Tag Archives: the lexington

Gigs, live reviews, Lorna draws ..., LOUD WOMEN community

Argonaut, Rabies Babies, Thee Dinner Ladies, Militant Girlfriend

October 9, 2017 loudwomen Leave a comment

originally published by Lorna Tiefholz at Gigs and Pencils

All ages/family friendly daytime gig put on by Loud Women at the Lexington.
Saturday 30th September.

All ages kid-friendly gigs are the way to go for so many reasons!

1. You get to hang out with your friends who have kids and can rarely come along to gigs.
2. Kid-friendly gigs are in the day time! You can also fit another gig in later in the evening, so doubling your gig-going potential.
3. Kid friendly gigs are just MORE FUN! Where else do you get offered sherbet dib-dabs or Love Hearts as you walk in the venue? Where else is the promoter of the event dressed as Wonder Woman? Where else do you find yourself enthusiastically making lightning shapes while watching the excellent Argonauts?

I’d never been to such a fun gig. The kids had a great time, and so did the adults.

Argonauts kicked off the afternoon with a fantastic set and lots of props, and everyone loved them. They handed out kazoos and gave us dancing instructions for audience participation, encouraged a stage invasion for ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ and passed around bananas for their singalong version of ‘The Banana Splits’ theme.

In between bands there was stories for the kids while the grown ups drank beers.

Next on was my band, Rabies Babies. This show was the second time that our guitarist Laura’s toddler son has been at a Rabies Babies gig, he doesn’t really like us. We are too shouty and he gets frightened. This time he didn’t cry for the whole time we played, so we are slowly winning him over. We re-worked out set – we dropped some of the inappropriate sweary songs and added some kid-friendly songs. Our drummer Mike ended up playing guitar and drums at the same time for one song so Laura could run about on stage pretending to be an elephant. There was a boy of 5 or 6 who was right at the front and slam danced and pogoed non stop all the way through our set.

Thee Dinner Ladies are just plain and simple brilliant garage. Musically they are right up my street, they are garage punk with equal measures of punk and garage. Shouty fun male & female vocals with flirty lines like “you’re only shopping cos you fancy me”. All this, plus the whole band are dressed spectacularly as dinner ladies. Who doesn’t love a dinner lady?

Sadly I missed the final band, Militant Girlfriend, as I had a train to catch to get me to a wedding in Sheffield, hopefully I’ll get to see them soon.

Roll on next Little Loud Women show!

gigs and pencils

All ages/family friendly daytime gig put on by Loud Women at the Lexington.
Saturday 30th September.

All ages kid-friendly gigs are the way to go for so many reasons!

1. You get to hang out with your friends who have kids and can rarely come along to gigs.
2. Kid-friendly gigs are in the day time! You can also fit another gig in later in the evening, so doubling your gig-going potential.
3. Kid friendly gigs are just MORE FUN! Where else do you get offered sherbet dib-dabs or Love Hearts as you walk in the venue? Where else is the promoter of the event dressed as Wonder Woman? Where else do you find yourself enthusiastically making lightning shapes while watching the excellent Argonauts?

I’d never been to such a fun gig. The kids had a great time, and so did the adults.

Argonauts kicked off the afternoon with a…

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24 hours of LOUD WOMEN!

October 1, 2017 loudwomen 1 Comment

What a great weekend for LOUD WOMEN … first of all, our awesome new t-shirts arrived on Friday and they look spectacular!

Then we kicked it off at a new-to-us venue, The Unicorn Camden Live on Friday with four stonking bands: Ghum, WITCH FEVER, Ghum, Think Pretty, The Noise & the Naive and Witch Fever and Think Pretty. It was a really fun and friendly night, with all the bands supporting each other – exactly what LW is all about!

Saturday afternoon we headed to The Lexington for an all-ages matinee, which went down a treat with a massive crowd of parents and kids! Huge thanks to Argonaut, Thee Dinnerladies, Militant Girlfriend and Rabies Babiesfor coming and playing such fun sets! It was just gorgeous to see tiny kids dancing about with their arms in the air, loving the music, and climbing up on stage to have a bash on the drums and a shout down the mic – some future punkrock stars in the making there I’m sure. Special thanks to Kate Whaite for being Great and keeping the kids entertained with stories and games between bands – she made lots of new fans, small and big 🙂

We’ve got more, very exciting gigs coming up this Autumn, starting with our 2nd Birthday Party! On 13th October we’ll be celebrating at the Fiddler’s Elbow – Camden, with 4 of our favourite bands – Foxcunt, GUTTFULL, MX Tyrants and Layzervag. There’s going to be partybags full of records and goodies, yummy cake, and LOUD WOMEN karaoke … your chance to take to the stage! https://www.facebook.com/events/154554368414307/

Keep in touch for news of more LOUD WOMEN events and good stuff …

Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/loudwomen/
Facebook group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/loudwomen/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/loudwomenclub
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/loudwomen
Web – https://loudwomen.org

AND sign up to our monthly ezine – for new music news, reviews, interviews, videos and all sorts of good stuff http://wordpress.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe…

10 question interviews, interviews, introducing ..., LOUD WOMEN community

Thee Dinnerladies: 10 Question Interview

September 24, 2017 loudwomen Leave a comment

Thee Dinnerladies are a “trash garage” band from Walthamstow, joining us on 30 September at our all-ages matinee at The Lexington. The band is three women (Laura, Spangle and Emma) and two men (Lee and Ant), and we sent them 10 questions to find out more about them …

1. Who would you most like to cover your songs?

LAURA – I’d like dub versions of them all to be done by Lee Scratch Perry

LEE – Or crushing doom versions with Glen Danzig handling the vocals

2. Choose: Cat or dog?

SPANGLE – Cat – we have an honouree band member with Lulu the cat who belongs to Laura

LAURA – Definitely Cats. You can’t own a cat, they own you.

3. Choose one of your songs to be played on Strictly Come Dancing. What dance would you like to be performed to it

Spangle – ‘Puddin’ and with the Viennese Waltz

LAURA – That would have to be ‘Checkouts’. It’s a song is about working in a supermarket (or other dull retail job) and getting sleazed on by oddball members of the public at the till. The song has a “you only shop here cos you fancy me” refrain and ends in a fast raucous shouty bit. Not sure how any one could dance to it but it would be fun to watch them try.

4. Choose: Pixies or Breeders?

LAURA – The Breeders (better hair)…but also Kim and Kelley. ❤

LEE – Pixies because Doolittle got me through a lot of long shifts at Threshers

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

SPANGLE – ‘The Phantom Tollbooth’ by Norton Juster. It’s a kid’s book that I still love reading as an adult. A fairly trippy fantasy adventure about a boy called Milo who thinks everything is a waste of time, only to go on an adventure and realise the beauty of life and learning.

LAURA – Hagar the Womb’s ‘The Word of the Womb’ is a fantastic slab of feminist anarcho-punk. It’s brill.

LEE – I saw Hagar the Womb play a few years back at Silver Bullet and they had all their lyrics for new songs in a ring binder which I thought was great.

6. Bikini Kill or Fugazi?

Spangle – I could (but won’t for this fanzine) write an essay on this. I’m going to have to say Bikini Kill. Punk (especially the DC movement) prided itself on its inclusiveness but very much glossed over the fact that many women felt uncomfortable at these shows – it took someone like Kathleen Hanna to stand up and challenge this notion, make a welcomed space for women and to show that women are as capable as men (this was and is continued to be glossed over).

7. What’s the most difficult thing about being in your band?

Spangle – on a personal level the fact it’s taken me 37 years to be in band. It means you start from scratch with how it all works, learning an instrument and gaining the confidence to go out and do it, challenging to say the least especially when you have a toddler and full-time job to take care of. On the plus side it shows you are never too old (or young) to do what the hell you want to do.

ALL – Juggling our very important dinner lady duties of serving hot meals, while also trying to be in a rock n’ roll band.

8. What are your band goals?

LAURA – To play in Manzes Pie and Mash Shop in Walthamstow and get paid in food.

LEE – To have our songs released on vinyl – that’s the dream. Also to play as many gigs as possible and to HAVE FUN! They have always been the 3 goals since we started.

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

LAURA – We believe in free school dinners! And we like leopard print.

10. Give your top 5 contemporary bands

LAURA – I love Good Throb, Kitten Forever and Lil’ Tits – all brilliant bands featuring some very LOUD women.

LEE – For me The Cowboys, Liquids, ShitKid and our mates Smiler have also been getting a lot of play in the dinner lady canteen.

Find Thee Dinnerladies on Facebook and Bandcamp and Instagram, then come see them at Little LOUD WOMEN on 30 September, 2pm to 5pm at The Lexington

Gigs, LOUD WOMEN community

Little LOUD WOMEN – 30 Sept at The Lexington

September 11, 2017 loudwomen Leave a comment

No need for parents to miss out on the very best in live music … bring the kids along for an afternoon of awesome punkrock, specially arranged for audiences that include energetic toddlers and kids, as well as their parents who really deserve to relax with some grown-up music too!

There will be face-painting, cake and games for the littl’uns, and badass bands for the big’uns, at the world-famous Lexington venue.

We’ll keep the noise levels at a reduced level, but ear-defenders are recommended for the very young ones.

Live music from:

ARGONAUT
purveyors of fiery female fronted alternative punk rock.
https://www.facebook.com/argonautband/

RABIES BABIES
“the most punk band you will ever see”
https://www.facebook.com/rabiesbabiespunk/

MILITANT GIRLFRIEND
“barmaids, best friends, and a queer pop punk band from South East London”
https://www.facebook.com/MilitantGirlfriend/

THEE DINNERLADIES
“Recent welfare cuts force Walthamstow dinnerladies to form a trash garage band.”
https://www.facebook.com/theedinnerladies/

Tickets £2 for kids, £6 for olds.
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/412853

All welcome!

LOUD WOMEN is a DIY collective that champions women in music by hosting live events that are fun, friendly, and frickin awesome.

All profits go to the artists, and any additional funds raised go to charities that help women (usually Women’s Aid).

Join the group LOUD WOMEN for news of more women-led events
https://www.facebook.com/groups/loudwomen/

Gigs, interviews, Videos

interview: Skinny Girl Diet

June 16, 2017 loudwomen 2 Comments

interview by Cassie Fox – originally published on Louderthanwar.com

Last weekend I met up with Ursula and Delilah Holliday, the sisters better known as Skinny Girl Diet, as they prepared to take to the stage for their headline set at Decolonise Fest, at Bermonsey’s supercool DIY Space for London.

I’ve loved the band from afar for a while, a love compounded in March when I watched them rock the fuck out of the Shepherd’s Bush Empire supporting Senseless Things. Having, since then, lost their bassist cousin Amelia Cutler from their line-up, the band as a close-knit duo are delivering a more biting sound, the lyrics are more poignantly-heard, and with Delilah working harder than ever on guitar her licks are engulfing, effortless, bluesy, and very punk rock.

I wondered if I’d be nervous meeting these awesome Wunderkinder in the flesh, but found them warm, unassuming and totally charming – sitting cross-legged on the floor eating pre-performance vegan food, the sisters bundle up laughing together and, adorably, finish each other’s sentences. Their parents, Melodie and Dan Holliday, are never far away from them, and emit the same warm, positive vibes that are just on the right side of the dividing line between punk and hippie. I think I want to be adopted by the Hollidays.

The band has crammed a staggering amount into the years they’ve been going. Their first gig (with Ursula aged 12, Delilah aged 15) was opening for Viv Albertine. Since then Skinny Girl Diet have established themselves Queens of the DIY scene. Their distortion-heavy grungey punk rock, with lyrics of feminist social commentary, draws easy parallels with the ’90s’ Hole and Bikini Kill, but the band have always been keen to point out that their music shares only some of the aspects of the Riot Grrrl movement; Skinny Girl Diet’s work is all about inclusion, and using the platforms that are open to them to amplify the other, marginalised voices around them. Their debut album Heavy Flow came out September 2016, and I’ve a feeling it will be the first of very many … these focussed young women have all the skills.

Get to see these two live as soon as you can. For example … at their headline LOUD WOMEN show at the Lexington on 20 July.

CF: Tell us about Decolonise Fest

Ursula: Decolonise Festival is all about highlighting the fact that punk is mainly white male dominated, and it’s a space for people of all backgrounds and lifestyles to just come together and feel proud of the fact that punk can be, just whatever you want to make it.

Delilah: It’s such a good thing that it exists! We’ve played Afropunk …

Ursula: But I think this is better.

Delilah: Um … It’s different. I feel like it’s more ‘to punks’. But Afropunk’s a bit different. We were playing Alexander Palace – the main stage – so I felt more disconnected from the atmosphere. But the atmosphere here is really …

Ursula: … it’s DIY!

Delilah: Yeah, and you can just suck in more!

Ursula: Yeah. Suck it up!

What does the DIY scene mean to you?

Ursula: It’s the place that feels like home. We were taken in by so many people – taken under their wing. We used to play Power Lunches, when it still existed. I think it’s closed now maybe?

Delilah: Yeah

Ursula: Places like that really embraced us, so it’s definitely the root of everything we do, very DIY. Even now, we fund everything we do.

Delilah: … getting published ourselves, and distributed …

Ursula: yeah, all of that stuff! But it does make it more worthwhile because you’ve got complete control – that’s one thing. But it’s also a pain in the arse financially. Because we basically go to gigs, play, and put that money into what we do. Everything we earn is just circulating, so we don’t really make money. But, hey, it’s fun!

Delilah: The more we do it the more we realise that we don’t really want to be commercial, and our goals and aspirations lie more in helping people, rather than, like, being famous.

Do you see music as your future?

Ursula: Yeah, it’s the only thing that really speaks to us, and that we’re good at.

Delilah: It’s the most fulfilling thing. We just want to help people, and make them feel like they’re understood. And that’s the goal really.

Ursula: YEAH!

What’s your advice for young, female musicians?

Delilah: Have a really thick skin, and don’t give up if you get a bad review, or if the crowd don’t understand you. The more you do it, the more people will understand it, eventually, and the more other young women what you want to inspire, will respond back to you. So it’s all worthwhile when that happens.

Have you faced any negativity?

Delilah: We a really horrible review from a female writer at The Guardian who said that we were just fashion babes …

Ursula: Yeah, she started putting what we were wearing under scrutiny.

Delilah: It’s just really upsetting because, obviously not all women have to be friends, but it is nice when other women support young people making music.

Your Dad is your Manager!

Ursula: Our Dad does pretty much all of our posters and manages us. A really good manager – Dan Holliday – who we owe our lives to, and everything else! *laughs*

Delilah: He started managing us because I had my GCSES at the time, and I was like ‘Dad, I can’t do these emails!’, and then ever since then it’s like … no offence to Dad … he’s learning as well, and we all learn together, and he keeps everything glued together. It’s really nice.

And your Mum is a DIY punk too …

Ursula: She’s the biggest supporter of our band. She always comes to the front row and dances and sings along, so that’s really nice.

Ursula: We don’t really have the whole thing of ‘rebelling against our parents’ because they’re just completely supportive.

Delilah: Sometimes I get a bit insecure and I wish I could rebel in some sort of way …

Ursula: Yeah, find something, anything!

When’s the second album coming out?

Delilah: The whole second album’s finished it’s just, cos we do everything ourselves, it’s really hard to get everything mixed, and make videos … so it takes a while and it’s frustrating, but we just try and move at our own pace and hope people understand!

Skinny Girl Diet’s next LONDON gig is LOUD WOMEN …

Ursula: We can’t wait to play! The 20 July, The Lexington! Skinny Girl Diet – woah!

Delilah: LOUD WOMEN rule!

Ursula: Loud women are the best kind of women!

Delilah: Oh yeah!

Find Skinny Girl Diet on Facebook and Twitter

Gigs, LOUD WOMEN community

20 July: Skinny Girl Diet at The Lexington

May 28, 2017 loudwomen Leave a comment

The first of a series of bigger, louder, spanglier LOUD WOMEN nights, at our favourite venue, The Lexington on Pentonville Road.

*****SKINNY GIRL DIET*****
“At last, real girls, young and believable, singing in their own voices.” – Viv Albertine (The Slits)
“Skinny Girl Diet are what Hole might have sounded like had Courtney Love hailed from Wood Green rather than Portland” – The Guardian
“London’s most badass girl gang” – Dazed

Skinny Girl Diet are two sisters from North London who play raw, abrasive, in your face guitar music. Formed in 2011, when still young teenagers, their first gig was with the Slits’ Viv Albertine and the TV personalities. While a three-piece with their cousin Amelia on bass, they played around the London area intially, earning touring stripes with their own generation’s breakthrough bands, the likes of The Fat White Family and Slaves. Last year, they’ve appeared alongside legends John Cooper Clarke and The Raincoats. Played dates in Europe and been interviewed by Arte for German TV. Iggy Pop recently said “Here are some people who just want to reach out and grab your ears” when he played them three times on his Iggy Pop Confidential BBC Radio 6 music shows and everyone from XFM’s Jon Kennedy, BBC Radio 6’s Marc Riley, Gideon Coe and Steve Lamaq, and BBC Radio 1’s Rob Da Bank have put them on the airwaves.They have graced the cover of Beat, can be spotted online and in magazines like Dazed and Confused, Vice, Vogue, Crack and The Guardian. Not to mention the stacks of underground zines. Their debut Album Heavyflow was released in Sept 2016 with great reviews from Drowned in Sound, The Line of Best Fit, Louder than War, and Collapse Board to name a few.

With support from:

*****THE FRANKLYS*****
Comprised of two members from Sweden and two from England, The Franklys play frenetic garage rock with heavy and psychedelic overtones á la Led Zeppelin-Blondie-Strokes-QOTSA-punk-pop-rock-madness.
With extensive touring across both the UK, Europe and America, including festival slots at Isle of Wight, Download Festival and Camden Rocks, The Franklys are surely making themselves known as one of the most exciting new live acts on the UK band circuit.
https://www.facebook.com/thefranklys/

*****FIGHTMILK*****
Pop’s resting bitch face.
https://www.facebook.com/fightmilkisaband/

*****GUTTFULL*****
Dirty sax punk. “reminiscent of Bikini Kill if they had a baby with the Undertones, and adopted a saxophone player” – Parallel Magazine
https://www.facebook.com/guttfull/

plus DJ Dapper D (aka Debbie Smith) will be spinning tunes after the bands for a very special LOUD WOMEN club after-party til your feet fall off!

For more on LOUD WOMEN see www.loudwomen.org

Gigs

30 April 2016: Piney Gir | Crack Foxes | The Wimmins’ Institute | Argonaut

April 30, 2016 loudwomen 1 Comment

No babysitter? Don’t miss out! Bring the kids along for an afternoon of top notch badass woman-lead pop-punk-riot-awesome, in Islington’s finest venue, The Lexington.

Ear-defenders recommended for the little ears!

Line-up for SATURDAY 30 APRIL 2016:

PINEY GIR
Awesome power pop queen from Kansas.
https://www.facebook.com/Piney-Gir-271279566239162

ARGONAUT
Loud Women favourites with a special accoustic set (and songs about counting, at least to 7)
https://www.facebook.com/argonautband/?fref=ts

THE WIMMINS’ INSTITUTE
Loud Women ‘house band’ – we promise not to swear in front of the children this time.
https://www.facebook.com/theWimminsInstitute/?fref=ts

CRACK FOXES
Riot grrrls with fox fixations – the kids will love em, and so will you!
https://www.facebook.com/crackfoxes/?fref=ts

Doors 3 pm
Entry £5 – over 16s
£2 – over 2s
Free – under 2s

Advanced tickets from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/349512 – booking recommended!

All welcome!

Join the group LOUD WOMEN for news of more women-led events
https://www.facebook.com/groups/loudwomen/

For all those who support putting women on stage, and turning up the volume