08/10/2020
Time for a bit of history. The B-52s are a new wave band from Athens in US Geogia, and have a very gay following, as anyone who heard vocalist Fred Schneider camping it up on US podcast Feast of Fun last Christmas week, will attest. Their largest UK hit single, “Love Shack”, hit the top ten in the beautiful spring of 1990 and secured them a place in the rock and roll pantheon. Incidentally, the pop video features Ru Paul before fame! By the time of “Love Shack” the B-52's had already been making music for nearly fifteen years. Eccentric and with a wit that translated well to Britain and Australia in particular, the B-52's had been hit with tragedy, when in October 1985, founder member Ricky Wilson passed on of an AIDS related illness. The group nearly disintegrated in the years of grief to follow, but rallied in 1989 to produce their acclaimed “Cosmic Thing” album. Fred and Kate are also committed vegetarians and animal rights campaigners and this week the rock radio station Radio Caroline reminded its listeners that it was in late September 1993 that Kate was one of eight people charged with criminal mischief as part of an animal rights demonstration over fur at the offices of Vogue Magazine. And as for Fred Schneider, he revealed on the Howard Stern radio show that when he came out to his mother many years ago, she simply said “Oh, I know, Freddie” and carried on vacuuming without missing a beat. Some of the music press were reporting in late 2019 that the B-52's were planning a grand farewell tour as they all approach their seventieth birthdays. However, their own website suggests that there is a lot more campery to come.
