Forty years after it was released, Bronski Beat's queer anthem Smalltown Boy has found a new generation of fans with its heartbreaking yet hopeful message. When Pride Month arrives every June, gold-plated gay anthems come to the fore at marches, parties and even on coffee shop playlists . Some are joyful and defiant – Lady Gaga's Born This Way, Diana Ross's I'm Coming Out, Sylvester's You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) – while others are more poignant and yearning.
Bronski Beat's Smalltown Boy, which is currently enjoying a major renaissance on TikTok 40 years after its initial release, definitely sits in the latter camp. "Smalltown Boy is a song that anyone who is queer can relate to," says Neil Prince, a DJ who plays at LGBTQ+ venues in London and beyond. "It's also a brilliantly produced piece of pop.
" Written by the British synth-pop group's three founding members, singer Jimmy Somerville plus keyboardists Steve Bronski and Larry Steinbachek, Smalltown Boy tells a heartbreaking but in some ways hopeful story that has resonated with successive generations of LGBTQ+ people. Feeling lonely and persecuted in his small town, the song's protagonist, a young gay man, heads to the city in pursuit of acceptance and revelry. "Mother will never understand why you had to leave/ But the answers you seek will never be found at home," Somerville sings in his astonishing, piercing falsetto.
When the chorus arrives, it feels like fraternal advice: "Run away, turn away, run away, turn away.
