Why, Kay?

As it’s still officially Pride month (not that any of us are able to go out and celebrate in any real sense of the word) I thought it would be the ideal time to discuss one of the more obscure – and fun - gay-themed discs in my collection.

Credited on the sleeve to The Brothers Butch, but on the disc to The Butch Brothers, the innuendo-laden Kay, Why? (titled, if you did not already know, after the leading brand of water-based lubricant, K-Y Jelly) was written penned by one Eileen Dover, a wonderfully silly pseudonym that would befit many a drag queen. There is a fairly good chance that the men behind the release had heard of California’s Camp Records, but the song itself, and the flip, I’m Not Going Camping This Winter, owe more to the British school of campery than its US cousin. This is Julian and Sandy-land, all double entrendres and limp wrists.

Who were the real people hiding behind the name the Butch Brothers, or for that matter who was Eileen Dover? Sadly, I cannot tell you. There’s not a trace of information on them anywhere. Issued in 1967, just as the law of the country was changing and finally decriminalising sex for homosexual men – assuming that those men were over 21 and only met in pairs and in private, of course - the disc appears to have been the only release from Thrust Records of 494 Harrow Road, London, now a flat above a fast food takeaway. 

Update, 7 July 2021: 494 Harrow Road was the address of Eyemark Records, featured on this blog before, who issued the Sheila Hancock 45 I Got You (as Sheil and Mal, with Malcolm Taylor), a Sonny and Cher parody, and the album Recitals are a Drag by legendary drag artist and ball organiser Mr. Jean Fredericks. Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley were also involved with Eyemark - and the band The barrier - around the same time as Kay, Why was recorded... I think I should do some further investigation there!

Update Two: 23 October 2021: Correspondence with poet Kit Fryatt has led me to do some more research on the Butch Brothers/Brothers Butch saga. Kit contacted me while writing a piece on the record for a conference on gay identities and pop music (Dublin University’s Queering the Groove, which by strange coincidence, I was also invited to contribute to), to see if I could offer any further information. I contacted Ken and Alan to ask if they knew anything about the disc, but neither of them was involved.

That might have been the end of the story, until I discovered that Eyemark (or Eye Mark as it occasionally appeared) was set up (or at least part-owned) by Mark Edwards, a former BBC cameraman who was moving into music production. He was involved with The Barrier (possibly as their manager, certainly as a songwriter and producer) and he was also trying to get a music video project off the ground for TV broadcast around the world, filming clips of Howard/Blaikley acts including Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, and The Herd. Later he would produce the Curved Air album Air Conditioning and manage (well, mismanage would be more accurate) gay singer-songwriter Steve Swindells, who in turn would go on to work with Hawkwind and Roger Daltrey among others. Could Mark Edwards be Eileen Dover, who wrote both sides of Kay, Why? Could he be one of the singers on the disc? In my opinion, it is more than likely. 

It’s vaguely possible that there could have been a second release from the label: a peculiar digital release of dubious origin is available from Amazon and iTunes, coupling both of these tracks with the very similar sounding The Girls In the Band and Bald alongside three other totally unconnected songs. With no writer credits or recording information available it’s impossible to know for sure, but could these tracks be by the Butch Brothers? The vocalists certainly sound the same, but sadly I can find no official release for either The Girls In the Band or Bald. Perhaps there was a second single planned or even pressed by Thrust and physical copies have yet to surface.    

There appear to have been two pressings of Kay, Why?, one – presumably the original – on a blue label with silver lettering and a three-pronged push out centre (I have a copy of this particular edition, sadly sans picture sleeve); the other (second?) pressing is on a pinky-red label with black lettering and either a solid centre or a push-out one. Both came in the same picture sleeve, and the four-pronged red label version does looks like late 60s pressing, so they may have appeared simultaneously. It is possible that if indeed there was a second pressing it was issued in late 1972: the disc was repromoted, with the sides reversed, in Gay News shortly before Christmas that year.

It’s not much to go on, I know, but that’s all I have. If anyone has the slightest idea who may be involved please do let me know.

Here are both sides of this rather fun 45: enjoy!

Download Kay HERE

Download Camping HERE