Pause for thought

I don't usually make much of World AIDS Day here on my blog, but it is today, and it is twenty-five years this year since I lost Garry, so I thought a little interlude for remembrance wouldn't go amiss...

Colm Wilkinson - Empty Chairs at Empty Tables

There's a grief that can't be spoken
There's a pain goes on and on
Empty chairs at empty tables
Now my friends are dead and gone

Here they talked of revolution
Here it was they lit the flame
Here they sang about tomorrow
And tomorrow never came

From the table in the corner
They could see a world reborn
And they rose with voices ringing
And I can hear them now
The very words that they had sung
Became their last communion
On this lonely barricade at dawn

Oh my friends, my friends forgive me
That I live and you are gone
There's a grief that can't be spoken
There's a pain goes on and on

Phantom faces at the windows
Phantom shadows on the floor
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will meet no more

Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me
What your sacrifice was for
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will sing no more

Milestones and boy-bands

"Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us."
- Oscar Wilde

"I just wanna dance, I just wanna fucking dance!"
- Jerry Springer the Opera

Twenty years? Where do they go? Two decades is a long, long time, but some things you never forget.

For it was on this day in 1996 that my Garry died.

As always - but particularly on such a milestone - I raise a glass to "absent friends".

But, to quote another great diva, let's go on with the show..!

At the end of any working week, I am always in the mood for a party - and, knowing I was about to play one of his fave boy-bands Seventh Avenue, so would Garry be, no doubt.

So to get things started on a suitably boppy note, here's their first hit Love's Gone Mad:

Seventh Avenue - Love's Gone Mad

And by way of a bonus, here are the boys again, showing off their (ahem!) talents at a gay club in Edinburgh called Fire Island - and Ending Upon a High:

Seventh Avenue - Ending Up On A High

Thank Disco (or should that be Hi-NRG?) It's Friday!

Clink clink, Garry. RIP.

Memories and Marsha

"Do not accuse fate. Do not speak of injustice. He belonged to the solemn race of men whose lives unfold too quickly to their close." - Jean Cocteau

A personal one today.

Fifty years ago on this date, a man I loved was born. His name was Garry, and we spent almost six wonderful years together.

We met in 1991 as I was recovering from an abusive relationship that had left me emotionally scarred. He lifted me out of it with a combination of sex, travel, compassion and joie de vivre. The latter was manifest, as we knew from the outset this was not destined to be forever. The time-bomb that had cut a huge swathe through the 80s gay world was there, lurking. But we didn't let it stop us!

During those all-too-brief years, we travelled, we partied, we enjoyed. Even when all that was visibly left was a six-stone shell where a gorgeous man had been, he was indefatigable, demanding I bring brochures for far-off lands to his (hospital) bedside for our "next trip". There was to be no "next trip".

Sixteen years down the line since his death, and fourteen and a half happy years into a fabulous relationship with Tony ("Madam Arcati"), the memories always remain - not as prevalent, obviously, given time and distance. However, we always toast "absent friends" every New Year. Garry will always have a major place in my heart, and the hearts of those who met him. Happy birthday, darling.

Of course, by now the man himself would have yelled at me for being so fucking maudlin. He'd want me to carry on the party. And so, in the company of one of his favourite Hi-NRG artistes, we shall!

On this Tacky Music Monday, here's the fantabulosa Miss Marsha Raven and Catch Me (I'm Falling In Love):

Marsha Raven - Catch Me (I'm Falling In Love)

It doesn't get much tackier...