From Rock or Doc to Rev.

I'd forgotten what a very good record this was. The Communards version of the Jackson 5 song.

Two man gay band The Communards consisted of little Jimmy Somerville and Richard Coles. Somerville (previously with Bronski Beat) is the singer with the high-pitched voice, and Coles is the bespectacled keyboard player. 

After the two parted ways, Coles went on to study theology, and is now The Rev Richard Coles; Vicar and TV personality. He's come a long way since his Communards days. Somerville, I believe, is still singing.

An old friend of mine did something similar. Paul Nener was a brilliant doctor/surgeon. He was part of a team that operated on President Lyndon B Johnson during his presidency. Later he quit medicine to become The Rev Canon Paul Nener. I think he works/ed in the Liverpool area, near to where he had studied medicine alongside my cousin Stephen. They were both very much straight-A students, and both became brilliant Doctors..

I have never understood this desire to change one's profession, whether it be from musician or surgeon, to become a priest. To most of us it is plainly obvious that gods, devils, virgin births, etc, are all 'fairy stories', and for someone to suddenly alter their whole way of life, in order to perpetuate those myths is unimaginable.

However, here were two such examples.