Petrol Girls’ explosive performance was a huge highlight of this year’s LOUD WOMEN Fest, as always! If you were there, you may have noticed the enormous banner they performed under – a hand-stitched patchwork of flags, reshaped to proclaim the words ‘NO LOVE FOR A NATION’. This video shows the story behind that banner, made on route across Europe, and culminating at LW Fest in London. Ren explains:

“We shot this video on the way from Austria to the UK for our September tour, via Germany and France. We got a bit of funding from PRS, and, whilst we were limited in the ways we could spend it, we wanted to find a way to feed some of it back into the politics that this song advocates and the community that we’re part of…

Nations create borders and borders create violences like detention, deportation and the denial of safe passage. It is a bizarre and often cruel way of organising societies on the basis of where people happen to have been born. It is those on the edge of this way of defining ourselves that suffer its harshest consequences – refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. It is not acceptable that 18,000 people have lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea since 2014, because they were denied safe passage on the basis of their nationality…

We stand in opposition to Fortress Europe but mourn Brexit as the result of populist nationalist politics and a xenophobic, dishonest and at times overtly racist campaign. We are not proud of Britain – we are embarrassed. Above all we are angered by the rise in racism and xenophobia since the Brexit result. We are deeply troubled and angered by the way in which populist nationalism has emboldened racists and fascists across the world.”

Catch Petrol Girls back on the road again this month:

NOVEMBER
Mon 4: COLOGNE (DE), Carlswerk *
Tue 5: HAMBURG (DE), Grosse Freiheit *
Thu 7: BRUSSELS (BE), Ancienne Belgique *
Fri 8: PARIS (FR), Elysee Montmartre *
Sun 10: MILAN (IT), Alcatraz *
Mon 11: MUNICH (DE), Tonhalle *
Tue 12: BERLIN (DE), Huxleys *
Thu 14: SOLOTHURN (CH), Kofmehl +
Sat 16: BARCELONA (ES), La +
Sun 17: MADRID (ES), Sala Cool +
Wed 20: KIEL (DE), Alte Meierei
Thu 21: HANNOVER (DE), UJZ Korn
Fri 22: BREMEN (DE), Die Friese * with Refused and Thrice. + with Thrice.

Tickets for all shows here