News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media, news, education, and information services.
All Football
MORE E, VICAR?
The vicar – who topped the charts in the 1980s as one half of The Communards – has written a tell-all book lifting the lid on his drug addiction and coming out to his parents
By Emma Pietras
17th August 2017, 2:50 am
Updated: 17th August 2017, 3:19 am
STRICTLY Come Dancing’s latest signing is a bespectacled vicar who presents a weekly show on Radio 4.
But appearances can be deceptive — as the 55-year-old reverend is a former drug addict pop star and promiscuous shagger who once lied about having HIV.
PA:Press Association
Rev Richard Coles proves appearances can be deceiving
Richard Coles topped the charts in the 1980s as one half of The Communards and once admitted that he kept a separate bank account purely to pay his drug dealer.
He said: “How much have I spent on drugs in my life? Well, more than a clergyman should.”
But the Church of England priest, who is gay, found God in the 1990s and swapped dogging for wearing a dog collar — and now lives a life of celibacy.
Born in Northamptonshire, Richard knew he was gay as a public school choirboy but did not come out until his late teens.
He said: “Growing up realising you were gay in 1970s Britain was like being a paedophile now — it was a life that seemed to offer only disgrace.”
It was while studying drama at college that he had his first taste of drugs.
1986 Mike Prior
Richard when he was keyboard player in The Communards, with his bandmate Jimmy Somerville
The clergyman said: “I loved staying up all night talking and didn’t need a stimulant. But taking speed kept others up all night, too, which meant hours of fun.”
At 16, he came out as gay to his parents.
He recalled: “I played Tom Robinson’s song Glad To Be Gay four times in a row.
“Afterwards, my mother turned and said to me, ‘Are you trying to tell me something, dear?’
“I said, ‘Yes’. She said, ‘Do you think you might be gay?’ And I said, ‘I KNOW I am’.”
But Richard has admitted at the time he “wasn’t particularly glad to be gay” and felt he was “out of tune with nature”.
Richard with his family on the day he became a priest in 2005, four years after switching to Anglicanism
From there, he sank into depression, which culminated in him trying to commit suicide when he was 17.
Richard, who has written two no-holds-barred autobiographies about his sordid past, said: “I went to the doctor and got prescribed antidepressants.
“But instead of taking them I stockpiled them and also got hold of some Mogadon, the rather well-named soporific of the time.
“I took this cocktail of drugs and vodka one night while my parents were away. I left a note by my bedside and I fell into unconsciousness.
“The next thing I remember was lying in a bed by a window, my brothers standing in front of it, in order of height, looking at me.”
RICHARD COLES/ORION PUBLISHING
Richard, pictured as a choirboy with brothers, attempted to commit suicide at 17 after sinking into epression
His parents got him admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Northampton where he spent the summer.
Richard said: “I remember thinking, ‘Well at least life will never be this bad again’, and I have been right, so far.”
He returned to college before working as a session musician in theatre in London, where he had his “first proper sex” with “a shy boy”.
Around the time, Richard met Jimmy Somerville in a coffee shop.
He recalled: “We exchanged a few words but I couldn’t understand many because his Glasgow accent was so strong.”
They formed The Communards in 1985 after Jimmy left pop band Bronski Beat. Their best-known hit Don’t Leave Me This Way was the biggest-selling single of 1986.
3
A changed man… Richard found God in the 1990s when a psychiatrist suggested he see a priest
GOSH SPICE!
Mel B ditches her undies in VERY revealing catsuit as she shows off her new hairdo on America’s Got Talent
IT’S ALL OVER
Charlotte Crosby confirms she’s SPLIT with Stephen Bear and cries as she tells fans it’s over
COBBLES FEAR
Coronation Street boss reveals major new terrifying storyline that scares even her
The King
A look into the life and death of Elvis Presley and why he was crowned King of Rock n’ Roll’
Battered and knackered
Love Island stars show the strain after 72 nights leave them looking not so great on paper
The pressures of fame led to a series of drug-fuelled rows for the pair. Then, during a tour of Europe, Richard fell ill with shingles — common in those with an HIV infection.
He took a blood test and rejoined the band in Switzerland.
Richard said: “I limped around the stage and stood half-heartedly at the keyboard.
“I think my morose mood irritated Jimmy because one night we had an argument.
“In the thick of it I said, ‘I’m ill, I’ve just discovered I’m HIV positive — get off my back’.
“Jimmy was taken aback. ‘I’m sorry, doll’, he said.”
Getty – Contributor
Richard and Jimmy formed The Communards in 1985
The blood test came back negative but it was too late. The news had already spread. And Richard admitted: “Saying it got me sympathy, which I liked.”
He has also said: “There was a dark glamour to being HIV positive. There was this drama and I was drawn to that.”
The pair split at the height of their fame the following year after a string of drug-fuelled arguments. Jimmy went solo and Richard spent a lost year in Ibiza during the second Summer of Love.
“I took everything, though E was probably the hallmark drug because I could dance all night and have a fantastic time,” he said.
After a car rental firm banned him for crashing their cars and mopeds, he thinks he “bought a speedboat from someone”.
And recalling his drug-taking days, he said: “If I hadn’t quit, I’d have died.”
RICHARD COLES/ORION PUBLISHING
Richard and Jimmy’s hit Don’t Leave Me This Way was the biggest-selling single of 1986
On returning to the UK, he knew he needed to get help.
He said: “One morning I was on the Tube after I’d been out for three days.
“I was covered in dirt, smelt and looked a right state. People were looking at me with a mixture of pity and horror.
Then I saw my reflection in the window opposite and thought, ‘Time to get a grip’.”
A psychiatrist suggested he see a priest, despite Richard’s lack of faith. “I suppose I’ve always had a very genuine curiosity about religion,” he explained.
RICHARD COLES/ORION PUBLISHING
Richard with his brothers Andy and Will
He started writing for the Catholic Herald. Then, in 1990, he took a degree in theology at King’s College London.
That year, after going to mass at St Alban’s church in central London, he was “suddenly inspired with a new-found faith”.
He said: “Shame was one of the drivers that brought me to God. I needed to be forgiven [for] selfishness, silliness, wildness, taking s**tloads of drugs, being irresponsible — and lying about being HIV positive.”
After he found God he felt brave enough to tell friends that he didn’t have HIV — a secret he had kept for five years.
Publicly, the fact he had lied did not come out until Richard’s first autobiography, Fathomless Riches, was published in 2014.
He told a newspaper that year: “I never spoke about it before. I was too embarrassed. Such a mad thing to do, but I think partly because it was such a mad time.”
RICHARD COLES/ORION PUBLISHING
Richard took a degree in theology in 1990
And when he told Jimmy he did not have HIV, their friendship was torn apart.
The lead singer said: “When he confessed, I didn’t react in a constructive way.
“I’d known lots of people who had died, people who were ill.
“I was in my own dark place of trying to deal with everything that was happening so I put a barrier up and we didn’t speak for a long time.”
Richard may have been a born-again Christian, but that did not stop him from enjoying copious amounts of dogging in the late 90s.
RICHARD COLES/ORION PUBLISHING
Richard Coles, centre, revealed his guilt at lying about having HIV in the 1980s
He has admitted he even left his family one Christmas Day to go to a local lay-by to meet a stranger for sex. He recalls the man was naked except for a “bow of tinsel, which he had tied round his bits”.
He has said: “I was very much healed by the experience of anonymous sex with strangers in lay-bys. This might stretch my credibility to the point of knicker-elastic twanging, but I really was.”
After a decade as a Roman Catholic, he returned to Anglicanism in 2001. Four years later, he was ordained into the Anglican priesthood. Now Richard lives with his civil partner Rev David Coles and their seven dogs in his parish of Finedon, Northants.
Richard and David, 40, who he met in 2007, are in a celibate relationship.
Richard is now in a celibate relationship with David, pictured, who he met in 2007
Richard is a regular guest on BBC1’s Have I Got News For You? and has hosted the award-winning Saturday Live on Radio 4 since 2011, pulling in more than two million listeners a week. And it seems his old pal Jimmy has forgiven him.
“We’re in the best place we’ve been in for a long time,” Richard has said. “We’re in touch by email and have a very sweet, revived relationship.”
When asked in a recent interview what he thinks of his ex-bandmate being something of a national treasure now, Jimmy replied with a laugh: “He’ll be in his element. He always wanted to be a big celebrity.”
And after his turn on Strictly, his fame is only going to get bigger.
Bringing In The Sheaves: Wheat And Chaff From My Years As A Priest, by Rev Richard Coles, is published in paperback on October 5.
By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. You can change this and find out more by following this link
Spread the love & Comment on Social Media !