The Age of Consent at Aviva Studios

In the 1980s, mainstream British pop music was beginning to make space for openly queer voices. Few records captured that shift as clearly as Bronski Beat’s The Age of Consent. Released in 1984, the band’s debut paired bright, propulsive synth-pop with stories of alienation, resilience and defiance, turning queer experience into songs that travelled far beyond the dancefloor.

Formed by Jimmy Somerville, Steve Bronski and Larry Steinbachek, the trio emerged against a backdrop of hostility, violence and legal discrimination towards queer people. Their breakthrough singles – ‘Smalltown Boy’ and ‘Why?’ – addressed that reality with unusual directness. The first tells the story of a young gay man forced to leave home after bullying and rejection, while the second confronts the prejudice and violence faced by gay communities in Thatcher-era Britain. At a moment when much of pop relied on coded gestures or ambiguity, these songs spoke plainly, and a generation of disenfranchised queer young people heard themselves in them.

40 years on, The Age of Consent returns to the stage at Aviva Studios in a live production curated and produced by Laurie Belgrave for The Chateau. The show brings together a line-up of queer and trans artists performing new interpretations of the songs, backed by The Chateau Collective – a specially assembled queer house band performing bold arrangements under the musical direction of Tom Foskett-Barnes.

Among the performers is Planningtorock, whose work has long explored gender, queerness and desire through warped, emotionally charged electronic music. They are joined by Tom Rasmussen, whose debut album Body Building blends dark dance-pop with drag history and dysphoria, and BISHI – a composer, producer and performer whose work moves between experimental electronics, classical influences and South Asian musical traditions.

More recently the line-up has been strengthened by David Hoyle and David McAlmont – two singular figures in art and music. A longstanding force in queer performance, Hoyle has spent decades pushing at the limits of cabaret, theatre and live art, blending satire, song and searing social commentary. McAlmont, meanwhile, brings an incredible vocal range and a flamboyant, expressive style shaped through decades of performance and collaboration, including his acclaimed work with Suede’s former guitarist, Bernard Butler.

Reinterpreted by a new generation of artists, The Age of Consent is both a celebration and a continuation of Bronski Beat’s legacy, placing the band’s seminal album in dialogue with the lives and voices of queer and trans artists working today. Rehearing these songs now becomes a reminder of what music can do – not only reflecting struggle but helping shape the culture around it. In revisiting a pivotal moment in LGBTIQA+ cultural history, the production issues a collective call to action for the work still to be done in the fight for queer and trans rights.