THEGAYUK

Category: Interview

  • INTERVIEW | Not Vlog Standard… The Out And Proud YouTubers

    There’s a new class. Class of YouTube.

    YouTubers are some of the hardest working creatives out there.

    With a combined (some of them have multiple channels) audience of around 1.2 million, or the same audience figures as a regular programme on a smaller UK broadcaster, we meet six out and proud YouTubers, who aren’t leaving their careers in the hands of some out of touch station programmer or network exec. YouTube blogging, or vlogging, if not the future is definitely about the now.

    It seems the world and their video cameras are up on YouTube making videos. The promise of book deals, crossing over to mainstream media and millions upon millions of fans, or subs as I’m told they’re sometimes referred to, seems tantalisingly easy to achieve. After all where’s the talent in turning on a camera and talking for 10 minutes about anything and everything?

    In this new age who is now the sieve. In days past network execs, focus groups and critics used to be the sieve, weeding out the crap ideas, the weak scripts and the wooden presenters. There was a system, and much like the music industry of past, those charged with commissioning had control over what, when and how you watched it.

    Now YouTubers have put the schedule in your hands. You are the sieve. You are now the casting couch. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of vloggers are vying for your attention. However, in this new world, just like the old fame formula, only a few will make it, but for how long is anyone’s guess.

    In amongst the cat and the Charlie-bit-my-thumb videos there are some gems, some really interesting commentators. Activists, psychologists in the making, social commentators and those who would find a perfect home on QVC, but just how influential are YouTubers and in a world of constant, unrelenting distraction, does it pay to lay it all out online? When every second of your life is bared for all to see, every detail pored over by thousands of viewers, what more is there to say?

    Six YouTubers, Miles (combined channel subscribers: 600,000), Will and RJ (combined: 350,000) Nicola (combined channels: 532,000), Ken (41,640) and Jake (73,400) cram into our studio for this month’s cover, cameras are out as they enter the building. It becomes clear that we’ve become material for their vlogs. No doubt within the coming days videos will surface of how we roll and that’s okay. We’re down with being hip.

    After our “Save By The Bell” inspired shoot, we get to it. I’m dying to know the why, the how and the how much?

    So why did you start?

    WILL: I knew when I started it was where the weird kids went to express themselves. I saw a friend of mine making videos. I saw that vlogging was a thing and that YouTube wasn’t just a place for cat videos. That made my mind explode. I decided to give it a try myself.

    MILES: I started because I was bored and had nothing else to do. So I started making videos for fun. I was just having fun with it.

    RJ: I started because I started dating him (pointing at Will)

    In the world of vlogging is there such a thing as over sharing?

    ALL: Yes…

    Who’s guilty of over sharing?

    WILL: I think we’ve all been guilty of over sharing at some point.

    JAKE: I try to keep my personal life as separate as possible. As much as I do all of my online stuff and my YouTube videos I have a personal life that I keep out. I don’t generally post too many photos of me and my friends or what I do for work. But I do talk about issues in my life, the things I’m thinking about. I try to keep that line, because I don’t want to become that person.

    WILL: Depends on the channel really, because what Jake does with his channel is different from what RJ and I do on our channels, because we film everyday, it’s like a video diary. Even then there are things that inherently just should be private. There’s no formula and everyone has different values on what they share and what they don’t share.

    KEN: There are sometimes when you wish you could edit it out

    NICOLA: (Smiling) Oh like there was this one time that I was vlogging…

    KEN: Oh yeah, he thought it would be a good idea to surprise me in the bathroom. I was naked.

    NICOLA: But I thought you couldn’t see it… (Because it was dark)

    KEN: I was like ‘do not upload that…’

    NICOLA: People screenshot it and started brightening it.

    KEN: Brightening the exposure. So my penis is somewhere on the Internet.

    WILL: I did not know that…

    JAKE: I will be Googling that later.

    So what separates vloggers sharing their lives, to Kim Kardashian over sharing?

    RJ: I think one of the reasons why people are starting to gravitate to YouTube, especially the younger generation is because they’re so over saturated with that overly produced crap and they can kinda sense a little bit of the artifice involved. This feels a little more organic and you know for a fact that everything you see is real. For the most part.

    NICOLA: We get to choose what we share.

    WILL: Which makes me so comforted knowing that I’m in control of what’s being shared.

    JAKE: When you get to a certain size (number of subscribers) you become quite accountable. Things you say things you do… you’re impressionable.

    Is the goal then to crossover from YouTube celebrity to Kim Kardashian? To be in the mainstream?

    MILES: Not necessarily. We all have our different goals. Being on YouTube can also be a bridge for that to happen. For me personally it would be to get into entertainment or to act or whatever. For Ken it could be for cooking,…

    KEN: I’m indifferent really. I’m not saying I’m against it. If it happens it happens I guess, but it’s not my goal.

    WILL: The beauty of YouTube is that we’re all here, we’re all best friends and all have such different goals with our channels. There’s different content out there. I don’t think any of us know what’s in store. We just kinda roll and go with the flow.

    KEN: We don’t even know what’s happening five minutes from now.

    RJ: It’s always difficult when you get the questions what’s the point? What’s the goal of YouTube? If and when it actually does go somewhere, you’re like “Okay, I guess I’m going to ride this horse for as long as I can.”

    NICOLA: When you reach a certain goal you’re always making new goals. I don’t really think there’s an end point. There’s always something new to strive for.

    RJ: It’s like fashion. Fashion is never finished.

    So if ABC or HBO got on the phone tomorrow and said: We’re gonna do Gay Friends we want you six to be in it would you be happy to do that, because suddenly you’d go from something you have control of to something that is heavily scripted and edited.

    JAKE: We all understand how the entertainment industry works. We’ve all dabbled a bit… YouTube kinda does that. We all have a big group chat; we’d literally ask each other “what do we think?” It’s a community, we’re friends and any opportunities that pop up we usually run it past each other.

    RJ: It’s funny you should mention Friends, because when we’re at a YouTube gathering and I meet parents and the parents are “like why are my kids losing their minds over this?” I’m like, “picture Friends but imagine that Phoebe, Ross, Joey – all of them are all real people and everything you see happening is real and better yet, you can actually directly interact with them on twitter or in the comments on videos. How much more excited would you get to watch each episode?”

    KEN: The characters that you fall in love with or identify with are actually real not fictional.

    So are you the new entertainment industry?

    NICOLA: We’re separate.

    RJ: Whenever there’s a new media platform everybody

    always talks about how it’s going to replace old stuff and it never ends up happening. Movies didn’t replace radio, TV didn’t replace movies, the Internet didn’t replace print, it just evolved. Things learn to play together.

    KEN: We have our own playing field, because we don’t fit in yours.

    So how do you take your channel to the next level? To reach the dizzying heights of hundreds of thousands or millions of subscribers?

    KEN: There’s no formula.

    JAKE: It’s like a combination of luck and being charismatic.

    MILES: Timing.

    NICOLA: It also helps if a bunch of your friends also do it.

    RJ: Having a distinct voice. Knowing what makes your perspective unique also helps.

    JAKE: Being passionate. If you’re going to make a video you do it 500 per cent you don’t even give it 100. You go for it and if you want to talk about something you talk about it like it’s the most important thing in the world.

    RJ: If you don’t have fun making videos how do you expect someone to have fun watching you?

    How important are production values?

    JAKE: Ultimately I don’t know sh**.

    MILES: People place importance on it now because everybody has a super HD DLSR camera and it’s not necessary.

    RJ: You can pretty much use whatever works for you… YouTube has democratised the process. You don’t need a big expensive set, cameras or lights just as long as you have a really entertaining voice. I will say this though; once you upgrade you can never go back down. If you just start off with your iSight and you can make it work that’s fine. But the minute you upgrade you can’t go back down and go back, because people will notice and start to complain.

    MILES: I did that once. Fu** ‘em.

    KEN: Even the length of blogs… We used to vlog and they’d be 3 to 5 minutes and we uploaded a 15 minute vlog and they (the audience) were like “Yeah we like this…” When we went back down they were up in arms.

    So YouTube want people to stay longer and longer on the site, you’re part of the cogs that make the whole thing work. Do you get much say in the pre-rolls or the ads at the bottom?

    ALL: Nope.

    Ever seen an ad, where you’re like ‘I don’t want that against my content?’

    WILL: All the time. We get Mormon Singles. Christian Mingle…

    JAKE: I’m like; oh you’re missing the target market here just a little…

    RJ: Romney advertised on my channel, and I was like oh sweetie… No.

    What about private sponsorships?

    NICOLA: It’s really important to like what you’re promoting.

    WILL: People will catch it if you’re disingenuous.

    JAKE: It’s still us, it’s still authentic, the second it changes, not only do we notice but everyone watching does.

    KEN: It feels contrived.

    RJ: No detail goes unnoticed on the Internet.

    MILES: If I don’t like something, I’ll put it up and review it and tell everyone how bad it is.

    RJ: This is why you need to know your brand. Once you know what works for you.

    Can you talk about how it felt when your channel changed from your hobby to your business? The moment the first sponsor called up or when you went from 5 subscribers to thousands.

    MILES: For me it was when my Like Mah Status video blew up. It was all over the place any my current MCN (multi channel network) Style Haul called me and they invited me to partner with them and I, being only 17 or 18 at the time, was like: ‘Okay… Money’, and I signed my life away for two years.

    I was able to fly myself out to VidCon, and get hair extensions for the first time…

    WILL: and a goddess was born…

    VidCon is the largest multi genre online video conference which has been held annually in California since 2010, this year’s conference will take up five floors of the Anaheim Convention Centre.

    PICTURED: L-R JAKE, RJ, KEN, WILL, MILES, NICOLA

    RJ: As far as our channel was concerned when we went to NextUp.

    WILL: We applied for this programme, very last minute, out of thousands and thousands of channels that applied only 30 were selected. We only had like 25,000 subscribers at that point…

    RJ: But you’re taking workshops from YouTube in how to engage your audience, best practices and they are there telling you, “Listen…”

    BOTH: “You Can Do This!”

    RJ: “If you take this seriously you’re on to something”. We were living in Florida at the time and they were like “move to LA…”

    JAKE: For me I was like “How does YouTube know who I am?” they take the time to actually select out the people they think that can really do something with it. They give us advice.

    RJ: It’s a game changer for sure.

    Is there ever a worry that you’re going to piss YouTube off?

    KEN: Hummm… that happened. I was in YouTube’s Next Chef. I suddenly had traffic coming in my channel and they were saying there were some illegal clicks. I have no clue what that means. So they shut down my channel.

    Is it easy to get reinstated?

    KEN: No. It’s impossible.

    RJ: Did you get click bombed?

    KEN: Yeah.

    So do you have to start again?

    KEN: Yeah, I had to start all over again.

    RJ: I had to start another channel too. There was a hiccup at YouTube and you’re back to square one.

    KEN: You cannot use your name or email ever again to make a channel. You can, but you cannot ever be partnered again.

    JAKE: You’re blacklisted.

    Is it important to be partnered?

    ALL: Yes!

    KEN: That’s basically how you get paid.

    Do you read your comments?

    ALL: Yes.

    RJ: You have to go through your comments. YouTube isn’t just posting videos on the platform; it’s also about building a community with your audience. So you do have to interact with them.

    KEN: There’s also a difference between someone giving you a nice criticism and there’s people who are just awful.

    WILL: As far as our channel goes, I have to have RJ go through our channel and go through all the crap before I can actually go through and respond. As a daily blog so many people tend to pass judgement on the way you live your life. I never realised how upsetting my day-to-day routine has been for a lot of people. The littlest things, the way I set my silver wear on the table… the way that I decide to go to bed… really upsets people.

    RJ: What we eat, how we eat it…

    WILL: How I decorate. I wanted to put blinds and curtains up… my comment section was just filth.

    RJ: YouTube gives you tools. There’s the remove comment button, ban user button…

    JAKE: And you can filter certain words.

    RJ: You can put “faggot” in your filter and as soon as that word is used the comment is removed. There are tools at your disposal. There was one video that just seemed to get a ton of hate and it was really vitriolic. That was when I decided to start blocking people. I noticed, I really only had to block five people. They were the ones that were leaving comment after comment after comment. I just had this epiphany that there are people who are just spending hours upon hours just going through trying to be negative. It’s more of a reflection on them than us.

    KEN: It’s more of a compliment for you.

    RJ: There are people who are like if you block one account they’ll create a whole new account… gurl… come on.

    Will vloggers destroy YouTube in the same way bands arguably helped destroy MySpace?

    MILES: Oh…

    KEN: I don’t know but… Everyone has their own voice on YouTube; everyone has their own audience.

    RJ: I don’t think YouTube is going to become MySpace unless a Facebook type thing comes along and makes it obsolete.

    JAKE: They’re really ahead of the game. If something’s not working they’ll change it. They’re really intuitive and dynamic and on top of it.

    MILES: They’re connected to Google. They’re powerful.

    JAKE: I don’t think it’s something we need to worry about it’s more about us being adaptive to anything they change, we need to fall into, which they’ve done many times in the last year without telling us.

    RJ: Things can change without warning and you have to be able to go with the flow. YouTube pretty much changed the game when it comes to online video. Right now there’s no other platform out there that has the audience.

    In a recent interview with Out Magazine (JAN 2015) Tyler Oakley (6,800,000 subscribers) said there was no hierarchy. That no one is above anyone else in the YouTube community… Is there a YouTube hierarchy?

    JAKE: In a perfect world…

    KEN: I plead the fifth.

    MILES: It’s there for sure.

    RJ: All that can change. Nothing is permanent on YouTube. Just because someone’s the sh** now, doesn’t mean that’s going to be that way forever. The mighty have fallen, multiple times.

    JAKE: I think it’s important for people who rise right to the top to give the people who are smaller advice and pick them up, hold their hand, still talk to them and don’t get too big for your boots. At the end of the day… they started at zero.

    RJ: Everyone starts at Zero.

    JAKE: Tyler Oakley, all of us can agree, nobody works harder. He deserves every bit of success he has, but because he endlessly works.

    RJ: I think all of us are here, partially because somebody who was bigger than us helped us…

    WILL: and gave us a leg up.

    CHANNELS:

    WILL AND RJ

    MILES

    JAKE

    KEN

    NICOLA

    This interview was taken from Issue 12. Subscribe now and don’t miss another issue

  • INTERVIEW: Penny Arcade, Rage Against The Totalitarianism

    ‘Radically embracing queerness in every possible sense – social, philosophical and sexual- Penny Arcade is tirelessly producing a crucial body of work for our times’.

    Is the 21st Century terminally corrupt? Daily, demented greed, morally bankrupt wars and savage racism rip the world apart. It’s a cluster-f*ck axis of evil that Aleister Crowley- the once globally-infamous, Great Satanist – would have adored. “Nothing is true,” he crowed, “Everything is permitted”.
    It’s undeniable. We’re locked – perhaps irredeemably – into a screaming, existential hell of brutal, mass-media spin and amoral, state-sanctioned atrocities. Is there any hope, beyond the hollow refuge of wishful, magical thinking so briefly espoused, then spectacularly deflated, by author Joan Didion?
    Oh yes. Say hello to passion. Say hello to clarity. Say hello – quite unforgettably – to Miss Penny Arcade, the fantastically fearless, performance-art paragon and prophet of palliative rage.
    Petrol-bombed in the holy, unquenchable fire of hugely moral indignation, she’s an ultra-modern Joan of Arc, savagely castrating the gross, Grand Zero blasphemy of gentrification.
    Unsurprisingly, she’s hugely daunting to interview. Even physically, even simply seated, Penny’s an electrifying, provocative presence. Textbook notions of mainstream reportage –let alone passive interviewing techniques – don’t begin to do her activist brilliance justice.
    If journalism’s an ethical record of subjective judgement, scrupulous honesty demands stating I’m overwhelmed by Penny’s fire-cracker avalanche of insight and analysis. Initially, I’m thrown, but Penny’s patient, and better yet, kind. And her blistering espousal of sheer humanity – a cri de coeur of compassion, integrity and utter authenticity – is a superb narrative through-line. Miraculously, we’re good to go. How did Longing Lasts Longer –her newest, often hilarious, but devastating critique of our cultural malaise – develop?
    “Longing Last Longer started as a piece about the end of my marriage, and opened up a part of me where I really started to examine my life-long need for approval”, she begins. “As the poet Adrian Rich says, ‘I was ‘shoved out on this bleak edge/ before naming/before caring’, and I felt stripped to the bone. But it did usher in this period of self-enquiry, questioning why I didn’t want to be in a traditional relationship, realising most of my desire to be in a relationship was to recreate a family life I never had as a child”.
    But don’t dare dismiss Penny as a pining, nostalgia junkie – Longing Lasts Longer furiously spits on fetishizing the past. “I get so sick of hearing about nostalgia. I certainly don’t want to be who I was before, I’m an incredibly contemporary person. So in Longing Lasts Longer, there’s a difference between nostalgia and longing. Nostalgia is a sentimental yearning; not only for the past, but the person you were in that past. By contrast, longing is a persistent sense of loss that attaches to ourselves and our unrealised desires. We long into the future, as I say in the show”.

    Already in her 60s, but with a solo legacy beating dozens less productive, she’s keenly aware of each brutally brief second. “I realise how short life actually is, and you can’t really achieve everything you might’ve wanted to, but my life has always been directed by a need for beauty, art, and poetry that I’ve mediated my entire life through music. Often, today, you’re not allowed to speak except in a very conscripted way, but when I think back to the self-defined trannies who were so important in my life – my tribe has always been the two-spirited people questioning gender – Jayne County used the great rallying cry I will repeat as often as possible: ‘Don’t use your liberation to stifle my liberation!’”.
    Exactly. Transgender myself, I’m hotly opposed to binary stereotypes and, even more, reductive identity politics, and Penny’s words strike an immediate chord with me. Linguistically, socially and theatrically, she’s validating a crucial ambiguity, a plurality of gender expression for those otherwise excluded. It’s what gay author Truman Capote’s debut novel eponymously defined as ‘Other Voices, Other Rooms’.
    “I’m speaking from the position of a louche outsider, with a philosophy I have developed my entire life”, she continues. “A philosophy of pleasure, and my whole life has been about doing what I want to do, which is why I also characterise myself as an anarchist. But at the same time, I know I need to take responsibility for myself and my actions and not harm other people”.
    “And there are only two groups that value ecstatic experiences above security and planning for the future”, Penny further clarifies.
    “Bohemians and the ultra-poor. The writer Bruce Benderson’s Towards A New Degeneracy talks about pleasure as a radical value, and Steve Zehentner, my artistic collaborator, has always used pleasure as an investigative tool, of getting into other states of mind. Joy, authenticity and individuality are our only weapons in the face of death and annihilation”.
    It’s an admirable self-awareness wholly missing from the vicious, exploitation ethics threatening every deviant art heritage. Are you sick of monoculture mediocrity, the bland homogenisation of every street, city and mind-space, on and offline? Blame Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud, name-checked by Penny as a major architect of modern banality.
    Weaponising mass, crowd psychology as a shock-wave for ruthless marketing, Bernays’ theories rammed commodity culture – the need for pointless need –into innocent minds worldwide. No wonder Penny’s once boundless optimism is now more carefully qualified.
    “We’re rolling into totalitarianism, and I see no help for that,” she sighs, “because we’re living in an era where people’s individuality has become more and more and endangered trait. So, right now, we’re living in a period of complete consensus, where anybody who stands out in any way – except by having money – is attacked. It’s just the opposite of anything that ever interested me.”
    And the only way forward? For Penny, it’s a rigorous, non-stop enquiry into her own self, authenticity and hidden motives. “I was with Quentin Crisp one time, and I was quite young, 38, and he said, ‘You must go within, you must resolve the glorious opinion you have of yourself with what others call the trouble with you. This journey is not an altogether pleasant experience’”.
    Perhaps not, but Penny’s severe self-analysis has facilitated disturbingly clear insight. And it’s an insight that despises vapid online addiction – the 24-7 Facebook syndrome- and blindly youth-focused media and social planning.

    “A huge part of modern culture is invested in convincing people the first forty years of their lives are superior to the last forty years, that you might just as well hang it up at 40 or 50. That’s unacceptable. Is your orientation that you’re just here to accumulate wealth, spouses and property? Or do you have a concept about yourself as something to be more greatly developed?”
    For Penny, it’s emphatically the latter, and, if we have any humanity whatsoever, our steadily deepening empathy inevitably links us to life’s richer complexities.
    “I believe as you get older, your life gets more synchronistic, and if it doesn’t, there’s something wrong”. She means sensing the intensely meaningful, but oddly random patterns of personal coincidences first conceptualised by Carl Jung, the great Swiss psychiatrist. As experienced by Penny, synchronicity is a profound, often inexplicable connection with the world.
    It’s not surprising. Utterly focused on living supremely attuned to subtle nuance both on and off-stage, Penny even embraces the seemingly paranormal. One recent, memorable event occurred during a creative residency in the US at the hugely prestigious, deeply rural McDowell retreat in New Hampshire.
    “I thought the trees were talking to me”, Penny reflects, “then I realised it was the artists who had died there trying to communicate with me. And one person emerged, and she was an American poet named Elinor Wylie who lived a super-scandalous life and died at the turn of the century in exile in London 1898. In Berners Street, in fact. And that’s right where I’m living while doing this show. Textbook synchronicity”.
    “You see, synchronicity is us being forged into our own lives; you’re tuning into simultaneous realities. But if you don’t have an inner life, it has to be something outside you, tarted up with bells and whistles. Otherwise, you feel a gaping emptiness, but I feel fabulously rich inside”.

    So she should. But to sceptics and critics, of course – especially of a right-wing, semi-fascist persuasion – Penny’s rarefied thinking fatally compromises her otherwise rigorous analysis. Ah, but she’s hardly that naive, and often, crushes critics of any persuasion between ironically opposed flaws in their own logic.
    It’s called the Socratic method, a fierce inquiry between orator and audience to stimulate critical thinking, and boasts impeccable queer credentials. “Do I contradict myself?” the great, gay American poet Walt Whitman mused in his magisterial poem Leaves Of Grass. ‘Very well then/I contradict myself/I am large/I contain multitudes’.
    Indeed. Just like Penny herself, a teeming, unstoppable tsunami of dissident voices. Working light-years beyond Oscar Wilde’s embittered, post-trial, conceptual impotence, she’s refined his taut, inverted attacks on mass injustice into shockingly precise, social critique. It’s language stunningly deployed as a weapon of mass reconstruction, a screaming wake-up call on the crumbling edge of our global, amoral abyss. Will you listen? Or better yet, act and resist? The truth – like Penny Arcade – is out there.
    PENNY ARCADE’S NEWEST SHOW – LONGING LASTS LONGER IS AT SOHO THEATRE UNTIL NOVEMBER 21st. 020 7478 0100
    by Sasha de Suinn | @MsSashaDarling

  • INTERVIEW: Rebecca Root On Her First Times

    INTERVIEW: Rebecca Root On Her First Times

    Boy Meets Girl star Rebecca Root answers our first time questions…

    What’s your first memory?

    WONDERING WHY I HAD A PENIS.

    What happened the first time you kissed someone?

    I BLUSHED FURIOUSLY (I WAS ONLY ABOUT 6).

    When was the first time you got drunk?

    ABOUT 1984.

    What happened the first time your heart broke?

    I CRIED AND CRIED AND CRIED AND CRIED AND ALL THAT TEENAGER CARRY ON.

    What was your first job?

    WORKING IN A GARDEN CENTRE WATERING THE BEDS AND WEEDING FOR £1.00 AN HOUR. IT WAS 1982 OR SO. I WAS ABOUT 13.

    What was your first car?

    I HAVE NEVER OWNED A CAR.

    What’s the first thing you do in the morning?

    DRINK SOME WATER.

    What was your very first lover’s tiff?

    I HAVE NO IDEA THERE’VE BEEN SO MANY.

    Where was your first holiday?

    1ST I CAN REMEMBER IS DEVON SOMEWHERE. PROBABLY AGED 5 IN 1974.

  • INTERVIEW: Leo Ocean

    INTERVIEW: Leo Ocean

    Photographer Aaron Holloway meets with Leo Ocean to ask the ever popular star what kind of man he’s into and why sleeping with straight guys is weird.

    (more…)

  • INTERVIEW: Paul Oakenfold The Cream of the Dance Nation

    Cream is one of the most well-known dance music brands in the world.

    For the last three decades it has been responsible for some of the best parties and festivals in the dance music scenes, many of which have been attended by the majority of dance music fans from across the UK.

    The brand started out as a club in Liverpool and the venue, Nation, is closing its doors for the final time on 26th December 2015, making way for a multi-million pound development. Luckily, Cream have just over 2 months to celebrate its closure in style, hosting three closing parties.
    Part one takes place this weekend on Saturday 17th October, Part two is on 23rd October and part three will be happening on Boxing Day. Needless to say Cream are planning to go out with a bang, and they have some top notch line-ups for the events. Part one has the likes of Paul Oakenfold, Pete Tong, Roger Sanchez, K-Klass, Jeremy Healy and Timo Maas performing and it’s destined to kick the celebrations off in style.
    Ahead of his set at Cream this weekend, TheGayUK’s Scott Ellis caught up with dance music giant, Paul Oakenfold, legendary DJ, producer, record label owner and Cream event regular. Paul is responsible for some of the biggest dance classics since the late eighties, either producing music himself or releasing other artist’s tracks via his Perfecto Records label. He has also DJ’d at hundreds of events all over the world and is still at the top of his game.
    Specialising in trance, he’s produced many tracks including Planet Perfecto’s Bullet In The Gun, Faster Kill Pussycat with the late Brittany Murphy, his own Southern Sun and Starry Eyed Surprise. He even produced the Big Brother theme tune with Andy Gray! Ring any bells??
    He’s also remixed some of the biggest names in the music industry, including U2, The Cure, Massive Attack, Madonna, Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. Put simply, he’s pretty much dance music royalty and his set at Cream this weekend is going to be one of his most memorable yet, especially as he has invited his fans to select which classic tracks he plays.
    Paul chatted to TheGayUK about his feelings on Cream’s closure, as well as his plans for the future and who he tips as the next big thing in dance music.
    SE: Firstly, thanks for taking the time to chat to The Gay UK. You sound extremely busy this year with the release of your 25 years of Perfecto compilation, as well as touring the world and your new venture coaching budding DJs and producers, Paul Oakenfold’s DJ Camp.PO: Good to talk to you too.
    SE:You are performing at the 1st of Cream’s closing parties at Nation in Liverpool on 17th October and I’m personally gutted that it is coming to an end. What are your thoughts on the closing of many legendary clubs in the UK at the moment?

    PO:It’s a sad day of course and an end to a truly epic era – but at the same time I’m sure Cream will announce something exciting that will fill the void left by Nation’s closure so I think in these instances it’s advisable to always look forwards. The closure of The Arches in Glasgow was another blow to the UK scene – but again Scotland has always been on the cutting edge of the music scene and that’s never going to change so new venues will emerge and while they might never be the same – they will be a new chapter that the local clubbers need to embrace.

    SE: You’ve been involved with Cream for many years. Can you tell us why you have continued your relationship with the brand for so long?

    PO:We’re like family and so the loyalty is second nature. It runs deep in.
    SE: What is your fondest memory whilst working alongside Cream?

    PO:Ask me again next week and I’m sure it will be this coming Saturday’s closing show.

    SE: You also have your own brand, Perfecto Records. You’ve consistently released some amazing music, many tracks such as Planet Perfecto’s Bullet In The Gun and Grace’s Not Over Yet now being certified classics. What’s the secret behind the label’s longevity?

    PO: Always pushing fresh new talent and never being afraid to release music that thinks outside the box. We have never been genre exclusive and that gives us a really great sense of freedom. We can sign and release whatever we want and the fans and followers of the label are open minded enough to dig that.
    SE: You have started a DJing and producing school. How is that going?

    PO: Really well – it’s a great thing to be able to offer advice, guidance and skills to what could be potentially the next generation of international DJs.
    SE: Apart from your new venture, do you have any other new projects coming up in the future?

    PO: I have loads of things going on right now. I released my new compilation album last week “Back To My House” which is a double CD / Digital album which I put together inspired by some incredible experiences I had at a bunch of private parties, house parties, pool parties and after parties this summer.

    SE: Finally…A quick fire round… What’s your favourite track of all time, if you had to pick one?PO: Marvin Gaye “What’s Going On”.
    What’s your favourite track at the moment?

    It’s impossible to just pick a single record but right now I’m sat working while listening to an absolutely killer new album on TIP records that is just phenomenal. It’s great seeing that label still going and still pioneering the boundaries of goa and psy after all these years.
    Who would you say is “one to watch” out of the up and coming DJs/producers at the moment?

    Simon Patterson. He’s already massive and a headliner so he doesn’t really fit into the “up and coming” category – but mark my words – he is about to go stratospheric in 2016.
    What can we expect from your upcoming set at Cream on Saturday?

    I invited the fans to choose which tracks they wanted me to play so it will be a classic courtyard set. A non-stop trip down memory lane and a fitting sign off to a truly incredible era.

    Scott Ellis | @ellis2s
    Tickets for the Cream Grand Finale part one, on October 17, have now sold out. For tickets to part two, on October 24, featuring sets from Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Danny Howard, Carnage and Michael Woods, go to cream.co.uk

  • INTERVIEW: Judy Shepard: There was more to Matthew Than The Way He Died

    INTERVIEW: Judy Shepard: There was more to Matthew Than The Way He Died

    Judy Shepard is an extraordinary woman. In 1998 her eldest son Matthew a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming was tied to a fence outside of the town of Laramie, beaten mercilessly and left to die.

    Matthew Shepard Foundation

    This particular pernicious hate-crime caught the public’s attention, and news of his death provoked outrage from Wyoming to The White House. It also caused an international sea of sympathy for Dennis and Judy his typical American parents who were thrust into the glare of the world’s media when all they wanted to do was grieve in private. At the subsequent trial when two local youths were found guilty of Matthew’s murder a stoic Dennis supported by his wife, pleaded that his son’s killers should not be given the death penalty.

    This was just an inkling of what was to follow when the Shepard Family created The Matthew Shepard Foundation. The aim was to honour Matthew in a manner that was appropriate to his dreams, beliefs, and aspirations, and the Foundation seeks to “Replace Hate with Understanding, Compassion, & Acceptance” through its varied educational, outreach and advocacy programs and by continuing to tell Matthew’s story.

    The Foundation transformed this introverted housewife into a powerhouse who trotted around the world promoting tolerance and diversity whilst helping to spearhead a major piece of Legislation to help eradicate hate-crime. Feted by politicians and celebrities alike, she has swapped her kitchen in Casper Wyoming for the stages in Universities and Conference Centers imploring anyone and everyone to help the Foundation bring about more change.

    Where others would have withdrawn from life after having to deal with such tragedy, Judy and Dennis instead chose to turn their personal loss into a remarkable force of good that would help insure that other parents and other children would not have to face the same fate as they did with Matthew.

    Last year Roger Walker-Dack interviewed Judy Shepard to talk about Matthew’s legacy and her hopes for the future.

    RWD: So much has changed in the LGBT landscape since Matthew’s passing. Is it enough, or is there still more to do?

    JS: There is a lot more to do. In the US we are making inroads legally and legislatively but there are still so many hearts and minds that need to change. We have achieved about 50% of where we need to be on same-sex marriage, but even on that we have a long way to go. Maybe when another younger generation grows up and is empowered to vote and be active in the community, then things will change much more rapidly than they do now. But certainly compared to other civil and equal rights issues we are on the right path especially as we now have the support of more leading politicians and people with influence than those who are lined up against us.

    RWD: You were very involved with the passing of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act in the US Congress. What did you hope it would change and is it achieving it?

    It’s important to know that it’s called the Prevention of Hate Crimes Act and although I disagreed with Senator Ted Kennedy and Senator Gordon Smith the Bill’s Sponsors on the exact title, I went along with it anyway. To me the most important thing that the Act was going to do was to send a message to the rest of the country that the gay community was indeed a select group of people where hate crimes were being concentrated.

    We need a way to record it and a way to prosecute it if local authorities could not afford to do, or were unwilling to do it. So in that sense, it really is working.

    There were people who were against it claiming that it was against God’s will, but I think its existence has done a lot to help create a different and better environment. It’s helped make more public awareness that the LGTBQ community were the victims of these crimes and needed to be protected.

    Michele Josue’s superb new documentary Matt Shepard Is A Friend of Mine mentioned that there were 33 hate crimes that ended in fatalities the same year as Mathew was killed.

    Let me clarify that. There were 33 REPORTED cases. Many of these hate crimes are never ever recorded simply because they are against gay people. To this day, we will never ever know a true count of the victims, but we are sadly convinced it is a lot more than any official statistics.

    Matthew Shepard Foundation

    Have matters improved since the Act was passed?

    One of the problems that our Foundation is tackling right now is that reporting of these crimes is voluntary. So not every community is eager to participate, and not every victim is willing to come forward especially in vast sections of our country where you can still be fired from your job for just being gay. For these victims, the fear of being ‘outed’ in their own community far outweighs the physical and verbal abuse they have suffered.

    We know that it is vastly underreported. But the Act has nevertheless made a difference and in the way that we wanted it to. It expanded the parameters as what was defined as a ‘crime’ and it also made it easier in many parts of the country for people to be able to come forward and be treated with respect and dignity.

    I was shocked when I read in the 2013 Stonewall Report into Hate Crimes in the UK that the bulk of the perpetrators are under 25 years of age. Does this surprise you?

    Sadly no. It is a phenomena of this country too, and it seems like a sort a rite of passage in some ways to commit such an act of violence. The crime rate amongst young people in this country is more prevalent when they’re dealing with internal struggles of whom they want to be, and are having a need to prove themselves to others. We also find that some young gay people who are troubled about being victims also become extremely violent and anti-gay to detract attention away from themselves. I am greatly saddened by this situation, but not shocked at all.

    How can we as parents and peers help young people come out as gay and not be afraid?
    We have to create an environment in everybody’s community, schools etc that says we respect them no matter what as human beings. Gay or straight. We must tell them that we care most about the fact that they are all equal citizens.

    We must let them know that we will be there for them, for talking, for listening, for welcoming, and especially for not making them feel different from any of us. This is the very last thing that most young people want to be made to feel because to them ‘different’ can so often mean ‘wrong’. They want most of all to blend in, and we should be there to help them to do this. The message must be that this is how it is, and that it is really fine to be who you are. I know we all still have a long way to go to create such an environment, that’s for sure.

    The matthewsplace.com website is a great resource centre for LGBTQ youth for LGBTQ youth, can you tell us more about that?

    When we started the Foundation years ago I was searching the internet which was still fairly new then, and I found that there was nowhere to get any information to help gay youth deal with any of the issues they were confronting, nationwide or even in their own backyard. So I started to find out what community centres existed and in what cities, and particularly looked for ‘safe places’ for young people to go, and it all simply grew from there. We have now developed resources where we can continually track all the places to ensure that they still exist, and can really help, and are still ‘safe’.

    This then all morphed into this something much larger when so many talented writers and kids with information started to just write in and leave comments on the site. We decided that they should all be encouraged and added to the website and given their own special place, and so we started the Blog. It has covered the whole gamut from asexuality to transitioning to health issues, how to help your friends come out, help for parents etc. Matthews Place is a fantastic site, which is helping so many young people who visit and participate.

    However one of the problems we have run into is that some schools have actually blocked access to pro-gay websites even though they don’t block access to anti-gay websites. So to counter-balance this we spend a lot of time trying to ensure that all our information is available on public computers, which is no easy task.

    We are US based but we get an awful lot of international visitors to our website as what we deal with is really a universal situation and a vast majority of our information can help young gay people wherever they are in the world.

    Embed from Getty Images

    Wyoming Location Where Gay University Of Wyoming Student Mathew Shepard’s Body

    Embed from Getty Images

    http://gty.im/1547028

    Dennis and Judy Shepard address the media at a press conference to highlight the need to pass the Hate Crimes bill outside the Capitol building in Washington, DC November 8, 1999. 

    The stage play The Laramie Project by Moses Kaufman went into great detail on both Matthew’s attack and the way it affected the whole local town is continually being performed, does that upset you in any way?

    No, it’s one of the few things that the Foundation officially endorses, and we actually do a lot of work helping companies mount their productions. This wonderful play has such a universal message that’ starts with hate but ends with acceptance. When you watch all those characters on that stage you realize it’s a microcosm of every community in the world. It covers all kinds of issues besides about being Gay, and it’s not just about what happened to Matt either. It’s about the aftermath. I love that they still do it, and I love the fact that it is one of the most performed plays in the US today.

    What do you think that Matthew would be doing if he were here today?

    I think he would be doing exactly what I am doing now in some form. Even when he was little he was always concerned about the other boys being bullied in the playground, and would come to their aid. He wanted to do something to help other people on a national level years ago, so in a way I am filling in for him.

    After watching this new documentary I am even more convinced that your actions and work over these past 16 years are a reflection of Matthew’s spirit.

    I am an introvert off the scale so for me to go on a public stage to speak on these issues, would have been the very last thing, I would have normally chosen to do but I feel Matt’s presence with me.

    Embed from Getty Images

    US President Barack Obama applauds the sisters of James Byrd, Jr., Betty Byrd Boatner (2nd R) and Louvon Harris (2nd L), and the parents of Matthew Shepard, Judy Shepard (C) and Dennis Shepard (L) after Obama spoke in honor of the enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act during a reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, October 28, 2009. In 1998, when he was a college student in Wyoming, Shepard was murdered because he was gay. Byrd, an African American man, was dragged behind a pickup truck to his death in Texas the same year.

    Does it upset you to be continually expected to talk about Matthew?

    No, his spirit is with me, and there was so much more to Matt than the way he died.

    What are your hopes for the Matthew Shepard Foundation in the future?

    In a perfect world , would hope there would be no need for it as everything should be the way it should be: normal and accepting. Where nobody really cares if you are gay, straight or whatever. However I’m not sure if that will ever really happen. I would like the Foundation to be a perpetuating presence: that it would always be there, but as an information provider not lobbying for legislation or fighting injustice or any of those things.

    Asides from the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, what is the legacy that you would like to leave on behalf of all the Shepards?

    I think the passing of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is the most important thing that is still not done. Same-sex marriage will continually follow its natural course, as people accept that it is unconstitutional to ban it and it is just so wrong. Job discrimination is also wrong but it’s a much harder struggle trying to convince people that you should not fire someone for their sexual orientation or their gender identity. It seems to be something that people, especially the older generation in power just don’t want to talk about or deal with the issue

    When I started all this work there was a ‘plan’. We would tackle hate crimes first then ENDA, then same-sex marriage last, but somehow marriage jumped the line and everyone forgot about ENDA. As a community, we focused all our efforts recently on marriage and none on job security at all, which I think is wrong. And I also find it rather ironic that the only jobs that are safe in this country now are in the Military.

    Matthew had a happy experience when he came ‘out’ to you and Dennis, as you were both supportive. Can you share with us your thoughts, on the whole, coming out experience?

    Every one feels so alone if no one is telling their story and that can lead to so many negative things like depression and enforced solitude. People should just be who they are and let everybody see this, including family and friends that support them. Its critical that everyone knows that this is not some one-off freak of nature thing but something that is perfectly natural.

    If Matt had not trusted and believed in us to tell us, I would not have survived finding out in the hospital after the attack.

    It would be great if we didn’t have to have the whole coming out process right? But we do and there is still so much negativity and mythology surrounding being gay. If only everybody understood that their doctor, their minister, or their teacher happens to be gay and it really makes no difference what so ever.

    So I entreat everyone to take this step, take this leap of faith and I think they will find more support than they think.
    You took your own great leap of faith after Matthew died starting The Foundation, which can never replace him but seems to bring you a sense of satisfaction and fulfilment…

    Doing this work and creating the Foundation with Dennis has been my survival. If I hadn’t taken this issue on, and tried to make a difference, I really don’t know what I would have done. I certainly never thought when we started it that 16 years later we would still be doing it. I thought it would be one or maybe two years and then Matt’s story would just fade into history. The more I find out, the more I am encouraged that things are changing and are getting better. Yes, it gives me a sense of joy that things are really happening and we can make a difference.

    http://www.matthewshepard.org/
    http://www.matthewsplace.com/
    http://mattshepardisafriendofmine.com/

    by Roger Walker-Dack
    This interview was taken from a previous issue of THEGAYUK Magazine. Please subscribe today and support us

  • INTERVIEW: It’s Okay To Be Gay With Lush

    A long time fan of the brand, Alessandro started his Lush career in 2001 as a copywriter and brand ambassador in Italy

    From here, his Lush journey has taken him to Germany – where he worked to re-launch the brand and expand the business. In 2013 he moved to the UK and started working on special projects, such as packaging; international rollouts of websites and Lush Times; and ensuring freshness across the business. Ale is now part of the Lush Digital team, supporting partner countries and global operations. He also dips into product creation, having recently developed a new range of oral care for the launch of the flagship Oxford Street store. Ale is passionate about communication and has been integral in some of Lush’s most successful campaigns, most noticeably the 2014 award-winning ‘Sign of Love’ collaboration with All Out – their first global LGBT campaign.

    JH: Why was it important for LUSH to launch the GAY IS OK campaign?

    A: About two years ago, the press was full of sad news for LGBT+ people: the fight for equality was facing new challenges in places like Russia, Uganda and even the United States. Our staff and customers felt very passionate about these issues and asked us to make a stance – and so we did our first #SignofLove campaign. At that point I had to confront a sad reality: Lush has almost 100 shops where running that campaign would have been illegal, and our staff security could have been at risk. When we spoke to our charity partner, All Out, they told us that in 75 countries being gay is illegal and in 10 it can cost you your life. This was shocking, how can love be illegal? We developed #GayIsOK to raise awareness and developed a charity soap that was actually illegal to sell in around 100 of our shops simply because it has the word ‘gay’ on it. The response has been overwhelming, and even if a lot of victories are happening on this side of the world, this is a reminder that there’s a long way to go for global equality.

    JH: Who came up with the design?

    As usual at Lush, it was a collaborative effort. I came up with the concept of the soap and our R&D team made up samples in different colours in the Lush lab. When we tried to take selfies, only the bars filled with golden lustre would show the hashtag clearly in the pictures – it was meant to be sparkly. Our design team worked on the mugshots that we used in the windows and on social media, and some of them are actually featured in them! They seemed very happy to lend their faces to a good cause.

    JH: Are LGBT employees encouraged to bring product ideas forward?

    A: You don’t always need to invent new products for a campaign, and a lot of Lush product are already full of love, rainbows and glitter! For instance our recent campaign for marriage equality in Ireland was developed by John, the manager of one of our Dublin stores, and we asked customers and allies to take a say YES to equality by taking a selfie with our “Yes Yes Yes” solid massage bar which has a fat big YES engraved on it.

    JH: Some people criticise corporations for jumping on what they consider the “pink pound”, what do you feel about that?

    A: Every little helps – but turning a logo into a rainbow for a week definitely doesn’t make a company more diverse or friendly. The work on equality within organisations starts from the people within it. If there’s a real commitment, I see companies and brands playing a crucial role in educating the public, creating policies and pushing for change alongside governments and charities.

    JH: Lush linked up with AllOut recently, what was that like?

    A: You just need to subscribe to their newsletter on AllOut.org to figure out that they’re absolutely on it. They are a small organisation but they use the internet to reach over two million members, at least one in each country of the world, and achieved amazing things. For instance, they managed to get Chinese LGBT+ activists released from jail, convinced the International Olympics Committee to consider equality criteria for countries that want to host the games and are currently campaigning to stop damaging “Gay Cure” therapies.  Most of All Out members campaign on LGBT+ rights for the first time, just like many Lush staff or customers.

    JH: Basically the soap smells gorgeous, who decided the smell of gay acceptance would be so fruity and fresh?

    A: We used to make a perfume called Love and this was the perfect opportunity to resume it from the Lush archives. The soap smells of love, in every sense. It also contains lovely oils of bergamot and lemon that we buy in Italy – the country where I come from and that is still lagging behind on LGBT+ rights. A gentle nudge to the Italians won’t do any harm.

    JH: Are there more products in the pipeline?

    A: My lips are sealed! But for those who want to use their hard earned cash to make a difference, I suggest to check out our Charity Pot. It’s a lovely hand and body lotion made with beautiful ingredients grown sustainably around the world, such as like aloe vera from Kenya and Colombian cocoa butter. All sales (excluding VAT) go to grassroots charities working on human rights (including LGBT rights), animal rights and environmental causes.

    JH: How important is social media to Lush?

    A: Social media is at the core of Lush and its campaigning effort. It helps us reach more people and is a democratic space for debate and feedback with the public. Our community is very engaged and especially supportive when talking about LGBT+ rights. With this campaign alone we had a direct social reach of over thirty million – with an extra forty million thanks to all those that used the hashtag #GayIsOK as part of their celebrations about marriage equality in the US.

    JH: Complete this: Gay Is Ok Because…

    … because LGBT rights are human rights. And how on earth can anyone be entitled to fiddle with those.

  • INTERVIEW: Steve Miller… Bears Are Sexy But Lets Put A Prick In Them…

    INTERVIEW: Steve Miller… Bears Are Sexy But Let’s Put A Prick In Them…

    His programme Fat Families has been sold to over 14 countries world-wide, even Israel he tells us. He lives with his accountant boyfriend of 18-years and their dog Ned. He despises fat, but loves the person, a bit like hate the sin, love the sinner and, as a former fattie – his words not mine, Steve Miller does not mince his words when he gets on his soapbox.
    We meet Steve to find out why he believes weight loss hypnotherapy is the number one treatment to help people with obesity and just how butch he can be with his dog.

    JH: Where are you now?
    SM: Well I’ve been around…
    I spent a lot of time up North; I lived in Manchester, Huddersfield and Leeds. I was a Red Coat at Skegness for Butlins. Those were the days mate, I’m telling you.

    JH: Were you a compère?
    SM: Well, I did two things, I worked on the reception and I was a Red Coat. It was great. That’s were I found myself. I had my first gay moment in Skegness.

    JH: What was the gay moment?
    SM: The gay moment was when one moment I’m dancing to Bananarama and the next minute I’m passing this guy’s chalet, who I’ve got this most amazing crush on, and because I’ve had a few (drinks), I enter the room and we start talking and then I had my first kiss ever, with a man.

    JH: Oooo, that’s given us chills…
    SM: You never forget it…

    JH: Did you sing while you were a Red Coat at Butlins?
    SM: I was the kind of meet and greet guy…

    JH: A bit of a door whore?
    SM: I suppose I was…

    (laughs)

    JH: You describe yourself as a former fattie Is that right?
    SM: Yes, I lost four stone, so it’s not like tonnes of weight but I put weight on in my thirties and it really affected me. It affected my confidence, my self-esteem. I was just a lazy slob really. There was no psychology behind it, I was just bloody lazy really. I was in a relationship and it was comfortable and all those sorts of things. So I would rather sit or lie on the couch ordering take away in and drinking lots of wine. I lost my confidence, because, often gay guys look really great and I didn’t. I looked pretty awful. There came a point where one day I looked in the mirror and I thought, “get off your arse and lose weight.” That was it. And I did.

    JH: Was your boyfriend supportive of your weight loss?
    SM: Very. But at my weight I didn’t feel attractive, I didn’t feel sexy, I mean SEX, God blimey, who’d want to touch me looking like that…

    JH: Is sex better when you’re thin?
    SM: Oh absolutely without a doubt. Because you’re not so self aware. You’re not so concerned or worried or anxious. You’re willing to get changed with the lights on rather than the lights off. It’s not about being stick thin, it’s about being slim. It’s not about having muscles everywhere either. I know some gay guys tone up at the gym and do that muscle thing. I’m not into that at all, it’s just about having a reasonable slim shape. Your confidence in the bedroom shoots up! Without a doubt.

    There comes a point where you can’t feel sorry for yourself, you have to take action and I’m quite a strong minded individual, and that’s why, when I looked in the mirror, I said, “get off your fat arse”, I did it and I got my first book deal, based on that, which was called Get Off Your Arse And Lose Weight.

    You’ve got to be in the right mind state. Mind state doesn’t mean all nicey nice all the time, although it’s important to have positive motivation, it’s also about cracking the whip on yourself. So you’re saying to yourself “actually no excuses, get on with it”.

    Think about how gorgeous and attractive you’re going to look and the clothes in the wardrobe that you’ll make friends with again. You do have to be quite firm as well with yourself. I’m a real advocate of that.

    With clients that I work with, I’m supportive, I have fun with them. I have Champagne parties with them, but during the process of losing weight they are told to get a grip. They are told they will do what we agree and there are no excuses. But I also use hypnosis with them as well…

    JH: So a bit of tough love from Steve Miller?
    SM: Yes! I think gay guys, especially if they’re working with women, are in a great position to do that.

    JH: What is the best way to tell your partner that he’s getting a little bit poggie around the waist? It’s difficult to say to the ones we love…
    SM: I think you’re empathically direct with them, I don’t think you faff about. What you do is put your arm around them when you tell them. You say to your partner, “of course, I love you no matter what you are, who you are,” and all that sort of stuff… “but you know what, you’re putting a bit of weight on and I am concerned about your health.” So it all becomes about their health, it’s all about letting them know that they are gorgeous, because they are your partner, but being fat is not a good thing. So it is about how you do it. It’s also about agreeing what you will do together.

    JH: Is that quite a healthy way of keeping a relationship together?
    SM: I think that if you do it right and you do it with the right tonality, then it’s absolutely fine. What you don’t do is tease your partner; what you don’t do is call them names.
    What you do is be supportive and loving. If you ignore it, potentially, your partner, there was a report out today on it, can get diabetes, that could lead to amputation, heart disease, stroke and now they link obesity to cancer. So you’re being cruel to be kind. It’s not very politically correct to be honest (to be) open and direct with people. I think the opposite. To me it’s just logical. I’d much rather do that than let my partner have a heart attack.

    JH: A similar line as Katie Hopkins on the matter… both you and Ms. Hopkins have been in that firestorm that can happen if you say anything against larger people, what’s that like?
    SM: I have it a lot, but you’d be surprised at how many people say, “too right Steve, you’re absolutely right and spot on.”
    You have to have a thick skin. I’ve always said this, if you genuinely believe in what your message is, that’s okay. You grow a thick skin. You do get your haters, but you know what, you’re going to get them anyway. People, at the end of the day, know that I get results. I’ve had some incredible results helping people. If it makes me unpopular to get the message out there so be it.
    (dog starts to bark uncontrollably)
    (Off phone) Ned… lie down…

    (back on phone) Sorry about that I’m being butch with the dog. (Laughs)

    (Off phone) LIE DOWN, that’s it. Good boy…

    JH: Out of curiosity, people who criticise your message, are they fat people themselves or are they skinny minnies?
    SM: It’s mixed actually and it’s a great question. It’s very mixed, however quite a few are feminists, quite a few are slim – skinny feminists! With every client I work with I say to them, “what is it you want from me?” If they want tea and tissues, hearts and flowers, they ain’t gonna get it, that isn’t the Steve Miller style, but most say to me, “this is refreshing.”
    I had a lady who came to see me about a year ago and she sat and she said, “if I was single Steve, who would look at me,” and I said, “very few, very few.”

    JH: How did she react?
    SM: Well she’s lost 12 stone.

    JH: Wow, that’s amazing
    SM: Oh yes, she’s lost 12 stone, she was 24 stone. What people don’t realise, no one loves a fat person like Steve Miller does.

    JH: Ahhhh!
    SM: Do you like that?

    JH: I do like that…
    SM: There’s a method in my madness, and I love what I do. I love working with fat women, give me a fat woman any day.

    JH: Okay, so the Gok Wans, the Doctor Christians, the Steve Millers… Why are there so many gay men helping fat women on TV?
    SM: I think there’s a natural empathy, I think we’re all very different. Gok Wan’s message is that, if you’re really fat you can still look gorgeous. Well I don’t agree with that. I don’t think you do look gorgeous if you’re really fat. I think that fat hides the true features of somebody. Every human being is gorgeous, except the criminals, (laughs), but when it comes to physical being, I do not endorse [anybody being happy and fat] at all, I do not endorse that because of the dangers, the true dangers of it. The reality is, if you are too fat, your natural features are being hidden, that’s why with all this plus size brigade, I get a lot of jip off them sometimes. They can be very abusive, incredibly abusive, but to put that message out that no matter how fat you are you can still look gorgeous, they call it curves, curves actually mean fat, it’s just not a good message. What sort of message is that?

    JH: We have had an influx of Plus size models in women, but not in men, do you find that interesting?
    SM: It’s something I’ve never really thought about…

    JH: I suppose in the gay community we’re already championing the larger man with bears… It’s all about appreciating the larger man, so we’re quite advanced in the accepting of different body size and different body shapes…
    SM: We may well be, but even with a bear, if it’s just a big belly, I’d be saying, “isn’t it time we stuck a prick in it?”

    (laughs)

    There’s nothing wrong with a bear, they can be very, very attractive and very sexy, but not a big balloon one. A bear doesn’t want to be a butterball. Let’s have fit bears. Fit bears rock, but fat ones don’t, they need a prick in them.

    JH: Quite… I’ve gotta talk about your look a little bit… it’s very Anne Robinson, which I’m totally a fan of, is she a personal icon?
    SM: (Laughs) Never really thought about it to be honest. But Anne Robinson is a lot older than me! I might not look like Brad Pitt, but I do alright.

    JH: Is there any more plans for TV?
    SM: There’s always plans, the media is a funny old world, I love it. Fat Families was an incredible success than I ever imagined it would be. Kids adored it, they liked the fun element and it’s now in 14 countries. It went very big in Italy, it did okay in Australia, it even went into Israel. It was a hit and it was my first TV gig.

    JH: Is it hard to keep the weight off as a ‘former fattie?’
    SM: Yeah, I think weight loss is all about your mind-set and your motivation. It’s not about a diet, it’s not about a rigid diet, I just do not advocate those at all, I live 80-20, so I eat 80 per cent healthily and 20 per cent a bit of what I fancy. I still have my nights out, I still go on the gay scene and stuff, so I’ll drink and eat the crap sometimes, but, it is a challenge for people, but so long as you build a new routine in your life, and you discipline yourself and stick to that routine you can keep the weight off. I’m the first one to say, it’s not easy, easy, it is a challenge of the head and motivation, but if you’re loving being slim and you’re hating being fat and you’ve got that drive within you and you’ve built that new routine in your life, then you can keep it off. It’s all about mind over platter!

    JH: So what is on your platter now?
    SM: My platter is, in the morning, fruit, lunch time is a wholemeal ham and tomato sarnie, with an apple, then dinner is always something like: fresh fish and vegetables, I love veg, but then I always have something like a chocolate pudding.

    JH: So actually what you’re advocating is an achievable diet…
    SM: Yes, what people need to stop doing is obsessing with food, and what’s good for you and what’s bad for you. It’s about mind-set and motivation, the food is common sense. If you are bored too much you’re going to eat more, so occupy your mind more, if you’re in a relationship that is not good for you, yes try and make it work, but if not, take action. If that means moving on, move on. Surround yourself with radiators not drains. It’s a bit cheesy. But surround yourself with people who inspire you rather than the drains. If you’re surrounded by people who are negative, all you want to do is put your head in a gas oven.

    JH: Do you sit down of an evening and write these quotes down?
    SM: You know what, having left school with very little, I do alright with this literacy stuff.

    Follow Steve on Twitter at

    twitter.com/Steve___Miller
    Also check out his website at yourweightlossmaster.com

    This interview was taken from Issue 14. Please support THEGAYUK by subscribing today

  • In Conversation With: Rebecca Chance, A Heady Mix Of RuPaul Meets Joan Rivers

    We’re in an exclusive London eatery, Rebecca Chance and I sit down for a natter about why gay porn turns the girls on, and that was just after one Rosé. Yes it’s just an average Tuesday night chez Chance.

    As we start, she drags out her camera and asks me to pose for a selfie, naturally I Zoolander the hell out of the picture… “Even that’s turning me on,” she laughs, “that’s not suppose to happen is it!”

    (more…)

  • Interview: Why We Need A Gay Film Festival In Shropshire

    This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Shropshire Rainbow Film Festival that takes place annually in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. (more…)

  • OP-ED: The Complete Films Of John Waters Film Season

    The Complete Films Of John Waters (Every Goddam One Of Them…) @ British Film Institute, Southbank Centre, September And October, 2015 – A Personal Appreciation 

    ‘Why are so many great fans of mine dead, and so many assholes alive? Life’s a lottery, and it’s not a fair one’. – John Waters, trash cult film director.

    Has gay film director John Waters been miscast from birth? Tall, thin and frighteningly dapper, with trademark, pencilled-on moustache, he’d be a pitch-perfect mortician’s assistant. Who else could handle the awkward absurdities of the American Way of Death with such dry, hilarious aplomb? Who else would even care if a deceased’s eyelids are super-glued tight shut in an open casket, let alone whether a satin, coffin lining’s the precise shade of puce?

    Pope John Waters, that’s who, the legendary, fan-appointed, sacred head of filth and the unthinkable, in short, everything that makes straight, reactionary bigots wet their panties and pray for deliverance.

    A man as passionately devoted to popping taboos and dumb preconceptions as a teenager nuking zits, Waters infamously persuaded Divine, his outsize, female impersonator ‘star’ to eat fresh dog-sh*t live on camera in Water’s first, break-out feature, Pink Flamingoes.

    He’s also kick-started the career of one Johnny Depp (the Juvenile lead in Polyester) and in Hairspray (the original, with Divine, not Travolta) fearlessly exposed the endemic, white-on-black early 60’s racism the US is still trying to retroactively erase.

    So, a PC paragon, then, flawlessly ticking every box possible, from gay, trans, plus-size and anti-racist rights? Well, of course, and how could he not be? As a thinking, intelligent, self-aware gay man, shouldn’t sensitivity to minorities automatically come with the territory?

    But remarkably, what seems like simple humanity to you and I still sparks redneck resentment towards John’s oeuvre. Perhaps that’s why he’s still not quite internationally acclaimed to the extent he deserves, which hopefully, this ongoing season of his entire output at London’s BFI will correct.

    Cinematically, he’s often compared to Russ Meyer, the big-breast-obsessed sleaze supremo, who rushed out nearly two dozen movies best described as deranged, Carry On antics pumped up on (female) steroids. Now misleadingly treated as art-house fodder, they’re actually nothing but naive, rush-produced ‘jerk-off movies for guys who liked big tits’, as John fondly recalls. And faced with real, art-house depravity mocking his own tastes – John’s trans star Divine looked like a bizarre, buxom woman – Meyer was ‘always uneasy. But he made exploitation films for the exploitation theatres, and I made exploitation films for art theatres’. Tellingly, his own, sexually candid work, is both absurdly cartoonish and ironically deadpan; think Family Guy re-imagined as Queer As Folk set in the American boondocks.

    It’s a singular, kitsch-with-knives perspective that, to date, has spawned seventeen, disturbingly strange, cinematic offspring. Does he have a particular favourite amongst his filmic brood? ‘I like them all, they’re like children, but children with learning disabilities. But generally, you root for the ones that didn’t do well at the box-office. And I’m very fond of Cecil B. Demented, my political movie, but I hope I have more sense of humour than Cecil did, because he was a fascist, and like all cult leaders, they never think they’re funny’.

    Not surprisingly – during fifty years of movie-making – John’s also explored related art-forms like writing, one-man shows and photography, each a twisted, trademark success. Although always an art collector – ‘I had a silver, Andy Warhol Jackie O print that cost a hundred dollars my girl-friend(!?) gave me back in high school in 1964’ – John didn’t start showing his photo-art until the early 90s. Recently, this summer, London gallery Sprueth Magers hosted his ‘Beverly Hills John’ photo exhibition, a collection in typically brilliant bad taste.

    And the sickest shot on show? Easily, Jackie O in Dallas the day of JFK’s assassination, with ‘Death Dude’ from the Scream slash-flicks superimposed smiling beside her. Gee, how’s that for spitting on the great-for-straights, cornball American Dream?

    But that, of course, is just a splinter of John’s fabulously subversive iceberg. Quite aptly, his blanket desecration, of politics, gender and family values was a stellar inspiration for irreverent, punk rock guru and Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren. ‘He took the image of Divine from Female Trouble and appropriated it on a T-Shirt without Divine’s name or the Film’s title, and when Divine started seeing all these punk women, he was like, ‘Oh my god, I feel so Plain Jane!’.

    Divine being ironic, surely, but if punk’s lost all shock value with pierced couture on every high street, John’s scathing satires still bite. Extreme in every way – except in his debonair, butter-soft demeanour – he even adores fellow auteur David Lynch’s otherworldly record releases. ‘Well, his music to me is perfect for funerals’. Even at your own? ‘Yes, I think it’d be good. I asked Nico (legendary Velvet Underground chanteuse and deep-voiced diva) if she’d sing at my funeral and she said, deadpan, ‘Oh, when are you going to die?’

    It’s a question one imagines John asking repeatedly during his one-time obsessive attendance at murder trials. ‘Any villain that was hated by everyone made me interested, as when I first read about serial killer Richard Speck, who killed a whole bunch of nurses. But I don’t go to trials anymore, I teach in prisons and try and get people out on parole, and I think if I hadn’t become a film-maker I would have become a defence lawyer. But as a judge, I’d be a pushover; I’d be a liberal, then they’d (the accused) get out and kill me!’

    Let’s hope not. Shockingly people-friendly and approachable, in an era of routinely unavailable and sulky celebrities, John’s happy to pose for fans. ‘Why wouldn’t I? I’m always on my bicycle in Provincetown and the minute I stop, everyone wants a cell-phone shot. So of course I’m happy to pose for a picture. Well, aren’t they my customers who’ve paid my rent all summer?’

    Admirably, John also applies that breezy, beautiful modesty to his artistry, particularly writing, a process often pompously described as agonising by less gifted authors. ‘I write every day, it’s never easy, it’s never satisfying, there are good and bad days, but it’s not fun writing a book, but not torture, either. If I want fun, I’ll have a drink on a Saturday night. I mean, I have a job, so that’s good, my life is great, it’s not like I’m some tragic artist who’s never been understood. Sure, I didn’t get good reviews for a long time, but I had an eager audience from the beginning, so I’m hardly whining’.

    Amen to that, and John’s eager, constantly attentive audience is spreading like an unstoppable, LGBT tsunami. Catch a ride on his filthily gorgeous tide ASAP. Find out more at www.bfi.org.uk/whatson