Marc Almond & Jimmy Somerville — I Feel Love (video)

JUL 01 1985 · 12:00

Marc Almond & Jimmy Somerville — I Feel Love (video) (1985) Director: Constantine Giannaris Era: Mid-1980s British Hi-NRG / Synth-Pop (1985) - Peak era of UK electronic dance-pop crossover, Bronski Beat and Soft Cell's worlds colliding in a queer-positive reinterpretation of Donna Summer's 1977 Giorgio Moroder-produced classic. An exceptionally high-value archive document: the only known promo video uniting Marc Almond and Jimmy Somerville, directed by an emerging queer filmmaker (Giannaris) and capturing a rare intersection of Hi-NRG, synth-pop, and disco revival at the apex of 1985 UK LGBTQ+ pop. Essential primary source material for research into 1980s queer cultural production, genre crossover, and pop video as activist statement. Context: Released in April 1985 on London Records, this video documents a landmark moment of mid-decade British LGBTQ+ pop visibility. Bronski Beat, fronted by the openly gay Jimmy Somerville, collaborated with Marc Almond of Soft Cell — both figures synonymous with queer identity in the UK mainstream — for a medley cover of Donna Summer's Giorgio Moroder-produced 1977 disco classic 'I Feel Love', itself a foundational text of gay club culture. The release came at the height of the AIDS crisis and at a moment when Section 28 politics were beginning to form in the UK, lending the video overt cultural defiance. The single's Hi-NRG arrangement, produced by Mike Thorne, repositioned the Moroder original within a 1980s synth-pop lineage while Giannaris's queer-sympathetic direction amplified its camp and celebratory charge. Director notes: Giannaris directed this video in 1985 (credited as 'Connie Giannaris'), the same year he directed The Communards: You Are My World. The video was released in April 1985 alongside the single on London Records, produced by Mike Thorne. It features Marc Almond and members of Bronski Beat including Jimmy Somerville, Larry Steinbachek, and Steve Bronski. The video runs approximately 6 minutes per IMDb, consistent with the promo covering the full medley format of the single (Love to Love You Baby / I Feel Love / Johnny Remember Me). The production represents an early example of explicitly queer-coded British music video work, aligned with Giannaris's broader artistic identity and advocacy.