Top five girl bands through the ages
There's no denying it, all-girl bands get a bad rap. I'm not talking about female vocal groups - for want of a better term to distinguish between girls singing in harmony and women wielding instruments - but bonafide bands. It's not a common sight, is it?
"Addicted To Love" is partly to blame - that unmentionable Robert Palmer video where clueless models stare vacantly ahead as they wiggle along to the beat, confused by the wooden thing on a strap they find hanging round their necks. In my line of work I have come across a few stage directors who want to recreate that look for pop shows. "Guys, I've got a great idea - let's get a bunch of girls in to be the backing band, it'll be soooo "Addicted To Love" - brilliant!" Ick.
Read on after the jump - I'm just getting started and there are videos to watch!
If a girl gets on stage to play a rock instrument, you can guarantee at least some of the boys in the audience will stand right in front of her, head cocked to one side and arms crossed, staring right at the fretboard to see what she's playing. It's happened to me loads of times - sometimes I wonder if people are staring to check if I'm playing at all! Similarly, when a band full of girls come on, however impressive they are there will always be some guy who walks over afterwards, opens with something like "That was great...but" and proceeds to list all the things the band need to do to improve. Fan girls, cheated of a hot male bassist/guitarist/drummer to fancy, often give the evil eye or ignore you completely. Yes, some of the people who attend rock shows are strange.
But I digress. For my last Dollymix feature I wanted to share with you some of the great all-female bands from the 60's to today, along with a cool video from each. It's all kinds of Friday fun - enjoy!
1960's
Originally performing as The Sandoval Sisters, LA siblings Diane, Rosemary, Margaret and Sylvia were snapped up by Capitol Records in 1965 and renamed The Girls. They wrote and performed their own tunes, got sponsored by Fender and even flew out to entertain US troops in Vietnam.
Unfortunately none of their many TV appearances seem to have made their way to You Tube, and the one website I could find with more information on the group didn't have any working song clips, so we're just going to have to use our imaginations.
1970's
Though they started out with a series of male drummers, these postpunkers formed in London in 1977 and turned all-girl a year later, when core duo Ana da Silva and Gina Birch were joined by drummer Palmolive of The Slits (another great band of the time) and Vicky Aspinall on violin.
Their music inspired many bands, but their biggest fan of all was Kurt Cobain, who wrote about meeting Birch in the sleeve notes to "Insecticide" and invited them to support Nirvana on tour in April 1994. Sadly he died a week before they were due to leave.
Check out Gina Birch and Ana da Silva on MySpace.
1980's
A seven piece band formed in London out of the remnants of 2 Tone revival band The Bodysnatchers, The Belle Stars enjoyed four top 40 hits of playground chanty goodness before most of the members left in 1984. The band continued as a trio until 1986.
Warning: this video contains great amounts of silliness and a tune that will burrow its way in to your brain.
1990's
Sleater Kinney formed in the riot grrl scene of Olympia, 1994 out of the ashes of Heavens To Betsy, Excuse 17 and Quasi. Quickly gaining fans with their raw, catchy indie tunes they went more mainstream over time and ended up scoring support slots with Pearl Jam in the nineties. The unusual setup of drums and two guitars (no bass) added to the draw of the band, and they left fans bereft when they disbanded in 2006 after excellent seventh album "The Woods".
2000's
Formed in 1998 but releasing music between 2000 and 2007, when they went on 'indefinite hiatus', this Brighton based band released four albums (two recorded with the legendary Steve Albini), toured the world and opened up for Arcade Fire on several occasions. Their intense instrumental arrangements and sparse intellectual lyrics garnered critical acclaim from many quarters, and they're sadly missed by their fans.
Who else should have been on the list? And who's ready to take over?
Image courtesy of warriorgrrl's Flickr stream.
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