MAY 14, 1993 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
23
ENTERTAINMENT
A talk with the Flirtations
by Greg Varner
This interview took place the night of Friday, April 9 on the Oberlin College campus, minutes before Jon Arterton, Cliff Townsend, Aurelio Font and Jimmy Rutland collectively known as the Flirtations-took the Finney Chapel stage by a cappella storm. Their concert kicked off Oberlin's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Pride Week; their delighted audience gave them a standing ovation and demanded encores.
At one point, founding Flirt Jon Arterton asked the crowd, "Would you still like us even if we weren't gay?" It's a trick question: there's no doubt the Flirts are every bit as talented (and more) than their straight peers in the music business, but it's also clear that if they weren't gay, they couldn't do what they do at least not with that graceful blend of intelligence, wit and care that characterizes queer style.
The group gave pop standards such as Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" and James Taylor's "Secret O' Love" loving renditions, sometimes reclaiming them for the gay community by giving them a parodic spin, as in their version of the Beach Boys classic, "Fun, Fun, Fun": "And he'll have fun, fun, fun 'cause he's ab-so-lute-ly certain he's gay."
They also sang some original songs, including "Living in Wartime," by absent fifth member Michael Callen. They did this song in tribute to Callen, who was diagnosed with AIDS in 1982 and has become one of the longest-term survivors of the disease. At the time of the concert, Callen
was undergoing chemotherapy and planning for what the group called his "swan song"-an appearance later that month at the March on Washington, where the Flirts would do benefit concerts for SMYAL, a social service group for youth in sexual minorities.
The rest is history, along with their fabulous performance at Oberlin.
For Flirts merchandise, write to the Flirtations, P.O. Box 421, Prince St Station, New York, NY 10012-0008.
Greg Varner: Tell me about the structure of the group, and how decisions are made.
Aurelio Font: Vocally, there is some loose structure. You'll have Cliff singing the bass, and Jon doing tenor/baritone stuff, and Jimmy doing tenor and counter, and I'm doing counter and structure, but at any given point we may flip up into other ranges. So we kind of break the standard as a men's group. You'd expect a T-T-B-B sort of set-up tenor, tenor, bass, bass. And we're iconoclasts vocally, because we'll just do whatever we want to do to make the best possible sound.
As far as decision-making goes, we operate for the most part on consensus. If
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there are ties, or we're not sure, members of the group do have veto power, which is to be used only in extreme circumstances. But for the most part, if one of us has a different opinion from one or two others, or three others, then we're under obligation to listen very carefully to the person who has a different point of view. Maybe we'll understand what that person is saying. So we operate for the most part on consensus, but occasionally we'll lapse into the democratic system and then out-vote each other.
How do you choose material? Jimmy Rutland: Well, basically, one of us will bring in a song that they like and feel strongly about and then the others will vote down. A lot of material is brought in and very few of them end up (in our repertoire). We do it by consensus.
The Flirtations are Jon Arterton, Cliff Townsend, Aurelio Font, Michael Callen, and Jimmy Rutland (l to r).
Cliff Townsend: We have two or three original songs. Jon wrote one of the songs that we do as an encore, and Michael has written a couple.
What's that beautiful lullaby you do? "You can be anybody you want to be, you can love whomever you will?”
Cliff: "Everything Possible." That's not ours, that's Fred Small's. It was virtually unfamiliar until we started doing it. Now everybody knows the song. Millions of gay
choruses around the country have adapted
it. People hear it on the album and they love it so much, they use it for weddings, funerals, and just everything. We keep getting letters that say, "We used your song for a christening," you know, and everything. It's gotten really popular. I think it's basically because of our recording of it.
Jimmy: Well, the sentiments and thoughts in that song are so universal and so wonderful. That's why it's so popular.
How long have you been together? Cliff: A little over five years now. Is this the original group?
Cliff: No. These two (he nods in the direction of Jon and Aurelio) are original, in from the very beginning. I joined the group after about a year and a half, and then Jimmy joined about a year after that. Who started the group? Cliff, Aurelio, Jimmy: Jon did. Jon, how did you start? Were you a singer before?
Jon Arterton: Yeah. We were all singers, from different backgrounds. We started this group after the last (1987) March on Washington. We just put up posters around New York and people came out and auditioned.
Aurelio: God only knows what's coming out of this year's March! It might give birth to groups like the Flirtations. The Goddess only knows!
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What's next for you guys?
Aurelio: You're going to see a special on HBO, Why is My Son Gay? We'll be part of that. You're going to see a movie, Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia-we're going to be part of that.
Cliff: We're releasing our own documentary, too. Just our group. It should be out by the end of the year.
And it will be available to individuals? Cliff: We hope so, yeah. And that depends on what happens to it. If somebody
gets it to distribute, it may get airplay. Or we may end up selling it ourselves, as we do our records.
Speaking of records, when are you going to get signed by a major label? Aurelio: When the music industry becomes less homophobic.
Cliff: That's basically it. I mean, somebody must know about us-we've been pre-nominated for the Grammy award, so our name must be familiar to somebody. But nobody jumped on the phone to offer us
a contract.
Pre-nominations?
Jimmy: There are several rounds, actually, in the process. Before they pick the final five, there are approximately seventyfive names in each category. Those are the pre-nominations. Then the people in the industry vote on those seventy-five to make the final five.
Aurelio: We made it right to the point before they picked the final five.
Cliff: There weren't enough of the voters, probably, that knew who we were. What category were you in? Cliff: Alternative music. Jimmy: Right, so we were up against the B-52s.
What album was this?
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Cliff: Out on the Road, our live album. Is there another album coming soon?
Aurelio: We're gathering a lot of new material which will probably go on a new album, but it's important for people to know that it's extremely, extremely expensive to crank out an album, and particularly for a group that isn't snapped up by a major label, it's a major struggle. It's a wonder to me that any lesbian or gay group that doesn't come under a major label is able to crank it out. It's basically through a lot of
sacrifice-sweat, tears, and the support of very loyal fans.
Cliff: The two we did, we produced and paid for ourselves.
Now that David Geffen is out of the closet, maybe he'll sign you.
Jimmy: Right. We have high hopes. What are some of the songs that'll be on the next record?
Jon: Shhh.
Cliff: We're still deciding. How many dates are on this tour? Aurelio: Well, we haven't gotten any. Sorry. Is this your full-time job?
Cliff: We really don't have much time for anything else. The few days or a week at a time that we're at home is just spent on Flirt business, and the rest of the time we're touring.
Aurelio: We're professional homosexuals.
Jon: We want to know why we've never been invited to play Cleveland.
I don't know. I wish you would. Jon: There are no homosexuals in Cleveland?
Maybe if they read this, they'll be shamed into inviting you.
Aurelio: That's assuming they have some shame.
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