Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
There are moments in pop history which might be celebrated by what could be called the minority at the time, and to which the rest of the world could be argued as just pausing long enough to feel the emotions overwhelming the soul; they might not understand why, but if they live to see a significant anniversary come round then they will undoubtedly see the sense of seismic change that they have lived through, the definite alteration of the future that has happened in their life time in which others can be free to be themselves and love who they love.
When Bronski Beat released the album The Age Of Consent in October 1984, what might have been was thankfully slowly overturned, and it can be considered, indeed argued passionately and deeply, that Jimmy Somerville, Larry Steinbachek and Steve Bronski were amongst the pioneers to whom gay rights in Britain were taken seriously; the discussions that took place in a time when the subject was a political chasm, when the spectre of a terrible disease was creating fear in the public eye, to have the strength to create such a piece of art is something extraordinary.
LGBTQ+ rights have moved on, mostly for the better, and yet the conversation in some respects is still being had with the same old tired responses from certain quarters, and even with public perceptions having shifted and people understanding what it means to be an ally, there is still a long way to go.
Across the two discs, the album’s consistency is to be applauded, the new mixes are sublimely added to the narrative, and as songs such as the opening of Why?, the simmering fury of It Ain’t Necessarily So and Screaming, through the brilliant observation of Smalltown Boy, the loneliness, the desire of companionship that underlines need A Man Blues, the whispers of possible contentment in I Feel Love/Johnny Remember Me, and Cadillac Car and the various remixes that extend the ideas, offer a further commentary in the modern age from Planningtorock and Harvey Goldberg, what comes apparent is the influence and the impact that the record still has, a sense of translation that would have been missed by a majority to whom felt no connection with the struggle that many would have been going through.
This timely reminder of one of the most important albums to see life through a lens of another human being, of another part of society is not just about acceptance, it’s not even a liberation of kind, but of a war that was waged, and so far, partially won, in the name of compassion, of empathy, and awareness. It is down to artists such as Bronski Beat that the subject finally broke the taboo stranglehold and to which now equality is possible.
Bronski Beat release the 40th Anniversary of The Age Of Consent on October 18th via London Records.
Ian D. Hall