Tessa Pollitt, The Slits

This week has been all about women in music. After Wednesday’s L7 documentary and Thursday’s Lady Maisery gig, I had two further fascinating films to see today.

This afternoon, I headed to FACT to watch another film in this year’s excellent ‘Doc ‘n’ Roll’ festival.

‘Play Your Gender’ https://youtube.com/watch?v=dH-Kjt8g9ow is a Canadian documentary, directed by Stephanie Clattenburg and produced and presented by award-winning musician and producer Kinnie Starr. The film addresses the lack of women in the music business - not just as performers but, crucially, as producers, sound engineers, A&R people, publicists, road crew, label owners etc - across all musical genres. Highly recommended! Afterwards, there was a panel discussion featuring local music journalist Cath Bore, drummer Sophie Thompson (of Liverpool band Pale Rider, whom Goatee will remember seeing in action on his most recent visit to Liverpool) and record shop owner Yvonne Page of Dig Vinyl on Bold Street. Great stuff!

Tonight, I was at the British Music Experience for a screening of a brilliant new documentary about The Slits - ‘Here to be Heard’ https://youtube.com/watch?v=XqsHv5V4DQA

Having met Slits guitarist Viv Albertine 4 years ago, when her superb memoir ‘Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys’ was published, I was delighted to have the opportunity to meet the band’s bassist, Tessa Pollitt, tonight. Tessa was an Executive Producer for the film and she’s clearly passionate about ensuring that the band’s achievements and influence are properly recognised, so I was pleased to be able to tell her how important they were to me and how much of an influence they’ve been in my life.

She’s just as much of a punk as ever - not in terms of her musical interests (she’s always been a massive reggae fan and admitted tonight that she never really liked punk music “Except for Subway Sect and Buzzcocks”) - but in her spirit, attitude and refusal to conform. With the ‘Play Your Gender’ film still fresh in my mind, I was particularly struck by her comment that sometimes women musicians try too hard to “play and posture in clichéd male ways, like The Runaways, rather than playing like women, like The Slits did”. I think she’s right about that and I think that playing “like women” was what gave The Slits so much of their power. I loved her!

I also had a chat with the film’s American Director, Bill Badgley - mostly about the differences between UK and US film poster size and design!

Incidentally, Viv Albertine’s second memoir, ‘To Throw Away Unopened’ is out this coming Thursday and has been getting excellent reviews. I’ll certainly be investing in a copy!

Here are The Slits with ‘So Tough’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg6FKSZGrsY