The Communards were a British pop group of the 1980s. The Communards had a number of hits in the British charts in the latter half of that decade.
The Communards were formed in 1985 after singer Jimmy Somerville left his earlier band Bronski Beat, and joined with classically trained pianist Richard Coles to form the Communards. Jimmy was renown for his falsetto (high pitched) singing style, and the fact that he was openly gay.
The band had their first top 20 hit in 1985 with the piano-based single "You Are My World". The following year they had their biggest hit with an energetic cover version of Thelma Houston's soul classic "Don't Leave Me This Way" which spent four weeks at number one in the UK charts, and became the UK's biggest selling single of 1986.
Later that year The Communards had another top 10 hit with the single "So Cold the Night".
In 1987 they released an album called Red which launched another hit with a cover version of Gloria Gaynor's hit "Never Can Say Goodbye".
Despite their success The Communards split in 1988 and Somerville began a solo career.