Why did you slip through my fingers? Ooooh!

I haven't forgotten, dear reader, that it is Gay [OK, OK, LGBTQIBLTFOMOIKEABOLLOCKS+] History Month here in the UK, but a) we were away for the first week of it and haven't really caught up with anything yet; and b) there has been a piss-poor showing of any kind of event we would want to attend this year, unfortunately.

Since the untimely death of its prime mover and shaker Helen Pike, the fantabulosa Petrie Museum has nothing on to mark the occasion, and the LGBT Humanists (formerly known as GALHA), who used to host some interesting talks at the quaint Conway Hall, seem to have faded into obscurity of late. There are a few things listed in Camden and Islington, but since I stood down as chair of the council's staff LGBT forum there has been a noticable decline in "interesting" events in the locality, tbh...

Thus, it is to The Guardian we turn for a genuinely fascinating slice of gay musical history:

“I don’t think we ever had time to consider whether we were brave or subversive, we were too busy entertaining. Our audiences were by no means only gay; wherever we went, we played to people of all backgrounds. Many a time we had nuns out front – we could see their wimples quivering at all the naughty bits!”

For gay men, the summer of 1967 offered much promise. The Sexual Offences Act had just been passed, meaning that homosexuality – at least, homosexual acts in private between two consenting adult males aged over 21 – was no longer a criminal offence, and the atmosphere was filled with a palpable sense of change. People were protesting for equal rights and an end to war. Love was in the air: the Beatles told a global television audience that it was all we needed, and we believed them.

As the summer of love turned into autumn and winter, a strange little record issued by a tiny, London-based independent label appeared: the innuendo-laden Kay, Why? by the Brothers Butch, its title a riff on the leading brand of water-based lubricant. Very few copies were sold, but it has gone on to become one of the most sought-after and highly cherished examples of British camp humour.

Backed with I’m Not Going Camping This Winter and penned by one Eileen Dover – a wonderfully silly pseudonym that would befit a drag queen – Kay, Why? was not the first queer pop record, but it was one of the earliest, and most blatant, to be issued in the UK. Performed in high camp style by two outré queens, the song laments how the eponymous Kay has “made a mess” after being given “a little squeeze … why did you slip through my fingers? Ooooh!”

And here, for your delectation, it is...

The Brothers Butch - Kay, Why?

I love it [and yes, it is in our music collection here at Dolores Delargo Towers, needless to say]!