original and it is a relief to see how much credit he is receiving. The real success is how he has been able to retain his integrity without selling out in this X Factor factory.
Let’s get away from being caught up in someone’s sob story, and focus on true talent.
Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.
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COLUMN: Just Checking
I think it’s time to address one of the widely held myths about me perpetuated by my so called friends. (more…)
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COLUMN: The Joy Of Melancholy
As The GayUK is looking at mental health this month, I felt it was important to focus on wellbeing, and what one can consciously do to help appreciate everyday surroundings.
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EDITOR’S LETTER: Mental Health Month
Welcome welcome to THEGAYUK, if this is your first time to our online magazine. I want to thank you for stopping by and taking the time to check us out – so to speak.
Our wonderful team of writers decided that November’s theme was going to be Mental Health. So we’ve lined up some interesting, informative interviews and features which we will published through out the month of November.
The sad fact is that mental health issues disproportionately affect the LGBT community. Studies show that lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people are more likely to suffer higher levels of anxiety, depression and suicide. The reasons for these feelings range from a number of external factors including hostility, bullying, violence and prejudice, which is still rife today – even in one of the world’s most progressive countries like the UK. We need only look at Nick Griffin’s outburst last month in response to Michael Black’s and John Morgan’s discrimination case and win brought against Susanne Wilkinson, a B&B owner who refused them a bed on the grounds of her beliefs. Even though Nick may be a minority in his thoughts, his words will carry weight for some, and his call to intimidate the gay couple in their own home, will reverberate worryingly amongst many in our community.
One in four people will suffer some kind of mental health problem in the course of a year and British men are three times as likely to commit suicide than British women, most commonly men under the age of 35.
As the days get colder and shorter and as Christmas time approaches many lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people may find themselves in challenging situations, feeling mounting pressures and worried about their place in the world, but there is help available and we’re going to uncover options you may not have realise existed.
Also this month we’re very excited to welcome mega group Steps to our front cover. They’ve a new single, album, tour and fragrance out. When you couple this with interviews from Jo Caulfield, Pam Ann, Adi Nes and Stonewall Awards Nominee Tim Franks, you’ll find TheGayUK is bursting with goodness this November.
As always, TheGayUK is a community-led platform and we want you to get involved. If you’re affected by the theme and want to write an article, or contribute in whatever way you can. We encourage you to get in touch. We want to hear your stories.
Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.
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COMMENT: Strictly Farcical
Strictly Come Dancing is back for its tenth season on BBC, but why is it proving to be such an entertainment ‘disaster, darling’?
Beginning in 2004, this series came back to life with a blast, relaunching the original 1949 ‘Come Dancing’ version; one of television’s longest running shows. Since then, each year has managed to provide a celebrity spectacular, wowing its TV audiences.
The series reignited its education of Latin and Ballroom dancing by utilising celebrities to attract a new, perhaps youthful, audience. But it is my concern that the original philosophy of the show has been compromised too much by a distasteful ‘theme week’ entertainment; a superfluous addition to the shows integrity. This can be highlighted by this weekend’s ‘Halloween’ show. Dani and Vincent dancing to Scooby-Doo, Victorian and Brendan dressed in some ridiculous living-dead outfits, and Denise and partner James evoking circus freaks? This has gone too far. The show should not be about creating some tacky pantomime, instead, it should be about dancing, which the show is failing to address significantly. A similar kind of cheap entertainment can be seen on ITV’s X Factor, which questions the originality and longevity of its acts.
As a kid, I used to Latin and Ballroom dance every week. Being from Blackpool it seemed apt, with the Tower Ballroom only a stone’s throw away. The magnificence of this ballroom has a magical quality to it, encrusted in its decorative golden surfaces, and the twinkling chandeliers; like a musical box where charm is brought back to life. It is a rare jewel steeped in history and narrative. Over the past couple of weeks, I have taken regular visits to sit and watch the glamour and romance that space offers. There is a sense of naughtiness through expressions of the elderly dancers who come to reminisce whilst eating their cream teas. Here the entertainment, or theatre, comes alive through dance, and not absurd costumes or farcical routines.
But even this World famous Tower Ballroom, which used to host the season’s final, is no longer the case. The show’s bosses have decided not to screen this year’s finale at the centre of dance splendour. While the Strictly bosses keep a tight grasp on BBC budgets, this puts into question other flops for the BBC, such as the £22 million spent to secure The Voice.
Strictly has had its fair share of controversies throughout its history of the show. A major public outrage of disappointment came in 2009 when judge Arlene Phillips, a highly respected choreographer, was axed from the show. It was at this point in the shows history a definite sign of change was coming; change not for the better. With this in mind, it is understandable that the BBC has provoked strong criticism from its loyal viewers. Shows bosses have a duty to their audience, and it is my feeling that this is being sacrificed. Why can’t they see that a shows entertainment will come from quality, and not a ridiculous pantomime?
As an advocate of both quality and integrity, I urge the bosses at BBC to reconsider the fundamental philosophy of this show. If you want to maintain the credibility of longevity and success, then you need to urgently re-address the formula of the show. Step to it, quick quick slow.
Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.
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COLUMN: Things That Go Bump In The Night
It’s October and TheGayUk is celebrating all things supernatural. I love Halloween but detest trick or treating. It’s a nasty little tradition which should be called by its real name, extortion.
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COMMENT: Halloween
Everyone, it seems, loves a good party. It’s October and all the shops are full of party ideas and of course gifts, for Halloween. Maybe I’m just a killjoy, but I don’t really get very excited about it. As a child, I was only peripherally aware of Halloween.
Bonfire Night was the big party I used to get excited about. If I ever recognised the day at all, it would be spending it with my childhood friends, furtively reading ghost stories by torchlight, whilst listening to Mussorgsky’s “Night on the Bare Mountain”, in the hope that my mother wouldn’t come in and break up the party. All quite innocent and we’d all be safely tucked up in bed before the witching hour struck.
In recent years, though, I’ve become increasingly aware of the proliferation of tacky ghoulish merchandise in the shops at this time of year, and I was astonished to read a few days ago that Halloween is now the second most popular family occasion in the UK behind Christmas, with parents likely to spend more than £100 on parties for their children this year. Apparently, he money we spend on Halloween has soared by a massive 2,300% over the last 10 years to be worth £280 million. What on earth has precipitated this change? When did Halloween take over from Bonfire Night, a peculiarly British tradition, which celebrated the day Guy Fawkes failed in his attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament way back in 1605? When I was young, I loved Bonfire Night. Whilst our fathers went about building a bonfire out of old furniture and dead wood, our mothers would be preparing food for the feast – jacket potatoes, sausages and all manner of warming treats. The men were also responsible for the fireworks display and we, the children created the effigy of Guy Fawkes who would be ceremonially burned on the bonfire. After Christmas, Bonfire Night was the most eagerly anticipated festival of the year, for all that we didn’t get any extra school holiday. It was a big, low cost, community event.
So what happened? When did Halloween take over from Bonfire Night?
I suppose one theory would be that tripping around in a naff witch’s costume is infinitely less dangerous than burning bonfires and setting off fireworks (the Fire Service are no doubt relieved) but I have a sneaking suspicion that it has more to do with money, or rather commercialism, and where there is commercialism, you don’t have to look far to see the influence of the USA.
Halloween is absolutely huge over there, and the bigger the festival becomes, the easier it is to get people to spend vast amounts of money on things they don’t need and will no doubt throw away the following week.
Hang on, isn’t that what happens at Christmas? Indeed it is, and guess what? The modern day Santa Claus is generally believed to be the invention of Washington Irving, a nineteenth century New Yorker, who wished to create a benign figure that might help calm down riotous Christmas celebrations and refocus them on the family. Loosely based on a Dutch gift giving Sinterklaas, Santa Claus was actually a secular figure, and it is the work of various advertisers that has created the image we recognise as Santa Claus today. The English Father Christmas was not a gift giver, but rather a personification of Christmas and a Yule-tide visitor. It is only from the 1870s that he became increasingly associated with the American Santa Claus, and it is the American Santa Claus who now dominates Christmas in all those countries that celebrate it. Now I wouldn’t want to suggest that dear old Washington Irving cynically adopted the idea of a gift giving Santa Claus, in order to bolster the coffers of Macy’s, but I have no doubt Macy’s seized on Santa like manna from heaven, the actual child of heaven (Jesus) being somewhat less interesting.
In case you wondered, I hate Christmas too. What we get in the run up to Christmas is the absolute opposite of the spirit of good will, the kind of good will that permeated London, during the Olympics this year, for instance. What we do get is millions of people trailing round shops, pushing through the crowds, desperately trying to think of presents for relations they won’t see for another year. The adverts start early, exhorting us to spend! spend! spend!, as we worship the god of commercialism; and if, like me, you decide you’d rather just ignore the whole thing and go away to somewhere they don’t celebrate it, you’ll find the price of a plane ticket out of the country has quadrupled!
Where will it end? Other minor festivals are now much bigger than they ever were. Valentine’s Day might once have been considered a bit of fun, but now it is big business. Why? Well it’s big business in the US, so why not here too? How about Easter? As children, we of course loved Easter. What child wouldn’t? All those delicious chocolate eggs, but now it seems children expect Easter gifts too. Mother’s Day was a day on which we children got our mother some flowers and maybe wrote her a card. Nowadays, woe betide the husband who doesn’t buy his wife a big present or take her out for dinner. Where America went before, it seems we follow, and I, for one, am tiring of it, as attempts to part us from our hard earned cash become ever more aggressive. I don’t want anyone to get the idea I’m some miserly old grump, who never enjoys a party and never buys anyone a gift. I enjoy a good time as much as anyone and I love giving presents. I just don’t want some American corporation telling me when I should be doing it.
Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.
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COMMENT: Bigots
We all know one. You know one. I know one.
I don’t like the expression.
You’re either a racist, sexist, ageist or homophobic.
I read an article last week. It quoted the Pope. He said:
“Gay people are not fully developed humans”
No. The Nazis were undeveloped people Benedict. Cough-Cough I digress.
How is he getting away with homophobic outbursts like that? Say for example a comedian was heard saying black people are “not fully developed humans” or an MP was heard saying the same about women, there’d be utter outrage. Yet if you make outright homophobic statements you seemingly get away without any action. Obviously, earlier last week, the delightful Nick Griffin posted the address of the gay couple Michael Black and John Morgan who won their case against the chillingly bigoted Susanne Wilkinson who decided they could not stay in her B&B. He posted their address on Twitter. To thousands of people. Thousands of people who support this wannabe dictator. His punishment for posting their address to his vile supporters? Banned from tweeting… for a day. Big punishment for a man who essentially put their home and their lives at stake.
Yet the ‘almighty’ Pope can publicly say such disgusting things. Oh I forgot… He can say what he wishes; because he fronts an organisation who’s standpoint on using HIV preventative measures, the woman’s right to chose and homosexuality to name a few, verge on the immoral. His organisation also has hundreds of years of power and a money reserve of millions to back its causes. I’m in NO WAY saying that all Catholics are immoral, but if you agree with the homophobic things he says… then you need to either have a serious re-think about your morals, or leave society. I don’t care how you do it.
I know many Catholics who completely disagree with the Pope’s extreme views. So potentially the question is: Is the pope a true spokesman for all Catholics around the world? The world has opened its eyes and its mind… Evidently we’re waiting for the Vatican to follow suit.
Being against gays, gay pride, gay adoption and gay marriage is fine. Small minded people are out there; let them think what they want to think. However, don’t dare try and stop gay people living their lives how they want to live them. There is such a casual attitude towards homophobia and I for one am sick of it.
Until next time darlings. Saunters off to the drinks cabinet
Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.
