Review: Bronski Beat – The Age Of Consent 40th Anniversary Reissue (London)
★★★★★
Perfect political disco remaining regrettably relevant 40 years on, Bronski Beat’s defining statement gets the comprehensive reissue that it deserves…
Pop stardom was never the key goal for Jimmy Somerville, Steve Bronski and Larry Steinbachek. Buoyed by the success of their debut single Smalltown Boy marching to No.3 in the UK during pop’s gayest year of 1984, The Age Of Consent covered a whole lot more ground, combining sexuality, war and homophobia, plus a sprinkling of covers of standards. It arrived wrapped in a sleeve using the reclaimed imagery of the pink triangle and listing the ages of consent across the planet: this was a manifesto.
And it’s not for nothing that Smalltown Boy has spent the last few months knocking around the lower half of the UK’s Top 100. With nothing to carbon-date it specifically to the 80s, its power, emotional charge and continued resonance has enabled it to become something of a modern-day folk song.
Second hit Why? continued the Smalltown Boy story. Inspired by a gruesome homophobic attack on the band’s friends, it shifted away from gentle longing into a furious, urgently pulsing anger. It’s a call to arms you could do poppers to.
Relevant Now
Past the entrees of those two singles, the trio tackled George and Ira Gershwin’s It Ain’t Necessarily So (which had originally cast doubt on themes from the Bible) and reclaimed Donna Summer’s I Feel Love, after Summer’s iffy remarks about AIDS (“Donna Summer can eat shit,” they told Gay Times: “Now it’s gonna be OUR record.”) They wrapped I Feel Love into a medley with Johnny Remember Me, 1961’s spectral ‘death disc’ chart-topper for John Leyton.
This excellent 4CD reissue gathers up the remastered album with the 1985 remix set Hundreds And Thousands, adding both original and contemporary remixes, as well as a disc of previously unreleased rarities
such as the strident The Power Of The Gold and Go (You & Me), which hint at what the trio had left in the tank. There’s also a bonus DVD collecting their videos and Top Of The Pops performances.
Bronski Beat managed to make the personal political and vice versa. The power of what they created here has only snowballed through the years. Unhindered by fashion or any adherence to trend, with The Age Of Consent they forged a unique position.
While initial critics felt that the use of dance music wasn’t the right vehicle for their themes, Bronski Beat knew exactly what they were doing and who they were speaking to.
They would never be the same again once Somerville left, but this was where they made their impact and legacy. It still totally holds up, as sadly, the album’s themes and issues from 40 years ago are just as relevant now.
Order The Age Of Consent 40th anniversary reissue here
Read More: 1984 – The Year Pop Came Out
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