Take Part In A Show
Are You a Gay Man Who Dated Before the Internet? We Want to Hear Your Story.
Romp is an oral history podcast for older gay men, documenting the ways we met, dated, cruised and connected before smartphones, apps and Grindr changed everything. We’re looking for guests to come on the show and talk about what gay life was actually like — in your own words, in your own time.
If you met men through contact ads, saunas, cruising grounds, leather bars, back rooms, Gay News classifieds, phone chat lines, Polari or simply by knowing where to look on a Tuesday night in a town that officially had no gay scene — we want to hear from you.
What Is Romp?
Romp is a warm, candid podcast hosted by Murry. Guests have described it as “absolutely brilliant,” “important,” and “the kind of show that makes you feel seen.” Each episode is a proper sit-down conversation — relaxed, wide-ranging, and on your terms. No script, no gotcha questions, no agenda. Just your story, in your voice.
One of the show’s most popular features is How I Got My Lottery Numbers — a segment unique to Romp in which Murry opens his own little black book (a diary he actually kept of his dates in the early nineties), reveals which encounters became his six lottery numbers, and guests pick a number to see what comes up.
The show is now on Spotify and has built an audience across the UK and internationally. Series one featured men in their fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties, from Macclesfield to Manchester to Melbourne.
What Kind of Stories Work?
Almost anything from the pre-app era. Past guests have talked about:
Coming out — and the creative ways they hid it, or couldn’t
Finding the scene for the first time: how did you even know it existed?
Driving the lanes, park visits, motorway services, and public conveniences
Contact ads, pen pals and the elaborate letter-posting system
Gay bars and clubs — including the ones that only existed on a Tuesday
Leather bars, saunas and back rooms
Polari and hanky codes
The impact of HIV and AIDS: how it changed everything, and how life went on
Being targeted by police — entrapment, cottaging arrests, the lot
Long-term partnerships that started in the most unlikely circumstances
Coming out much later in life, and what the scene looked like from that angle
Religion, family, the ones who never told a soul
Your story doesn’t need to be dramatic or tidy. The best episodes on Romp are the ones where a guest follows a thread and sees where it goes.
What to Expect
A no-obligation introductory chat with Murry before anything is recorded
Recording done remotely on Zoom so no travel required
You decide what you share. Guests can be anonymous if they prefer.
Careful editing, we are not about salacious gossip and will respect boundaries and good taste, Murry has 20 years experience in broadcast radio and podcasts.
No podcasting experience needed whatsoever
Why Does This Matter?
A generation of gay men are carrying histories that have never been formally recorded. The bars have closed, the magazines are gone, the phone boxes pulled out. But the people who were there are still here — and Romp exists to capture their stories before they’re lost.
These aren’t footnotes in an academic history. They’re vivid, personal, funny, heartbreaking accounts of real lives — lives that most younger gay men can barely imagine, and which belong to all of us.
Get in Touch
If you’re interested in coming on Romp — or if you know someone who might be — please get in touch. There’s absolutely no commitment involved in an initial conversation.
Email: murry@rompcast.com
Website: rompcast.com
Listen first: Search Romp on Spotify
Stories from outside the big cities are especially welcome. If you grew up gay in a town where the scene was one pub on a Wednesday night, or no pub at all, that story is exactly what this show is for.