FEATURE: Dead Friends in Roaring Waters Anniversaries can be peculiar events. Is it ever clear what exactly we’re remembering or commemorating? In the case of a death are we reminding ourselves of the loss we feel? In which case is the anniversary very much about the self? Or do we genuinely commemorate the life, although gone, once magni By Craig Hanlon-Smith • 4 min read
REVIEW: Soul II Soul @Brighton Dome Back to Life. Soul II Soul’s 30th anniversary tour stops at The Brighton Dome. When British soul legends Soul II Soul formed in 1987 they were known as a ‘sound system’ DJing at parties and club nights whilst promoting their own ‘Funki Dred’ line of clothing. There are (many) moments during Sunday By Craig Hanlon-Smith • 2 min read
REVIEW: More Sex Please, We’re Desperate @The Marlborough Theatre There is a moment in this performance where its creator directly asks the audience “who here believes they had a good sex education”? The silence does not suggest an unwillingness to participate but in a brief moment for sixty people upstairs at The Marlborough, we collectively make a damning observ By Craig Hanlon-Smith • 2 min read
Are ‘the gays’ still welcome in Brighton and Hove in 2018? The Prestonville Arms is a public house tucked away in an attractive residential area a ten minute walk from Brighton mainline station and Preston Park albeit in opposite directions. The roads leading away from the pub are of typical quality almost unique to Brighton in their varied pastel shades th By Craig Hanlon-Smith • 4 min read
OPINION: Craig’s Thoughts – My Lesbian Icon It took many years for me to appreciate the game changing LGBT+ artists of my youth. Thirty-five years ago I would have been terrified to associate myself with openly gay popular music performers for fear of a correct assumption that I was leaning that way too. When I think now of Jimmy Somerville, By Craig Hanlon-Smith • 4 min read
FEATURE: Fistycuffs – Or Gays Box Too Craig Hanlon-Smith caught up with two newbie boxers to discuss the benefits and pitfalls of this seemingly feisty sport – Anthony, who is originally from the North East but now lives in Cardiff, and Sue from Essex, who lives in Folkestone and works in London. By Craig Hanlon-Smith • 5 min read
FEATURE: The Face of You – Madonna at 60 On July 13, 1987, Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone stood on stage at Madison Square Garden in New York City midway through her Who’s That Girl Tour set to address the audience. The show was an additional date added to the schedule in memory of her friend Martin Burgoyne who had died from AIDS related By Craig Hanlon-Smith • 5 min read
MUSIC REVIEW: Everything You’ll Ever Need – Jake Shears’ flies solo Jake Shears and his Scissor Sisters were the stealth queens of LGBT+ acceptance and progress upon these island shores now more than a decade ago. It was almost as if under the cover of darkness their uplifting brand of acceptable queer stage performance dragged the wider heterosexual music buying pu By Craig Hanlon-Smith • 2 min read
OPINION: Craig’s Thoughts – In My Tribe or Everything Changes And so at a gently ripe 46 years old, our protagonist is calm and content, a happy homosexual with, hopefully, half his life ahead of him. It’s now June 28, 2018, exactly 49 years to the date since the Stonewall riots of New York launched the LGBT+ civil rights movement and international Pride event By Craig Hanlon-Smith • 4 min read
Caplin promises Action Not Words! Ivor Caplin has been elected the new Chair of The Jewish Labour Movement at a key point in the history of both the movement but also The Labour Party itself. The party has recently been beset with accusations of anti-Semitism deep within its ranks, a fact Mr. Caplin did not shy away from in his acce By Craig Hanlon-Smith • 2 min read
FEATURE: My So-Called Chemsex Life I originally tried to write this piece 18 months ago, but rather than an unsophisticated or educated guess along the theme of what has come to be known as ‘ChemSex’, I wanted to hear real and current stories from those who were actually engaged, in some way, with this lifestyle and recreational prac By Craig Hanlon-Smith • 7 min read
OPINION: Craig’s Thoughts IS THAT my tribe? Asked the awkward seven- year-old, skirting along the outer perimeter of the all-weather pitch on a 1970s wet spring Lancashire lunchtime. Envying the gaggles of energetic boys and their temporary but automatic friendship. Staring lost at their heptathlon of sports that he was cert By Craig Hanlon-Smith • 4 min read
