Twisting, Turning and Doubling Back

Well, what a strange week it's been--first The Clamerons merge their blue and yellow (but not green) forces (4 women out of 29 cabinet posts--so generous!) and then The Ash Cloud decides to pay a return visit to Blighty. Mmm.

Of more relevance to this parish is the double whammy in London this Thursday, the 20th, when The Raincoats take their turn as Don't Look Back artistes by performing their 1979 self-titled debut in full at The Scala.

Also, kicking off that night is Mother Festival, featuring an off-kilter bill including Wet Dog, Normal Love (ex-Rhythm King and Her Friends) and Molly Nilsson.

Sadly, I will miss both, as I am on air that night doing my radio show, which will feature a GOTH special of suitably scary and black-clad ladies. Grrr. And, indeed, Brrr.

Raincoats at NPG

Will be covering this gig for a feature on Gina Birch in Wears the Trousers, but wanted to share a few highlights from the Raincoats' Icon-i-coustics gig, in connection with the Gay Icons exhibit, at the National Portrait Gallery tonight.

Ana handed every member of the audience one of her drawings (mine features lyrics from "No Side to Fall In"). Gina showed a film about her icons made especially for the night. Shirley read poetry at the swanky 1940s radio mic that was far too tall for her. Anat Ben David recited from the SCUM Manifesto. The lights came up far too soon during the finale of "Lola". Truly an epic.

Gina Birch at Barden's Boudoir

8 July
Barden's Boudoir

Dalston truly is a lure for west London's punk pioneers, as following on from last month's visit by Viv Albertine, Gina Birch popped in for a gig.

After sets by Helen McCookerybook and Brooklyn weird-rock duo Christy and Emily (how do two people make so much noise??), Birch took to the stage, guitar in hand, backed up by tapes and projections from her decades of films. She has been working on new material since The Hangovers but it's not clear when this will see the light of day.

The set ranged from Raincoats ("Don't Be Mean") to Hangovers ("I'm Glad I'm Me Today") to quite a few I didn't recognise, but were quite intriguing. Bitterness, regret and quite a lot of anger shine through in Birch's delivery, and her slightly unhinged persona is brewing up nicely.

Viv Albertine at Cafe Oto

Cafe Oto
10 June

Ah, sunny Dalston. How well I remember it from days of yore: squatting in a house with no heating, collecting wood from the skip next door, boarding up smashed windows...

So, no Tube strike or distraction of international football could keep me from returning to my spiritual home for a gig by former Slits guitarist Viv Albertine. Out of the public eye for a number of years, she only returned last year for a measly two gigs with the re-formed (but hardly reformed) Slits before deciding life as part of Ari Up's backing band was not for her.

Happily, the experience did get her playing her trusty Telecaster and writing some new sweet-sour pop songs. Yes, pop. No snarling punk rawkness was on show here. Just Viv, guitar in hand, keyboardist (and author) Zoë Street Howe and pianist Steve Beresford. The set was short, sweet and, save a nasty smack in the mouth on her mic, without undue incident. In the house were old muckers The Raincoats and Tessa Pollitt, as well as other "I-was-there-in-'77" stalwarts mixed in with the jazzheads who'd come to see the other acts on the bill.

Love und Romance still seem to be preoccupations for Albertine, as she declared, "This is really depressing. I don't believe in love anymore" while introducing "Don't Believe/In Love". Other titles included "The False Heart" and "If Love", which worms into the brain with its "la-la-la-la" refrain.

There was a bratty, nursery rhyme quality to the lyrics which sat happily with her rhythmic strumming style. Perhaps a bit sedate for the old guard but everyone has to grow up.

23rd London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival: an organic otherness

A quick recap of the first few days of the festival, which I've only been able to attend sporadically so far.

Opening night on Wednesday featured Karin Babinska's debut Pusinky (Dolls), a road-buddy-teen melodrama of three Czech teenaged girls' disintegrating relationships as they hitch-hike to the promised land of Holland for some summer work. Betrayal, sexual awakening, rivalries, suicide attempts. I felt I'd seen it all before. Indeed, the set-up and events reminded me very much of two films I've viewed in the last six months: the Russian drama Everybody Dies but Me and the German film Beautiful Bitch.

As such, the film felt like a throwback to the bad old days when coming out as a lesbian was treated with a lot of hysterical hand-wringing. And why is it de rigueur in every coming-of-age drama for female friendships to be cast aside? A strange choice for an opening night film. On the plus side, I did snaffle several free chocolate bars laid out between the seats.

Last night I attended the much-anticipated premiere of the Raincoats doc, with added Q and A and live performance. Quite an ambitious undertaking and largely successful, with one big proviso.

Directed by bassist Gina Birch, the Raincoats film (still not sure of the title) combines brilliant archival material from the band's beginnings in the throes of '70s punk with interviews with band members and admirers including Geoff Travis, Chicks on Speed, Peaches and David Thomas of Pere Ubu. The latter's comments, delivered through shut eyes, were amusing, even if he did appear to suggest that they had no memorable songs. He also said something about "an organic otherness" that rang true in unexpected ways.

Among those in the audience were interviewees Viv Albertine of The Slits, just now getting some new material out, and Jane Woodgate of The Mo-Dettes, now establishing herself as a sculptor. Where have all you original punk women been, I asked Viv. "I don't know", she said, before adding that now seems a good time to get back in, as it reminded her of the punk times.

There was so much love in the room. And when a four-piece version of the Raincoats took to the stage, it was to a very supportive hometown crowd. Every cocked up note and false start was greeted with an appreciative cheer. "You are getting the full Raincoats experience" cracked Gina.

Still, I left troubled. You see, while it was delightful to see this band get its due, VERY, VERY late in the day, and while I enjoyed the atmosphere and the gig rocked, what stayed with me was what wasn't said: where was the queer content? Why, at a lesbian and gay film festival, with a panel of mostly lesbians, was there no mention of the L word? Why does this still happen in 2009? I left feeling as if we really had returned to the dark ages, when these things just weren't spoken about and lesbians were invisible. Like the film, a work in progress.

New Bloods: The Secret Life

One highlight of Ladyfest London was the chance to see and meet New Bloods, the Portland trio whose debut album is just out. The band played at Camden Underworld during the festival and we then convened for a brief interview, interrupted by over-zealous security moving us on. Adee, Osa and Cassia of New Bloods found this hilarious, while I was irritated. Nonetheless, I managed to get a few words with them.

Comparisons abound between New Bloods and arty post-punk bands such as The Raincoats: the use of strings, wandering bass lines, shouted vocals, an interest in nature and the human condition, among them. Indeed, Ana and Shirley from The Raincoats ventured to the Underworld to check out the young pups, and Adee let out a squeal when she heard they were in the house, but unfortunately, the two bands didn't meet. Shirley explained to me the next day that she and Ana left to get food after the set and then never returned. How untimely.

Nevertheless, back at the Underworld, New Bloods talked a bit about their songwriting and interests. Cassia, the bassist, explained: "I think that we all share certain things and then we all have separate things, as well. I mean, personally, my main motivation is just having music as a mode for expression and what we want to express changes and varies, but, I think, you know, a lot of it is about my emotional life as a woman and... living in this world. It can be a beautiful world to live in and you can experience it also as... a hostile world as a woman, so it deals with those things."

Onstage they are an exciting proposition with Osa centre-stage on violin, barefoot, her bow shredded, Cassia taking most of vocals as well as bass and Adee on drums chipping in with some vocals (I will resist the Phil Collins comparison). They managed 30-minute set, seven minutes longer than album.

Clocking in at a brisk 23:36 and no messing, The Secret Life (Kill Rock Stars) is a curious record, which rewards on repeated listens. Very sparsely produced, with just violin, drum and bass for instrumentation, abetted by all three members on vocals, the record has a very post-punk, art rock feel and recalls recent British bands like Gertrude and Witchknot more than any of their Pacific Northwest contemporaries. For me, the standout is the tuneful and cryptic "Oh, Deadly Nightshade", which may or may not reference the 1970s' women's music band of the same name and features some brilliant plucked violin.

It's hard to make out what they are singing about, as the vocals are so far down in the mix, but as queer-identified women of colour, they have lots to say. The lyric sheet comes in handy, but even that is incomplete.

Violinist Osa said: "If I could, I would probably try to write more overtly political lyrics because I feel like it's coming from that place and... I wanna say something meaningful and important and a lot of that, to me, has to do with politics around race and colonisation and sexuality and gender, but I think that those things just come out kind of... as an emotional response rather [than] as direct political lyrics."

Here, dear reader, we break, as first an audience member thanked the band "for your amazing set" and then the guard chased us from the stairwell. Cassia retorted, "Why are you oppressing me?" before, with many guffaws, we moved back to the noisy confines of the bar area. How ironic that in the feminist womb of Ladyfest a male authority figure should hold sway.

Before we parted ways, drummer Adee added her tuppenceworth: "All of us write lyrics and the lyrics I tend to write are about the same thing: decolonising your mind from things and also the connection with the natural world because it's beautiful.... I spent a long time being in spaces where you complain about a lot of things and I definitely... think there are a lot of things that need to be different.

"I think that people can do a lot better but I also think I'm in a space in my life now where I want to celebrate all the amazing people that are in my life and all the amazing women and queer people and people of colour and artists and musicians that I know 'cause I feel really lucky, so I feel like kind of writing about that stuff and not really so much focussing on the people that are messed up in the world."

Currently, New Bloods are on tour throughout Europe.