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1)
What was the first music you got into and who were your musical heroes ??
Ah
YES!
The
sounds of the womb
childhood
A
cup of tea with Shanne Bradley
ken dodd's 'Happiness'
my first record or was it 'mother goose' read by boris karloff and others,
that still scares me todayDoris
day 'Move over darlin'?
a
memory playing moose piano music it
was the 60's we lived in Ware in a new house surrounded by other new houses built
in 1960 For
all my mothers wild parties, the house was emptied all the
furniture went on the lawn, i made a bed in the cardboard boxes on the
sofa, it rained. she had a huge gramophone player stacked with singles that
automatically dropped down, mega bass that filled your bones and ricochetted
around the yellow hessian walls
70's
loved slade and then in about 73 or 4 saw david bowie and the spiders
from mars at harlow playhouse(still have the ticket stub for that one!) i
was converted -mick ronson (sadly deceased) is still a guitar hero of mine -
i was completely thrilled to meet him once as a prospective producer
during the 80's when i played in the men they couldn't hang..he had the most
erotic handshake! if
you listen to some recordings from that 'spiders' time he sounds so
'punk' So
I went to every rock gig i could get into and loved it, saw all kinds bands the
faces,thin lizzy.hawkwind, Elton,Devo,E.LP., pink Floyd , the who. lou reed.
and one night i went to see status quo at imperial college london and
who was the support band? the new york dolls. so noo york flashy,loud n'
trashy in 3 minutes they'd emptied the hall of long haired science
stiudents billy
Doll (drummer)died the next day
and
then....
2)
How did you get into punk and why ??
IT
HAPPENED!
SYNCHRONICITY!
i
happened to be at st albans school of art age 16- 18 doing a
foundation course and guess what the sex pistols gate crashed
an
event, they were so bad i thought it was a kind of ironic take on the 60's and
enjoyed it.. we danced and mucked around just
happened to be wearing an old ladies salmon pink corset from oxfam ,holster
with 2 guns, ripped tights,outsize ice skating boots and just happened
to have bright oranget home butchered hair due to a henna/peroxide
chemical reaction .was
chatted up by johnny he made me laugh with his hairy mohair jumper from sex,
was told i should meet jordan and visit the shop was given the managers
number and after that went to most of their gigs , even booked a couple more
at st albans, malcolm and vivian's talk at the i.c.a. i remember,
friends, phone calls and then theres all the rest. theres so much.....personal
stuff, dissatisfaction with everything, art
3)
You were in at the start of punk when it was very small. In retrospect it
seems very cliquey with the Bromley Contingent and seditionaries crowd
and the fans ?? Was this so ?? What did you make of people like
Jordan, Siouxsie and Sue Catwoman having profiles as big as the bands
??
Sometimes
after gigs i used to stay with malcolm's friend helen who is a dwarf
artist in bell street she used to wear outrageous outfits tell
outrageous stories show me unfinished porrtaits and prepare clear
cabbage soup.she had such alot to do with the beginnings of it all the
malcolm maclaren scene having been at goldsmiths art school with him
and in a close relationship, i read a book she gave me concerning gentlemen
well it had gentlemen in the title..it was about unemployed youth and
the beginnings of street youth culture/rebellion teddyboys/ skins etc
Helen
should have more of a profile about her thoughts and activities.at least
some women have profiles the
so called Punk sceneit was cliquey sometimes but i didnt get involved with
that bollocks.times were exciting and there seemed to be so many
earnestly crazed people to meet, Jordan was always very humourous and
nice to me. i see sue catwoman from time to time she was at the screen on the
green last year for the filth and the fury which i think is a very good film it
gives a very accurate description of the sex pistols and englands
dreaming also there is a classic piece of footage dug up of myself and
shane singing anarchy for the
u.k. in a towerblock on the west way.NNote: he gets a name check i do not- marcia farquhar (artist )made a
comment to julian temple about this outside the cinema -women are often the
footnote to men ,so as far as i am concerned women with profiles brilliant!
the
punkwoman fatale profiles are all part of todaze mythology about those
times.but i dont think these women have profiles as large as the sex
pistols...ha ha
4)How
important was fashion to punk ??? How important was Mclaren and his shop
?? What were your favourite clothes at the time ?? How did the general
public react to you ??
fashion
or anti fashion was essential to punks identity..infact i went to st martins
art school to study antifashion after malcolm maclaren showing me round
sex.only lasted a term should have done fine art but institutions seemed
like dinosaurs
5))
How did you become a musician and why the bass ?? Why do women seem to
choose the bass ???
i
got chucked outa art school due to the fact i was always going to gigs or
spending all my time living it
the
bass had 4 strings and the guy across the hall from me had a
ramones album to learn with. i had tried to play hawkwind's space
ritual and the alice cooper song book on spanish guitar when
about 16 years old
I
love the bass! because i am Earth mother!! maybe we could get into some
earth roots rock mama stuff here--feel the force!
6)Punk
threw up a lot of women musicians like yourself ..what did you make of bands
like Siouxsie and The Slits ?? Do you think you were treated as equals
or a novelty ??? Do you think anything changed for women musicians thru punk
??
i
remember throwing up on the pavement outside the Roxy. a friendly welsh guy
in a spikey dog collar crawled down on his hands and knees to
lap it up and it was thick and lumpy..did i feel sick?
there
wernt that many female musicians around..it was tough i felt i had to be
able to play harder and faster than a bloke to be accepted, taken seriously,
it aint funny when ya have a couple of skineads gobbing atcha for target
practise in an empty hall in farnham,surrey and
the long haired sound man smirking one bloke
even cut off the guitar strings to stop me from playing, that was when
i was first learning i
enjoyed all the bands it seemed like there were new ones with familiar
faces every night. My favourite female was Polly Styrene i
used to go see x-ray spex at the worlds end, chelsea everytime .The others mostly
seemed too catty and aloof for me.like 6th form prefects with safe
carefully styled/coloured salon hair and fetish fashion items .Nico
was cooler! my favourite piece of chelsea girls(a dual screen warhol film i
saw at the i.c.a. around that time) is her trimming her long
blonde fringe with scissors ..it lasts for hours D.I.Y. Great! polly
styrene had humour,irony, songs, made her own fabulous plastic tack,
wore a german helmet and a brace on her teeth actually
i used to run into chrissy Hynde alot back then(she was a model at
st martins) i remember trying to dye her hair red instead of washing the
chemicals out she just left it in ..how hard is that? .she
recorded her first demo in ray burns (later captain sensible) living
room he played drums on cardboard boxes no actually for those
songs she had fred and dave berk (from johnnie moped) on bass and
drums I remember singing the chorus for 'precious' with ray, a great
song i thought and screamimg.My first recording..Chrissie just had IT
whatever IT is she had and still has IT! chrissie
used to sing with the mopeds i particularly remember a gig at the roxy with
stripey breton sailors tops and a pirate hats sometimes i would get up to
sing backing on 'hardlovin man' all because of those sessions in rays
parents living room in croydon o
yes! later she nicked the nipple erectors drummer gerry maccleduff for the
pretenders after she saw him at a gig we did. he played on 'stop your
sobbing' .yes some women musicians definitely got richer but not that many.
it gave more women a voice and the freedom to relax abit ,wear big boots if
they feel like it and stop having to be 'the nice girl from next door '.
7))
Did you audition or were you invited to join any other bands ???
I
have never auditioned for a band always preferring to start em from scratch
usually with beginnerds
8)
How did you come to join the Nipple Erectors and who thought up that
name !!! Obviously a name like that would kinda hinder your chances of
airplay !!! Did the shortening down to the Nips help at all ? !!! The Nips
didn't really play your standard punk fare. How did it end up sort of
rockabilly and how did this go down with audiences ?? Worst gigs ...best
gigs ???
I
auditioned shane in my bedsit, he was iggy pop rolling and writhing around
the floor totally manic.i thought yes this is our man a
few years previously on t.v. i had seen Jobriath an american answer to
david bowie . i think his head popped out of a segmented clear
plastic globe ,very space age.i had a dream about a band- my dream band- who
would look very futuristic wearing skintight rubber body suits covered in
nipples..i shall go no further,well the name came from there i
thought shortening the name to the nips was a cop out. we hung out (!) at
rock on records listening to all kinds of old music we
even used to dice with death and go visit the electric ballroom, camden
on ted's night to watch old rock n'roll veterans( a bit like the punk
vets nowadays..) there was alot of agro between punks and teds..we mixed up
the music.and then it all went a bit mod like and even poppy.. we
had a loyal following which included bananarama and guns for hire a
fictitious band with their own badges later to become department s
one
of my favourite gigs was at the music machine -with the jam ..i think..-i
took some of my mums old frilly nylon nighties and
dressed up the band .shane had a pair of giant frilly knickers on like a
baby, myself?i was 8 months pregnant and wore a large black sheet a
yashmak .at the time we had jon moss drumming he was too embarrassed to come
out for the encore! one
of the worst gigs was also at the music machine with dexys midnight runners,
our guitarist gavin douglas failed to show up for the gig he had been
arrested on the tube with no ticket and no money to buy one
a
previous guitarist larry hendrix was pissed as a fart on pernod and
blackcurrants he only knew a very old set we no longer knew so he
stood in.
9)
Mr Shane was an interesting character. How did you come to meet him and what
did you first make of him ?? He seems a world apart from Siouxsie and
people like that and its quite sad the state he is in now
I
met him at the royal college of art .I saw him across the bar..( an omen)and
thought whose that mad bastard on a mission those ears!..or a jam gig at
ronnie scotts 1976 i believe..i had just travelled up from croydon with a
new red minature toy bass that fred berk(johnnie moped bass player) had
given me.he and ray burns explained the 'bassicks' so to speak and i
enjoyed my first bass lesson -all the the the damned bass lines- on the top
deck of the tedious 68 bus journey back into london. we went to
ronnie scotts to see a very early jam gig they had been giving out
flyers at rock on records in soho market that afternoon.the
Jam, very young,skinny and spotty in restrictive looking dark suits.I
couldn't quite get it at the time .the music was very nostalgic i
thought .later they were brilliant. ray thought it would be a great
idea for me to pose around the club playing, then bruce foxton
broke his bass so i lent him my new toy
i
still have a photo from that night. Me, ray, shane, claudio a.k.a. chaotic
bass , adrian thrills and harry the sniffing glue photographer.well maybe he
took it.Shane
isn't sad so no one else oughta be i saw him this week in Eire playing a
couple of gigs he was in great form and we enjoyed the crack!
10)
As 76 turned into 77 and 78 how did you see punk changing ie the
personalities, the groups, the fans ??
Bleat
! bleat! grew my hair back n went all naturelle for a while and but
realised if ya cant beat em theres fuck all else goin on so may as
well join em the daily mirror look alikes..alot of the individuality and
initial excitement also humour disappeared and the sex pistols got snooty!
everyone
turned into a laddish clash type clone fan or even band all the original
creativity had gone just listen to the music .it
all looked violent
11)
Looking back what was your best experience or the thing you enjoyed most
during the punk years
12) Conversley what was the worst
THE BEST? i enjoyed so many happy times with my leetle punk chums..ah yes!
I
always enjoyed the gigs the energy- live energy! the feeling that all
things seemed possible ,self expression, a living artwork/sculpture /a
statement,/ antifashion , anti whatever it took, create a
different approach break away from the expected, things can change!
anyone
can pick up an instrument
sometimes
a blunt one and make a racket, not just a macho rock god with a triple
album, be 'someone' be who ya like,stand out from the crowd..well in
the end everyone in the crowd became uniform, looked the bloody same used
the same signs became anovver yoof cult etc....another labelled
sanitised product another category etc blah.
13)
Both you and Shane were photographed a lot at places like the Roxy... what
do you remember of the place , atmosphere the bands etc.
There
were no other -places like the early roxy..it was wild, full of spontenaiety, full of all sorts most of the audience were in bands or wished
they were.stars were falling out of the ceiling yes it was tatty with
plenty of mirrors. it was the first place i heard dub music too yes i
can remember something about the Roxy
infact
i knew andy czowski from the damned days i having spontaneously booked
their 2nd gig ( st albans art school) the day after i saw the 1st at the 100
club.( malcolm pulled the pistols out at the last minute due to poor
attendance at their last st albans appearance- a student had just died
of meningitus her friends were at the wake) so i remember how excited andy
and sue (who used to give me free make up samples) were at the
prospect of their own club ,shane and i helped build the stage on the
first night with generation x such a nice bunch of boys! when andy
left the club changed
14)
Both of you were obviously Pistols and Clash fans ?? What was it that these
two bands had that made you attracted to them ?? What other bands did you
like and who did you think were crap ??
I
am/was a sex pistols fan, the clash never quite reached the parts that that
the pistolas music and ambience entourage did..the sex pistols had the je ne
sais pas and the humour the clash did not..for me anyway
i
always felt vaguely suspicious of the clash maybe because i saw joe strummer
shivering and sweating all over in the 101ers the
clash,definitely a lads band thru and thru , those stage poses,and judging
by the 4th generation punk lads from portsmouth i met
did
like the first album with keith levine very much
15)
When did you think sod punk I'm moving on and why ?? Talking to other people
involved in the early punk scene like Marco Pirroni they seemed almost
resentful when punk became more popular . Did you find this ??
I
never was a punk the name didn't exist i was an art student I got
kicked out I played bass and then i was on the dole and then hey! lets get
labelled P-U-N-K- sod PUNK..thats when it all stopped moving on ..when it
got labelled
yes
i used to know marco when he had a quiff -another very friendly guy of
italian descent .- as for 'the scene' it twas an intimate affair that became
public...and
i am so resentful...bastards taking our scene away from us blah blah
16)
How did the Nipple Erectors end and what did you do afterwards ?
the
n.erectors never had a stable line up it was always me n him plus a variety
of guitarist and even more drummers
who
would leave or disappear dramatically so there were plentyof break -ups
..in 1981 i decided to try and mix up my music, i was in love
with cretan/ greek music.soo bored with 'rock' , we tried out a fiddle
player. and a standup drummer (john hasler -madness-the man i was with
at the time shane wanted to go more irish and i didnt want to join in
mainly because at the tender age of 19 shanes dad had intimidated me for
many hours with Dubliners records in their smart tunbridge Wells living
room.though one of the first songs we
ever did in the nips was 'poor paddy works on the railway' I
decided to concentrate on my baby daughter Sigrid, finding somewhere to live
, that type of thing for a while.. joined
up with cush and swill to form the men They could'nt hang later
played with wreckless eric and a cast of millions
17)
What do you think of the resurgence of interest in punk ?
O
yes.. a friend of mine Barnet late 30's runs a punk club in soho ,last
week he said to me punk!. well you were tooo old to be a punk wernt you?!
18)
Lastly what are you up to now.
dreaming
castles in the sky o tell me why
last
year at the infamous central st martins school of art studying
writing an obituary
trying
to edit a film about a family trip to castles in estonia and sweden playing
bass with Darryl Hunt (ex Pogues bass player) for his solo project 'BISH' apparently
hypnotic.. sounding like a cross between the velvet underground and the
byrds looking
after my other daughter Eucalypta 8
19)
Anything you want to add ?????
scooby
scooby doo where are you?
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