Daily noise that works faster than a stream of caffeine

9 August 2024

Legendary British queer dance-pop act BRONSKI BEAT‘s keyboardist/percussionist
Larry Steinbachek passed away in 2017, and Steve Bronski, the group’s cofounder in
2021, leaves the now 63-year old Jimmy Sommerville as the one original member.

Original sleeve artwork

The band’s biggest hit is, definitely, Smalltown Boy (almost 400 million streams on Spotify) but they had some more top crackers like the irresistibly swirling disco stomper WHY?

On September 14 it will be 40 years since that timeless gem was released.

Original sleeve artwork

For the occasion, the song is remixed by DJ/Producer/Remixer
Superchumbo and features Pet Shop Boys‘ voice Neil Tennant.

Sommerville about the remix and Tennant‘s vocals: “I’ve known Tom [Stephan, aka Superchumbo] for a good few years now, and when I asked him if he’d like to do a remix of “Why?,” he said yes straight away. The song is a part of his story. I was so moved when he shared that story with me. The lyric is our shared experience, as it is for so many others… And forty years later, the lyric still tells the story of LGBTQi+…. the hate, the violence, the discrimination, the imprisonment and state-sanctioned murder of those who dare to be their true selves, and it’s happening somewhere right now as I write this…

I was fucking whooping like a banshee round my kitchen when Tom told me Neil would like to contribute! To speak the lyrics of “Why?” and to hear Tom’s musical reworking of the track is fucking mind-blowing. So to hear Neil, one of our greatest pop lyricists, speaking my words… It brings it into the here and now and also retains its history with my original vocal. I genuinely felt moved.”

Wake up people,
and let’s wonder WHY
there are still so many
homophobic idiots
around after 40 years.

REMIX

ORIGINAL

BB: Instagram