03/01/2025
Tributes have been paid to the former Bristol based author, Darryl Bullock, who used his considerable skills with the pen to publish books on LGBTQIA issues and produced a rich vein of journalism on issues affecting west country LGBT+ issues. Mr Bullock passed on at the age of sixty on 23rd December. Mr Bullock was a native of the West Country, but had recently relocated to the beautiful Cumbrian countryside. Darryl was described in the independent newspaper B247 as “a veritable Bard of the bent, broken and baroque” by his friend Andy Partridge of Swindon rock group XTC, with his books covering everything from the world’s worst records to the relationship between gay nightlife and political activism. Darryl’s next book, a biography of engineer, songwriter, manager and record producer Joe Meek, will be published posthumously in 2025. For many years, Darryl was editor of the LGBTQ+ listings page in Venue magazine, the essential guide to everything gay in Bristol and Bath in a pre-internet age. Later, Mr Bullock took on the management of the Spark, a new age and activist newspaper, and continued to operate it for several years in an increasingly difficult environment. One of the original founders of ShoutOut, Mary Milton, wrote in B247 that “Darryl will be remembered for his generous support of the LGBTQ community and for his well researched books on music and LGBTQ culture…". Others involved with "ShoutOut" remembered that some gentle pressure on the then management of BCFM Radio needed to be applied to get the necessary doors open to the "ShoutOut" project. That pressure came via a timely article in "Venue" written by Mr Bullock. Independent music journal Louder than War noted that The Velvet Mafia: The Gay Men Who Ran the Swinging Sixties, was winner of the Penderyn Music Book Prize 2022. The funeral will be on Wednesday the 15th of January 2025 at 11:15 am at Distington Hall Crematorium, Distington, Workington, Cumbria CA14 4QY. Mr Bullock is survived by his widower, Niall.
