The Communards
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.[1]
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.[2] 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.[2] 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.[3]
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.[1][4] 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.[2]
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.[5]
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.[2]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Communards, Wikipedia.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Richard Coles, Wikipedia.
- ↑ Interview: Richard Coles remembers the Communards, Classic Pop.
- ↑ Communards (album), Wikipedia.
- ↑ "For a Friend", Wikipedia.