When Loverboy’s Fallon Gold first heard about queer music night Camposphere, illustrated by Barbarella and winged unicorns, she thought they’d plucked this concept right out of her soul through her brain. A night of LGBTQIA+ music celebrating camp? We’re in. And with the tagline ‘Camp Was Never Over’, we couldn’t agree more with the ethos of Camposphere.

Sam Pallis and Chris Nelson – you are the brains and fabulosity behind Camposphere. What can we expect?
Sam: Imagine Bob Fosse directing a P-Funk show from the mid 70s; The Holy Mothership and a multitude of shimmering sequins and gold lamé.

Chris: I keep adding an extra kilogram to our eBay glitter order. To the point where I’m now terrified to press ‘purchase’ in case I have to ask my parents to remortgage. So you can expect glitter. Unless I can’t press the button in which case there’ll be no glitter (there’ll be glitter). Other than glitter you can expect amazing music from amazing performers.

Tell us about London Friend and what money and awareness raised by this event will do
S: Chris introduced me to the charity, and I was really taken by how inclusive and welcoming it is, and we felt it would be a perfect fit for the night.  It really is out there doing vital work amongst the LBGTQI community and we wanted to show it some love and practical support

C: I used to volunteer on the phone lines for London Friend and saw firsthand how little funding they have and how much they manage to do in spite of that. The few ‘paid’ staff they have frequently find that there isn’t actually any money left with which to pay them, but they carry on anyway. LGBTQIA+ people are 7 times more likely to develop a substance misuse problem and twice as likely to suffer depression, but there aren’t many support services designed to deal with the problems lot of the people I spoke to were having. London Friend delivers free therapy and drug and alcohol programmes to help anyone in the community who can’t pay for it so I really hope that Camposphere can raise a little bit of money and awareness for their vital work.

How did you go about choosing the acts to be part of Camposphere?
S: In terms of the acts, I have been listening to a lot of funk recently and became obsessed with the music of George Clinton, Klymaxx and Tower of Power. I then came across a video of Parliament’s Funkadelic Mothership Connection tour and what I saw was this crazy camp spectacle: outlandish outfits and space ships floating in and out of shot. We thought that this style would be great for a camp night. We wanted to find acts that were riffing on that energy such as Chiara Hunter with her future funk sound. However, I also spend half my time listening to Britney Spears’ “Sometimes” on repeat, and we wanted to find bands that represented that as well. So, Denim with their camptastic pop and Boy with Wings with their off-centre pop.

C: We wanted to put on a party where everyone feels involved, not a concert where people watch a bunch of bands and chat briefly between sets. So all the bands are super fun, and play music you can dance to. I’m trying to work out how to make dancing compulsory. Hot coals? We also feel like London’s queer music scene is blossoming so we made sure that all of the acts we booked were based in London and had something of London in them.

How important was it that this be a celebration of camp?
S: I think the rise of normcore pushed Camp to the sidelines.  Camp goes in cycles; at points it is seen as attractive and at other times it loses its currency. This time it feels different; the notion of being queer has started to question this cycle, by acknowledging the performative nature of all of these identities. Camp is at the forefront of this movement and through drag it has become a renewed subversive sensibility where anything goes. With Camposphere we want to bring the energy surrounding the London drag scene into the queer music scene. The glitter is back and here to stay!

C: First and foremost our goal was to bring a bunch of queer artists together, because it’s surprising how rarely that happens. The aesthetic of the night came second, but when we did start thinking aesthetic, camp was the only choice. Camp is all about superficiality. Treat the surface level as the true reality of things and disavow the idea of hidden depths. That’s why faded glamour is the paradigm of camp. Little Edie was a goddamn star and there’s nothing the ‘deeper reality’ of her crumbling house and poorly executed pirouettes could do to change that. And that’s what queerness is all about too, with its idea that gender is a fabrication. It’s important to remember how radical the camp aesthetic was and can be. We live on the surface, in the glitz and the glamour. We used to know that when the Spice Girls were the UK’s biggest pop stars. Now that we have Zayn Malik I think the world needs reminding.

Why do you think the queer music scene is so vibrant right now? Are we in a cultural ‘moment’ for queer?
S: It definitely feels like we are at a watershed moment. There is a whole generation of queer musicians who are centred on the DIY scene, who are reviving queercore of the 1980’s, such as Ravioli Me Away who are playing at Camposphere, and who make a statement about gender today. Plus the queer rap/hip hop scene with Big Dipper, Futurehood, Cakes Da Killa and Brooke Candy are taking what was seen as a predominantly masculine form and are transforming into a queer one.

C: Absolutely. Queerness has spread from its academic origins into music, as well as into fashion, politics, art, and pretty much everything else. And the world is finding that when you use queer discourse to challenge hegemonies you get great music! And great art, politics, fashion etc. And there’s so much further to go. It’s quite exciting really.

Is it BYOG? (Bring Your Own Glitter)
Sam and Chris: DEFO. You’re not getting in without it.

Any chances of an ongoing live/club night dedicated to queer and camp? Could this become the discothèque of our queeny dreams?
Sam and Chris: Well, we have some big plans in the making so watch this space.

Squeal! OK – most important question now – what’s your favourite Mariah Carey song?
S: I am all about the Diva and you can’t get more DIVA than Mariah (and Whitney). So it’s got to be When You Believe.

C: I mean this is my favourite interview question ever. And probably the hardest to answer. I used to have her poster on my wall as a teenager and I always told myself it was a pinup situation. It wasn’t. She’s had some great up-tempo songs but you’re never gonna get the full force of her voice outside a ballad. So I’m gonna say My All because I really feel like she gave her all to that song.

Camposphere is at The Resistance Gallery, 7 May

Go glitter or go home