Jeremy Joseph explains why Kylie will always be the Queen of G-A-Y…
Gay Pride 1993 at LA 2
Kylie’s first appearance was when we were in a little venue at the LA 2. It was the first time we had done a surprise act, it was Pride and the slogan was: “It’s who everybody wants it to be!”
It was still early days for me, I’d only been doing it for six months and I came on stage and asked the question, “Who is it?” and the whole crowd chanted back, “We want Kylie!”
I laughed to myself, what if it hadn’t of been? She walked on stage and the sound of the cheers was incredible. You could hardly hear the music. It was just phenomenal.
Kylie’s 2nd appearance was September 1994 to launch ‘Confide In Me’.
Kylie had such an amazing night the previous year that she promised to come back and do Pride the next year. As it came around, Kylie got the role in Street Fighter and had to cancel us. We hadn’t advertised it, so it wasn’t a problem. But it’s a testament to how loyal she is that as soon as she came back to the UK, her management called me up about ten days before and said, “Do you want to do it?”
G-A-Y’s 1st Pride in The Astoria in 1995
This is when we moved up to the Astoria. We’d doubled our capacity to 2,000. Dannii did the launch night and at the time, we didn’t know how it would work. Kylie’s manager turned up on the night and turned to me and said, “So, I suppose you want Kylie for Pride?”
Kylie’s 4th appearance was when we joined both venues, LA2 and The Astoria, together by video screen for Pride in 1996
We’d taken over the Astoria and the LA2 for one night. The idea was that Kylie and I were going to host it, but we were never on stage together, and her and I would meet in the Fire Exit and work out our intros between performances. We had five other acts on: Dannii Minogiue, Bananarama, Margarita Pracatan and The Human League. The idea was that you didn’t know which act would be in which venue. Kylie and Dannii also sang a couple lines together, but over video screens!
Next was Pink Paper’s 10th Birthday when she launched ‘Did It Again’ in November 1997
Kylie was going to host it with me to celebrate the Pink Paper’s birthday. I got a phone call from the Human League’s manager saying, “I don’t think Kylie’s going to do it. Michael Hutchence has just died.”
I called her manager and said she doesn’t have to do it, but at sound check she insisted she wanted to as it had been advertised she didn’t want to let anyone down. Her only worry that night was that she didn’t want people to think that she didn’t care about Michael.
I said to her to say something on the night, but if there was something she wanted to be said, but couldn’t, she should grab my hand and I would say it. As it happened, when the moment came, she grabbed my hand and I spoke for her.
If anything tells you what kind of person Kylie is, it’s that night.
Kylie’s 6th appearance was to launch ‘Spinning Around’ in 2000
This is when we saw the beginning of Kylie’s big shows at G-A-Y. It was a full on stage show and it was absolutely spectacular.
After ‘Cant Get You Out Of My Head’ was Number 1, Kylie turned up for her own theme party in 2001
That was one of my favourite shows ever. There was one date that was possible, but as the song was such a hit all over Europe, her schedule was all over the place. I didn’t want to lose the date, so we had a Kylie-theme night and we were going to at least run a video message.
As the date approached the video message didn’t get done, but we got to record a phone message. On the night, her manager Terry arrived and called me to meet him by stage door. I laughed at him and joked, “Ha, so we didn’t need Kylie to pack the club out,” and standing right behind him was Kylie!
So, I went on stage and told the crowd that we were going to call her. As we talked on mic, she said, “I don’t think this is working,” and walked out on stage. The crowd went wild!
Kylie’s 8th appearance was in 2004 with the release of ‘Red Blooded Woman’
This was another massive stage show spectacular with costume changes, dancers and a taste of her next massive tour. It was a fantastic night.
Kylie’s first appearance on stage after receiving treatment for cancer was at G-A-Y. She went on stage and surprised Dannii at the launch of her sister’s Greatest Hits.
Kylie had been away for a year getting treatment for cancer. She had just got the all-clear and came down to support Dannii. Nothing was planned that night and Kylie was watching from the balcony. At the end of the show, she walked out on stage without an introduction to give Dannii the flowers. Dannii had no idea what was going on. It was so emotional. Then they did an acapella rendition of ‘Jump To The Beat’ together. It was just amazing.
Kylie’s 10th appearance was her first show at Heaven for the release of Aphrodite in 2010.
It was an important date as it was her first performance since G-A-Y moved to Heaven. There are certain acts that you need to have as endorsement that this is G-A-Y’s new home, and to have Kylie there is that endorsement.
• Kylie is at G-A-Y at Heaven (Villiers Street, WC2N 6NG) on Saturday 22nd March. Discount wristbands from G-A-Y Bar.
