On with the show! . Anything to Declare? . Jackie Foster . Camp outside the gates . Gluck-mania!

On with the show!

It used to be a happy coincidence for us that Brighton Pride fell at the same time as the Brighton Festival - we could kill two birds with one stone. Now that Pride is settling itself into an August slot we'll have to redouble our efforts in future.

Festival Plans

Having had a rest from the Festival this year to complete the auto/biography of Barbara Bell - now entitled Just Take Your Frock Off and waiting for a publisher to snap it up - we're raring to go with plans for the Brighton Festival next May.

Initial thoughts suggest potential for an evening of entertainment á la Rehersal Club in 1960s London. Jo Purvis, the club's founder and loyal Brighton barfly for 50 years, has recently lent us the clever and witty parodies she penned in the sixties to be sung to well-known song tunes. 'Bye Bye Blackmail' celebrated the change in the law which finally allowed gay men to do it legally; and 'Waiting at the Gate' immortalises the Gateways Club where lesbians were (rightly or wrongly?) supposed to be doing it all the time.

This festival plan is still in embryo at the moment but grab the brochure when it comes out because we'll be in there somewhere.

Exhibiting Ourselves

This year BOP member Tom, and tireless author, journalist and Brighton resident, Rose Collis flew the BOP flag at Pride. Their leaflet 'Making an Exhibition of Ourselves - a short lesbian and gay guide to Brighton Museum & Art Gallery' (25p from OUT! Bookshop) is a treat whether or not you're interested in art. Find out, amongst others, who inspired Gluck's famous flower paintings, the unfortunate identity of Virginia Woolf's last doctor and see a portrait of the man Osbert Sitwell knew as 'Doo-doo', 'Scrumptious', and 'Luvvy Lamb'. Could this be the basis for a ful-scale guide, a tour on tape? Watch this space.

Friends of Dorothy

The next event to look forward to, though, is a talk illustrated by video clips to be presented by Stephen Bourne of the National Film Theatre, on Gay Men in Film. Friends of BOP are automatically invited; if you'd like to become a Friend, please contact us for an application form. One of the leading experts in this field, Stephen's 1996 book, Brief Encounters: Lesbians and Gays in British Cinema 1930-1971, is compelling reading, so it should be a wonderful evening.

And finally, those who spotted in the Leader that we are now an official part of the Remembrance Day ceremony will be pleased to hear all went well - but for the first year ever, no announcements were made to identify the wreath-layers. Don't frighten the Brownies.

The 1989 Brighton Area Action Against Section 28 banner, with its maker, Arthur Law. The banner has recently passed into the BOP archive,
thanks to Melita Dennett.