Mansun, ‘I Can Only Disappoint U’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“Sam refused to speak to me for the entire run, despite my role as ‘Virtuoso’, dildo and merkin maker to the King and Queen of Sodom, requiring me to ‘swive’ her onstage nightly.”

Neneh Cherry, ‘Manchild’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“And then those sumptuous 50 piece Abbey Road strings sweep in and you were away, an amused, bemused and only slightly confused 19 year old homosexualist making his first knee trembling suburban journeys into London, off hand-in-hand down an alley with the big sister you never had.”

Shakespears Sister, ‘Stay’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

” I was absolutely terrified of Death in this video, the alarm in me building with each step she took down the stairs. Now that I think about it, I sometimes react the same way with some drag queens, too.”

Maurice, ‘This Is Acid’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“My debut as a gay man was also my introduction to a genre of music that would change my life. Previously, my musical tastes had reflected my sense of sadness, of difference, of division. But, coming out made me feel happy.”

Air, ‘Sexy Boy’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

” ‘Sexy Boy’ took on a whole new meaning to me after this. It set off a firework of thoughts and feelings I hadn’t realised were there. It was my sexuality awakening.”

John Holt, ‘Mr Bojangles’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“In the years that followed, more memorials and funerals. Some close friends and a partner. Sadness upon sadness. ‘Mr. Bojangles’ became the song that got me through.”

Nancy Sinatra, ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“While I could never fathom Duran Duran or Bros, I found a whole new world in the fading LP collections of my older relatives, and I would scour them, making little mix tapes of my favourites.”

R.E.M., ‘Überlin’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“Together we embody the portmanteau ‘Überlin’, created by Michael Stipe, a man who refused to be sexually branded, by R.E.M., a band that wailed us though the cum-storm of our liberation.”

Blur, ‘Girls & Boys’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“I knew I was a girl who was attracted to girls, but as a young teenager I didn’t quite understand that it was really possible to live like that.”

Kate Bush, ‘Kashka From Baghdad’.

To mark LGBT History Month, 2013, Polari asked its contributors to recall a song that had an impact their own stories.

“They’re not tragic figures these gay men, instead they engender love and hope; ‘At night, they’re seen laughing, loving. They know the way to be happy’.”