LGBT History Month & Sparks (A queer deep dive)

 Hey everyone, it is Jack/Noodle again, I began writing this after my last post to give me time to begin a run of short/sweet/simple deep dives. I am not sure how frequent I’ll be posting over the next few months, but I can assure you by June things will hopefully have a regular schedule, I finish university in June and I’ve been pretty mixed about university (not me hating what I’ve learnt, more so the experiences I’ve had as an autistic and queer person at university have been very mixed). I also have some artwork going up in late March in a gallery near me relating to sparks so I’ll be doing a very special post around making art and sparks, so if you live or are near Northern England please check out the Northern Contemporary gallery in Sunderland from the 22nd March 2025, there’s a really fun exhibit called Come As You Really Are all around people’s hobbies, my friend also has things in on their crochet and they’re incredibly talented. So to begin this short adventure, call it a walk and talk; I’m going to be linking a song everyone adores which is When I’m With You to the queer community for LGBT History Month. 

So to my unaware or curious people who are asking me through a screen, What is LGBT History Month? Why do we need to celebrate it? Well I am so glad you asked, but don’t literally ask your screen, maybe type it. So LGBT+ History Month is a whole month of celebration around queer history, and not just glancing in and reminding you that David Bowie was bisexual, looking at how pride began and remembering those we have lost to diseases such as AIDs whilst reminding people about how a lot of queer people still don’t feel safe being out. It’s also a time to sit and remember them killed due to the ever rising rate of hate crime, also we get to talk up on our issues and make the public who usually turn a blind eye to us until they see we’re “sponsored by Barclays Bank” in June. We need to celebrate it because without us talking on issues or remembering those we’ve lost, we risk repeating history and silencing a small community, we also risk forgetting our ancestors who fought for us. Also in current days, it’s more important than ever before to share history with politics especially in the States creating laws and regulations around the trans and queer communities, I also heard how google have been removing this month from their calendars as well which says they’d rather use the queer communities as profits and as soon as a blonde tanned man gains power and mocks the smaller communities the big companies laugh too. Before I do my sparks deep dive, I want to remind you this blog is a safe space for my queer friends and fans, I myself I’m very openly queer and trans masculine, I also use he and they pronouns. I also want to add this blog has been held in me for a while but I was waiting for the right time to write it because my ex boyfriend didn’t like me sharing my political views and fears publicly which is strange considering they were trans and alternative. Anyways, let’s begin to walk up the sunny hill of deep diving. 

(A promo pic from the album Terminal Jive, the album When I’m With You is from) 

The song we are discussing today is When I’m with You, from 1980 album Terminal Jive which has often been very overlooked within the community, I rarely hear friends and fellow fans tell me they enjoy this album, I feel it can be down to many reasons but we aren’t hear to make you see why you should accept this album as a child of No.1 in Heaven, I’m here to just deep dive on a song and connect it to being queer and celebrating queer joy. When I looked into this album it has productions from Giorgio Moroder and Harold Faltermeyer, it also has the Mael’s back at it in writing songs again. When I hear about this album I find many rumours and theories around it such as how Ron went into the studio with 20 songs written and many were discarded/scrapped, which is insane and I hope to one day get to hear more of these songs or learn about them. Maybe (if he’s reading this) Chris Sutton will be writing about these songs or researching much more than I will on them. The album to many is a “one hit wonder” and yes I’m choosing to talk about this today. ‘Because When I’m with You’ all I feel happy knowing so many of you found comfort in my writings or have used me to help understand how an essay is formed. 

(Another promo shot used for ‘Terminal Jive’) 

The song ‘When I’m with You’ is a love song in the most simplest terms as the narrator starts by admitting how they “never have a problem when I’m with you”; in theory the narrator is head over heels in love, like many of the listeners, I sometimes used to play this track and ‘Lucky Me, Lucky You’ to my ex because yes I felt head over heels for a bit. I also feel this lyric could suggest to them life feels like a dream now they are in love. In the next verse, I pick out two lyrics which agree that this narrator is head over heels for love and the first one admits “I lose a lot of sleep” which can imply either they are always excited to see them or that they’re having sex with the other character on a night. The next line is “I meet a lot of people when I’m with you” this I feel links to how the narrator feels confident and comfortable with his lover which can show how healthy of a relationship they’re going through. Many sparks fans or new wave fans connect to how their partner makes them feel safe and educated and seeing their world from new eyes. I also feel this line can relate to queer people because meeting new helps us build a family or network or possible future lovers, especially if you’re in a small area. 

The break/bridge bit is what makes song interesting and it makes me laugh but I completely understand it, knowing now that the character is head over heels, the line in question is “but the pressure is on, and I can’t make up nothing special” this makes me think that the narrator is trying his best to say something that isn’t just “I love you” and to make it beautiful. I also feel this is about how in a world swirled with media and pressure to get it right and perfect the narrator is stressed because they want the same perfection. In a queer relationship, that perfection is rippled immensely as we all beg to be different and to be able to be seen as unique, unfortunately being unique in today’s world can be seen many ways:1) It’s bland and repetitive, you try to stand out and learnt online how everyone else does “standing out” and copy them. 2) You are bullied into being “normal”, growing up I was embarrassed most my teen years because I was unique and different to everyone around me, as I’ve gotten older I’m less embarrassed by my weirdness and it’s something everyone likes about me, I’m hoping to begin selling weird things at markets because I love celebrating everyone’s weird sides. 

(Sparks 1980, I personally miss Russell’s fluffy hair and I’m agreeing with fans who said years ago that it’s clear he’s naturally curly) 

In the next verse the sweetest line (in my view is sung) is “I never feel like garbage when I’m with you” which always makes me smile because I hope to find someone who understands this is probably the most romantic thing to say. I want a guy who makes me not feel like garbage! I feel this is relating to how the character in this song wants the love interest to know how important they feel around them; I also believe it’s relatable to being queer because finding that someone who doesn’t make you feel like trash is like finding gold as unfortunately (in personal experiences) a lot of queer people have superiority complex in relationships and think bending the rules “is not cheating” and expect people to applaud them for being flexible. I am the opposite of superiority because I am a quiet person who just wants someone just as weird as me and understands my needs and that I may need quiet times. Another line from this verse is “I almost feel normal” which hits the neurodiverse part of me deep. This line hitting as an autistic person helps me relate and connect to this song, also interestingly a lot of neurodivergent folk identify as queer. I think this line shows that the character feels weird and out of place in the world and the lover is helping them fit as they’re just as weird, if not weirder. I also feel it could show that before they were in love they were self conscious about dating someone, which I feel so many of my audience/readers can relate to; I've had so many of you comment or message me how I’m comforting you because I talk about topics they relate to and that I understand how love can be uncomfortable and also weird at times. So to you guys I feel you should re listen to when I’m with you and remember this character understands the feeling as well. 

In the next verse, the character says a line I can interpret in many ways, which is very common in sparks songs, the line is “I always need a shower when I’m with you”. My first interpretation is that the character and lover are having a lot of sexual encounters and thus making the narrator need to clean himself, which is very good practice and shows he’s trying to keep them and their partner safe. My second interpretation is that the narrator/character is sweating so much around them because seeing them makes them anxious and from mine and my friends experiences seeing our love interest accross the room from us can make us sweat and panic and usually we laugh it off and go hide until we’re ready. My last interpretation is that the narrator is using the shower as a place to think of them, which is very funny to me because I don’t understand why people need to think of someone in the shower only as I think of people anywhere. 

In the last key verse, the narrator states “I never need a mirror” which is the sweetest thing to thing about because it shows that the narrator is not trying too hard to impress them as they’re so head over heels for this person. I also feel it can show they trust their lover with saying if they looked nice. In my previous relationship the guy once said to me “you need to dress more normal/basic” to go to a gay club. Which I found crazy because I’m always dressing my best for someone as I was raised to believe you need to dress to impress. When I read this line I can tell the narrator trusts their love interest to say “you’re slaying!” Or “that’s not your vibes, it’s not good” which is the sweetest. Another line from this verse is “I don't care what I look like” which relates to my previous analysis which is further amplified because the narrator is saying he isn’t bothered if they look rubbish, just as long as they get to hang out with them. As a queer person I believe we’ve erased that part of our life and beliefs; we see meeting our love interest as a performance and that each of us is the main character. I’m hoping me speaking up is going to help in rewriting trashy outfits into queer love. 

(Ron, Russell and Giorgio; around 1980) 

And that is all I am talking about today. I hope you enjoyed this small deep dive as much as I did when writing it. I’ve been so busy this week! I helped with a launch of a festival on Tuesday, did a tour on Wednesday (I managed it without a script so go me), had a class on interviews on Thursday and now it’s Friday and I’m doing a lot of arty work. I’m thinking tomorrow I need a day off from working and being a human being. I also want to give a huge thank you to everyone who reads this, I honestly love taking the time to research, write and share my thoughts and (as said earlier) I love hearing how some of you are comforted by this space. I am also on instagram at: doodle.noodle.27 and frogofnoodle so if you want more comfy spaces I will be found there. Also please do send me ideas/feedback because I will definitely try and crack down on them. Next week I will be back being busy as march begins (that scares me) but I’m discussing with my friend on Wednesday about selling things at a market and wandering around shops so I’m looking forward to that. But yes, until we meet again; I have been Jack/Noodle and you’ve been my readers.