Bronski Beat — C'mon! C'mon!

JUL 01 1986 · 12:00

Bronski Beat — C'mon! C'mon! (1986) Director: Tim Pope Era: Mid-Period Synth-Pop / Post-Somerville Bronski Beat (1986) - Second-lineup era following Jimmy Somerville's departure; the band navigates commercial pop accessibility under new vocalist John Foster against a backdrop of AIDS crisis awareness and ongoing LGBTQ+ political activism in Thatcher-era Britain. This video holds significant archival value as a document of Bronski Beat's post-Somerville phase — an underrepresented chapter in the band's history — and as evidence of the visual strategies employed by openly LGBTQ+ pop acts navigating mainstream UK media in 1986. The unresolved director attribution (Tim Pope vs. Peter Care) makes it a useful case study in the fragility of music video provenance records. Its quantitative profile — high saturation, fast editing, warm tone — encodes a specific emotional register that rewards analysis in the context of 1980s queer cultural production. Context: Released in March 1986, 'C'mon! C'mon!' appeared during one of the most politically charged periods for LGBTQ+ communities in British history. Bronski Beat had been one of the first openly gay pop acts to achieve mainstream UK chart success, and this single — from the second album Truthdare Doubledare — marked the band's transition to a new lineup following the departure of Jimmy Somerville. The single peaked at No. 20 on the UK Singles Chart, a sign that the band's commercial momentum was waning even as its cultural significance remained high. The video's warm, celebratory energy stands in deliberate counterpoint to the AIDS crisis then devastating gay communities in the UK and US, reflecting a conscious choice by the band to maintain a visible, joyful public identity under conditions of social crisis and political hostility. Director notes: IMDB (imdb.com/title/tt11574684) and IMVDb (imvdb.com/video/bronski-beat/cmon-cmon) both credit Tim Pope as director of this 1986 promo. However, the Wikipedia article for the song credits Peter Care as director. Peter Care was also active in the UK synth/indie video scene in 1986, directing videos for Depeche Mode, Fine Young Cannibals, and Bananarama in the same period. This conflict between sources prevents a 'confirmed' attribution. The annotation reflects the majority database position (IMDB + IMVDb = Tim Pope) while flagging the discrepancy. Archival verification against original production paperwork or the London Records commissioning documents would be required to resolve definitively.