On Saturday we hosted the gig of the year – and it's only February! A beautifully sold-out night at the Hope & Anchor with Hagar the Womb, Wench, I, Doris and Pushy Pushy Pushy brought enormous fun and the loudest of loud women.
Hagar the Womb posted on their socials:
Well LOUD WOMEN – you’ve done it again! A Loud Women gig is an alchemy of a supportive inclusive atmosphere with a stonking line up of very different bands who each bring something special to the mix – it makes for the best time! Can’t really add to our guitarist Lorna’s summary so we are nicking her words: “Thank you so much Loud Women for a fantastic saturday night! Pushy Pushy Pushy and Wench are now firmly new favourite bands, (already love I, Doris who were better than ever). Back in the times when I started playing music in bands I was usually the only woman on stage all night. Look at this chaos of amazing women who were on stage at the Hope and Anchor last night (sadly Pushy Pushy Pushy are missing from the photo so this is only 3 bands worth of amazing women). Look carefully and you’ll see the two drummers of Hagar the Womb chatting at the back.”
Just to add a huge thanks to drummer Mike who played half the set while drummer Chris hotfooted it off his flight from Naples to pick up sticks for the second half. This was also our first time back to full strength with guitarist Paul after his operation and it was brilliant to have him back on stage. Lastly, thanks again for coming out on a horrible weather night and with so many other great gigs going on nearby – we really appreciated you joining us.
John the Punk was down the front – making this an "official" gig of course! Here's what he had to say about the four bands ...
Hagar the Womb
There was just so much I loved about this. Of course the wonderful songs with them stating how long some of them have been around indicating how long they’ve been part of my life! Also the fact they had 2 drummers Chris was just getting back from Naples so Mike did a fantastic Job for the first half of the set. Chris was onstage before his turn though singing with the band for ‘Hated By The Daily Mail’ then took to the kit for his stint of course doing an amazing job. The usual chaos was there where Mitch’s “knob” had fallen off as they put it! Meaning the bit which the bass strap is attached to. Solid banter throughout though of course. There was a new song in there which sounded fantastic and brought back the looking at the word sheets which they no longer do for the older ones but it’s always something I loved about em. Then there was the fact that Wench! who had played before them were dancing and singing from the crowd. It was fantastic to see such a young band with similar ideals embracing such a great performance which in turn Hagar The Womb were watching their set to much enjoyment beforehand. Ending with Dressed to Kill which got the whole room buzzing with joy this was absolutely amazing. The thing I loved most though was that Paul was well enough to do this gig after quite an absence from last year. There was many clashes last night in London but all this and so much more confirmed I was definitely in the right place.
WENCH!
One of my favourite things about gigs is seeing a band for the first time and you know at a Loud Women event any new sounds will be quality. Wench! are a prime example of this and playing down south for the first time.
They made a seriously good noise quite raw with incredible energy and many twists within their sound giving that quirky edge. The drummer sang a lot of the songs going absolutely crazy on that kit whilst singing powerfully and growling quite spectacularly. The guitarist also did an amazing job on the stuff she sang too. There was a cover of ‘Pump Up The Jam’ by Technotronic which the drummer knew that I’d know for some reason although in truth I loathe that song but this version I absolutely loved. This set blew me away and I hope they’re back real soon as I don’t wanna have to go Hull again for a gig!!
I, Doris
The host band as always being fantastic. It’s always an honour to pledge with them for the great values they hold the world could learn a great deal from these. Playing a fantastic set of punk and pop although I wasn’t too sure about the special guest they got onstage to play the coconuts for ‘Cowboys Cry Too’! OK I loved being up there with these lovely people to join in this wonderful event despite having zero sense of rhythm and getting paranoid about a minute in thinking “are my flies undone” fortunately they wasn’t. So overall a fantastic time was had by all!
Pushy Pushy Pushy
Kicking the night off and the place was already very busy which was a great sign. What a fantastic start this was with quite a weird psychedelic sound with elements of punk and pop and much more! quite lively in performance too they were all over the stage. Such great variation in sound and I loved that there was flute which sounded absolutely wonderful.