Female Punk Bands

 

A few days ago there was a documentary on television about the first women to perform as all-female bands. Essentially, it was about the hardships they had to go through to make it in the music business. Punk was the big thing at the end of the seventies and anyone could try their hand at music. Bands were springing up from all corners and achieving great things. The number of women involved can be counted on one hand. 

What they all had in common was that they brought a different perspective to their music, also in terms of aesthetics. I can't imagine many songs by these bands with male musicians.

The first to be mentioned are probably The Slits, who got together in the environment of The Clash. Dominated by Viv Albertine and the young Ariane Forster, they were among the first to integrate reggae and world music into their sound. 

Inspired by a Slits concert, Ana da Silva and Gina Birch also decided to form a female band. With The Raincoates, they also found their own style, which was largely orientated towards punk, but was able to set new accents with a violin reminiscent of the Velvet Underground.

One exception was X-Ray Spex, who had an outstanding female frontwoman in Poly Styrine, but whose other musicians were male. Identity has everything that made the band special: Roughness, emotion and a saxophone that was unusual for the time.

These bands contributed to the formation of women's bands on the continent. One of them was Kleenex from Switzerland, who had to change their name to LiLiPUT due to trademark problems. 

A German counterpart to Poly Styrene was Annette Benjamin from Hans-A-Plast, who made their sound unmistakable, but also featured musicians of both genders.