Singer Jimmy Somerville lent his soaring falsetto to two of the Eighties' premier dance-pop outfits, Bronski Beat and the Communards, before embarking on a solo career. Born in Glasgow, Scotland on June 22, 1961, he co-founded Bronski Beat in 1984; from the band's debut single "Smalltown Boy" onward, Somerville's songs dealt openly with his own homosexuality, a recurring theme which met with surprisingly little commercial resistance as both the record and its follow-up, "Why?," cracked the UK Top Ten.