One of Team LOUD WOMEN’s hardest-working photographers, Jeanie Jean has spent years documenting the bands, crowds and venues that keep DIY music alive. This year alone, she’s been out with us capturing artists at Rebellion Festival and LOUD WOMEN Fest London. Now she’s turned that eye on the wider underground for a second book.
Not Dead Volume 2: DIY, The Power of Gigs, A Diary documents the UK’s DIY punk, rock and indie scene through the grassroots venues and spaces that sustain it. The book comes with an exhibition at the Museum of Youth Culture, running from 16 October to 1 November, with the book launch there on 15 October.
After wrapping up Not Dead Volume 1, Jeanie briefly thought that might be it. Then, at a punk gig at the Dublin Castle in Camden in 2023, she felt something building again.
“I sensed that there was going to be this sudden creative tidal wave. I didn’t know what it was but I knew that was going to burst through the cracks. It was going to have amps, and it was going to be very, VERY loud.”
So back into the underground she went, photographing punk, ska and indie bands in packed pubs and grassroots venues, documenting everything from backflipping guitarists and sweaty moshpits to the more mundane hazards of life with a camera, including cracked lenses and missed trains.
The venues themselves are central to the project. Not Dead Volume 2 is as much about the spaces where music happens as the bands onstage, and about what we stand to lose when those spaces disappear.
“We’re in worrying times where so many of these venues are under threat. The wonderful spaces where bands can build a fanbase and you can watch them grow. Where youth culture and communities come together from all parts of the country to thrive on these scenes, where you can find yourself and meet your people.”
That feels especially close to home for us. We know exactly how important those rooms are, because they’re where LOUD WOMEN has grown too. They’re where new bands get their first chance, where communities form, where people find each other and where something brilliant can happen with very little money and a lot of noise.
A portion of book sales will go to Music Venue Trust, helping support the grassroots venues the book celebrates.
And for anyone still insisting there’s “nothing creative going on with young people now”, Jeanie has the right answer:
“I say bollocks to that.”
Not Dead Volume 2: DIY, The Power of Gigs, A Diary launches at the Museum of Youth Culture on 15 October, with the exhibition running from 16 October to 1 November.
Find Jeanie Jean on Instagram | Website