The Slits Music Machine London 8th August 1978 (TFTLTYTD #4)

 

I cannot and do not profess to be an authority on The Slits. What I do know however that it is an opinion universally held that they, as much as any other band associated with the early London punk scene, embodied the true spirit of punk. Nobody looked like The Slits, nobody sounded like The Slits. Ari Up and Co were as brash and as shocking as the Pistols, perhaps more so in conservative 1977 since they were WOMEN! In terms of where women stand in music and beyond that band's contribution to the breaking down of gender barriers is immeasurable, they were game changers.

I never got to see The band when they reformed (along with Hollie Cook, Paul Cook's daughter) but a recording of that bad can be found here.

Also a recording of the BBC Radio 4 documentary 'Reunion' on the women of punk in which Tessa Pollitt and others discuss the influence of The Slits and others is here.

Ari died of breast cancer in October 2010 at the age of just 48. She and her fellow musicians in The Slits were pioneers who changed many people's lives.

Here are The Slits performing at London's Music Machine in Camden on a night when they shared the stage with the inimitable Johnny Moped. Thanks to Dimer Grner1 for the original upload.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-ErtSmkTuhX

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-xNxH5sLgxD

Women of Punk BBC Radio 4 Reunion Programme 16th April 2017

Presenter Sue MacGregor interviews Gina Birch (The Raincoats), Toyah Willcox (Toyah), Gaye Black (The Adverts), Tessa Pollitt (The Slits) and Vivien Goldman (The Flying Lizards) about their lives in punk and the impact they had as leading female lights within a changing music industy.

MP3: https://we.tl/nnesNRCOfB

The Slits Talking Heads, Southampton, 15th October 2009

Still on the subject of The Slits, here's a later incarnation of the band recorded in 2009 in Southampton (many thanks to the original uploader).

FLAC: http://we.tl/KqsEwEGxsN

Artwork: http://we.tl/pJSXfYRE8Y

01. Shoplifting
02. FM
03. New Town
04. Reject
05. Fadeaway
06. Crew War
07. Love und Romance
08. Man Next Door
09. World Of Grownups
10. Cry Baby
11. Typical Girls
12. Vindictive
13. Heard It Through the Grapevine
14. Animal Space
15. Partner From Hell

Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys - Viv Albertine

I never really knew a great deal about The Slits other than they were a band equivalent of a hand grenade that exploded in the first wave of punk and that they were a band that people were genuinely scared of!. I must be one of the few people with an interest in the '77 punk scene who does not own a copy of 'Cut'. But in terms of guitarist Viv Albertine's book that doesn't matter, What 'Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys' offers is a very open and candid view into the inner circle of the London punk scene. Key personalities within punk are seen from a perspective that is very different from their stage personas (especially Mick Jones and Sid Vicious). The ever present threat of violence faced by 'punks' on the streets is vividly described as are the internal pressures of being in a band such as The Slits.

The Slits for the first time played music in an all female band that did not attempt to copy how men played in a band and for that any woman playing in a band is indebted to this band.

Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys