Women In Punk - Groupies

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'You were at school and you were pimply and no-one wanted to know you', Eric Clapton explained. 'You get into a group and there are thousands of chicks there...little girls screaming....Man its power !"

"If You ask any rock musician he'll tell you he got into the music primarily to get laid" Pamela De Barres

'Girls come around and pose like starlets, teasing and act haughty. If you humiliate them a bit they tend to come on all right after that.' Jimmy Page. Led Zeppelin

'I think a tour makes it easy on a chick. She doesn't have to put the make on anyone. She's there to say yes." Renee from ' Cocksuckers Blues' unreleased film about the Rolling Stones 1972 American tour.

Rock 'n' roll. How else do you explain why women fall for this man ?

Rock 'n' roll has always been about shagging with more metaphors for the act than stars in the sky and since Elvis was filmed from the waist upwards its been mans world where along with fame and riches comes access to the a plentiful supply of obedient women no matter how ugly you are which would explain Gene Simmons and Stiv Bators luck with the girls !!!! Yep rock'n'roll gave birth to the nameless fan or socialite, the groupie, which has clouded women's roll in music. Women in rock to put it bluntly has been more to do with with rock stars in women and as a service industry.


	The early days of boy meets girls slowly progressed thru the sixties to those excesses of the stadium dross. The sixties were the time of the status wife or girlfriend which corresponded with its efforts to get serious. The worst of these had to be Marianne Faithful who probably set any woman's movement back 10 years. The looks of an angel but portrayed as a whore submissive and a victim she was the butterfly broken on a wheel. Fucked by Roy Orbison, she really fancied Keith but had Brian Jones and ended up with Mick. The false mars bar cunnilingus story has now become folk legend. In her autobiography she portrays herself as helpless but she had no backbone allowing herself to be used till eventually she became a heroin addict and completely absolved herself from responsibility for her life for a good few years while always blaming others . Meanwhile other artists like Brian Ferry and again Mick wanted the trophy wife, the beautiful model, like Jerry Hall.

As rock music got more pretentious it became more aware of its money making capabilities and with that its power. Turning rock stars into Caligula's with huge entourages that needed servicing. Who was the biggest baddest and best. To grease the wheels of record execs and radio stations what better than a constant supply of easy women and drugs at parties. Why do women when they see a person on a stage go 'Fuck me Rockstar' ?????? and how they degraded themselves. Sexual favours to a variety of a bands entourage even before they got to the band. Bored bands having seen it all began to invent new kinks...its the same old story drugs becoming boring take more...sex boring new thrills. As ever Elvis lead the way. By the time he died he allegedly got his licks watching very young girls with tight white panties fondling each other and so it goes on. It was the seventies that really defined groupies. Hey girls can't play but they can service bands. And service they did from Cherry Vanilla to Suzie Creamcheese. The whole scene is graphically portrayed in the real life film from 1972 about the Stones American Tour 'Cocksucker Blues' which hasn't seen the light of day and which features various women with various parts of the Stones entourage in their mouths. Not to be outdone in the decadence stakes Queen hired heaven knows how many naked girls to ride around some stadium for their fat bottomed girls record.

In the Mid eighties bands like Motley Crue were selecting from women stripped naked outside who could ride on the tour bus and Poison had a database of compliant women they could call on on their tour bus. Comical bands like Ratt were found to have socks stuffed down their pants to make themselves look bigger. and in the nineties Courtney Love attached herself to Curt Cobain in repetition of Sid & Nancy only this time the wrong person bought it.

Ringo Star - record company presentation

Queen - Fat Bottom Girls promotion party

The Who - Opening night party on tour

Jordan & Johnny Rotten

Did punk change things ? Depends how you look at it. Sex goes with the territory but at least punk introduced women as artists rather than providers. However old habits die hard Observe Nancy Spungeon, experienced groupie who Aerosmith wanted to set fire to, attaching herself to Sid Vicious. Paula Yates attaching herself to Geldof and riding his publicity wave to her own fame and later jumping Michael Hutchings fame and later tragic death.

Sid & Nancy

Sex is a powerful magnet for both performers and fans. Dreams and desires are projected onto performers and as teens our hormones are shamelessly tweaked. I don't know if things will ever change. There's more women in rock but what drives them to play ?? And here's a fundamental difference. Women don't get into music to get laid. Could you see a man going up to Britney Spears backstage and offering to go down on her and her saying yes ??? There's still the stigma of women sleeping with different partners. Men can do it and its cool but for women they're sluts etc. I love L7 and think them the best thing that happened for women in rock. Auctioning their drummer off for sex, showing their cunt on live tv, throwing their tampons into the Reading crowd. All power to the girls. Shake things up a little. Madonna played the game just like a man. She was used, then used men to get what she wanted why not.

What are girls supposed to do after the show. Go home to the hotel room and chill out. No wonder Janis Joplin hit the bottle and trawled the bars for young men. It must have been so lonely.

Rock'n'roll.... what a f***ing laugh !