Martin Aston
Author & Journalist
BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS OF HEARTACHE: How Music Came Out
Constable/ Little, Brown 2016 (UK)
Backbeat 2017 (US)
Spanning over a hundred years of seismic change, astonishing bravery and visionary sound, Martin Aston explores popular music’s queer DNA, drawing together the lives and music of the first singers and songwriters to defy the social and political norms of their time, to tell the story of how music ‘came out’ .​
“One of those books that once you’ve read it, you wonder how we survived without it…. Informative, entertaining, frequently moving, and often surprising.” (Public Address)
THE BLURB:
“All rock’n’roll is homosexual,” Manic Street Preachers once claimed, and stuck it on a T-shirt.
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The band might have overstated the case, but you can’t beat a good slogan. Yet popular music’s queer DNA is inarguable, from Elvis in eye shadow to k.d. lang’s female Elvis; from the far-reaching influence of Little Richard’s ‘Tutti Frutti’, the Velvet Underground and Bowie’s bisexual alien Ziggy Stardust; from Frankie Say ‘Relax’ to house music godfather Frankie Knuckles; from Kurt Cobain in a dress to lesbian icon and couture model Beth Ditto and 21st century trans icons Laura Jane Grace and ‘future feminist’ Anohni.
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Yet most of the first performers to defy the social and political conservatism of their time and reveal the truth about their sexuality were typically the least visible, such as the Fifties lesbian rockabilly trio, the Sixties gay soul renegade, the seventies gay country music band and the real gay glam and punk bands of the era; the first queer rappers and trans rockers.
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Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache is the first book to tell their stories, shedding light on these hidden pioneers alongside their famous counterparts, at a time when there were few, or no, role models,. Step forward, please, pioneers such as Fred Barnes, Tony Jackson, Bruz Fletcher, Frances Faye, Billy Wright, the Roc-a-Jets, Jackie Shane, Lavender Country, Handbag and Fifth Column; trailblazers all. Aston’s ambitious and comprehensive narrative unfolds over one hundred years, against a backdrop of social and political shifts, as gay liberation transmuted into LGBTQ+ rights and pushed for visibility and equality,. From the daringly liberated 1920s through to the pre- ad post-WWII closet, the unlabelled, against-the-odds breakthroughs of the 1950s and 1960s, the glass-ceiling-shattered Seventies, the mainstream invasion and AIDS crisis of the 1980s and the advances of the 1990s and 21st century. The love that once dared not speak its name now sings, and on daytime radio to boot.
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The book also documents the retrogressive steps in Russia and parts of Africa, where songs that bravely encapsulate the LGBTQ+ experience while homosexuality remains a crime, punishable by death, lengthy prison sentences and public-mob violence, signify how the journey from illegality and bigotry to freedom is far from over.
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The Facebook page is here
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​My Spotify playlist is here
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My Guardian feature is here
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​Interview with the Irish Examiner here
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Public Address feature/interview here
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James Bartlett, AKA queer pioneer and former Cockette Rumi Missabu: "UK journalist Martin Aston's ambitious and masterly researched new tome explores for the first time the contributions of mostly unsung or forgotten performers who in the span of over one hundred years and a myriad of countries transformed music as we know it today. An important LGBTQ social document and fun fact filed romp; BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS OF HEARTACHE is now available for the first time in the US and I am thrilled to be included amongst its voluminous 574 pages."
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​"Breaking Down The Walls of Heartache ranges from lesbian blues musicians to John Grant's Glacier and everything in between. It's the queer Revolution In The Head, a serious, exhaustive work that's utterly fascinating. It's part celebration, part historical document and a vivid picture of the struggles so many LGBTQ musicians had to overcome." (Carrie Marshall, Amazon)
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