Women in Punk in the UK

1. Women in Punk: Rebelling
Against Rebellion

2. The first official UK Gay Pride Rally, London, 1 July 1972
Photo: BBC
Women Reclaim the Night, Soho, 1977
Photo: past-tense.org.uk
THE BEGINNING

3. “Typical Girls”: The Slits

4. “Typical Girls”: The Slits
● Formed in 1976
● Palmolive (aka Paloma McCardy; drums), Ari Up (aka Arianna
Foster; vocals), Kate Korus (guitar; later replaced by Viv
Albertine), Suzy Gutsy (bass; later replaced with Tessa Polith)
● Female rhythm

5. “Typical Girls”: The Slits
“We were very conscious from the start. We didn't
want to copy male rhythms, male 12-bar chord,
4/4 beat, slip into routines and habits.”
– Viv Albertine
“Girls Will Be Girls,” The Culture Show, BBC 2, 1 Jul. 2014

6. “Typical Girls”: The Slits

7. “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!”: X-
Ray Spex

8. “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!”: X-
Ray Spex
● Formed in 1976
● Poly Styrene (aka Marianne Elliott; vocals), Jak Airport (aka
Jack Stafford; guitar), Lora Logic (aka Susan Whitby;
saxophone), B.P. Hurding (aka Chris Chysler; drums), Paul
Dean (bass)
● Anti-consumerist feminist music

9. “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!”: X-
Ray Spex
“The brilliant thing about Spex’s songs was that each
song was a concept in its own right, which worked as
both music and a message. The Pistols were about
anarchy, The Clash revolution, and Spex offered a
third option, exploring the delights and dangers of
consumerism and the techno synthetic universe.”
– Falcon Stuart
Ogg, Alex. No More Heroes: A Complete History of UK Punk 1976-1980. Cherry Red Books, 2012.

10. “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!”: X-
Ray Spex

11. “SHOUTING OUT LOUD”: The
Raincoats

12. “SHOUTING OUT LOUD”: The
Raincoats
● Formed in 1977
● Ana Da Silva (guitar, vocals),
Gina Birch (bass, vocals),
Ross Crighton (guitar), Nick
Turner (drums)
● A participatory feminist
project
O'Meara, Caroline. “The Raincoats: Breaking Down Punk Rock's
Masculinities.” Popular Music, vol. 22, no. 3, 2003, pp. 299–313.

13. “SHOUTING OUT LOUD”: The
Raincoats
● “The Raincoats could not play well enough to sound like anyone
else.”
– Greil Marcus
● “What is most striking about their live performances is the
absence of any reference to previous rock sounds.”
– Simon Frith
O'Meara, Caroline. “The Raincoats: Breaking Down Punk Rock's
Masculinities.” Popular Music, vol. 22, no. 3, 2003, pp. 299–313.

14. “SHOUTING OUT LOUD”: The
Raincoats

15. Women Behind the Scenes
Jordan in doorway of Sex 1977
by Sheila Rock

16. Women Behind the Scenes
London Calling (1979) by Pennie Smith

17. “Typical Girls”: The Slits

18. Women Behind the Scenes
Untitled (1976) by Linder Sterling

19. Women Behind the Scenes
JOLT by Lucy Toothpaste (aka Lucy Whitman)

20. Women Behind the Scenes
Punk (1977) by Julie Davis

21. Women in Punk – Today

22. Trash Theory. “The Evolution of Women in Punk.”
YouTube, 24 Jan. 2018,
https://youtu.be/dQSyWRwPWjk.

25. The Slits Reunion
Revenge of the Killer Slits EP, 2006 Trapped Animal, 2009

26. Viv Albertine Solo Album
The Vermilion Border, 2012

27. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING

28. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING