May 1984, London: British trio Bronski Beat - Jimmy Somerville, Steve Bronski and Larry Steinbachek - release on Forbidden Fruit (a London Records sublabel) their debut single “Smalltown Boy”. By July - #3 in the UK. By September - #7 in West Germany. By year-end - 1.8 million copies worldwide. For a British synth-pop debut with openly gay themes in 1984, an unbelievable result.
Who the group were
Bronski Beat formed in 1983 as the first British mainstream group whose all three members were openly gay. Before them there had been gay artists in British pop-rock (FGTH, Soft Cell), but either as individuals or with ambiguous framing. In their debut NME interview of February 1984, Bronski Beat said it plainly: “Yes, all three of us. It's part of our art”.
Vocalist Jimmy Somerville - a Glaswegian Scot, 22 at the time of recording. His signature falsetto (a countertenor able to take E5 in head voice without the falsetto break) was rare in 1980s pop. Steve Bronski - keyboardist, also from Glasgow; Larry Steinbachek - keyboardist from London, responsible for programming.
Recording
Recording took place at Hit Factory Studios in London in February 1984. Producer - Mike Thorne (the same who produced “Tainted Love” Soft Cell in 1981). Thorne understood how to work with an unconventional vocal - Somerville was the only mainstream pop voice that required protection of its falsetto register in the mix.
“You can't mix Jimmy like a normal pop vocalist. His voice lives in the 800-3,000 Hz range - exactly where flutes and top-end synth leads usually sit. We had to ditch half the arsenal to keep him uncluttered”, Thorne told Sound on Sound in 2002.
Budget - £12,000. Recording took 10 days; mixing another 4.
Instruments
- Roland Juno-60 - the main synth, pads and lead
- Sequential Circuits Pro-One - bassline
- Roland TR-606 - drum machine (the TR-808's smaller sister, cheaper and simpler - chosen deliberately for “clean” sound)
- Yamaha DX7 - electric piano and marimba samples in the verse
The key detail is the minimalist arrangement. Unlike FGTH's density or Eurythmics' layering, “Smalltown Boy” sounds almost chamber-like: three or four instruments at a time, lots of air, vocal always up front. This was deliberate - Thorne knew the song's main story was in the lyric.
What the song is about
“Smalltown Boy” is Somerville's autobiography. The story of a young gay man leaving a provincial town for London, escaping violence and family rejection. The lyric is in first person with concrete details: “you pack your case”, “your mother cries”, “you leave for Euston station”. For 1984 - the first UK top-ten song where “leave and find yourself” was linked to openly gay themes.
The video, directed by Bernard Rose for £25,000, amplified the lyric - Somerville plays a young gay man getting beaten up on a beach. MTV in the US initially refused to rotate it, demanding edits. Bronski Beat refused to cut; the video aired only in autumn 1984 in a late-night slot.
Numbers
- UK: #3, 14 weeks in top 40 (July-October 1984)
- Germany: #7, 10 weeks
- Netherlands: #1, 4 weeks - the year's synth-pop debut record
- Italy: #5
- France: #13
- Ireland: #6
- Switzerland: #12
- US: #48 Billboard Hot 100; #1 Dance Club Play (11 weeks)
- Australia: #16
Total sales by end of 1985 - 1.8 million copies. The album The Age of Consent (October 1984), entirely devoted to gay themes and rights, sold another 900,000 copies - unprecedented for a mainstream label of the time.
What the song changed
“Smalltown Boy” did two things nobody had done in British pop before 1984. First - it legitimised politically-directed pop at the club level. Clubs spun the track without thinking about subtext; the gay audience recognised it as an anthem; mainstream listeners heard a sad synth ballad. All three strata got what they needed. Second - it opened the possibility of being openly gay without losing commercial audience. A year later Frankie Goes to Hollywood followed with “Relax”; two years later Boy George and Culture Club.
In 2018 BBC Radio 2 included “Smalltown Boy” in its list of 100 songs that changed Britain. In 2023 the track was used in the final episode of Russell T. Davies's It's a Sin. By 2024, Spotify - over 350 million streams.
What came next
Jimmy Somerville left Bronski Beat in 1985, founded The Communards with Richard Coles, then launched a solo career. His hit “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” (1990), a Sylvester cover, became #5 UK. Bronski Beat continued without him but quickly lost audience without the Somerville voice. By 1991 the group had dissolved.
Larry Steinbachek died in 2016 (cancer). Steve Bronski - in 2021. Somerville (as of 2024) is still touring, though he no longer hits E5 - age. “Smalltown Boy” remains the track he's recognised by. Related breakdowns - “Sweet Dreams” Eurythmics, “Tainted Love” Soft Cell.