2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 in the UK, which decriminalized homosexual acts in private between two men aged 21 or over. Think about it; only 50 years ago (I was alive then, but definitely not sexually aware in my early primary school years) we could go to prison just for being us, in one of the bastions of western democracy.
A lot has happened since then; man on the moon, the first oil crisis and subsequent inflation, CDs, DVDs, AIDS, the end of apartheid, ecology, the dissolution of USSR, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia, personal computers, cell phones, Internet, the financial crisis of the late 00s (still going strong today in many parts of the world), gay marriage... But believe me, it wasn't that long ago.
The BBC decided to celebrate the anniversary by producing and broadcasting a mini-series which consisted of 8 monologues, curated by Mark Gatiss and acted by 8 of the finest actors Britain has to offer. They would call it Queers.
I have seen the first four episodes and was so impressed that I had to write about it: I will do the first four today and if I manage to watch the rest in the meantime, I'll present them in a week's time. I generally avoid making promises, however...
Mark Gatiss is a multi-talented artist; he's been an actor since 1993, recently appearing as (recurrent character) Tycho Nestoris in the Game Of Thrones (he's the guy from the Iron Bank who's financing Cersei's war effort). He's been writing for TV and film since 1994; he's the guy who created Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch. He also wrote 9 episodes of Doctor Who. He has multiple credits as a producer - and he has also worked as a script editor and a camera operator. He directed all 8 episodes of Queers.
We've been lucky enough to have all episodes available on youtube, so I will include them here and you can watch them. It's only 20 minutes each and they're well worth your trouble. For those of you who aren't youtube experts, here's a mini tutorial: Once your press 'play', a black bar with white symbols will appear under the picture; a few on the left and more on the right. We concentrate on the symbols to our right. The symbol furthermost to the left (of the ones on the right) is a white rectangle with a couple of black lines at the bottom. By clicking on it, English subtitles appear, which will make your viewing more enjoyable. The symbol on the far right is the outline of a white square; by clicking on it you will move to full-screen mode, adding to your pleasure. If you want to go back to reading my story, then you press the 'escape' button of your computer.
The first story was my favorite, perhaps because it was written by Gatiss himself, perhaps because it takes place in early 20th century (a period that fascinates me), or perhaps because it stars a favorite actor of mine, Ben Whishaw. An out gay actor who became widely known for portraying such iconic characters as Keith Richards in Stoned, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, a version of Bob Dylan in I'm Not There, Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited, John Keats in Bright Star, Ariel in The Tempest, and King Richard in The Hollow Crown. After multiple roles in Cloud Atlas, he became a household name by replacing John Cleese in the James Bond franchise as Q, both in Skyfall and in Spectre. Other high-profile roles include Paddington (as the voice of Paddington), The Lobster, and The Danish Girl. He has done his share of gay parts as well; he has lately become an expert in playing a man in mourning for the untimely loss of his loved one, who has complicated relationships with the mothers of his late lovers (Lilting, London Spy).
In Queers, episode 1, Ben portrays Perce, who has returned from the Great War. He explains how he witnessed the terrible injuries of his colleagues and met officer Terence, with whom he shared a loving, idyllic afternoon. Back in England, the two men meet again, on a station platform - the same location where Perce once saw Oscar Wilde being taken to gaol, but theirs will be a brief encounter.
The episode is called The Man on the Platform and is equal parts emotionally idyllic and terrifying. Whishaw shines and the story places you right in the middle of those wonderful, horrible times.
The second part is called A Grand Day Out, is written by Michael Dennis and stars the youngest of our 8 thespians; Fionn Whitehead is 19 years-old, yet he's already made a name for himself, having a significant role in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk. In A Grand Day Out he appears as Andrew, a 17-year-old in 1994. That was the year that the British government voted on reducing the gay age of consent to sixteen to coincide with that for heterosexuals. Andrew had come to London to witness the historic event (and to celebrate the fact that he will legally be able to have sex) but is dismayed when the bar is only reduced to eighteen, leading him to take part in the protest march that followed, where he met the older Marcus to whom he lies about his age but has an enjoyable unlawful night with, which he probably wouldn't have had the Parliament done right by us.
This story appropriately fits Andrew's age; it's less artful than the previous one, but it carries the raw power and impetuousness of youth. Whitehead, as is evident by his portrayal, is a young man who will go far.
The third part is called More Anger, is written by Brian Fillis, and stars Russell Tovey. For those of you who don't know this sexy out 35-year-old actor from Essex, Russell has been acting in TV and films since he was a child (first appearance: 1994) and his most notable roles so far are for The History Boys, as well as parts for Doctor Who and Sherlock. He became widely known as the sexy werewolf in Being Human and more recently as Kevin in Looking.
In More Anger Tovey is cast as Phil, a promiscuous young gay actor, asthe fear of AIDS is gripping late 1980s Britain. Phil is tired of playing type-cast victims who die of the disease. Then he lands a role in a soap of a gay man who is neither camp nor dying of the disease - just boring. There is some compensation in his private life when he pairs up with the handsome Simon - until Simon drops his own bombshell.
It's great how in each story the language fits the character at the center of it; in The Man on the Platform, the language is poetic and beautifully old-fashioned. In A Grand Day Out, the language is straightforward and youthfully simple. In More Anger, the language is evasive and artfully lurid. Tovey perfectly sells the mixture of narcissism and fear that drives his character. It's also the funniest of the four that I've seen so far, despite the fact that it deals with AIDS.
Finally for today the fourth story, Missing Alice, was written by Jon Bradfield and stars Rebecca Front. Front has been acting in films and TV since 1991. Her most successful roles were for TV; she was part of the main cast in the long-running Inspector Lewis and has recently appeared as Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya on the prestige TV adaptation of War & Peace.
She is the first woman to appear in Queers and the first straight character as well. A single mother at sixteen and a disgrace for her family, Alice meets Michael at church and they marry, but she soon realizes he is more interested in men, a fact his parents knew when encouraging the wedding to mask his sexuality. Alice feels better when they have a child and she is tolerant of his male partners. Now, in 1957, the Wolfenden report (the committee recommended that "homosexual behavior between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offense") seems to offer Michael hope but will it end well for Alice?
Here, the language is sensible and grounded, with hints of bitterness and affection thrown in for good measure. Rebecca Front gives a captivating performance and makes us better comprehend a type of person that has been rarely represented in recent gay literature and films.
I hope that you have enjoyed the presentation, as well as the series itself. Let me know in the comments. Cheers!
Today we'll be visiting a true original who, even though she failed to achieve much commercial success, she has been an influence on a number of musicians including David Bowie, Patti Smith, the Ramones, Pete Burns and Lou Reed. BornWayne Rogers in 1947 in Dallas, Georgia, and previously known as Wayne County, she then became Jayne County, rock's first openly transgender singer.
A lot of today's story will come from a very interesting interview that Jayne gave to dangerousminds.net. To start with, Jayne answers the question, "How did you make your way from Dallas, Georgia all the way to New York City?"
"From Atlanta to NYC was a trip indeed! I first heard about Sheridan Square and The Stonewall from a group of gay hippies that I was hangin' out with on 14th Street in Atlanta. 14th Street at that time in 1967 was the hub of everything that was cool and different in the repressive state of Georgia! It was wild and all types were welcome! Straight, gay, men, women and anything 'in between'!"
"There was a big crackdown on anyone and anything the least bit different and unfortunately for me and my friend, drag queen Davina Daisy, that included being shot at by a truck full of chicken-carrying rednecks from Alabama! Rednecks would bring in the chickens they had raised on the back of their trucks to be sold at the local farmers market. Davina and I were prancing down 14th Street dressed in all our 60's finery, and that included something that in those days was called 'semi drag'! We would go, 'Ooooooooo Miss Woman !!! Lookatchew! In SEMEYE DRAG, lookin guuuud!!!' Semi drag was a term that just meant that you were not in full drag, which was usually reserved for Halloween or very special occasions! Full drag was good for Halloween because Miss Alice Bluegown, (the police) couldn't legally arrest you for female impersonation."
"In Atlanta, there was a law that if a male's hair touched the tip of his ears, he could be arrested and thrown in jail for impersonating a woman! The Southern Baptist Church, which controlled just about everything in those days, wanted to make sure that their young, straight Christian men didn't mistake one of these demon possessed sodomites for a woman and commit a horrible, unforgivable sin!"
"By law, you were required to wear a couple of articles of men’s clothing so people wouldn't mistake you for a 'real woman'! That’s the way it was! Your clothing was policed, and you could be put in jail for wearing the wrong attire! Back in those days, no one used the term 'trans.' I didn’t even know what a transsexual or transvestite was!"
"If the police caught you, sometimes they would drag you down to the police station and hold you down and shave your head. More than likely you would be severely beaten up or raped or both! The cops would sit back and do nothing or laugh or even take part in the festivities! Such was life for trans people!"
"That day Davina and I were shot at, you could actually hear the bullets zinging past our ears! It was a truck full of rednecks! You could hear the chickens in the back of the truck just a cluckin away! I turned to Davina and told her that I was getting the hell out of there! I bought a one-way ticket to NYC and that was that!"
How did she get into theatre?
"I got into theatre because of the fab Andy Warhol drag queen, Jackie Curtis. I say drag queen to avoid confusion because Jackie didn't call herself a drag queen! She just called herself Jackie! She stated in an article that she wasn’t a man and she wasn’t a woman. She said, 'I’m just ME! Jackie!' At the time this seemed quite revolutionary! She wrote a play, called Femme Fatale, while stirring speed into her coffee every day upon waking up! It was performed at La MaMa [Experimental Theatre] as a sort of a tribute to the song by The Velvet Underground. I played a lesbian prison inmate named Georgia Harrison. In the play, I swatted flies with a fly swatter then ate them! Like that nutty guy in Dracula! Don't ask me why - it was art! Patti Smith was also in the play sporting a three-foot long cock! A phallus like they used in ancient Greek theatre! She played with her over-sized Oscar Meyer, rubbing it and thumping it against the furniture shouting out lines like, 'Hey, imma gonna fuckka you witha my hot pepper,' and 'benda over Rover! And letta my big pizza taka over!' At one point she started waving it in my face and I started beating it with my fly swatter! It was ridiculous! The entire play was ultra offensive!!!"
She was a part of the Stonewall Riots as well:
"The Stonewall Riots were a turning point for gay people's rights. People, especially the obvious femme queens and drag queens, were totally fed up with the treatment we were receiving! The queens stood out like sore thumbs, so naturally, it was the queens that got all the shit on the streets! You had to know how to run fast! And some carried weapons like those fab metal tipped teasing combs! The ends could be sharpened and become very adequate weapons! Of course, hair spray in the eyes was another good one. Some of the girls hid knives in their highly teased up wigs! It got really bad when the cops started doing 'sex searches'! Taking the drag queens into the women's rooms and forcing them to show their genitals to the officers. Some of the pigs were laughing at the queens who were in tears and begging to be left alone."
"Well, people simply snapped! We started throwing bricks, setting fire to trash cans or anything else that would burn. Turning back buses, chanting 'Gay power! Gay power!' Marching up and down Christopher St. with our fists in the air! Causing mayhem anyway we could think of. It lasted three days and things were never the same again! We had had enough!!! It was time to fight back!"
In 1972 County formed Queen Elizabeth, one of the pioneering proto-punk bands. County was then signed to MainMan Artistes, David Bowie's management firm, but no records were ever produced. The company spent over $200,000 to film the 1974 stage show, "Wayne at the Trucks", but footage has never been released. The show featured numerous costume changes and some of County's raunchiest material. County seriously believed at the time that the management company would be releasing it very soon. Instead, the tapes were shelved, an accompanying film was forgotten, and, when a fire swept through the warehouse where the recordings had been buried, that was the end of the tale. Or was it? Fast forward 30 years; somebody passing by a recently closed down studio found an old acetate disc in a box on the corner. Of course, they listed it on eBay, from whence one of County's U.K. fans purchased it for $600; a copy was passed onto County, who in turn passed it on to the Spanish label Munster. The end of the rainbow had been located.
From that show, here's the deliciously primal Man Made Woman:
Queenage Baby is a song that County has always insisted was a profound influence on Bowie's Rebel Rebel. I can see a vague resemblance in the chorus, but that's all. Judge for yourselves:
Here's Bowie's Rebel Rebel, for comparison's sake... And also because I adore the song:
This is Stick It In Me:
You Gotta Get Layed to Stay Healthy is the sole survivor from a projected 1974 single, produced in New York by Mick Ronson:
In 1974 County formed Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys, which recorded three tracks for Max's Kansas City: New York New Wave, a compilation. The most notable of the three was Max's Kansas City 1976, a Lou-Reed-inspired account of the times:
Wayne County and The Backstreet Boys played regularly at CBGB and Max's Kansas City, where County was also a DJ. In 1976, she appeared in the film The Blank Generation.
In 1977 County moved to London, where the English punk scene was just emerging and formed Wayne County & the Electric Chairs. County released the EP Electric Chairs 1977 in August 1977. The lead song was Stuck On You:
The follow-up single (November 1977) was the energizing Fuck Off:
Their first album was released in February 1978 and was called The Electric Chairs. The lead single was Eddie & Sheena:
The German version of the album also featured Toilet Love:
This is On The Crest:
Their next album, released 6 months later, was called Storm the Gates of Heaven. This is the title track,delivering a disdain for Christianity with tongue firmly in cheek and middle finger proudly raised.
Here's one of Jayne's defining songs, Man Enough To Be A Woman:
This is Trying To Get On The Radio:
... And this is a cover of the Electric Prunes' I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night:
Also in 1978, the Jayne County song Fucked by the Devil, was recorded by Jimi LaLumia and The Psychotic Frogs. The song was released on their EP Typically Tasteless. It was a vinyl EP that instantly sold 10,000 copies. Later on, Jimi LaLumia would work with Jayne County in a managerial position. Here's a later live version, with Jayne joining them:
Their 1979 album was called Things Your Mother Never Told You. Here's the title track:
This is Berlin:
... And here's Waiting For The Marines
While in London, County met Derek Jarman, who cast her as "Lounge Lizard" in the seminal punk film Jubilee. Was is it easy for her to move from theater to music and vice versa?
"Oh, I have always been heavily into music so there wasn't really much of a transition from theatre to music! In fact, I mixed my music and theatre together! My big stage show and musical, “Wayne at the Trucks,” was a forerunner of Bowie’s “Diamond Dogs” tour and was produced by Bowie’s MainMan Records! When punk happened, it was a reaction to the over excesses of both glam and progressive rock, but at least Bowie’s music contained a lot of great rock and roll and some really amazing androgynous images. Punk rock had to happen in order to sweep the slate clean and make two and three chord music featuring guitars, bass, and drums once again the focal point of some of the best rock and roll music ever created!"
At what point did Wayne become Jayne?
"I had been dressing as a woman on and off my entire life - since age three or four. I can actually remember doing it at age five and six! But during the glam period, I began taking it more seriously. And in 1974, I began taking female hormones A few years later I read a book that Leee (Black Childers) brought home called Canary Conn. It was the story of an M to F trans woman - true story and it had a huge influence on me. But I didn’t change my name officially from Wayne to Jayne until 1979. It was a gig at CBGB! There were these big pink posters up all over NYC with a really good and very femme photo style drawing of me saying WAYNE COUNTY! But the 'W' was Xed out and a 'J' was put in over it! It looked fantastic and it was my first gig as Jayne County!"
The first album released under the name of Jayne County was Rock 'N' Roll Resurrection (1980). County's first release following the less than pleasant dismantling of the Electric Chairs was this dramatic recounting of a New Year's Eve 1979 show in Toronto, Canada. It was dominated by an absolutely phenomenal rendering of the already supercharged title track:
Rock 'n' Roll Cleopatra serves much the same purpose in County's career-long catalog of self-definition as Man Enough to Be a Woman did a couple of years before:
Her remarkable reinvention of Hanky Panky is pure garage pop brilliance:
Jayne'ssuccess in Europe was much more distinct than in the US, where she's considered more of an “artist’s artist.” What does she think the difference is between US and European audiences?
"European audiences seem more ready to accept what the artist is trying to do on stage and will usually cheer the bands on, even when the bands sometimes appear to be struggling just to keep themselves from falling apart right there in front of your eyes, as in the cases of The Cramps and Johnny Thunders. American audiences are too quick to judge and shout, 'Get off!' at you! In America the audience want you to go overboard to prove to them that you are valid! In Europe it's just, 'Shit, we are so glad that you’re here!'"
In 1983 County returned to New York where she appeared in the theatrical production Les Girls with Holly Woodlawn. Shortly thereafter she returned to London for the première of City of Lost Souls and stayed long enough to record and tour another album, Private Oyster (1986). From this album, listen to Bad In Bed:
I Fell in Love with a Russian Soldier and The Lady Dye Twist might have jokey titles - indeed, the latter had jokey lyrics as well, as County demands a wedding "just like Lady Diana." But both songs are a solid pop master class regardless, a mood that stretches over the remainder of this infuriatingly seldom-seen album. Here's the former:
... And here's the latter:
In 1989 a mini album called Betty Grable's Legs was released. A good song from this album is Time Machine (I Wish I Had):
Goddess of Wet Dreams (1993) has County reworking some of her old favorites, like Night Time:
... Or this one, Cream In My Jeans:
She's also covering a couple of New York Dolls' evergreens, like Lookin' For A Kiss:
In 1995 she released Deviation. The album opens with Transgender Rock 'N' Roll:
Can you say no to a song called I'm In Love With Dusty Springfield?
Another fun title: Everyone's An Asshole But Me.
Since that time several new tracks have surfaced on various compilations and through County's official website. Many of these tracks, both live and studio recordings, were collected on the Ratcage Records release So New York (2003), including collaborations with Lisa Jackson and former Electric Chairs guitarist Eliot Michaels. Here she is in an acoustic performance of Man Enough to Be A Woman, accompanied by Lisa Jackson on guitar:
Here's a beautiful song dedicated to her mentor, Jackie Curtis (Jackie is just speeding away,thought she was James Dean for a day...), called Jackie Told Me:
Here's her tribute to Iggy Pop, Little Doll Down On The Street:
What is Jayne doing now?
"I am living down south in Georgia now. I came back to help my not so well parents. My dad finally passed on, now I'm helping take care of my sick mom. She is in pretty bad shape. She can't even use the bathroom anymore! It is heartbreaking. My poor parents went through so much when one of my brothers was murdered and my sister committed suicide. They were shell-shocked. But I had to come 'home' and help out as much as I could! I am not a spring chicken myself anymore, and I have a lot of lower back problems. I have days when it's difficult to even get out of bed, but somehow I keep going on! I don't know how. My mom and my kitty babies keep me going I guess, and the support I receive, just on Facebook alone, is overwhelming! I got some amazing friends on Facebook! I am not a religious person but I do feel blessed!"
"I love animals and I have saved and taken care of a number of homeless kitties. I am a total cat freak! I deeply love and respect these creatures, and any harm that comes to them affects me in some really bad ways!"
Her words of advice to would-be artists:
"Well, my advice to all would-be artists, especially the ones who will be going against the grain, would be to run! run to the nearest exit, kick open the door, and keep on running till you can't run anymore and you collapse on the ground, spinning and turning flips and landing on rocks and pieces of glass and thrown away cans of Dr. Pepper! Then lay there for a few minutes slowly getting your breath back! Take deep breaths and gaze up at the beautiful, blue sky! Study the clouds as they roll by! Maybe even go into a few bars of the song, Look for the Silver Lining!"
"If it's raining, enjoy the rain! Lay there and get drenched! Then when you get your strength back, get the hell back up! Go home and change those wet clothes! Pretty yourself up and get ready for the next round! That's about what to expect, really! I mean, that is what you will feel like when all those haters out there knock you down! Out of breath, wet, tired, but you gotta get back up! You gotta keep going! Like that Elvis Presley song! You gotta follow that dream wherever that dream takes you! Just keep trying to be as strong as you possibly can! People are going to try to knock you down left and right! Go with the punches! Bounce back up! Get up and fight back!"
"And try to always have some close friends around you for support. That's very important! See you in the ring honey!"
