Jimmy Limbers Up

Gay Games organisers initially asked Jimmy Somerville to fly out to Sydney to perform just one song for the opening ceremony, perhaps not realising that he wanted to do more.

I thought to myself, -˜I’m going to be buggered if I’m going to spend a whole bloody day travelling to Australia to sing one song.’ That’s kind of mad, he says.

The result: Jimmy will perform the song Tell Me Why during the Struggle segment of the opening ceremony, and do a half-hour set later in the night at the official Welcome party.

Jimmy says his opening ceremony outfit has also been a source of some contention.

There have been a few changes to it, he explains. Initially it was a kind of leather kilt with a harness. I was trying to imagine myself in it. Maybe if I was six foot tall and six foot broad it would work. I’m very Kylie-esque in the size department.

Jimmy’s not saying what he will be wearing, but offers this much: There’s more covered than there is exposed, thank God.

That’s a far cry from what Jimmy wore the last time he performed in Sydney, when he appeared on the Mardi Gras stage at 10 in the morning, dressed only in a rainbow flag, to perform Never Can Say Goodbye. It’s a performance that’s still talked about, three years on.
The Gay Games people got in touch a few months ago and asked if I would like to do (the opening ceremony), I think because I had given my all when I did the Mardi Gras party a few years ago, he says.

Jimmy’s Mardi Gras performance is also remembered for the stories that have circulated in Gay Sydney ever since: rumours that suggest he had to be found minutes before he was due on stage; whispers that he was a little carried away by Mardi Gras magic.

They didn’t have to search too far, because I was in the dressing room, he protests. I was actually in the shower room having a horny session with a couple of lovely men. But like Maria Callas is rumoured to have said, there’s nothing better for opening the vocal chords than a big cock.

So I was just following in that great tradition, he explains.

Whether Jimmy will try the same warm-up method for the opening ceremony is unclear, but you can fully expect him to be in fine voice.