Smalltown Boy

Whilst British pop has had a long and colourful history of powerful and visionary movers and shakers who just happened to be gay, for a long time it was a story that was kept under wraps. Partly because it would have been distasteful to a huge chunk of the mainstream record buying public, but mostly because it was also illegal until 1967. But consider these gay trailblazers: Brian Epstein and Simon Napier Bell were incredibly successful managers, the former with, of course, The Beatles, the latter with Marc Bolan and later Wham. Joe Meek was a maverick music-making trail-blazer and Kenny Everett the most influential DJ of his era.