I found a very interesting from Heather Peace on the whole Brexit thing. Good read.
What do you think?
Thanks to divamag.co.uk
DIVA: You played at this year’s Pride in London. How did it go?
HEATHER: It was absolutely amazing. Trafalgar Square was packed. It was just what everybody needed after Friday. [The day before Pride, the UK voted to leave the EU.] People wanted to feel like they were together.
DIVA:You were pretty vocal about voting Remain on Twitter. How are you feeling about Brexit?
I’m totally heartbroken, especially having a daughter. We took for granted the fact that when we were younger if we wanted to go and get a bar job in Spain and experience what it was like to live in another country, we could just go. I’ve never in my lifetime felt so uncertain of my country. In a weird way we’ve always been quite apathetic. You’d never be able to have a revolution in this country. But now there’s people ferocious on either side. It’s not a nice feeling and there’s a very small minority that suddenly think it’s OK to be vocally racist. I’m finding that really frightening. It’s giving me a very heavy heart that there might be a platform for those people to come together. But we can’t tarnish people who voted Leave with the same brush. I’ve got family members who voted Leave and they’d really thought about it. They’d read everything and had very strong viewpoints that weren’t based on immigration. I respect their opinions. There needs to not be, from the Remain campaign, out and out viciousness towards the older generation who percentage-wise voted more towards Leave.
DIVA:Do you have any ideas about how we move forward?
There has to be a sense of unity. We have to just try and be kind to each other. Politically, I don’t know what they’re doing. All this stuff’s coming out now saying they don’t have a plan. It depends what newspaper you read. I’m The Guardian, not The Daily Mail. It’s not even the economical side that worries me the most. It’s that racism could come acceptable again. I’m speaking as someone who is a third generation Lithuanian. It makes absolutely no sense to me.
DIVA:On a happier note, you’ve got a performance at Newcastle Pride lined up.
I’m really excited because we haven’t gigged in Newcastle for a few years. It’s always a really raucous crowd, really good fun. They’ll be well up for it. London Pride is so nerve-wracking – you hardly get over the nerves before you’re offstage. It’s nice having a longer set where you can settle into it and let it grow.
DIVA:You’re definitely a Pride favourite. What does Pride mean to you?
I remember being a 19-year-old who’d just come out, going to my first London Pride and the whistles were going off outside Westminster. It was before Clause 28 had been repealed. Back then we were fighting for certain things within our own country. Now it’s more of us showing a united front for the world when stuff isn’t OK outside the UK. There’s still a lot of work to be done here in terms of discrimination and bullying but the law is on our side now. I see Pride as a celebration of who we are. We can be visible and celebrate together that it’s alright to love who you love. I’m glad we’ve got a global community. It feels good in troubled times.
DIVA:You’re right that it’s a big comfort. Do you have a favourite track to perform?
Probably No Mercy, which is from The Thin Line. I’m really enjoying the dancier stuff and No Mercy’s good fun. It’s filthy and upbeat. Nothing wrong with that.
DIVA:Haha, agreed. Can you tell us a bit about your latest EP, Come Home?
The EP’s a love story from meeting someone to a terrible breakup in 20 minutes. The lyrics of Lightbulb are really sad and I thought we’ve just got to play against the lyrics and stick in a disco bass. There are so many great disco tracks that are so gutting but just stick a disco bass behind it and it plays in juxtaposition to the theme of the song. Otherwise it’s just too depressing.
DIVA:Thanks for keeping us uplifted. How’s family life treating you now you’re a mum?
It’s amazing. It was quite a funny weekend really. I played at London Pride, which we reckon was about 20,000 people. Then I got a train for my own gig at Eastbourne bandstand that night. The next day I was in the Night Garden Live, which is a TV programme for babies so it was all Iggle Piggle and Makka Pakka [characters from In The Night Garden]. My Saturday and Sunday couldn’t have been any more different – all in a theatrical setting but two ends of the spectrum. And Annie’s fantastic. She’s really quite boisterous, climbs all the time, and she’s very vocal. She’s funny, very funny. She only started walking about three weeks ago and she’s practically running now.
DIVA:Have you faced any challenges being same-sex parents?
We’re in Brighton and if I came across any weirdness it’d be a shock. It’s its own city, this place. I’ve literally experienced nothing that’s been negative at all. We had a guy around here building us a little cupboard in my music room. Ellie had called him and when I walked in as the partner, there’s not even a raised eyebrow. He’s a carpenter, big fella. We really have come a long way. But I know some people aren’t as lucky as myself, living where I live.
DIVA:Was that a conscious decision to live somewhere so gay-friendly?
It was and it wasn’t. I was living in London and it came to a point that me and my partner at the time wanted to buy somewhere and it was the classic thing of not being able to afford in London. We’d spent a bit of time down here. It’s a nice place to be when I’m not working. I love being by the sea. I’m a very outdoors kind of person. If I go for a run, I just go straight down to the beach. It’s great.
DIVA:Lastly, you’re involved with Jacquie Lawrence’s Different For Girls project, which we’re all really excited about. [The web drama series is currently on hold due to funding but thankfully it still looks like it will go ahead.] Can you spill the beans on the character you’ll be playing?
Unfortunately she’s the complete love cheat. I don’t know how I feel about that. The thing about playing any role – and I’ve played some right psychos – is you’ve got to get into the nitty gritty of finding something you can relate to. If you hate them from the beginning, you’re lost. Hopefully I’ll make something about her loveable. Her actions are not. She tries to have her cake and eat it, to have her family and a bit on the side. She’s a very selfish character so I’ve got to try and pull out some redeeming features.
You can see her performance at Newcastle Pride on Saturday 16 July
The crowdfunded project is the work of BAFTA award-winning producer Jacquie Lawrence, who means to offer a much-needed corrective to DLS. “The numbers are horrific. Seriously,” she says. 
The cast is slated to feature the likes of Rachel Shelley (The L Word), Sophie Ward (Land Girls, Doctors), Heather Peace (Lip Service), Janet Ellis (Doctor Who), Amy Lamé (RuPaul’s Drag Race, Loose Women) and Nimmy March (Wallander, Thin Ice) among others, should it reach its crowdfunded target of £50,000. 
“So many great lesbian parts on television and in films have been played by straight women and it must be really frustrating for lesbian and bi actresses to see this. Even in lesbian specific series like The L Word and Lip Service with ensemble casts, only one or two actresses were lesbian or bi whilst the rest were straight.