The alliance of classically trained instrumentalist Richard Coles and energetic,
falsetto-voiced singer Jimmy Somerville was an unusual one, but it produced a
strikingly successful hi-NRG pop-dance act; which had two massive hits in the
1970s with dance covers of soul classics Don't Leave Me This Way and Never Can
Say Goodbye. Somerville, a gay icon who'd already gained fame with Bronski Beat,
had met Coles when he played clarinet on Bronski's hit It Ain't Necessarily So
and they were joined by ex-Bronski Beat bass player Dave Renwick to form The
Communards. They had their first ...