The Velvet Mafia

Overview

Stories of the LGBT people at the centre of the UK's music industry in the 50s and 60s, who changed pop, politics, and society for good

Concentrating on the friendship between impresario Larry Parnes, Beatles manager Brian Epstein, and showbiz solicitor David Jacobs, the book details how they shaped the Swinging 60s, along with their associates including songwriter Lionel Bart (author of the hit musical Oliver!), record producer Joe Meek, Sir Joseph Lockwood (the head of EMI), Vicki Wickham (manager of Dusty Springfield and assistant producer on the influential TV show Ready Steady Go), and more. Drawing on rare and unpublished archive material, personal diaries, and new interviews from some of the survivors of that turbulent decade, The Velvia Mafia shows how—in the period leading up to the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality and the founding of the Gay Liberation movement—LGBT professionals in the music industry were working together, supporting each other, and changing history.

Author Biography

Darryl W. Bullock is a writer, publisher, and editor specialising in music and the arts. He has written for publications including The Guardian, Pitchfork, the Quietus, Songwriting Magazine, The Bath Chronicle, Venue, Folio, The Spark, B24-7, 3Sixty, The Bath Magazine, the Bristol Evening Post, and The Western Daily Press. He is also the publisher of The Green Guide to Bristol and Bath. Darryl is the author of The World's Worst Records (Volumes 1 and 2), Florence Foster Jenkins: the Life of the World's Worst Opera Singer (Duckworth-Overlook, 2016), and David Bowie Made Me Gay. His next book, The Infamous Cherry Sisters, will be issued in December 2018.