[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_code module_class=”custom-cat” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text module_class=”article-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”||||||||” header_text_align=”center” header_text_color=”#111111″ header_font_size=”68px” custom_margin=”40px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”intro-text” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
From the ill-fated The Flowers Of Romance to The Slits, she defined post-punk before withdrawing into family life.\u201cIf you\u2019ve got nothing to say for 20 years, do something else,\u201d says Viv Albertine, who did just that\u2026<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-main” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”||||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Words: Mark Paytress<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/04\/Placeholder-Image.jpg” title_text=”Placeholder Image” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Mot\u00f6rhead frontman Ian Fraser Kilmister (aka Lemmy), November 2010.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n FIVE YEARS AGO, I SPOKE TO VIV ALBERTINE for a deluxe CD edition of The Slits\u2019 classic debut, Cut. Days later, she was on the phone making it clear that no stray swear words were to find their way into the sleevenote. Given that her muddy boobs were prominently displayed on the cover, and that several songs referenced sex and drugs, it seemed an unusual request.<\/p>\n Today the author of a delightful and remarkably candid memoir, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys, Viv lets it all hang out in a way that might make old Slits fans blush. Masturbation, periods, diarrhoea, failed blowjobs, middle-aged fanny flaps leap from every page. But nothing shocks quite like her conversion to domestic goddess, a role that until recently kept her out of the profanity-strewn world of phlegm and distortion for decades.<\/p>\n \u201cSee the change!\u201d she smiles over coffee at the Hackney Picturehouse, near to where she now lives. \u201cI can\u2019t pretend to be someone else any more.\u201d Taking up the guitar after barely touching it in 25 years, the 21st century Hastings housewife has since traded in both husband and bourgeois comfort zone, released The Vermilion Border, a set of mid-life confessionals, and started swearing again. \u201cI have a filthy sense of humour,\u201d she says, adding that her daughter is now 15 and doesn\u2019t mind one bit.<\/p>\n Though her book is much more than a music memoir, The Slits \u2013 four ferocious girls who took punk rock to unimaginable places \u2013 remain at the heart of it. \u201cI\u2019m incredibly protective of The Slits,\u201d says Viv, a keen, engaging talker elegant in her smart casual attire. \u201cWe were revolutionary, and both the music and the look have both held up.\u201d The group\u2019s eldest member and driving-force, she was also one of the most distinctive guitarists of the era, her signature \u2018mosquito\u2019 sound caught somewhere between Magic Band looniness and measured dubby crispness.<\/p>\n Breaking new ground (and being recognised for it) in the male-dominated rock world didn\u2019t come easy for Viv and The Slits, though her return has brought the band\u2019s trailblazing exploits back into focus. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to put the work in,\u201d she explains, wrapping up our three-hour interview spread across two days. \u201cAnything you want in life you\u2019ve got to put energy into getting it.\u201d It\u2019s a philosophy written all over her work.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Your book begins with an admission that you\u2019ve never masturbated. Were you conscious of echoing the shock of The Slits\u2019 Cut LP cover all over again?<\/strong><\/p>\n I wanted to do that. I\u2019d also read a lot of teenage fiction and it\u2019s so fucking good; you\u2019re either in or out on the first page. A bit of a ploy, I admit.<\/p>\n Was there a moment when the relationship between sex and music came alive for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n Probably Patti Smith. Before then I\u2019d fancied Scott Walker, all dreamy and misty, Donovan, who was like a brother, and Marc Bolan, who was so much like a girl that he was you personified. When Patti Smith came along, she was sexual, and sexual in her music \u2013 the breathing, the chanting, repetition. It was like the sex act and very orgasmic. That\u2019s when I realised that as a girl, a woman, you could \u2018be\u2019 sex and music.<\/p>\n You were born in 1954, prime Beatles fodder, and you write about the powerful impact John Lennon made on you.<\/strong><\/p>\n I did get that sexual buzz from Lennon, but he was the opposite, the boy, the Other. His screams and \u201cYeah! Yeah! Yeah!\u201ds turned me on, but Patti Smith liberated the sexuality within me.<\/p>\n You seized on music \u2013 usually sung by young men \u2013 as a girl. Was that an attempt to fill the void left by your father?<\/strong><\/p>\n It could have been. I certainly had no respect for my father. I don\u2019t know whether if you\u2019re a girl you automatically need men in your life \u2013 or vice versa. All I knew was, he\u2019s an idiot, he\u2019s old-fashioned, he\u2019s mean, he\u2019s violent. Just fuck off, don\u2019t want you in the house.<\/p>\n Conversely, your mum was a broad-minded, nurturing figure who introduced you to The Woodcraft Folk. Wasn\u2019t that Brownies for enlightened people?<\/strong><\/p>\n It was. I grew up in Muswell Hill, which was full of these hip, communisty types, very open- minded. And my mum was a thinker. She wasn\u2019t hip, but she was well-educated because school was harder then. She\u2019s probably the most original thinker I\u2019ve ever met.<\/p>\n And with your younger sister, it was a strongly female household.<\/strong><\/p>\n It was, though we didn\u2019t think of it like that. Mum worked two or three jobs so I could have the boots and the Donovan cap. I was mad about clothes from an early age.<\/p>\n You were that bit older than Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten. Did that make a difference?<\/strong><\/p>\n They were only a couple of years younger than me, but they denied their past, as I admit I did. Growing up in Finsbury Park, as John did, was different to growing up in Muswell Hill. I was surrounded by a softer, more intellectual thing than he probably was. I hung out with friends in Hampstead and Highgate. Woodcraft was hippyish, all Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, amazing change-the-world stuff. The Beatles and Stones changed from record to record, like they were constantly trying to expand their minds. I still expect that of music.<\/p>\n At 15, when you saw the Stones at Hyde Park in \u201869, did you look around and think: These are my people?<\/strong><\/p>\n Definitely. It felt a bit like Woodstock, the longhairs congregating together, as if we all knew something. And it was right in middle of London and so loud! We took that for granted that there\u2019d be massive concerts and that they\u2019d be free. Perhaps the idea of everyone being equal was sown then\u2026<\/p>\n Did that idealism die after Hendrix and Joplin joined Jones in the 27 club?<\/strong><\/p>\n I didn\u2019t see it like that. It was just part of the whole decadence, them pushing it to extremes. I was soon at art school, working at Dingwalls, hearing great DJs playing Bob Marley or Northern soul, meeting interesting people. I didn\u2019t have that \u2018It\u2019s all gone to shit\u2019 feeling. Only when the other thing erupted could I put that into perspective.<\/p>\n Your first gig was the Edgar Broughton Band, you bought Island compilations like Nice Enough To Eat. Did you have a smell under your nose about glam and plastic pop?<\/strong><\/p>\n Plastic pop? I think that\u2019s more authentic, because they were writing good catchy pop songs, which is one of the only things white boys do well\u2026 in all spheres of life! I probably did get into a King Crimson song and a Yes song. There was a bunch of us who could like Bowie and at the same time like the Third Ear Band.<\/p>\n Did women musicians interest you?<\/strong><\/p>\n There were so few. Melanie stood out. She was odd, sang about odd things like roller skates and freeing the world, and not as po-faced as Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon. They were extraordinary women, but as an ordinary girl from a London council estate, I couldn\u2019t think I can be that. Sandie Shaw [from the mid-\u201960s] was the other one. Everyone said she was just a receptionist from Dagenham with an ordinary voice, yet was groundbreaking with her bare feet, ordinary top and skirt and swinging hair.<\/p>\n Did you really learn more about the visual arts from Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood\u2019s King\u2019s Road shop, SEX, than you did at Hornsey Art College?<\/strong><\/p>\n I did learn a lot from art school! It was the first time I felt I was amongst people like me. They were all so smart, better educated, better family backgrounds. It was cool to be working class there, but you had to be fucking clever; there was no point being working class and thick! I literally learned how to look there \u2013 John Berger\u2019s book Ways Of Seeing was massive at the time. One day, a prestigious painter came in, made us tear up our stuff and throw it into a river. Hornsey was brilliant. It opened my mind.<\/p>\n And SEX?<\/strong><\/p>\n It was Vivienne Westwood. That was the first time I\u2019d met a working-class woman who spoke in this northern accent but was so liberated, so open-minded. She didn\u2019t have to say it, she just lived it: Do what the fuck you want, when you want. She\u2019s had a huge influence on Britain, especially galvanising women and girls into doing stuff. It was the way she sewed her stuff, things inside out, showing labels and seams. We made the connection and made music like that. And her relationship with Malcolm wasn\u2019t sentimental or demonstrative, and that was fascinating to me \u2013 I\u2019d only had teenage type affairs that were all about snogging in public.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n When you saw the Pistols at Chelsea School Of Art [December 5, 1975], was the impact instant, or did it take time to sink in?<\/strong><\/p>\n Instant. Even before they came on I got a vibe. There weren\u2019t many people there. There was none of this, They\u2019re rubbish, isn\u2019t this fun! Not for one minute did it cross my mind that they\u2019re shit and can\u2019t play. They were like guerrillas, freedom fighter\u2026 utter recognition. It was John, really. He transcended every singer I\u2019d ever seen.<\/p>\n In 1976, you inherited \u00a3200 and bought a Les Paul Jr. These were still the days of cock rock, of girl bands like Fanny and The Runaways still buying into that.<\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t think of the guitar like that. Those guys who played it on porches saw it as an instrument to express yourself with. When you\u2019re behind the wheels of a car, you\u2019re as strong as every other fucker out there, and picking up a guitar was a bit like that. I had a big stack that I bought off Steve Jones, I could make a filthy loud noise, and it was hugely liberating.<\/p>\n A great mythology surrounds your first band, Flowers Of Romance with Sid Vicious. Was it a serious band?<\/strong><\/p>\n We were very serious. That moment where Sid said, \u201cI\u2019ll be in a band with you\u201d, was a huge leap because never before had boys and girls been in a band together. OK, Sly & The Family Stone, and the folkies did it a bit, but girls were usually the singers. Immediately, it made [The Clash and Sex Pistols] look old-fashioned.<\/p>\n Except it didn\u2019t get far\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n If only we\u2019d got to record or play a gig. But it was too horrible to tape. I can\u2019t even remember if there were song structures. Sid had scraps of lyrics about Belsen and S&M and I was like, How can I write anything to this? It was a great idea, but no one could be in a band with Sid, really.<\/p>\n You were dating Mick Jones, a romantic who was utterly committed to making it with The Clash, and mates with Sid, who didn\u2019t seem to care about anything. Polar opposites?<\/strong><\/p>\n I learned from [Jah] Wobble afterwards that Sid always wanted to be famous so there were parallels. It\u2019s just that he put on a different persona to Mick. He turned up to every rehearsal, was always on time. He wanted to do it badly.<\/p>\n Did you sense Sid\u2019s seeds of self-destruction?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, he had a nihilistic streak, which I don\u2019t know if he was putting on or not. It was all a bit \u201cWho the fuck cares about anything, anyway\u201d. I wasn\u2019t surprised that he died the way he did.<\/p>\n Did Rotten and McLaren share some of that nihilism?<\/strong><\/p>\n No, they didn\u2019t have the self-destructive element at all. They were questioning, intelligent, furious about the rules that were being put on them. They just wanted it to fall apart, fuck it all up.<\/p>\n Your book is remarkably candid, right down to that failed blowjob with Rotten. Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s in because it\u2019s stayed with me all my life! It was a big deal to me that I was useless at it, and that I felt humiliated, but I also thought it was interesting as a counterbalance to how sex is today. I wanted to show how things like blowjobs weren\u2019t around then. Girls still have the right to say no. I confessed to the page thinking I could take it out later, but once I got it down, I couldn\u2019t take it away!<\/p>\n Despite thinking that all-girl groups were gimmicky, you called The Slits the morning after seeing them at the Coliseum, Harlesden in March 1977.<\/strong><\/p>\n I thought they were great and Ari [Up, singer] was unbelievable, like nothing I\u2019d ever seen. She was an equal to James Brown, Johnny Rotten, Tina Turner, anyone. And Palmolive\u2019s drumming was so intense. It was, Fucking hell, I wanna be in that gang! And I knew boys would be thinking the same.<\/p>\n How conscious were you of being an all-girl band?<\/strong><\/p>\n I forgot about it. Annie Nightingale once asked, \u201cWhat\u2019s the difference between you and The Three Degrees?\u201d That\u2019s like asking John Rotten what\u2019s the difference between him and Smokey Robinson! We weren\u2019t tolerant of that and that\u2019s why we got a name for being difficult.<\/p>\n With punk, gigs became war zones. How did you cope with that?<\/strong><\/p>\n The White Riot tour was a bit Bash Street Kids \u2013 hair sticking up, fisticuffs, fights in the corridors. And once we played, we\u2019d pile out into the audience and dance to the next band. No one had ever seen a band do that before. Thank God, we were a gang! Palmolive was a good fighter. Ari was scared of nothing. Tessa [Pollitt, bass] was strong. I was the girliest of the lot but very feisty. People would pull Ari off the stage, and we\u2019d stop and make them bleed. In the \u201970s you could crack someone\u2019s skull open and not get arrested.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Did you feel out of sorts with all the play-fighting?<\/strong><\/p>\n Completely. The girls would all go mad and play like puppies, and I\u2019m not that sort of person so I felt awkward. But most people feel awkward in bands one way or another. It wasn\u2019t the end of the world.<\/p>\n How did you start writing with The Slits?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019d made up this good riff [So Tough], and played it to Sid who suggested I play a bit of it twice, which made it an even better riff. I took it to a rehearsal, Ari loved the riff and they liked my words, which had come out of a conversation I\u2019d had with John about Sid. We clicked; it was like a ball rolling downhill.<\/p>\n When did The Slits develop a female musical consciousness, particularly in terms of rhythm?<\/strong><\/p>\n Immediately. The four of us constantly questioned everything. Each note had to be as exciting as the one before it and no clich\u00e9s. We were almost telepathic about what we could hear in our heads, but in terms of technical ability, it was about 18 months before we were able to play it. That\u2019s why we kept refusing record deals \u2013 we weren\u2019t ready. We wanted to be on Island, because we rated that stable of artists, and we wanted to make a classic album. And we did. We were the first post-punk band.<\/p>\n A key element was your light\u2019n\u2019skippy guitar sound. How did you hit on that?<\/strong><\/p>\n I thought, Is this big distorted sound really me or just the old, oppressive patriarchal way that guitars sound?<\/p>\n How did mentor Keith Levene help?<\/strong><\/p>\n He didn\u2019t teach me chords or anything, but we\u2019d talk about playing, he showed me what not to play and gave me confidence. He\u2019d say, \u201cI wish I was so free that I could make a sound like a mosquito like you. Please don\u2019t ever lose that.\u201d<\/p>\n The Slits\u2019 second session for John Peel, broadcast in May 1978, was as shocking in its originality as Captain Beefheart\u2019s Trout Mask Replica. Two songs [So Tough, Instant Hit] are yours, yet not a mention of this post-punk moment in the book.<\/strong><\/p>\n I didn\u2019t wanna toot my own trumpet! But I did bring that consciousness to the band. Captain Beefheart lived out in the sticks with his own people around him, and felt free to create authentically and honestly. We felt free because of the environment, because we were kicking against everything, because it didn\u2019t matter what you did.<\/p>\n And then Palmolive, your brilliantly unorthodox drummer whose Frequent Mutilation was another Peel highlight, was gone. That didn\u2019t seem to make sense at all.<\/strong><\/p>\n She was extraordinary. But Palmolive met Tymon Dogg and grew away from The Slits. I think spiritually she felt we weren\u2019t the same or the right place for her to be. It wasn\u2019t a matter of her being chucked out, it was a matter of her losing enthusiasm, and us \u2013 me \u2013 feeling like we needed the commitment. That was that era over.<\/p>\n Stripping down and rebuilding the entire set for Cut was a huge risk.<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, we found Budgie, who was a fantastic drummer and so unegotistical, who could play what was in Ari\u2019s head. She was amazing with rhythm, she\u2019d break down hi-hat patterns, he\u2019d add his bit and we soared again. I\u2019m glad we captured those moments of fierce energy on the Peel sessions, but we\u2019d matured. We were open to all these new influences, especially dub, and rejected that pantomime idea of going out playing the same tracks in the same way. We weren\u2019t into people pleasing.<\/p>\n How important was Dennis Bovell in creating Cut?<\/strong><\/p>\n He was brilliant. But rhythm was his thing so he was determined it was gonna be in time. That was painful for me and Tessa, but by the end of it, we were 100 times better musicians.<\/p>\n Dennis once told me Ari\u2019s musicality was as extraordinary as her energy\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Music was Ari\u2019s only outlet from stopping her going mad. She\u2019d sat down at the piano at 12 or 13 and learned her grades, but finding a band she could express herself through, that was freedom for her. And her energy level was overwhelming. It wasn\u2019t normal.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve described her as vampiric\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Phew, yeah! She\u2019s very young, from Germany, a natural mimic, and was desperately trying to find who she was amongst this scene of people who were eight or nine years older than her. If you\u2019re 15 and hanging out with a 21-year-old, why wouldn\u2019t you look at them all the time and learn from them? But she didn\u2019t realise how insecure I was. It was like All About Eve, very painful and limiting for me to be watched like that all the time.<\/p>\n Did you have a moment of doubt about the Cut cover?<\/strong><\/p>\n Not at all. We knew we had to adopt a strong stance for it to work, so we made sure we had the right look, defiant, aggressive and covered in mud. We felt like outsiders, very tribal, and didn\u2019t think it looked sexy at all. We thought it summed us up. I was never comfortable with The Slits name, though.<\/p>\n The five-star reviews for Cut saw off that old \u2018They can\u2019t play\u2019 jibe. But was it disappointing not to take the world by storm?<\/strong><\/p>\n It was successful in chart terms [Number 30, October 1979], but what it didn\u2019t do was build like it has now, to be recognised as a classic album. We expected that to happen quicker. [single] Typical Girls had charted and we had big audiences when we toured. We knew we weren\u2019t Top Of The Pops material.<\/p>\n Why didn\u2019t it build?<\/strong><\/p>\n When Thatcher came in, the whole environment changed around music. I don\u2019t know why Island dropped us, very weird. But if you\u2019re radical, you\u2019re always gonna be sidelined. We didn\u2019t intend the band to last forever. Punk wasn\u2019t about that anyway, though I wouldn\u2019t normally use the word \u2018punk\u2019 about myself. It was about moving on, and don\u2019t be sentimental or labour anything.<\/p>\n It was a pity the 1981 CBS LP [Return Of The Giant Slits] fell through the cracks because it was unlike anything else, a WOMAD-style record before WOMAD even existed.<\/strong><\/p>\n I love that album. It\u2019s completely underrated, much better and even more timeless than Cut. Dub again was a big influence, but by now we\u2019d dub anything, not just reggae rhythms. We used to travel with our own mixer \u2013 sometimes manager Dick O\u2019Dell, sometimes Adrian Sherwood \u2013 who\u2019d know the songs back to front and dub us up live. That was exciting. It used to get very atmospheric, though I could live without the war paint now.<\/p>\n You can hear how good the band got on 1980\u2019s unofficial Typical Girls live LP.<\/strong><\/p>\n We were so broke that we bootlegged ourselves! Yeah, we were very relaxed with our playing then. It was brilliant.<\/p>\n The Slits split in January 1982. In the book you write: \u201cI failed.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I thought I\u2019d failed. The complete loss of identity was huge, and something I\u2019d cared so passionately about had gone overnight. That was difficult \u2013 but necessary. It had come to its natural end.<\/p>\n Ari told me she was grief-stricken by the split. You called the meeting?<\/strong><\/p>\n Me and Tessa had just had enough. Ari was becoming impossible. She was also pregnant, making it even more difficult. And musically I felt it had run its course. It was the right time. I didn\u2019t think Ari was particularly grief-stricken.<\/p>\n You couldn\u2019t listen to music again for years\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Music was so painful. I couldn\u2019t be in a cafe, couldn\u2019t hear music on the radio, or play a record. It was like hearing the voice of the lover you couldn\u2019t have. I couldn\u2019t imagine being so passionate about anything ever again.<\/p>\n You studied film at Goldsmiths, then began a career in film and TV. Did that fill the gap?<\/strong><\/p>\n No, it stretched my mind. It\u2019s not like writing a song, then going out and playing it to people. Film\u2019s a big slow old machine but it was incredibly stimulating.<\/p>\n Along the way, you filmed Big Black and Butthole Surfers. Impressed?<\/strong><\/p>\n Just more guys standing with their legs apart making a big noise. I didn\u2019t think they were life- changing, not after what we\u2019d been through.<\/p>\n In 1995, you marry and become what you call \u201cthe dull Hastings housewife\u201d. Was there a perverse pleasure in that?<\/strong><\/p>\n There was! It had been exhausting fighting the fight, being spat on, all the put-downs. So to work hard, earn some money and be able to buy some new clothes, then to meet someone and have a home, this safe haven, I wanted it with all my heart. But there was a lot of resentment. It had never occurred to me that having a family was anything but a dreadful life sentence. And when I tried to conceive and couldn\u2019t because I\u2019d probably left it too late, I felt furious with society for not balancing the \u2018earn your own money\u2019 women\u2019s lib thing with the fact that if you find something you\u2019re compatible with and have children, then that\u2019s great as well.<\/p>\n Was there a tipping-point that brought you back to music?<\/strong><\/p>\n Not one moment of epiphany, just years of rumblings like running, getting my health back, going back to art school in Hastings and beginning to express myself again. In doing that, you shine a light on stuff that\u2019s going wrong \u2013 like my marriage. Vincent Gallo wrote me a letter and buoyed me up artistically. I had no idea I was gonna do anything except sit in my kitchen, learn to play guitar and write these songs that I had to get out of myself. I had no goal beyond that, certainly not making an album and writing a book.<\/p>\n Is that what makes both so powerful?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah. I can\u2019t do it unless I\u2019ve got something to say. If you\u2019ve got nothing to say for 20 years, do something else.<\/p>\n You performed with the new Slits twice. How was that?<\/strong><\/p>\n They were a real party band, different to the original Slits, who were edgy and pushing boundaries. And it was revolutionary to see women of a certain age on-stage making music. But when I played with them, it was half old Slits songs and half new stuff, which I didn\u2019t feel any kinship to. I was already writing my own songs, and I thought I\u2019d rather be on my own at an open mike playing to 10 people, singing something that means the world to me.<\/p>\n It must be difficult to accept that Ari, of all people, is no longer around.<\/strong><\/p>\n I still can\u2019t believe it. Ari loved music so much. She\u2019d love to still be doing this, loved to have seen The Slits\u2019 place in history being acknowledged. She was such a force of nature, and a baby, the youngest of the whole scene.<\/p>\n So, what has your search been about?<\/strong><\/p>\n Being happy was never my aim. It\u2019s all about finding things to stretch my mind, to excite me. So I\u2019d look to places where there\u2019s passion, creativity and humanity. So in writing the book, I had to be honest otherwise I\u2019m not gonna touch people. That\u2019s what The Slits did.<\/p>\n You\u2019re sentimental, too. You have this fantasy affair with Vincent Gallo and The Carpenters\u2019 Close To You! Perhaps love and music work best as revolutions in the head?<\/strong><\/p>\n Except those love songs aren\u2019t a revolution; they keep you down, like bundles of sweets with poison inside, I\u2019ve been utterly brainwashed. I don\u2019t know if I can undo that conditioning. All those love songs are a curse. When I hear them, I think, Please don\u2019t let that keep going into girls\u2019 heads.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Viv Albertine\u2019s Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys is published by Faber & Faber and avilable to buy now.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_button button_url=”https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Clothes-Clothes-Music-Music-Boys\/dp\/0571328288\/?tag=mojotag-21″ button_text=”Buy Now” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_button][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Interviews: <\/strong>Stevie Chick Images:\u00a0<\/strong>Getty<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" XXXXXXX<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-mojo-interview"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"kschwarz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1243"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1260,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243\/revisions\/1260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}“I didn’t have that \u2018It’s all gone to shit\u2019 feeling. Only when the other thing erupted could I put that into perspective.”<\/h2>\n
“They were questioning, intelligent and furious about the rules that were being put on them. They just wanted it to fall apart, fuck it all up.”<\/h2>\n
“Being happy was never my aim. It\u2019s all about finding things to stretch my mind, to excite me.”<\/h2>\n