‘The Secret Public is about the struggle, the moments and the non-conformity that allowed LGBTQ+ people and the cultures they incubated to snowball into a form of acceptance, but also an essential reminder that everything can still go to shit at any moment’ writes Ian Wade in his review of Jon Savage’s new book, ‘The Secret Public – How The LGBTQ+ Aesthetic Shaped Pop Culture 1955-1979.‘

• Published by Faber & Faber on June 6th. •

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When Jeremy Deller produced a t-shirt for the Manic Street Preachers in 1993 emblazoned with the slogan ‘All Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Homosexual’, (“I’m sure it’s slightly nicked” recalled Nicky Wire) its provocation tapped into a wider narrative of pop culture. Rather than a way of momentarily setting themselves apart from their rivals, there was an actual truth to it. As Jon Savage’s exquisite and important book The Secret Public proves, that all rock ‘n’ roll, and for that matter soul, disco, pop, punk, is homosexual.
Detailing the sidemen, svengalis and hidden characters who pushed things forward across the latter half of the twentieth century, from the birth of rock and roll and the teenager right up to the abandon and freedom of the dancefloor, it charts both the gentle infiltration, and occasional force, of gay and transgressive characters into the mainstream, where two thirds of the book’s timeline’s subjects had to conceal their true selves due to laws that would see them imprisoned. How music and the arts became the safe space for those otherwise considered sexually deviant.

There’s the significant, lightning bolt moments of Little Richard’s Tutti Frutti, The Velvet Underground’s arty nihilism, David Bowie deciding to wear a dress and declare his bisexuality and the blooming of Sylvester. But there’s also Dusty Springfield’s career crisis and eventual outing, the New York Dolls rising through the New York bathhouse scene, and Tom Robinson barging into the charts despite an initially bristly UK music press and Radio 1 ban, and being advised by Ray Davies when his band signed to his Konk label that ‘it’s best to tease, don’t be so fucking explicit’. How Gallery DJ Nicky Siano helped Love Unlimited Orchestra’s ecstatic Love’s Theme escape a certain death due to the album being dead and the presence of black people on the sleeve, and made a hit out of MSFB’s TSOP – both eventual Number 1 singles and the genesis of disco’s takeover. The early rock ‘n’ roll managers such as Larry Parnes creating farms of new teen stars, turning Ronald Wycherley into Billy Fury and Reginald Leonard Smith into Marty Wilde.

It’s not just music though. There’s James Dean, Andy Warhol’s semi-unwatchable films, San Francisco and its evolution into a mecca for gay men, The Wolfenden Report and the gradual crawl towards equality. The revolution of Harvey Milk being the first gay man to attain political office in America up against the bullshit of ghastly anti-gay harridan Anita Bryant. Stonewall’s eventual riot after one police raid too many, leading to the gay liberation movement and birth of Pride. As the resistance edges on, there’s the rise of the clubs, allies, stores and publications with fantastic names such as Marine Studs and Cock-Crazy Cowboy.

Even though The Secret Public ends 45 years ago, the echoes of some of these events still simmer beneath the surface. You know you’re never too far away from hostility, or in the case of Sylvester, devastation, as Savage leaves him and his friends in all their 1979 finery, finally out and proud and ‘frozen in their fabulousness’.

The Secret Public is about the struggle, the moments and the non-conformity that allowed LGBTQ+ people and the cultures they incubated to snowball into a form of acceptance, but also an essential reminder that everything can still go to shit at any moment. Another essential Savage book and one that should be on the curriculum.

• ‘The Secret Public’ is published by Faber & Faber on 6 June. Copies (plus author signed bookplate) are flying out of our Bandcamp store, grab one now. •

• 1984: The Year Pop Went Queer by Ian Wade is published by Nine Eight Books on 18 June. • Ian Wade is a freelance writer and sub editor who has written for a variety of Classic Pop specials, Quietus, MusicOMH, Official Charts and Guardian, as well as doing time for Smash Hits and The Face many years ago.