480 Hello Jimmy Somerville* - Smalltown Boy

(* as  part  of  Bronski  Beat  )

Chart  entered : 2  June  1984

Chart  peak : 3

Number  of  hits ; 21   ( 4  with  Bronski  Beat, 8 with  The  Communards, 9 solo )

Here's  another  guy  who  had  a  very  short  apprenticeship  before  making  the  charts.

Bronski  Beat  were  three  politicised   gay  guys -  the  first  to  make  the  chart  since  Tom  Robinson -  sharing  a  flat  in  Brixton. Singer  Jimmy  was originally  from  Glasgow; the  other  guys  were  from  London. Their  main  musical  influences were  Giorgio  Moroder  and  late  seventies  gay  disco  icon  Sylvester  whose  falsetto  croon  was the  model  for  Jimmy's   singing  style. They  were  signed  up  by  London  Records  after  playing only  nine  gigs.

"Smalltown  Boy"  was  their  debut  single  and  was  picked  up  by  David  Jensen  who  commented  that  they were  a  group  that  didn't  look  like  how  they  sounded, a  reference  to  the  first  publicity  pics  of  three  skinheads  in  green  Harrington  jackets , albeit  not  particularly  threatening  ones.  Musically  it  sounds  like   the  melodramatic  synth pop  of   Eurhythmics   with  Jimmy's  immediately  recognisable  howl   replacing  Annie  Lennox's  voice. The  song's  lyric ( and  the  accompanying  video ) tell  Jimmy's  own  story  of  coming  down  to  London  ( with  a  certain  amount  of  poetic  licence; Glasgow  isn't  exactly  a  small  town )  to  escape  persecution  and  familial  incomprehension. With  its  sad  chords  and  forlorn  chorus - "Run  away, turn  away, run  away, turn  away"  - it's  a  moving  record  even  if  you  don't  particularly  sympathise  with  the  subject  matter.  and  a  hard  one  to  follow  up.