Heather Peace: The story of an icon

Here are three very gay things that happened in 1994: DIVA, “the lesbian lifestyle magazine”, hit newsstands, soap opera Brookside featured British TV’s original pre-watershed sapphic snog, and Heather Peace kissed a girl for the very first time.

Fast forward almost 28 years and 300 issues and I am listening, completely rapt, as the actor and singer-songwriter tells me about the moment that changed her world forever. If you’re a longtime fan of Heather’s, let’s take a little trip down memory lane. And if you’ve never heard this story before, boy are you in for a treat.

“The heavens opened when I kissed my first girl. She was in my year at drama school, quite a bit older than me. I knew she was a lesbian. We started hanging out and it was really confusing. All the stuff that everyone talks about: not being able to find the right thing to say, trying to crack a joke and it’s not funny, feeling really awkward around someone – that’s how it felt. It was a boiling hot summer’s day. We were sat on the wall in Canal Street. When we kissed, the heavens opened. We got on the bus back to hers and there was steam, literal steam, coming off the wet clothes.” She chuckles, “So, yeah. I won’t go any further than that!” This unforgettable, not to mention unbelievably romantic, experience inspired one of Heather’s most popular tracks to date, the soaring Here In My Heaven: “I am in heaven / In the summer rain / Come dance with abandon / I am