artswith Music Women channel creative rage


Keyboard Warrior, a visceral fightback against sexist internet trolls by sax punk band GUTTFULL (imagine X-Ray Spex for the Trump years), led by Samoan firebrand Momoe and formed by LOUD WOMEN’s creator (and also an NUJ freelance member) Cassie Fox. LOUD WOMEN promotes


“I can fix my bike up // Do it yourself! // I can make peanut butter/ / Do it yourself! // I can start a punk band // Do it yourself!” – DIY by Dream Nails, The opening track of the LOUD


WOMEN Volume One compilation CD perfectly sums up the ethos of this album: women rolling their sleeves up to get the job done, and having a laugh with their sisters while they’re at it. The CD showcases 20 female


performers – 18 bands, one soloist and one poet. They are part of a growing movement of DIY artists, brought together by the LOUD WOMEN collective. Their aim is to bypass the traditional corporate music labels and bring their music to audiences entirely on their own terms. Genres span pop to rock to indie


to punk and are tied with a common thread of solidarity in struggle. Some highlights include: the hotly tipped Anglo/Scottish rock duo deux furieuses’s two-minute soundscape Out of My System, produced by PJ Harvey’s Rob Ellis; Riot by Lilith Ai, a soulfully urban singer-songwriter gigging to great aplomb across the UK; and


20 | theJournalist


women-led music via news in a monthly e-zine and through gigs and festivals. They have a growing reputation among an eclectic mix of new music geeks, punk scenesters, clubbers and girls-night-outers alike. The events are unashamedly


pro-intersectional feminist patriarchy-smashers, but expect no po faces: Fox raffles off records and chutney between acts, and the bands join the crowd to dance until the wee hours to Taylor Swift and Madonna. These are proper big nights out. Fox says: “Women are leading the


charge in DIY music. New talents on this album, such as Bratakus, Fight Rosa Fight!, Nervous Twitch and the Ethical Debating Society, are brilliant because they are led by women. All that female rage is channelled through guitars and presented with artistry and humour. There is also minimal stage-posing and equipment fetishism … Man bands could learn a thing or two from these women.”


LOUD WOMEN Volume One is available from 18 March, with a launch party at the Sound Lounge, Tooting. You can pre- order the CD from www.loudwomen.org


attitude


by Tim Lezard


“I’m 34, I wanted to have kids by


Theatre Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Harold Pinter Theatre, London 22 February-27 May Imelda Staunton returns to the West End in the late Edward Albee’s masterpiece about a married couple whose fractious domesticity is defined by psychological games and emotional intimidation. After a party at the university where


they both work, middle-aged George and Martha arrive home with a younger couple, Nick and Honey, in tow. Invited by Martha and to the chagrin of George, the two soon find themselves witness to the older couple’s increasingly worrying relationship dynamic. Over three acts, Nick and Honey go from horrified observers to finding themselves in the middle of a war of words, becoming unwitting players in a full-blown marital breakdown, with explosive consequences. http:// whosafraidofvirginiawoolf. co.uk


Comedy Josie Long – Something Better


National tour February and March Comedian and activist Josie Long has written a new show about optimism and hopefulness, about looking for people and things to look up to. “It’s about wanting more from life than it might be up for giving out. It’s about struggling with realising what you are, who you are and what you can’t change about yourself, and about really feeling like an outsider for the first time,” she explains.


now, and be in love, and have a country that didn’t vote with the far right parties to march us all off a cliff. And be able to do all the awesome stuff that activists do that I can’t do, too. I thought we would have won by now. And I wanted to be taller and better looking.” www.josielong.com


Music


Ferocious Dog National tour February, March and April Ferocious Dog are a folk-punk band from Worksop on the verge of breaking into the big time. Already favourites at festivals including Bearded Theory, Tolpuddle Martyrs and Beautiful Days, they have toured with New Model Army, the Wonder Stuff and the Levellers. The band are deeply passionate and political, with songs are reminiscent of those by the Pogues and the Dropkick Murphys. Singer Ken Bonsall


worked as a miner for 30 years and a retained firefighter for 17. Speaking to www. nativemonster.com, he says: “I try to pique


people’s conscience to make them think about politics.” www.ferociousdog.co.uk


Exhibitions


Voices of Experience Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh 10 March-8 April An exhibition of images and audio from photographer Jim Mackintosh that explores our social history by celebrating the lives, experiences and achievements of older people.


Some of the best things to


see and do with a bit of political bite


For listings email: arts@NUJ.org.uk


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