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Local historian calls for plaque for Violet and Daisy

A campaign has been launched in Brighton to honour conjoined twins who became international entertainers, touring Europe and United States in the 1920s and 30s.

VIOLET and Daisy Hilton were born in Riley Road, Brighton, and local historian Alf Le Flohic is leading a drive to raise funds for a plaque to be installed outside Number 18, where they were born in 1908.

Mr Le Flohic, senior website officer at the University of Brighton, said: “The twins were huge stars in their day – at the peak of their fame around 1927 they were earning $4,000 a week, about three times the average annual American salary, but they have largely been forgotten in the UK.

“When I discovered they came from Brighton I thought it was only fitting to have a plaque outside their birthplace.”

The sisters were rejected by their mother, an unmarried barmaid, and adopted by landlady Mary Hilton who saw their financial potential. Joined at the base of the spine they were originally known as Brighton’s United Twins, a reference to The United Brothers Chang and Eng Bunker, the original Siamese Twins.

The sisters were exploited for their disability – just weeks after being born they were put on show for money at The Queen’s Arms pub in George Street, Kemptown, Brighton. As adults they toured sideshows, vaudeville and burlesque circuits, singing and dancing, and appeared in two films: Freaks (1932) and Chained for Life (1952).

Mr Le Flohic said: “As adults the twins took the Hiltons to court and gained their freedom, but settled for only a portion of the money they had earned over the years. They fell out of favour with the American public after Violet’s big celebrity wedding in 1936 was quickly revealed to be a publicity stunt.”

The twins’ last show was in North Carolina in 1961 and eight years later they died within a few days of each other, reportedly from Hong Kong flu.

Mr Le Flohic said: “I’m delighted my nomination for the plaque has been accepted by Brighton and Hove City Council and very grateful the current owners of number 18 have agreed.

“It’s a fitting tribute to Violet and Daisy – they had hard lives but became stars against the odds. As a city that embraces people who don’t necessarily fit the norm, they are definitely ‘one of us’ and deserve to be more widely known in Brighton. To add a further twist to the story, there were rumours that Violet preferred the ladies, and her husband Jim Moore was well-known to be gay.

“They were definitely talented. They could play numerous instruments and had lovely singing voices. They appeared on the cover of sheet music for songs they made popular. They danced with a young Bob Hope and were befriended by escapologist Harry Houdini.”

The Queen’s Arms pub and Brighton Hippodrome will form part of city walking tours Mr Le Flohic will be running this summer – with all fees being put towards the cost of the plaque.

To donate towards the cost of the plaque, click here:

Any additional funds raised will go to http://facingtheworld.net, a UK charity offering life-changing surgery for severely disfigured children, including conjoined twins.

Photos of Violet and Daisy courtesy of the Wellcome Collection.

YouTube footage: Never Fall in Love from 1952 film Chained for Life.

Fringe REVIEW: DIY Chef @The Warren

George Egg

DIY Chef at The Warren

Saturday, May 27

GEORGE Egg has a possibly unique and certainly very unusual mix of stand up and cookery which he performers and cleverly creates in front of us using a large assortment of DIY tools. He does exactly what it says on the tin and in an engaging and utterly daft way.

He is very laid back and blokey but still accessible and made some very funny and topical comments and jokes about Brighton, it’s nice when someone makes the effort to learn a little about the city they are gigging in, rather than just dropping in a generic ‘City name’ joke number 5.  He’s got rather a devastating shady eye roll on him and I was convinced he’s been practicing arching his eyebrow raising just for us gays….

Egg whips it up into a froth of unexpected delights, some of the things he used, and the ways in which they are used belies a surreal and adaptable imagination and he’d certainly be on my list of people to share the Isle of Man with in a zombie apocalypse as much for his sheer entertaining company as much as his ability to knock up a meal using just about anything.

The set feels more like his shed than like a set and his sassy but educational dialogue alongside the culinary process was quite mesmerising as he effortlessly put together three meals during the hour we watched him.

His novelty combined with his effortless charm and seriously oddball inventiveness makes this show on the delights of the weekend. Egg turns out a spectacular, funny, intriguing comedy/cooking/lecture/stand-up show and it’s tasty and there are not many folks who can do that hat trick on the circuit. A comedy show with real food, cooked live, using power tools. And the audience get to eat it at the end, and – for once – a gent who delivers on his promotional promises!

Highly recommend.

For full details of the show, click here:

Fringe REVIEW: The Ealing Inheritance @Sweet Dukebox

Harking back to the golden days of British comedy films like Kind Hearts and Coronets, this absolutely ridiculous piece of theatre by Button Pressed films, starts implausibly in a little house of mystery in Ealing and just gets dafter.

Written, directed by and starring Simon Messingham, we meet four characters who are not at all what they claim to be.

Messingham as the fortune-hunting Prof Price, who supposedly runs a music conservatoire in White City, is on the eve of his wedding to the unbelievably waspish dragon, wart-riddled Emma, played deliciously awfully by Elizabeth Downes.

Emily Piercy as her manic sister Felicity, who has a fear of the outside world, is a delight to watch as she prances manically round the tight little stage claiming she is “too beautiful for this world”.

Prof Price has the sharp repartee of a Groucho Marx as the situation becomes more and more improbable, and the matter of a family fortune in African diamonds rears its deadly head.

The 4th character, Sellers, played by Isaac Finch, is in many aspects not properly developed and explained and as the plot unfolds he adds a complication not really necessary to the slick running of the story. His one moment of triumph is to burst into unexpected song in one of the more surreal episodes of this mock-farce-cum-melodrama, which owes as much to the Young Ones as it does to Margaret Rutherford or Alec Guiness.

As the show grows to a close, in the sauna-like heat of this small theatre space, the plot unravels and we learn some of the truth of what is going on, but the absurdist nature of the dialogue and storyline makes for contradictions and confusions, which could be ironed out with a bit of judicious editing and rewriting.

But if you like frenzied acting on a par with the League of Gentlemen, you will absolutely love it to bits.

The show continues at Sweet Dukebox( at the Southern Belle pub ) until May 31 at 10.30pm.

Review by Brian Butler.

For more information, click here:

OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar – Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! By Ms Sugar Swan

The Munchkins, a good witch, a wicked witch, and ruby slippers. A yellow brick road, a paradise, an all-seeing entity that can grant us that which we are lacking. We all know the story, we can all relate. As a lifelong ‘friend of Dorothy’ I have always felt close to this story, and in this month’s ‘Bears’ edition of Gscene, its narrative is one that mirrors many aspects of LGBTQ subculture.

Just as our young protagonist, Dorothy Gale, a scared, confused girl sung of a place where dreams really do come true, when we find LGBTQ subculture that works for us, we can often feel like we have found our very own somewhere over the rainbow. After a lifetime of being told that we’re too tall, short, fat, thin, femme, butch or awkward to fit in anywhere else, queer culture finally feels like a place where we belong – but what happens when that place no longer feels that you belong to it? This is where the intersectionality of being seen transitioning from bear to trans woman clashed.

For many years I did a relatively good job of hiding my gender underneath a bear costume, but that’s all it was for me, a costume. I grew in a huge beard, my tall, wide frame lent itself to a belly and plenty of muscle which I adorned with tattoos, a chest pelt and my pathetic wisps of hair that remained from my male pattern baldness, wet shaved, completed the look. It was a good look on me. I fitted in, it was comfortable and I was deemed a very attractive bear – there was only one problem, I wasn’t one.

The bear scene turned out to be a very unhealthy place for me. The type of masculinity portrayed in bear subculture was one which was really quite toxic to me. I was praised for a set of physical attributes, attributes that I had carefully cultured, but unfortunately were a hiding place for me. Instead of being a place that I felt at home, that I belonged, the bear label soon became a prison to me.

When I first came out as non-binary and started presenting as a femme bear, albeit still with the beard and chest hair, but in makeup, I started to get the side eye. I was no longer conforming to a rigid stereotype of what a bear was, and the subculture didn’t like that. I was told, many times, directly to my face and online that I was ‘losing my bearishness’ and that was something negative.

When I started to wear breast forms, I think, that was the straw that broke the bear’s back. I was no longer made to feel welcome as part of this community. It struck me as most strange at the time as by its very definition the bear subculture is one that understands what it’s like to be rejected by the mainstream LGBTQ culture and I’d hoped for a little more understanding, however I was not afforded it.

As I moved across from my non-binary femme identity to that of a binary woman and I began my hormonal and surgical transition, the beard went and the facial surgery came, the chest hair went and my breasts came, and the hair surgery brought back my (goldie) locks. I shed the muscle that I’d worked so hard to hide behind and my belly started to roll into my new-found hips, and as time elapsed I looked less and less like a bear.

With the passage of time, I’m now able to go for a drink on the bear scene without the hostility I was once met with. This begs the question: Why? Why am I accepted now but I wasn’t then?

After a lot of consideration and discussion I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m now seen as the female friend of a bear rather than someone trying to be part of the community – and a friend of the scene is something they can get their heads round whereas a trans feminine bear was something they made very clear to me they would not.

This saddens me and I would have hoped for more tolerance and understanding around this, for if bears did not feel oppressed by mainstream LGBTQ culture there would be no need for events like Brighton Bear Weekend.

So it had been made very clear to me that a trans feminine bear was not something that would be tolerated (apart from the beautiful Brighton Muscle Bear who still kisses me with as much gusto and excitement under his kilts as he did 10 years ago, you know who you are), but how would the trans masculine be tolerated?

I spoke to a range of trans masculine bear-identifying people and they had very mixed experiences to report. Some trans men who identify as bears say they have to fight hard for their place in the community and despite their beard, their shaved head, their tattoos and their chest hair, having a vagina seems to disqualify them. This is disappointing to hear but not exactly surprising.

It’s counteracted somewhat though by friends of mine who feel that the Brighton bear scene, at least, does not exclude them solely on account of being vagina owners. They tell me that bears understand what it feels like to be excluded and to be pushed aside for someone younger, fitter and adhering to the white, hairless, tanned, muscle guy we see on flyers for most gay male events. This acceptance at the intersectionality of trans men and bears brings me hope for the joined future of all LGBTQ subcultures.

I wish all you bears out there a very Happy Brighton Bear Weekend and I hope that somewhere your dreams really do come true.

DJ Profile: Rob D

Well you gorgeous sun bunnies you – it seems that the early summer is upon us now that June has arrived!

AND what better way to drench those sparkling days and balmy nights (I’m ever the weather optimist) is there than with a soundtrack filled with fun and joy?

This month, Queenie has a chat with Rob Davis, the fabulous DJ Rob D, to find out where we can hear him, what he loves to hear and even where he’d like to reside…

How are you? Very well, thank you. I’ve actually just got back from the United States after spending three weeks out there visiting family and friends. I would absolutely move out there tomorrow if I could!!!! 

Where can we hear you? It does change from time to time, but I generally play in either Brighton or Central London these days. You can find me at the Freedom bar in Soho and the Two Brewers in Clapham amongst others in London. I love playing at both Revenge and Charles Street Tap in Brighton. You can also spot me at the Hampshire Boulevard in Portsmouth. 

What are you playing these days? Well, I’m always mainly commercial. I play pop, I love my R&B an, of course, I’ll always play some great house bangers, particularly house remixes of old 1980s and 1990s classics. You can never go wrong with those! I also like some cheese)

Fave song of all time? Oh gosh. There are so many songs out there I could listen to again and again. But if I had to choose one it would have to be DJ Sammy’s ‘Heaven’. If I could be cheeky and choose an artist as well… RIP Avicii! He really was my absolute favourite DJ! All his music was unique and he just had the best songs! My favourite one he did was Seek Bromance.

Best ever gig? I don’t really have just the one best ever gig, but I have a few up there! Norwich Pride back in 2014 was amazing – a really fabulous crowd! Also back in 2012 DJing on Soho Square on a beautiful hot sunny day to hundreds of people! That was cool – or should I say hot, hot, hot!!!! 

Tune you wish you’d never played! I never play a tune I regret!

Describe yourself in three words… Outgoing. Motivated. Energetic   

Rob D’s current top five:
• Ariana GrandeNo Tears Left to Cry – Republic Records
• Sigala & Paloma FaithLullaby – Ministry of Sound
• Anton Powers featuring Pixie LottBaby – 3 Beat Productions
• Jonas Blue featuring JP CooperPerfect Strangers – Positiva
• GalantisPillow Fight – Atlantic

INTERVIEW: Making all the right moves with Stephen Mear

Brighton-based Stephen Mear has established himself internationally as the go-to choreographer for big classy stage musicals. Fresh from his triumph with Chess in the West End, he talks to Brian Butler about dyslexia, Strictly, and working with Stephen Sondheim.

AT THE age of three, Stephen started running in and out of his mother’s dance class, so she decided to teach him. The rest is the story of a phenomenal career as a dancer, choreographer and director, picking up two Olivier Awards and many other accolades along the way, and a career that has seen his work many times in the West End, in Paris and on Broadway.

Stephen was lucky enough to appear as a dancer in two West End shows while still a student at London Studio Centre: the sixth year of Evita and the original cast of 42nd Street, something that students wouldn’t be allowed to do today.

After college it was straight back to the West End and Cats, playing a swing dancer, then Mungojerrie, and finally Mr Mistoffelees. “At college I knew ballet was my weakness so I took 14 lessons a week. Without that I wouldn’t have been able to do Mr Mistoffelees.”

Stephen admits that he is badly dyslexic: “It wasn’t identified till I was 16 but dancing was something I could do.” 

His dancing career included eight West End shows. As his dancing days were drawing to a close, he started assisting. His first big job was the UK tour of Soul Train starring Sheila Ferguson.
“That got me noticed, though it was only in the West End for six weeks.”

Stephen usually works with a music arranger, which is quite unusual in the UK. “Some composers won’t let you change their orchestrations, but many will. The musical director has to be on board for it – it has to be a collaboration.” 

Having new arrangements allows Stephen full scope for his inventiveness and creativity outside the confines of what might have been originally conceived for the show.

He has worked with many of the most brilliant directors and performers in a career spanning over 30 years, including twice with Stephen Sondheim on Follies and Gypsy“Steve gives notes every now and then, but he has no ego – his whole aim is to make the show better.”

The Mear philosophy is that dance should move the story and the characters forward: “I don’t believe in dance for dance’s sake.” 

When Trevor Nunn decided to use some of the same actors in two shows, Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost and the musical Anything Goes at the National Theatre, Stephen encountered actors who were convinced they couldn’t dance. “So I put some dance moves into the actors’ warm-ups and suddenly they realised they could dance. As long as they know you won’t make them look stupid, they grow into it.”

His preparation for a new show is to take some of his routines to stage schools and colleges and try them out on the students. It also allows him to spot emerging talent and he’s always keen to use new performers.

Stephen believes today’s musical theatre benefits from what he calls “the triple threat” – young performers who excel at singing, acting and dancing. “Producers are keen to cut costs and tend to go for all-round performers. I think we’re at the peak of that now – it’s harder now if all you can do is dance.” 

Stephen has moved into directing and would like to do more: “But only if I know the show backwards.” 

On his to-do list are Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Grand Hotel and Mame, but his next projects are a concert version of Guys & Dolls and a production of White Christmas in Leicester.

He sees a positive benefit from the huge success of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing. “It’s not thought to be bad now for boys to be dancers. It’s great to see people learn a craft and get better every week. It’s encouraged people to take up dancing or even just exercise.”

His partner, choreographer Mark Smith, has been deaf since childhood, and now teaches dance at all the major stage schools. Stephen incorporated sign language into a recent production of Mary Poppins. Mark is currently choreographing a UK tour of an all-male Iolanthe which is at Brighton’s Theatre Royal from June 19-23.

Stephen worked for nine years in Chichester, “It was very important to me,” and he worries about the future of theatre outside London. “People used to learn their craft at regional rep theatres. It breaks my heart they don’t get the funding they deserve.

“I love doing classy theatre and I’m optimistic about the future of dance. The talent coming out of stage schools is so much better than I ever was. It’s why I like my connections with colleges – working with all that future talent.”

And how was his latest venture, the long overdue revival of Chess?  “It’s out of this world – 46 people on stage and a 50-piece orchestra – it’s spine tingling.”

More info
• Chess is at London’s Coliseum till June 2
• Iolanthe is at Brighton’s Theatre Royal from June 19-23

Book REVIEW: David Bowie Made Me Gay by Darryl W Bullock 

David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years Of LGBT Music by Darryl W Bullock.

THIS comprehensive history encompasses a century of music by and for the LGBT+ community. Bullock has done some serious research but is also driven by a sense of the personal, the enlightening and the profoundly effecting, and as music is often the first place we learn to express who we are, recognises that this is a fundamentally important medium.
LGBT+ musicians have shaped the development of music over the last century, as well as providing a sexually progressive soundtrack to the gay community’s struggle for acceptance.
With the advent of recording technology, LGBT+ messages were for the first time at the forefront of popular music and Bullock examines how those records influenced today’s music. He shares stories of many musicians whose music hasn’t survived but who lived their lives to the fullest, in all their queer glory; from American jazz singers to 1930s German songs like Das Lila Lied (The Lavender Song), with its refrain “We are just different from the others” (probably one of the first recorded songs to directly reference and celebrate homosexuality).
He examines the almost forgotten Pansy Craze in the years between the two World Wars, when many LGBT+ performers were feted by royalty and Hollywood alike. The book is illustrated with unseen photographs and stuffed with info and insight on the glory years of burgeoning LGBT+ lives in the 1970s-80s, when the emergence of disco and glam rock gave birth to ‘out’ gay pop stars: Elton John, Boy George, Freddie Mercury and George Michael; and asks where we are today, and how much further we have to go.
Definitive, informative and challenging this is a must have for anyone interested in popular LGBT+ creative lives within mainstream culture.
Published by Gerald Duckworth & Co; £18.99. 

Fringe PREVIEW: The Soft Subject (A Love Story) @The Warren

After a sell-out run at Theatre Royal Stratford East, critically acclaimed Hyphen Theatre Company come to Brighton Fringe with their Edinburgh Fringe smash show about love, loss and The Little Mermaid.

CHRIS Woodley’s autobiographical solo show The Soft Subject (A Love Story) invites us back into the classroom to learn about love, loss and The Little Mermaid.

In this highly-energetic, pop-fuelled, heart-on-the-sleeve account, Woodley playfully explores the peaks and troughs of wanting it all in the modern world. After a critically acclaimed run at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe this is the shows Brighton Fringe Premier.

“A lovely personal testament to family”…. Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

★★★★ “heart-breaking”….. The Stage

Nominated for The Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence.


Event: HYPHEN Theatre Company presents: The Soft Subject (A Love Story) – Written and performed by Chris Woodley

Where: The Warren, St Peters Church North, York Place, Brighton

When: May 29-31

Time: 8.30pm

Cost: £8.50 – £10

To book tickets online, click here:

Gay man elected Mayor of Crowborough Town Council

Mayor of Crowborough Town Council - Cllr Greg Rose
Mayor of Crowborough Town Council – Cllr Greg Rose

Cllr Greg Rose was elected as the new Mayor for 2018/19 at the Crowborough Town Council meeting on May 22.

GREG, 38 moved to Crowborough with his husband John Dale in 2011. They have been married since 2010 and live in Crowborough with their two dogs Baxter and Hudson.

Greg, first elected in 2015 to represent Crowborough East Ward as both a Wealden District Councillor and Crowborough Town Councillor, works full-time for a gift and homewares wholesaler as Head of Buying and Design based in Tunbridge Wells.

On being elected Greg, said: “It’s an honour to have been chosen as the new Mayor of Crowborough. I think it’s a momentous occasion when Councillors in a rural town such as Crowborough elect an openly gay man and his husband as the public face of The Council

“The fact it was not even raised as an issue that the Mayor and Mayoress would both be men shows what a modern, open and equal place Crowborough is, and that is the message I intend to spread far and wide across Sussex during my term as Mayor.

“I’m not usually one to stand on my soapbox about being gay, however if by being open about my sexuality and showing that it hasn’t stopped me being successful in life, helps just one person who is currently struggling to come out, or deal with their sexuality, then I’ve done my job and I’m a happy Mayor!”

Greg has already attended functions as Mayor including the Crowborough and District Chamber of Commerce meeting, and a training session to learn CPR taught by the Crowborough First Responders.

Greg said: “I intend to hit the ground running. Supporting local businesses, charities and promoting Crowborough as a great place to live and work. Crowborough is situated at the edge of the stunning Ashdown Forest, and if you do come to visit you may even spot our world-famous, although very shy, wild Giraffe population.

“I love living in Crowborough, I may not be born and bred Sussex, but I feel like I belong here. Crowborough has given me so much over the past 7 years and now it’s my turn to give something back.”

John Dale his husband works in Crowborough Town and will be known officially as the Mayors’ Consort.

Cllr Martyn Garett was elected for a second term as Deputy Mayor.

Cllr Rose and husband John Dale
Cllr Rose and husband John Dale

Ten years supporting Chestnut Tree House

Chestnut Tree House, the Sussex children’s hospice, organised a special celebration last month for David Hill, Director of Brighton-based events company, The E3 Group, in recognition of his ten years supporting the charity.

David with the team at Chestnut Tree House
David with the team at Chestnut Tree House

DAVID first started working with Chestnut Tree House in March 2008 when planning his Feather and Fireworks Ball which took place in June 2008 celebrating E3’s 10th anniversary and David’s 40th birthday.

During the following decade, he has supported Chestnut Tree House, both through his company and as an individual, including organising a 10k run in Mallorca, two movie premières (Spectre and Star Wars), hosting a luncheon, taking part in the charity’s China Trek in 2015 and even climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, despite his fear of heights.

David has also taken part in the hospice’s Pay For a Day initiative, sponsoring an incredible seven days of care – it costs £6,850 every day to provide all the charity’s care costs both at the hospice and in families’ homes across Sussex and South East Hampshire.

Since 2012, David has been producing the charity’s annual flagship event, The Snowman Spectacular Fundraising Ball, and has over the years introduced many new contacts and supporters to Chestnut Tree House.

Juliette MacPherson, Fundraising Development Manager, and Sarah Colbourne, Head of Fundraising, presented David with a special photo book to commemorate his support at a small gathering of supporters and staff who have worked closely with him over the years.  They also presented him with a 50th birthday cake to mark his own special celebration in June.

Juliette said: “We would like to say a huge thank you to David for his fantastic support, not only financially, but also for his loyalty and commitment over the last ten years. We truly appreciate everything that he does for Chestnut Tree House.”

Chestnut Tree House provides specialist palliative care services to 300 children and young people aged 0-19 with life-shortening conditions in East Sussex, West Sussex and South East Hampshire.

The services they offer include assessment, advice and information for children and young adults with life-shortening conditions, specialist short breaks, emergency care, step down from hospital and end of life care.

The Community Team cares for families in their own homes in East Sussex, West Sussex and South East Hampshire while the multi-disciplinary team offers support for the entire family following diagnosis and through the whole disease process.

Chestnut Tree House also offers bereavement support which includes therapy, counselling and spiritual care. There is also a specialist neonatal care service, services for under 5s and transition advice for young people moving to adult services.

Chestnut Tree House also offers care for families after the unexpected death of a child or young person, including the use of their ‘Stars’ bereavement suite.

Chestnut Tree House, aims to provide the best quality of life for children and their families, and to offer a total package of practical, social and spiritual support throughout each child’s life, however short it may be.

These combined services cost well over £3.5 million each year to provide. Families are never charged for the care they receive and the hospice receives less than 7% from central government, relying heavily on the generosity, help and support of the local community.

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