The Brighton and Hove Gay Men’s Chorus will round off an eventful week tomorrow (Saturday 13 August) with a performance at Pride in Preston Park, Brighton.
Their 20-minute set will include songs from their new album which they will be recording after announcing a £1 million record deal this week.
The 30-strong Gay Men’s Chorus aim to release the album on Monday 3 October after signing with Universal, the record label home to U2, Grace Jones and Paul Weller.
The alternative choir promised that they would not be recording gay anthems.
They described it as “a move to dispel the clichés surrounding what one would expect to hear from a gay men’s chorus”.
Instead they have chosen songs by the likes of David Bowie, Neil Young, Radiohead and Ian McCulloch, the frontman of Echo and the Bunnymen.
The album will also feature one original song.
The choir was started six years ago by chairman John Hamilton and musical director Jason Pimblett.
Mr Hamilton said: “Rather than being a gay chorus, we’re a chorus of men that happen to be gay.
“When we started the chorus, part of what we wanted to do was to help to break down some barriers and misconceptions of what gay people are.”
Mr Pimblett said: “We wanted to concentrate more on the music and not necessarily be pigeonholed into ‘oh you can do that but you can’t do that’.
“There was room in Brighton for an organisation of gay men who wanted to sing but didn’t necessarily want to do the repertoire which you would normally associate with a gay men’s chorus.”
Previous gigs have included performing We’ll Meet Again in front of Dame Vera Lynn, singing the Robbie Williams hit Angels with its co-writer Guy Chambers and a concert at the Foreign Office.
But tomorrow it’s all about singing for Pride.
