If you’re classic, you probably don’t need this clarification, but just in case, who were The Communards? a band the synth pop Briton who was active from 1985 to 1988 and who sang in falsetto, a vocal technique already used by beach boysTHE Bee Gees oh Marvin Gayethe master of the soul.
El cantante from The Communards, jimmy somerville, also sang in falsetto. This technique which consists of sitting on your noble parts or pinching yourself with your fly and singing. The falsetto is important, but that’s not all in the story we’re going to tell you. The history of the Communards has a lot of shishaboth in its origins and in the different paths taken by its members.
The Communards were made up of two colleagues who met in London when they were 18, fleeing their cities because they were gay and there in town they found a much better personal and musical reception. Jimmy, the singer, was working class and Richard Coles, the keyboardist, was middle class Britain. imagine, early 80s, post punk London, the AIDS epidemic and two guys come together to make music with a strong LGBT accent.
But let’s go ahead and leave things where they belong. Jimmy Somerville was once in a band called Bronski Beat which he formed with another gay colleague from Glasgow, which only lasted a year and did only 9 gigs but left anthems like small village boy.
After Bronski Beat, in 1985, Jimmy Somerville, Tintin with the golden falsetto, met Richard Cole, “the other of the communards”. A guy who looks like your cousin the computer scientist, sucked like a stick and who plays the piano wonderfully. Richard Coles himself recounted how this encounter unfolded: “My luck was to meet Jimmy Somerville, and The moment Jimmy opened his mouth and sang, I knew it was going to be spectacular.. Not only because he is a great singer but because he knows very well how to express the aspirations of a whole group of people through songs. It made him very recognizable and powerful.”
You are my world It was his first single and a great song. From there it was a dizzying race to the pop Olympus, tours, gigs, number 1s, dancefloors razed to his songs and everyone trying to sing like Jimmy Somerville. Always combining music with extensive activism in the fight against AIDS which has not ceased throughout his career. In fact, the British tabloids tried to blackmail them, saying that if they didn’t come up with a negative scan, they would publish that they had the disease.
But after three years there is a discussion between the two components and they separate. Jimmy began a solo career which continues to this day with many great songs, such as Read my lips (enough is enough).
What happened in this discussion? Well, they came to blows, and Robert told Jimmy not to touch him because he had HIV. Obviously that wasn’t true, and when Jimmy found out he got angry and they disbanded the band.
So far so good with Jimmy, but what happened to Richard Coles after that fight? He said it himself: “In the late 80s, I realized that my career in pop was not going to last long and I took a year off. And what did I do? So take some drugs and get out. And the first six months were the best of my life.. I don’t remember the last six months. It was a very pop star ending, crash with fire. And I found myself in the middle of this turbulence. With HIV destroying us, my friends and me to a lesser extent”, explains the musician.
“And I remembered how good I felt in the school chapel when I was a kid. What a wonderful place it was to be when I didn’t understand what was happening to me. So I Thought I’d take that feeling back and When I entered a church, I realized it was my natural habitat and I stayed there.“, continue.
It’s true friends. Richard Coles has become a priest! With over two million listeners, Reverend Richard Coles is also co-host of BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live radio show. In 2016, Richard reached the semi-finals of Celebrity Masterchef.
But returning to his private life, Richard married David Oldham in 2005, another priest, at a time when the Church of England allowed same-sex marriage, but both maintained their relationship as celibate. They planned to retire to Scotland, where they would settle with their four dogs. But David Oldham, died in 2019 after a long illness. So today Richard Coles is 60, an Anglican reverend, widower, radio star, TV personality and former pop star.