Good afternoon everybody, my name is Ken Taylor and I'm one of the cultural producers at the British Library and I'm pleased to welcome you to today's event, Gay Liberation Front at 50. I'm going to hand you over shortly to Stephen Dryden who's going to be your main presenter today, but I'll just do a couple of housekeeping things beforehand. Close captions are available at this event. If you have a Windows or a Mac system, you should see an options bar near the top of your screen, which should allow you to switch on captions. If you have an Android or iOS device, you have to go into your settings and toggle to captions on. You can also adjust your caption settings near the start stop video. If you click on to the button to the side of that, you'll see accessibility and close caption options. We have the chat function set up so you talk directly to me. So if you have any technical issues, if you couldn't hear a sound clip or one of the presenters, drop me a message and I'll do my best to resolve that. But if you have any questions about the topic, about what Stephen's presenting about, you put those into the Q&A box, we'll cover as many of those as we can towards the end of the presentation, we'll have a dedicated Q&A section. There are nearly 300 of us online at the moment, so we might not be able to answer everyone's questions, but we'll do our best to cover the main points. And do feel free to put questions in at any point, even if we address them at the end, because I know it can take a little while to type points. Okay, then I'm going to hand you over to Stephen now who's going to begin the presentation. And so Stephen Dryden is a humanities and sound archive reference specialist at the British Library. He curated the Gay UK exhibition at the library in 2017, and also creates content for our LGBTQ History website. So Stephen, over to you. Hello everyone. Thank you very much, Ken. It's really nice to be with you all today, if not slightly bizarre, this is the first time that I've ever presented in this format. So this is International Museums Day, just to give you some context about the British Museum, the British Library, we were formerly the printed collection at the British Museum, and we became an institution our own right in the 1970s. We've been based at St Pancras since 1996 in one of our physical spaces and we also have an additional storage facility and a reading room at Boston Spa in York. It's printed material published in the United Kingdom as well as a plethora of other things that you might not know about. And I hope that this presentation today might highlight some of those specifically sound, some political ephemera, as well as journals and print newspapers, which might have, you might not have thought that we would have. So I'm going to start trying to share my presentation with you now. Technology, technology. Great. Now somebody do let me know if there isn't anything on show there.  Gay Liberation Front formed in 1970 at the London School of Economics. And in advance of this presentation, I'd just like to shout out and thank Debbie at the LSE, the London School of Economics Library, who has very kindly allowed me to use digitised photographs, which all of you will be able to access via their digital online platform and there are links that will share for that throughout the presentation. So every story has a beginning and the story that I'm going to tell you today starts in the summer of 1970. Specifically, with these two gentlemen, Bob Mellers and Aubrey Walter. Both Bob and Aubrey went to America in the summer of 1970. Didn't know each other. One of them ended up on the West Coast, experienced San Francisco and California's gay cultures. And the other was in New York and experienced Gay Liberation as it was forming post stonewall. August that year, that summer of 1970 had been one year anniversary of the Stonewall uprising and the first Christopher Street Day parade, which was a very public show, public expression of Gay Liberation. What was also happening in America in the summer of 1970 and the early autumn was the Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention. And this was organized by the Black Panther Party and was attended by both Bob and Aubrey, which is where they met. And the reason why the Revolutionary People's Convention became a magnet, if you like, for Gay Liberation in America in the 1970s was because of this letter, which was published and sent out to all members of the Black Panther Party and other revolutionary groups. From Huey Newton, who was the leader of the Black Panther Party at the time, and it's, you can see their title, a letter from Huey to the Revolutionary Brothers and Sisters about the women's liberation and Gay Liberation movement. Essentially what Huey was doing was aligning what was happening with the Black Civil Rights Movement with both women's liberation and Gay Liberation and this was really powerful because it was a founding stone of what would go on to become Gay Liberation UK, which was a press groups coming together and working together in overcome adversity and change society. So why did people attend Gay Liberation Front? There are two clips here, which I'm going to play from the library's oral history collection. One is by Mary McIntosh and the other is by Bette Bourne.  I went to my first meeting of the Gay Liberation Front in 1970, almost as soon as I heard about it. And we went to what was probably the second meeting upstairs in the LSE. At the time, I thought it was a very curious phenomenon. I remember thinking, I'd heard of women's liberation, but I hadn't heard of Gay Liberation, but it did ring a bell with me, I suppose, and that was complete convert to Gay Liberation from that moment onwards. At that time, I think it probably was a mixed group. I didn't question that at all. There were probably far fewer women and lots of women didn't stay for various reasons. That's probably true of lots of men, but I related more to the women. But there were certainly enough of us involved by the, well, by the time we moved into the old lecture theatre at LSE, certainly, for us to feel that there was a group of women, and that we were very much part of it. And they always insisted that there should be at least one woman on the steering group, as it was called, which sort of organised what we were going to talk about. So the meetings developed rapidly. As it said there, they started at the London School of Economics, and that was largely thanks to working together with a lesbian named Bev Jackson who was attending the London School of Economics at the time. The meetings grew rapidly. There was over 200, 300 people attending within the first few weeks, where on these slides where you see the names of people talking, the digits afterwards is actually the British Library shelf mark. So if any of you did want to come into the library and explore oral history, just make a note of some of those and you'll have direct references that you can quote to us. I'd met this man in Australia, we'd become lovers and we were living together at the end of the street here, and he went to this meeting with the GLF and came back and I poo pooed at that man. And of course actors didn't get involved in politics, you know, everything you say, everything you breathe is political as well as I understand. So anyway, I just pooed and then he said there was really nice blokes down there, you should come down. I was down there like a shot.  It was people actually talking about issues and getting out and onto the streets. And what kind of people at the meeting? Where was the meeting? It was rather famous directors now at this meeting, theatre directors and theatre stars and David Hockney and people like that. They'd come along for curiosity and I became a regular and I was on the steering committee and all that. But there were mostly students and working class queens. I'd met this man. So the vet was talking there about meeting thinking it was a gay bar going along and becoming in some way kind of politicized and obviously any political organization and gay liberation wasn't technically an organization. It was a movement of people, a group of a collective of people who were working together in order to achieve a common aim. And very quickly it became apparent that there had to be a common aim stated a way that people could come together and unite a banner. And this is a document from the London School of Economics which you can find on their Flickr account of digitized documents from the Hall Carpenter archive.  I want to highlight just a couple of paragraphs from it. So there is this one here which is the beginning of the document which is that we believe that apathy and fear are the barriers that imprison people from an incalculable landscape of self-awareness. And that they are the elements of prejudice and the enemies of truth. That every person has the right to develop and extend their character and explore their sexuality through relationships with any other human being without moral, social, or political pressure. So this is very much a social revolution, a social sexual revolution that the GLF are starting to articulate from this very first public statement. The last paragraph I think is quite poignant. And I think it summarizes the anger which was within the community at the time at increased levels of policing of the community. Following the passing of the Sexual Offences Act in 1967 which partially decriminalized homosexuality in the United, well in England and Wales, not the United Kingdom. There was a lot of anger within the community still. And this last paragraph I think is quite articulate in maybe the reasons why. In the name of the tens of thousands who wore the badge of homosexuality in the gas chambers and concentration camps who have no children to remember and whom your history forgets. We demand honour, identity and liberation. And these would become the beating drum if you like of where and how gay liberation front would organize in the beginning.    And this was considered terribly incorrect to try to use that word. And it was agreed that gay should be adopted and all of a sudden that's what we called ourselves. I don't think anybody had really used that term in this country before the origins of GMF.    Indeed terms like bisexual and men having sex with men and transsexual would all be begin to start brewing within this melting pot of gay liberation and the political ideas that were there. This badge itself is from the Hall Carpenter Collection at London School of Economics and the reason why I include this here is this is a really important way in which gay liberation put into action one of their beliefs that everybody should come out, that everybody should be visible. And the idea was that members of the public who saw you on the tube or walking in the street could see the badge and perhaps ask you what does that mean. I'm going to play a clip now of Nettie Pollard talking about wearing the badge within her activism. That was something that we were doing very openly as lesbian people.  So I mean you met ordinary people who would never have met people like us before at all.  What kind of work did you do within the claimant? Well it was trying to get people the benefits that they were entitled to and it was also quite often dealing with their housing situations and helping families to do squatting, that kind of thing, trying to get them rehoused. It was amazing how many lesbians we actually met who were people who would never have anything to do with GLF particularly. But I mean I remember particularly a woman who had about eight or nine children and she's married and everything. She said things like well I was like you when I was your age but of course you had to get married in the end. I mean this is not somebody that would have identified as a lesbian at all.  And this was an idea which came very much from the Black Panthers and the civil rights movement. That people had to understand the means and ways in which they were oppressed or suppressed by society. The Gay Liberation Front's ideas, political ideas, grew rapidly and expanded. In November 1917 we step away from the principles and we begin to get this articulation of demands. We demand from society. There were eight demands from the Gay Liberation Front which were published and here they are. I think looking through them there are a few which are still extremely pertinent today. So looking at them, the sex education schools stopped being exclusively heterosexual. One only has to think about the protests which happened in Birmingham last year to think about how education has changed and how education is changing in order to talk about everybody in society. Others which to me strikers particularly poignments are is the final one which is that gay people should be free to kiss and hold hands in public as a heterosexuals. Here's Mary McIntosh talking about the making of the demands. The first thing that we did in the Gay Liberation Front, certainly in the second meeting, was discuss what should be our demands. I remember being debated particularly, I remember the demand for holding hands in public, our right to hold hands in public. Some people said it was quite trivial and not nearly as important as the other ones and some people said it was vitally important and we needed that right in order to show that there was nothing wrong with being gay.  So we did have to fight our way towards that I think. So to me these demands are still very powerful, especially when we start thinking about them in a global context where there are still countries where people aren't free to be who they want to be. And I think also if we broaden this out and don't just think about gay people, which is how we were articulating ourselves in the 1970s, but think more broadly about the LGBTQ plus community and where these demands perhaps stand for us as a community.  These were new and revolutionary ideas in the 1970s and really articulate way in which people could organize. Many people were also interested in talking to other gay people and the Gay Liberation Front were quickly expanding their ideas to the point of a manifesto. This was created by the manifesto group which is a subgroup within Gay Liberation Front and activists would meet discuss often argue and formulate the Gay Liberation Fronts manifesto. I'm showing you now a picture of the introduction page. So these are the first two paragraphs which a gay person would see when they were picking up a copy of the Gay Liberation Front manifesto. And to me it's extremely powerful in describing what it is that this person is about to encounter when they open this document.  We intend to show you examples of the hatred and fear with which straight society regulates us to the position and treatment of subhumans and to explain this basis. I want to show you how we can use our righteous anger to uproot the oppressive system with its decaying and constricting ideology and how we together with other oppressed groups can start to form a new order and a liberated lifestyle from the alternatives which we offer. The document then goes on to explain how and why gay people are oppressed and also why they should come together and why they should organize. It's extremely powerful in the 1970s when there was little representation. There was no internet and we think of a time when you would literally have to go and find a document a piece of paper in order to find out about yourself to chew at anything about yourself. This document acted as a beacon. It was talismanic almost and acted as a gateway in which people could find their own community. The first demonstration by the Gay Liberation Front was actually a hybrid fields and that was 150 members of the GLF holding torches and holding a rally against police harassment. Accounts of this are present in the British Library's archive, specifically in oral histories and I'd be very happy to chat with people about those. But what I wanted to talk about was come together and come together is the newspaper, the Journal of the Gay Liberation Front which was produced at Harcourt most but it was a regular publication. And this issue, issue number eight actually coincides with the age of consent march, which was the first public protest demonstration march through the centre of London by a gay organization. It was organised by the youth group and was to highlight the discrepancy between the age of consent for homosexuals and heterosexuals. So the 1967 Sexual Offences Act legalised same sex activity between men over the age of 21 in private, only two of them, no threesomes, and you had to be in England or Wales. These laws did not apply in Scotland or Northern Ireland. The youth group were highlighting the discrepancy both within England and Wales for the age of consent. Straight people were 16, gay people had to be 21, but also highlighting the fact that Northern Ireland and Scotland still did not have equal age of, it was still criminal, homosexuality was still criminal in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In September 1971, we have possibly one of the best known demonstrations which was held by the Gay Liberation Front and it was targeted at this organisation, the Festival of Light. In the centre there you can see a young Cliff Richard and he's also there lighting a prayer beacon as well. And he's with Mary White House. Mary White House might be known to some of you if you were around in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Mary White House led an organisation called the Listeners and National Listeners and Viewers Association and was also a figurehead of the Festival of Light, which campaigned through government against what they saw as moral evils. And these moral evils included extramarital sex, pornography, abortion, sex in TV and films, and obviously homosexuals, the gay rights movement, which was extremely vocal at this point following the passing of the 1967 legislation. The actual protest itself was known as Operation Rupert and there are a few accounts of this within oral histories at the British Library. I think specifically of an interview with Michael James, who was involved in the, in the protest. I haven't cut and edited any of the oral history into this presentation because it takes a lot of work to try and condense exactly what actually happened in the Methodist Hall, Central Hall in Westminster on the 9th of September 1971. But in a nutshell, I can summarise it like this. Members of Gay Liberation Front formed small groups who decided upon an action that they would take once they were inside the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, where the Festival of Light was holding a rally. Each group was told what the action was preceding their action, and they would start their action when that finished, the crowd had settled, and the person had been ejected from the hall. Actions on the day included kiss-ins by members of the youth group, mice being released into the auditorium, there were lesbian couples standing holding each other, showing affection and kissing. All of a sudden nuns appeared, a group of nuns who were actually members of the radical drag theatre group, which was part of GLF, Street Theatre. There was a bishop, a very theatrical Betty Bourne, who we heard earlier, who was a classically trained actor, stood up and proclaimed that they could feel evil in this place. After each act, the person would have to be physically removed from the hall, and the crowd calmed before the rally could continue, and just as it settled, another action would begin. It completely disrupted the event of the rally and gained widespread national press. This issue of Come Together actually articulates an attempt by Gay Liberation Front to join a different demonstration a few weeks later. The photograph here is of Stuart Feather conducting the GLF choir, and the GLF were keen to join the march with the Festival of Light in solidarity, mock solidarity, obviously. There was a photograph here, again from the London School of Economics collection, where activists were being arrested. This is Stuart Feather and Nicholas Bramble as the spirit of porn. What's interesting about this issue of Come Together, number 10, is that it shows Rupert, Rupert Bear, trying to join a march with other woodland creatures. And what this does is it really links Gay Liberation Front to the political activity and the counterculture that was going on at the time. As this was happening, Aus Magazine released its kids issue, which the editors were taken to court for, for corrupting minors. The school children had included a rather obscene cartoon of Rupert Bear. And the court case was a revolution in the counterculture. John Lennon was there and gave evidence, as did Marty Feldman, the comedian. You can also see here on this slide a copy of Ink Magazine, which is a radical underground press publication, and its cover from December 1971, in which they show a lipstick and eye shadowed clad Shea Guevara with just the term gay exclamation part. Communes were also a big part of the Gay Liberation Front and people coming together and finding new ways of living and being. And this issue of Come Together, which is held in the British Library's collection, is the Notting Hill issue. And there was a very well known Gay Liberation Front commune based there and you can see some of the members in the wonderful photograph which was shared with me by Stuart Feather. The publication itself is folds out into an 80 size page, and there is a black and white photograph or a copy of this photograph but this is this is an original that's been put together by Stuart. And the communes themselves were really interesting because that was where people were putting money in pots, sharing wardrobes and clothes, experimenting with dress and drugs, very much part of the counterculture which was already going on in London. Indeed, the ideas which were played within the communes would perhaps best be articulated years later by Larry Mitchell in his book Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions, which was published in America, in which he said that there is more to be learned from wearing a dress for a day than there is from wearing a suit for a lifetime. The communes very much sought to break down gender roles, which was a key component of the GLF manifesto, which viewed the nuclear family and the almost forcing of women to marry in order to acquire any kind of independence from their family as oppressive within itself. And the communes did an awful lot to generate these discussions around gender and with and alongside sexuality. And this is a clipping from inside this issue of Come Together, which was published in 1973. And this includes photographs from the first Gay Pride March, which happened in London in 1972, which was known as Gay Pride Day. And in the top there you can see that there is an all men come out and do it, in which it says one thing I think I now see clearly is that these these attacks on Queens so vigorously from the ones who most want from the ones who most want to get into drag.  The first Gay Pride March was held on the 1st of July 1972. There are over 2000 participants. And like this photograph which is from a later Pride, you can see that the police rather than marching with Pride are actually policing it. These first Pride demonstrations which were very much protests were done without anybody knowing how crowds would react. We're very familiar now with Gay Pride bringing a celebration, something which brands and large national organizations, indeed instruments of government participate in, but that wasn't always the case. And it was very much the revolutionary lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people which formed the core of Gay Liberation Front who started that first March in 1972, who founded Pride and what it was. There's some more photographs there of various gay Pride. All of these are available on the London School of Economics digitized image pages. You can see there in the bottom screen there is a banner for the campaign for homosexual equality. This was the group which very much picked up and was fighting for legal legislative change for gay people. Since the 1967 legislation but certainly after Gay Liberation Front disbanded in late 1973, early 1974, they certainly picked up the banner and led and organized Gay Pride marches from then on. The relationship of women to Gay Liberation Front is something which you encounter quite a lot in oral histories in the British libraries collections. And it was something which was the male chauvinism was something which was talked about an awful lot in Gay Liberation Front. So we can see here an issue have come together from issue number three, which the subject of is Gay Liberation Front and male chauvinism.  Rosalind Del Mar came along to us and DLF meetings and persuaded a group of us women to go to the Skegnes Conference, the National Conference of the Women's Liberation Movement and we went a group of us in a mini bus. We formed very much a group of people who knew each other and we sat in a row and remember people on the platform including men on the platform and then a row of us and lots of other women in the body of the home. We formed a Women's Liberation Movement which had started as a non-sectarian movement and defended its non-sectarianism quite strongly against, well, at that time the socialist workers, the Communist Party, various groups. There was a threat that they would be taken over by a group of Maoists. My memory is of, as she was then called Mary O'Shea, standing up with her, she had long blonde hair at that time and proclaiming that they were wrong and that we had the right to be women and be non-aligned and so forth and she was very dramatic. We basically stormed the platform. We made sure that one of the male Maoists that he was ejected from the hall and actually the male security guards at that conference centre did lead him away and we just talked about women's right to be self-organising and but basically we stormed the platform and took over the conference and from then on the conference was run as a women's conference, very much like future women's liberation conferences I think. So we see there from 1971 the women of Gay Liberation Front were meeting and organising with the Women's Liberation Movement. This would form almost a rift within Gay Liberation Front between gay men and lesbians and it would be part of the reason that many activists would view Gay Liberation Front as having ended once the women had decided that they were no longer going to be part of the organisation. Women did stay but the politicised or the political movement of women from Gay Liberation Front really did move more towards the women's liberation movement and indeed were responsible for men being removed from the platform at women's liberation conferences and in subsequent years would also have lesbianism added to the demands for the women's liberation movement. Rosalind. The counter-psychiatry group was also a group which formed in Gay Liberation Front and this was very important for people understanding their own oppression by society but also helping to inform psychiatry about homosexuality and aiming towards one of the demands which was that homosexuality stopped being treated as a sickness and that it stopped being tried, treatments stopped being made by psychiatrists in order to cure people of homosexuality.  I'm very conscious of using the term member in relation to Gay Liberation Front because it wasn't an organisation in that respect. Another publication which came out which was extremely important for the community at this time was Gay News, Britain's first Gay Newspaper. This was first published in 1972 for the very first Gay Pride March, an issue of Gay News was released. The publication would go on printing until 1983 and it was where the community could come share news stories which were relevant to them. You can see on some of the issues here are a few things that people would have been interested at the time. Gay Pride March in 79 and it's growing notoriety within mainstream national press. I'm hoping that this is your far right but I'm not sure. You've got Scott's anger Gay News so this is obviously where Scotland still did not have age of consent equality and the ongoing political situation within the United Kingdom and in the centre there about queer bashing which was rife. It's interesting that yesterday was international day against homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and this has always been an issue within the community and often it is being brutalised and treated badly in society which had people coming towards Gay Liberation Front to help them understand that there was nothing wrong with them, that the way society was treating them was down to education, visibility and people knowing that gay people were just the same as everybody else had the same concerns, the same worries, the same hopes in many instances as well. Gay Liberation Front also spread throughout the United Kingdom and the library has a few examples of Gay Liberation Front leaflets and pamphlets that were produced in the region. So here we can see Gay Liberation Front from Bradford, the front issue there about the National Front. This was produced in May 1976. So even though the main organisation of Gay Liberation Front London had disbanded in early 74, out in the regions Gay Liberation, the idea, the notions of Gay Liberation Manifesto were still the rallying call and the thing which people were going to in order to start consciousness raising to understand themselves in their place in society. In the sense of their gay flashes which is publication from Leeds and on the far right Gladrags from Birmingham Gay Liberation Front produced in 1976.  This was a really important organisation for people to find out more about homosexuality and themselves and have somebody to talk to.  There used to be an out in time out gay icebreakers so for weeks and weeks I used to buy this and I always used to turn to this ad and eventually I was alone one Saturday night and I phoned the number of phoned icebreakers. But the first time I phoned I couldn't say a word.  He knew exactly what I was going through. He said you don't have to say anything and he just talked and talked and eventually I came out with it.  I said I think I might be bisexual you see. From there it was just carried on talking to me. I rang a few times then but I remember I could only ring when everyone was out and I was positive there was no one in. After that going through icebreakers going to their discos then going to tea parties on Sunday afternoons talking about sexual politics, politics in general. I became more politicised and I met another gay Asian at an icebreakers tea party and we became very good friends. I've known him ever since and I haven't looked back really. So with that sentiment of never looking back, Gay Liberation Front was founded 50 years ago this year in October. These are some of the surviving Gay Liberation Front activists. And this was from a photo call that they did in last year at Trafalgar Square where you seen images of earlier on in my presentation. Gay Liberation Front to celebrate their 50th birthday party, their 50th anniversary birthday party anniversary have been meeting again at the London School of Economics for the last 18 months. Consciousness raising, talking about issues within the community and there will be as far as I understand some events happening later on this year. Obviously situation dependent and how things go with us to keep us all safe. But it would definitely be worth if you are interested in seeing what is happening or finding out more about Gay Liberation Front to seek them out online. I would strongly encourage that. There are a few resources here which I think Ken would have shared with you throughout the presentation which I think for the reading I'm there are other accounts by activists who are actually there which are worth checking out and there are also a few links. Ken are there any questions that you think we should go with. Just coming on, Stephen. Yeah, there's a few questions come in do encourage people to send a few more in. I think we're getting a few in now. One is a question from Maisie. Do you know are there many links between the role of GLF and LGSM.  There were through. I think mostly gay left. But they were they were much later I believe LGSM has been engaged support the minors minors formed in the early 80s and Gay Liberation Front had disbanded within, you know, 1974 kind of the last estimate. What are the tactics and the strategies for which Gay Liberation Front were doing. I'm sure there would have been some influence but I couldn't really comment on direct links I'm afraid. No problem. Question from Robert. Stephen, what do you think that today's liberation and justice movements can learn most from the actions of the GLF. What can they learn most from the Gay Liberation Front. I think to be honest the thing that I find most refreshing and encouraging about the GLF is the fun that they seem to have had the camaraderie the phrasing the discos the zaps and activism that they did and street theater seems to have been from the accounts that I've read seem to have been a been great fun in order to get political messages out into the public eye. So I would strongly suggest reading. If you are interested in activism within GLF and how it was done and Stuart Feathers but blowing blowing the lid. It'd be a great thing for you to read. Another good question here because obviously with the British library but we have a lot of international views to this event. So what were the links with GLF with organizations outside of the UK. And did the groups influence each other in terms of political actions tactics, etc. So there's well documented links, especially between America in the United Kingdom during this time. I think specifically of publications which would have gone backwards and forwards we have to remember that when we're talking about Gay Liberation Front and the 1970s in general. So the way that information was exchanged was through the postage of publications journals newspapers so I think specifically of things like Farrag which was a publication which was produced in the 70s in Boston, Massachusetts, which would have come over to the UK and in other countries and come together migrated over to the United States. We had, we were at an advantage in the UK over America as well that you have to remember that in America homosexuality was still illegal. In the United, well in England and Wales, not the United Kingdom in England and Wales homosexuality was partially decriminalized in 1967, and that didn't happen in America for a very long time. So this is a great question from George here says great event. Thank you George. And I think it's one of a couple of questions we have looking at placing the GLF in in wider history. So, how important do you think Stephen was the spirit of the GLF in the radical HIV AIDS politics which followed in the 1980s and 90s. And obviously HIV and AIDS is the great pandemic from the 20th century which is still ongoing as we find ourselves in another time of pandemic. I think specifically thinking of actions which GLF undertook which then went into act up and organizations like that both in America and the UK. There are other members of the youth group who would then go on to be extremely vocal in the HIV AIDS campaigning world. But that specifically going into a place and causing a scene and I mean that in the nicest possible wonderful way to have direct action which is nonviolent, but also passes on a political message. And that's something which came through from gay liberation from specifically thinking about that Methodist Hall demonstration against the Festival of Lights. That was adopted and utilized very well, especially by the American act up movement and indeed the UK as well. Any other questions. I don't know if you could elaborate more about the presence and role of trans people in the GLF in the 70s. Obviously, the language of sexuality of gender and sexuality was going undergoing radical change throughout the 1970s we have the women's liberation movement. We have the publishing of Jermaine Greer's seminal book The Female Unique and there are these developing understandings of who and what people could be if they were living their true authentic lives themselves.  These languages ideas these notions and different ways of being with something that was developing throughout gay liberation front and there's certainly evidence of communes where people dressing in clothes not assigned to their gender and was actually a founding stone of that commune or that living situation. So it's hard to say even how developed and ever changing our language is about gender and gender identity now to compare that with the lives and the opportunities and the ways that people could articulate their gender identity in the 1970s. There are and continue to be trans activists who were involved in Gay Liberation Front who are out there and in the world I think specifically of Ross Kevney who I met at one of the Gay Liberation Front thinkings recently at London School of Economics. And so they were certainly present they were certainly there and but the language is something that we must always be conscious and consider of when we're thinking about these things in historic and current contexts. Thanks Dean. There's a good question from Sophie here in terms of more your day to day work when you're not doing a webinar. So, could you tell us a little bit more about how the library continues to collect items recordings documents related to LGBTQ plus rights and issues now. Cool. Yeah. So the library has an active collecting policy of printed ephemera for producing the United Kingdom. We also since 2014 have been archiving the worldwide web so dot co dot UK web domains. And we have a very active and ever growing collection of zines and a lot of those come from the LGBTQ community. In terms of sound recordings and how that collection grows all of the recordings that I played for you today come from collections from the oral history department at the library, and they have ongoing projects which they archive. And I also would suggest that you check out the British libraries web pages for unlocking our sound heritage and save our sounds projects. These are nationally funded projects which aim to preserve the nation's audio heritage and make it more accessible. And I hope that in in the years to year year year to come not years year to come, we will be able to provide more access to our oral histories off site specifically relating to the LGBTQ community. Thanks, Stephen. Another good question about the wider context. And I think it's something you touched upon but maybe you could elaborate a bit more. Did the gay liberation activists regard themselves as part of a wider civil rights movement and a did they expand to have solidarity with other ethnic religious minority communities in the UK.  We heard that from the clip featuring Netty Pollard that Netty and other lesbians were involved in the claimants union, which was helping people to get access to benefits and housing. So yeah, they, the, the coming together of oppressed people is something which this document, the gay liberation front manifesto and certainly emphasized all oppressed people needed to come together in order to reform society to create radical change. Yeah. And we've got plenty of questions here so if only we won't be able to answer everyone so but again some really great ones and we will give their contact details and things later on, so we might be able to send some links through to you. Let me just pick another one. Oh yeah. So you touched upon Steven LGBTQ rights in Scotland and obviously that the legislation didn't change there as rapidly. Could you describe the relationship between the main group and activists in Scotland with the different legal situation. I can't speak specifically to their relationship with Scottish activists, you know, specifically, I don't, I'm not conscious of that but I can obviously put you in touch with people who might be able to help you. What I can say is that members of the London group London gay liberation front did go out into the regions and actively help set up regional groups to initially for meetings to show people how they did it in London if you like. There are on the LSE digitized images website which which you've seen links for hopefully go out on the chat. And there are actually images of London gay liberation front activists in I think it's Bradford and helping them organize and show a meeting. I am sure that that happened in Scotland also that lessons will learn by Scottish activists and we're taken back to Scotland and used but I couldn't speak specifically to the Scottish relationship I'm afraid. Another good sort of museology question here. Do you know of any resources we could direct people to discuss the practice of cataloging LGBTQ plus collections, specifically about language and using that in a more inclusive way, given how much as you've mentioned language in the community does change. Yeah, language is language is really interesting and it's actually one of my my interests and passions I'd be I'd be very happy I wouldn't want to start reaming off things with the wrong titles, because I don't have the information to hand. But I believe that is that question from Tony. Yeah, Tony, if you if you would like to get in touch with me I'm very happy to share with you some links and resources related to gender cataloging. If you would like to get involved in any kind of cataloging of LGBTQ material I can tell you for certain that the Bishop's Gate Institute which is in London, if you are in an easy reach of London does have an amazing newspaper clippings collection which they are in the process of trying to get catalogs. And so if you want experience of cataloging there are there are always there are always opportunities out there somewhere just waiting to be discovered. Okay, and I think maybe time for sort of one or two more questions. Let's see. I'm so happy there are questions that's great. Oh yes. And we're sorry we can't answer every single one but we will try to cover the broad subjects and follow up with some things. So just carrying on from a question on language, Stephen, John asks.  Did queer get erased in the dialogue and reclaimed later, or has it always remained part of the dialogue since the time of the GLF. I think it was possibly always kind of floating around there I think that when queer reclaimed it sort of radical power was during the 1980s, and that was when queer power was a mantra of in the UK certainly the group outrage, who were a direct action gay rights organization. The way which John was talking about queer there is a very different term in the 1960s pre gay liberation friends. And I would guess if you talk to activists from that period. I'm only just turning 40 this year but certainly when I, my experience would have been that the word queer was something which was reclaimed so it was perhaps something that was used against gay people following 1970, and then was reclaimed in the 1980s in order to, you know, come together and unite around HIV AIDS activism and indeed just broader social change I think we do sometimes forget that the age of consent was only made equal for everybody in the United Kingdom in 2001. We forget that marriage equality only came through in 2015. So the word queer in the 1980s had a very different formal radical connotation than it did in the 1960s when John's clip was talking about the word queer. Okay, thanks Stephen I think we're sort of coming to the end of our time now. But thank you very much. Thanks also to Dana for transcribing for us. I hope that was useful to some of the audience. And yeah thanks to everyone taking part and asking some really brilliant questions. I've shared some of the links Stephen mentions in the chat box I'll share them again before we finish and I'll also put it on a slide. A few people asked about recordings we are recording the event and I hope that we'll issue it as a video at some point or I can tell you exactly when in the future. As obviously the library is putting a lot online at the moment. Do follow British Library on social media to find out future events we're doing online. There's lots coming up. Again, thanks to everybody. We'll send you a survey for email afterwards. Do please fill that in if you can tell us what you thought of the event, what you'd like to see covered in future by the library as we are doing more of these digital events. We really appreciate your feedback. Okay, thanks and goodbye everyone and goodbye Stephen as well. Thank you.


Lonely Courage by Rick Stroud. Narrated by Sarah Borges. Only the dark, dark night shows to our eyes the stars. After Walt Whitman. Suggestion for inscription on the SOE Memorial at Knott's Vyla Struthhoff concentration camp for women. Three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead. Benjamin Franklin. Women have a far greater capacity for cool and lonely courage than men. Selwyn Jessip. SOE Recruiting Officer to Winston Churchill. Introduction. I have been fascinated with the women of the SOE, Special Operations Executive, All My Life. When I was nine, the eagle serialized, Carve Her Name With Pride, the story of Violette Zabo. Each installment became the high point of my week. When I was about thirty, I made a television drama series, Diana, about two SOE agents. A man and a woman. In the series, we recreated Beulie, the SOE finishing school, described the life of an agent going into the field, blew up a train, and rescued our heroine from a concentration camp. The series stayed in my mind long after it was shown. A few years ago, when I began to write history, I made a list of the subjects I wanted to tackle, and that list included some of the female agents of SOE. Two years ago I decided the time had come to write their story. This book is about the women of F-section SOE, the ones who were sent undercover to work with the resistance in France. There were thirty-nine, of whom twelve were executed and two died of illness. It would be impossible to write about all of them. I have therefore chosen to focus on seven and to use them as a lens through which we can look at the whole unit. The women came from all classes and walks of life, from a Polish aristocrat to a shop assistant living in Stockwell, London. They all proved capable of great bravery and courage. Some of the young women came to lead hundreds of men and lived to see the liberation of France. Others were captured and endured endless torment before being executed. I hope I have done them proud. A note on codenames. All the agents had code and field names. Sometimes they had several. To give an idea of how confusing this can be, both Christine Granville and Pearl Witherington were at some time given the codename Pauline. The name Solange applies to a friend of Sample complete. Ready to continue?


But when the Chinese politicians are involved potentially in trade or whatever, I think it's because they're spies. Yeah, and they're doing it for the love of fried rice. That's why. Like honestly, anybody who tries to be like, yeah, I know they're a spy. It's like, wait, how do you know that they're a spy?  If you can tell that they're a spy. Prominent Chinese American politicians are having their loyalty questioned right now.  Or do people really not trust anybody of Chinese descent? Oh, man, this is going viral right now. We're talking about like thousands and thousands of comments on a bunch of different platforms. Andrew, long story short, this guy right here, Lance Gooden was like, man, you to chew if you do not support our investigation of Dominic Ng, even though Biden said he was cool, I don't trust you.  And I don't trust them either, even though they weren't even all Chinese. And this just exploded obviously because the left was like, dude, what? This is like so racist. This is what is this 1930, 1950, and the right was like, no, I don't trust you. There's a lot of questions in my mind about your loyalties. And of course it exploded on the internet. So make sure you like, subscribe, turn your notifications, Andrew. We gotta get into it, Andrew. The first comment was generally like, dude, this is so racist. Judy Chu is a third generation Chinese American on her father's side. Her grandfather fought in World War II, supporting America. And then obviously, how come we're just always perpetual foreigners in this country? Well, dude, if Judy Chu is compromised, I'm gonna tell you this, man. China's already taken over. Like China's already infiltrated. If Judy Chu is compromised, man, I think she's good money, man. And I think a lot of people don't question a lot of other people in the Republican party. Like I think people on both sides, Democrats and Republicans are benefiting a lot from China and have a lot of business ties. This is a fact. Well, because a lot of, to be honest, a lot of Congress people and senators they do big business. Yeah. Like a lot of them are really rich. And if you're really rich, that means you probably do international trade with China, to be honest. Yeah. Do you want to just investigate every Chinese looking person or what about like the billionaires? But there's something about the billionaires that are wide, when they do the business with China, it puts me at ease because I know it's just about money. They're just trading for money. That ain't nothing else going on. But when the Chinese politicians are involved potentially in trade or whatever, I think it's because they're spies. Yeah. And they're doing it for the love of fried rice. That's why. Yeah. More of a general souls guy myself or, you know, I only liked the Americanized Chinese dishes like the Louisiana chicken and the almond chicken. Somebody else said, Hey guys, a white dude from Texas accused the Chinese American of spying. I'm shocked because I guess, of course Andrew Lance Gooden, you know, from his area, that's just something that a lot of old school white Texans with believe, right? Other people were like, what about Elaine Chao? She's the real conflict of interest here. Trump said it. And I said, oh man, this is interesting because it's like, that's a politician on the Republican side. And she's still having her loyalties question. And then Judy's having her loyalties question for supporting Dominic. I don't know what's going on. Man, question all Chinese women, man. Damn. I don't know. I can't say because I don't know the truth, but I think that this is a lot of ugly mudsling. First of all, I think Elaine Chao's family does benefit from working with China a lot. More than Judy Chu's family does, to be honest. It does that also. Is that a violation? I don't know. They're just doing trade, right? But then like, I think they vetted her and decided that she was cool too. So I guess, what is the Republican side just asking like, hey, can you vet these people? Can you take a look guys? Well, we'll check them out. We just don't want another fang fang situation since all the Chinese women is so appealing, you know, make us open up the box of secrets. Somebody said, hey, you know, you guys on the right are the true disloyal ones by wanting another civil war in January 6th. Obviously referring to Major E. Green's comments about like splitting up America.  You know, I don't know if anybody's watching right now that has been to the South of America, but we took a couple trips there. And I will tell you this, man. They still refer to the civil war as the war of Northern aggression. The older folks. Yeah, the older folks, not all of people, right? I mean, not even most people, but some people still do. And those people essentially like did not give up. Like they're still fighting the civil war. Like it's kind of weird guys. So yeah, there's some of these people that are still left. No, it's real. It's real. When we were filming our TV show down there, we came across a few of them. Obviously not even a majority, but it's there around. Somebody said, this was kind of a bipartisan side just like, dude, it was crazy to see America just devolve into this like mud slinging playground. Like we used to be civil to each other. We used to agree to disagree. And now it just seems like we're just trying to rip each other down using half truths or quarter truths and just stuff that we don't even care about. Anything we could do to win. Will I gouge the other side just to win? Yeah, it's getting really ugly. And I just feel like these are political games that like are being used just to swing votes or just amongst themselves. Maybe like the regular citizens were not ever supposed to see this. Or maybe it is just to energize the base. And it's not even rooted in like fact. You know what I mean? It's like, there's no fact behind it, but they know that it's gonna energize the voters to get more money and get more engagement. Well, because the lands good and did say this stuff on TV, I think. So obviously he's trying to put on a show and trying to ignite the right wing voters that are against anything Chinese right now. So really he was kind of just doing it for show. Are they even really gonna investigate and then what's gonna happen after they investigate and find nothing? So I guess, I don't know. Even some like middle right people, Andrew or like moderate Republicans kind of were like 50-50 kind of, not really going against lands good and but they were like, bro, you might be going overboard here, man. Cause if we find some or something really sticks out then I'm okay with the investigating. But if there's nothing going on, we can't just be mean to them cause they're Chinese. So even some people on the middle right were kind of like, I don't know, I'm 50-50 on this one. And then of course somebody was like, man, Democrats always outraged about something, always blaming the race card, saying it's racist. What if we just think they're untrustworthy because of their connection to China and their connection to China just happens to be how they look. What's wrong about that? Show the connection to China. Yeah, I have the connection to China. Look at this photo. And look at this photo. They are clearly connected to the bloodlines of the Han Chinese. Back to the left, Andrew. Somebody said, nobody's getting World War II Japanese internment vibes here? Yeah, it is kind of weird for sure, there is. Someone said, how come whites are the only ones who get to decide who's a true American or not? And it's always like somebody from a really, like red state. Yeah, that's, man, they've always been deciding. Someone said, nah, it's because we got the fang fangs. And like we said, we got all the infiltration with the sweet hunted traps and the hot Chinese women they've been making paper, open up the secret books. And I just feel like the Chinese Americans, they're more loyal to China than they are America. And last but not least, Andrew, there was a comment that was like, yep, that's what you Asians get for always thinking you guys were white.   That's a cold one. But at the end of the day, those were some of the major perspectives being represented. My first major takeaway, Andrew, is that I think that ultimately the truth is, Dominant Ng and Elaine Chao, both one on the left, one on the right, are probably both cool. They're probably, I mean, I don't know, you know, but I think if they really were like truly spies for China, it would have been found out by now. Yeah, yeah, I mean, spies is a pretty big accusation guys. That's a pretty huge accusation. And it's a lot, I feel like the spy stuff, a lot of like regular citizens don't understand. Like honestly, anybody who tries to be like, yeah, I know they're a spy. It's like, wait, how do you know that they're a spy?  If you can tell that they're a spy, you are regular person. Okay, I will say this though, Andrew, if I put my Merica hat on, think, imagine my hat right now. This is my Merica. Instead of a wake, it says, yeah. A Merica. Yeah, it just says a Merica, right? I can see why I would think that the way I do, because Dominant Ng has shaken hands and eaten lots of things at tables with lots of people. He is drinking by Jill while eating quail heads, probably with some people who is card carrying members of the CCP at some point in his life. So that makes me question in because I never had quail. I never been to Guangzhou. So with my Merica hat on, you just shook hands with a lot of people that I would never shake hands with or bow or whatever y'all do, so I don't trust you. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think it really boils down to votes, man. I think everybody's trying to ignite their base and I think that this is why the current voting system in the binary left and right binary that we have is just so dangerous because you're just trying to appeal to the most extreme 15%, man. We gotta somehow tone things down so that people can be more rash. What do you think about the point right now where the left was like, yo, man, where are all the Chinese conservatives? They're real quiet on this issue. And I was thinking about it and I was like, you know, this is probably something they don't really love, but they're probably like, yeah, but ultimately I still more support the right, even though I don't like this aspect of the right. Yeah, I feel- And it's sort of like, you know, people who vote left, they don't necessarily like enjoy every aspect or every politician on the left either, right? But like you said, Andrew, it's a one-two binary.   So it's crazy. Let us know what you think in the comment section below, guys. I think that, you know, it's really interesting time right now. Let us know what you think of this whole Lance Gooden versus Judy Chu thing. And until next time, we're gonna hop up boys, be out. Peace.


Hi everyone. I am Vinita and from India. My Outreachy project is about automatically detecting spam board registration using machine learning techniques, something similar to the Google Invisible Capture. My mentors are Gargot Issa and Adam Ross is White. I had two amazing mentors. We have seen the Google Invisible Capture at many places while using many websites where when you click on a small box, they can make sure we are a robot or a human being. Initially, Google had CAPTCHAs which displayed text. Right now, while creating an account in Wikipedia, this CAPTCHA is shown which is a text which is distorted. Humans find it very difficult to understand the words written in the image because it is distorted. But we find that many bots can crack this CAPTCHA easily by employing the technical advances in OCR, etc. Our aim is to create a CAPTCHA system, something similar to the Google Invisible Capture which is very convenient for humans and at the same time it can prevent the bots from creating accounts. We do this by building a machine learning model. Our constraint here is that we cannot use private data which can recognize the user. Instead, we have to maintain the user anonymity while creating the features or while recording the data which the user uses while creating the account. The first phase included creation of the system where we can collect the data. You must have seen this in Wikipedia recently in account creation page. We used two basic features and variations of it. We depend on the key press information like users will type the username. There will be some features which are displayed by legitimate human users and some features which are shown by bots. We didn't use the raw data because that will make the identity of the person clear. We used certain statistics of key press data such as a mean, variance, kurtosis, etc. Also, we used the mouse movement data information also. The details of the features can be seen in the schema. We started collecting data from February. While observing the data, we found that most bots were active within three days of registering. Today, if you create a bot account, the sleep duration of the bots was not much. 70% of the bots started spamming within three days and were blocked within three days. This is important to us because we can see the results of our experiments fast. The bots slept for longer duration will be difficult for us. Another interesting observation is that 90% of the bots have been blocked within 18 days of registration. Also, we had information about the accounts registered using the APIs and using mobile registrations. We found that the number of such bot registrations using APIs and mobile registrations were very negligible when compared to the accounts created using the web interface. In order to create the machine learning model, we had collected a few data in February. We got 126 bot data samples. We had obtained a large number of human data samples but we used 183 of them. We used an XGBoost classifier to create a machine learning model. It gave an accuracy of 58%. This is significant because we were using the statistical data as features. We couldn't use very obvious features because of privacy concerns. But this is very promising because now we have thought of ways in which instead of using an aggregate feature, we can use field-wise features like using the username fields feature and the email address fields features separately. Even the capture fields features. That should give a better feature representation. We have ideas to improve the performance of the model and we will be working for it. Thank you. That's all what I have done in this outreach work. This was a research sort of work and there is scope for more improvement for improving the model. Thank you.


What's the matter with you man? MTV Crips is here. I don't want to do Crips unless I could do the whole thing So I'm gonna take over the whole show Let's go If you're wondering what 50 Cent has been up to lately as you probably know He isn't living in that Connecticut palace anymore. Apparently he's been spending quarantine at his New York City apartment Don't be fooled if he seemed low-key though The rapper has been busy with producing acting and releasing his new book Hustle Harder in this video be taking a look at 50s Connecticut mega mansion and more Curtis Jackson aka 50 Cent is a rapper actor producer entrepreneur and now he's even an author Hailing from a rough neighborhood in Queens He's come a long way from selling drugs the young age of 12 as you probably know He was discovered by Eminem and signed to Sheedy Records with Eminem and Dr. Dre helping him become one of the world's best-selling rappers of the time 50 has done a lot through his career so far be at business Avengers winning Grammys are starring us himself and get Richard I try these days He's producing and starring on the series power and most recently doing the same for the ABC show for life There's definitely a bit of confusion around 50 cents net worth these days considering he filed for bankruptcy in 2015 Despite this and despite moving out of his money pit mansion in Connecticut He's still bragged about buying a house in Africa a few years back But we'll look at all that in just a bit all things considered 50 cents net worth these days is an estimated at 30 million dollars It's a lot but considerably less than when he was at his peak listed by Forbes one of hip-hop's wealthiest artists with 155 mil. Hey guys, it's Kara and today we're doing another house tour here on famous entertainment Some of you guys requested this one So we're gonna be taking a look at 50 cents homes including the mansion in Connecticut that took him 12 years to sell His place in Africa and more if you like these videos make sure you subscribe to ring that bell to be notified when we post You can always be up to date We've also done house tours and likes of young thug and ice cube and we'll link to some at the end follow me In Instagram to chat and as usual let me know whose house tours next in those comments down below now Let's get into this video Know what 50s current house looks like we do know where he's living according to 50 cents Instagram He's been spending his quarantine in New York City considering he shows off the downtown views from his place We also know this is where he currently lives thanks to a recent interview He did with Hollywood reporter last month They said that 50 cent has been living at his NYC home for about two months now And he's getting restless on the wrappers IG after posting a photo in his living room He confirmed that captioning the pic.  I never sit still. This is the longest I've been in one place since 2002 we know that 50 has a gym here because he says he works out daily While stuck at home it seems his apartment is at least two levels since we saw photos of his kitchen He posted with his son and there's a staircase in the background 50 has shown up a living room at his New York home as well And an open concept space raised a TV It just looked like this room wasn't fully unpacked yet The rapper also posed in his lavish marble bathroom where he clearly likes to kick back and relax by the looks of 50s New York City home it's modern looking and classy and I can't imagine run his chief in the same Hollywood reporter interview He said when asked if he's in New York Yeah, it's tough in New York because the buildings themselves are a representation of people on top of people We're conditioned to be pretty close to each other, but you learn to mind your own business fast So although I'm sure his condo is big by my standards He's likely used to living in houses with even more space which I can understand if you guys know more about 50s New York City apartment be sure to let me know what I missed the most famous home We know a 50 cent to have lived in once belonged to none other than world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson Unfortunately when 50 had to unload the over-the-top mansion it sat on the market for a long 12 years before finally selling in 2019 at an 84% discount. He once listed the mansion for 18.5 million But by the time it was sold I went for a mere 2.9 million Which is pretty sad considering the place is massive with 52 rooms 1000 square foot mansion sports 21 bedrooms 39 bathrooms and seven kitchens back when 50 cent was enjoying the peak of his career He purchased this mansion for 4.3 million in 2003 setting a record for the neighborhood at the time Located in Farmington Connecticut 50s previous mansion is located about eight miles north of the affluent city of Greenwich Of course it sat on a private and exclusive lot spending more than 17 acres of land and Protected by a stately iron gate 50 spoke about moving on from this place saying how I sold that place I gave the proceeds to charity. I needed that place man. There are points when you need confirmation of success It was more than a house. It was also connected to my viewpoint on Mike Tyson So the mansion obviously had some sentimental meaning to the rapper. Anyways, let's take a look inside this epic property Which is unlike anything I've ever seen Damn This is my dining room area I'm gonna tell you the truth, right? We never ate at this table, but it's pretty though, right inside 50s mansion spanned over 51,000 square feet and had a whopping 21 bedrooms and 35 bathrooms I mean that sounds more like a resort than a house walking in the mansion You're greeted by a shiny double height entry with dual wood paneled staircases and you can also see the large glass elevators There are large skylights in the ceiling letting in plenty of light columns and marble flooring There's a classy piano room informal dining table right off the entrance hall There's also a secondary dining area beside one of the multiple living rooms The interiors are lavish to say the least whether you're in one of the many bathrooms or one of the common spaces Of course, there's a spacious kitchen on the main level with breakfast nook and pantry as well as a family room and a great room The listing says the mansion has eight floors, and if that's true well, then wow There are also five fireplaces spread across the residents There are rooms at 50 likely used for business and work times such as a library or study and the large conference room for meetings Then there were even more spaces to entertain like multiple games rooms Including a casino style space and a billiards room a home movie theater with blue velvet walls Even a nightclub in the home capable of hosting 1,500 people now That's crazy 50s master suite in his Connecticut mansion at double height ceilings and winding staircases leading to a private upper level There's a glass and marble spa style bathroom attached and even a huge walk-in closet with glass doors to show off all the designer wardrobe Further features inside this epic mansion include a recording studio indoor basketball court indoor swimming pool with wooden walls and a full-home gym 50 spoke about the previous gym recently stating in my Connecticut estate I had a full gym Mike Tyson owned it before me it had every type of workout machine you could think of which I don't doubt at all Moving on to the grounds of his previous mega mansion It's covered with surrounding trees for even more privacy and of course There's a large guest house here for whoever wants to stay over You know if there isn't enough room in the main house already other features outside include a huge pond with Gazebo a swimming pool with stone archway and even a hidden grotto with spa That looks like the one at the Playboy mansion not to mention 50 had a full-size outdoor basketball court designed to spell g Unit in the center, but I'm not sure if that has been changed since if you're wondering why 50 cent ever left this gorgeous mansion One of the reason could be because of the bills He was reportedly spending 70 k per month in utility bills maintenance and other expenses for the sprawling estate after that Connecticut mansion another one of 50s properties made headlines this time in Africa although the rapper filed for bankruptcy in summer 2015 because of some lawsuits it wasn't long before he took to Instagram showing off a new home He bought although the location of the house is unknown the rapper posted footage of the place with a caption my crib is almost finished in Africa I'm gonna have the craziest housewarming party ever in this since deleted video a two-story brown and white home was visible Surrounded by tropical trees workers were seen sweeping floors and engaging in various construction tasks And we can also see the moss green swimming pool and sprawling patio area I'm not quite sure what happened to 50s Africa home, but whatever the case We know he's definitely not living there anymore and he's back on American soil So now we've taken a look at the properties of 50 sat and we can see that the rapper changes his mind and moves around a lot He even admits to it apparently quarantine in his current New York apartment has been the longest He stayed put for a while since 2002 in fact We looked at the Connecticut mega mansion He owned once upon a time complete with a 1500 person nightclub and various other over-the-top features But ultimately he had to get rid of the place clearly spending 70k per month on expenses and bills made it quite the money pit And it wasn't easy to sell either it took 12 years and 84 percent price cut out aside from this It's been said that 50 owns two other investment properties in Atlanta and Long Island as well as a New Jersey apartment But I'm not sure which ones he maintains to this day Anyways that wraps it up for this 50 cent house tour, but I want to know what you guys think about his homes more importantly What did you think about that 52 room mega mansion? Be sure to let me know down in the comments as well as what other celebrity houses You'd like to see follow me over on Instagram if you want to chat and I'll see you all in the next one. Bye


That's the name of the operation now. That's the operation, yes indeed. Martin, is he recording or what? We're recording. We've about six songs recorded now. We've about six original songs recorded now. Excellent. Paul and we're hoping to get the album out for the summer of next year. Brilliant. You know, panic. And come here, when you say original song, is it a collaboration between the two of you? Yeah, that's the way it works, aye. Very good. And what kind of style are we talking? It's mainly folk, but we're doing slow ones, we're doing fast ones. We're trying to sort of be on the middle of there. Very good. Public humorous ones in the mix too. Well, you have a few. The Wayne song was very good and I have to say. That was one of our serious ones. We know the way this is going to go in the next 45 minutes. No, as you're going to say. You formed sort of pre-COVID or? We worked together. And we know each other. And then the folk club was going full folk club. And I was involved in caring when I came up and played a few times. And then the guy was working with me, Sean. Sean couldn't do it anymore. So I asked Ciaran when he came on board. And that was about before COVID like it was. Yeah, it was, aye. With some good gigs before COVID, you know. So Ciaran came on board.  We did a two piece. And we'd work on some original songs. And that's really where it started. Great stuff. We'd done one gig in Badger's Bar in the area. And COVID come on. It's closed this time. It's closed down, yeah. There are many people that, you know, would say, I invested in this album. And I've never come out for two years like an album. But come here, we're here now. We're going to talk about the folk club after. We'll give them the piece of music forced if you don't mind. So forced up is? Life. Life's too short to drink cheap wine. Aye, whenever you're ready, lads. No more. Life's too short to drink cheap wine. Life's too short to drink cheap wine. Make the most of your time. Cause life's too short to drink cheap wine. Alarm clock rings and up we get. We're off to work to clear our debt. We'll dump and save and put our money by. Just booked out holiday in the sun. Spend your money, have some fun. Remember, there's no pockets in a shroud. Life's too short to drink cheap wine. Life's too short to drink cheap wine. Make the most of your time. Cause life's too short to drink cheap wine. Chardonnay, Chapolet, Champagne and au Bojolais. Merlot, Carpigny, Sous-Vion. See, we play our lives too short to drink cheap wine. Life's too short to drink cheap wine. Make the most of your time. Cause life's too short to drink cheap wine. In life, we're only here one time. Spend your money, it's not a crime. The money's round to go around, you know. The credit union's there for you. It can make your dreams come true. Don't be the richest man in the graveyard. Life's too short to drink cheap wine. Life's too short to drink cheap wine. Make the most of your time. Cause life's too short to drink cheap wine. Chardonnay, Chapolet, Champagne and au Bojolais. Merlot, Carpigny, Sous-Vion. See, we play our lives too short to drink cheap wine. Life's too short to drink cheap wine. Make the most of your time. Cause life's too short to drink cheap wine. Life's too short, life's too short. Life's too short, life's too short. Life's too short to drink cheap wine. Life's too short, life's too short. Life's too short, life's too short. Life's too short to drink cheap wine. Chardonnay, Chapolet, Champagne and au Bojolais. Merlot, Carpigny, Sous-Vion. See, we play our lives too short to drink cheap wine. Life's too short to drink cheap wine. Make the most of your time. Cause life's too short to drink cheap wine. Cause life's too short to drink cheap wine. Cause life's too short to drink cheap wine. Life's too short to drink cheap wine. These are two boys with a rarend and finest stuff at today. No book far for them, two boys. That's an old crowd pleaser there, no doubt about that. It goes down well, we're clean now. The video that's just done on the wine shop. I just get that. You know what, it was cheese wine shop on the water side. I just sent them a wee personal message on Facebook. Do the man, no man, from Adam. He says we're doing a song. We'd love to do it in your wine shop. We'll be really respectful. And he come back, he says, I know bar. We're going. And we didn't break any bar. The David don't really do it. The wee girl in the off-leays doesn't know where we're coming from. She says, ah, it's alright. A good reaction to it. Oh, alright, we're doing well. Good bit of fun. That's what it's all about. There's too much serious stuff going on. But is that going to be on the album? Definitely, that's definitely on the album. Why that when you're out there? We were playing at the... We were doing a gig for the council on Halloween there. The big stage in the Guildhall Square. The two of us, you know. So we played that, and we're doing really well. You know what I'm thinking about? It's easy to catch on there. You can pick it up very quickly. Excellent. The Folk Club, the Folk Folk Club. Martin, are you involved in the caring as well? Yep, yep. And tell me this. Jimmy was just saying off air. Good friend, Eamon Freed? Was Eamon involved in that? Eamon was a regular performer on it. Eamon was a good friend. Sadly must. Sadly must. We had Eamon up here, and do you know this? I still do this day. I put a couple of his albums on there. One I want to...  Oh, the Folk Club. How do you get that on here? Look, if you're watching that. We come up here, me and Jimmy come up here every Monday night. And I swear to God, every Monday night, we go home made something. And home made cakes and everything. And Saturday I went home, you went home, we can make a beer, and I went home, we can get us. There you are. We'll fire this out there. You're watching this, right? And they're booked down here for the next couple of weeks. Take all this in mind, okay? I've marked your words, you know what I'm saying? Did you lift them off? Oh, three months or mustn't. Oh, very good, hey. Very good. Thank God you shouldn't have done that, hey. Well, I'm glad you didn't, fairness. Because you've really got doors in there, so you must roll gifts and blankets. That's class, hey. Back to Eamon was a great character, wasn't he? He was a great... A brilliant songwriter. Brilliant songwriters.  Oh, I'd have been listening to Eddie Eamon from years ago. And I'd get none of that kind of music, you know. Definitely. No, I'm grassy. No, no, no. He was a big influence on music. I mean, even in my album, I even recorded one of these songs. It was one that just... Do you know where he was? He was a great broadcaster. I loved the show on a Saturday night. I loved the show. Because, do you know, if I'd have been sitting on... And you know where the nature's sitting on and on on TV, but I like to put on headphones and try to appreciate the sound and the listening, you know. And you had a thought he was in the living room, we. That's the way he made you feel. But he came up with it. He said a natural, wouldn't he? He just was. What was it he said? I can't remember.  Someone said, it was the dots. He said, oh, you just think it's something there. You know, you have a title and then you have a whole pile of dots, you know. And God, I loved the man. I just thought he was... He didn't really understand why people thought his music was great. But he, you know, talking, he reminded me of that. Do you remember? I'm going off my tangent now. I don't know if you remember The Crackers. The band The Crankers, I hear. And No McBride. And I come on that song on a cassette, the last day, Home to Derry or something. I forget. It's like a kind of monologue with No McBride done. And with The Crackers, I think it was. And that kind of reminds me of Eamon Freese, who sang with a kind of localised accent on it, you know, which was brilliant. So, how often does the folk club meet? Well, it meets. It's six times a year, once every two months. Right? And it's usually the first Friday night of the month. Everybody gets paid. That's not accidental. Well, that's not accidental. So, now, eight. I remember they have won this Friday night, funny enough. Aye. It's a long story. My year's gone to the hospital in London, so me and my missus is heading over to London, and where I say we're, you know, so... But otherwise, it would have been on this Friday night, which is a pity, because we could have given her a good plug. I'm going to get her called Full Campbell, coming down to sing on it. Right? She's a folk singer, and really good. We were looking forward to that, you know. Aye. So, I think she's about seven albums, you know. Everybody playing at our folk club, you know. We had Euryl Mitz the Goldstone Shave. Aye. So, when we started again after COVID, they were the first band to open for us. It was Pat, and he came up to the band, and it was brilliant, because he got us up to do the Hulls at Donny Gullwood, you know. That was a good round session. Pat's a good fella. Great. We had the Henry Guards. Aye. We had the Pat with the Henry Guards recently, and then we had Ellie Patterson recently, too, since we started back up after COVID. But in the past, we've had Anthony Toner boys that got playing, too, you know. Very good. And they've all, they've all been happy to go. Where do you know that? Tunny Upstairs and Tunny's Bar. Tunny's. Tunny's and Drinking Patrick Street. No, we say the Stranpicher House. Oh, aye, yes, yes, yes. Very good. We rent the wee room upstairs, and we, you know, it's a really nice venue. Aye. And it's good listening audience, you know. And it's usually packed. That's what you find a lot of times, you know, I, there's a grip into the band, run their own plug in all the time. Aye.  And you love, I love when they have it. You can, and it's a room full of people who are listening to the music. Aye, that's right.  But these venues give you a chance to put your own music out there to an appreciative audience. Definitely, definitely. How long has he run it? Seven years, yeah, seven years. And when COVID hit Martin, he's just not getting the hair done. He's just doing online stuff, no. Well, what I don't know is I got old videos. I video everybody at it. So Kieran does the sound, and I do emcee, and I do the video of anybody playing. Aye. And obviously I ask them, will they happen? Of course. We put the video with their songs out on Facebook afterwards, you know. We didn't ask you to do it. Sorry mate. We just took a chance. Sorry for none of the broo. So there was, of all the people that played at the club, one person, two people asked. Aye. Don't put the videos out, you know. We're not telling you who. You can tell me off here, sure. George Brennan says, great sound man. There you go, George. That's like you, George. Aye, and where are we now? Ely McLeod. Ely McLeod said, hi from Inver Gordon. Oh, very good. And Bernie Doherty says, it's you, P. It's good to see you up there, Martin Swee and Kearn Dover. They have them up here, Bernie. Thanks, Bernie. Bernie's a good old friend of ours, and does a lot of great work too. Bernie's played at the club as well, and she was brilliant. Pat Gallagher, sounds great, Vino Abou. Good man, Pat. I hope you're keeping well. A huge talent in this project. For another song ready. We're going to go on to another piece of music after the next break. What are you going to do first? Well, we're going to do one, it's called Chase the Light. I was reading about the Aaron Moore disaster in 1935, and it was about some migrant workers from Aaron Moore who went to Scotland to pick potatoes. They were coming back in November, 88 years ago, and he got the boat back to Derry, the Scotch boat back, they got on the boat, and well, there was only one of them made it to the island, so the rest were all drunk. I remember, talking to my dad one day, it's a story, not a brand new story. We wrote a song on the back of that. We're really looking forward to hearing this. After this break, Brian Adams is back on tour in 2024. Join Highland Radio on our trip to Dublin to see the man himself at the three arena on Tuesday the 21st of May, 2024. Your trip includes luxury transfers, bed and breakfast at the four-star Carton Hotel Blanchestown, your standing ticket to the show and a shopping trip to Dublin City Centre the following day. This is an ideal Christmas gift. Find out more on the outlet at www.aldy.com or call us on<PHONE_NUMBER>. 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With fast delivery to your door, your perfect home is just a visit away. Cooney's Home Interiors, your style, your way. Hi Tommy Bow here. Get in store to check out my new 15 Kings clothing collection available in premium Gents Outfitters nationwide and at 15Kings.com Do you think about your legacy and what? To reach that rugged shore Chase the light Chase the light Get us home before the night Chase the light and fight the swell Get us home safe and well Chase the light and fight the swell Get us home safe and well Chase the light Chase the light That cold November evening a squall blown from the west They hoisted sails and Burton poured the waves with test The light was fading as they said a shortened course They all capsized as it hit rocks with a deadly force Chase the light Chase the light Get us home Chase the light and fight the swell Get us home safe and well Chase the light and fight the swell Get us home safe and well Chase the light Some scrambled on to the keel as it thrashed on the waves Till another breaker washed them to their watery graves Young Galahar helped East Allen brother John as well But both were lost and only Pat was left to tell Chase the light Chase the light Get us home before the night Chase the light and fight the swell Get us home safe and well Chase the light and fight the swell Get us home safe and well Chase the light Chase the light Chase the light The insoles lost that night in 1935 The locals searched for days but no one found alive A wild Atlantic storm from the west A tall stone cross now marks the place where they all rest Chase the light Chase the light Get us home before the night Chase the light and fight the swell Get us home safe and well Chase the light Chase the light Chase the light Chase the light Chase the light and fight the swell Get us home safe and well Chase the light Chase the light Chase the light Yeah absolutely brilliant first cast Really brilliant, well done, did you write that yourself? No, we wrote it together. First Classy, are you keeping up the album? Oh, that's the album. Yeah, I definitely. That's brilliant. You're recording down with Paul Casey? Yes, indeed, no better man. Of course, and when you're recording, is there much added on to it from your original? Do you know what I mean? Say that song there, to me that song's just perfect. What would you add on to that? Obviously, Paul could come up with something. Well, Paul puts a beat on it sometimes, if we get a bit of a boron beat to it and stuff like that. But there's nowhere really, you know, it puts guitar on, maybe a bit of bass on. But it's... You've worked quite easy with him. The songs are more or less arranged before we go to Paul, you know, we have a fair idea of what we're doing, you know, what we want down the song. And have you all the songs done now, for now? We've got six songs, and we've about an hour or four, maybe, five to do. You know, but we've... We've two hours to record. Two hours, that'll take us up to eight. So we're on schedule for the summer of 24. Well, listen, the good thing about it is, Martin, in fairness, you know, you're not under pressure, you just need to throw something out there. And it comes to you naturally, you know... It's our hobby, exactly. I was saying that you may earn a run. See the way we write this, probably, we are writing songs. I'll make them up an idea, and I'll play a wee button, I'll send a WhatsApp mic here and say, what do you got? And he may say, that's all right, there. So I'll send him, go and see if he can put a... That's a chorus, go and see if he can put a verse on it. And he'll come back with so on, and I'll go, that's good, there. And it'll go back and forward. And then we meet every Thursday night, and we drink Kenneth 0-0. And we have a Kenneth 0-0, every Thursday night and play songs, have an old natter, and work on our new songs, you know, and it's just a brilliant hobby. 100% right, you know, Martin, and that's quite important, because that's the way I see this, this is a hobby, so I'm under no pressure, you know, and you would get the same, no matter what you're doing, as we would get out of here, you know. And we love doing that, you obviously love doing it, but it keeps the mind going too, keeps the head clear, you know, when things are going. You know, we work on this show, and it's six days a week, we're listening to music, you know, and it's a pure hobby. Some people like to fish, and some people like to get my darts, but long may it continue, that's a brilliant way to do it, fair play, but get the 0-0 away. You're really...  That just gets you in prep. What is it? A lot of people saying hello here, do you? Emma Rose Sweeney. Oh, that's my daughter. Siobhan and Emma listening in, and you're sounding great. And Andy Sweeney, good man, Martin Kearn, looking in from Dublin, enjoying the tunes. Oh, that's Andy, yeah.  She's in Belfast. Good stuff on you.  And he said, brilliant from Acoustic Vives and Tony Craigins, his high-guage grit tunes and Marianne Craigins. Brilliant, boys. Brilliant stuff. Come here. Gigan, where can people get you if you're looking for use? Our next gig now is going to be... There's a wee gig coming up in Silver Street. Silver Street on the 29th of December. Or Silver Street. No, the blue pot in Shippie Street. Yes, yes. And we're kind of ticking Christmas off. And you know... You see, that's the good thing about it. Once again, it's a hobby. You know, if you're... I know you have a lot of things going on and it's nice to be able to do that. You know, a lot of musicians and friends, they have to do it because that's their game.  And enjoy the break and enjoy the crack. But your music's so easy in the year and easy to go along with because that's the second song there. Like, you know, we were jogging along in my head here with it, you know, and the story was coming out in it, which is important to you. That's a very important story, Martin. Oh, it is, it is. It was this month, you know, 88 years ago. And can you imagine a cold nightly on a November night trip going across the Armour in the ferry? And I think the chase I like was they were trying to get to the island before it got dark and they took a shortcut. I think that's what happened, you know. But there's some grit. Do you see when you see that and you talk, you know, cherry songs about the lifeboat crew that went out that night and it's called ALEGO and the way that it was... This is Leslie.  They made me come back and everything and it was a case of ALEGO and ALEGO and the bravery there is something else. On selfies, bravery. Without a doubt and, you know, you can see it too. When you watch them, lifeboat shows and stuff, I don't think a lot of them appreciate it as much unless they've been rescued with them, but they do an amazing work. I let them something there that maybe a lot of people didn't know about. You should go to the iron moor and sing that out in Jerry Harris. We planned to do that next year. We'd love to do it. We were right there a couple of months ago. Did you do that swell thing? The swells haven't been done for a couple of years, but we were doing it. We loved doing it. And then I got into gaming again. I just loved it. You know, I go there at half an hour before doing any more. I just go first, you know. Do you know what I'm generally looking forward to in an album? I think your album will be... You know, I'm once again, I'm thinking of Emin Freed. You know, I'm thinking that style. Aye, that's... I would say so. Well, come here to tell you. The Folk Club, if we go back there again, you know, as people booked or as a turn-up thing... No, it's planned. I'm only doing it every two months, and it's not a chore, it's a pleasure doing it. We charge a fiver on it, so it's not there. And the money's split between the artists. We don't take a cut on it, we love doing it. You know, again, it's our hobby. Exactly.  But that's good, you know. Do you have a crowd of regulars there?   Celebrity.  You said a celebrity. And if you play, you get a hat. You get a hat.  Eamor McFadden says, I use her brilliant. Thank you, Eamor. Thanks very much, Eamor. Eamor McFadden says, Brilliant, all the best, Karen Duffy and Martin from all the McFaddens and Muff. There you go.  That's a good question. At the minute, I'm listening to French coffee music. You know that kind of piano accordion and French music? I just get on that there by Ken Axel. And I listen away to that. I listen to that thing, you know.  Someone else too. He hasn't lost it, haven't he? Karen, what about yourself? I'm on the Australian folk music. I listen to A-C-D-C all the time. It was... Do you know what's funny? Oh, Jesus. They got me there and I went, I didn't have a very good time. Ah, brilliant. Well done. Could I put a plug away for a guy who's a brilliant singer and dairy? There's a fella called Don Clark and he sang at our last folk club and he's an absolute brilliant singer. And I just wanted to... Do we plug for him at night? This is a wood. Well done. And he's a great fella. Would he come up some night here? Oh, he would love to come up. Well, tell him to get in touch. Get our people to talk to his people. We'll draw up a contract. You see, Martin, that's what it's all about here. You know, people would want to come up for us. Come on up.  You know, that's the platform here and we love taking advantage of it. Do you know what? I just want to say, Paul, thanks for asking us along. Thank you for continuing to support... Absolutely. You know, once again, it's the hobby and we enjoy the crack. There's no pressure here, like, you know what I mean? No, it's great. The legs of yourselves, we're really looking forward to this album. You'll come up and launch it. Oh, lovely. You know, the door's open. And a little bit of crack, you know. But come here, the pleasure's... Delight, having both of you here in this great to see you again. You're looking well. And so a final song, if you don't mind. So we're going to lower the tone a bit now, Paul. Oh, here we go now. I don't know this one. The last time we're up here. It's a bog and bop. What's the name of that? So the story of this song... That's the time of the completion, wasn't it? LAUGHTER Are we safe enough? That's what you've never asked back. That's why you come back under a different name. That last song was a Donny Gloss song. So this is the Derry song. So 1979, I was a punk rocker. So was I? No, I was a punk rocker. I played in a punk band. We used to support the honour tones and moondogs and all that. And we practised upstairs in a bogside in 1978. Right in the middle of a bogside. And there was pandemonium, as you can imagine during the troubles at that time. But there was always brilliant music. And the punk rock music had dairy. There was a brilliant punk rock music scene with the honour tones and the moondogs and the sect. And our band was called Ventura Highway. She doesn't remember that. Ventura Highway. And it was nice when we were playing with pandemonium outside, you know. So there was a line in the song. Outside. And save was never quiet. And outside there was always a riot. Right, but come here. Michael Bradley. I was talking about doing my navel rehearsing stuff. And navel rehearsed up there, too, over the bog. And he said the same thing. Mental outside. And he wasn't lying. We were just outside getting all my music. I leave us alone. The punk scene was good crack. I wanted to be in the older tones. They must out there, don't they? They must out there, don't they? You could have been on that mural now. Your face could have been on that new mural. It's not class. You'll probably end up in your own mural anyway. Well, my face has been up in different places than the rest of the band. They say really. But come here. Now the murals presents. It was great to see it. And rightly so. The town of many good singers and the tunes come out of it. Whenever you're ready, let's go through. One, two, three, four. 78 in the tones are on top of the pops. And there's still barricades outside the Gregor shops. And the smell of smoke it lingers in the air. Streets there is music. And Rockers Rock the center of the top of the hill was Brill.  Absolutely. First class on the money. And Patricia Loogs is fantastic. And Dawn Clark says thanks for the shout out. Well done, you and Keith. Great songs. And Sound of Bright. Love the bargain. Patricia said, amazing. Just love it. Pure class lads. Do you know this? Absolutely delighted to have these up here. He's on social media and the other stuff. We have a Facebook page. Acoustic vibes, aye? Oh aye, thanks for the hats, by the way. My hat got on it. Here's mine, sir. And there's a foil club. A t-shirt. For when you come down. I'll be there. Don't be worried about that. When you forget your 00. Keir and Duffy and Martin Sweeney come here. Absolutely delight. Really love your company and the crack. And we're looking forward to the new year and the new album. Thank you very much, Dave.