After two months of intensive hard work we've brushed down and spruced up a project which in its day was a landmark, and is now a collectors' item. All proceeds go to LGBT+ youth mental health charities. We hope you can support it, and also help to spread the word.
A landmark queer LP, Coming Out – Ready or Not, has just been re-released for streaming on Band Camp, as a fundraiser for LGBT+ Youth Mental Health Charities. The LP is supplemented on the digital album by bonus tracks by several artists, and comes with lyrics and an extensive booklet. It included the original version of Glad to be Gay from 1975, a catchy reggae number.
Coming Out – Ready or Not, released 40 years ago this month, was the record of a pioneering queer benefit concert for London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard at the Albany, Deptford, in December 1982. The event was headlined by Tom Robinson, then a chart-topper and now a Radio 6 presenter and gay icon. Tom unveiled his new single, War Baby, which went to number six in the charts when released commercially six months later.
Anybody who was anybody on the LGBT+ music scene then was onstage at the marathon concert, including a young Richard Coles, who was one of the three members of the Gay Teenage Movement involved. The others were author, archivist, film-maker and performer Rose Collis, and the late Toby Kettle.
Other artists included singers Jo Richler, Chris Ransome and Carol Uszkurat. Comedy came from Mark Bunyan, Eric Presland and the Red Bucket Theatre Collective of Grimsby.
The album captures the electric atmosphere of the packed house at the event, particularly in the 1982 version of Glad To Be Gay which closed the evening. The original LP, which was issued in a limited edition of 400, is now a collector’s item, and has been spotted on eBay going for $900. Glad to be Gay was previously only available on an EP specially made for the 1975 conference of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.
The Albany concert was so successful that it went on to inspire a whole series of mega-benefits through the 1980s for queer and AIDS charities, starting with The Pretty Policeman’s Ball at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1984.
You can buy Coming Out – Ready or Not from Band Camp.
Price £10. All proceeds go to Mosaic Youth and The Proud Trust
Please note that this is only available from Band Camp and not the Homo Promos website.
Thanks for your support.
Clips of Songs
