Richard Coles (born 26 March 1962)[1] is a musician, journalist and Church of England priest. He is known for having been the multi-instrumentalist who partnered Jimmy Somerville in the 1980s band The Communards, who achieved three Top Ten hits, including the Number 1 record and best-selling single of 1986, a Hi-NRG version of "Don't Leave Me This Way". He also appears frequently on radio and television as well as in newspapers. In March 2011 he became the regular host of BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live.[2]
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Coles was born in Northampton, England and educated at Wellingborough School (where he was a choirboy)[3] and King's College London where he studied theology from 1990.[3]
Coles had learned to play the saxophone, clarinet and keyboards and moved to London in 1980 where he played in theatre.[3] In 1983 he appeared with Jimmy Somerville in the Lesbian and Gay Youth Video Project film Framed Youth: Revenge of The Teenage Perverts,[4] which won the Grierson Awards.[5] Coles also played clarinet on "It Ain't Necessarily So", which was a hit single in 1984 for Bronski Beat.
In 1984 Somerville left Bronski Beat and he and Coles formed The Communards,[3] who were together for just over three years and had three UK Top 10 hits, including the biggest-selling single of 1986 with a version of "Don't Leave Me This Way", which was at Number 1 for four weeks. They split in 1988 and Somerville went solo.
Coles provided narration for The Style Council's film JerUSAlem in 1994.[6] and also started a career as a writer and journalist, most notably with the Times Literary Supplement and the Catholic Herald. He has stated of this period in his life that "I went on all the right marches, went to all the right clubs, read Marxism Today and the New Statesman."[7] After a successful career in the media, Coles came to the Christian faith after attending the funeral of a close friend: the first funeral he had been to for someone who had died of AIDS.[7] From 1991 to 1994 Coles read for a BA in theology at King's College London. He was selected for training for priesthood in the Church of England and entered his training at the monastic College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, in 2003[8] before being ordained in 2005.[3]
Of the career transition, Coles has said
"It was bananas. I had just turned 40, I had a good living and then suddenly I threw myself into theological college, an environment where I was wearing a cassock and sleeping with people in the same room ... It was a cultural shock and very odd to begin with. Nobody joins the church because of the pay and conditions or because it is an attractive career package, you do it because you are conscious of a vocation to it.[9]
After ordination Coles worked as curate at St Botolph's Church in Boston, Lincolnshire,[10] and subsequently at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, in London with his dachshund, Daisy as his "faithful assistant".[1] He has been chaplain of the Royal Academy of Music[3][11] and has also played Dr Frank N Furter in a local concert and conducted an atheist funeral for Mo Mowlam in 2006.[9]
Coles was an inspiration for the character of Adam Smallbone (played by Tom Hollander) in the 2010 BBC Two sitcom "Rev."[12]
In January 2011 Coles was appointed as the parish priest of St Mary the Virgin, Finedon in the Diocese of Peterborough.[13]
Coles is openly gay[14] and lives with his partner in a celibate relationship, in respect for the current rules within the Church of England. Commenting on the current Church of England policy on same-sex relationships for clergy, Coles told The Daily Telegraph, ‘‘It’s not as I would have it, but then it’s not about me.’’[14]
Coles still does broadcasting work, which he describes as "just showing off",[15] including Nightwaves on BBC Radio 3 which he formerly presented, and Newsnight Review on BBC Two. On 15 May 2008 he was on the BBC Radio 4 panel game show Heresy and he has twice appeared as a guest on the topical BBC Television news quiz Have I Got News for You, first in 1994 and then in May 2009. Coles presented a special edition of Songs of Praise on 10 January 2010.[1] He was a guest on the BBC Radio 4 comedy Heresy in May 2010[16] and a Children in Need special of the BBC Four quiz Only Connect in November of the same year. Having regularly guest-hosted the Radio 4 programme Saturday Live, while regular host Fi Glover was on maternity leave from 2008 to 2009, Coles replaced Glover permanently in 2011.
On 1 September 2011, he presented a short piece on his home town and parish of Finedon for the Radio 4 programme You and Yours.