Walking tour with Paul Flynn

12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Saturday, August 18, 2018

Writer Paul Flynn will explore British pop music’s reaction to the AIDS crisis. The witty, often ironic messages found in McDiarmid’s Rainbow Aphorisms borrow from popular culture and comment on society’s reaction to the AIDS crisis. Inspired by McDiarmid’s quips, Flynn will discuss the pop music and culture that defined a generation; responses include discussions of Bronski Beat, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Boy George, Neneh Cherry, Freddie Mercury, Pet Shop Boys and more.

Flynn will also interrogate the cataloguing of desire and danger in pop music at a time when they collided with extraordinary cultural impact, at a moment when the counterculture necessarily took control of the mainstream.

Alongside his visual artworks, David McDiarmid’s interdisciplinary practice included fashion, activism and music. He made hundreds of mix-tapes for his friends, including a compilation called ‘Funeral Hits of the 90’s’ which can be found in the archive of the National Gallery of Australia. He was also a sometime DJ, playing house and disco at gay clubs as well as Sydney Mardi Gras.

Route
This walk will begin at 78 Railton Road, SE24, the site of the former South London Gay Community Centre before heading to Studio Voltaire and finishing at Two Brewers bar.

About the contributor
Paul Flynn a journalist and author of Good As You: 30 Years of Gay Britain. He began writing at City Life magazine in Manchester and is currently the Senior Contributing Editor at Love and a columnist for Attitude and Grazia. He has previously been a contributing editor and writer at i-D, Pop, Dazed, Fantastic Man, The Gentlewoman and GQ Style. He has written for the Guardian, the Observer, the Sunday Express and the Sunday Times newspapers.

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