LGBT-HP at 16:39, 17 July 2026

2026-07-17T16:39:16Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:39, 17 July 2026
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	'''The Communards''' were a British pop duo, active from 1985 to 1988, made up of the singer [[Jimmy Somerville]] and the multi-instrumentalist [[Rev Richard Coles\|Richard Coles]]. Both were openly gay, and the group combined chart success – including the biggest-selling UK single of 1986 – with an overtly political, socialist and gay-rights sensibility. They took their name from the Communards, the revolutionaries of the 1871 Paris Commune.<ref name="wp"/>		'''The Communards''' were a British pop duo, active from 1985 to 1988, made up of the singer [[Jimmy Somerville]] and the multi-instrumentalist [[Rev Richard Coles\|Richard Coles]]. Both were openly gay, and the group combined chart success – including the biggest-selling UK single of 1986 – with an overtly political, socialist and gay-rights sensibility. They took their name from the Communards, the revolutionaries of the 1871 Paris Commune.<ref name="wp">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communards The Communards], Wikipedia.</ref>

	== Formation ==		== Formation ==
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	== References ==		== References ==
	<references>		<references>
	~~<ref name="wp">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communards The Communards], Wikipedia.</ref>~~
	<ref name="coles-wp">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Coles Richard Coles], Wikipedia.</ref>		<ref name="coles-wp">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Coles Richard Coles], Wikipedia.</ref>
	<ref name="album">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communards_(album) Communards (album)], Wikipedia.</ref>		<ref name="album">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communards_(album) Communards (album)], Wikipedia.</ref>

LGBT-HP: Created page with "'''The Communards''' were a British pop duo, active from 1985 to 1988, made up of the singer Jimmy Somerville and the multi-instrumentalist Richard Coles. Both were openly gay, and the group combined chart success – including the biggest-selling UK single of 1986 – with an overtly political, socialist and gay-rights sensibility. They took their name from the Communards, the revolutionaries of the 1871 Paris Commune. == Forma..."

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Created page with "'''The Communards''' were a British pop duo, active from 1985 to 1988, made up of the singer Jimmy Somerville and the multi-instrumentalist Richard Coles. Both were openly gay, and the group combined chart success – including the biggest-selling UK single of 1986 – with an overtly political, socialist and gay-rights sensibility. They took their name from the Communards, the revolutionaries of the 1871 Paris Commune.<ref name="wp"/> == Forma..."

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'''The Communards''' were a British pop duo, active from 1985 to 1988, made up of the singer [[Jimmy Somerville]] and the multi-instrumentalist [[Rev Richard Coles|Richard Coles]]. Both were openly gay, and the group combined chart success – including the biggest-selling UK single of 1986 – with an overtly political, socialist and gay-rights sensibility. They took their name from the Communards, the revolutionaries of the 1871 Paris Commune.<ref name="wp"/>

== Formation ==
The duo came together in 1985 after Jimmy Somerville left the group [[Bronski Beat]], with which he had already had considerable success. Richard Coles, a classically trained musician, had played the clarinet solos on Bronski Beat's hit "It Ain't Necessarily So" and had joined that band in 1983.<ref name="coles-wp"/> The two had also appeared together in 1983 in the [[Lesbian and Gay Youth Video Project]] film ''Framed Youth: The Revenge of the Teenage Perverts'', which won a Grierson Award.<ref name="coles-wp"/> From the outset the Communards were politically engaged; Coles later summed up their aim, only half-jokingly, as trying to bring down Margaret Thatcher with disco.<ref name="classicpop"/>

== Music and success ==
The Communards had their first UK top 30 hit in 1985 with the piano-led "You Are My World". Their breakthrough came in 1986 with an energetic Hi-NRG version of "Don't Leave Me This Way" – a soul song originally recorded by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes – featuring guest vocalist Sarah Jane Morris. It spent four weeks at number one and became the biggest-selling UK single of 1986.<ref name="wp"/><ref name="album"/> Later that year "So Cold the Night" reached number 8.

Their debut album, ''Communards'', appeared in 1986, followed by ''Red'' in 1987. From ''Red'', a cover of the Jackson 5's "Never Can Say Goodbye" reached number 4, giving the duo the third of their three UK top 10 hits.<ref name="coles-wp"/>

== HIV/AIDS and activism ==
The Communards were unusually open about their sexuality at a time of growing hostility, in the years leading up to [[Section 28]], and their work engaged directly with the HIV/AIDS crisis then devastating gay communities. Their 1987 album ''Red'' included "For a Friend", a ballad written in memory of [[Mark Ashton]], the co-founder of [[Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners]] and a friend of both men, who had died of an AIDS-related illness earlier that year; the album also featured "Victims", addressing those living with and dying from the disease.<ref name="foraf"/>

== Split and afterwards ==
The Communards split in 1988. Jimmy Somerville went on to a solo career, while Richard Coles later took a very different path, being ordained as a Church of England priest in 2005 and becoming a well-known broadcaster and author.<ref name="coles-wp"/>

== See also ==
* [[Jimmy Somerville]]
* [[Rev Richard Coles]]
* [[Bronski Beat]]

== References ==
<references>
<ref name="wp">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communards The Communards], Wikipedia.</ref>
<ref name="coles-wp">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Coles Richard Coles], Wikipedia.</ref>
<ref name="album">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communards_(album) Communards (album)], Wikipedia.</ref>
<ref name="foraf">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_a_Friend "For a Friend"], Wikipedia.</ref>
<ref name="classicpop">[https://www.classicpopmag.com/features/richard-coles-communards/ Interview: Richard Coles remembers the Communards], Classic Pop.</ref>
</references>

[[Category:Music]]

The Communards - Revision history

LGBT-HP at 16:39, 17 July 2026