Lost in Music: Amy Studt - False Smiles

Originally published on www.sosogay.co.uk

For many that were born at the end of the 1980s and in the early 1990s they missed out on much of the singer/songwriter craze that had become so popular during the early to mid 90s, which saw the birth of music superstars like Alanis Morissette and Tori Amos. Instead they listened to the music of teen pop idols such as Britney Spears and N’Sync.

However during the early 2000’s the emergence of Canadian teen rock star Avril Lavigne gave them a peek at what they had missed almost a decade ago. Like most pop stars, there had to be an equivalent of Avril in the UK and that honour got bestowed on one Miss Amy Studt. A young 16 year old from London, Studt was branded the British version of Lavigne by the press, much like Billie Piper was the British Britney, despite releasing her début single quite some time before the phenomenon that became Ms Spears.

With the release of her first single, ‘Just a Little Girl’, Studt looked poised for chart success having reached the UK top 20. The song itself was featured on promotional videos for the final series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, it was almost 12 months before we heard from Amy again, and in 2003 she released the single ‘Misfit’, which hit number six on the UK top 40 and was all over the radio and television music channels.

She now looked set for success; another top 10 single followed and a top 20 album in the form of False Smiles. The album itself spoke out for the underdog in the schoolyard, as Amy herself had admitted to being bullied whilst at school. Featuring brilliant tracks like ‘Misfit’ and ‘Ladder in My Tights’ she looked set to give teens who were experiencing the agonising daily trip to school a voice, showing those who don’t quite fit in that it was acceptable and everything would one day be OK.

However, the sales of her singles and album didn’t quite match up to her Canadian equivalent. A brief stint to try and re-market the album with a cover of the Sheryl Crow song ‘All I Wanna Do’ didn’t quite work out, failing to break the top 20. Sadly, this saw the singer being dropped from her record label.

It seems that maybe Amy didn’t quite match up to the hype or maybe the charts were looking for something a bit different, and given the fact that single sales were diminishing at the time until the second wind they found with digital downloads, Miss Studt may have just been around too early.

Fast forward five or six years later and female singers who write their own songs, with a unique sound and look are dominating the charts, just look at Adele, Florence Welch and the late Amy Winehouse. Sadly however, this is now and Amy Studt was back then, but for all those young teens that listened to the album they have a hidden gem of music that may have given them a bit of hope back in the day.

Icons: Judy Garland

Originally posted on www.differentscene.co.uk

As a new feature for Different Scene we will be profiling icons in the gay world. These people are often cited as being huge gay icons for numerous different reasons, whether it be because of their political stance, the way they’ve helped change the gay landscape or just because they have been adopted by the gay community for another reason, either way they are all extremely well known to members of the gay community.

For our first feature we look at a woman who is regularly cited as the greatest gay icon of all time, Judy Garland. Through her pain and suffering and ups and downs in both her personal and professional life, Judy is a huge star of times past and still in many people’s opinions, the greatest gay icon of all time.

Starting her life off as Francis Ethel Gumm, Judy started performing at the tender age of two and would do so for the remainder of her life. After years of performing on the stage with her sisters she was soon snapped up by MGM where she joined their roster of young talent. While here she forged a name for herself whilst staring alongside Mickey Rooney in a hand full of films, but it was a little film she made in 1939 that would cement her fame and ensure that she would forever be remembered.

That little film was The Wizard of Oz, a film that everyone around the world knows, and it was this film that provided Judy with her signature song for which she will always be remembered, Over the Rainbow.

It was this film that many consider to be the reason why Garland has become synonymous with the gay community. Her escape over the rainbow from the drab darkness of reality to a place full of colour and different people who didn’t fit society’s norms reflected the feeling of the gay community at the time, who were being repressed as homosexuality was still illegal, and for many years gay men were known as friends of Dorothy.

The film has become a lasting success and even won Judy a Juvenile Academy Award. But it was after this that things started to go bad for the young Garland.

After years of being over worked by the studios things started to take their toll on her, and she was dropped from the studio in 1946 following accounts of bad behaviour on film sets, drug use, suicide attempts and her fluctuating weight. These problems would go on to plague the former child star for the remainder of her days.

However through the pain and suffering Garland continued to bounce back, with sell out concert performances around the world and an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe win for her role in A Star Is Born. It was in the early 1960s when Garland truly bounced back with her performance at Carnegie sHall that is often cited by many to be the greatest night in show business history. The live recording of her performance spent week at the top of Billboard album charts and won Garland numerous Grammy awards, the album has not been out of print since.

Things looked good for her but through the success her failed marriages and other personal problems, which still included suicide attempts and drug and alcohol abuse continued to plague her, and after the cancellation of her television show, many regarded this to have been the final devastating blow to her.

Then in 1969 after years of torment and anguish Garland was found dead in her bathroom at her rented Chelsea home in London, where she had died of an overdose.

Like the 1960s version of Amy Winehouse, Garland was a true talent whose star burnt bright but burnt out ever so quickly.

Looking back on it now you can see why Judy has become such a prolific gay icon, her suffering and torment as a woman in a mans world emulated the suffering that gay men at the time were experiencing for not fitting the norm, and it has often been widely rumoured that Garland’s death was one of the triggers to the Stonewall riots back in 1969, but that is still just a myth.

Me, Wales and a drama fuelled weekend ...

Well this weekend I had a rather eventful trip back to South Wales for a friends birthday and to visit my family.

The weekend was fuelled with too much alcohol, overpriced clubs/drinks, drama, a lack of sleep and crazy taxi drivers.

So Friday was when it all began when me and my boyfriend left for South Wales at 6am in order to arrive early. So after travelling for two and a half hours and feeling as though someone had sucked all the moisture out of my eyes we finally arrived in good old Newport, and surprise surprise it was raining (nothing new there). This however was not the end of the travelling as we were now required to get on the bus, now I hate the bus due to it stopping so much and being filled with people who either:

A) Smell.

B) Sit next to you even when the bus is completely empty.

So after finally arriving in Abercarn, I returned to my parents house feeling sick so therefore couldn't eat, which is something that annoys me at the best of times and annoys me even more when there's a cooked breakfast awaiting. I ate it later.

So skip forward a few hours and it was time to go out, this was after the incident of trying to dry my hair with a hot brush as my sister had taken the only hair dryer to Ibiza. Seriously who has one hair dryer in a house with three girls?

So arriving in town it was all going well, everyone was drunk, there was some drama that I stayed out of considering it had nothing to do with me, it's all ok now though! But then of course my stupid wisdom tooth decided it wanted to make another attempt to escape into my mouth and rip face/head/jaw apart ... Therefore at around 2am I left, and this was after purchasing a bottle of wine, so in our best Bonnie and Clyde (slight exaggeration) attempt me and my boyfriend smuggled it out. I have since discovered that he can apparently fit anything into his jeans ... Always a good quality in a person during a night out.

So yeah that was all fine and then it came to Saturday, and after waking up at half 8 and having minimal sleep me and the boyfriend ended up going up the pub with my auntie ... Always a wise thing to do with a lack of sleep and a trip to Cardiff in line. Seriously we should have been napping.

So at around 7 we went to my friend's house, this was after the devastating news about Amy Winehouse which had just put me into a state of mourning (it's ok I held a musical tribute the next day whilst packing).

So after a few too many glasses of wine, cocktails and shots and a little bit of drama before we left, involving me losing my wallet, only to find it in the middle of the road where I had clearly dropped whilst getting out of the car, and one piece that won't be named we finally headed off to Cardiff in a hummer limo (how exciting!!) ... Where we were told off for standing out of the roof, seriously don't make the window flip upwards if you don't want people hanging out of it!

So all was good we had a few dances and drinks and many photos, before we got charged an absurd amount of money to go to Revs, and even more absurd amount for drinks (£5 entry and £15 for a bottle of wine, which was the cheapest drink .... SHOCKING), we soon left and headed to Burger King. With another bottle of wine in my boyfriends jeans.

Now Burger King was another annoyance due to it having human faeces smeared across the men's toilets which made me want to vomit everywhere, seriously a restaurant that apparently checks its toilets every 15 minutes shouldn't have crap all over the walls! Then some nosey cow got involved in my conversation saying she didn't want to hear us talking, even though she had been listening for the last half hour. This obviously resulted in a Nikki Graham-esque "who is she?" when she refused to butt out. She was soon quiet though after she was quite loudly told to "GO AWAY."

So after this we finally got into a taxi, which was half hour late ... Typical.

Now when we got dropped off was when it all got a bit dramatic and dangerous ... After the driver shouted numerous times when I asked him to drop me off at a certain point, claiming he wouldn't do it, even though this taxi cost £80 and he was half hour late, I asked for his licence number and taxi number, which he told me was on the front of the bus and I could get it once we stopped.

So after stopping and having a bit of a to do with another passenger, I went around to get the number, where the taxi driver attempted to run me over, not once, not twice ... But THREE times! All because I wanted his number to make a complaint.

Now if he had given it to me when I asked, which he is required to do by law then everything would have been find, I would gone home passed out and then gone for Sunday lunch. But now his three attempts to run me over had obviously left me completely shook up and petrified, so the police were called.

Now the police came the next day and all has been resolved and hopefully the taxi driver with excellent people skills will not being driving his taxi much longer.

Me - 1

Taxi driver - 0

But yeah that was my weekend!

Laters!!!