LOUD WOMEN Fest – September 2016, London
Vodun, Louise Distras, Dream Nails, DOLLS, The Franklys, The Wimmins Institute, Lips Choir, The Ethical Debating Society, Desperate Journalist Grace Petrie, Foxcunt, Argonaut, Janine Booth, Fight Rosa Fight, Petrol Girls, Rantipoles, Spanking Machine, Maddy Carty, Madame So, Nia Wynn, Fightmilk, Viva Zapata! Greenness, Lilith Ai, Rabies Babies… Some of the most hotly-tipped, women-led punk, rock, and alt pop bands of now appear at Britain’s biggest, female powered music festival this Autumn.
The first LOUD WOMEN Fest happens on Saturday 3rd September 2016, 12.30pm-1am across two rooms of T.Chances (venue/community space) 399 High Road, London N17 6QN. https://t-chances.com/ Be there!
Tickets are only £8 advance via We Got Tickets or £10 on the door.
It's a wheelchair accessible, all ages event (please be advised, things get louder after 7pm) Rail Travel; Underground; Seven Sisters, overground; Tottenham Hale (but no wombling free! Bus Routes: 41,123, 230, W4, 341, N41 and N73.
Say it proud.
I'm a woman,
and I'm loud.
Loud Women is a positive inspiration at a time of negative desperation.
Loud Women Fest is set to be one of 2016’s key antidotes to The Summer Of Hate.
One of the festivals that keeps Britain GREAT.
LOUD WOMEN is a DIY collective that champions women in music by hosting live events that are fun, friendly, and frickin awesome. All profits from Loud Women Fest will go to the artists, with any additional funds to charities that help women. It couldn't have come at a more vital time.
If 2012 was a landmark, golden year for Britain, then the highs and lows chaos of 2016 is equally one for ideas and talents to make a mark in. With diversity in the DNA of TheZineUK family, this is SO much the vibe of uniqulture (unique = equal). There are some of our favourite live treats appearing – like Vodun, described by Mojo Magazine as being "Like Aretha fronting Royal Blood” - 'Mawu' video, above, and many more to discover/love.
Since catching seminal gigs by musical heroines of DIY like deux furieuses (who played for Loud Women this month) and She Makes War at the fab Clit Rock events - #EndFGM #CelebrateTheFeminine - a few years ago, plus staging ArtBeat events ourselves, it is ace to see the explosion in grrrl powered, new-future-making events and promoters of all genres and generations. Women in the entertainment industry currently also have a mainstream enforced "sell by date". Throwing main stream stagnation aside, the co-collaborative nature of women is a true force of super nature speeding up the more organic (i.e. slow) development of skint, DIY ventures, in the “Austerity” age.
A supergroup of femme power; deux furieuses, Dana Jade, Kat Five of Feral Five at Clit Rock 8, Spring 2016.
Our wonderful photographer (and a key documentarian of newer wave’s underground stars), Keira Cullinane, turned us onto DOLLS, another of the rocking attractions appearing at Loud Women Fest. It was love at first listen and even more so, catching them live this Spring (with ferociously cool fellow fest stars, The Ethical Debating Society) at the same venue where Skinny Girl Diet and Youth Man’s first London show had also thrilled a few years earlier. After their show this Spring (DOLLS pictured below), Tegan of T.E.D.S. suggested we’d love Loud Women, and she was not wrong.
You might as well follow Loud Women on social media - FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM and TWITTER and join the mailing list (which launched in February 2016 with 1,000 subscribers!) because this is all just the start of something. Besides, anybody who purveys All Ages gigs is the bees knees in our eyes. As Tegan Christmas of The Ethical Debating Society points out; LOUD WOMEN are the “Best shows in London for grrrl fronted guitar action! Inclusive, friendly and inspiring.”
It inspires myself and many more. As part of the Decolonisation Festival organisation by the DIY Diaspora Punx of Colour collective (not all of 2016 is #SoWhite), it was interesting to note, at the inaugural meeting in July, that most of the steering committee attendees (there, courtesy of Stef from Big Joanie) were female. This, and the friendliness, was an addition to the excitement. Especially for somebody clumsy, awkward and a bit shy by nature. I made new friends and found myself back at DIY Space For London a week later for the All Ages launch party brilliance of The Tuts, who will release their debut album, 'Update Your Brain' in September.
One of the multiple stage invasions at The Tuts 'Let Go Of The Past' single/video launch party.
This is the great thing about equality. It's OK to know that there is no such thing as "Normal". In February, one of the main things I took from being on the panel of #WomenInMusic Day, was that we, as females, should make ourselves visible. There have been at least a dozen new live music nights, and multiple music festivals across the country that are women-led, starting this year. It's all happening. Following the lack of female musicians at Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2015, there is a new, women-only stage at Glastonbury Festival this year and gal-dem magazine recently held their Bridging The Gap female focused event. Feminism and Equality flavour DIY, the 21st Century's Punk movement.
Last summer, while Reading /Leeds were short of bands with female members, our front cover features Amy of Nova Twins and Claudia of Cat Bear Tree from our DIY New Music Expo - images by Polly of Polstar Photography.
Having become the ex united kingdom this summer, as lies divided the population, ready for us to be conquered (yeah, right) it's good to know that there are other ways we can come together.
A SheForShe / HeForShe attitude is just one.
LOUD WOMEN Promotions, led by Cassie Fox of The Wimmins’ Institute and Thee Faction, is part of this new movement and has already showcased around fifty women-led acts in London since October 2015. In Cassie’s own words; “I looked at the list of gigs – hundreds of them – all starring men with guitars, male DJs, male organisers, and I thought I’d try putting on a women-led live music night. The response has been overwhelming! Female musicians are constantly faced with sexism – from the male promoters who auto-matically put you bottom of the bill as a ‘warm-up’ act for the man bands, the ‘proper music’; to the sound guys who mansplain how to operate your own equipment. I know one all-girl band who use a ficticious male ‘manager’ for email correspondence with venues, because ‘he’ tends to get a better response for bookings. It’s this sort of sexism that LOUD WOMEN seeks to wipe out, so we can just get on with the rocking.”
I totally hear that. As a female promoter/PR talked to, on more than one occasion like a fucking slow brained pet or talked about, like I'm invisible, this really hits home. What LOUD WOMEN has achieved in less than a year has worked spectacularly. Packed audiences of all genders, have helped to raise thousands of pounds for women’s charities. Loud Women Fest is set to be one heck of a celebration.
“New women-led bands are being set up in reaction to the austerity cuts, which dis-proportionally effect women. It’s nothing new, either the issues – which is why we need to be loud – or a politically motivated scene, led by women, but it’s definitely a fresh approach. It started with Riot Grrrl, a movement, not a musical genre, and events such as LaDIYfest. Last time a movement like Loud Women came along, it was largely a peer group of the same age-range and gender and everyone was at the stage of: what do I think? Why do I think that? Now husbands and boyfriends don’t call staying at home with the family “babysitting”. Now we embrace multiple feminisms, for the same one cause." (music journalist and Melody Maker illumni; Ngaire Ruth)
Jenn Hart, from the new punk band, Viva La Zapata, who will be appearing on 3rd September, said: “There’s anger in the air and it’s being expressed through music. High-profile DIY bands like Pussy Riot have also inspired a new wave of women to learn instruments and play together.”
Nataional media are noticing. Bob Oram wrote in The Morning Star Newspaper that "Loud Women will undoubtedly be the beacon for all the best new female talent in 2016". We say, hear hear! Brilliantly organised and presented in every attention to detail (including no slot clashes at Loud Women Fest, bright and attractive artwork, socially inclusive events for if you can’t persuade somebody to come with you to a show – all these things count). Dear everybody involved in Loud Women Fest - on stage, on the dance floor, in spirit... More power to all your elbows! Back to page top/ticket etc links.
(video: the ethical debating society 'creosote ideas')
words and photos by Caffy St Luce