So last Saturday I tabled and did a zine reading at feminist club night REVOLT in Coventry, and had such a cracking time!
I went with my friends Caitlin and Sarah-Beth (author of Ellipsis zine), and met Lizzy from Marching Stars distro at the venue. Our tables were set up just next to the bar, along with Coventry City Derby Dolls, who were selling zines and merch. It was nice to catch up with everyone, and I met a few new people, including Amy Ismay, author of Her Kind zine, and Ruth Pearce, bassist of punk band ‘Not Right’.
The bands playing were lots of fun! The atmosphere in the live room was lovely too; everyone seemed supportive and enthusiastic. Highlights included:
– Ferocious riot grrrl band ‘Skinny Girl Diet’:
– Noisy punk band ‘Parataxis‘, whose setlist included the songs ‘Everybody Shits’ and ‘David Cameron is a Dick’.
– Queer cabaret group ‘Lashings of Ginger Beer Time‘ – I loved their performance of Adam & The Ant’s ‘Stand and Deliver’ dressed as members of the Tory party (which you can watch online here), but their song ‘Vagina Dentata’, sung to the tune of ‘Hakuna Matata’, was bloody hilarious (“It’s our phallus-free philosophy…“)!
Unfortunately I couldn’t find any pictures taken on the night, though I did take a half-decent one of ‘Not Right‘ performing a song called ‘Tory Scum’ (“when I say tory, you say scum! tory! SCUM! tory! SCUM!”):
Then came the spoken word section, where I performed alongside talented local poets Bethany Norris and Prue Chamberlain. My reading went really well, and despite my nerves I made it through without any mistakes, and without too much shaking! I read a piece called ‘Fuck Shyness’ from Here In My Head. #7, and I had a lot of positive feedback afterwards about the honesty and bravery of my reading. I was so chuffed, thank you all for your lovely comments!
The evening ended with an excellent DJ set by Atta Girl, which included amazing female-fronted music such as Queenadreena, Hole, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Pixies, and Bikini Kill (as an aside, I had no idea how to dance to most of it, especially the heavier stuff like ‘Pretty Like Drugs‘ – I opted for some sexy headbanging, and might have just about got away with it!). Of course, an evening of dancing with Caitlin wouldn’t be complete without a drunken rendition of Azealia Banks’ ‘212‘, and Atta Girl thankfully agreed to play it for us. They closed their set with ‘Ask’ by The Smiths, which they dedicated to me, “shy girl from Swansea”! 🙂
And, I drove to Coventry and back! Thankfully the journey was incident-free, aside from having to go around the odd roundabout a few times before we found the right exit, and Caitlin’s excellent female-fronted hip hop playlist kept us going through the 4 hour journey! Thundering down the M4 screaming the lyrics to Destiny’s Child’s ‘Survivor’ will remain a fond memory of mine for a while. 🙂
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In other news, I will be playing piano and doing a spot of singing in a revue with New Directions Theatrical Society at the end of November! I haven’t really done any musical theatre before (apart from a load of chorus singing when I was in my teens), so it’s fun to give it a go again. I’ll update with more details once they become available.
I also hope to book a solo gig within before the end of November. Watch this space.
That’s so cool! Sounds like an awesome evening! Every time I read about some grrrl event in another country I wish I could have been there and participated in the tabling and performing. I wish someday something like this will take place in my proximity too!
Keep up the great work!
Hey hadass! You should think about organising an event yourself – even if it’s very small, you can start something! We organised Revolt in part because it was the kind of event that we’ve always wanted to go to but have never been able to. I started out putting together really small performance nights though and sort of built up the complexity as I learned more and met more people 🙂
Cath – thanks for all the lovely comments and stuff! xx
[…] have been some pretty cool reviews in the wake of Revolt: you can read a couple of them at Cath Ems’ blog and the Atta Girl […]
[…] 1. Did a zine reading, tabled, and hung out with lots of cool feminists at the club night REVOLT in Coventry. […]