Read My Lips

Jimmy Somerville’s debut solo album Read My Lips will be re-issued by London Records in a variety of formats and featuring rarities and new remixes on September 1st, 2023.

Originally released in 1989, Read My Lips garnered Gold status, with three UK Top 30 hits and a Top 5 Hit for Jimmy’s version of Sylvester’s ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’. As frontman for Bronski Beat and later with The Communards, in five short years Jimmy had become internationally renowned to the tune of over five million album sales, his music recognised worldwide for its themes of celebration, protest and advocacy.

By the end of the decade, Jimmy focus had turned full beam to the HIV crisis of the time. As writer and activist Paul Burston explains in his new sleeve notes for the album: “Five years have passed since ‘Smalltown Boy’. Jimmy has spent much of that time in New York, where he’s seen the devastation of AIDS first hand. He’s lost friends and lovers. In his own words, ‘Smalltown Boy’ was “much more subtle, emotional, a more considerate plea, whereas ‘Read My Lips’ was like, ‘This time the gloves are off’.”

The title ‘Read My Lips’ was a phrase adopted by NYC queer collective Gran Fury, an affiliate of ACT UP, a platform Jimmy was a committed member of. Members of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) – a political group working to end the AIDs crisis – regularly risked arrest as they stormed office buildings, blocked traffic “united in anger” at the lack of understanding and support for AIDS sufferers.