(Music)
Hello!
Hello, I'm Matthew from Radio Cardiff,
and I'm Opal Fruits
and welcome to Pride Cottage!
And we'd like to welcome you to
Pride Cymru's online big week Saturday.
Oh it's exciting isn't it?
Very very exciting.
We are twin brothers
if you haven't guessed.
If you'd like to know what that
looks like underneath all the
makeup and everything, it's this!
Well, slightly.
Maybe a little bit more weight,
I mean who cares?
It's between friends.
But yes, we are here, it's Saturday,
it normally would be our big massive Pride
celebration in the middle of Cardiff
city centre and thank you to Miss Rona of
course,
it isn't going to happen this year.
It isn't, however we still have lots
and lots of entertainment for you all day
today. From interviews, entertainment,
performances to poetry to cooking, we have
it all! We'll bring you some of the very
best of the LGBTQIA community direct to
your living room.
So grab yourselves
a cuppa and let's start!
But before that, here's a message
from our First Minister, Mark Drakeford.
Firstly, can I thank you for inviting me
to join in with you all to celebrate the
very first virtual Pride Cymru.
After the chance to take part in the
parade last year, I will certainly miss
the excitement, but I am sure this online
bringing together of our communities will
generate a unique
atmosphere all of its own.
Pride Cymru Weekend has become one
of Wales' biggest annual events and that
success is because of your endless
campaigning, determination and commitment
to progressing true equality, not only
here in Wales but right across the globe.
Thank you for all you do.
Pride is about celebrating all of our
identities and recognizing the strength
that comes to us all through
diversity of our communities.
Nothing has ever been one for progressive
causes without a struggle and while so
much has been achieved, the journey
to equality is still very far from over.
Of course, I am proud to lead a government
which is founded on our well-being of
future generations act,
with its commitment to a more equal Wales.
A Wales in which each one of us plays
a part in allowing others to be true to
themselves and able to identify
themselves as they would wish to do so.
Now I know that the past few months
have been hard and that we have all had to
adapt to new ways of doing things because
of coronavirus, but I want to praise Pride
Cymru for taking the initiative and
organizing this very first virtual Pride
Cymru so that we may all continue to
celebrate, campaign and fight for equality
together. So please enjoy the day,
celebrate and stay safe.
And let's reinvent Pride Cymru
once again to be the very best
online festival here in Wales.
(Cymraeg) Yn gyntaf, hoffwn ddiolch I
chi am y gwahoddiad I ymuno yn nathliad
rithiol cyntaf Pride Cymru.
Ar ôl cael y cyfle I gymryd rhan yn y
pared y llynedd, byddaf yn colli’r holl
gyffro, ond rwy’n siŵr y bydd yna deimlad
arbennig ac unigryw heddiw hefyd, wrth i’n
cymunedau ddod at ei gilydd ar-lein.
Erbyn hyn, mae penwythnos Pride Cymru’n un
o ddigwyddiadau mwyaf y flwyddyn, a daw’r
llwyddiant hwnnw yn sgil eich ymgyrchu
caled a phenderfynol chi I sicrhau
cymdeithas wir gyfartal, nid yn unig
yma yng Nghymru ond dros y byd.
Diolch I chi am bopeth
rydych chi’n gwneud.
Pwrpas Pride yw dathlu hunaniaeth pawb.
Rhaid brwydro dros achosion blaengar.
Nid yw’n waith hawdd.
Ac er bod llawer wedi ei ennill,
nid yw’r frwydr drosodd o bell ffordd.
Wrth gwrs, rwy’n falch o arwain
Llywodraeth sydd wedi’i seilio ar ddeddf
cenedlaethau’r dyfodol,
ac ymrwymiad I Gymru fwy teg a chyfartal.
Cymru lle mae pob un ohonom yn chwarae
ei ran I adael I bobl eraill fod yn nhw eu
hunain, y bobl maen nhw eisiau bod.
Rwy’n gwybod bod y misoedd
diwethaf wedi bod yn anodd.
Mae pawb wedi gorfod addasu I ffordd
newydd o fyw oherwydd y coronafeirws.
Ond hoffwn ganmol Pride Cymru am gymryd
ar awenau a threfnu’r Pride Cymru ar-lein
gyntaf, fel bod pawb yn gallu dal ati
I ddathlu, ymgyrchu ac ymladd dros
gydraddoldeb gyda’n gilydd.
Felly, mwynhewch,
dathlwch a chadwch yn ddiogel.
Ac rwy’n siŵr y bydd Pride Cymru
yr ŵyl ar-lein orau yng Nghymru.
Thank you for that, Mr Drakeford, now,
let's start as we mean to go on and hand
you over to the wonderful Tom
Barnwell who was on The Voice.
Hello Pride Cymru,
my name is Tom Barnwell.
You might have seen me on
The Voice a few years back.
You might have even seen
me performing at Cardiff Pride.
I wish we could be there this year but,
maybe next year folks, maybe next year.
This is one of my all-time favourite
songs by Sash, called Mysterious Times.
Life, Mysterious life
We're all moving around
Dancing the rhythm of life
Time,Mysterious time
We're all counting the hours and days
'Till the end of all time
Were all feeling the change,
But we don't know why
Choose one direction just one for time
Don't say I'm thinking too
much If you see what's behind
And these are mysterious times
Mysterious times
No trick of the mind
For this moment I feel Like
we live in Mysterious times
If you see what's behind
These are mysterious times
Soul, I feel my soul
For this moment Nobody can stop me
from flying so high Real, Nothing is real
In a world of illusion You
only see what you feel
Were feeling the change
But we don't know why
Choose one direction just one for time
Don't say I'm thinking too
much If you see what's behind
And these are mysterious times
Mysterious times
No trick of the mind
For this moment I feel Like
we live in Mysterious times
If you see what's behind,
These are mysterious times
If you see what's behind,
These are mysterious times
Thank you so much,
stay safe, see you soon.
So if there's a celebration, there should
be cake and here we have a wonderful Pride
cake created for us by
Katie Davis from Neath.
Katie was a quarter finalist on BBC
One's Britain's Best Cook with Mary Berry.
Hello and happy Pride 2020.
I'm so excited to be here with all of you
and to be able to show you how to make
this quick and simple Pride cake.
For the inside of the cake, I'm just going
to do a simple lemon sponge and most
people absolutely love lemon
and it's lovely if you're
having a little G&T as well!
So let's get started.
I've started by weighing five eggs which
is going to give us three six inch cakes
and then I've weighed my caster sugar
to the same weight and I've weighed my
cooking margarine which is
stalk to the same weight as well.
We're gonna cream them together.
As you can see, that's got much lighter
and the sugar has been fully absorbed into
the cooking margarine and to this now
I'm going to add just a cap full of lemon
extract. Don't too much and then for some
real lemon flavour, I'm going to add the
zest of two lemons and to this I'm
just going to add about a spoonful of my
self-raising flour which has got a pinch
of salt in it as well now I'll just stop
our eggs from curdling.
I'm gonna add two of those to begin with
I'm gonna give that a really good mix.
Then I'm just gonna add another egg, and
then another egg, just gonna add our last
egg and you can see how nice
and fluffy and rich that's looking.
The last thing is just to add
the rest of our self-raising flour.
I'm going to abandon my hand mixer now
for a minute and I'm going to do this by
hand, when you're making a cake it's
absolutely fine to beat it as much as you
like until you add the flour, once you
add the flour you've got to be very gentle
with it because flour has
gluten and if you overwork
that, the cake can become tough.
And that's our cake mix done,
all that nice and easy.
To just get my cake layers nice and even,
I'm just going to weigh my cake layers.
You don't have to do this but I find when
you come to take the tops off later to
make them even, you get losing less cake
so these are six inch cake tins that I've
rubbed with Trex which is a vegetable fat
and then I've just lined with a piece of
greaseproof paper at the bottom.
So I'm just adding about 350 grams to
each tin, I'm just going to use an offset
spatula to smooth down my tops.
If you don't have one of these,
you could just use the back of a spoon.
I'm going to pop these in a preheated oven
at 160 degrees fan for about 18 minutes.
I'm going to start checking them after
18 minutes but they may take a little bit
longer than that.
And part two will be coming
up a little bit later today.
Now throughout the day, we are going to
show you some great interviews and the
first one is from Rob.
Rob’s been to meet the brains
behind the blog Our Transitional Life.
Zoe and Kelly talk about their ups, their
downs and their story and here it is.
Good morning ladies, thank you for joining
us here as part of our Pride Cottage goes
on tour, would you be good enough
to introduce yourselves please?
Yeah, I'm Kelly and I'm Zoe and we run a
blog/social channels LGBTQ+ called Our
Transitional Life.
Brilliant, so you're a married couple?
We are.
And you got a couple of kids?
Yeah.
How long have you
been running the vlog?
It started just over a year ago,
I think it's just over a year old now.
That's gone really fast it
feels like it was yesterday.
It kicked off around
July last year so 2019.
And why did you start doing
the blog in the first place?
When Zoe came out, you were a bit shy
weren't you and we were like we'll keep
everything quiet, we won't really talk
about it and then one day we had a little
bit of an epiphany we were like actually
we should just own our life and our
lifestyle and our family, so I started.
Because you were still a little bit
shy at that point, totally changed now.
..
But you're actually still quite shy?
I am.
I've performed on stage for years and I've
always had a band behind me and that's my
kind of my comfort zone, my little
space but when it comes to the spotlight
entirely on me,
I do get a little bit nervous.
You're fine nowadays.
The first few seconds I'm all right.
It was early days there wasn't that yeah
so we kind of did it with Zoe kind of not
on the vlog, she didn't record any videos
or anything like that and then I don't
know what happened.
I think it was the award.
When we won a newcomer award last year,
you seemed to change then.
You were so happy,
you were crying at the ceremony.
I was like oh god this is serious now!
People are actually taking
us a little bit more seriously, it's
not just a bit of fun or whatever.
And then you started
coming forward a lot more.
Do you think that your confidence was
boosted because you realized that people
did care and they were
listening to your voice?
Yeah I think so and I think obviously
as time progressed, I only came out last
January and we were starting to embrace
it more and I was being a bit more bold
holding my head a little higher
when I was out and about.
I think that combined with the feedback
and the award and everything as well it
kind of boosted me on
to push more out there.
Support is so very important.
100%.
And that goes for you as well?
Yeah, I feel supported by Zoe
though I think one thing that's made our
relationship super strong is that
she's always said your feelings are valid,
whatever you're feeling is about.
Especially when she came out, whatever
you're feeling is valid, if you're feeling
upset or any myriad of feelings, it's okay
and then she's also always said to me and
the kids it's our journey which is why
we came up with the title Our Transitional
Life because she includes us in
everything, she doesn't make it all you
know it is about you but you're like you
include us in it, we go to appointments
with you, you talk to us, you're honest
and open so it's like we're doing it with
you. So you started this blog and you
started getting followers, I'm assuming
that as well as the positive feedback,
you've had some negative as well?
Yeah, we've worked with recoveries with a
few different companies and things and as
you'll understand we get a lot of
negative posts and comments on some
of the things that we've done.
Don't read the comments.
We've learned to not read the comments on
external stuff, we get such a huge amount
of support on anything that we put out on
our blog, on our social channels as well
which is fantastic, but we have had one
threatening email through the blog which
was uncomfortable but
thankfully the police have been
very supportive with that.
That was a bit of a daunting time,
you were quite strong through that though.
I think I was more nervous feeling
like there was someone out there,
do they know where we live?
I don't know that can be quite
scary but you've got to keep going.
Definitely and I think again we share
everything, all the highs and the lows and
I think that's really important
because we get so much support.
Instagram especially is our safe space and
it's full of beautiful people smiling all
the time but life isn't always like that,
so although we do try to portray that we
are positive, we can get through things
together, we also put the negative stuff
out there to show that it's
real and it does happen.
I've recently been watching, I believe
the kids call it TikTok, that has been
incredibly popular with the trans
community and seeing nothing but
positivity and what I have loved on
there is when they have received negative
comments, they've posted them and they
have replied to them and the support for
those is just getting stronger.
So have you thought
about doing a TikTok?
We've got an account but we can't keep up
with it all, there's so many platforms how
do you do it all?
Absolutely.
I like the fact that when you receive
negative comments, you acknowledge that
they happen but they don't let you
grind you down and I think that's so so
important for both of you.
So let's flip that around,
let's talk about the positivity.
I view you as role models and I can't be
on my own, what other positivity do you
get? Have people reached out
to you for advice because they're
on a similar journey to you?
I say similar because everybody's journey
is their own of course and I don't judge
other people by their journeys
because I don't judge me by mine.
But I'm assuming, hopefully I'm not
incorrect, that you have been able to help
and inspire other people here
in a similar journey to yourselves.
I think a good thing is with us is we run
it together now so we have the perspective
of myself as a trans person and from your
point of view as a partner, so we do get a
lot of partners and people who have just
come out or who are thinking about coming
out, getting in touch with us
asking for advice all the time.
Yeah, we get some really nice emails
as well and we've had one recently from
someone who's just said you keep us going,
because your story is similar to ours, it
keeps us positive and keeps
us going through our journey too.
But like you say,
everyone is different.
We've had people that we've supported
that the relationships haven't made it but
everyone's okay still, we're not saying
that it's always roses so I think we get a
mix. And obviously as
parents you're also role models?
I think the kids are the role models.
The kids are the role models oh my god.
They're pretty amazing, adults could learn
so much about lack of judgment from kids
and acceptance, they're so amazing.
Absolutely, Whitney Houston put it
beautifully when she said teach them well.
I think that’s so very
true about so many things.
We talked briefly on the positive and the
negative aspects, I'd like to know what
you guys are hoping for the future.
So we wing everything, I don't know.
We try to plan, we always try to plan and
we've got this great big whiteboard with
all these things planned, we do it for
a little bit and then other things like
you'll understand like we get offers
for this that and everything else oh we'll
slot that in there.
A life is happening, isn't it?
The John Lennon quote “life is what
happens whilst you're busy making other
plans.” And then corona hit,
it was all so much.
We’re just winging it.
I think we just like to keep supporting
people, keep putting ourselves out there,
growing as a family and growing our
accepting community that supports us and
is with us through all of it all.
As we were chatting earlier, we were
talking about normalizing life, we've got
a friend who said that he went through
some different things and it's when people
start getting bored of your
story that you've done with work.
When people are bored of you
and there's no more criticism left,
they're used to you aren't they?
I don’t think I could
ever get bored of you two!
You know I follow you on your socials,
I find you fascinating and inspiring.
The necklace that says love,
and for me, I think that sums you up
beautifully, and your family.
On behalf of everybody at Pride Cymru,
thank you for coming on to talk to us.
Thank you so much.
Is there anything you'd like
to say to anybody watching?
I want to say happy Pride!
Thank you so much, hopefully we'll see you
in the field outside the City Hall next
year. Thank you for being
part of Pride Cymru 2020 online.
Thank you!
Some really great insights there,
thank you to the ladies for sharing.
Now throughout the day today, we will be
asking you to donate some money to Pride
Cymru and you can
do this via text message.
All you need to do is text the word PRIDE
to 70470 and that will donate £5 to us.
Yes that message will cost you £5 plus
your standard network charge and don't
forget you will also get a text message
to ask you to GiftAid your donation if you
are aged over 18 and you are a UK
taxpayer, please reply YES because the
government will give us extra
money and it won't cost you anything.
All money raised throughout this week will
go to our valuable work that we do year
round and not just for
the week of Pride Cymru.
So during the pandemic, we've all had our
wings cooked a little bit and we've not
been able to see as much
as the country as we'd like.
So what we've done is decided to
bring it to you, with some postcards.
Let's head over to Cardiff
Bay with the one and only,
the ever fabulous Miss Kitty.
Thank you Matthew, thank you Opal, here
at Cardiff Bay today, would you please now
welcome live on stage the one, the only,
Rachel Roberts as Shirley Bassey!
Hello everybody, Pride Cymru 2020,
isn't it a little bit different?
I would say kiss me honey honey kiss me,
but with coronavirus we've all got to
socially distance my loves.
So I'm going to blow you some kisses and
we're here in Cardiff Bay, as you can see
behind me, and what better song
than this that was written for me
all about my home town and city.
This is the girl from Tiger Bay.
There's a crack in every pavement
Underneath there is a beach
It's been a long time longing
As history repeats
Yes many times I've wondered
Why a part of me remains
In a place so full of beauty
That somehow never changed
I bought a ticket of a lifetime
There's no denying who I am
Forever young, I will stay
The girl from Tiger Bay
I bought a ticket of a lifetime
There's no denying who I am
Forever young, I will stay
The girl from Tiger Bay
The girl from Tiger Bay
Time has me believing
That there's nothing left to prove
I feel the love within me
And love can't be removed
There's a crack in every pavement
Underneath there is a beach
It's been a long time longing
As history repeats
I bought a ticket of a lifetime
There's no denying who I am
Forever young, I will stay
The girl from Tiger Bay
I bought a ticket of a lifetime
There's no denying who I am
Forever young, I will stay
The girl from Tiger Bay
The girl from Tiger Bay
All the memories and the scars
They dance away into the stars
They dance away into the stars
I bought a ticket of a lifetime
There's no denying who I am
Forever young, I will stay
The girl from Tiger Bay
I bought a ticket of a lifetime
There's no denying who I am
Forever young, I will stay
The girl from Tiger Bay
The girl from Tiger Bay
The girl from Tiger Bay
The girl from Tiger Bay
(Applause) Hello everybody,
welcome, shwmae.
Croeso to Cardiff Bay, also known
in Dame Shirley Bassey’s younger
days as Tiger Bay of course.
What a pleasure it is to be here for
Pride Cymru 2020 and what a very different
Pride we are having but we are
still sending so much love to you all.
Maybe you're watching us at home, maybe
you're having a socially distanced garden
party with your family and friends, either
way we're sending so much love to you.
It's been a pleasure for me for the past
few years to pay tribute to Dame Shirley
Bassey and also to live in South Wales as
well and to be welcomed by everybody here
including a very warm welcome from the
LGBTQ+ community and this is one little
way of giving some love back.
So even though we can't be with each other
today, I'm hoping that you're watching
and you know how much, very much we
appreciate you and love you and how much
we're looking forward to
seeing you next year as well.
So there's only one song that I
can do for you and that's what I'm
going to dedicate to all of you.
It is ‘I Am What I Am’.
I am what I am
I am my own special creation
So come take a look
Give me the hook or the ovation
It's my world that I want
to have a little pride in
My world and it's not
a place I have to hide in
Life's not worth a
damn till you can say
Hey world I am what I am
I am what I am
I don't want praise
I don't want pity
I bang my own drum
Some think it's noise
I think it's pretty
And so what if I love each
feather and each spangle
Why not try and see
things from a different angle
Your life is a sham till you can say
Hey world I am what I am
I am what I am
And what I am needs no excuses
I deal my own deck
Sometimes the ace
Sometimes the deuces
It's my life and there's
no return and no deposit
One life,
so it's time to open up your closet
Life's not worth a
damn till you can say
Hey world I am what I am
Diolch yn fawr, until next year,
happy Pride Cymru 2020!
Lots of love, thank you.
Welcome back to part two and thank you to
our wonderful sponsors, with their help we
are bringing this to you today.
Now as we said earlier on, we would
normally be in the front of the City Hall
lawns having a huge weekend celebration,
so what would you normally be doing on the
Saturday? Around at this time, I'd
actually be getting ready to take the main
stage, do some hosting, so that's what I'd
be doing and also looking after the VIP
area. But yes, we are really missing our
event and we're missing seeing you guys,
we hope you were gonna enjoy this weekend
and our online content and I've enjoyed
most of what we've done
so far this week as well.
Hopefully next year, we'll back in the
flesh with you in front of the city hall
lawns. Should we have
some more entertainment?
Let's have some more!
So every year, we have an amazing friend
of Pride Cymru - the Kinetic Theatre Arts
Group, they have done some incredible
things from the musicals and Kinky Boots
last year, to the ABBA.
But here they are with a
special performance for us,
it's the Kinetic Theatre Group.
That was beautiful.
Now,
are you ready for another postcard?
This time, we're off to Penarth
with the reigning Pride’s Got
Talent winner, it's Nico!
Hi guys my name is Nico and last year I
won the Pride’s Got Talent competition in
Cardiff for the Pride Cymru event.
This year obviously as you know we can't
celebrate Pride in our usual fashion, so
the people at Pride Cymru have asked me to
perform two songs for you for the online
Pride experience.
So these are two songs that I've sung for
many years, if you're friends with me and
you know me very well then you'll
know that I've sang these quite a lot.
So I hope you enjoy, if you do please feel
free to follow me on my music channels
which are nicofitzmusic on Instagram,
Facebook and YouTube.
Happy Pride!
Please enjoy and happy Pride.
Here we go.
Woke up cold one Tuesday
I'm looking tired
and feeling quite sick
I felt like there was something
missing in my day to day life
So I quickly opened the wardrobe
Pulled out some jeans and
a t-shirt that seemed clean
Topped it off with a pair of old shoes
That were ripped around the seams
And I thought these
shoes just don't suit me
Hey, I put some new shoes on
And suddenly everything is right
I said, hey I put some new shoes on
And everybody's smiling,
it's so inviting
Oh short on money but long on time
Slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine
And I'm running late and
I don't need an excuse
'Cause I'm wearing my brand new shoes
Woke up late one Thursday
And I'm seeing stars as
I'm rubbing my eyes and I
Felt like there were two days missing
As I focused on the time
And I made my way to the kitchen
But I had to stop
from the shock of what
I found a room full of all my friends
all are dancing round and round
And I thought hello new shoes
Bye bye blues
Hey, I put some new shoes on
And suddenly everything is right
I said, hey I put some new shoes on
And everybody's smiling,
it's so inviting
Oh short on money but long on time
Slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine
And I'm running late and
I don't need an excuse
'Cause I'm wearing my brand new shoes
Take me wandering through these streets
Where bright lights and angels meet
Stone to stone they take me on
I'm walking to the break of dawn
Take me wandering through these streets
Where bright lights and angels meet
Stone to stone they take me on
I'm walking to the break of dawn
Hey, I put some new shoes on
And suddenly everything is right
I said, hey I put some new shoes on
And everybody's smiling,
it's so inviting
Oh short on money but long on time
Slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine
And I'm running late and
I don't need an excuse
'Cause I'm wearing my brand new shoes
Oh hey, I put some new shoes on
And suddenly everything is right
I said hey, I put some new shoes on
And everybody's smiling,
it's so inviting
Oh short on money but long on time
Slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine
And I'm running late and
I don't need an excuse
'Cause I'm wearing my brand new shoes
Thank you very much!
Just make sure that
doesn't play twice in a row.
Okay so this is my second and final song,
again happy Pride,
this song means a lot to me.
For anyone who's gone through a hard time
in the past couple years or months weeks
whatever, listen to the lyrics of this
song it's from one of my favorite Netflix
films called Sing.
It's an Elton John song,
so I'm going to do that for you now.
You could never know what it's like
Your blood like winter
freezes just like ice
And there's a cold lonely
light that shines from you
You'll wind up like the wreck
you hide behind that mask you use
And did you think this
fool could never win
Well look at me, I'm coming back again
I got a taste of love in a simple way
And if you need to know while
I'm still standing you just fade away
Don't you know I'm still
standing better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor,
feeling like a little kid
I'm still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my
life without you on my mind
I'm still standing yeah yeah yeah
I'm still standing yeah yeah yeah
Once I never could hope to win
You starting down the
road leaving me again
The threats you made
were meant to cut me down
And if our love was just a
circus you'd be a clown by now
You know I'm still standing
better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor,
feeling like a little kid
I'm still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my
life without you on my mind
I'm still standing yeah yeah yeah
I'm still standing yeah yeah yeah
Don't you know I'm still
standing better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor,
feeling like a little kid
I'm still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my
life without you on my mind
I'm still standing yeah yeah yeah
I'm still standing yeah yeah yeah
I'm still standing yeah yeah yeah
I'm still standing yeah yeah yeah
And that's it!
Thank you very much for
listening and again, happy Pride!
Bye everyone.
And with that, we've almost finished
our hour here at the Pride cottage.
We have, there's still lots to come for
you today, we've got the winner of the
Pride Cymru poetry competition, we've got
some more entertainment, we've got some
more hosts and some great
interviews coming up as well.
Yes and you can always find out more about
what we're doing at Pride Cymru and not
just what we do in August on the Pride
Cymru Radio Show which happens every
Wednesday between 7 and 9
on Radio Cardiff and Bro Radio.
With him.
With me!
And that's it from us now, I'm off for a
lay down, he'll be back a little bit later
on and your hosts coming up are Stifyn
Parri and the one and only Son of a Tutu
will be with you very shortly.
Bye!
Oh, her eyes, her eyes make
the stars look like they're not shinin'
Her hair, her hair falls
perfectly without her trying
She's so beautiful
and I tell her everyday
Yeah, I know, I know when I
compliment her she won't believe me
And it's so, it's so sad to think
that she don't see what I see
But every time she asks
me "Do I look okay?" I say
When I see your face
There's not a thing that I would
change 'cause you're amazing
Just the way you are
And when you smile
The whole world stops
and stares for a while
'Cause girl you're amazing
Just the way you are
(With somebody who loves me)
Clock strikes upon the hour
And the sun begins to fade
Still enough time to figure out
How to chase my blues away
I've done alright up to now
It's the light of day that shows me how
And when the night falls,
loneliness calls
Oh, I wanna dance with somebody
I wanna feel the heat with somebody
Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody
With somebody who loves me
Oh, I wanna dance with somebody
I wanna feel the heat with somebody
Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody
With somebody who loves me
Somebody oo Somebody oo
Somebody who loves me yeah
Somebody oo Somebody oo
To hold me in his arms oh
I need a man who'll take a chance
On a love that burns hot enough to last
So when the night falls
My lonely heart calls
Oh, I wanna dance with somebody
I wanna feel the heat with somebody
Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody
With somebody who loves me
Oh, I wanna dance with somebody
I wanna feel the heat with somebody
Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody
With somebody who loves me
Don'tcha wanna dance
say you wanna dance
Don'tcha wanna dance
Don'tcha wanna dance
say you wanna dance
Don'tcha wanna dance
Don'tcha wanna dance
say you wanna dance
With somebody who loves me
(Music)
Shwmae, I'm Stifyn Parri and my co-host
for this section is none other than
award-winning drag artist
and activist Son of a Tutu.
(Laughter) Thank you so much, Stifyn.
Pleasure.
When I was told we were coming here to do
Pride Cymru, they told me it's going to be
an international affair and I was going
to be co-hosting with an international
luminary. And I got Welsh Stifyn.
Yeah!
No, but he is the prince of Wales.
The one and only Stifyn Parri.
And it's so wonderful to be
working with you at long last.
And you!
Thank you very much.
We are here in the pride cottage, they say
cottage but it really is a grotty two-up,
two-down in the middle of the back of
nowhere and, well, they made us do the
cleaning today when we arrived.
But do you know what?
In corona time, and Pride has to go on,
we'll do it anywhere as long as we bring
the flavour and intensity and
spirit of pride to you at home.
So we're happy to be
here at the Pride cottage.
Now I think our next performer
is a talented Welsh singer who
goes by the name of Cerys John.
Hello everyone,
happy Pride 2020 – Pride Cymru 2020.
I hope you're having fun and enjoying
yourself while staying safe, obviously.
As ever,
it's an honour to be playing for Pride.
This year I decided to do a couple
of covers by two infamous artists.
The first one is an old one from
someone called Madonna, I don't
know if you know her? True Blue.
I've had other girls
I've looked into their eyes
But I never knew love before
'Til you walked through my door
I've had other lips
I've sailed a thousand ships
But no matter where I go
You're the one for me baby
This I know 'cause it's True love
You're the one I'm dreaming of
Your heart fits me like a glove
And I'm gonna be true blue Baby,
I love you
I've heard all the lines
I've cried oh so many times
Those tear drops they won't fall again
I'm so excited 'cause
you're my best friend
So if you should ever doubt
Wonder what love was all about
Just think back and remember dear
Those words whispered in your ear
True love
You're the one I'm dreaming of
Your heart fits me like a glove
And I'm gonna be true blue Baby,
I love you
No more sadness, I kiss it good-bye
The sun is bursting
right out of the sky
I searched the whole
world for someone like you
Don't you know,
don't you know that it's
True love, oh baby, true love, oh baby
True love, oh baby, true love, it's
True love, oh baby, true love, oh baby
True love, oh baby,
true love, it's true
So if you should ever doubt
Wonder what love is all about
Just think back and remember dear
Those words whispered
in your ear I said
True love You're the
one I'm dreaming of
Your heart fits me like a glove
And I'm gonna be true blue Baby,
I love you
Cause it’s True love,
You're the one I'm dreaming of
Your heart fits me like a glove
And I'm gonna be true blue Baby,
I love you
I love you
Hope you enjoyed that one.
This next one is one of my favourites from
one of the biggest icons ever, not just
in our world, ever.
It's by Sir Elton John
and it's just brilliant.
Hope you enjoy it, it's Crocodile Rock.
I remember when rock was young
Me and Suzie had so much fun
Holding hands and skimming stones
Had an old gold Chevy
and a place of my own
But the biggest kick I ever got
Was doing a thing
called the Crocodile Rock
While the other kids were
Rocking Round the Clock
We were hopping and
bopping to the Crocodile Rock
Well Crocodile Rocking
is something shocking
When your feet just can't keep still
I never knew me a better
time and I guess I never will
Oh Lawdy mama those Friday nights
When Suzie wore her dresses tight
And the Crocodile
Rocking was out of sight
La lalalala la lalalala la lalalala la
But the years went by
and the rock just died
Suzie went and left
us for some foreign guy
Long nights crying
by the record machine
Dreaming of my Chevy
and my old blue jeans
But they'll never kill
the thrills we've got
Burning up to the Crocodile Rock
Learning fast as the weeks went past
We really thought the
Crocodile Rock would last
Well Crocodile Rocking
is something shocking
When your feet just can't keep still
I never knew me a better
time and I guess I never will
Oh Lawdy mama those Friday nights
When Suzie wore her dresses tight
And the Crocodile
Rocking was out of sight
La lalalala la lalalala la lalalala la
La lalalala la lalalala la lalalala la
I remember when rock was young
Me and Suzie had so much fun
Holding hands and skimming stones
Had an old gold Chevy
and a place of my own
But the biggest kick I ever got
Was doing a thing
called the Crocodile Rock
While the other kids were
Rocking Round the Clock
We were hopping and
bopping to the Crocodile Rock
Well Crocodile Rocking
is something shocking
When your feet just can't keep still
I never knew me a better
time and I guess I never will
Oh Lawdy mama those Friday nights
When Suzie wore her dresses tight
And the Crocodile
Rocking was out of sight
La lalalala la lalalala la lalalala la
La lalalala la lalalala la lalalala la
Warm in here!
That was Elton John, I hope you
enjoyed it, I hope you're all having
a wonderful, wonderful pride.
Stay safe and hopefully we'll
see each other again next year!
Have a wonderful one, cheers.
Bendigedig, diolch i ti, Cerys.
Cerys John there showing
her lovely Welsh talents.
Indeed, not that I understood
a word of your German.
(Laughter) Another talent that
Wales is famous for is poetry.
Yep.
Poetry, Stifyn!
I know.
Poetry!
And Pride Cymru wanted to showcase that by
running a competition and later on, we'll
be bringing to you the winner of that
competition and the piece that won it.
But before then, here's a piece of poetry
by one of the judges of that competition,
here she is Miss Sarah McCreadie.
Cornwall, Southampton and Warsaw, so lots
of love from all of us here to all of you
out there who are celebrating
pride and to everyone all over the UK.
Yes indeed, I spot cake.
I know as if I haven't had enough
cake in lockdown, but that looks
rather fetching let me tell you.
See, normally when I come to Wales, I get
given Welsh cake, but this looks like a
lovely little upgrade.
Do you want to tuck in?
I think we should.
Okay, while we tuck in, you can learn how
this was decorated by the lovely Katie.
Here goes.
So while our cakes are in the oven
cooking, I'm just going to pop on and
start making our lemon buttercream.
I'm going to start by adding 250
grams of butter to my stand mixer.
I've decided you've salted but
you can use unsalted if you prefer.
I'm going to turn this all the way up to
high and we're going to whip it for about
10 minutes until it's
light and really fluffy.
I did forget to mention you want to start
with room temperature butter and every so
often,
I'm going to just scrape it on the sides.
Okay, so our butter is pretty much done,
I'm just going to scrape it down one more
time and you can just see how
much lighter and whippy that is.
I'm gonna add now my icing sugar and I've
got 500 grams of icing sugar in here and
I'm going to add this in two
batches so about half and half.
Oh cloudy!
I just want to turn the mixer
on to the lower setting so you
don't beat too much air into it.
I'm going to add our
second lot of icing sugar.
My buttercream is made now and it's
a little bit stiff, this wouldn't probably
pipe or go on a cake very easily because
it's quite stiff, so we're going to
slacken it off with some lemon juice
because we're making a lemon cake.
If we were making a normal vanilla cake or
chocolate cake, anything like that, we'd
add a little bit of cool, boiled water.
I'm gonna take my lemons that I zested
earlier and I'm just gonna roll them on
the table to release all that juice,
and then we're gonna just juice them.
One might be enough, so we'll go with that
and then if we need another one, we got
the other one from earlier as well.
We've got my lemon juice and I'm going to
put my mixer back on to low and then I'm
going to slowly add the lemon juice a
little bit at a time until I get the right
consistency. So you can see now the
texture's changed but it's still holding
its shape and you want your texture of
your buttercream to be sort of like soft
butter so it's easy to spread.
This might be just a little bit soft
because it's a very hot day today, so I'm
gonna pop it in the fridge for about
five minutes before I use it and most
importantly you just
need to taste it as well.
So the cakes are all cooked, I've just
tested them with a blunt knife to make
sure they're cooked through.
I'm just going to run this very thin knife
around the edge and then we're going to
turn them out and it
should just pop out.
There we are.
Just peel off the greaseproof paper.
Now, I always take my cakes straight out
of the tin as soon as they come out of the
oven and the reason I do that is because
they will continue to cook otherwise and
they can become dry.
So we just need these to cool now and then
we can put our cake together and decorate
it. So I've let the cakes
cool, now I'm going to just
cut them so they're all level.
I'm just going to put my cake board on my
cake turning table and I'm going to add a
nice bit of buttercream onto the
bottom and I'm going to add my first cake.
I'm going to take my piping bag and fill
that with some buttercream so I like to
just turn it over my hand like that so I
can use my hand to sort of scrape the
buttercream off like that.
Push that down towards the end, I'm just
gonna make a nice ring around the outside.
Before we add our lemon curd.
This homemade lemon curd and if
you want the recipe you can head over to
katiehomecook.com and it's on there.
Curds are actually a lot easier to make
than you might think and I like to put on
the cut side of the cake so it
can sort of seep into the cake.
It keeps it moist and also adds
lots and lots of extra flavour of lemon.
I’m gonna finish off with a bit more
buttercream and then I'm just gonna smooth
that out.
I'm gonna add our next layer.
I'm gonna take the last cake layer now and
pop it over the other way to get a nice
flat top.
The last thing I need to do before I put
in the fridge is just go around with my
scraper, I want to make sure that the
cake is straight and then I scrape off any
excess buttercream and crumbs.
I'm going to pop this in the fridge now to
cool down again before we add our crumb
coat. Just gonna start covering
the cake with buttercream.
And now it's all sealed in.
I'm just going to go over and make it
smooth so I'm putting my scraper flat
along the cake board and then
up against the cake at a slight
angle, just to smooth it around.
Then just take it in from the top edge in
towards the center and off to take off any
excess off the top as well.
There we are.
So that's crumb coated now, I'm going
to put it back in the fridge for about 30
minutes. I've let that set up in the
fridge now and then I'm going to put a
second coat on and hopefully this will
be the final coat if we get it nice and
smooth. So I'm just going to start with
the top and a nice bit on the top and you
sort of want to bring it round until it
starts to go over the edge of the cake.
I'm going to carry on adding on
more buttercream on the sides.
Then, I'm going to use my scraper again
straight at the bottom onto the cake board
and pull it round at an angle.
I'm going to fill in any big gaps now with
a bit more buttercream and you can see
the consistency the buttering
goes on like sort of warm butter.
Cake's all nice and firm now left in the
fridge for a couple of hours and so we're
just going to decorate
it which is the fun part.
So I've coloured a little bit of
buttercream that we had left over into the
rainbow flag colours I'm just
going to take a nice dollop of
that and pop it on the cake.
I'm just going to add some letters.
You want to add your letters before your
buttercream has had a chance to dry and
I've just done these on edible printer
icing which I printed the words and I
inverted them to their backwards,
cut them out and then
I can just pop them on the cake.
I'm just going to finish off the
top now with a little decoration.
I made a heart shape out of acetate,
I'm just going to fill that in with the
remaining rainbow buttercream.
Going to lift off the heart.
And that's the cake complete!
So here's the pride cake all finished.
It wasn't too difficult and
hopefully be able to recreate it.
If you do want the recipe,
you can head over to katiehomecook.com.
I really hope you enjoy the rest of Pride
Cymru this year and I'll see you all soon.
Bye!
Bendigedig, diolch iti Cerys / Wonderful,
thank you Cerys
Mmm, bendigedig,
mae blas y gacen / Mmm, this cake tastes
yma yn ffantastig,
blas lemwn / fantastic, it’s lemon flavour
Llongyfarchiadau Katie
/ Congratulations Katie
And I look forward to seeing you
next year at the Roath Bake Off.
And talking about food, the lovely Joe
Ali recently went along to the Hang Fire
Southern Kitchen to talk to celebrity TV
chefs Sam and Shauna about how Miss Rona
has impacted their lives.
So I'm in Hang Fire kitchen in Barry
joined by the lovely Shauna, thank you so
much for your time,
I know you're super busy.
It's a pleasure!
How are you doing?
Well I'm all branded up,
I've got my Hang Fire t-shirt on.
I'm usually in the chat shirt, but they
made me work tonight so I'm having to look
like a member of staff.
Amazing.
We're back in action you know COVID
has been especially difficult for a lot of
people but I know with you personally,
even Sam's story, it's been crazy.
You were meant to be getting married
after 20 years together, but you ended up
actually outing yourself on my TV.
Sat in the kitchen, how was that?
That was crazy.
A bit impromptu to be honest with you
because Sam and I have been together for
20 years, so to us and all of our friends
and family, everybody knows but when we
started off our business, we didn't really
ever come out to like the general public
and actually if you go on Google and you
type in Sam and Shauna how far, one of the
searches that actually comes up is
‘Sam and Shauna, are they a couple?’ So
obviously people were picking up on it but
it's not that we were like in the closet
or ashamed of our sexuality in any way,
it's just when we were building our brand
we didn't want it to detract or
distract from what we were trying to do.
So it was never really important because
you know being gay you know, we've been
gay since we were nippers so it didn't
really come as a shock to us but when we
went on Saturday Kitchen, we had to
explain why we weren't social distancing,
so we had Matt Tebbutt who's the presenter
there and Sam and I sat right beside each
other and actually the actual day that we
went on, the 6th of June 2020, would have
been Sam and I's 20 year anniversary.
So we were on the show and then yeah we
managed to out ourselves live on BBC One
to 14 million people.
After that crazy moment,
was there any sort of backlash, were there
any comments on social media?
Do you know what I?
We were overwhelmed by how supportive and
how lovely everybody was actually and we'd
been on Saturday Kitchen before and we've
had like a few nasty comments about the
food that we've cooked but just so many
amazing, outpouring messages and obviously
for a lot of our customers that already
knew we were a couple and there was a few
posts on Instagram saying slow news day,
slow news day because obviously everybody
knows. But yeah, having never ever talked
about our sexuality ever and then out in
ourselves live to 14 million people, if
you're gonna do it Joe, just go hard or go
home. Absolutely, so I think I know you
were meant to be doing something this
summer and obviously COVID has changed
things dramatically, I think you were
meant to be recording another series
of his show but you were gonna get Pride
involved as well?
Well, that is an exclusive only you
guys know this because it's gonna be a big
secret. So Sam and I have our own TV show
and it's been on BBC Wales, we're in the
third series, it's called Sam and Shauna's
Big Cookout and there was a fourth series
in the pipeline because what we've
always tried to do with the show is drive
diversity. So you'll see lots of the
episodes we've done ones with the Clwyd
Special Needs Riding Centre, we we've done
ones with the samaj, the Indian kucharati
women and we've done one with people from
the valleys, just really trying to show
that Wales is a very diverse country,
but one of our big triumphs
that we wanted to do was Pride.
Cardiff Pride we wanted to do Sam and
Shauna’s Big Cookout at Cardiff Pride and
then the old global pandemic hit so we'll
just have to shelve that for whenever we
can all come together because the
whole point of big cookout is to get a big
community together and all cook and
all eat together and I think unfortunately
with the social distancing and everything
the way it is, it's going to be a while
before we all get together in a field in
Cardiff and do a big cookout and hence the
reason we're here doing
the Pride virtual festival.
We've got to keep these events still going
but it's going to be a while before we're
gonna be able to do
a big cookout at Pride.
Awesome, so looking forward to the future
now, have you got any more books coming
out in the future?
What can you look forward to next?
We just reopened the restaurant and such
is the popularity of this restaurant, we
are now fully booked till November so
that's gonna keep us busy for a while.
We're a very popular restaurant, very busy
restaurant and because of the way we had
to close and we had to actually make some
stuff redundant, which was horrible and
then we furloughed 16 members of staff,
so we are kind of short staffed at the
minute in the restaurant since reopening
so I've kind of stepped into being the
general manager and Sam has kind of
stepped into being the executive chef so
for the foreseeable, I'm going to be
working here full-time and Sam's going to
be working here full-time,
so I can't really see us doing too much.
We do some brand ambassador work for
example, we're brand ambassadors for Maple
Syrup and next year we're going to be
brand ambassadors from North Carolina
Sweet Potatoes, so we're going to have to
go to North Carolina at some point but to
be honest, I'm really enjoying just being
here and doing this full-time because my
life was getting too hectic before
Christmas, to be honest with you, and Sam
and I didn't realize how emotionally and
physically drained we actually were until
we made it stop, because what's happened
to us in the last seven years from winning
the BBC Food and Farming awards, the
Observer Food Monthly Award, never been
won by two women before, never been won by
a Welsh restaurant before, so you've got
two women on Barry Island just really
trying to regenerate this area and build a
restaurant here that's for everybody and
you'll see the lots of different customers
that come in here and it's
a really diverse restaurant.
My staff team are really diverse,
it's a really nice place to be.
So to be honest, I'm just glad to be
here in a full-time job, just focus on one
thing, cookbook-wise we really should
write another cookbook because the Hang
Fire cookbook was published in 2016
and we've sold thousands of copies and
everybody's on to us about writing another
cookbook but I suppose we just got to
wait for Sam to get out of
the kitchen for that to happen.
Amazing.
Thank you so much for speaking with us,
we really appreciate it.
Now back to you guys
back at the pride cottage.
Dwy gân sydd gyda ni nesaf gan y côr
Songbirds / Next we have two songs from
the Songbirds choir
Now to take us up to the break,
a couple of songs from the Songbird Choir.
Moon river, wider than a mile
I'm crossing you in style some day
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker
Wherever you're goin',
I'm goin' your way
Two drifters, off to see the world
There's such a lot of world to see
We're after the same rainbow's end
Waitin' 'round the bend
My huckleberry friend
Moon river, and me
Listen baby, ain't no mountain high
Ain't no valley low,
ain't no river wide enough baby
If you need me call me
no matter where you are
No matter how far don't worry baby
Just call my name
I'll be there in a hurry
You don't have to worry
'Cause baby there ain't
no mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough
Ain't no river wide enough
To keep me from getting to you babe
Remember the day I set you free
I told you you could
always count on me baby
From that day on, I made a vow
I'll be there when you want me
Some way, some how 'Cause baby
there ain't no mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough
Ain't no river wide enough
To keep me from getting to you babe
Oh no darling
No wind, no rain
Or winters cold can stop me baby,
na na baby
'Cause you are my goal
If you're ever in trouble
I'll be there on the double
Just send for me, oh baby, ha
Just send for me, oh baby
My love is alive
Way down in my heart
Although we are miles apart
If you ever need a helping hand
I'll be there on the double
Just as fast as I can
Don't you know that there
Ain't no mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough
Ain't no river wide enough
To keep me from getting to you babe
Ain't no mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough
Ain't no river wide enough
To keep me from you
Ain't mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough
Ain't no river wide enough
To keep me from you
Sometimes in our lives we all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there's always tomorrow
Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on
Please swallow your pride
If I have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill those of your needs
That you won't let show
You just call on me brother,
when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem
that you'll understand
We all need somebody to lean on
Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on
You just call on me brother,
when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem
that you'll understand
We all need somebody to lean on
Lean on me
If there is a load you have to bear
That you can't carry
I'm right up the road
I'll share your load
If you just call me
Call me
If you need a friend
Call me
If you need a friend
Call me
Oh, when the sun beats down
and burns the tar up on the roof
And your shoes get so hot you
wish your tired feet were fire proof
Under the boardwalk,
down by the sea, yeah
On a blanket with my
baby is where I'll be
From the park you hear the
happy sound of the carousel
You can almost taste the hot
dogs and French fries they sell
Under the boardwalk,
down by the sea, yeah
On a blanket with my
baby is where I'll be
Out of the sun
We'll be havin' some fun
People walking above
We'll be fallin' in love
Under the boardwalk, boardwark
Under the boardwalk,
down by the sea, yeah
On a blanket with my
baby is where I'll be
Out of the sun
We'll be havin' some fun
People walking above
We'll be fallin' in love
Under the boardwalk, boardwalk
Under the boardwalk,
down by the sea, yeah
On a blanket with my
baby is where I'll be
On a blanket with my
baby is where I'll be
On a blanket with my
baby is where I'll be
Now let's talk about you, Stifyn.
Me?
Yeah.
I've been wanting to meet and work with
you for quite a while because Stifyn is
not just an incredible actor, an
incredible activist, hey Mr Producer, and
also now I understand an author!
Yeah.
Of a great book.
So I think it's only right that we should
give some time and find out a bit more
about yourself, and this book.
So let me ask by saying
what's it all about Stifyn?
Well I have been asked a few times to
write a book, I have had a pretty bonkers
and a beautifully colourful life but I've
also had a very bilingual life, I've had
like two different lives.
I speak English and Welsh fluently, I
spoke W-English as a child so I'd go from
English into about halfway
through a sentence, well put
English and Welsh together.
I love that.
So my career has jumped language
from English to Welsh to all over so I've
wanted to do so many things within the
media that I seem to have had about 500
careers doubled with two languages, so I
never know whether I'm an actor, a singer
a presenter, a producer or an author.
Or bipolar.
Or bipolar,
I think I'm just a show-off really.
You've got many feathers too.
Let's talk about this one by one actually,
I understand that recently you've been
working a lot more in events.
What kind of events are you doing and what
have they done or what are they geared
towards,
especially towards the LGBTQI+ community?
Well I’ve presented a lot of the LGBT
events in Cardiff over the years but I did
start an events company as you beautifully
remembered at the beginning the name of
my company Mr Producer, it's not subtle,
I wanted a name for the company that said
exactly what we did on the tin and I
wanted to produce events because I'd taken
part in so many events over the years in
English and in Welsh that were absolutely
crap. There was no rehearsal, there was
no imagination, there was no wow factor.
There was not nothing memorable and I went
to so many awards ceremonies that bored
the pants off me and I thought well I
can't really complain about this, why
don't I try and do
something differently.
So 20 years ago, I decided to start Mr
Producer with a laptop and a mobile phone
and luckily, and I don't really believe
in luck, but with a lot of focus and hard
work and a lot of contacts that I knew and
kept happy over the years, I managed to
produce some of Wales' biggest events.
We opened the Wales Millennium Centre
which was a whole weekend event of the
country for the world honours
where we honoured Shirley
Bassey and people like her.
Name drop there!
I know many a thing about Bassey.
Oh yeah?
Is this for now or when
the cameras stop rolling?
That's for my one-man show when
I charged them 10 pounds a ticket.
Oh no,
you can come in you can do my hair.
I thought you were going to make me shout
out no but we did the award ceremony to
open the Wales Millennium Centre then we
did a royal gala and we had a ten thousand
karaoke outside with Bryn Terfel who was
the most famous Welsh export we've got on
the most amazing operatic voice singing
with 350 000 pounds of fireworks in
Cardiff Bay. My brief was you've got
to make sure that the opening of this
building will go on the news,
so I decided to blow it up.
And then from that job, I got - this
is stupid, this is showbiz - I got head
hunted to be the creative producer for
the opening of the Ryder Cup which was, I
didn't even know what Ryder was, I had no
idea and the next minute, someone who had
never done any physical work in school, I
hated going on the cross country, any PE I
didn't do it at all.
Well I had a verruca that I nurtured
that came right up to my thigh because I
couldn't have periods and all my
girlfriends had a letter saying you know I
can't do tennis today I've got my period
and there ‘I must find my own period’, so
I developed this beautifully massive
verruca who ended up with more air levels
than me. Was that in the book?
That's in the book,
it's all in the book.
But I ended up producing one of the, well
it was the biggest sporting event at the
stadium in Cardiff with Shirley Bassey
again, someone else you may have heard of
called Catherine Zeta-Jones,
another one all in the book.
So yeah, I've had a really great time
doing some major events where one minute
you're pooing your pants and the next
minute you're standing up and clapping.
Well, all I'll say is book me.
(Laughter)
Are you cheaper than Bassey?
No.
Okay, get in the queue then.
But I charge less.
Let's talk about your acting career,
you had in your television days one of the
seminal moments on screen for, I suppose
LGBTQI+ awareness, when you were in
Brookside. For those that don't know about
that, tell us about it, tell us about the
impact and how it was for
you being at the centre of it all.
I really didn't understand what impact it
would have, not only on it was Brookside,
it was the soap opera which was before
Netflix, before Sky when there were only
four channels and S4C.
Yes of course, she was there.
She ruined my career for a bit.
I was living in a flat in Fairwater and
the Collins family that were a very posh
family on the close had a son called
Gordon, they sent him off to France, he
came back looking completely different
with ginger hair and they decided that
character would be gay and then
they started talking about a very naughty
cheeky character called Christopher Duncan
and I specifically remember sitting on my
orange shag pile carpet in Fairwater,
Cardiff thinking who are they going to get
to play this part?
I can't wait to meet this character.
And the next minute I get an audition for
the part and there's about 250 people all
looking the same as me, I got the job in
the most outrageous and rude interview
audition you've ever
heard in your life.
That is in the book or it’s in my one-man
show, I couldn't get away with telling you
now. I get the part, they decided very
cleverly not to do any gay storylines for
at least my first year there, so that the
audience got to identify with us, like us,
care about us before they started putting
in all these storylines of queer bashing,
homophobia, all this stuff.
What people didn't realize is that I
hadn't actually come out myself and the
next minute I open the script and it said
Christopher kisses Gordon Collins on the
cheek. I think nothing of it and when you
took the gig did you know there was going
to be a gay storyline?
I knew he was a gay character
but I didn't know anything else.
You didn't know a thing.
Next minute, I open the script and it
says Christopher gives a kiss to Gordon
Collins on the cheek.
I do that, what was clever with the
writing and the writers and it's always
them, they're the ones that keep the soaps
going, they had planned this gay kiss to
be transmitted because it goes out six
weeks later and it was transmitted the
night before the march for clause 28.
In the meantime, I didn't know
any of this, I didn't understand the
significance, the importance,
I knew nothing because I was a closeted
Welsh-speaking actor playing a gay
character and I didn't think that anybody
else knew I was gay.
Sir Ian McKellen said to me will
you come and talk on the march?
And whatever Ian McKellen would have
said I just have said yes, so I was there,
somebody posted on my Facebook the other
day the speech that I'd written when I
actually said ‘don't worry ladies and
gentlemen, there isn't a closet big enough
for all of us’ and had cheers from 18,000
people with the media there from all over
the world and it was at that point I
thought I think I better go home and tell
my mother. Not that I was going to be on
the news as the first gay kiss in British
telly, but that I was gay.
She was as cool as a cucumber but even
to this day, even last Tuesday, I found
myself crying with a post that
somebody had sent me via Facebook.
A man in his 50s just like me, although I
only look 23, who actually said you don't
realize what you and the character did to
help me because I was suicidal when I was
younger and you and Gordon, your character
and Gordon's character were the only
things that I had to cling on to
feel that I actually was worth living.
Isn't it amazing?
That still happens now.
When you're just living your own truth and
finding your own self and living in the
light of your truth that you don't realize
the impact it has on thousands of people
that are in the dark so to speak
and did you get any tabloids?
Because tabloids back then they
love to jump off things like that.
I had no tabloid problems and the only
form of any sort of homophobia I thought
of the time I was getting was I was
getting off a train and an old lady turned
around, looked me in the eye and hit me
over the head with a handbag and I thought
this is homophobia, this is queer bashing
and I said what did you do that for?
She said ‘you killed that dog in
Brookside, didn't you?’ ‘And knowing you
actors,
you probably had to do it more than once!’
Anyway, we can't sit here
talking about me all day.
All of it is in this book.
Can I just ask one more question.
I have to ask you about Marius because I
know you played Marius in Les Mis, was my
first big obsession when it
comes to musical theatre.
Who did you play opposite?
Who was your Valjean
and what was that like?
Valjean actually was Peter Karrie, a Welsh
actor and my Eponine was none other than
my very good friend still Linzi Hateley
who played the lead as Carrie in the
musical Carrie on Broadway
on her 17th birthday.
Can you believe?
Wow.
Her first job.
And look at you now, she went to
Broadway and you’re here with me.
Well thank you very much for
that, that was interesting
and what's the book called?
It's called ‘Out With It!’,
‘Allan a Fo!’.
That's the English side
and then that's the Welsh.
Language is not a barrier, you can catch
this book and it's called ‘Allan a Fo!
/ Out With It!’ Please go and get it now,
I haven't read it yet but
I promise you I will read it.
Let's send it to the top
of the best selling list.
Thank you very much.
Thanks darling.
You superstar Mr Stifyn Parri.
Well that's enough about me and if you
want to know more about me, you can buy
the book for £9.99 from your local
bookshop or from Amazon, or if you want a
special message from myself with a
signature, you can go to mrproducer.co.uk.
Now that's the end of my hosting for
today, I hope you have a great Pride, Tutu
is going to be carrying on here and later
on, she's going to be talking to two very
good friends of mine, Wyburn and Wayne.
But from me..
Diolch yn fawr iawn,
mwynhewch / Thank you very much, enjoy
And I'm going to leave you now
in the capable hands of Eleni.
Hi everyone, my name is Eleni
C and I'm a singer-songwriter.
(Eleni C – I Don’t Give A Damn)
(Lyrics unavailable.)
This song is called Silent Voices
and I really hope that you enjoy it.
(Eleni C – Silent Voices)
(Lyrics Unavailable.)
This is One Last Time.
(Eleni C – One Last Time)
Your eyes lock with mine
It’s like you never left last time
Is it just the same old game?
How can I still feel the same?
I can’t explain
The same old look that’s in your eyes
Promising that you are mine
This time I swear it’s the last
I can’t fight this spell you cast
Now I can see through your lies
I’m not the girl you left behind
I look at you looking at me
I should feel scared
but I feel freedoms
Baby one last chance
To let you back inside my heart
Baby one last time
Before I let us fall apart
I know I said too many goodbyes
Don’t wanna live in separate lives
But this is baby one last chance
I’m only gonna say this one last time
I don’t want to give you up
Nobody else lights up my dark
This is magic every time we touch
I catch fire from your spark
Don’t run from us
Have you ever wondered why
You can never say goodbye?
Why you get jealous go mad
Why you’re always coming back?
I’ll tell you why you feel like that
Love was always what we had
This is our forever start
This time I’m fighting for your heart
Baby one last chance
To let you back inside my heart
Baby one last time
Before I let us fall apart
I know I said too many goodbyes
Don’t wanna live in separate lives
But this is baby one last chance
I’m only gonna say this one last time
Here we go again
It’s mad and it’s reckless
But you leave me breathless
Yeah you leave me breathless
This is do or die,
it’s new rules this time
My heart is on the line
I’m only gonna say this one last time
I’m only gonna say this one last time
I’m only gonna say this one last time
So I hope you guys enjoyed my last
song which is called One Last Time!
Pride for me is making sure that all my
friends and family can be who they want,
that's what they want
and feel safe doing it.
Pride means to me three things, being your
true authentic self, accepting exactly
who you are and celebrating all
of that with your family and friends.
Pride means being your authentic self and
continuing to stand up so others can do
the same.
Learning to accept everyone else in their
differences, to allow yourself to accept
yourself.
To me, Pride is all about community
and giving a safe space to those who don't
always feel part of our community.
Pride for me is continuing to fight for
everybody across the world has the same
freedoms and can choose
who they want to be.
For me, Pride is supporting togetherness
in the community with our family and
friends, so happy Pride!
Happy Pride Cymru!
Hi everyone!
It's lovely to be here at Pride Cottage
as part of Pride Cymru's online 2020
offerings. It is and coming up in the next
hour, we are going to be interviewing the
incredible Son of a Tutu
right here on this sofa.
I'm so excited, she's going to be telling
us all about being in the new Everybody's
Talking About Jamie movie.
Amazing and we have music coming up from
Chris Hall and Jack Feureisen and Joe's
going to be talking to a rugby
team and talking about inclusivity.
You can never say it, inclusivity.
Well done (laughter) They're
rolling around in the rugby world,
so that's going to be great.
It is going to be amazing, but before
all that, here's our very good friend, the
incredible Donna Marie.
My mama told me when I was young
We are all born superstars
She rolled my hair
and put my lipstick on
In the glass of her boudoir
"There's nothing wrong
with loving who you are"
She said,
"'Cause he made you perfect, babe"
"So hold your head
up girl and you'll go far,
Listen to me when I say"
I'm beautiful in my way
'Cause God makes no mistakes
I'm on the right track,
baby I was born this way
Don't hide yourself in regret
Just love yourself and you're set
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way
Give yourself prudence
And love your friends
So we can rejoice your truth
In the religion of the insecure
I must be myself, respect my youth
A different lover is not a sin
Believe in capital H-I-M
I love my life I love this record and
Mi amore vole fe, yah
I'm beautiful in my way
'Cause God makes no mistakes
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way
Don't hide yourself in regret
Just love yourself and you're set
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way
Oh there ain't no other way
Baby I was born this way
Baby I was born this way
Oh there ain't no other way
Baby I was born this way
Right track, baby I was born this way
I was born this way hey
I was born this way hey
I was born this way hey
Born this way hey
Hey Cardiff Pride, Pride Cymru!
How are you?
It's so nice to be doing a little set for
you, I hope you're all enjoying this at
home and having fun.
I know it's not the usual party
in the park feeling but hopefully
you're having a party at home.
As you know, there's a lot going on in the
world and we can't be together but like I
said, we're going to share some songs
today so please sing along even though I
can't hear, you can always record yourself
and you can send it to me so I can see
you singing along.
Anyhow, here's one so this isn't a Gaga
song but Lady Gaga did perform, well she's
actually performed this twice,
but I'm sure you'll recognize
this song so I hope you like it.
Here we go.
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us, only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
So did you know that one?
I'm sure you did,
made famous by John Lennon.
So are you all drinking at home
or are you just like having a snack
or a cup of tea or something?
I hope you are having fun like I said,
we have a few songs and these are songs I
thought and here's one that I'm sure
you'll all remember and whenever I've done
Pride Cymru, you always seem to sing along
with this one so that's why I chose it
today. Look at this,
I mean I haven't even got a glass you just
can't get the staff these days.
A bottle of water,
I mean plastic bottle sorry it's not very.
Oh my goodness.
So I wanna hear you sing along with me!
Because I'm giving you a million
reasons to sing along with me today!
Come on, let's do this.
Are you ready?
Here we go.
You're giving me a
million reasons to let you go
You're giving me a million
reasons to quit the show
You're givin' me a million reasons
Give me a million reasons
Givin' me a million reasons
About a million reasons
If you could find a dry way,
I'd forever be still
But you're giving me a million reasons
Give me a million reasons
Givin' me a million reasons
About a million reasons
I bow down to pray
I try to make the worst seem better
Lord, show me the way
To cut through all his worn out leather
I've got a hundred million
reasons to walk away
But baby,
I just need one good one to stay
Head stuck in a cycle,
I look off and I stare
It's like that I've stopped breathing,
but completely aware
'Cause you're giving
me a million reasons
Give me a million reasons
Givin' me a million reasons
About a million reasons
And if you say something
that you might even mean
It's hard to even fathom
which parts I should believe
'Cause you're giving
me a million reasons
Give me a million reasons
Givin' me a million reasons
I bow down to pray
I try to make the worst seem better
Lord, show me the way
To cut through all his worn out leather
I've got a hundred million
reasons to walk away
But baby,
I just need one good one to stay
Baby I'm bleedin', bleedin'
Can't you give me what I'm needin',
needin'
Every heartbreak makes
it hard to keep the faith
But baby, I just need one good one
Good one, good one,
good one, good one, good one
I bow down to pray
I try to make the worst seem better
Lord, show me the way
To cut through all his worn out leather
I've got a hundred million
reasons to walk away
But baby,
I just need one good one, good one
Tell me that you'll be the good one,
good one
Baby, I just need one good one to stay
Thank you, I hope you are singing
at home and joining in and having fun!
Like I said, I'm doing a few different
songs now this one I've never performed at
Pride Cymru because
it's off the new album.
So I don't know if you know this one and
you should do because the album is such a
hit at the minute and if you haven't
heard this song, this is the piano version
which I absolutely love.
So it's a beautiful song
called A Thousand Doves.
I need you to listen to me,
please believe me
I'm completely lonely,
please don't judge me
When your tears are falling,
I'll catch them as they fall
I need you to listen to me,
please don't leave me
I'm not perfect yet
but I'll keep trying
When your tears are falling,
I'll catch them as they fall
'Cause inside we are
really made the same
In life, waiting's just a stupid game
Lift me up, give me a start
Cause I've been flying
with some broken arms
Lift me up, just a small touch
And I'll be flying like
a thousand doves
A thousand doves
I'd do anything if you
would just believe me
I am human and visibly bleeding
When your smile is shaking,
I'll catch you as you fall
If I had a painter's mind,
then I would paint it
Or a sculptor's hands,
then I would shape it
But instead,
I guess I'll sing it in this song
I cry more than I ever sang
Each time,
your love seems to save the day
Lift me up, give me a start
'Cause I've been flying
with some broken arms
Lift me up, just a small nudge
And I'll be flying like
a thousand doves
Flying like a thousand,
flying like two thousand
Flying like ten thousand doves
Flying like a thousand,
flying like two thousand
Flying like ten thousand doves
There we go, that was off the new album
Chromatica, oh my god I think I've got my
wrong teeth in today,
I seem to be getting everything mixed up.
So I love the new album, it's amazing, I
hope you're listening to it at home and I
so cannot wait to perform all the new
songs for you guys live in front of a real
audience instead of through a screen,
but oh my goodness.
So I've got one more song for you, I hope
you have a fantastic day, Pride Cymru, all
the amazing acts that are performing for
you, all the things going on this week, I
hope you've had a great time, there's so
much more to come so here is probably one
of everyone's favourite songs and I
know this always gets the crowd going and
there's no way you can tell me
you don't know the chorus because
everyone knows the chorus of this.
So thank you, big love to you guys,
sending my love to you.
Take care, keep safe and
well and I'll see you all soon.
Thank you Pride Cymru.
There ain't no reason you
and me should be alone
Tonight, yeah baby, tonight, yeah baby
But I got a reason that you
should take me home tonight
I need a man that thinks
it right when it's so wrong
Tonight, yeah baby, tonight, yeah baby
I'm on the edge of something
final we call life tonight
It's hot to feel the rush,
and brush the dangerous
I'm gonna run right to,
to the edge with you
Where we can both fall far in love
I'm on the edge of glory
And I'm hangin' on a moment of truth
Out on the edge of glory
And I'm hangin' on a moment with you
I'm on the edge, the edge, the edge
The edge, the edge, the edge, the edge
I'm on the edge of glory
And I'm hangin' on a moment with you
I'm on the edge with you
Take care, big love.
Well wasn't that fantastic, now this is
probably a good time to check up on what
happened when Joe met
up with the rugby team.
I'm looking forward to this.
I'm on Pontcanna Field ahead of Cardiff
Lions, Wales’ first gay inclusive rugby
team ahead of their training session, I'm
joined by chairman Gareth and head coach.
How are you doing guys?
How important is it being Gareth to
get back into playing after the lockdown?
It's been very important, you know we've
been apart since March which for a lot of
these boys you know they used to live in
each other's pockets so it'd be important
that you get to see real people again,
faces they know certainly from the mental
health aspect as well where they've been
cooped up in their homes, either you've
got a player who lives in Aberystwyth
who probably had no interaction personally
with any boys for such a long time,
so it's important that we're back now just
living our lives.
And how old, new and stated head coach,
how is it going to look getting these boys
back into shape after months off rugby?
After this, well we had we had one
training session a couple weeks ago and it
was nice to see everyone back doing
some fitness, lots of sweating, lots of
drinking water but a little bit slow, but
again we have had since March off so we've
got the next couple of months
of just doing fitness and
handling and conditioning.
So looking forward to it.
We're talking about inclusivity in sport
here Gareth, how important is it for the
lions to kind of get rid of the stereotype
that rugby is just a hyper masculine
sport and can be enjoyed by all?
It's incredibly important, we've had
players join us from other clubs because
they were worried about you know the
hypermasculinity, toxic masculinity that
can exist within changing
rooms across Wales.
On the rugby field, the sort of laddish
boyish culture, banter all that sort of
nonsense really it's the only way I can
really think about it, so it's important
that we create a safe space for everyone
to be able to come to us as you are.
No sort of pretence, no sort of building
yourself up a fake persona, just be
yourself with us and
that's the best way to be.
So what can people expect?
If they decided to join after seeing this
video and they want to come down and join,
what can they expect?
What's a training
session like with the lions?
Again, the next couple weeks will be
fitness and conditioning but we will start
off with doing some basic skills and stuff
so you don't need to be coming in playing
as a level as Gareth.
You can just pick up a rugby ball for the
first time, might not even watch rugby,
not watched rugby before.
It's just coming in, it's just enjoying
yourself, it's having fun so it'd be a lot
of fun skills and fitness.
Brilliant, thank you guys so much for
speaking with me, I'll let you get on with
the training session now back to
you guys back at the Pride Cottage.
That was great and it's always important
to see how important that teamwork and
sport when it comes together
to fight bigotry and prejudice.
It is and it's something we talk
about very often on our Radio
Cardiff program as well. It is.
Okay now for a bit more music
from the incredible Jack Feureisen.
I'm going to enjoy my prosecco.
Enjoy guys.
(Music)
It's not unusual to be loved by anyone
It's not unusual to
have fun with anyone
But when I see you
hanging about with anyone
It's not unusual to see me cry
I wanna die
It's not unusual to go out with anyone
It's not unusual to go out with anyone
But when I see you out
and about it's such a crime
It's not unusual it happens every day
No matter what you say
You'll find it happens all the time
Love will never do what you want it to
Why can't this crazy love be mine?
It's not unusual to be mad with anyone
It's not unusual to be sad with anyone
If you should ever
wanna be loved by anyone
It's not unusual to find
out I'm in love with you
To see that I’m in love with you
Happy Pride, Cardiff!
Happy Pride, world!
And now,
it's time for a bit more poetry.
This time it's a beautiful piece called
Rainbows and it's by actress Lu Corfield.
Orange and red, our healing and life.
Celebrate today but
remember the strife.
Yellow and green, sunlight and nature.
Bring joy to each other,
reflect on our culture.
Blue is serenity to accept who
we are and acknowledge our truths.
And know we've come far.
Violet is spirit,
the fight still goes on.
Equality for all and bigots be gone.
As progress is made,
then all must be welcome.
The trans blue, white and pink
must join our bright spectrum.
The brown and the black will be embraced
too, for who would we be if we didn't have
you?
Our voices are one, we shall be heard.
A rainbow of love to cover the world.
It's not just a flag, it's a symbol we
shout and fly as we march, we're here and
we're out.
We won't go away and
hate can never divide.
We're one family, one voice.
We are Pride.
So what do you want
to do when you're older?
The honest answer?
I just don't know.
I want a place where I can play to
my strengths and for my skills to be
challenged every day.
A place to grow into who I want to be.
I want to discover
opportunities and try things new.
I want to see my future self.
See the future you at Coleg y Cymoedd.
At Legal and General, we stand for
inclusion, for a workplace where we can
all perform at our best,
no matter who we are.
We focus on social
inclusion for everyone.
Many of our people have a passionate
desire to make Legal and General a
stronger, more diverse business.
Our thriving diversity and inclusion
networks, which we fully support, have
done great things to help
individuals connect, feel
valued and flourish together.
I'm pleased to take this opportunity
to celebrate the achievements of trans,
bisexual, lesbian and gay
communities across the whole of Wales.
I wish all celebrating a
very happy and a safe Pride.
Enjoy.
Hi guys, Joanna Bumme here
from the Golden Cross in Cardiff.
I do hope you're all having a
fabulous and safe Pride Cymru this year.
I know it's not ideal, I know we're not
doing what we normally do because there's
nothing I'd love to be doing right now
than to be performing at Pride in front of
loads of wonderful people.
But unfortunately,
stuff happens isn't it?
But I hope we're having a nice Pride
anyway, we're doing our best to try and
keep everyone entertained and
come together virtually to celebrate.
I'm going to do a little song for you all
now and I know unfortunately you might
want to go for a break at the moment but
I'm going to do a little song that I've
taken and I've rewritten.
I have, I've rewritten a classic 80s
number and I decided to rewrite it about
something I absolutely adore.
About Cardiff.
It's my favourite thing about Cardiff and
I do hope you enjoy it and hopefully we'll
see you all soon.
Thank you.
(Music)
Where do we go when the night is over?
When all the clubs they
have come to an end?
When the sunlight
seems to be getting closer
It's the place to finish with
And don't forget your friends
It's Chippy Lane, Chippy Lane
Chippy Lane, Chippy Lane
Chippy Lane, Chippy Lane
It's the place you need to be down on
Chippy Lane
All the drunks, well,
they will start to ascend here
Stumbling all down the stream
With all the guys they
will start a fight here
And the girls just can't hold
it in and they will start to wee
On Chippy Lane, Chippy Lane
Remember it's a public place,
come on now
Chippy Lane, Chippy Lane
Chippy Lane, Chippy Lane
I don’t wanna see you
weeing down on Chippy Lane
There’s Dorothy’s, Hak’s,
Kebab King and Rotana
And that’s just to name a few,
there’s lots more
You’ll probably get the ..
from them in the
morning (you always do!)
You'll say you don't want to go
there but then you'll change your mind
You'll end up getting
everything off the menus
And leave your friends behind
On Chippy Lane, Chippy Lane
Chippy Lane, Chippy Lane
We've all got a place like this
Chippy Lane, Chippy Lane
You know you'll always go there,
we always want to go down to Chippy Lane
Oh guys thank you so much, I've been
Joanna Bumme, you have been absolutely
fantastic, I hope you have a happy and
safe Pride, but for now I'm gonna welcome
to the screen, the one, the only,
the ever so gorgeous and
talented it's Grace Parry!
Happy Pride, guys.
(Lyrics unavailable.)
Okay guys, the next one I'm gonna sing for
you is one by Whitney Houston and this is
Million Dollar Bill.
This is one of my favourites.
Came in the door
Checked in my coat
And who I'm looking for
Is staring in my face
They played our song
We hit the floor
He held me strong
And we danced the night away
I can see the way
that he is making feel
This way about his love
I've been looking
for something like this
I'm saying ooh oh oh oh ooh oh oh!
If he makes you feel
like a million dollar bill
Say oh oh oh, say oh oh oh!
If you go left right up down
Make you spinning round and round
Say ooh oh oh oh, say ooh oh oh oh!
It's been a long long time
Since I fell, fell
Love has found my way oh oh oh
I've been looking
I've been searching
For the man to touch this place
Can't deny the way
that he is making feel
This way about his love
I've been searching
for something like this
I'm saying oh oh oh oh,
say ooh oh oh oh!
If he makes you feel
like a million dollar bill
Say oh oh oh, say oh oh oh!
Makes you go left right up down
Makes you spinning round and round
Say oh oh oh oh, say ooh oh oh oh!
If he makes you feel
like a million dollar bill
Say oh oh oh, say oh oh oh!
Makes you go left right up down
Makes you spinning round and round
Say oh oh oh oh, say ooh oh oh oh!
If you feel good
If you're feeling good
Put one hand in the air, say yeah
If you feel good
If you're feeling good
It's 'cause love is in the air
Say oh oh oh, say oh oh oh!
Makes you go left right up down
Makes you spinning round and round
Say ooh oh oh oh, say ooh oh oh oh!
If he makes you feel
like a million dollar bill
Say oh oh oh, say oh oh oh!
Makes you go left right up down
Makes you spinning round and round
Say ooh oh oh oh, say ooh oh oh oh!
I really love that poem oh just fantastic
and I think it's incredible to show and
demonstrate progress within the
community as well as show that
there's still a fight to go.
And a lovely little postcard from
Caerphilly as well with our friend Joanna
and great local music from
the wonderful Grace Parry.
Beautiful, amazing.
And speaking of talent, lots of talent,
we're joined by the one and only Son of a
Tutu,
now we've got plenty to talk about.
We're not worthy, we're not worthy.
Can I just say one of the gifts of
lockdown has been being referred to as
talent,
now that happens in the real world.
Talent girl!
No one ever shows across a busy bar,
there’s talent there, that’s talent!
Bring out the streams
of the online stuff!
So how has lockdown been for you?
I'm fine, lockdown has been interesting
because I think you had Miss Rona.
Yes, yeah that's right.
She stayed with me fairly early.
I had it back in March, but then the post
viral fatigue that followed took months.
Horrific, it was like all my
hangovers rolled into one.
It was awful.
And he's had a few hangovers!
(Laughter)
But personally, I've always been somebody
whose energy has been always been slightly
reclusive anyway so the isolation, the
quarantine and all the mechanics of that
itself, don't bother me, it's just been
getting over the wake of the carnage that
Miss Rona inflicts that's been eugh.
I mean being such a creative as well and
you know I mean your income and the way
you live your life, week in week out
performing, stripped away from you.
That must be kind of hard?
It is hard but what I found even
harder was the fact that because of that
post-viral fatigue, your motivation
goes because you've got no energy to do
anything,
that plays havoc with your mental health.
And so I didn't do any online shows.
Every now and then..
You missed a buck there!
I might be coming to Nathan..
You need a glitter
portrait you really do!
And so that was the biggest thing for
me and then I just got show shy, I just
wouldn't do shows online.
Every now and then an event would pop up
that I’d go oh that's interesting and that
pushes you beyond the inertia that I
was in but other than that I've just been
happy to sit back and watch
other people doing work.
And there's been some great shows,
there's been some fantastic shows.
There's a lot of drag shows which
have really shone through this period.
I mean shout out to the Golden, I mean as
far as I'm concerned, as soon as lockdown
was announced, Rob and his
girls were like, they were on it.
Absolutely, it's like oh my god Mary
Golds, she can get an audience online to
make up for all the
ones she didn’t have!
Cut that out!
No, keep it in!
Speaking of audiences, I guess when you're
in a room with one you can kind of gauge
it and see what's going on, what do
you think that was a bit of the fear then
online people are so negative people,
trolled you think maybe that was a little
bit of your shyness?
No, it was just fatigue.
Just fatigue, mental health.
I mean I do love an audience and the
reason I do this job is that I love that
whole process for the set
time that you're on stage.
I always say we live a life of service so
when I'm on that stage, it's not about me
at all, it's about what I can summon
up within me to give to that audience,
whether it be through laughs,
whether it be through thought
provocation or challenges.
Just leave them entertained but also
leaving with a seed planted of progress
that they will take out into the
world and hopefully help grow a
better place for all of us.
And I love that and if at the end I've
done my job well enough on that particular
day and the audience responds with their
acknowledgement and enthusiasm for that,
that's the bit that's for me.
But while I'm actually in the process
of delivering, it's as I always say it's a
service. I see some performers
that haven't yet understood that
and it's all about me me me.
For my taste, it turns me off.
When you're on that stage, you are
providing a service and you have to give
all of you for the
purpose of the audience.
Do you think that's something
that comes with time though?
Were you that performer
in the beginning?
Would it be me me me?
Probably because I
came to drag very late..
You're telling me you
weren’t born this fabulous?
It felt very safe and warm because it was
all sparkles and glitter on the inside but
on the outside it was bigger.
It sounds like something
I want to retreat to.
And that was part of my own growth,
I didn't come to it until I was in my 40s
and so and part of it had been due to
early years, disapproval of drag by my
parents and the trauma that was inflicted
upon me when they caught me doing drag
when I was about 10 years old.
And so I literally then found a cocoon
and didn't come out of it for 30 odd years
and so maybe because I had that long
gestation period and because I didn't come
to it when I was raging with the
enthusiasm of youth, I've had time to
consider that and maybe
that's why I have that attitude.
I think you can bring especially
with drag you can bring a lot of like life
experiences into it and when you've got
a few more years behind you, you've got a
few more tools to play with,
you know what i mean.
And I've also always been a person that's
been drawn not due to any part of my own
doing but just my DNA to social
activism and progressive leanings.
That naturally became part of my work and
one of my all-time heroes and inspirations
has always been Nina Simone and
she has a wonderful quote saying it's the
responsibility of an artist to
reflect the times they live in.
And that's a quote that I took too long
before I became a performer so it's always
been a guiding principle.
That's actually a video I recently seen,
Nina Simone videos have come to light
again recently, obviously due to the Black
Lives Matter campaign and the movement
that's taking place, now that came about
during lockdown which a lot of people were
struggling with anyway, that on top of
lockdown, it must have been hard, it must
have been difficult.
Yes, but then the real difficulty is the
hundreds of years of oppression, the
hundreds of years of subjugation,
the hundreds of years of black lives not
mattering. So therefore when this
particular leg of the movement kicked off
during lockdown, and there was a choice
of do we stay home to save lives or go out
to save more lives, because corona's only
been around for you know five or maybe
four months at the time, the kind of thing
that the protests were about had been
killing lives or suppressing lives that
it didn't kill, for four or five hundred
years. So the people that went out there
to protest knew the risks but it's a risk
that they were happy to take because
of what they saw to be the greater good,
despite the fact that the majority of the
people involved, the majority but not all
in the Black Lives Matter movement and
protest are from communities that are more
vulnerable to corona and that is how
strong and desperate the urge to do
something and seize upon and the most
seize the moment in order to make change.
Every generation has its fights, I mean
I'm from a generation whereby we've fought
in this part of the world what I'll call
statutory homophobia and suppression and
those are the fights that we fought from
section 28 from this and that and that and
this, and the millennial generation, their
great battle has been mopping up all the
stuff that we left behind.
Because every generation passes on to the
next, the world that they have had and so
when they received the world, they went
okay, thank you for passing this on but
this that, that, that is not right and
we stand up against that and that's our
fight. Then you have the intergenerational
struggles, I don't know why you're trying
to change it just like you know people
of our parent generation said no you can't
be, Margaret Thatcher, you can't teach
people the inevitable right to be gay, so
every generation resists it but at the
end of the day the people who are the
custodians of the mantle of
progression will always win through.
Which is why we did the
microaggressions video.
You can do better because I always believe
in supporting each other's learning and
you have those that win the bulldozers to
clear away the mess and then you have the
builders who help build the new.
My DNA is more geared towards the building
and so everything I try to do is try and
build and both are necessary and both
are important and have to go hand in hand.
Do you feel hopeful for change because it
was only yesterday I was reflecting and I
was thinking we started the year with
a hashtag be kind, we've all turned our
profile pictures black for BLM, we've
clapped for nurses but yet it's only eight
months into the year and yet people have
shown unkind, behaviour to each other.
Very sad.
The profiles have gone and it was almost
a trend the BLM movement for a lot of
people, but clapping for the nurses they
didn't get the pay rise or whatever, is it
a worry that these things can become a
trend that everybody jumps on and then is
forgotten and as an activist which you
are, how important is it for you to keep
the movement going?
The movement will always go, the movement
and progress can never be stopped no
matter from which angle you approach your
resistance to change or the intensity of
that resistance,
change will always happen.
Because that is part of life,
you change or you die so change happens.
However there is no single bullet, there
is no one single protest or one single
hashtag that will solve the problem and
so you shake the tree, some of the rotten
apples fall off,
great upheaval, some persist.
Somebody else comes along, shakes
it again, it's a process and so yes I have
hope and whatever we do, we must do in
order to be able to do that bit that you
can effect that piece of change that we
can here and now until you go back and
shake the tree again or
somebody else steps in and shakes.
So before we now cut to the incredible
video that you were part of, can we just
congratulate you on being cast in
Everybody's Talking About Jamie?
Incredible.
I'm sure you're very excited
for all that to come out.
I've loved it, I've never been
in a movie before, it's fabulous!
You know at my age!
21!
It’s like the entire life that I
lived before didn't happen.
In my 50s you know I had
my first modelling contract.
I might be absolutely atrocious
but at least it will be there forever.
It’s gonna be fab,
we can't wait to see it.
It’s in my IMDb profile!
(Laughter)
It’s been incredible talking to you.
Tutu, would you like to
introduce the clip to the camera?
Oh, I would love to, why not?
It's down to you.
It's been so marvellous
chatting to you two as well,
it's been an absolute pleasure.
Congratulations on the books!
Thank you!
But thank you very much, here in the pride
cottage (it's a shack!) here is the video
put together by myself and some friends
of mine talking about microaggressions.
#YouCanDoBetter.
This is a three minute edit of it and if
you want to see the full version which is
about nine minutes long,
go on to any of my social media profiles
Son of a Tutu on Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
But this is the three-minute version,
microaggressions, #YouCanDoBetter.
Thank you.
Hi, have you ever wondered
how you can do better?
Well a few friends of mine have asked me
for help in this regard, but I'm not here
alone. I brought some other friends along
with me to help with this assistance.
So shall we begin?
When you don't acknowledge my existence
and ignore me as I enter the store yet
proceed to follow me around,
watching everything I do.
You can do better.
Please stop asking if I wash my hair,
you can do better.
Please don't tell me to smile so you
can see me in the dark, you can do better.
Please get my country of origin right
and not refer to it as Africa, which is a
continent, you can do better.
Please recognize me as your local priest,
not the local black priest, you can do
better.
Please stop shouting ‘me
love you long time’, at me.
You can do better.
Making reference to a racist stereotype
and then turning to me to say well not
you, you're not black black.
It's not a compliment,
you can do better.
Please stop asking me
lasciviously which part of me is black.
My blackness is between my ears,
not my legs.
You can do better.
Please don't assume I'm good at sport
just cause I'm black, you can do better.
If I'm just stood there, minding my own
business, don't come over and try and
touch my hair.
It's rude, you can do better.
Please stop asking me the size
of my manhood, you can do better.
Please don't tell me you're not racist
because you have black friends, you can do
better.
When i tell people I'm a trained dancer
and they ask me to do some hip-hop moves,
but I just tell them that I'm a
classically trained dancer, and the sheer
disbelief on their faces,
you can do better.
When you ask me what my heritage
is instead of where are you really from,
thank you for doing better.
Thank you for calling out the bartender
at the gay bar for serving white people
before he served me,
even though I was waiting the longest.
When you treat me just like everybody else
as an equal, thank you for doing better.
Please help us stop the anger
and frustration created by
these microaggressions.
We can only do it together.
Thanks for listening and watching,
you can do better.
Much love!
Thank you so much for sharing that with
us and it's such an important message as
well, thank you for just being
so honest and opening it up.
It's a really powerful video.
Thank you very much.
It's really powerful and I think it just
goes to show that between us all, whether
it's us, our friends, our family,
our community, we can all affect change.
We certainly can and everybody's got
their power to play and we can all make a
change together so let's
stay hopeful for the future.
Amen to that!
Thank you boys.
I look forward to seeing
you on the stage very soon.
And I look forward to coming on your radio
show at some point, you'll have a full 2
hours to yourself, movie star!
Thank you very much,
amazing and thank you everyone.
I will be back a little bit later talking
about my book, yes it's a good book, it's
a very good book.
I think I make it into page three,
I'm always on page three!
Maybe parts of me spins into four.
Shocking!
Now, we're gonna leave
you with a little bit of music.
We've come so far and
we've reached so high
And we've looked each
day and night in the eye
And we're still so young
and we hope for more
We've come a long way
But we're not too sure where we've been
We've had success, we've had good times
But remember this
Been on this path of life for so long
Feel I've walked a thousand miles
Sometimes strolled
hand in hand with love
Everybody's been there
Just then I realized
what a fool I could be
Just 'cause I look so high
you don't have to see me
Finding a paradise
wasn't easy but still
There's a road going down
the other side of this hill
Never forget where
you've come here from
Never pretend that it's all real
Someday soon this will all
be someone else's dream
This will be someone else's dream
We've come so far and
we've reached so high
And we've looked each
day and night in the eye
And we're still so young
and we hope for more
But remember this
We're not invincible
We're not invincible
We're not invincible
So again I tell you
Never forget where
you've come here from
Never pretend that it's all real
Someday soon this will all
be someone else's dream
This will be someone else's dream
Never forget where
you've come here from
Never pretend that it's all real
Someday soon this will all
be someone else's dream
This will be someone else's dream
We've come so far and
we've reached so high
And we've looked each
day and night in the eye
And we're still so young
and we hope for more
END
