Our #IWD gig on Weds, co-hosted with Who Run The World, was SUCH a great night! Finally I get chance to sit down and say a few words about it, for those who couldn’t make it …
First of all, The Menstrual Cramps played their first gig, sounding as tight and confident as if they’d been playing together for years. They reminded me a lot of DREAM NAILS – heartfelt rage channelled through their music, and bloody catchy songs. Keep finding myself singing “Let My Bush Be Free” on the school run, oopsie.
Next up were our Buffycore BFFs The Potentials, who once again proved themselves to be DIY ‘scene not scenery’ to the max – they turned up early, brought a load of drum gizmos, and Zach also provided £££s worth of brand new DVDs he’d swiped from work. Then they played a blinding set! LOUD WOMEN hearts this band big time. Catch them again next weekend – LOUD WOMEN volume 1: album launch party
The Baby Seals returned to play their second LOUD WOMEN gig, and reminded us all why, at their first LW gig, several members of the audience were debating forming a record label right there on the spot in order to sign them. These chicks rule – the songs are strong and dancey and perfectly executed, and the lyrics make you howl with laughter. I had such fun dancing at the front with loads of great babes around me yelling along “He’s going to cum on her FACE!” It was like the best woke hen party ever. Love those seals.
Personal highlight of my own evening, as ever, was getting to do the raffle for the first time in ages. Don’t know why I love that so much but I really do! There were some excellent DVD + chutney prize combos won by lots of happy campers, and we helped top up the donations to Women’s Aid
Then finally, megababes Charmpit played their first headline show, and kicked the ass out of it! Spandex bikini-clad, they got everyone dancing with their infectious energy and humour. Their message at the end of the set was perfectly aligned with LOUD WOMEN’s core ethos: making music is fun and powerful, and *you can do it too* Hurray for Charmpit!
We’re still counting up the total raised on the night, as gremlins/the patriarchy seem to have crept in to Beth’s systems, but so far there’s £186 raised for Women’s Aid! I’ll update the total once we know more from WRTW.
The Baby Seals: Amy Devine, Kerry Devine & Jasmine Robinson
It’s my first interview assignment ever and I’m both excited and scared to be chatting shop with Jasmine Robinson and Amy Devine (bass thumper and traps basher respectively) of excellent Cambridge-based punx The Baby Seals. They’ve spent the day filming a video for a track from their forthcoming EP, ‘Lips Are Sealed’, and have very kindly agreed to meet me down the boozer afterwards – a few classy Guinness and Malibus later, my nerves are alleviated and it’s straight to business.
Give our readers a potted history of the band… Amy: Kerry (Devine, guitars and vocals) is my sister and Jasmine has been a really good friend of ours for ages and this band started as an idea in the pub when Kerry had this song called ‘Period Drama’. The band got its name from when I worked as a support worker. I asked my manager where she was going for New Years Eve and she said “I’m off to see the baby seals in Hunstanton” and I thought she meant a band. She didn’t, she literally meant the animals!
Yours and Jasmine’s last band (The Centimes) was alternative rock and the ‘Seals are punkier. Was it a conscious decision to go harder edged? Amy: I guess we have turned punky but it wasn’t a conscious thing – Kerry writes the songs, they just turned out that way. Jasmine: But they’re poppy too. Kerry has a good ear for a hook. It just started as banter, with us just riffin’ off each other really.
Kerry’s solo material is very folky, in the run up to the band was she wanting to get into something heavier? Jasmine: Not really, we wanted to do something different after the Centimes, and Kerry wanted to as well because doing things solo is a very different experience. This is us just hanging out together. It’s a big kickabout really, but with instruments. We’re like a band of sisters!
Amy, what’s it like being in a band with your sister? I imagined you’ve played music together before right? Amy: We used to perform on holidays! And my dad had a band when we were little and they used to let us get up on stage and play stuff as well. It’s lovely being in a band with Kerry. She gets quite self-conscious sometimes because she’s very focused and driven and thinks it may come across as bossy. But we tell her she’s not, she’s got a good vision for the band.
Nothing wrong with being a perfectionist. Do you chip in with lyrics? Amy: Not yet, but we want to. Jasmine: The lyrics tend to come out of conversations we have. Brutally honest female conversation! Especially since we’re all quite close, what with Kerry and Amy being sisters, they tend to be issues we’ve talked about and Kerry will come back a few weeks later having written a song about it.
Do the songs take shape in the practice room or does Kerry turn up with the finished article? Jasmine: She’ll come in and say “this is the riff and what not”, and me and Amy will fill in the spaces, see what sounds good.
So what song were you making a video for today then? Amy: ‘Girl’. We’ve been covert filming in a major high street chain of toy shops! Jasmine: The songs lyrics are aghast at the gendered toys that there are in the shops. One thing we saw in there today was a Disney serving trolley – what does that teach your daughter?? To be subservient?? Amy: Predominantly pink coloured princess toys. We saw a lot of that.
Do you have a favourite song from your band? Amy: I love ‘Nipple Hair’, it’s quite a dynamic song. It start with a Southern-California punk/beach-y kind of vibe and then it slows down in the middle with a three-part harmony. The lyrics make it quite funny as well. Jasmine: I really like the lyric:
“Some ariola’s are big and vainy / Some look like puppy dogs noses / Some look like they’ve been dipped in gravy!”
It’s so true!
Is that your favourite too then? Jasmine: Yeah, I think it is. I enjoy playing that one, it sums us up quite nicely. Amy: It quite a positive song, its not having a pop at anyone or excluding anyone.
What about Kerry? Amy: She really gets into ‘It’s Not About The Money Honey’. I don’t know if that’s her favourite but I’ve noticed she really goes for it on that one. Jasmine: She goes Kate Bush-esque and wild on that one!
With regards to your instruments of choice, are there any particular performers that inspired you to pick them up? Amy: A few. I really liked Caroline Corr – there’s loads of female drummers but a lot of them are session players. There’s not many that are visible, in commercial music, it’s male-dominated. So I first saw her when I was something like twelve years old and I thought she was really cool. And I really loved Thin Lizzy, so Brian Downey was a big influence. My uncle Mitch was a big influence, he used to let me play his drums. It’s always been there in the family. And as I’ve gotten older, I listen to a lot of funky soul and Motown-style drumming. Jasmine: Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which shows how young I was when I first picked up a bass! I liked the poppin’ slap bass, even though I play nothing like that. I remember listening to ‘Aeroplane’ and I really liked that song, his bassline was slamming and I liked that his daughter was in the video too. I liked Incubus too – I don’t play funky bass but I’ve got an appreciation for it.
What is your favourite gig you have played so far? Amy: This is hard! I liked the one we did in Brighton at Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar. The woman doing the sound was amazing, good stage, great monitoring too. Jasmine: That was my favourite too. And there was a great audience there, really getting into it. Crowd-surfing at points! We got some really good feedback afterwards, people seemed thrilled that we sing about things that they talk with their girlfriends about. We don’t beat around the bush!
I’m resorting to job interview-styled questions now. If I was to interview your peers, how would they describe you? Jasmine: Cheeky. Amy: Laid back. Jasmine: I’m gonna compare us to the Spice Girls! Everyone liked them because they were just normal lasses, and there’s a class thing going on there as well. We’re working class girls. Amy: The feedback we’ve had has been positive. Jasmine: I was really frightened for a bit before we started gigging these songs, I didn’t know how people would take it – if they would be offended. But they’ve been really on board with it. All our songs are meant with good intention, there’s no malice.
Final question – where do you see yourselves in five years time? Jasmine: Conquering the world. Amen!
‘Lips Are Sealed’ is available to pre-order now, ahead of release on 7 April from thebabyseals.bandcamp.com
We received nearly 300 applications from awesome grrrl bands and singing wimmin to play our Fest, so it was a gut-wrenching task to sift down to this final list … we’ve had to say no (this time, at least) to some amazing acts, but I’m sure you’ll agree that the final list the panel of Team LOUD WOMEN arrived at is the perfect mix of exciting, talented, new, beloved, varied, amaaaazing and above all LOUD WOMEN!
Live performances from some of the 21 acts featured on the album, including:
Argonaut
Bugeye
Deux Furieuses
Dolls
Fightmilk
Gladiators Are You Ready?
GUTTFULL
Janine Booth
Little Fists
Madame So
Nervous Twitch
The Ethical Debating Society
The Potentials
Out on 18 March 2017 – a compilation album of 21 of the loudest women who’ve played our shows! All profits from the sale of the CD going to Women’s Aid.
Interview and photos by Keira Cullinane, exclusively for LOUD WOMEN
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The Nyx are incredible. They are also known as Collette (on drums), Becky and Simone (on V’s and G’s) and Ruby (on bass), and they’re playing for loud Women and the Veg Bar in Brixton on Friday december 2nd.
First of all – the first date stuff. Where did you meet, when did The Nyx get together and is it an equal relationship??
Becky: We used to be in an old band called Rouge, wanted something different and added Collette on drums. That’s when it became The Nyx and got really exciting!
Who, or what, was your inspiration for being in this band and when did you realise you wanted to do it yourself?
Collette: Not necessarily a drummer, but, Annie Lennox for me? She is so inspirational – not even just music; politics, social stuff – she was just such an icon.
Becky: I think i’ve always just loved Janis Joplin. It’s not even really from a musical perspective, she’s an amazing musician, but it’s not that aspect that attracted me to her. More the attitude, the emotion and rawness and authenticity. She’s just being herself, she doesn’t give a shit what everyone thinks, she’s gonna do it anyway, a sort of ruthlessness! Just completely being herself and expressing herself which made me think, ‘that’s what rock ‘n’ roll’s about.’ Not necessarily about writing a song to a certain structure, but living it. But growing up, I listened to a lot of hard rock bands, like ACDC, Nirvana – all male bands. It was no one influence, but these sort of bands made me want to do it.
Simone: For me it’s similar to Becky, like Nirvana, I guess male dominated rock. Then the Spice Girls, I was kind of a mix between Sporty Spice and Crazy Spice.
Ruby: …There wasn’t a Crazy Spice
Simone: Was she not crazy? What was she??
Then I got into Skunk Anansie, and that for me was a mix between the crazy and the sporty.
Ruby: Growing up, everyone says Foo Fighters. Again, there weren’t that many female bands on the scene when we were growing up if you were into rock. But the first female in a rock band was probably Haley Williams from Paramore. I wouldn’t say she was necessarily an inspiration, but she was the first person I really saw doing it in a rock band, that was in Kerrang! Magazine and was in a mainstream capacity.
Becky: Yeah, I don’t think I had that pivotal moment when I was a kid, of thinking (or seeing) “look at that girl go!” I didn’t get that inspiration from women, it was always GUYS. When I first started going to gigs it was 2001 and there was a massive hard core scene. So all I was seeing at that age when I was a sponge waiting for inspiration was guys with long side partings, screaming into a microphone, without melodies. I was there thinking, “Is this what rock music is like?” I had to sort of forge it for myself.
We discuss the platform (or previous lack of) for women making rock music and people like Courtney Love’s fame being divided between a talented musician and being seen as ‘Kurt Cobain’s Wife’.
Simone: I used to buy cd’s from a guy at school who used to download music from the internet, and i think without any background to what i was listening to, it through you more into the music side of it.
So how did you all find music, and how do you find new music now?
Becky: It used to be the portable CD players! But definitely CDs. Late at night with it under my pillow.
Simone: Or running with it, and it skipping!
Becky: There just wasn’t any cool music, I was listening to the P!nk album and S Club 7, that’s what it was like for a kid in the noughties, it was a horrible time! (All laugh)
Collette: I’m a little bit older than you guys and at college I used to go to gigs, and speak to friends older brothers and sisters about music. I used to go to little independant festivals, like the local ‘Dog and Duck’ down the road, and it just kind of ripples through; every now and then something would come out of it.
Becky: ..I suppose guys screaming into a microphone isn’t necessarily true – where we grew up, in High Wycombe, there was such a cool little scene when we were growing up. We were just too young to really experience it properly. When I started putting on my own shows at 15, it was like the scene had kind of died. I feel kind of let down!
As a band, if you had the opportunity to record a double A side with another band or musician, or record a song with them, who would you choose?
Simone: I’d say personally, probably Sufjen Stevens? I just really like his kind of despondent music.
Becky: Amy Winehouse or Jeff Buckley…
Collette: That’s a really, really difficult question! I might even say someone like JonathanDavis or something, because ‘Queen Of The Damned’ is one of my favourite films of all time and he did the soundtrack. He can branch out into so many different genres and still bring it back and make it authentic. It would be the right kind of vibe, and he also has that kind of flexibility within the genre.
Ruby: I’ve been listening to Queens Of The Stone Age a lot again recently and would say JoshHomme. It’s the same sort of style of music and he can collab with other people too! And he’s with BrodyDalle too..
Collette: She was my first girl crush.. I saw them (TheDistillers) at Reading when i was 16 she was in this leather onesie, like a motorcycle get up.
We tail off talking about moon cups (top tip; make sure to buy the right size!)
About intersectional politics, and about how apart from a few exceptions, the bands ‘rock’ influences have come largely from white males in the mainstream. We discuss an article I read [by Stephanie Phillips] in the ‘Intersectional Politics For Punx Zine’ about Brody Dalle, from the perspective of a black female growing up listening to rock music.
We’ve seen them on the screen, both silver and small, but there are many occasions when women of a thespian bent have entertained the notion of adding a singing string to their bow. Here’s a one-stop selection of twenty, in no particular order, but be warned; not everything that follows is especially great. Nevertheless, El Tel hopes you find a modicum of fun in all of them.
MINNIE DRIVER – Close To Me
Following the success of her first major film role in Circle Of Friends, Minnie opted not to take the recording contract she’d been offered by Virgin, but continued to make intermittent excursions into the world of music. Here she is making a pretty good job of interpreting one of The Cure’s best known songs.
GWYNETH PALTROW – Forget You
It started out savvy and sharp, but by the end of the second season Glee was bog-standard teen telly – the very thing it had set out to satirise. Like Friends and Ally McBeal before it, the reliance on star guest appearances became tiresome, but Gwynnie totally hits one out of the park here.
SIGOURNEY WEAVER – Back In The USSR
Heartbreakers isn’t a great film, but it’s worth a watch, because Sigourney is a criminally underrated comedian. Who wouldn’t fall for this light-hearted slab of swinging Soviet grooviness?
MERYL STREEP – I’m Checkin’ Out
Playing a character inspired by Carrie Fisher’s addiction diary Postcards From The Edge, the grand dame of Hollywood and beyond lets rip with her hitherto unheralded saloon gal persona. Prescient, if you’re looking for a one-word label.
LILI TAYLOR – Fuck You
Remember Gwynnie giving it loads of CeeLo earlier? Here’s indie icon Lili (Six Feet Under, Short Cuts, I Shot Andy Warhol) hollering the post-watershed original in a Manhattan piano bar.
JOAN COLLINS – Imagine
Nothing to say about this one, save for it being a ridiculous waste of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. And is there a reason why Shirley Bassey features in every shot of the clip?
GOLDIE HAWN – A Hard Day’s Night
It’s jazzy Fab Four time, endorsed by the legendary George Martin. This version featured on the late ‘90s album In My Life, on which the fifth Beatle produced all manner of odd folk covering songs by the best band ever.
GILLIAN ANDERSON – Extremis
Things are getting’ strange, I’m startin’ to worry. It’s an iffy song by Mulder-less Scully. Lame dance track designed to grab headlines, and it did. Ms Anderson found herself on the cover of Melody Maker.
There’s an entire album of this stuff, y’know, and not just Beatles rock-outs. Many years later, Ringo Starr made a film with Ms West, which was even worse.
JULIA LOUIS DREYFUS – Sixteen Going On Seventeen
Post-Seinfeld but pre-Veep, arguably the greatest living comic actress indulges her girlhood Sound Of Music fantasies on David Letterman’s late night talk show, with a little help from an old friend. “Someone older and wiser, telling her what to do…”
JULIETTE LEWIS – Any Way You Want
The enigmatic star of Cape Fear and Natural Born Killers has been fronting The Licks between movie shoots for a few years, but this is her new single – and it rocks!
TINA FEY – Paints And Brushes
The genius behind 30 Rock and Mean Girls brings us an affectionate parody of Joni Mitchell.
RAQUEL WELCH – Bang Bang
The overture, written specifically for this 1967 TV performance, begins: “He had a rifle, oh what a rifle.” A couple of lines later, Raquel asks: “Who would have thought that a rifle of wood could ever find its mark?” Before long, we are confronted by male dancers brandishing big guns painted white. I think we can all agree that subtlety has taken a back seat.
REESE WITHERSPOON – Wildwood Flower
A strong and feisty woman she might have been, but let’s be honest; June Carter Cash couldn’t carry a tune if you gave her a rucksack. Reese won an Oscar for Walk The Line, partly by singing better than the woman she was portraying.
LIZA MINNELLI – Twist In My Sobriety
Angst-ridden coffee table folk from the overly-serious Tanita Tikaram (the first line is the title of a book by Maya Angelou), re-upholstered as a synth-pop torch song. Produced and arranged by the Pet Shop Boys, in case you couldn’t tell.
JENNIFER JASON LEIGH – Almost Blue
Speaking of Liza, JJL wowed Broadway playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret in recent-ish times, but this performance of an Elvis Costello song is from a long-forgotten film, Georgia, released 20 years ago.
JO BRAND – The Feminist Song
We’ll let the ever dependable Jo speak for herself on this one, shall we?
AMY SCHUMER – Milk Milk Lemonade
Attention, women who make lewd and lascivious videos to compensate for the shortcomings of the song. Attention, men who watch them. Amy, the poster girl for uncomfortable truths, has got your number.
TRACEY ULLMAN – Paint It Black
This is what happens when diehard Goths marry and move to the suburbs.
JANE FONDA – Songs By Women
Let’s finish with A-list Hollywood’s first radical feminist, in the company of Helen Reddy, reminding 1970s prime time TV audiences that women write great songs. Her truth is marching on…
Can you believe it’s a year since we held the first ever LOUD WOMEN club! To celebrate, here are some top stats:
💋No. of acts who’ve played a LW night: 63
💋No. of events held: 21
💋No. of venues who’ve hosted us: 8
💋Bands who have played the most:
1st place – The Wimmins’ Institute (9 times)
joint 2nd place – Argonaut and Dream Nails (5 times each)
3rd place – Grace Petrie (4 times)
💋Cash raised for Women’s Aid – £1,834.57
💋Fun times had – squillions and billions
Excellent work, let’s keep it up!😘💪🎸🎤
For all those who support putting women on stage, and turning up the volume
😘
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🎸
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