“My best friend is my bed. Sometimes I scream at my bed: ‘I love you, bed'” LGSM c0-founder Mike Jackson 

Organisers of a legendary fundraiser for striking miners are returning to the same venue in Camden Town for a “good old bop” 40th anniversary event.

Tickets for the London Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners’ return to the Electric Ballroom, on May 16, are already selling out.

The Pits and Perverts line-up is yet to be finalised but it promises a night of music, dance, drag, political speakers and compered by cabaret and performance artist David Hoyle.

Synth-pop political agitators Bronski Beat headlined the original gig, in December 1984, which drew more than 1,500 fans, gay activists and striking coal miners from across the country to Camden Town.

The story of the LGSM and the night at the Ballroom has become iconic after it was retold in the 2014 film Pride and its glittering cast including George MacKay, Dominic West, Andrew Scott, Imelda Staunton and Bill Nighy among others.

One of the original LGSM organisers, Mike Jackson, told me this week how proud he was about the group’s role in not only supporting the miners – but also changing attitudes towards lesbian and gay people.

Mr Jackson, who lives in King’s Cross, said: “This is the only Pits and Perverts event we’ve had since the original. And it’s really pleasing to be back at the Electric Ballroom. It’s going to be a very diverse night and a good old bop.

“I hadn’t been back there since that day so it was a strange feeling to go in there when we were organising.

“There are lot of ghosts in the Electric Ballroom. So many famous acts have passed through.”

The Electric Ballroom

I last spoke to Mike when a signed original Pits and Perverts poster – designed by Kevin Franklin – was put up at the King Charles I pub in King’s Cross in 2022.

On Sunday he was up in Rotherham, Yorkshire, speaking to the miners at a 40th anniversary event.

He said: “I harked back to what it was like as a young gay man in the 60s and 70s. Nobody liked us: politicians, courts, police.

“We had no rights to fight back with. It’s great that things have changed so much with that – and to think how we played a role in it all.

“The unions played a role too.

“Because long before we got those rights enshrined in law, the trade union movement had been helping by starting to look at employment rights, and all the other things that trade unions do.

“When the equalities legislation came in with Tony Blair, there was already a worked-out template for employment rules thanks to the unions.”

Mr Jackson said the LGSM had been “reconstituted” following the Pride movie and that he was part of a group of four remaining working on the legacy.

“We’ve all this merchandise that is still incredibly popular.

“People love our T-shirts. We give the profits away to good causes. We don’t want to be a charity.

“We want to be political. It’s been great to work with the Lesbian and Gays Support the Migrants.

“They are like our next generation really.”

Mr Jackson, a horticulturist who worked at Camden Garden Centre for 16 years, said he was tiring a little physically in old age but still remained as angry as ever.

“The fire is still there. The anger is still there.

“What is this nonsense about people becoming more right wing as they get older? The older I get the more angry I get.

“Because in so much, f*** all has changed.

“I am 72 days before the gig. I can tell you what the news will be: housing, education, war, benefits, the welfare state, greedy capitalism.

“At the same time my best friend is my bed. Sometimes I scream at my bed: ‘I love you, bed.’

“So with all this I am a bit surviving on adrenalin. It’s a bit scary. We are a bunch of amateurs really and it’s a big venue to sell tickets for.

“With the original, we felt the same but once we secured Bronski Beat – I think their Smalltown Boy was No 1 – we knew it would be a success.”

And he revealed his latest theory on where the night got its very excellent name from.

Mr Jackson said: “There’s a great little video you can find called Framed Youth – The Revenge of the Teenage Perverts.

“It was a video project created by the Lesbian and Youth Project, as they were called then, where youngsters had been given training and access to making a video – it was a Ken Livingstone thing, I think.

“This was 42 years ago – two years before the miners strike.

“They go into Ridley Road market in Dalston and simply ask the question: Can you tell me what a lesbian is? It’s like ‘a murderer’, ‘a sex maniac’.

“It’s so comical, but also quite dark. The lesbians were p***ing themselves laughing.

“But that’s what we wanted to do – take the insult, neutralise it and throw it back at people.”

The film, which won an award, is available on YouTube.

The original concert raised more £5,500, which was distributed to families in need.

Tickets for the 7pm event cost £20 and are available on the Electric Ballroom website.