THEGAYUK

Category: Interview

  • LOOK AT ME | Stacey Solomon, Gayer Than Anyone Who Reads This Magazine….

    As we sit down to talk with Stacey Solomon, she blurts out, “I’m probably more gay than anyone who reads the magazine…” We can tell this is going to go very well indeed.

    TGUK: What’s the best thing about being Stacey Solomon?
    SS: The best thing about being me is getting to dress up and go to amazing things and do the job that I’ve always dreamed about doing.

    TGUK: Is this something you’re wearing later? (pointing at a dress even a Disney princess might have trouble pulling off.)
    SS: Yeah… (Laughs) It’s my Cinderella dress… Most people go for what is going to look cool and fashionable, because they’re gonna get pictured… I went for like, what is the most glittery, sequin-ey most Disney-ey dress I can get.

    TGUK: We’ve seen you’ve written a book and a GBF features prominently… What’s the best thing about a gay best friend?
    SS: The best thing about having a gay best friend is the brutal honesty that I can always count on. If I do look like absolute poo, then he’ll be like, “Oh my god babes, don’t go on…”

    TGUK: Marry snog and avoid… Elton John, Sam Smith and Boy George
    SS: I would marry Elton John, he seems like he’s got it altogether. You know, comfortable, I mean I can’t marry him… He’s already married… I’d quite like to snog Sam Smith… If the opportunity ever arose… I wouldn’t say no.

    TGUK: So you’re going to be avoiding Boy George?
    SS: Oh that means I’m going to have to avoid Boy George! Can’t there be a best friend option?

    TGUK: Do you know what Amyl Nitrate is?
    SS: I have no idea…

    TGUK: It’s poppers…
    SS: Oh yeah, you sniff them and like they make your bum bigger? Is that right?

    TGUK: It could do… Have you done it?
    SS: No… (laughs) I’ve never done anything like that… I’m such a geek.

    TGUK: Okay, so today we asked the internet how gay Stacey Solomon is and it answered, “It has come from reliable sources that she has been know to have the odd girl fling!”
    SS: Ohhh! Who’s the reliable source?
    TGUK: Answers.com
    SS:(Shrieks with laughter) I’ve never had a girl fling, I’m sorry to say, But I feel like I’m a gay man rather than a gay woman. I feel really camp. I’m like the campest person you’ve ever met trapped inside a woman’s body.

    TGUK: Do you know who else said that? Cheryl Baker!
    SS: Yeah well… me and her. Same person. (Laughs)

    TGUK: So champagne is…
    SS: A drink? A drink that tastes like fizzy wee if I’m honest. Yeah it’s not my favourite. For sure.

    TGUK: Who is your favourite Kardashian?
    SS: Humm, that’s a toughie. I think I like Courtney the best. For some reason… oh no, Chloe.. (manager agrees). Chloe’s got like the most, funnest personality, but I like Courtney’s dress sense. I think she’s got great fashion.

    TGUK: So your new single is about being Shy. You don’t come across as Shy…
    SS: Really?

    TGUK: You did once tell an arena of people you were going to poo yourself…
    SS: I’m quite happy and open to share my feelings with people, but when it comes to like intimate situations I get really shy.

    TGUK: So what’s the gayest thing about you?
    a) Losing the X Factor to Joe McElderry
    SS: Is that gay?
    For the purposes of this interview yes…
    b) The Iceland ads.
    c) Judging Top Dog Model SS: Top dog model. I got to be the campest presenter ever.

    TGUK: Do you have a dog?
    SS: I have a Chihuahua Pomeranian. Hashtag Gay.

    TGUK: In your house are we most likely to find a shrine to: Peter Andre, Kylie Minogue Or Simon Cowell?
    SS: Kylie. I’m obsessed with Dannii, I am in love with her.

    TGUK: So you’d use her as a conduit to Dannii?
    SS: I mean it’s my only connection to Dannii. She’s genuinely the loveliest lady ever in the whole entire world. She still keeps in contact with me six years later. Whenever I do something she texts, “Well done, I love this” I love her.

    TGUK: We do love a bit of Dannii if truth be told…
    SS: I’ve got all her albums.

    TGUK: We’ve had a lot of sex to those albums… (with ourselves…)
    SS: Me too. (laughs)

    TGUK: Tell us something wildly camp about Simon Cowell
    SS: Everything. (Laughs.) Really. He wears like the tightest trousers, he is so well pruned, he really looks after himself everything about him is camp.

    TGUK: Did you get to know anything about his dressing room activities?
    SS: No and I’m not upset about that. I’d rather not know.

    TGUK: What’s the best way to get back at a cheating lover?

    A) Bottle of Red, singing All By Myself out the window

    B)  Cutting up his silks,

    C)  Everything he owns in a box to the left?
    SS: Ermm. I think I’d be the one singing to the window. I’d probably be making my own rain. Just to add a bit of effect.

    TGUK: What do you feel about men in oneies?
    SS: I mean each to their own. They’re not attractive on anyone are they? But you know, comfort comes first.

    TGUK: What should Cher do next?
    SS: Come and see me. I love her. Cher if you’re listening. I’ve been waiting all my life to meet you. If you’re not busy.

    TGUK: What would you do if she actually came back to yours?
    SS: I don’t know. Probably sing her songs back to her.

    TGUK: We’re just imagining Cher’s face.
    SS: (laughs) She’d love it!

    TGUK: What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever read about yourself?
    SS: People always write about how I’m feeling. There’s always like a headline: “Stacey’s tired today…” I’m like ‘no I just didn’t wear make up”, “Stacey’s really upset or heart broken today”. I’m like no! Didn’t anyone wanna ask me.

    Sometimes people go on and randomly change my Wikipedia page. They add little things. It gets taken off the next day because it has to be confirmed, but it goes up for 24 hours. The other day someone wrote: “Stacey is currently dating Steve O who she thinks is a great person and she’s really excited to have met such a wonderful man…” I was like who took the time to write this nonsense.

    Once someone on there wrote my eldest son’s dad was gay. That was on there for 24 hours.

    TGUK: That gives you multiple points if that’s true…
    SS: It’s not. Maybe I should just roll with it… He may take me to court over it. But as long as I get points.. (Laughs)

    TGUK: Finish this gay mantra….
    Ladies with an attitude, fellas that were in the mood…
    SS: I didn’t hear a word you just said then!
    TGUK: (We repeat) Ladies with an attitude, fellas that were in the mood… finish… SS:(Looks blankly at us) Sing it to me…
    TGUK: We can’t it’s a rap.
    SS: (looks a little lost)
    TGUK: Ladies with an attitude, fellas that were in the mood, strike a pose there’s…
    SS: And?
    TGUK: There’s nothing… SS: To it?

    TGUK: Wow. Minus-five.
    SS: Sorry I was struggling..

    TGUK: Do you know who Madonna is?
    SS: Stop it!

    TGUK: Will you ever wear a cape?
    SS: Not now… She handled that so well.

    TGUK: Have you ever fallen on stage?
    SS: No. But ratio to the amount of times I’ve been on stage and Madonna’s been on stage…

    TGUK: You don’t do too much dancing do you?
    SS: Come on now, look at me. I’m not the dancing type am I. I’ve got two left feet and I’m like a stork. I trip over thin air. It’s best for me to sit still. Maybe a little walk to the right.

    TGUK: Do you know what Space Docking is?
    SS: No… by the smile on your face it does not sound good!

    TGUK: We learnt this one from The Overtones! Well it’s when two men “dock” with each other’s penises,with their foreskins…
    SS: (Looks astounded at us) Like a little hoody? Well the Jews wouldn’t like it would they! How they gonna do that? That’s not for everyone. That’s why I don’t know!

  • WHAT WE LEARNT | #AskBorisJohnson

    WHAT WE LEARNT | #AskBorisJohnson

    He’s consistently evaded answering whether he has leadership passions, but New York born Boris Johnson is some would argue, the most powerful Conservative politician in the land. He’s pro women, pro gay, pro-London but what else do we know about London’s gaffe prone, wild haired, Etonian.

    U.S. Embassy photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
    U.S. Embassy photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
    The three Rs… He’s pro reform, renegotiation and referendum. It’s the best way forward for the UK and Europe.

    Boris would be up for Clarkson’s job and he’s a “mega” petrol head fan – but maybe being PM would be the greater choice after David Cameron suggested BJ as leader, if the Tories reach a third term in power.

    He wants to crack down on illegal immigrants and wants to sort out welfare, but is also very concerned about the rise in Islamophobia. He suggests Muslim leaders need to be “clearer in denunciation of extremism”.

    London is a healthier place to live, lower Nox and CO2 and PM10s and they’ve planted 1000s of trees since he’s been in power. In fact 20,000 of them were planted in the Olympic park.

    Delays on London’s creaking overground network have been cut by 66%, whilst demand is up 4 times.

    He chooses Ulrika Jonsson as a dance partner and loves a boogie to Ministry of Sound.

    He’s all about the Living Wage. Twenty-four companies paid it when they began on the issue, now it’s 516. Major retailers you are next…

    Will the youth ever be able to buy a house in London? That’s the plan. 40,000 people have already been helped in this regard.

    This article was taken from Issue 11 of TheGayUK. Don’t miss another issue download our magazine app for FRE

  • INTERVIEW: Chris Urch on The Rolling Stone: Homophobia In Uganda

    Theatre can evoke many emotions – happiness, sadness, optimism, fear, anger and laughter…. but to be able to combine all of those emotions into one production shows just how powerful theatre can be.

    So when playwright, Chris Urch, decided to write a play about love and homophobia in Uganda, he was determined to ensure that the audience were taken on a journey which drew on a range of emotions and the result is a play which tackles the subjects with compassion, realism and in a way which allows the audience to connect with the characters and events portrayed, despite the disparity of the play’s setting and where it is being performed.

    The play is about Dembe and Sam, who have been seeing each other for a while. They should be wondering where this is going and when to introduce each other to their families. But they’re gay and this is Uganda. The consequences of their relationship being discovered will be violent and explosive. Especially for Dembe, whose brother goes into the pulpit each week to denounce the evils of one man loving another. The Rolling Stone tells the story of two lovers at odds with their society.

    The write of the play, Chris Urch, a Bruntwood Playwriting prize winner caught up with TheGayUK as the play opened its run at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.

    TGUK – Your new play, The Rolling Stone is a story about love, prejudice and homophobia in Uganda. How does the subject matter of the play resonate with the UK audience?

    CU – I’m not going to lie, my play The Rolling Stone is a hard sell. There’s no famous people in it. This is only my second play so my name isn’t of any help. And then there is the subject matter…. The play focuses on a Ugandan family who’s local paper is outing gay men and the repercussions of this are mighty and heartbreaking. The story is fictional but is based on truth. In Uganda it’s still illegal to be gay and this paper did ‘out’ men, some gay, some not. These men’s lives were utterly destroyed. Some went to jail, some had to leave town, some were killed….Yes, the play is about an important subject, prejudice. A subject most of you readers have probably experienced in one form or another. And yes, throughout the play there is the story of two men in love who have been represented as people not lazy stereotypes. But at the plays heart is the subject of family, something a huge amount of us can relate to. How far will we go for the people we love? Can we support those closest to us when who they are goes against our own beliefs and morals? Why should we love our families when they can’t seem to love us?

    TGUK – And the play has been critically well received to date….

    CU – In late 2013, the play won the Bruntwood award which is the biggest playwriting competition in the country and I’m mighty proud of the production which has transferred from the Manchester Exchange to the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

    TGUK – Does your playwriting come from a love of theatre from a very young age?

    CU – I write plays for people who don’t go to the theatre. People who don’t think the theatre is for them. I was raised on a diet of television and VHS movies but no theatre other than the local pantomime. Come to think of it, I don’t think I saw a play until I was eighteen.

    TGUK – So what does theatre give us that film and TV doesn’t?

    CU – Well, it gives us the live experience. Where else do you sit in a room made up of people you mostly don’t know, turn off your phone, turn of your email, your Facebook and Twitter and all watch people pretending to be other people. Sounds bonkers and maybe it is. But some of the best nights of my life have been sat watching someone say or go through something that I’ve felt, experienced or know. That feeling of being less alone. I believe great theatre should make you laugh, cry and gasp but most importantly when I sit down to write a play my mantra is I WILL TRY NOT BORE MY AUDIENCE. So when writing this play I thought about you the audience. That’s why there’s lots of laughter, a few tears and always an audible gasp.

    TGUK – So a completely different experience in your view?

    CU – Absolutely, I say “put down the Netflix for a night and come and let me and six incredible actors tell you a new story”.

     

    The Rolling Stone is currently playing at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds until 23rd May 2015. For full details, tickets and information, visit www.wyp.org.uk or call the box office on 0113 213 7700.

     

     

  • INTERVIEW | Coco Peru: Up To Old Tricks

    The irrepressible Clinton Leupp has been performing as the fabulously hilarious Miss Coco Peru for over 24 years now.

    With his razor-sharp wit and those deer-in-the-headlights attention-grabbing eyes, his latest hit show ‘Have You Heard’ reaffirms his position as one of the best drag performers trotting around the globe these days. A storyteller, monologist, actor, singer, comic, entertainer, mentor and passionate gay activist, Miss Coco is sharp, sassy and sophisticated and has this remarkable natural ability to make sure that we all see the funny side of life. Outspoken and outrageous her one-woman-show in 2012 summed her up beautifully: it was called ‘She’s Got Balls’. When I caught up with Clinton after a recent performance the first thing that struck me was his wonderful warmth and his loud infectious laugh. He is unique in the fact that unlike most cutting and somewhat sarcastic drag performers he exudes happiness on and off stage and was a sheer joy to spend time with. Over a martini (or two) he shared his views of life, love and laughter with me for THEGAYUK.

    Let’s start at the very beginning and talk about your ‘Coming Out.’

    It may seem ridiculous to people who come to my show and see me wearing a dress and being as flamboyant as I am now, to think that I ever had to ‘come out’ in the traditional sense, but I did have to go through the same process just like every other gay man. There was a time when I was in a theatre programme in college and closeted and was constantly told to ‘butch up’. And for years I did try to be someone who I wasn’t, especially as I wanted to be accepted as an actor and you had to pass for straight back then as there was not that many gay roles.

    When I was 23-years-old I had a boyfriend and we went to the Gay Pride Parade in Manhattan and I was in seventh heaven as I had never ever seen such a large and diverse crowd of gay people in one place. However, on the train on my way back home to the Bronx afterwards my elation quickly subsided and all my old fears and worries came rushing back. It was at that very moment that I decided that from now on I wanted to only be myself and that I wasn’t prepared to go back even part way into the closet.

    I was very lucky as when I came out to my parents they were actually relieved that I was both healthy and happy especially as we had just lost my sister to cancer. I had all the usual fears and dread of coming out just like anyone else but it was only when I addressed them that life got better for me. Being effeminate in a working class area of the Bronx had been torture and I had been picked on and bullied during my entire childhood and adolescence. Now that I was an openly gay man I started to embrace everything I had learned to hate about myself. I was determined not only to accept this side of me but as Miss Coco I was going to dress it up and glorify it, and become the gay man who I chose to be.

    There is something wonderful about owning who you are. I learnt then if people did not respect me, that it was of no consequence as they didn’t control me anymore.

    How did Clinton Luepp morph into Miss Coco Peru?

    I didn’t know anything at all about Drag and then I went to see the great drag icon Charles Busch in his play ‘A Lady In Question’ and I was completely mesmerised. I could see that he and the entire cast were having THE best time EVER. And that included Julie Halston playing Countess Kitty in the same broad Bronx accent that the college had insisted I lose. I just thought, I want to do what Charles is doing and in my own voice and style.

    I’m a great reader and all through my life books have a habit of arriving in my library at the exact moment I have needed them. It was at this time that I came across one about a Native American called ‘Two Spirits’ which was all about being a third gender. When I read that I thought ‘Oh My God’ this is it. In my life until then I had been searching for something that I could truly identify with, and now I had found it. I decided that I’m going to do Drag and I’m going to be this third gender. As soon as I said it, everything started falling into place. It felt like my calling and that I had found my vocation.

    You once said ‘I’m not impersonating a woman: it’s just an extension of me.’

    Well, I never intended Miss Coco to be a real woman per se because the stories I tell are all-autobiographical and so I’m often talking about when I was a little boy. So for me the goal when I started Coco was to confuse people a little telling his stories whilst wearing a dress. Then after a while I just wanted audiences to know the stories just by connecting to someone who was simply another human being.

    You have a remarkable gift for observation, which comes through in the stories that you tell on stage, are they all true?

    Yes, every one of them are based on my life. I have always been very resourceful at finding humour in everyday incidents right from the very beginning. My parents had me late in life so my childhood was spent amongst a group of old people who had grown up through WW2 and who had not had an easy life. They were all heavy drinkers and heavy smokers and as a little kid I became their bartender.

    Really? (laughing)

    Yes, I even went around with a tray emptying all the ashtrays, but I just adored them and I loved being there listening to this wealth of funny stories and jokes being surrounded by these wonderful larger than life characters.

    Do you tell the stories straight as they happened?

    Well, I do add a little spice to them naturally to bring out the funny element, and that seems to work. Sometimes so much that they appear so over the top that people will come up to me and say ‘You didn’t really physically chase that group of little old Indian ladies around Sydney Harbour because they were giving you the evil eye did you?’ And I have to say yes, it was all-true, which totally shocks them. (laughs)

    Tell me the story behind your famous copper-toned hair, and the fact that you must be one of the few Drag Performers who never changes her wig.

    When I first started performing I had a great big fussy Ann-Margaret wig but that was such hard work maintaining it and to be perfectly honest, it was a real drag. Then the moment I found my wig and had it styled with flip ups I instantly knew that this was perfect for Miss Coco.

    I was always drawn to the silhouette that I adopted for Coco. I wanted it to be very long and sleek and not over the top as Coco never wears a lot of jewellery or glitzy dresses. It was to be sophisticated but understated and I wanted her to be different than what most people expect of drag. Coco and I are both very happy with how she looks and the one night I actually dared to wear a shorter version of the same wig people HATED it! (laughs)

    Tell me about your breakthrough role in ‘Trick’ where in one small scene you ‘stole’ the movie and our hearts.

    I was not originally meant to be in the movie at all but Jim Fall the Director is a good friend of mine, and asked me to help him out in the audition process. I ended up reading the Tori Spelling part whilst he tested potential male leads, and suddenly everyone told Jim ‘you’ve got to keep the Drag Queen in the movie’. So they wrote a part of me and were kind enough to allow me to rewrite my infamous bathroom monologue in my own voice. Some years previously somebody had actually tried to lure me into bed by saying ‘It’s Big It’s Beautiful …you’re gonna love it’ and I always knew that I would have to use that line in a performance one day.

    How deliberately was it that you looked more like Tori Spelling than she did? (laughs)

    When Tori flew to NY to audition, she had blonde hair. However when it came to filming she showed up on the set with red hair, and when Jim Fall tried to question it, her hairdresser said ‘honey, don’t touch her hair it will just fall out as she has dyed it way too often!’ We didn’t do a scene together so the penny never dropped until we saw the completed movie on the screen at Sundance, and I thought ‘Oh My God, we could have been sisters or something more tragic’. (laughs)

    Did you ever imagine that this one small movie part would make such a major effect on your career and life?

    Well, I remember the first time that I ever saw a gay movie and it impacted me so much I just hoped that one day I would get to be in one and help others feel the same way. And now 15 years later when young people come up and tell me that ‘Trick’ was the first movie that made them feel good about themselves and helped them come out, it makes me so very happy.

    I never ever get tired of people shouting out “It Burns” * to me in the middle of the street. Anytime anyone wants to celebrate my work, I embrace and enjoy it, and I never ever take it for granted.

    How much fun was it making the ‘Girls Will Be Girls’ movie with Jack Plotnick & Varla Jean Merman?

    Actually, the first couple of days were not that much fun at all as in my own shows I am used to playing it for laughs but now I had to play a sad sack. The crew were laughing their pants off when Varla and Jack were acting, but looked so down and miserable when it was my turn as my role was a bit of a downer.

    Confused, I phoned Jim Fall who just said ‘play it for real’ and that’s what I did, and I found the craziness in my character, and I was so happy with the result.

    As were audiences as you all picked up Best Acting Awards for that. When is the sequel coming out?

    Soon I hope. We have filmed it all and our director Richard Day is now doing the final edit.

    Tell me about your experiences taking Miss Coco to London?

    The thing I loved most about London were the audiences, and one of the best compliments I have ever had in my career was from one of the Soho Theatre staff who said ‘we love working your shows because people come in a good mood and leave feeling even happier.’

    I got another different buzz when I was eating in Balans restaurant one night and the doorman recognised me and thought that he and I could do a version of the bathroom scene in Trick with me performing on him. I was very flattered but I am very married too. (laughs)

    You love mentioning your husband Raphael often in your Show, and you always have such a wicked grin on your face when you do.

    I was worried that being so happy would take away my edge, but it hasn’t and I can still be as cutting as the next person. Sometimes people want me to be miserable and bitter as they perceive that’s where real comedy is, but that just isn’t so. I am really fortunate that I have such a good husband who supports me and finds joy in my performance, and also I find some great comedy within our own lives. Like the time we first met his sister and he just happened to fail to mention that she was a naturist and we were all going to be naked (Laughs).

    I’ve noticed that unlike most great comedians you don’t use Raphael as a comic foil as is the normal tradition.

    I have never ever thought of that. I do play up the whole thing of him being from Spain where everyone is meant to be romantic, in the same way that I think British people are all so posh. But all you need to do is to take one trip to Southern Spain and see the Brits on holiday, and honey you soon realise they ain’t so posh at all. (Laughs) They can be just as trashy as the rest of us.

    What’s next for you and Miss Coco?

    I’m travelling all over with this new show, which I am dying to bring to London. I am collaborating with a composer on a new musical. Busy, busy, busy… but you know Roger, the reality is that I have a pretty great life regardless of whatever happens next.

    One question I almost forgot to ask, did you really perform in a Nudist Colony?

    Yes, but I was fully clothed (laughing). I have to tell you for a bunch of people who are meant to be free-spirited and relaxed, they really were not a fun audience. They were kind of limp!

    But where did you look as you performed? (laughing).

    Well, straight into their eyes naturally!
    * ‘It Burns!’ is a warning about getting sperm in your eyes.

    www.cocoperu.com

    by @RogerWalkerDack

  • INTERVIEW: The Boys Of Bridgend Get Bigger & Better (NSFW)

    Bridgend in South Wales seems to be enjoying a bit of a heatwave as I make my way to meet Russ Hughes, the photographer and creator of the Boys of Bridgend for a chat about the upcoming 2016 calendar. Well, it might not be a heatwave but it’s definitely warmer than usual for April and things are about to get a whole lot hotter as he’s promised to bring along one of this year’s new recruits for a chat. There are definitely worse ways to spend an afternoon.

    I arrive to catch the tail end of an ongoing shoot, though I seem to have missed the opportunity for naked men with this one. It’s a young woman getting head shots for a portfolio, I’m informed. As she leaves, in walks Rhys, one of the calendars newest recruits who I can only describe as ‘traditionally beautiful’. Even fully dressed you can see that he is in splendid shape with his boyish good looks and cheeky smile. I’m impressed. If this is a taster of what is to come with the new calendar then pulses are set to race the world over.

    We sit, drinks are poured and our chat begins. I’m interested to know how the Boys of Bridgend began. Unlike other calendars on the market, the guys who feature here aren’t part of a collective group or team and while some of them have known each other for a long time, the only solid connection that seems to bring them all together is that they all hail from this small Welsh town. So I begin by asking Russ how it all came to be.

    “I’m asked on a regular basis to do charity work, be it donating shoots as prizes or shooting charity events, but I wanted to do something more to help, so one day I hit on the idea of a calendar and it all went from there. I’d never done anything like it before and I had no idea about the amount of work that it needed, but once I set my mind to it there was no stopping me. I just had to work out who to shoot, where to shoot, how to fund it and how to get it made on a tiny budget. I also set myself a timescale of 3 months to get it all done. Now that I know what I know, that seems insane, but I went into it a bit naïve and looking for a challenge and I definitely set myself one.”

    4620128842
    Russ Hughes/Boys Of Bridgend

     

    The 2015 calendar went on to be a big success, selling in over 35 countries, so it seems that it was a challenge that he managed to overcome, but what about the process of making it. How did it get off the ground?

    “I’d love to say that it was plain sailing but it seemed like we hit brick walls at every turn. On the day of the very first shoot the model text me to say he was pulling out. I think he’d spent too long overthinking it and had talked himself out of it by the time the shoot day came. We were already miles behind schedule and I was panicking like you wouldn’t believe. I text one of the other guys who finished work and drove over, so we at least got the shoot done, but we were still a guy short. By the time we had completed all 12 shoots we had lost a further 2 guys who then had to be replaced, and we were still behind schedule. Aside from the shoot problems, we also had trouble finding funding to even get it printed. Companies just weren’t interested. In the back of my mind I was worried that I would be left with hundreds of pictures but no calendar to put them in. I ended up paying over half of the printing costs myself just to make sure that it was made and nobody ended up disappointed.”

    You’ve been teasing us on social media with snippets from this year’s calendar, which is very obviously different from what we’ve seen before, so what sparked the change?

    “There’s a couple of reasons, really, but mostly because of how well the last calendar did. We always thought that we would sell a couple of copies locally, raise some money for the charity and that would be that, but it went down a storm and people were buying it from all over the world. It was obviously a winning formula so changing that this year is a bit of a risky move, but we don’t want to get complacent, either. We did it one way and it worked well, so now we want to test the water and give everyone something different. People who have already bought the calendar already have lots of black and white images of naked men in the Bridgend countryside, so if and when they decide to buy the new calendar we will be giving them something completely different for their money so it won’t seem like they’ve paid for the same thing twice. We’ve put out teasers on Facebook and Twitter which have had a really positive response, which is brilliant, but just like last year, you haven’t seen anything yet. The final calendar images are still under lock and key and have been seen by nobody.”

    “Keeping things fresh and new is what we want to do, and we really have changed everything. The theme of the calendar is completely different, we’ve got a bunch of new guys and we’ve also changed the charity we will be supporting this year as well.”

    4620128840
    Russ Hughes/Boys Of Bridgend

     

    Money raised from the 2015 calendar went on to support the Everyman Appeal, which benefits men who suffer from testicular and prostate cancer, while money from the 2016 calendar will go towards the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation. How did that partnership come about?

    “The guys over at the StandUp Foundation have been amazing. Really, truly amazing. We have had such a great response from fans and we really want to be as interactive as possible, so when work started on the new calendar we put it to our supporters for them to suggest charities that they would like to see us donate to. The response was incredible and there were lots of worthwhile charities thrown into the mix, but the one that came up over and over was the StandUp Foundation, so it was a no brainer for us. We contacted them to explain who we are and what we do and within an hour they were on the phone to us to get it in place and they have been fantastic ever since. The work they do, especially within the LGBT community has been so brilliant and the fact that we can help them is amazing. It’s like we’ve come full circle. It’s no secret that if it weren’t for the LGBT community the first calendar would have been nowhere near the success that it was. They really took us to their hearts and gave us sales all over the world. I love the fact that we can now give back to them in some way by supporting a charity that does so much work, both here in the UK and elsewhere in the world, to tackle homophobia. If we can make one persons’ life a little easier through sales of this calendar then we will have done something worthwhile.”

    “It really is an amazing charity,” adds Rhys. “I do a lot of charity work but I’m especially proud to be supporting the StandUp Foundation. What this charity is striving to achieve and already have achieved is a massive boost for not just the youth but people of all ages. No-one should have to grow up being bullied or feeling ashamed. It’s bad enough to witness it let alone being the one on the receiving end of it, so the message the charity is sending out is such an important one. We all need to stand up and hopefully we can encourage more people to acknowledge what is going on and do more to help stop it.”

    And it was just those sort of prejudices that put another spanner in the works for the boys this year which could have seen them have to cancel the 2016 calendar altogether.

    “Yeah, it was a really sh**y time, actually. After the success of the last calendar we had companies actually approaching us wanting to help fund the next one, which was a big relief for us. When I had a meeting with them to discuss the new theme and charity our biggest sponsor decided to pull out. He didn’t want his company to be seen to be supporting LGBT causes as he thought the association would be detrimental, and so that was that. We didn’t try to persuade him as that’s not the kind of attitude that we want to be associated with, either, so we were happy to part ways but it left us with a big hole to cover our printing costs. We decided to dip our toe into Crowdfunding to see if that would help and luckily we have ourselves some amazing supporters because we hit our target in 8 days. How amazing is that? All our former sponsor did was confirm the fact that we were supporting the right charity this year, and once again the LGTB community came through for us when we really needed it.”

    I was keen to know how Rhys, a 24 year old support worker, found himself signing up to appear in the latest calendar. Was there any sort of audition process or did you manage to just win them over with your looks? (Cue lots of blushing)

    “I’ll have to leave all the ladies and gentlemen decide about my looks I think. I just saw an advert that was posted way back in January to say they were looking for guys for the new calendar so I thought I would give it a go and sent over some pictures. They asked some questions about me, I think to make sure I would be comfortable getting my kit off, and about my job and age, stuff like that, and then it all sort of went from there. It all happened pretty quickly, really. I’ve done a lot of charity work in the past, though nothing like this, but I am up for anything so I figured I’d give it a go and it’s been great.”

    And what about the shoot? You didn’t have to get naked in the great outdoors like last year’s recruits, but how did you find the overall process of it?

    “It was actually a really great experience, to be honest. Shooting with the props was really funny. That was probably my favourite part of the shoot because we had a good laugh doing it. Russ helped me to settle in really quickly and we just got in with it. I wasn’t nervous or shy but I wasn’t sure how I would take to doing the poses. When you see photo shoots they always look great but you never realise how awkward it can feel because it’s not something you naturally do, but Russ was happy with what we got so I left feeling confident that it went well.”

    All of the guys from this year are being kept firmly under wraps, so has it been difficult to keep the secret about what you’re doing? Does anyone know?

    “I checked with Russ and then told my parents, brother and my partner. I think I will probably get a bit of a ribbing from the boys I play football with when they find out, especially when they see some of the shots we took, but they will know it’s for a good cause so it will all be in good fun. My family thought it was hilarious but they’re really proud of me for doing it.”

    So what’s next then? Calendar buying time is still a few months away but you’re all still hard at work. What can we expect to see from you over the coming months?

    “We don’t want to take anyone or anything for granted. We’re trying really hard to be as interactive as possible and get amongst our followers and supporters, so we’re on Twitter and Facebook every day chatting with people and keeping everyone up to date. It’s important to us that we build connections with people rather than disappear for eight months of the year and then come begging when we have something to sell. We want to be approachable and friendly and not just be salesmen. We’re constantly thinking up ways to bring content to people and we release new teaser images all the time to show people what we’re doing. We’re hoping to be able to get out on the road this summer and go to some local Pride’s so if anyone wants to see us, get in touch. We’ve got a big reveal coming shortly where everyone will finally get to see all the guys from the new calendar for the first time and loads more merchandise coming out as well so if the calendar isn’t enough, you’ll soon be able to buy clothes, keyrings, mugs and loads of other stuff, with money from all sales going to the charity. We’ve also been working on video content, some of which you can see already on YouTube, with more to be released throughout the year. It’s going to be a busy few months. Bigger and Better. That’s what we keep telling everyone.

    For more from the boys, check out

    twitter.com/BoysOfBridgend

    www.facebook.com/bridgendboyscalendar

    Or

    instagram.com/boysofbridgend

     

    By Lizzie Twomey

  • INTERVIEW | The Overtones – We don’t all live together!

    The Overtones are genuinely pop’s sweethearts. Easy going, easy on the eye and easy on the ear. Since their breakthrough in 2009 after a residency on Dancing On Ice, the band have sold over 750,000 records in the UK over 3 albums. In an industry that is notorious for dropping acts before they really get time to develop, it seems like Warner Music is prepared to play the longer game with this band.

    Although nothing was really made of it at the time, 3 of the band’s men are out and proudly flying the flag for gay men in what some may say is a bit of sea change in terms of acceptance for gay men in music. The fact that nothing was said at the time was probably the beginnings of this sea change. We’re here, we’re queer – it’s not a marketing ploy. In Kensington at Warner’s new offices, which occupy where the now defunct EMI once resided, we get down to the nitty gritty.

    So what more is there for The Overtones to do? What is there that you haven’t achieved yet, but really want to?
    MIKE: It’s a difficult one, because I feel like we’re kind of living our dream, to keep on doing what we’re doing. We talk about our fourth album and it’s something that a lot of acts in this day and age, in this ever-changing music industry don’t get the opportunity to do. So we do feel very lucky. For us, immediately, it’s about continuing this dream, continuing this career that we’ve worked hard at over the last five-years to build. We talk about fan base and stuff; that fan base, it grew slowly and solidly. There’s a solid foundation in there. So we’re going to keep on doing what we do, hopefully we’re going to spread our wings to other countries. Anywhere where people are willing to hear us and enjoy what we do. We’ll get there…

    Is it important for bands to crack the all-important, if somewhat elusive, US market?
    DARREN: If they have a strong desire to then I guess it is. But, you know, people have perfectly good, great careers without ever going to America. If you’re asking if we’d like to go and have a crack of course we would, we’re ambitious boys, but we’re also very happy with our career now and how we’re doing.

    Arguably what you’re doing, in terms of style and essence has its birthplace in America. Do you think they’d enjoy what you’d have to offer?
    DARREN: I think so…
    MARK: Yeah! For sure, but it’s just a massive nut to crack. It takes a lot of time and at the moment we’re enjoying being in the UK promoting our album here. Hopefully in the future we’d be up for it.
    TIMMY: I’d go to Timbuktu and do a gig if they enjoy our music. That’s the value of what you do. You work hard on music and create great albums and you work hard to do that.

    In the music biz they talk about the three major markets: the US, the UK and Germany – which you are doing very well in… Why is that?
    TIMMY: (Laughing) We did an RTL campaign out there.
    LACHIE: It’s a big TV station out there.
    TIMMY: They got behind “Gambling Man” (the band’s very first single, which ended up charting at number 16 in Germany) and they used it to advertise this new station and used us as part of it. It was a great introduction to Germany. We have gained some amazing fan base out there. So loyal. They come over whether we’re doing a gig in Germany, Ireland or anywhere in the UK, and they come over and we; I, really appreciate that kind of support. We’re looking at doing a few gigs, a small tour there, which is great. I think for us doing live gigs – that’s where we get to crossover and bring this album to life. We’ve got the moves, we’re looking sharp…

    You are quite polished in terms of your look and your marketing, compared to say, Adele or Sam Smith, who can be a little more ‘take me as you find me…’
    LACHIE: Did you find Adele was like that on 21? Come on now. Come on…
    TIMMY: In our downtime we’re wearing trackies… But I think everyone’s polished up their act actually. Even Sam Smith, he’s always wearing jackets, but even in their downtime I’m sure they’re wearing trackies and onesies!
    LACHIE: But with the style of music we do, I don’t think you could rock in wearing jeans and flips flops saying, “yeah we enjoy singing 50’s and 60’s music in a vocal harmony style.” This is doffing the hat. When we sat down on the couch (today), I said, “Oh look at us wearing all the same thing”… It’s good fun.

    It’s very classic. At the moment music has had that 50’s/60’s feeling for quite a while now, probably one the longest rebirth of styles. Is there a worry that it might pop and if it does, will The Overtones restyle? Will we see you in lime green jump suits and disco get up?
    DARREN: You know what, it goes back to the live shows again. We’ve been doing it for four years now and we’re very lucky that we’ve got a lot of fan base with touring. No matter what the fashion is in music, we’ve got a fan base that loves this style of music. So we’re very lucky boys.

    Since we last spoke Sam Smith has become unquestionably the world’s biggest artist, with an album written about his relationships with men. Are we past the point of people caring about the whole “gay” thing?
    DARREN: I’d like to think so, I saw the speech where he won one of his four Grammy’s and I think it was the last one and he thanked his ex-boyfriend for giving him the material to write about and I just thought that was really cool and refreshing to hear.
    TIMMY: I think he’s flying the flag in a very classy way. I think there’s a very aggressive approach sometimes saying, “I’m doing this for…” But he’s happy to say that he was in a relationship with a guy. I liked the way that he said people wouldn’t sign him because he was big or whatever, and I think whether you’re gay, straight, man, woman, black, white everyone can kind of like feel that in that album. It’s still quite universal, but he’s still okay to talk about that. Yes that is a change. But Freddie Mercury… All these people… It’s been going on for years. I think it’s lovely for him to be really comfortable to talk about it. I think he’s holding himself in a really classy way as a gay man.

    You’re now four albums in… Does it get easier?
    DARREN: From what point of view?

    Your personal point of view…
    LACHIE: I think from a recording perspective, it’s tighter; it’s a bit more professional. I just remember album one, we were like, “We’re in a recording studio, and there are producers and people from the record label and I feel like I’ve got to be a good boy”, but now I feel more free to say, “I think it could be that… or this harmony, or maybe, not that song, but this song.” This is album four and we’ve shown in our last three that people who listen to our albums really enjoy it. Really enjoy it. All of that has come directly through us. So there’s comfort that comes from that, but you don’t want to let anyone down, to keep it exciting and fresh and new and come up with new stuff, so there’s still an element of crossing your fingers.
    TIMMY: You don’t know what’s going to happen…

    Did you imagine you’d get to album four?
    DARREN: Yep. I did, I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ve always believed in us.
    MARK: I think we’ve also always taken it album by album as well. Obviously we’re in this for the long run. People always say, “What are your plans for the future”, but we’re really excited about here and now and this new album and promoting this Sweet Soul Music – out March the 2nd…
    DARREN: Thank you!!

    Tell me a little about the sweet soul music…
    MARK: Well, the title says it all really. It’s all the soul classics and we’re keen songwriters as well so there are three originals on there… It’s songs like: “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”, “Give Me Just A Little More Time”,
    DARREN: “Let’s Stay Together”
    TIMMY: “River Deep Mountain High”
    MARK: With Sam Bailey….
    TGUK: Tell us about Sam Bailey, how did that go down?
    DARREN: She’s cool man; she’s a really cool girl. Really down to earth, loves a chat… We just sat there for two hours and we’re like, “We should probably do some singing now…” It was really cool to see her and Lachie go in, they had a mic each when they were doing their leads. It was like one big sing off. It was really cool. She was heavily pregnant and we were a bit like, as she was hitting them high notes, “I hope she doesn’t pop!”

    Do you think she deserves a bit more of a shake of the tree, a bit more run of the rad than she’s been given?
    LACHIE: I never get the feeling from Sam that she’s wandering round saying, “Make me famous, make me famous!”. I think she’s grafted from a very early age. She has an extraordinary voice, she’s got her feet on the ground and her head screwed on. She’s got a beautiful family and a lovely fella, and I think Sam will just carve her way. Do you know what I mean? She can sing. Does she want to be on the cover of the teen mags? I don’t know… I just have real faith that she has an astonishing talent and she will have a really lovely career and have a lovely time, doing whatever she wants to do. Doing it how she wants to do it.
    TIMMY: She keeps it really real. She has her fan base and there’s no reason why she can’t have a career and go on tour… When you’ve got a voice like that…

    This issue is about food, so let’s get foodie… Are any of you good cooks?
    DARREN: I’m getting better, yeah. I need to broaden my horizons, I just focus on spaghetti bolognaise and some boring chicken dishes, but Lachie and Timmy kind of cook stews and roasts. I’m not there yet.
    MARK: I went round to Timmy’s the other day and he did a lovely… well it was meant to be a Red Thai curry…
    TIMMY: I thought it was Red Thai, but it was Tikka Masala,
    DARREN: He makes really small portions…
    MIKE: Yeah, really small, he’s really tight…
    TIMMY: I’m more a of “eat little and often” type guy. Like a bird… I see pictures that Lachie puts up on twitter…
    LACHIE: I love cooking…

    Lachie are you like a food porn baron on Twitter?
    LACHIE: oh no no no no no. If you go to a restaurant and you see people get their phones I feel like wiping the plates away. Don’t bother…
    TIMMY: (whispering) I do that…
    LACHIE: No! Do you?
    DARREN: I did that at TGI’s the other day…
    TIMMY: My mum might present the plate… (Demonstrates a pose showing off a plate)
    LACHIE: Well that’s nice… I’m talking about the people who when the plate goes down show people, “How interesting I am that I have chicken stuffed with Gruyère cheese…”
    TIMMY: I did it with scrambled eggs, bacon and black pudding…
    LACHIE: Go away you people. Okay that’s a bit harsh.
    TIMMY: I’m loving stews and casseroles. Comforting food, I’m good at that.

    Do you think that’s a lot to do with the climate we live in?
    DARREN: I reckon it is, (to Timmy) you love in the winter cooking all those wintry dishes, but I eat the same food all the year round.
    TIMMY: In those times, I think I go back to childhood. Things like Irish Stew, beef stews with red wine gravy. I love all that. I think it is to do with the climate. Lachie is from Australia and when you go out there, it’s all salads and no carbs… I was like “I’m starving all the time…”
    DARREN: Mike cooks a disgusting macaroni cheese. (Laughs)
    TIMMY: Has it got tomatoes?
    MIKE: Yeah, its got tomatoes and breadcrumbs… I get a bad rap for my macaroni cheese. Timmy’s the only one who’s tasted it.
    TIMMY: It’s really good.
    DARREN: No wait, he said behind your back…
    TIMMY: No I didn’t…
    MIKE: That breaks my heart a little… (they hug)
    MARK: Timmy will tell you that I cook a lovely kedgeree.
    TIMMY: Mark invited me over. I was really looking forward to it, you know bring a bottle of wine the whole lot… I sit down… I don’t like oily fish, or mackerel I don’t like egg and he cooked kedgeree which has all of those ingredients so I basically had rice. We still giggle about it.
    MARK: It’s got better now. You need to come around again and I’ll cook it for you again…
    TIMMY: Maybe with Salmon? can you do a kedgeree with Salmon? I’m up for that.

    Do you all live separately?
    ALL: Yes!
    TIMMY: No we don’t have an Overtones house.

    Is it difficult when you’re on tour to eat well?
    ALL: Yeah…
    TIMMY: It has been in the past.
    DARREN: No it’s not now…
    MIKE: I really tried… The hard thing on tour, we’ve got catering now which is great, great cooks, beautiful food, but when you finish a show at ten o’clock you’re starving, so it’s invariably “There’s a burger bar at the end of the road”, or granola bar for Darren… It’s really hard, I struggle as well.
    MARK: The good thing is we have an amazing catering team that come on the road with us and they always bring that big juicer.
    DARREN: But they also do nice desserts, which is hard to get away from.
    MIKE: That’s a killer!
    TIMMY: It’s Dillon and Pauline; we have to give them a shout out… They’re like mums and dads on
    tour. We never had that at the start… it makes it home from home.

    Is it important for you all to keep slim and fit?
    MARK: We do a two-hour show every night that’s fairly energetic – with our finger clicking… That burns of a few calories, we do go to the gym as well.
    DARREN: Yes, personally I eat healthy and go to the gym a lot and then at the weekends I chill out.
    TIMMY: Darren is very disciplined. I do have to say that! I’m a bit of a sugar fiend. So I’m trying to cut down on that, and I’m finding it very hard.

    Is there jealously between you all?
    MIKE: I’m jealous of these biceps (squeezes Darren’s arm)
    DARREN: Do that again!
    MIKE: Oh God it’s unbelievable.
    DARREN: You’re doing well
    MIKE: I’m doing all right; I’m getting there…
    TIMMY: Mark has the kind of hairy chest that I can only dream of really…
    MIKE: You’ve got that little wispy bit there…
    TIMMY: and Lachie, they are representing on that hairy chest front.
    MARK: I’m thinking of shaving it off.
    TIMMY: Are you? You could lay it down and I could just glue it on…

    Fan questions:
    Is there going to be a video of the tour?
    TIMMY: Let’s be honest, we’re asked about it many a time and we’d love to do it in the future, but the thing is with doing it, it does end up costing a lot of money so we’re hoping to do that in future…
    DARREN: There’ll be some nice iPhone footage on YouTube!

    Which is your favourite original song:
    MARK: I’m going to go with, on our second album we had a song called “Love Song”,
    DARREN: I’m going to say “Give Me Soul” from our new album. Maybe something you wouldn’t expect from us.
    MIKE: “Something Good”, it’s an Overtone song, It’s not specific to a relationship. It could be about anything that’s making you feel good at the time.
    TIMMY: I’m going to go back…Anytime we go on tour it always surprises me how much our fans connected with this song and it was the first original we ever performed on telly. “Gambling Man”.
    LACHIE: I’m going to say “Loving The Sound”. It’s really weird turning on the radio and hearing your voice every time. It really catches me. That song had so much support from so many radio stations…

  • INTERVIEW | Gareth Thomas; Kicking Theatre Into Touch

    Gareth Thomas. One of the most capped Welsh rugby players ever to take to the field for his country. The second highest try scorer in Welsh rugby history. Patriot for his beloved Wales. Lynchpin to his team. And gay.

    (more…)

  • Bianca Del Rio: “I Can Put My Dogs Through College”

    Bianca Del Rio is a big time winner. Back in her hometown of New Orleans she won Big Easy Entertainment Awards for Costume Design six times, and then went on to win Gay Entertainer of the year for 3 consecutive years before she left for the bright heady lights of New York where she delighted viewers and judges alike whilst winning the 6th Season of RuPaul’s Drag Race on Logo TV.

    The multi-faceted Bianca (aka Roy Haylock) is fabulously funny and totally fierce with her unfettered and ferocious humour that she fires rapidly without ever seeming to stop to take a breath, or let her latest victim recover. Always kitted out in some stunning creation she has designed, and immaculately coiffured, with her big eyes exaggerated by her make-up, Bianca describes herself simply as a ‘clown in a dress’ but she is in fact so much more than that.

    Over a cocktail or two Roger Walker-Dack catches up with Bianca Del Rio.

    TGUK: How and why did you first make the transition from costume designing to performing?

    BDR: It was a gradual evolution and it just kind of happened. I had been doing costume design for a very long time in New Orleans, my hometown, and I was actually doing the costumes and make up for a new play. It had six guys in drag, and they wanted someone else to play a small role that they hadn’t cast yet, and so I agreed to do it. I had always been an extrovert so the move into the spotlight just kind of worked out, and I very quickly discovered that I really loved it.

    Then up until I did ‘Drag Race’ I continued to combine both, doing costumes by day and drag by night, which became my life for almost twenty years. It worked out well because both careers balanced each other out, as you never know if the Broadway Show who have been designing for will finish, or if the bar in which you’ve been performing will close. It was a very nice fusion for a very long time, however since I won the competition I have been so busy performing that the design part has had to go.

    TGUK: Was it a deliberate choice not to lip sync, or sing or dance as Drag performers are expected to do?

    BDR: At the beginning I did do all that but then over the years I just became the one who would ‘Host’ everything. I was the talking one. It wasn’t until I moved to NY (post Hurricane Katrina) and someone said ‘Oh you’re a comedian’ that I had even thought of it in those terms. I simply didn’t crave to dance or lip sync and even though I could put over a ballad, it’s just not my favourite thing to do. My performance became all about audience participation and talking to people and that worked out well as they always needed a host, and I just got the job by default.

    TGUK: You were already an established performer with a big following in NY when you auditioned for RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 6.  What motivated you to try out for this?

    BDR: Originally I had wanted to quit drag by the time I was 40, which is this year. By then I would have been performing for 20 years, which I thought was long enough. However Drag Race is HUGE, and I knew quite a few people who had been in the business for some years who had already appeared on it. Even though they did not win, just the exposure on the show alone opened doors for them to get their music produced and their own shows mounted, and they all got a real boost to their careers with bigger and better bookings. And so I thought if this is the result, what would I have to lose, so why not try it?

    It was my very first audition and I didn’t tell a soul I was going to do it, but something clicked and I was picked. It all happened very fast. It’s a rigorous process getting on to the show and then after that there is all the filming and all the things we were expected to do in between takes, and then even more time just having to wait for it to ‘air.’  It’s one big roller-coaster, but I kept thinking, even if I do not win I would gain a golden ticket that could lead on to other things, and who knew what else could come out of it?

    TGUK: Asides from winning, is there one particular highlight that remains with you from the programme?

    BDR: We filmed it a while ago and it happened so quickly. I was unaware of what I did and what I said, and what I didn’t do and what I didn’t say. None of it came to me until I actually watched the programme much later on. What you end up watching is a 14-hour-day of filming cut down to just 45 minutes of screen time. So it was interesting to re-watch it, as up until then it had just been this blur. A good one not a like a drunken blur (laughs). I didn’t realise though at all how impactful it would this be on me until after the fact.

    TGUK: The NY Times called you the ‘Joan Rivers in drag’ and in my book, compliments don’t come much higher than that. When you appeared on her TV Show In Her Bed with Joan you were fearless and so funny and it looked like Joan had met her match. Tell us about that experience.

    BDR: I had never heard about the show prior to being invited to go on it. I got a call from my manager who said do you want to do this? And I went “YES! I don’t know what it is, but YES!” I flew to LA as the show is shot in her daughter Melissa’s home, and the day we were filming Joan was doing three other episodes back to back. I love Joan immensely but I was very concerned as I didn’t want to seem to be just like a big clingy fan or at the other extreme, appear too disinterested or aloof. So before I went on I was debating with myself about how to act, what to say or should I bitch or not? However the moment I stepped into the room with her she was so welcoming, so gracious and immediately it just seemed like I was talking to an old friend of mine.

    There are very few things that I get that excited about or even anxious, but I ADORED this woman. We were scheduled to shoot just 20 minutes, but we ended up with a glorious hour of us just cackling and laughing together. In my head I’m thinking this is unbelievable, as this is THE Joan Rivers and she is laughing at something I have said. It was just truly one of the biggest highlights of my life. It’s so sad that she is not here with us still.

    TGUK: It strikes us watching that you were totally fearless appearing with this demi-god of comedy, were you?

    BDR: For me it was just going ‘into the zone.’ There is nothing better than going to lunch with a bunch of friends and talking my head off, and so what I was saying to Joan was exactly what I would say to my friends. That’s how my brain works and that’s essentially how I approach doing my act too. Very few things scare me and in regards to what I do, it is a fearless thing. You take risks and sometimes it works well, and sometimes it doesn’t! (laughs)

    TGUK: Do you ever self-censor or think you have ever gone to far when you are on stage and being ferocious? Are there any topics off-limits to you?

    BDR: There is NOTHING off-limits to me; I just go for whatever I want. I mean, just consider the source. Here I am, a man in a wig in a bar at 1 am, so what the f**k can I say that can be so f**king offensive? Also everybody has something to say about everything. It’s not that people have more of an opinion nowadays, it’s just that now we hear more of it because of social media. Thank God I am at the age that I am where it doesn’t bother me at all. Friends call me and say “do you see what they wrote online about what you said”, and I reply “frankly I don’t give a s**t.” I simply cannot care what some faceless person who has never met me has to type about me.

    TGUK: Despite being fierce on stage, you have a reputation for your loyalty, support and genuine admiration for other performers.

    BDR: I think it is really very important. There have been some pretty amazing people who gave me advice and talked to me and helped me out. Now I want to be able to give back to others. You simply do not need to do any of this alone.

    TGUK: You are known too as someone who has the same persona on and off the stage.

    BDR: That is partly true. However when you put the wig on you can get away with murder. When I wear the wig they call me funny, but if I don’t wear the wig I’m just called a hateful fag!

    TGUK: Are there other doors besides Joan River’s that have opened up for you since your win?

    BDR: I’m now doing my own show The Roladex Of Hate that I am getting to travel the world with now. There is talk of me writing a book, which I am excited about. All of these doors have been there because this one TV show has opened them and it has changed my life. As I’m now 39 I’m able to sit back and really appreciate it a lot more than I would have before. I mean people don’t come to discover you in a bar, and now that I am out there being treated respectfully by so many people that are rooting for me, feels almost insane. The support I get from people, it’s quite nothing less than dazzling.

    TGUK: How was your first experience of London when you performed there last year?

    BDR: It was great. It was raining naturally. London is a lot like New York… so is San Francisco, but that is like New York on weed! (laughs). I loved London as it was beautiful and I was so very happy there. English people really appreciated me because they love dark humour. What I didn’t get though was the fact they do not like ice! They don’t put ice in any drink and that’s crazy. In a London bar I get this drink and there is no f**king ice, and I’m screaming “what am I going to do with that?” I need ice.

    TGUK: And the men?

    BDR: I LOVE that English accent.

    TGUK: No more details?  No stories of any romance?

    BDR: Oh God no! I don’t get that close. I keep it simple! (Laughs)

    TGUK: What are you looking forward too when you’re back here touring again this year?

    BDR: I’ve been travelling since February of last year, and it’s been intense. At the beginning I didn’t have any chance to do much beyond work because of my manic schedule. Now that it will be my second and third time around I will be getting an extra day here and there in some of the cities which is really going to be nice. I want to see it ALL as I haven’t seen anything yet. I went to Buckingham Palace last time for one hot minute but she didn’t answer obviously, but at least I got to visit.

    TGUK: Tell me about your upcoming movie.

    BDR: We are planning to shoot HURRICANE BIANCA in July, which I am very excited about. In parts of the US you can still be legally fired from your job just for being gay. I play a schoolteacher from New York who loses his job in a small redneck town in Texas after he has been outed. In order to get revenge on the people who did him wrong, I return as Bianca Del Rio a new teacher at school to wreak havoc. It’s one person’s journey to find himself while pretending to be someone else. It’s a very serious subject, but it’s all done in a very funny and touching way.

    It’s being made by my dear friend MATT KUGELMAN who wrote this for me and we have been wanting to do it for some time, but the really great thing is after Drag Race we were able to get funding for the movie to finally start. The only bad thing is that I’ll be wearing full drag when we are shooting in the fiercest of summer, but it will be great fun nevertheless.

    TGUK: And what about THIS IS DRAG documentary that you made for OUT TV in Canada?

    BDR: It’s so funny. I was in Toronto for World Pride with Adore Delano for a week packed full of performances and things that we had to do, and this crew asked if they could tag along and film us. We said “sure” thinking we would just be a part of a programme, but then when the ‘trailer’ was released we discovered that it was just about us. So I have no idea what this documentary is going to be about (roaring with laughter) because it was all a blur when we were there as we were working so much. When I texted Adore and asked her “do you remember doing this?” she replied “not at all”. So I said “good, I’m not the only one”! It was a relief. It had been one really long hectic week so I’m interested in seeing this myself. Actually Toronto is also where Adore and I filmed the advert for Starbucks.

    TGUK: We told THEGAYUK readers that we were going to meet with you and asked them if there was anything they would like us to ask you, and we chose just two from the pile that was submitted. The first one is, who would play you in a movie?

    BDR: Can’t I do it? Really? (laughs) I guess then we would have to go with Meryl Streep because she is in everything anyway. She would be the most convincing Bianca, and she is good in wigs!

    TGUK: The second question was, do you have enough money to put your dogs through college?

    BDR: (roaring with laughter) On Drag Race I used to say that I had only entered the competition to raise enough money to put my dogs through college because they are my children. So yes, the world had been very good to me, so I think they can even go to Harvard now.

    TGUK: You have a ‘milestone’ birthday this June when you become 40, how do you plan to celebrate?

    BDR: I am taking a whole week off for a vacation, and I’m going to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. I have travelled all around the world now but I have never ever had a real vacation. I’m going to pack one tiny little piece of carry-on luggage with not a single wig in sight. You cannot believe how much s**t I usually have to travel with, so I cannot wait.

    TGUK: And what’s the future for Bianca after this?

    BDR: I can’t quit now, so world domination continue as I’m enjoying it more now than ever.

    TGUK: One of the things that radiates from you both on and off the stage is how very happy you really are.

    BDR: I’m not curing cancer, it’s just drag and it’s really not that serious. You’ve got to appreciate life and you’ve got to keep moving, and I love it all. When anyone doesn’t get that and tells me on any given day that I don’t look happy I just tell them. ‘You’d be as bitter as I am if you had your d*** in pantyhose too’.

  • INTERVIEW | Elizabeth Streb, 65 and Still Walking Up Walls

    Elizabeth Streb is an American choreographer, dancer, performer who has an insatiable passion for extreme action. She has been creating works from 1975 and is known for her outrageous risk-taking and the experimental shows she puts on. A multi-award winner Streb’s work is extremely demanding and necessitates endurance, dexterity, great physical strength and the ability to be daring. Her Company has been based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn since 2003 where she established SLAM (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics) which created a new outlet for the community where people could come and watch rehearsals and even participate in classes.

    In 2012 Boris Johnson invited Streb to create a series of events in London as part of the Olympics Celebration. ‘One Extraordinary Day’ was an unprecedented spectacular with Streb and her Company dangling off the Millennium Bridge, performing an acrobatic dance whilst suspended from the tip of the London Eye, and walking down the outside of City Hall. The latter one that Streb herself took part in even though she was 64-years-old at the time.

    This stunning event is the centrepiece of a new documentary BORN TO FLY: ELIZABETH STREB vs. GRAVITY that will unquestionably be one of THE highlights of the BFI Festival when it has its UK Premiere on March 20th at Southbank. It is an unmissable film, very much like the woman herself who Roger Walker-Dack caught up with her in New York recently when for at least 30 minutes she had her feet firmly on the ground,

    RWD: Born in New York and as a very young woman you somewhat daringly hopped on a motorbike and headed right across the entire country to study contemporary dance in San Francisco for two years.

    ES: I always loved the sound of motorcycles and I was just 15/16 years old when I got my first one. I came from a working-class family and had parents who always believed that if you had a dream and earned your keep that they would never step in your way, even if they did not like it. So I saved all my pennies and worked my way up to a Honda 350 and that’s the one that took me to SF.

    I knew I wanted to go to the West Coast to practice and study with a major choreographer like Martha Jenkins. I also needed to figure out how to live in a city and earn enough money to pay bills and be able to keep dancing. I was also so young that I was so terrified that I would be led astray too (laughs)

     

     

    RWD: Back in NY in 1974 you started your own Dance Company.

    ES: I didn’t have my first one quite yet. I had to find a job to be able to live etc so that I could go into the studio alone and work on my solo work. In those days I was working mainly on techniques that were very influenced by the great Merce Cunningham. I was working on structure but I hadn’t yet gotten to the point where I became fixated with extreme action.

    RWD: Were you pushing your performance to the edge then or was that a later thing?

    ES: Much later Roger, then I was terrified, as I had absolutely no real idea what I was doing.

    RWD: Unlike most choreographers, you actually went back to school to study physics, maths and philosophy to get a better understanding of the effects of movement on matter.

    ES: I guess that is rare, but I didn’t do that until I was 47-years-old and after I had gotten the McArthur Foundation Award*. I went back to NYU thinking that this was a really good way to spend my Award money.

    RWD: The movie covers your creation of POP ACTION for your SLAM Company in Brooklyn and what it encompasses, but I’m more interested in what drives you to not only to create but also to continually push the boundaries forward.

    ES: I think I do it just as the scorpion said to the frog travelling across the stream when he got stung, after promising the frog he wouldn’t: it’s in my nature. Plus curiosity I guess, and the fact that I never want to repeat myself. I’m very interested in where action belongs, which has been somewhat of a puzzle for me and I have still to come to any real conclusions, however. I’m working on it.

    RWD: When I first accosted you in P Town last summer I apologised for the fact that in my review of your movie I had identified you as a control freak. A necessity in your work where exact detail is crucial, but maybe not so much with your very sweet wife. Fair criticism?

    ES: (laughs) I imagine so.

    RWD: The scene of you micro-managing your dinner party still sticks in my head. (Laughing)

    ES: Was I a control freak in that? (Laughing)

    RWD: Totally!

    ES: It may be a character defect (laughs) but in my work, I am responsible for so many people so I am not casual about dealing with that in any way. My spouse Elizabeth is used to me I guess. (She is the daughter of Michael Flanders of Flanders and Swann: a famous British comedy duo from the 1950s & 1960s) She is not my wife as we are still holding out, but we’ve been together for 24 years.

    RWD: That’s as good as married in my book.

    ES: Well I think so too. When it comes to marriage, we just prefer to stand on the sidelines.

    RWD: As the movie is having its premiere in London, let’s talk about ‘One Extraordinary Day’ your remarkable way of celebrating the London Olympics. How the hell did you persuade our Mayor to not only let you jump off the Millennium Bridge, hang suspended off the London Eye, and walk down the outside of The Gherkin, and then make him pay for it as well?

    ES: (Laughing) It started with Ruth Mackenzie the director of the Cultural Olympiad and Justine Simmons of Mayor’s Cultural Commission who I had worked with before, and the idea just grew and grew. Looking back now, I do not know how we pulled it all off. It was totally crazy as we had to be close the Thames, close all the roads, get permission to get on the spokes on the London Eye, and to jump off the Millennium bridge. Even the cultural loving authorities of New York wouldn’t have even let us do anything of that magnitude.

    RWD: The point that I want to stress is that you personally walked down the entire outside of City Hall when you are actually old enough to go inside and get your senior’s Bus Pass.

    ES: (Laughing) That would be no fun. I stay in shape well enough to put myself in a position so that I can if I choose too let extreme things happen to me.

    RWD: What did we Brits think about it?

    ES: The really sad thing was that we were not allowed to advertise where, when or what. The Health and Safety people put their very big foot down and said NO! So it was a complete accident when people walked by and saw us at any of the seven sites. It did, however, make the front pages of every single newspaper in the UK, and several around the world too. As I say in the film when that extraordinary day was over ‘how can I ever one up that?’

    RWD: Did we Brits say ‘Who is this crazy American?’

    ES: (Laughs.) Before the event, there was some rumblings about why an American got such a huge commission but we were very careful to ensure that over half of the crew involved used were Brits

    RWD: Will you never retire from performing Elizabeth?

    ES: No, never! That is just not an option even though it is hard to predict the future. I do have a couple of ideas and I not sure if I can even survive them. One is to stand in the middle of an empty pool and with four firemen (or women) standing on each corner and aiming their hoses at me at the exact same moment when they turn them on at full force. I will stand there and see if I can handle the pressure of the water.

    RWD: You know you are mad! (Both laughing)

    ES: If I think there is something that I really want to so then I will do it. With me it’s not about moving or doing a movement it’s about letting something extreme happen to me

    RWD: I believe we are going to see you back in the UK next year with another project.

    ES: It’s called Cities of the World and I am working on it with the LIFT Festival in London for June 2016. It is an exciting new project made for cranes and London’s iconic industrial landscape and right now the focus of the project is around Kings Cross and Gas Holder Number 8. It is still very much a ‘work in progress’.

    RWD: Finally Elizabeth, I always like to ask everyone ‘if there was a movie on your life that would get to play you’?

    ES: Such a great question (laughing) I really don’t know. Halle Berry pops into my head but I am not sure why.

    RWD: Because she played Catwoman?

    ES: (Laughs) Can I have Angelique Jolie?

    RWD: Of course.

     

  • INTERVIEW: Susan And Karl Kennedy: Gay Marriage Could Be in Neighbours’ Future

    Jackie Woodburne and Alan Fletcher are two of daytime TV’s greatest legends and we say that with earnest research on the matter. Having played a married couple for over 20 years, you’d think they’d be over talking about their on-screen relationship! Not so. Prepare for the campest interview any Neighbour’s actor has or could ever do.

    TGUK: You’ve been on-screen married for over 20 years What’s the secret to an onscreen marriage?

    a) Cast Iron contract with a TV Network?

    b) Sharing moments off-screen and on-screen like a real couple?

    c) I’ll be in my trailer… Don’t talk to me…

    Jackie: Oh, I think it’s a combination of all three and of course, no sex.

    Alan: The important thing is definitely no sex so you don’t disappoint each other.

    No sex? In 30 years? Who knew Cliff Richard wasn’t the only one missing out after all.  2/10 – purely for the honesty.

     

    Do people in real life think you’re actually hitched?

    Jackie: No, possibly because we get along so well that people think ‘they can’t possibly be married’.

    Alan: Yes agreed, we are way too tolerant of each other’s idiosyncrasies.

    You’re ruining the illusion. Karl and Susan, Karl and Susan – is now and forever thus. Don’t ruin this for me *drinks gin and cries softy into my 1995 Neighbours annual*. 7/10.

     

    Have you ever had a moment (wink wink nudge nudge) together?

    Jackie: Many.

    Alan: I have been in love with Jackie Woodburne from the day I met her and considering our first role was a brother and sister, that is a testament to the depth on my feelings for her.

    That was sweet… Pass me a bucket or binoculars… Can’t make up my mind. *Still drinking gin*. 9/10

     

    What do you think the intimate, between the sheets activities, would be like between Karl and Susan?

    Jackie: A monster truck rally!

    Alan: I can’t top that.

    So there would be a lot of ticketed spectators in the room and some dock off big cars. Whatever floats the boats. 

    15/10 – Those script-notes must read like a Jackie Collins’.

     

    Complete this… Kylie should…

    Jackie: Return to Ramsay Street

    Alan: Cover a song for Karl’s band Right Prescription

    I should be so lucky… and everyone else of course. Start the Crowdfunder now… Alan – nicely plugged, the invoice is in the post.

    10/10

    Finish this gay mantra: ‘I made it through the wilderness, somehow I made it through…’Alan: ‘Didn’t know how lost I was’

    Jackie: ‘until I found you on Ramsay Street’

    We had to cut this section down. Like drunken karaoke, throw them a mic and you’ll never get it back.

    4/10

     

    The best way to deal with a cheating man is…

    a) Take to his wardrobe and show his silks the scissors?

    b) Lock yourself in your room, play Celine’s All By Myself on repeat, whilst drowning yourself in red wine, watching day re-runs of Neighbours?

    c) Wash that man right out of your hair?

    Jackie: A combination of all three, if there is no option, to kill him.

    Alan: Since murder is a life sentence, perhaps safer to go with number 3.

    Whatever you do – Don’t mess with Jackie. It may turn a bit First Wives Club. As for Alan, I’m sure we’re all asking the same question… What men have you had in your hair?

    10/10 for both drama and leaving us suspicious.

    Alan, Have you ever been asked to deal with a real-life medical emergency?
    Alan: By my own family ALL the time, they call me Dr Dad.
    Jackie: That is the saddest thing I’ve ever heard, please tell me you don’t treat them.

    Is there an actor in the house? I can see the court case now. Probably Judge Judy. Jackie, never tell him you’re feeling ill on set! 

    8/10 – for the can-do attitude

     

    The best way to upgrade your seat on an aeroplane is?

    Jackie: Fake a fit.

    Alan: Throw your dinner up, they will quickly move you.

    That’s right folks. You think a Ryanair full of noisy kids is bad, wait till you’ve travelled Outback Air!

    2/10 – Obviously never read the book of British etiquette.

    If you could bring back any of the heritage characters from Neighbours who would you?
    (Heritage being from the late 80s – 90s)
    Jackie: Well, I just got my wish with Harold returning for the 30th Anniversary, however, I would also say the Timmins’ family.
    Alan: Joe Mangle for me, I love Joe Mangle.

    Ah, Harold. We do love a good death and reincarnation in a soap. A bit like Vera Duckworth in Corrie. Sadly the afterlife never allows them to stay very long. 

    9/10 – nearly top points but you did miss Nell Mangel – a personal hero.

    Jackie, your character is now a marriage celebrant – any same-sex marriages on the horizon?
    Jackie: I wouldn’t be surprised if that was in Ramsay Street’s future.

    Graham, grab your bags we’re heading to Ramsay Street.

    7/10 for the hopes of the first gay marriage.10/10 if you’ll do it for free

    Follow Alan on Twitter You can catch up with all the Neighbours of Ramsay Street, weekdays on Channel 5.

  • INTERVIEW | Russell T. Davies And Lynn Hunter On Banana

    Russell T. Davies and Lynn Hunter talk about tonight’s episode on Banana at 10PM

    It’s a two-hander, but it’s not a normal one, is it?
    No, it’s not. I like Banana to change and to keep people on their toes and surprise people. And E4 is all about risk – and Banana takes all sorts of risks. Every episode is different – there’s drama, tragedy, romantic comedy, and then this.
    This being a two-hander where one of the characters basically doesn’t speak English!
    Yes, that’s right. Pretty much every word uttered by Zara is in Yoruba [a Nigerian dialect]. She’s not understood, which isn’t unusual for her, because she’s never understood or listened to. She just comes in and cleans and goes away again, unnoticed. She’s part of the underclass that exists, however much we might not like to think about it. I liked the fact that the last episode of Banana, after all of the dramas about the gays and their lives and loves and disappointments, was about the women who clean for them. It got us wondering, on the set, who cleans up after us?

    Did you spend as long on Zara’s dialogue as on Vanessa’s?
    Yes, I did, actually. I wrote the script, and then it was translated into Yoruba. And we thought about whether to have an English translation of the script on set, and decided not to. But for the extremely small minority of viewers who can speak Yoruba, there are lots of jokes in there, because Vanessa’s opening up about her life and her lesbian relationships, and thinks they’re becoming friends, and Zara is actually disgusted by what she’s hearing and really doesn’t approve of it.

    For the viewer, in effect, Vanessa’s just delivering a whole series of soliloquys, isn’t she?
    Yes, it becomes almost a monologue, even though the person who’s crying out for attention is sitting there – which is very true of life, I think. I actually created Vanessa for Lynn [Hunter], because I’d worked with her before, and loved her. She was in a supporting role when I worked with her on an ITV drama called Mine, All Mine. I was always thinking Cucumber was lacking something, and about two years ago I was in a Cardiff café one Sunday morning, and Lynn walked in and I just went “That’s it! That’s the woman! That’s her!” And I went and wrote the part for her. And it’s the first time, in all her acting life, that she’s had a big, strong, leading role in something, and I think she’s magnificent. And I love the fact that Channel 4 is so bold. E4 is meant to be a youth channel, and Zara is young, but Vanessa – well, Lynn would happily tell you herself, she’s 62 years old. And there she is, being absolutely magnificent in this lead role. I love this episode, I think it’s a mad, strange episode, and I’m very proud of it.

    Lynn Hunter on Banana ep 8
    How did you end up landing the role of Vanessa? Had you worked with Russell before?
    Yes. I did a series ten years ago of Russell’s called Mine, All Mine. It was about Swansea, really, which is where Russell’s from. It was an eight or ten part series, and I met him then, and we became friends, in a way. And when I went up for the part of Vanessa in Banana and Cucumber, I went to meet the director, David, and the producer, Matt, and I spoke to Russell afterwards and he said that he’d actually written episode 8 of Banana for me. I was incredibly moved by that, really – it’s a massive, massive honour and privilege to have someone like Russell actually writing an episode for me. I was blown away by that. I didn’t know any of this when I went up for it, but I found out afterwards.

    Explain a little bit about Vanessa. What’s her story?
    On the surface of it she’s a really tough cookie. She’s worked hard, she’s built up her own business, she’s brought up a daughter on her own. She’s always known she’s gay, she had her daughter knowing that. But while she’s a tough cookie on the face of it, she’s a real salt-of-the-earth woman. If Vanessa was your mate, you’d be well-covered. She’s really there for you if she’s your friend. That’s why she can’t turn her back on people who need her help, as we discover in her episode. She’s very much a woman who wants to make people’s lives better. She’s an incredibly caring woman. And she’s also got a secret that’s been eating away at her for many years. And she only tells the girl in the episode because she knows she can’t understand a word of what she’s saying. Vanessa lifts the lid and it all comes pouring out, years and years of this guilt that she’s lived with.

    You mentioned that the other character in the episode doesn’t speak English. That must have been quite a bizarre acting experience.
    Yes, it was. Strangely enough, I made a conscious decision not to find out what it was she was saying. They offered me the chance to have a translation of her script, and I said “No, I don’t.” Vanessa doesn’t understand what she’s saying, so it was good for me to be in the same situation. I had no idea what she was saying. That made it really difficult to learn cues, for example. But it was really helpful not to have the translation. Apparently some of what she is saying makes the scene very funny, because I totally misinterpret what she says. Apparently it’ll be a very funny scene for the tiny minority of people who speak both English and Yoruba. To this day I’ve not read the translation, so I’ve no idea what she said.

    How does it feel to have someone like Russell come along and write a whole episode for you? Where does that stand, for you, in the grand scheme of your career?
    In the 35 years of my career, no-one has ever invested that amount of faith in me, as a performer. I am totally overwhelmed and humbled by that. I don’t have the words to say to Russell what this means to me. I’ve tried to tell him. When I got the script originally, I could not believe it. It’s virtually a monologue. I’ve done a lot of television in my time, but never anything as big as this. Even in the big series’, the very well-known actors rarely get that amount of exposure or airtime. When I got the script, it was totally terrifying. With that level of faith invested in me comes a level of responsibility, though. It’s the most incredible thing that’s happened.