Love, Loss & Living: Through an LGBTQ+ Lens

12:00 - 13:45

Lucy Ray: LGBTQ+ Love & Loss

Hayley Kay in conversation with Basil Newby

Electric Pink Voices perform Daddies Eyes

Some stories need to be heard.

The afternoon begins with 45 minutes of music and storytelling from Lucy Ray, exploring LGBTQ+ love and loss through original songs, personal stories and moments of reflection. Lucy’s intimate set creates a space to think about the people we love, the people we have lost, and the memories that stay with us.

From there, BBC Lancashire radio presenter Hayley Kay will lead a very special, one-off conversation with Basil Newby – one of Blackpool’s great LGBTQ+ trailblazers.

Basil has played a significant role in creating spaces where LGBTQ+ people could meet, socialise, find community and feel safe at a time when those spaces were few and far between. His life and career have been woven into the story of LGBTQ+ Blackpool, and his experiences offer a unique window into a generation that lived through enormous social change.

In this rare and personal conversation, Hayley will invite Basil to take us through his journey – from creating and championing LGBTQ+ spaces in Blackpool to the profound impact of the AIDS epidemic, when friends, colleagues, performers and members of the community were lost, often in circumstances surrounded by fear, stigma and silence.

This is an opportunity to hear Basil speak openly about the people he remembers, the lives that were changed and the resilience of a community that continued to love, gather, celebrate and look after one another.

The event will close with Electric Pink Voices, Blackpool’s LGBTQ+ choir, performing Daddies Eyes – a newly commissioned arrangement by singer-songwriter Jamsheed Master.

A tender, lullaby-like piece, Daddies Eyes tells the story of a father holding his child and reflecting on a lost partner, seeing familiar traits in their child, a smile, a look, a pair of eyes, and holding a connection to someone who is no longer there.

It is a fitting final moment: a song about love surviving loss, memory living on, and the things we carry forward.

This will be a powerful and moving evening of music, history, testimony and remembrance, bringing together generations of LGBTQ+ Blackpool and creating space to hear, remember and celebrate the people and stories that have shaped our community.

Come and hear Basil’s story. Come and remember your own losses. Come and be part of it