A few weeks back, a gaggle of gays, drags, trannies, queens, DJs, and more gathered to record a festive single with the aim of raising dollars for HIV awareness organization Status. Dusty O explains all…
The idea for “Christmas in Soho” came up after a brain storming session I had with my friend Ben B from Boi Sounds who wrote my 2011 Pride single ‘Wat 2 Do – Come Out’. We both wanted to work on another project together, but I did not really want another “Dusty O” generic dance single as both Ben and I agreed my voice is more suited to blues’y style material.
I had helped launch Stuatus, a non for profit organisation that encourages and facilitates gay men to get tested for H.I.V. We both thought it would be a great idea to pool our contacts and knowledge of the club/recording industry and do something festive that involved loads of our Soho friends and colleagues and work in association with Status, as we both love what they are doing .
Of course, we needed to fund it so the first task was to get some cash together. We organised a designer ‘bring and buy’ sale at Trannyshack and loads of great people donated some gorgeous clothes. It was that that got us started and soon Ben was in legendary KONK studios, owned by Ray Davies of The Kinks fame, with a cast of celebs and singers, drag artists and Soho names including beehive Queen Miss Mari Wilson, Linda Lewis, Jennie from the Belle Stars, Jeyjon from Dead or Alive, Zee Asha from Chicago and Culture Club fame, Nathan James, Holestar, David Hoyle, Marc Massive, Lorenza Johnson, the famous Trannyshack Gurlz Vanilla Lush and Vicki Vivacious, Gozra Lozano, Bambi Fantastic, Marc Abe, myself and many more.
The finished result was pretty good so the next step was to get some remixers in on the job. Circa’s Adam Turner got to work as did my great mate Nik C, who I worked with on my Abba cover of ‘Does Your Mother Know’ with Q-Boy, and they came up with two storming dance versions of the track .
We had filmed the actual recording as we wanted the video to have a ‘Band Aid’ feel, but wanted it a bit more “fun” feeling so we all got together at Victims Of Glamour studious with Bambi fantastic and filmed a second part to the video with us all having a party and camping it up a bit. The final result is on YouTube, and Ben and I are really proud of it.
The organisation of a project like this was a bit “nightmarish” at times for Ben and myself as so many people’s work schedules had to be worked round and things never go to plan when they need to, as we all know. However, with the financial backing of Circa, Ku Bar, The Yard and The Edge we managed it and are justly proud of the finished result which has been selling steadily on iTunes. We really hope people will dig deep and download it as it will genuinely help promote and finance a fab organisation that is genuinely helping our own gay community in Soho.
Go on… treat yourself.
• Download ‘Christmas in Soho’ on iTunes now. Proceeds will go to not for profit HIV awareness organization, Status.
