Gary Kemp And A Generation Of Confused Heterosexuals

We may pick him up on Radio 2…

Ahead of his two part documentary, The Glory of Glam, which kicks of at 22:00 on BBC Radio 2 this evening, Gary Kemp has a full page piece in today’s Guardian entitled Life on Planet Glitter, or more succinctly: Gary Kemp: My teen crush on David Bowie…as the online version has it.

It’s a great piece, the sentiment of which I know is shared by men of a certain age…not least of all myself. (07.30.2006 NEWS: SAY GOODBYE TO TOP OF THE POPS TONIGHT) Here’s the introduction to the article…

———————————————————————————————————————–

The first time I fell in love it was with a man. It happened one Thursday evening in the bedroom of a flat in King’s Cross. I was a wide-eyed boy of 12 and the object of my passion had dyed orange hair and white nail varnish. Looking out from a tiny TV screen was a Mephistophelean messenger from the space age, a tinselled troubadour to give voice to my burgeoning sexuality. Pointing a manicured finger down the barrel of a BBC lens, he spoke to me: “I had to phone someone, so I picked on you.” I had been chosen.

Next to him, in superhero boots, his flaxen-haired buddy rode shotgun with a golden guitar. As my singing Starman draped his arm around him, I felt a frisson of desire and wanted to go to their planet. I had witnessed a visitation from a world of glitter. That night, I planned my future. After all, “If we can sparkle,” he’d told me, “he may land tonight.”

———————————————————————————————————————–

Ring any bells boys…and girls?

You can read the full article online here and you can tune in to The Glory of Glam here.