The Pink Singers:
A Potted History
by Philip Rescorla
Tenor
January 2006
The Pink Singers were formed in May 1983 by
singer/songwriter Mark Bunyan and the late Brian Kennedy, publisher of
Kennedy's Gay Guide to London, to sing at the London Pride Festival.
This makes us the oldest established lesbian and gay chorus in Europe.
The "Pinkies" have never missed a Gay Pride march or festival since
(it's hard work being gay!). In 1991 we celebrated Pride by singing on
the roof of the BBC for Ned Sherrin's Radio 4 show "Loose Ends". Thanks
goodness it didn't rain.
 A community choir
The original chorus was very much based, as
now, in the lesbian and gay community. The proceeds from all our
performances were given to organisations offering help to lesbians and
gay men in the UK.
We have supported, amongst many others, the
Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), London Friend, Food Chain and the lobby
groups Stonewall and Outrage, as well as singing at rallies, vigils and
protest marches in and around London and appearances for World Aids Day
each year. In February 2005 we sang at a London Pride photo exhibition
as part of the first UK LGBT History Month. Later that year we appeared
at the first LGBT Prom (average age 19, until the Pinkies arrived)
where we were a big hit. What good taste young people have these days -
thank goodness they'd heard of Abba!
When I joined the Pink Singers in April
1987 there were twenty members (mostly men) and the repertoire
contained a lot of songs by Bertolt Brecht and Hans Eisler, Noel
Coward, Tom Robinson's Glad to Be Gay (with special
lyrics written for us by Tom) and a choral version of Frankie Goes to
Hollywood's Relax arranged for the choir by its
first Musical Director Robert Hugill. Interestingly the Pink Singers
were also in the Pop Charts backing Bronski Beat on their Top 5 hit Ain't
Necessarily So.
In September 1988 Michael Derrick became our Musical
Director and is still with the choir as accompanist, sometimes
conductor and arranger extraordinaire. He was followed by Paul Cutts in
the mid-nineties and in recent years our MD has been Mladen Stankovich
(who has taken the choir from strength to strength).
Right from the start our repertoire has
been a wide and varied one, ranging from Abba and Brahms right through
to Sondheim and the Village People. We are particularly committed to
introducing new songs and music by lesbian, gay and bisexual writers,
including our own resident composers. Time Out magazine described our
concerts as "a little satire, a little politics and a lot of camp, all
wrapped up in full throated harmony".
Although London is our home base we have
performed at many events in the UK and overseas. In the early days
these included the celebrated Green Room Theatre in Manchester (1989),
the opening of the Oxford Lesbian and Gay Centre (1990), the first ever
UK Lesbian and Gay Arts Festival in Canterbury (1991) and in recent
years concerts in Brighton and Birmingham with their lesbian and gay
choruses. This year we will be singing with the Leeds chorus, Gay
Abandon.
Various Voices
The Pinkies have forged close links with
other European lesbian and gay choirs, taking part in the third
European Lesbian and Gay Festival of Song in Stockholm (1987), and the
fourth in Berlin (1988). In May 1989 we hosted 14 European choirs in
London for the 5th European Festival of Song (now known as Various
Voices) at the Hackney Empire.
This concluded with a big benefit concert for the
Terrence Higgins Trust at Sadler's Wells at which Michael Cashman first
announced the formation of a gay lobbying group called Stonewall -
whatever happened to them? My favourite memories of that night are the
massed choir of 500 voices singing We'll Meet Again
and special guest Sheila Steafel singing Send in the Clones!
Also appearing that night was Barry Cryer (of Radio 4's "I'm Sorry I
Haven't a Clue") and Gordon Kaye of TV's "'Allo 'Allo" making his first
public appearance after being outed by the Sunday newspapers.
We have since sung at the Various Voices
festivals in Hamburg (1991), Zurich (1993), Groningen (1995), Munich
(1997), Berlin again (2001) and a very successful appearance in Paris
in 2005 (where we received a standing ovation). This was our second
appearance in Paris. In July 1998 we sang there in a "Three Continents
Concert" with choirs from Sydney, Australia, and Atlanta, USA. Later
that year we visited Dublin to sing with the Dublin lesbian and gay
chorus, Gloria and in November 1999 we visited Geneva to sing with
their local chorus Choeur Homogene.
The Pinkies Stateside
In 1990 we became the first European
lesbian and gay choir to sing in America when 18 of us visited Florida,
and the Mayor of West Palm Beach named Friday October 26th "Pink
Singers Day"! We sang in a huge converted cinema and were so good even
the back row stopped what they were doing. We also visited the Health
Crisis Network in Miami and did a special fundraiser for their work
helping PWAs. As we sang Somewhere Out There a
noisy thunderstorm erupted around us - the song never sounded more
impressive.
In June 1992 we sang at the Seattle Opera
House with four other American choruses in two special Pride concerts
(having celebrated London Pride a week earlier). We then flew to Denver
to join over 60 choirs in the fourth Gay and Lesbian Association of
Choruses (GALA) festival. We returned to the USA in July 1996 to sing
in Washington DC followed by the GALA 5 festival in Tampa Florida. In
July 2000 we returned to the US to sing with nearly 200 other choruses
at GALA 6 in San Jose, California and were one of only fourteen
choruses asked to perform twice. 2004's Festival was in Montreal and,
of course, The Pinkies were there making our Canadian debut.
Getting about
In June 1991 we took part in Stephen Fry's
Hysteria III Benefit for THT at the London Palladium which was
televised by Channel Four. In June 1993 we appeared in a special
concert for the World Lesbian and Gay Jewish Conference which was
meeting in London where Barry Laden in QX Magazine said we "stopped the
show".
 The RAM years
In December 1998 we celebrated our
fifteenth anniversary by performing to a packed house at the Royal
Academy of Music (RAM) which has now become our base and we have
returned every year since for our major concerts, including our 21st
anniversary in 2004 where old and new members shared many happy
memories (in other words, got intoxicated). These concerts have
featured a variety of special guests and London audiences have had the
chance to see (and hear) the best of Europe's lesbian and gay choirs.
At the time of writing the Pink Singers
have outlasted Abba, A1 and the Allied Carpet Sale!
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be a Pinkie in the 1980s, 1990s and today!
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together? What rehearsals were like? A particularly significant
concert? Any Pinkies romances?
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