SMALLTOWN GIANT
Tributes to synth pop legend Steve Bronski
STEVE Bronski, who formed 80s pop group Bronski Beat with fellow Scot Jimmy Somerville, has died at the age of 61.
Keyboard maestro Bronski, from Glasgow, was born Steve Forrest and formed the group in 1983 with singer Somerville and Larry Steinbachek.
They enjoyed UK top 10 hits with the gay anthem Smalltown Boy, Why? and a cover of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love.
Somerville said: “Sad to hear Steve has died. He was a talented and a very melodic man.
“Working with him on songs and the one song that changed our lives and touched so many other lives, was a fun and exciting time.”
Bronski’s friend Josephine Samuel paid tribute to the Scots musician, saying he was a “gentle, kind and talented man”.
The group began when Bronski and Steinbachek met Somerville through a documentary called Framed Youth – Revenge of the Teenage Perverts, made for an LGBTQ arts festival. Smalltown Boy, their debut single, was a synth-pop classic, and reached No3 in the charts.
It was ground-breaking for many fans who related to its story of a young gay man leaving his home town for the freedom of the big city.
The hard-hitting video showed Somerville being chased by a homophobic gang, taken home by the police and thrown out by his parents, before getting on the train to start a new life with Bronski and Steinbachek.
“At the time we were just three gay guys who started a band – we didn’t feel like part of any particular movement,” Bronski said in 2018. “Of course, it would transpire many years later that there were more gay artists than the public were led to believe.”
Their debut album Age of Consent followed in 1984. The title referred to the difference in the legal ages for gay and straight sex, and the sleeve listed the ages of consent for countries around the world.
“When you saw it written down, the discrimination was astonishing,” Somerville said.