Felipe Rose is quite possibly the campest straight man in human existence.
While he has a burgeoning career in America as a solo recording artist, he is best known as the Native American in The Village People.
Rose’s new solo single will be released in America while he’s on tour with the other Macho Men in Australia.
‘I’ve still got my day job,’ Rose told OUTinPerth of his solo career, ‘but I’m constantly mixing it up because you’re constantly having to define yourself in the industry when you’re with an entity like The Village People.’
The Village People defined the sound of a generation, kicking into existence in the late ’70s when disco was at its headiest.
‘I was too busy being a working artist,’ Rose said of his life at the start of The Village People.
‘It started with one situation and turned into another from doing percussion and foot bells to Jacques Morali telling me he had a bigger project. He then contacted me months later and told me he was going to put a group together and that I was going to be in the centre.
‘And of course when I met with him and his partner I just thought it was a real stupid idea honestly. I’m not kidding around. I thought it was kinda corny but it was a good pay check.’
Then they did the first album, Village People by Village People, and it contained a series of hits titled San Francisco, Hollywood, Fire Island and Village People, the song, a reference to the gayest part of New York, Greenwich Village.
‘Of course I found out what he was doing was he was catering and designing songs as a tribute to gay locations around the country. But that also simultaneously coincided with the Anita Bryant and the history of Stonewall and all of that and our music swooped down on that movement.’
San Francisco and Hollywood were on the dance charts for 36 weeks.
‘And then when we released the Macho Man album: that’s when I thought it was really stupid. The thing is that if someone tells you they’re going to record a song called Macho Man and you’re looking at them like “You’re joking? Ok, let’s do it.†and that’s what it was.’
It lead to another album and before long they were media crossover darlings, making appearances with Donna Summer and pushing uber straight boy band Kiss out of the limelight.
So was the band prepared to become the gay icons that they have become?
‘We didn’t have a problem with it,’ Rose stated matter-of-factly.
‘But then sadly we found it really disrespecting when we were in say like Europe and were having a massive press conference with say 30 or 40 reporters and the first question is “Are you all homosexuals?â€.
‘You know, I’m selling music and I’m selling a tour and we love our gay audience and we love our straight audience, we love our kids and the crossover media acceptance and now we’re living in a new century, and all that is from a century ago.
‘It’s shocking that people ask us shit like that. And very disrespectful. If it’s Village People it is what it is.’
Of course, Australia gets the gayness of The Village People. Naturally, we’re more advanced than most other nations when it comes to appreciating the subtlety of a good dress up, a history encapsulated with our love of Priscilla and Kath & Kim.
‘Australians love anything good,’ added Rose.
‘They love a good drag queen. They love dress up.
‘Mardi Gras is fabulous, and it’s not just a gay celebration. It’s literally the whole world goes there and the whole city parties. And that shows me the broadness and understanding of total respect for people in general.
‘And yet here we’re so backwards. Prehistoric in a way. We go to Australia and it’s nothing but just babes and love. We love going there.’
So what can audiences expect?
‘What we try to convey in the show is to try and bring a sense of disco from last century. If we can just take them there for that little while that they are with us and to vicariously close their eyes and think that they are at Studio 54, that they think they can hear and remember those songs just as if they were there.
‘And because we are all fit and we look good and we sound better than ever and the show is tight, the choreography is tight, the staging is tight! We own it.
‘Baby, we got swagger!’
The Village People will appear at Challenge Stadium on October 20. Tickets are available now. www.cantstopthemusic.com.au
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
