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What a cracking
interview this is with Beki. Done by email in February 2007 and
returned promptly with some cracking answers and some honest answers.
If you haven't hear their latest CD 'Defiant' then you should. There's
some track on their MySpace so give them a whirl and make you own mind
up. Thanks to Stu their manager for sorting the interview. |
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Vice Squad were signed to a major label and were reasonably successful
when you left. Why did you leave and what did you learn from the
experience that you took when forming another band? How much were you
contributing to the band when you left?
There were many reasons, one being the manager (who later joined the
band as lead guitarist when I left) driving me past a slaughter house
so he could wave at his mates working inside. I was in effect paying his
wages and just because I was a girl and younger than him didn't give him
the right to mock my principles. He'd already started involving himself
in the musical side of the band and when I heard the demos they were
obviously trying to be Rock as opposed to Punk, so it amuses me that one
of the old band member's favourite insults is that the new line-up
sounds 'metal' !!! |
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contributing the lyrics at the time but I think that incarnation of
Vice Squad had probably gone as far as it could by then. I was always
the outsider as we were all very young and it was a bit of a Boy's
club, so it was inevitable that I would leave. At the time the
management were more concerned about me keeping them on as managers
than they were about me leaving the band, I wanted to break from them
so that didn't go down very well. I was very, very naive and basically
gave away my EMI advance. I would say in retrospect I was virtually
clueless about human nature and ended up with nothing from years of
being gobbed on, but I suppose it must have made me stronger in
the end as I'm still here and I never gave up music no matter how hard
things got. |
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Its fair to say that you were strong personality within these bands when
woman were still a rarity in bands. You were strong in attitude and
opinions and also strong in image and sexuality. With the name Beki
Bondage and the some of the things you did photo wise did you ever get
frustrated that it got in the way of any serious message you were trying
to convey. Or was it a case of accept me for what I am?
I think it's hilarious that people thought me sexy because of how I
dressed, I always looked a crusty mess !!! I'd like to point out that in
my so-called topless pictures I had my arms folded across by chest so it
was hardly risqué. The truth is music is the sexiest thing on Earth, so
if you are associated with it you are deemed a lot more attractive than
you really are. Also, if you stand for something people who agree with
you will find you an attractive personality, so I don't think what I
looked like got in the way of any message I was trying to convey.
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Photo - Mick Mercer
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As a woman in the music biz then how hard was it for you? Has things
changed for women in music now?
It was very hard, we had to rough it in vans and I came in for quite a
lot of abuse from those who didn't agree with my Animal rights views,
and I made it harder for myself by taking drugs and drinking too much.
And of course there was still pressure on me to keep up my image and
even looking that rough took some time and effort !!!!
I don't think things have really changed for women.
If you look
glamorous, get your bits out, look like you're up for it and do as
you're told you have an easy ride. Whereas if you have talent and love
music you'll survive but it will be a far harder ride for you. But music
is worth it, as is being an inspiration to other women (and men). |
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Ligotage and the Bombshells. Failed experiments that occurred round the
time of the glam/metal period in London. How do you look back at those
days and what you were trying to do with these bands. Why didn’t they
work?
I'd agree with your estimation of the first band (but not entirely as
the Crime and Passion EP was good) but not the latter !!! Bombshells
kept me in music and enabled me to earn a ( very small ) living from
music, and introduced me to the joys of transit van ownership, humping
huge amounts of gear and making an unholy racket three times a week.
Bombshells also gave me a very powerful voice. Some of the people we had
in the Bombshells were far more anarchic characters than those in the
original V.S, and some of them have stayed in music. Although it was
hard much of the time, some of my best memories are from the Bombshells'
era. |
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Ligotage didn't work because I wanted the band to like me rather than
telling them what I wanted from them musically. Bombshells didn't work
because people kept leaving the band as it was such hard work and so
badly paid. Also the music press/industry were dead set against the
Bombshells, because I'd been in Vice Squad, which was a shame as far
lesser bands were signed at the time. If you're an artiste you're
expected to stay in your box, whereas journos and music papers feel it's
ok for them to chop and change, i.e. to write about punk, then glam
metal, then indie, then back to punk again when they feel it may sell a
few copies of their magazine. Of course they have to in order to earn a
crust, but for some reason they think musicians and bands should just
disappear and give up what they love doing, i.e. making music. A
well-known journalist back then told me that Bombshells would have got
favourable press etc had we taken out big ads in magazines, but of
course we couldn't as we had no money. |
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Obviously Vice squad continued with Lia before splitting up however in
the late 1990’s you reformed Vice Squad. Who did the name Vice Squad
belong to and why bring back Vice Squad? How did the newer Vice Squad
hook up with SOS Records in the USA?
I originally thought of the name Vice Squad (and also the name Riot
City Records) and I took legal advice about what rights I had to use
it. I actually own the name.
All sorts of people kept asking me to play the old songs and the general
consensus of opinion among the punks I knew was that I should use the
name again. There are several reasons why it was impractical to reform
with the original members, the main one being that they'd all quit
playing music and had settled down to marriage, kids and day jobs. My
years of toil in music taught me that you have to be 100% committed to a
band to make it work and to be fair the Bombshell line-up had at the
time played every toilet in England with me so deserved a crack at
bigger venues under the V.S name. Initially we were just going to do
enough gigs to fix the transit, because without the transit we couldn't
gig and without gigs I didn't eat.
To cut a long story short we played in Slovenjia and I fell in love with
it all again because the kids out there were so into it. Also I had a
lot to say lyrically, my life as a singer has not been easy and I've
never mellowed, in fact I've become more angry at society in general !
Ezzat from SOS emailed us and asked if we wanted to do an album and I
passed it on to our manager Stu. It turned out he wanted to work with us
since we did a gig for him in LA back in 2001. Then we made 'Defiant'
and licensed it to them and Stu is now the SOS A&R rep in the UK and has
signed several other bands to the label. |
Interview Part
2
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