Singing With Pride

It didn't start out well. Grey clouds rolled in at lunchtime and the few droplets of rain I felt going up Baker Street soon turned into a full-flegded downpour. Curse my leaving my umbrella at home in false optimism! I couldn't even find the Pinkies at first, my eye having been momentarily distracted by the Selfridges models wearing Calvin Klein. I did run into some of my twitter buddies from the LGMC though, and after walking along a bit I thought it prudent to perhaps loiter as the rest of the column walked past.

Call it fate, or a sign, but the sun came out at precisely the same moment I saw the Pink Singers, resplendent in our still-pretty-new T-shirts. The basses had baby pink eBay-derived wigs on and Jules went for the whole Dame Edna look. They looked absolutely fantastic! The Pinkies were also joined on the march by a number of WAGs, Lou being rather enterprising and buying a T-shirt for her other half which proclaimed as much.

This year's march has got to have been one of the best I've been on in terms of attendance. The pavements were packed from Baker Street all the way down Oxford Street, Regent Street, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Sqaure and even down into White Hall. This time round we were between a group in front selling web hosting (everyone knows IT geeks are strong in the way of the gayness) and the London Frontrunners (hurrah!) and the LGBT football clubs behind. The good thing about the IT geeks was that they had brought their own trannie DJ who played club classics as we were following, and that gave us some music to sing along to. You just can't stop us once the music gets going. Hmmm... Idea for next year's march perhaps?

Another idea is to have someone run along with a mobile bar. By the time we had turned into Regent Street I had reapplied my sunblock twice and gone through my litre bottle of water. Emelda had already downed her bottle of bubbly a junction earlier! Others had been drinking their own version of "Lilt" which meant they were in a decidedly good mood throughout the parade. At the end of the march I was feeling particularly prune-like and all I needed was a bit of a snooze.

The best was to come though, because the Pink Singers were on stage later on that evening. The good weather meant that the crowds were out in force, and the organizers were trumpeting that one million people were on the march. They couldn't all fit into Trafalgar Sqaure of course, but it it sure felt like it. The atmosphere was great, and the setting sun really cast a golden glow on the event.

The ever amazing Paleday came on stage, opening with Eurotramp, then segueing into the Pink Singers' emergence. Despite having had very little rehearsal and not knowing what the stage looked like before climbing the stairs, the whole process looked really smooth. The Pinkies launched into California Dreamin' much to the adulation of the audience. What really made the difference this year (apart from the weather) was the repertoire - which was what people wanted to hear and sing along with - and Paleday with their band and brass section. Everyone felt the vibe: not just the audience, but also the Pinkies who looked like they were having the best party of all on stage.

California Dreamin' was followed in quick succession by 70s Dance Party, introduced as ever by Philip R. Philip was at the very first Pride London march in 1971, which means this was his 38th Pride London, and he has been at all 26 of the Pink Singers' Pride Londons too. There was awed respect and a hearty round of applause for that.

When we first started rehearsing 70s Dance Party way back in February I never really thought it could be that good. But on stage at Pride when everyone was singing along, it felt so perfect. At one point the music seems to end, after Dancing Queen, and you could hear the crowd getting ready to whoop and clap, but then we started singing You're The One That I Want and the crowd went wild! The very last piece we did was a joint song with Paleday singing YMCA. It was a sight seeing everyone in Trafalgar Square doing the movements.

There has been much debate in the press about the depoliticisation of Pride, and while I do think that that is important, for people coming out, being overly strident can be a turn off. The march is especially significant regardless of how overt its activist credentials are, because while there are press-friendly muscle-bound men dressed in underwear and bearded bears made up like Dorothy, there are also people who don't conform to those stereotypes. Pride is that one day when gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transexuals and everyone of all walks of life can emerge and wave their colours before merging with the rest of society for the rest of the year. The Pinkies are a microcosm of London LGBT life, and we are proud of it too!