George Montague, affectionately known as ‘The Oldest Gay in the Village’ is one of the top three nominations in the Activism and Awarness category in this years New Year’s Recognitions List organised by TheGAYUK website.
George with Ian McKellen at Brighton Pride 2014
GEORGE 92, who was elected a Brighton Pride Ambassador in 2014, came to prominence after appearing in successive Brighton Pride Parades on his mobility scooter bearing the sign, “The Oldest Gay in the Village.”
He has since appeared on both the London and Manchester Pride Parades and published a book titled “The Oldest Gay in the Village” about his double life growing up with his wife and children while living a secret gay life at night.
He has been nominated along with Human Rights Campaigner, Peter Tatchell and the Gay Star News website.
George said: “I am so proud to have been nominated at all, let alone be in the top three along with the great Peter Tatchell.”
In the last month thousands of people who surf TheGAYUK website have nominated individuals, projects and companies in each of eight categories including; education, sports, health, entertainment, politics, business, activism and awareness and community project of the year.
Police in Brighton are searching for a suspect who attacked a man near the city’s railway station at night.
At 2.05am on Friday, December 19 the 31-year old victim arrived at the railway station after attending a Christmas Party in London.
He was approached by a man described as white, in his early twenties, 5’7″, slim, with short dark brown hair and speaking with a southern accent. He was wearing either jeans or jogging bottoms, a hoody and had a large traveller style rucksack on his back.
The man spoke aggressively so the victim pushed him away and walked off towards the top of Trafalgar Street. However, he was closely followed by the suspect, who hit him causing him to fall to the ground, landing awkwardly and sustaining a serious hand injury, possibly a broken wrist.
The suspect then ran off down Trafalgar Street and under the tunnel.
PC Paul Baker said:“We are appealing for anyone who may have been in the area at that time, and who may have seen or heard anything that may assist our investigation. If you can help in any way, please get in touch via 101@sussex.pnn.police.uk or call 101 quoting serial 102 of 19/12. You can also contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously via 0800 555 111.”
Student Pride will be held at the end of LGBT History month (Feb 27 – Mar 1) centred around a daytime festival at the University of Westminster’s Marylebone campus opposite Madame Tussauds.
THE CITY OF BRIGHTON & HOVE lost the honour and kudos of staging Student Pride to London in 2014 through spiraling costs of staging such an event in the city and failure of the city council and local councillors to do anything to help this unique Pride remain.
The 2014 event in London was a huge success with over 120 Universities and colleges attending, attracting celebrities, activists and comedians including Zoe Lyons, John Waite (Great British Bake Off), John Amaechi and Lisa Power (former Head of Policy at THT).
This year will see Student Pride return to a focus on Trans* issues.
Evan Davis, presenter of Newsnight, the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme, hosted the ‘Time for T’ session in 2014 and acknowledged the importance of the T in LGBT in recent years.
The session heard from Trans* activist Paris Lees who was runner up in this years Independent on Sunday Rainbow List.
Paris told the student Pride audience:“When you give Trans* people the help and support they need they can go on to flourish and prosper as everyone should be given the chance to do.”
48% of trans people in the UK under 26 have attempted suicide because of discrimination they suffer, sometimes even from within the LGBT community.
Student Pride have announced a special focus on the ‘T’ in 2015 by securing the exclusive screening rights of highly acclaimed Boy Meets Girl which won Iris Prize’s Best Feature Film in 2014. The film is a tender romantic comedy that explores what it means to be a real man or woman.
At the 2014 event, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson congratulated the organisers for sending a message to the world that London is a “safe and welcoming place to be a student”.
Student Pride began at Oxford Brookes University in 2005 as a response to the Christian Union’s ‘Homosexuality and the Bible’ talk and continues this mantra into its 10th year choosing to hold the 2015 event at the University of Westminster which last year allowed notoriously homophobic Sheikh Haitham al Haddad to speak at a charity dinner.
Bridget Nkomo, the Diversity Representative for Student Pride and former president of Westminster LGBTI society said:“Coming to Westminster opened doors so the society could highlight the importance of making the University a constant safe space for LGBTI people.”
Tickets for the event are on sale now at a pre-sale price of £5 for a weekend wristband.
Once Hastings, the ancient Cinque Port was one of the country’s most important resorts, and its 910ft‑long pier – thought to be the first of the 99 in Britain that were built for entertainment, rather than as landing stages – was at the heart of its fortunes.
DESCRIBED AS “a peerless pier” at its 1872 opening, it took 56,000 people through its turnstiles in just one August week in 1931. In the Sixties, the ballroom at its seaward end hosted concerts by Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, Cilla Black and the Rolling Stones.
Over the years is was repeatedly damaged by storms and flames, and was finally closed for safety reasons in 2008.
In 2010, it experienced worse fire devastation than Eastbourne’s pier did in 2014. Hastings Borough Council then bought it and, with the help of £11.4 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund, is turning it into what has been hailed “as the coolest-looking pier in the world”.
By the time it opens in summer 2015, 42 miles of hardwood decking will have been laid, held down by 400,000 screws.
Once back in service, it will host a restaurant, circuses, plays, concerts, film festivals, farmers’ markets, urban sports and more. It is expected to attract 325,000 visitors in the first year and contribute £1.2 million to the local economy.
For more information about the Hastings Pier Charity, click here:
After 25 years as Lola Lasagne, Stephen Richards talks to Craig Hanlon-Smith about his life as the Brighton Belle.
2014 marks 25 years of Stephen Richards’ stepping out on the cabaret circuit as Lola Lasagne. In September Lola returned to the venue where it all began, The Vauxhall Tavern, for an anniversary marking performance.
I caught up with Stephen to talk the highlights, low-spots and the significance of Lola’s very own Silver Jubilee – we cried a little but we laughed a lot.
I began by asking Stephen to share his memories of that first gig 25 years ago… “June 7 marks the actual date that I was first paid to perform as Lola. I had been originally booked to play The Two Brewers some nights later but when an act dropped out The Vauxhall (Tavern) asked me to step in. It was a fitting beginning really as when I was at school we used to walk past The Vauxhall on our way to the playing fields. Other kids used to say to me ‘You’ll be going in there Richards when you’re old enough’. They were half right, and I certainly spent more time in The Vauxhall than I did in The Oval Cricket Ground!” (laughs)
Lola and Lily Savage
Can you remember how those first gigs felt? “I was shit scared. These venues were legendary entertainment venues. I’d seen Adrella, Lily Savage, Dave Lynn and The Trollettes perform and I knew that most artists also hung out there on their nights off so to walk out on stage and see Paul O’Grady, Pink Gin, Sandra Hush, Ebony and The Misdemeanours, all incognito at the bar was daunting. I still feel that when other acts are in today. No-one enjoys a bad gig and the last thing you need is for another act to tell everyone they saw you die on your arse (roars with laughter), that’s why I’m really honest about my gigs, if I have a blast I’ll tell my friends, if it’s a stinker I’ll tell them that too. I’d rather it came from me!”
How did those gigs come about? Were you just chancing your arm? “I’d been ‘doing’ drag for more than two years before that. I used to work behind the bar at The Brewers and I remember dragging up for Halloween, my mum’s name was Rosemary so I guess I went as Rosemary’s baby! I also fell into an unofficial residency at The Royal Oak in Hammersmith. Dolly DJ in his blouson and high legged tight shorts regularly used to throw show tunes into his Sunday night set, I used to sing along and one night he asked me to attend the amateur drag night the following Tuesday. I did. I was the only contestant (laughs) and remained so every Tuesday for the next two years! The gigs came on the back of that but in those days I was a lip-synching artist, the live work came soon after.”
What do you think are the changes both on the gay and drag scene in the last 25 years? “The scene has changed because the world has changed and for all of us the audience demographic is quite different. It used to be that your audience came out for a show and were there to listen and be respectful of whoever was on stage – that’s not always the case now. The audiences are much younger and you have to be on top of your topical game and tell stories and jokes that compete with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Television is different – you could tell a gag related to the TV schedule as there were only four channels, now there are 404 and it’s tough to keep on top of what might be trending that week. The venues are different too. Improved equality means that there is a large straight contingent in the crowd these days, a much wider gender mix and whilst I welcome everyone into an audience, sometimes bars identify as gay, but really they are straight bars that are gay friendly. It requires a different approach. That said I refuse to dumb down the act and throw in the current song by Little Mix and the like.”
Why not? “Because I don’t want to!” (laughs)
What constitutes a ‘good’ gig? “I just enjoy putting on a show. Knowing where to place a particular song, gag, story and knowing when you get out there whether it’s an audience that will respond to more chat, less gags or more songs. I’ve never been interested in knowing beforehand how busy a venue is – even when I’ve worked on straight plays and panto. Some performers when they arrive at the stage door, the first thing they ask is ‘is it a full house?’ For me, every audience large or small deserves the same approach. I’ve played well- established cabaret venues and stepped on stage to a crowd of eleven and stormed it – we’ve had a great show together for an hour and twenty minutes. On other occasions in the same venue, it can be packed to the rafters; the crowd are not in the mood so you do your forty minutes and then off. You have to judge it.”
Stephen
What has changed for Lola in 25 years? “In the past few years I’ve performed as Stephen in a role outside Lola. I was approached to do stand-up at comedy camp as Stephen, which I loved, for the past two years I’ve been an Ugly Sister in panto and I am playing Widow Twankey in Aladdin in Worthing this Christmas. I adored The Boys in the Band (The Theatre Royal) and Diamond (Dome Studio) and really have Dave Lynn to thank for those two opportunities. Dave was asked if he knew nine actors that could then do drag and said ‘I can do better than that, I know nine drag queens that can act’ and I loved those shows, especially as I’ve had no formal training as some will happily tell you who’ve watched me perform for 25 years.” (laughs – he laughs a lot)
(I take a deep breath and pull down my visor for the next question). You have a reputation for a no nonsense approach both to your act as Lola and also to issues which affect us all, which in turn may be described as honest, brazen, and perhaps confrontational. Why don’t you just mind your Ps & Qs and get on with it?“Whether I’m working in a theatre, an established cabaret venue or a ramshackle apology of a pub standing on an orange crate, IT IS A SHOW; heckle me and you die – if I wanted a double act I’d be in one. Don’t walk across the stage mid-performance as though we’re not there; don’t talk louder than the backing track; it’s not a competition; and I’m sorry, is my performance interfering with your consumption of Jaegar Bombs? No, just no. I was brought up going to the theatre and cinema where you sit, watch and respect the artist, I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”
And as for issues that matter? “I couldn’t not use my time on stage to promote and support them. If you’re performing at a charity gig you should at least know what the charity is and who we are collecting for, it’s about so much more than just throwing cash in a bucket. We live in an appalling world at times and whilst there is dark humour to be found in everything and some gags can be close to the mark, hopefully I know enough about my craft to hit the right tone and differentiate between when I’m entertaining and when I’m making a serious point.
“Take our recent Pride shows; Pride is such an important event where irrespective of gender, identity, race, age we are coming together to say ‘we are equal in the world as human beings’, it’s not about shouting ‘I’m gay and I’m proud’ it’s about being a fellow human. I genuinely am upset by inequality, I just do not understand it. When the cabaret tent closed at the end of Pride this year, a young woman came up to me and said ‘you’re one of the few acts who speaks about what Pride is about’ and I was thrilled to get that feedback.
“My career started in the middle of the AIDS pandemic in 1989 and I am lucky to be alive unlike so many others that I knew. When I was 18 just to have sex with another man was illegal, Section 28 was in full swing and as a community we were persecuted, but in those days we truly looked out for each other.
“All the venues I played in my early gigs were constantly raising money for St Thomas’ and St Mary’s hospitals, London Lighthouse and The Globe Centre. Adrella, Savage, Maisie & Jimmy, Regina were all great advocates for raising funds to help those with AIDS and HIV and my career started in the midst of all that.
“I remember when it was discovered that most of the money raised was being spent on (albeit essential) admin. It was the drag artists who made a point of saying ‘this money is not for paper, it’s for people’. We started asking the hospitals and support centres to name equipment that would help improve people’s lives or just their last few days. It may have been a defibrillator but sometimes a colour TV for the day room, and so we then raised money to buy those specific life enhancing things for people. Always about the people. So when I stand on stage and at the end of my show and ask the audience that whatever they might do please do it safely, I mean it.”
What have been your career highlights from the last 25 years? “There have been highs and lows, (laughs) but what I’m most proud of is building the Pride Cabaret stage into what it now is at Brighton Pride. People come to the Cabaret Tent and stay there all day, rain or shine we are packed, IT IS OUR MAIN STAGE and everyone in that tent is listening to every word, every note and watching every theatrical wink. Cabaret is an important part of our lives and I am proud of making that event exactly what it should be.
“Growing up when I did, starting my career when I did and working with all those great cabaret performers on that scene and in those venues. Of course I’m proud of lasting this long but I’m proud of having been able to start then, and like that. I used to work with a woman in Selfridges and who was quite a bit older than me and she was always saying that her husband fought in the war for me and that I wasn’t grateful. At the time I was young and quite dismissive of her but now I understand. I look out at some audiences and I’m proud to have fought in our war. If it wasn’t for people my age and older and all those other acts I’ve mentioned, younger gay people wouldn’t have this freedom and the opportunities they now enjoy. We helped people to overcome their fears and to be themselves.”
Stephen Richards appears as Widow Twankey in Aladdin at The Connaught Theatre, Worthing, until January 4 2015.
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