The Unorthodox Website Blog

Last nite I met up with Kristof Fabry at the Luminaire, Kilburn to see Wanda Jackson, one of the first female rock’n'roll singers, possibly THE first. The Luminaire was an excellent venue I’d not visited before, but I’d definitely go there again if they had someone of interest on there. Apparently Wanda’s appearance there is planned to be an annual event.

After two quite good support bands, a mixture of Country, Zydeco and Rockabilly, Wanda’s husband of 46 years introduced the Queen of Rockabilly herself. The place was packed as Wanda stormed thru well over an hour of mainly rock’n'roll/rockabilly, but with some nice ballads thrown in. During an Elvis Presley medley, somewhat a misnomer since they were all full versions of the songs, Wanda did the lovely ballad ‘I Forgot To Remember To Forget’. Wanda talked between numbers, including of how she dated Elvis for several years and wore his ring around her neck.

‘It well recalls the triumphs past, it gives the hope of peace at last,

The banner bright, the symbol plain, of human right and human gain’

     (From ‘The Red Flag’, British Labor Party anthem)

‘Then comrades come rally, and the last fight let us face,

The Internationale unites the human race!’

     (From ‘The Internationale’ Socialist/Communist anthem)

‘Over your face a web of lies is woven, laws which are falsehoods pin you to the ground

Labor is mocked, its just rewards are stolen, on its bent back sits idleness encrowned’

     (From ‘England Arise!’ English Socialist anthem)

‘Bandiera Rossa la trionfera, Bandiera Rossa la trionfera,

Bandiera Rossa la trionfera, eviva el communismo et la liberta’

     (From ‘Bandiera Rossa’, ‘The Red Flag’ Socialist anthem of Italy)

‘Unbreakable union of freeborn republics, great Russia has welded forever to stand,

Created by struggle by will of the peoples, united and mighty our Soviet land.’

    (From ‘Anthem of the Soviet Union’)

For well over a century men and women all over the world dreamed and strived for a better world, following the blueprints laid down by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 19th century.

Channel 4, and Film On Four, are showing a series of programs and films this week to mark 40 years since the 1967 Sexual Offences Act was passed supposedly decriminalizing male homosexuality (lesbianism was never made illegal in UK because Queen  Victoria apparently could not believe women would do such things.)

Last night they showed a dramatized documentary about a landmark court case in the 1950s, which started to change public opinion. In those days the situation for gays in UK was horrific. If you were a practising gay living with your lover, the police could break into your home and arrest you. The maximum sentence was life imprisonment, although in practise most gays got a few months or years, but it meant all gay men lived in constant fear of arrest or blackmail.

The documentary said that, largely due to the change in public opinion following the court case above, the Wolfenden Report of 1957 recommended decriminalizing male homosexuality, although it took Parliament another 10 years to actually pass any legislation.

I had booked two 15 minute readings for myself and my friend Frank, mainly because I feel Frank needs to make more progress in moving on since his life-partner, Len, passed over suddenly in March 2006.

The readings were with an elderly medium, who I believe was called Dorothy Chapman. Mine was fairly accurate. She identified my father in spirit and described a lot of his character traits – very argumentative all his life, and richer than at times he made out. This was certainly very true. Every time we met he would lecture me on everything I’d done wrong in my life, and he was like this with most people. He’d argued with all his family and wasn’t even on speaking terms with his sister.

When my mother claimed maintenance for herself and my brother and me, after the separation, he always made out he was broke whilst renting a luxury flat, running a big car, owning a very popular restaurant and going out gambling most nights.

Usually when the London Gay Pride parade and festival takes place, around the first weekend in July, I’m at the Wildest Cats In Town rock’n'roll weekender near Lowestoft. This year I didn’t go to the weekender, but neither did I feel inclined to join in any of the Pride celebrations. Neither did most of my gay/bi friends and acquaintances.

In the early days, Pride-type marches organized by the Gay Liberation Front were protest demonstrations demanding basic gay rights. At that time, despite the passing of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act supposingly legalizing homosexuality, most things gays today take for granted were still illegal. In fact almost every way of meeting or flirting with another gay man was illegal, and you also had to make sure you were both over 21, not in the armed forces, and if you planned to be intimate, that no other person was present on the premises.