Category Archives: Gigs

Gigs

November Gigs Guide

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It’s brass monkeys out there – but how better to keep warm than by getting yourself along to a gig and discovering some awesome new bands. Here’s our pick of November events around the UK (and, just because we are so happy that we are still linked to them for now, Europe!)

1 – London: Nun Habit and Slugs at the Victoria, Dalston

1 – Nottingham: Hellebore Present Hurtling & Clonk

*DO NOT MISS*
2 – London: Solidarity Not Silence Benefit @ DIY Space
Resist Psychic Death presents… A night of excellent punk rock party queer grrrl bands raising money for Solidarity Not Silence . With: Screaming Toenail, Ms. Mohammed, Charismatic Megafauna, BYENARY, I, Doris. LOUD WOMEN merch will be on sale with all money going to SNS. There’s also a solidarity ticket option for those who are able to make an extra donation to Solidarity Not Silence ♥ https://tickets.partyforthepeople.org/events/4993-solidarity-not-silence-benefit-show

6 – London: BERRIES EP Launch Live at Colours, Hoxton. London.

7 – Cardiff: Elen Mai Wyn-Jones Exhibition. With Trigger Warning and the Safe Spaces, Efa Supertramp, Shrouk El-Attar’s Dancing Queer الراقصة المثلية شروق العطار, Glittasphyxia, Beth Sal Greenhalgh, William Dean Ford, Little Eris, Laz Lazarus + more. Cardiff.

8 – London: Get In Her Ears w/ Special Secret Headliner! @ The Finsbury. (Psst it’s a band we love v much, save the date …)

9–10 Belgium: GIRLS GO BOOM (mani)FEST. A music conference for the rest of us! With talks about women in music and arts, and performances by LW favourites: Peach Club from Norwaich and Miss Eaves from New York plus Dutch BRORLAB and Sovay

9 – Staines: Girl in the Garden, Riviera Kid, Ġenn, and I Doris at the London Stone.

10 – London: The Raincoats at EartH – 40th anniversary celebration

13 – Leeds: Suggested Friends / Animal Byproducts / Rebecca Radical

14 – London: Rock Against Violence. With GIRLI, Average Sex, Indian Queens, PETSEMATARY

15 – London: ILL w/ LibraLibra + Therapy Room – Free Entry

15 – London: Sexquisite (feature coming soon … watch this space!)

23 – London: Safe Gigs For Women X #genesisters – live music + movie

24 – Canterbury: Healthy Junkies/ Tokyo Taboo/ Yur Mum/ Polly Pikpocketz/I, Doris/Girls Like Us

30 – London: Brix & The Extricated live at The Lexington, London

30 – Leeds: Pet Crow / Nervous Twitch / Boarder

Gigs, LOUD WOMEN community

Happy 4th Birthday LOUD WOMEN!

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A blissfully tired and wee-bit-emotional Sunday following what must be one of my very favourite LOUD WOMEN gigs of all time last night – our 4th birthday celebrations at the Hope & Anchor, with performances Hagar the Womb, Rabies Babies, The Menstrual Cramps, I, Doris, The Other Ones, and Smalltown Tigers. Pure punk rock mayhem, cake everywhere, clothes-swapping, crowd-surfing, all-grrl-mosh-pitting, wall to wall good vibes – we thoroughly birthdayed.

Hopefully someone will post some proper photos of the night, but in the meantime here’s my phone snaps!

Our lovely friend Tony Rounce was, of course, in attendance, and wrote this beautiful post about the evening that was too gorgeous not to share …

I’ve mentioned before that I believe we are living in a new Golden Age for live music.

Anyone doubting my word should have been at the Hope and Anchor last night for Loud Women’s 4th birthday party.

It was rammed to the roof, mind you, but you would have been most welcome and I’m sure a space would have opened up for you.

Five hours of fab bands from locations as far apart as Rimini and, er, Bristol.

Some of the best music you could have heard anywhere in the U.K. last night.

Some of the nicest people you could spend 5 hours in a room with.

All coming together to celebrate the fourth birthday of an impressive collective that exists to promote and further the cause of women/womxn/non-binary/LGBTQ+ in music.

In its four years Loud Women’s live profile has progressed from putting on small gigs in small rooms like the Hope to presenting probably the best and best organised one day annual festival on the planet – this year’s September event showcased 21 bands and singers in 10 hours across two adjacent venues in North London. LW has established itself internationally with overseas chapters across the globe, and has inspired many others across the U.K. to promote the regeneration and growth of a vibrant music scene.

My hat and my whole head is off to the indefatigable Cassie Fox for founding and maintaining the high profile of such a fantastic thing as LW. I am inordinately proud of my own very modest contributions to Team Loud Women as a writer and reviewer, and grateful for the opportunities to say nice things about nice people.

The ‘nice people’ on stage last night all brought plenty to the party, and I am delighted to have added The Other Ones and Italy’s Smalltown Tigers to the ever growing list of ‘bands I must see again in a hurry’. It’s a bit unfair to single anyone out for special commendation but the Menstrual Cramps – to my mind, one of the most important bands to have emerged in the last 40 years – were in unbeatable form (as they usually are, to be fair) and ignited an outbreak of pogoing the likes of which the Hope’s cellar probably hasn’t seen since the late 70s. My own pogoing days may be long gone, but I was there in spirit…

Props, too, to Rabies Babies, LW’s own delightful ‘in house’ combo I, Doris and a back from the dead but very much alive Hagar The Womb. They all did their bit to make the evening fun for one and all and it would have been that much less fun for the absence of any of them.

Oh, and I won the raffle. A couple of times! As sure as I’m a Doris I swear to you it wasn’t fixed…

These are great times to have catholic tastes in music. I’m glad that I still have the energy to be a part of what’s going on and, more importantly perhaps, to feel a part of it.

LW is doing God’s work and I am sure she’s totally impressed…

Gigs, interviews, LOUD WOMEN community, Playlists

INTERVIEW: CASSIE FOX TALKS 4 YEARS OF LOUD WOMEN + SHARES HER LW 4TH BIRTHDAY PLAYLIST

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Reblogged from Joyzine – interview by Paul Maps

DIY collective Loud Women has been championing women in music since 2015 and on Saturday 12th October will be celebrating their 4th birthday with a gig at legendary Islington punk venue The Hope & Anchor with sets from Hagar The Womb, Rabies Babies, The Menstrual Cramps, I, Doris, The Other Ones, Mindframe and Smalltown Tigers.

We got in touch with LW’s Cassie Fox to talk about the upcoming anniversary and why, four years on we still need promoters like Loud Women on the DIY scene.

When did the idea of Loud Women first arise and why?  Was there a particular incident that sparked it?It started as a one-off gig in 2015. Having played on the gig circuit for a little while, I was feeling frustrated at the amount of ‘man-band’heavy’ lineups all the time, and macho crowds. I was particularly tired of my all-female band always being the token women on the bill, and wanted to put on a fundraising gig with my friends’ bands that could be relaxed and inclusive and fun … so I did! Since then, a whole heap of media activity and community has organically grown around the events, but that ethos is still at the heart of what we do – putting on events full of awesome music and a no-bullshit atmosphere with womxn and non-binary people at the heart.Have you noticed any change in the representation and treatment of female musicians in the four years since LW began?On a small scale, yes – a bit! Certainly in the cosy bubble of the London gig circuit there seem to be loads of new opportunities for “bands who are not cis het white dudes” to play, with seemingly new promoters springing up every day, which is brilliant. Outside of London though, I’m still often told by touring bands playing LW gigs that it’s the first time in ages that they’ve not been the only women on a lineup. And outside of DIY music… there’s plenty of conversations being had about major festivals supporting female artists, but still very little noticeable difference in the gender balance on bigger stages.Can you take us back to the very first Loud Women gig?  Who played and what was it like?It was 3rd October 2015 at the (sadly now closed) Silver Bullet in Finsbury Park. The headliners were Blindness (featuring our awesome friend Debbie Smith), with my then-band The Wimmins’ Institute, Argonaut, and Dream Nails. I didn’t know what to expect, and feared we’d be playing to an empty room … but was delighted to find the room full for the first band, Dream Nails, who were playing their first ever gig and had brought all their friends! It was the first time I’d been at a gig with a majority-female crowd – and oh the luxury of being 5’3″ and able to actually see the stage! There was a really fun atmosphere, and we raised a decent amount of money for Women’s Aid too. So it was a no-brainer to keep the momentum going and put on more gigs … and here we are!There have been hundreds of bands playing countless Loud Women shows over the past four years, are there any nights that particularly stick in your memory?The Little LOUD WOMEN gigs we’ve done for families have been by far my favourite! I’m a mum of two, and also a big kid myself, so I love any excuse to get extra glittery, get the balloons out, and start a little toddler moshpit! I loved seeing the kids enjoying music up close, invading the stage, seeing what the instruments feel like, and what their voices sound like down a microphone. And parents really appreciated getting to see ‘proper music’ without having to pay out for a babysitter. At one gig there was a particularly humbling moment when a little girl of about 9 grabbed the mic and gave an impromtu speech about how important it was for everyone to be included – I can’t wait to see if she reappears fronting a punk band in a few years!Aside from the gigs, what else has Loud Women been involved in?Our music blog loudwomen.org and monthly ezine have really taken off in the last few years, I’m really proud of those – we have a lot of contributors, so a lot of different voices and opinions and experiences, and they really help spread the word to audiences and influencers. We’ve also released compilation records – the latest of course being LOUD WOMEN Volume Two! Between the two albums there’s over 40 different bands – all killer – £5 each to you! loudwomen.bandcamp.com

With four years under your belts, what does LW have in store for the future?
More of the same I guess, until there’s no need for LOUD WOMEN any more! Keep an eye on the LOUD WOMEN socials for news of exciting 2020 events …Loud Women’s 4th Birthday Party takes place on Saturday 12th October at The Hope & Anchor.  More information and tickets, priced £8 + booking fee, can be found here.Check out Cassie’s Loud Women playlist featuring 49 artists who’ve played LW shows over the past four years:

Interview by Paul Maps

Gigs, LOUD WOMEN community

October Gigs List

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October is my favourite month – there are very important birthdays to celebrate, it’s no longer summer and I can wear jumpers again, and there are always oodles of great gigs to go to. Here’s the LOUD WOMEN top recommends for your diaries.

1 – The Primitives and The Popguns at the 100 Club, London, as part of Indie Daze Week. Info here. Very few tickets remaining, here.

2 – Cheerbleederz and Bad Idea at Wharf Chambers, Leeds. Info here.

2 – I am HER at The Islington, London. Info here.

3 – The Menstrual Cramps and Killdren at the Amersham Arms – free entry gig. Info here.

4 – ARXX continue their UK & EU tour in Bristol. Full tour info here.

4 – Salvation Jayne in Folkestone. Info here.

4 – Spit Sisters at the Hope & Anchor. Info here.

5 – All Tamara’s Parties festival at the Jericho Tavern, Oxford. With Wolfs, Rainbow Reservoir, Death of the Maiden, Drunken Butterfly, Winnie and the Rockettes, The Other Ones and more. Info here.

5 – Anarchistwood at The 100 Club for World Zombie Day. Info here.

5 – Punka presents Miss Kill, Nervous Rex, Ragdolz (14+ gig) at The Exchange, Bristol. Info here

7 – Dream Nails, The Baby Seals and Nadia Javed at The Old Blue Last, London. Info here.

9 – Suggested Friends, Witching Waves and Gold Baby at the Shacklewell Arms, London. Info here.

10 – LIINES + BIS + Bugeye at Boston Music Room, London. Details here and tickets here. This awesome threesome also head to Manchester on the 11th, Glasgow on the 13th.

11 – Get in Her Ears presents ĠENN, The Weird Things, Bitch Hunt and Breakup Haircut at The Finsbury, London. Info here.

12 – The LOUD WOMEN 4th Birthday Party at Hope & Anchor, London. With Hagar the Womb, The Menstrual Cramps, Rabies Babies, Mindframe, I, Doris, Smalltown Tigers and The Other Ones. Tickets here info here!

12 – Lunar Sounds (debut single launch), DUCK and Bad Idea at Wharf Charmbers, Leeds. Tickets here

12 – The mighty ILL kick off their tour in Manchester, supported by Glove and God Speed You Peter Andre – full dates and towns listed here

13 – The Nitty Gritty  Autumnal Hair Hopper’s Ball at The Constitution, London, with DJ Dapper D and DJ Daddy Wrong. Info here.

17 – Hurtling launch their album at The Islington, London. Info here.

17 – Deux Furieuses launch their album at the Dublin Castle, Camden. Info here.

17 – The NHS vs The Big C: In a venue next to Homerton Hospital, where her breast cancer surgery took place, Janine Booth reads extracts and poems from her new book, ‘The Big J vs The Big C’. Hackney-based comedian and activist Kate Smurthwaite aims some feminist comedy at austerity and sexism. Info here.

18 – Skating Polly and She Makes War at The Lexington, London. Info here.

25 – Weenfest at DIY Space for London. Awesome spooky punk fest featuring Irn Brunette, Breakup Haircut, Tuffragettes, Cecilia and more. Info here.

26 – T-Bitch and Anarchistwood at the Railway, Southend – halloween special. Info here.

26 – Straight Girl at The Victoria in Dalston. Info here.

30 – Eilis Frawley (of Party Fears) solo with Xylo Aria at EartH, Hackney. Info here

Gigs, LOUD WOMEN community, LOUD WOMEN Fest

September Gurls’ Events

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September is coming – time to get some shiny new shoes and a shiny new diary. At LOUD WOMEN HQ we are gearing up for for our event of the year – LOUD WOMEN Fest on 14 September at London’s The Dome. There’s lots more happening in our scene though – here’s a few September highlights for those new diaries. (No harm whatsoever in listening to the lovely The Bangles here while you’re filling it in.)

SEPTEMBER DIARY

2 – Girl Gang Leeds: Join us in the DJ booth workshop at the Belgrave Music Hall & Canteen

2 – Deefhoof, Trask Kit & Dog Chocolate at EartH, London

6 – Gold Baby, Secret Power & more at Paper Dress Vintage, London

6 – Punk n Roll Rendevous at Tufnell Rock Tower, London, with Tokyo Taboo, Starsha Lee, Desensitised, Healthy Junkies, A VOID, Rock n Roll Suicidez, PollyPikPocketz, Yur Mum, Petty Phase, Weekend Recovery & more

7 – Rebel Dykes Gathering at DIY Space for London

7 – Doe’s farewell gig at The Lexington, London

Featured: 7 Sept in Belfast – Rock for Choice

Run by our sisters at Girl’s Rock School NI along with Rally for Choice – this awesome gig features:

  • Sister Ghost
  • Strange New Places
  • Gender Chores
  • Blakbyrd
  • New Pagans
    and more.

13 – Slaughterhaus x Punka at Queenshilling, Bristol – drag queens and DJs raising the roof (and money for Bristol Zero Tolerance)

13 – Get in Her Ears at the Finsbury, London presents Chorusgirl, Tape Runs Out, Adults and Swimsuit Competition.

13 – McWeirdo Presents at The Richmond, Brighton, with Tuffragettes, Georgie Femme and Martyrials

14 – LOUD WOMEN Fest at The Dome, with Petrol Girls, Lilith Ai, T-Bitch, Vaginas, What Else? (Belgium), I, Doris, Jemma Freeman and the Cosmic Something, ARXX, Hurtling, The Menstrual Cramps, Peach Club, Secondhand Underpants (Turkey), The Txlips (USA), The Baby Seals, Gaptooth, GGAllan Partridge, Pleasure Venom (USA), Personal Best, The Cleopatras (Italy), Nervous Twitch, Samba Sisters Collective, Hello Delaware (Canada)

17 – Piney Gir album launch at The Lexington, London

20 – The Anchoress w/ She Makes War at St Pancras Old Church, London

21 – A Real Cool Fest™ – Bradford, with Cultdreams, itoldyouiwouldeatyou, Kermes, Milk Crimes, Crumbs, Beige Palace, Lana Wild, Super Lemon Days, Mixtape Saints and Chloe Glover

Featured: 21 Sept in London E17 – SheFest

She17 hold their annual celebration of womxn in music at the Wild Card Brewery – free admission, but collecting donations for Girls Rock London. Curated by Kimmi Watson – who wowed us at our Unplugged night last week – the all-dayer features:

  • Tenzin+ friends
  • Hippy In Leather
  • The Ondines
  • Girls Rock London – Feat. Skin and Blister
  • Spinster
  • Jade Stanger
  • More Peas
  • Laurie McNamee
  • I am HER
  • Marty Broke My Heart
  • MIRI
  • Deux Furieuses

20 – Some Weird Sin summer party at the Victoria, London with Pussyliquor, The Empty Page, A Void and Graves

22 – Hell Hath No Fury presents Cultdreams, Pardon Us, Adults and Gen&the Degenerates at Eagle Inn, Manchester

27-29 – Something Else in the Dunny, in Oxfordshire, with Anarchistwood, T-Bitch, Muddy Summers & the Dirty Fieldwhores & more

27-29 – Wotsit Called Fest in Hastings, with I, Doris, Fresh & more

27 – Cigarette Pie Part 3 at the Fighting Cocks, Kingston, with HAWKXX, Girls Like Us, Drunken Butterfly and Breakup Haircut

28 – Reb’Elle Fest in Leeds, with Kagoule, Pins (DJ Set), Cowtown, Big Joanie, Emperor X, Witching Waves, Crywank, Lazy Day, Cryptic Street, Portraits, Just Blankets, Wormboys, Straight Girl, I, Doris, More Peas, Bejia Flo, GG Allan Partridge, Martha Hill, Blom, Girl Sweat, The Menstrual Cramps, Beefy Wink, Pussy Liquor, Ethical Debating Society, Bratakus and All Girls Arson Club 28

Gigs, LOUD WOMEN Fest, Press releases

LOUD WOMEN Fest 4 – final lineup revealed!

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14 Sept 2019 at London’s Dome and Boston Music Room looks set to see the biggest (and best?) LOUD WOMEN Fest yet! Here’s the news we’ve been dying to tell you for months … our final* lineup, in no particular order …

Plus afterparty DJs, food, zines, records, and all manner of fun things we’ve not even thought up yet – get in touch with us on loudwomenclub@gmail.com if you’d like to get involved!

Earlybird tickets are now sold out but you can still grab regular advanced tickets from here.

BUY LOUD WOMEN FEST 4 tickets here!

*I mean, as final as anything is that could possibly have slight changes here and there in cases of sickness, injury, best friends throwing last-minute weddings, that sort of thing. But pretty damn final I’d say!

10 question interviews, Gigs, interviews

Helen McCookerybook: 10 question interview

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Helen McCookerybook is hugely inspiring singer-songwriter – formerly of English psychedelia-punk band The Chefs, these days playing regularly across the land as a solo artist. She’s treating us to a performance at the first of our new LOUD WOMEN Unplugged gigs on 10 July at the Old Queen’s Head (don’t miss!), so in the meantime we asked her 10 questions …

1. What can we expect from you on 10 July? 

I will be playing tracks from my new album ‘Green’ which I released last week. Some of the songs are politically focused: an anti-fake news song and a song about massively expensive rocket travel to Mars when we have so many humans on Earth in poverty. Some are more personal. I play an electric guitar ad I’m always striving to be a fleet guitarist: I;’m a finger picker and take my inspiration from the Blues, although that’s not the genre of music that I play.

2. If you could collaborate with someone – any musician/performer, living or dead – who would it be?

A disco singer from New York called Cristina. She was on Ze records in the 1980s and I think she’s absolutely brilliant. My ambition is to write a song so good that she HAS to sing on it!

3. What are your favourite songs in your set to perform? 

I have a song called Heaven Avenue which is about the one and only acid trip I ever did. I have never managed to do a perfect performance of that one but I do love playing it. I also have a song called A Good Life With A Bad Apple which is based on a relationship I had with a coercive controller. It was so difficult to get out of but I used songwriting to make me feel stronger. Many years afterwards, this song sums up just one facet of what wa as going on (these relationships are complex). It’s a non-gendered song; a friend of mine described the same situation with her girlfriend. I also have a song called These Streets which makes me calm  when I sing it, for some reason.

4. Which was your favourite gig you’ve a) played and b) watched?  

Last weeks’ gig with Pauline Murray from Penetration playing solo [our review here!] was pretty fantastic. I also particularly loved one in Ullapool where Sot Otter, who put on the gig, had taught her choir Three Sheets to the Wind the backing vocals to a song I wrote called Women of the World. When I sang it the whole choir joined in from their various seats in the pub. There was a gig last year in a cafe in Augsburg… it’s actually impossible to choose. I like all of them!

Best one I’ve watched? A tiebreaker between The Raincoats in Porto, Peggy Seeger at the Stables in Milton Keyes, and Black Sabbath at the O2!

5. Recommend a record that you think our readers might not have heard of

Old Smokey by Linda Lewis. She is an excellent song writer who had hits in the 1970s and 1980s with pop songs, but she actually wrote beautiful songs as a singer song writer too. This particular song is about being a second generation Caribbean woman in London, and her voice is gorgeous in it. I love the lyrics, the honesty, the poetry of the song. Somehow it really connected with me. I have Jamaican foster cousins who lived in London; the song makes me think of them, and how different and exciting London seemed from the small village in the north east of England where I was brought up.

6. What’s your best piece of advice for young musicians? 

Don’t let ambition destroy your imagination.

7. Your top 3 most beloved albums ever – go. 

Carmel, the Drum is Everything; The Bird and the Bee, by The Bird and the Bee; the film soundtrack to Un Homme et une Femme

8. What are your musical goals? 

To write songs for other female artists and produce them in the studio. Last year I worked with a woman called Shola Adewusi on her songs; she was in the film Paddington 2 and she’s a very busy extras actor but we work together when we can. She has such a different voice to mine, which is great to work with. I also want to do more collaborations with musicians that I’ve worked with- I hope to do some music with Robert Rotifer, who is a politicially-inspired guitarist and singer, later this summer.

9. What’s the most important thing we need to know about your music right now? 

That it’s a mirror to life, society and politics

10. Give your top 5 contemporary bands/musicians   

Big Joanie: just completely inspiring

The Band of Holy Joy: I’ve just done part of a tour with them and Johny Brown’s stage performances are incredible

Friedrich Sunlight: this is a german band with a Japanese American singer, Kenji, who has a completely divine voice

Kath Tait: a New Zealander whose quiet witty songs lacerate smug people and their habits, but she is able to make you cry with the tenderness of her lyrics too.

Fifth: everyone that I gig with! This is such a fantastic time for live music; my head is buzzing with the amount of bands and artists that I’ve seen this year. Playing live is the best adventure you can have!

Catch Helen McCookerybook live at LOUD WOMEN Unplugged on 10 July at the Old Queen’s Head, Essex Road, N1