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MsD: You hinted at your support system earlier, and how they were comrades, the
boys at that time. How important was the support of The Clash and The Pistols to
The Slits?
Ari: Well they were important in practical terms, helping us to learn our
instruments but also in just supporting us and not messing with us. We did
survive I think because we did have such a strong support circle around us, of
specifically boys because it was mainly boys around us at that time, I remember
being fourteen and not one of them even tried anything … what I loved about our
support system of guys is there was a window open for women, we were able to do
what we wanted and guys didn’t take offence, but they also didn’t take
advantage. None of the guys were trying to have it with me, come on with me,
none of The Clash, Pistols, none of the other punk groups, that’s what’s so
great about that time. We were able to be all hanging out platonically.
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Music Machine Dec 1978
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AO: It’s funny because people’s perceptions are that everyone was fucking at the
time, but it was a much safer time to be a girl. . Bands, everyone would sleep
in the same bed, but no-one would try anything, you could sleep round anybody’s
flat and not wake up and find someone sticking it in your ear in the middle of
the night. These girls today have a much harder time.
Ari: These girls today have it much, much harder, much more pressure from that
angle. It’s funny, everyone has this image of sex and drugs and rock at the
time, but these were the things we were against actually. Even though sometimes
it did get a bit out of hand with the punk thing and the drug thing but the
philosophy was there that we shouldn’t and most of us kept up to it, most of us
didn’t get caught up with that rock and roll sex and drugs thing..
MsD: We had too much to do ..
Ari: We had too much to do, and even the people you think were the most
irresponsible, like The Sex Pistols, with that name, they were totally nothing
to do with sex. John [Lydon] my stepfather later, he protected me from all that.
He had a weird circle of people around him sometimes. But whenever I was around
he tried to shelter me from it. He had friends who were prostitutes and lesbians
who were quite pushy, but he kept them away from me, he shielded me. He hung out
with some crazy people, he used to go to that big club he used to hang out at,
that lesbian club, do you remember what it was called ...?
MsD: Louise’s …
Ari: Yes! Yes, Louise’s, you know it? I don’t know how I got in, I was only
fourteen. It was such a weird time period, because now you would have to have
your ID but we got in everywhere, I was everywhere, the 100 club, Louise’s, The
Speakeasy which we took over from the hippies …
MsD: Ah, I loved the Speakeasy.
Ari: Yeh, the Speakeasy, it was a good one because it was a turning point. Punks
didn’t really hang out there at first but it was a turning point. You know that
was Chris Spedding’s place, he was my stepfather before John. And my mum was
hanging out at the Speakeasy a lot. And then sometimes John took Nora (my mum)
to Louise’s and one night I ended up for some reason with John somewhere in the
middle of nowhere and his circles of prostitutes and they did a bit of naughty
stuff, but he kept me protected.
AO: People were much more responsible, actually..
Music Machine
Dec 1978
MsD: We were safe in our groups at that time, but in the wider society I
remember it being incredibly dangerous for us, we were spat at walking down the
street, by straight guys …
Ari: Did you know about me being cut? I was stabbed by a regular guy. Just
walking, just walking on the street, looking the way I did! It was some John
Travolta looking guy.
MsD: I didn’t know. That’s terrible.
Ari: It was really terrible, for women especially. If you looked like we did, we
looked 30 years ahead of time, wearing the clothes we did - women until the late
90s didn’t look like that - and our attitude, our mind was so highly energized
from what we were doing, and that was so threatening somehow, to see us walking
down the road.
MsD: It was the straight guys I was most frightened of, they were the most
dangerous ones. Normal, middle-aged white guys picking on girls, on kids. I got
punched really hard.
Ari: Yeh, there were big grown John Travolta looking motherfuckers, who were
pretending they weren’t violent but were walking around carrying all the time
knives and shit, disco kids, mods, sniffing glue guys, pub guys, skinheads -
there were two different kinds of skinhead – NF ones and the others, teddy boys,
normal football hooligans – Oh my god, pub guys!
AO: Normal pub guys! Just coming out of the pubs onto the street…
Ari: The worst! So basically .. you were punched, I was cut, and like you say we
were kids, but the irony is we were attacked like in a witch hunt. It was like
witches. We were walking in the middle ages. Because it was so threatening to
them. Young girls dressed like that, and not caring what they thought. It was
fear, definitely fear. So it was like the middle ages, and they only needed to
put us at the stake and burn us, because that wasn’t actually permitted.
AO: If they could have, they would …and the police wouldn’t have done a thing.
Ari: Oh, the police would have been at the front, lighting the fire. The police
were scary too at that time. They were giving us hell.
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