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The Slits - Wikipedia

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1Career

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1.11976–1982

1.22005–2010

2Personnel

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2.1Members

2.2Lineups

2.3Timeline

3Discography

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3.1Studio albums

3.2Compilation albums

3.3Singles and EPs

4Documentary

5In popular culture

6References

7External links

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The Slits

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

British post-punk band

"Slits" redirects here. For other uses, see Slit (disambiguation).

The SlitsA reformed lineup of the Slits performs in 2007Background informationOriginLondon, EnglandGenresPunk rock, post-punk, dub, experimental rockYears active1976–1982, 2005–2010LabelsIsland, Y, CBS, NarnackPast membersAri UpPalmoliveSuzy GutsyKate KorusTessa PollittViv AlbertineBudgieBruce SmithHollie CookMichelle HillNOAnna SchulteAdele WilsonNeneh CherryLittle Anna

The Slits were a punk rock band based in London, formed there in 1976 by members of the groups the Flowers of Romance and the Castrators. The group's early line-up consisted of Ari Up (Ariane Forster) and Palmolive (a.k.a. Paloma Romero, who played briefly with Spizzenergi and later left to join the Raincoats), with Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollitt replacing founding members Kate Korus and Suzy Gutsy.[1] Their 1979 debut album, Cut, has been called one of the defining releases of the post-punk era.[2]

Career[edit]

1976–1982[edit]

The Slits formed in 1976 when Ari Up went to a Patti Smith gig. After having an argument with her mother, Ari was approached by Palmolive and Kate Korris with the offer to form a band. The next day they had their first rehearsal.

The group supported the Clash[3] on their 1977 White Riot tour along with Buzzcocks, the Jam, the Prefects and Subway Sect.[citation needed] Club performances of the Slits during this period are included in The Punk Rock Movie (1978). In November 1978, the Slits toured with the Clash again on the "Sort it Out Tour" and were joined by the Innocents who opened the shows.[4] Joe Strummer said the group would be "great" with intense gigging.[5]

Palmolive left the band in 1978 and debuted with The Raincoats on 4 January 1979.[6] She was replaced by the drummer Budgie (Peter Clarke), formerly of the Spitfire Boys and later of Siouxsie and the Banshees.[1] With the change of drummer came a change of musical style. The Slits' originally raw, raucous and drum-dominated live sound, as captured on two Peel Sessions in 1977 and 1978, was cleaned up and polished to a more bass-orientated sound with the Budgie line up, and their new style drew heavily from reggae, dub and world music.

Ari Up playing with the Slits at the Beat the Blues Festival, Alexandra Palace, 15 June 1980

Their Dennis Bovell-produced debut album Cut was released in September 1979 on Island Records, with Neneh Cherry joining as additional backing vocalist.[1] The album's sleeve art depicted the band naked, except for mud and loincloths.[1] It is often claimed that Palmolive left partly because she did not like the album artwork,[7] including by Palmolive herself,[8] but Viv Albertine has stated that Palmolive had been asked to leave the band several months previously,[9] and she does not appear on the record.

The Slits' sound and attitude became increasingly experimental and avant-garde during the early 1980s, when they formed an alliance with Bristol post-punk band the Pop Group, sharing drummer Bruce Smith and releasing a joint single, "In the Beginning There Was Rhythm / Where There's a Will..." (Y Records). This was followed by an untitled compilation album of mostly homemade demos and live performances from before the release of Cut. The band toured widely and released their second studio album, Return of the Giant Slits, before breaking up in early 1982.[1][7] Ari Up went on to be part of the New Age Steppers.[1]

2005–2010[edit]

Ari Up and Tessa Pollitt reformed the band with new members in 2005, as Viv Albertine was unwilling to rejoin, and in 2006 released the EP Revenge of the Killer Slits.[3] The EP featured former Sex Pistols member Paul Cook and former Adam and the Ants members Chris Constantinou and Marco Pirroni as both musicians and co-producers.[10] Cook's daughter Hollie played with the band, singing and playing keyboards. Other members of the reformed band were No (of the Home Office) on guitar, German drummer Anna Schulte, and Adele Wilson on guitar.[11]

The band toured the United States for the first time in twenty-five years during 2006's 'States of Mind' tour, and followed this with tours of Australia and Japan, as well as opening for Sonic Youth at New York's McCarren Park Pool.[12] Adele Wilson and No left the band, to be replaced by American guitarist Michelle Hill. A biography – Typical Girls? The Story of the Slits by Zoë Street Howe was published in the UK by Omnibus Press in July 2009,[13] and the band's third full-length album entitled Trapped Animal was released three months later.[14]

Founding member Ari Up died in Los Angeles in October 2010 at the age of 48.[15] The band's final work, the video for the song "Lazy Slam" from Trapped Animal, was released posthumously according to Ari Up's wishes.[16] A final song, the unreleased 1981 recording "Coulda Woulda Shoulda", was due to be released in early 2011.[17]

Personnel[edit]

Members[edit]

Ari Up – vocals (1976–1982, 2005–2010; died 2010)

Palmolive – drums (1976–1978)

Suzy Gutsy – bass guitar (1976)

Kate Korus – guitar (1976–1977)

Tessa Pollitt – bass guitar (1976–1982, 2005–2010)

Viv Albertine – guitar (1977–1982)

Budgie – drums (1978–1980)

Bruce Smith – drums (1980–1982)

Neneh Cherry – backing vocals (1981)[18][19]

Hollie Cook – backing vocals (2005–2010)

Michelle Hill – guitar (2005–2010)

NO – guitar, backing vocals (2005–2010)

Anna Schulte – drums (2005–2010)

Adele Wilson – guitar (2005–2010)

Little Anna – melodica (2007–2009)

Lineups[edit]

1976

1976–1978

1978–1980

1980–1982

Ari Up – vocals

Kate Korus – guitar

Suzy Gutsy – bass guitar

Palmolive – drums

Ari Up – vocals

Viv Albertine – guitar

Tessa Pollitt – bass guitar

Palmolive – drums

Ari Up – vocals

Viv Albertine – guitar

Tessa Pollitt – bass guitar

Budgie – drums

Ari Up – vocals

Viv Albertine – guitar

Tessa Pollitt – bass guitar

Bruce Smith – drums

1982–2005

2005–2010

Disbanded

Ari Up – vocals

Hollie Cook – backing vocals

NO – guitar, backing vocals

Adele Wilson – guitar

Michelle Hill – guitar

Tessa Pollitt – bass guitar

Anna Schulte – drums

Anna Ozawa – melodica, keyboard

Timeline[edit]

Discography[edit]

Studio albums[edit]

Cut (Island (UK) / Antilles (US), September 1979) – UK No. 30[20]

Return of the Giant Slits (CBS, October 1981)

Trapped Animal (Narnack, 2009)

Compilation albums[edit]

The Slits/Bootleg Retrospective/Untitled (Y Records, May 1980)

Double Peel Sessions (Strange Fruit, November 1988)

In the Beginning (Jungle, 1997)[1]

Live at the Gibus Club (Castle Music / Sanctuary, February 2005 – recorded January 1978)[1][21]

Singles and EPs[edit]

"Typical Girls" / "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (Island (UK) / Antilles (US), September 1979, also issued as a 12-inch EP with additional alternate versions) UK No. 60[20]

"In the Beginning There Was Rhythm" (Y, March 1980, split single with the Pop Group)

"Man Next Door" / "Man Next Door (version)" (Y, June 1980)

"Animal Space" / "Animal Spacier" (Human (UK), 1981, also issued as a 12-inch EP on Human (USA) with different tracks)

"Earthbeat" / "Earthdub" / "Begin Again, Rhythm" (CBS, August 1981 (UK), December 1981 (US), 7 inch single with the first 2 tracks, and 12 inch EP with 3 tracks)[1]

"American Radio Interview (Winter 1980)" / "Face Dub" (CBS, October 1981, bonus record included with Return of the Giant Slits album, side one plays at 33 rpm)

The Peel Sessions (Strange Fruit, February 1987)

Revenge of the Killer Slits (2006)[1] 7"/CD Maxi single (Only Lovers Left Alive/EXO)

Documentary[edit]

In 2018 a documentary film was released, Here To Be Heard: The Story of The Slits.[22]

In popular culture[edit]

The band’s name appears in the lyrics of the Le Tigre song "Hot Topic."[23]

References[edit]

^ a b c d e f g h i j Strong, Martin C. (2000). The Great Rock Discography (5th ed.). Edinburgh: Mojo Books. pp. 894/895. ISBN 1-84195-017-3.

^ Dougan, John. "The Slits: Cut" at AllMusic. Retrieved 5 October 2011.

^ a b "Biography by John Dougan". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 23 April 2009.

^ [1][dead link]

^ Coon, Caroline (1977). 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion. London: Hawthorn. ISBN 0-8015-6129-9. OCLC 79262599. Archived from the original on 26 October 2007. Retrieved 19 September 2011.

^ Ian Penman: The Raincoats Dresden Banks Vincent Units Acklam Hall. In: New Musical Express 27 January 1979, page 43.

^ a b Roberts, David (1998). Guinness Rockopedia (1st ed.). London: Guinness Publishing Ltd. p. 397. ISBN 0-85112-072-5.

^ "The Pilgrimage of Palmolive - Tom Tom Magazine". Tomtommag.com. 25 February 2014. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2016.

^ Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys; Viv Albertine; Faber & Faber 2014, p. 205

^ "The Slits – Revenge Of The Killer Slits". Discogs. Retrieved 13 July 2023.

^ Mervis, Scott (20 March 2008). "Music Preview: The Slits are back with a Pistols daughter". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

^ Slits Set for U.S. Summer Tour Archived 13 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine Pitchfork Media, 6 July 2007.

^ Zoe Street Howe (2009). Typical Girls: The Story of the Slits. Omnibus Press. pp. all. ISBN 978-1-84772-780-0.

^ Ross, Dalton (29 June 2009). "The Slits: lady-punk legends to return with first full-length since 1981 Entertainment Weekly 29 June 2009". Music-mix.ew.com. Archived from the original on 1 July 2009. Retrieved 21 February 2012.

^ Moynihan, Colin (22 October 2010). "Ari Up, a Founder of the Slits Punk Band, Dies at 48". The New York Times. p. A33. Archived from the original on 21 September 2011.

^ "Ari Up R.I.P. (1962–2010)d". narnackrecords.com. 21 October 2010. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2009.

^ "Original Slits Lineup to Release Cassette of "Last Ever Song" | Exclaim!". exclaim.ca. Retrieved 21 February 2022.

^ "A Beginner's Guide to Neneh Cherry's Essential Songs". Electronicbeats.net. 12 November 2015.

^ "The Slits - In Conclusion". Punk77.co.uk.

^ a b Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 508. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.

^ Unterberger, Richie. "album overview – accessed April 2009". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 21 February 2012.

^ Bradshaw, Peter (23 March 2018). "Here to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits review – rise of the punk pranksters". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 October 2022.

^ Oler, Tammy (31 October 2019). "57 Champions of Queer Feminism, All Name-Dropped in One Impossibly Catchy Song". Slate Magazine.

External links[edit]

Girls Unconditional: The story of the Slits, told exclusively by the Slits at loadandquiet.com

The Slits, article by Rina Gribovsky

Interview with Tessa Pollit at 3 AM Magazine

Interview with Ari Up at Supersweet

Media related to The Slits at Wikimedia Commons

vteThe Slits

Ari Up

Palmolive

Suzy Gutsy

Kate Korus

Tessa Pollitt

Viv Albertine

Budgie

Bruce Smith

Hollie Cook

Michelle Hill

Anna Schulte

Adele Wilson

Albums

Cut (1979)

The Slits/Bootleg Retrospective/Untitled (1980)

Return of the Giant Slits (1981)

Trapped Animal (2009)

Singles"In the Beginning There Was Rhythm / Where There's a Will..." (split single with The Pop Group)

Authority control databases International

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VIAF

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Germany

United States

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MusicBrainz

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Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Slits&oldid=1212858092"

Categories: English post-punk music groupsEnglish punk rock groupsMusical groups from LondonEnglish reggae rock groupsIsland Records artistsMusical groups established in 1976Musical groups disestablished in 1982Musical groups reestablished in 2005Musical groups disestablished in 2010Underground punk scene in the United KingdomProto-riot grrrl bandsHidden categories: Pages using the EasyTimeline extensionAll articles with dead external linksArticles with dead external links from September 2019Webarchive template wayback linksArticles with short descriptionShort description matches WikidataUse British English from February 2014Use dmy dates from March 2022Articles with hCardsPages using infobox musical artist with associated actsAll articles with unsourced statementsArticles with unsourced statements from January 2024Commons category link from WikidataArticles with ISNI identifiersArticles with VIAF identifiersArticles with GND identifiersArticles with LCCN identifiersArticles with MusicBrainz identifiersArticles with SUDOC identifiers

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The Slits - I Heard It Through The Grapevine - YouTube

The Slits - Earthbeat (Official Video) - YouTube

Girls Unconditional: The story of The Slits, told exclusively by The Slits - Loud And Quiet

ls Unconditional: The story of The Slits, told exclusively by The Slits - Loud And Quiet Loud And Quiet Independent music journalismMagazine Shop Interviews Reviews Shorts Podcasts Members Lounge Issue 163 Issue 162 Issue 161 Issue 160 Interview Girls Unconditional: The story of The Slits, told exclusively by The SlitsAri Up, Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollit speak about how The Slits proved that young women could be responsible for some of the most influential and innovative music of the punk movementWords by Janine Bullman Ahead of their forthcoming show at Offset festival in September, I spent two weeks on the trail of The Slits. I’m given a number for Tessa Pollit, the bass player of the band, and arrange to meet her at her home in West London. A few days later I meet Viv Albertine, one time guitarist and Slits songwriter, at the book launch of new biography Typical Girls? The Story of The Slits, and just in the nick of time, after much running around and plenty of patient finger drumming, I finally got hold of band mouthpiece Ari Up, on the phone from her home in New York.Ari splits her time between Brooklyn and Jamaica and is notoriously hard to pin down. Born in Germany she moved to London in the mid-’70s with her mother and speaks in an accent part German, part West London, part Patois.“All the people who were in that revolution back then in the punk time, it left something in those people,” she says. “The ones who didn’t die or sell out are incredibly untamed and free spirits, they have evolved into incredible people like when you meet Poly Styrene [of X-Ray Spex] now, she has become an amazing person. There are just one or two who felt so pressured they had to buy into society.”Steel Pulse and The Slits in West London. By Ray StevensonOn May 16th 1976, Arianne Forster (Ari Up), aged 14, is at the now legendary Patti Smith gig at Camden’s Roundhouse, having a row with her mother Nora (now Mrs John Lydon). Ari soon attracts the attention of Joe Strummer’s then girlfriend Paloma Romero (Palmolive) and Kate Corris, who approach Ari with the idea of forming a group. They begin rehearsing the very next day as the first incarnation of The Slits. Rehearsing in Joe and Palmolive’s squat, they are soon joined by Tessa Pollit who recalls the moment she joined the band.“Originally The Slits had another bass player called Suzie Gutsy. I met The Slits through this News of the World article that was written about women in punk right at the beginning. Ari came round to my flat and she really liked all this poetry I had written on the wall. Suzie Gutsy got kicked out and I joined, that was it really. I was playing guitar before and so I had to learn bass in 2 weeks for our first gig and that was at The Roxy in Harlesden.”In the audience that night was Viv Albertine. “I was in the Flowers of Romance with Sid Vicious and Sid left to join the Sex Pistols,” explains Viv. “I saw The Slits play at the Harlesden Roxy and I thought they were amazing. We met up a few days later and played together, and I backcombed their hair like the New York Dolls and that was it, we just clicked.” Kate Corris was next to be given the elbow as Viv stepped in on guitar. Ari Up, Viv Albertine, Tessa Pollit and Palmolive were now The Slits, and in terms of classic lineups, always will be.Despite being integral to punk’s evolution from the very beginnings in 1976, the band have never received the same attention The Clash or The Sex Pistols have. Yet The Slits were doing something no other band had done before. You have to remember when The Clash’s Mick Jones picked up his Gibson Les Paul for the first time, there was a long line of boys wielding guitars from Elvis to Johnny Thunders to emulate, but as female musicians there was no her-story, all The Slits had for inspiration was Patti Smith.They were the first group of female musicians doing it on their own terms. Their sheer inability to compromise or sell themselves on their sex appeal was a major inspiration to the Riot Grrl movement in the 1990s, and today their musical influence can be heard in bands from Sonic Youth to The Horrors. There seems to be no other time in rock’n’roll history where women were fronting bands and playing their own instruments. But was Punk really a time of equal opportunity for women? Sat in her basement flat just off Ladbroke Grove, Tessa remembers the reality of it all. “It was incredibly male orientated then, within the record companies, and it was a real struggle,” she says. “I think people forget how much of a struggle it was. I mean there has always been female singers but not women playing their own instruments”For Viv, “It was a bit like the Second World War, where the women came to the fore because they were needed to work in the factories. It was such a bleak time, three-day weeks, a heat wave, no youth culture on TV or in the media, rubbish all over the streets. Any little rat that could rise up did. It was quite an equal time but it seemed to shrink away after.”Despite completely rewriting rock’s masculine rulebook and inspiring a feminist revolution in the ’90s, Tessa believes that The Slits never viewed themselves as feminists. “I just hate labels,” she says. “We never set out to be feminists because then there is a set of rules and I don’t want to be labeled on any level.”But as Viv pointed out, the female punk revolution was short-lived and when I ask Ari if she thinks there has been a progression in women’s roles in music she says, “I didn’t know it would come to this, where everything is like a factory. You see Lady Gaga and she is dressed all crazy in these space age outfits, but she is totally straight, she isn’t a rebel. I can see straight through her, she is business. Her sexuality is so trashy and cheap and she is just singing about having too much and fucking about and being vulgar. People think that is rebellion. When you look at the philosophy, it is scary. Even Britney is on this really sexual out there thing. All these girls are so groomed and polished and are being put out there as an industry or as a gimmick. It is scary to think that this is how women are meant to look.”The Smith shot for their debut album in 1979. By Pennie Smith, with special thanksBut back in the bleak mid-’70s when The Slits embarked on the legendary White Riot Tour alongside The Clash, The Jam, Buzzcocks, and Subway Sect, Viv recalls the rest of the country weren’t quite prepared for the four girls:“We were like the massive rebels of the tour. The way we looked was much more unusual or far out than the guys, because by now people were used to rock and roll looking guys, but girls in fetish wear, with their t-shirts slashed, hair standing a mile on end and in Doctor Martin boots? They couldn’t stand it and they would say we will only have them in the hotel if they walk from the door to the lift and we don’t want to see them again till the next day. Everyday the tour manager would threaten to throw us off the tour, Norman the bus driver had to be bribed daily to let us on the bus. It was bloody stressful.”Tessa: “I can’t really think of anyone like us before. I think because we were women it was even more threatening because of the way we looked. Especially when we were going out of London it seemed to cause even more shock. I think we got thrown out of one hotel because I had The Slits graffiti-ed on the side of my case. I suppose you have to look at what it followed, the whole ’60s apathy thing and the fact that it was a movement, it wasn’t just one group. Something had to break at that period. It was probably the worst style ever in the ’70s as far as I can remember, it was vomit-making, the style was so horrible, the haircuts, the clothes, the house design, the avocado green bathroom suites.”But it wasn’t just The Slits being female that made them different, it was the style of their music too. When all the other punk bands were shouting “1234”, The Slits were playing to a different beat. They were amongst the first bands on that scene to draw their inspiration from reggae music and at the time of the White Riot tour they were being managed by Roxy DJ Don Letts. For Tessa, reggae was hugely inspiring to the way she played. “There were more reggae artists playing live, like Big Youth and Burning Spear, and the film The Harder They Come, which was really influential, and there were a lot of sound systems and shebeen blues clubs. It was just a real time for reggae in the ’70s. Before punks had ever made any records there was reggae. Thank God, because it was hugely inspiring. Don Letts was djing at the Roxy club playing pure reggae so we got to know all these songs and even to this day I love Jamaican music, just love it.”I ask her how the Jamaican community took to four punk girls turning up to their clubs. “Maybe it was more acceptable to be a white woman than to be a white man and be there. In the Ballyhigh Club in Streatham, Ari would just start dancing and be surrounded by a crowd of people. But somewhere like the Four Aces in Dalston, which doesn’t exist anymore, it, would be much more of a tense atmosphere, like who do these people think they are, coming into our club. Ari used to go on her own from a really young age, she had quite a nerve, she was 15, but you can’t help but like her.”The Slits were also the first musicians to point out that women played their instruments in a different way to men, quite a revelation but for Tessa it was the only way she knew. “I like the fact that women do play differently,” she says. “For me I was always playing with other women so I didn’t know any different.”Viv, though, was making it up as she went along. “We, in a way, tried to fit in with boys and how they played,” she says. “I hadn’t been taught an instrument so I was literally making it up as I went along and with things Keith Levene [later of PiL] was showing me, though he wasn’t showing me straight forward things. He was teaching me more the mentality than the actual chords. He gave me the confidence to do what I wanted and I would make things up and he would say, ‘What time is that in? It works but it shouldn’t.’” At the time Viv was going out with Mick Jones. “Mick didn’t teach me anything. Only the guys you don’t sleep with teach you something.”Unlike the other punk bands, The Slits didn’t sign to a label straight away in 1977. Viv didn’t think the band were ready. “Mainly we didn’t sign because we knew we didn’t sound like we did in our heads. That and the record companies wanted to market us and package us up as sexy punk girls. There really weren’t any other all girl bands at the time. We had to wait till someone took us for who we where “Finally, the band signed to Island in 1978. What was particularly unusual is that Island Records agreed to give them full creative control on everything, from the artwork to the choice of single, something that is still rare in the business today. The band’s first single, ‘Typical Girls’, was backed with a cover version of Marvin Gaye’s ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’. It was a song that Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, thought would give the girls more success, but they were adamant they would go with their own song ‘Typical Girls’ as the A-side. Although the band were able to make their own career decisions, they weren’t always the most financially-viable. I ask Viv if the term ‘bloody-minded’ would be a suitable term to describe The Slits’ attitude to the music business at the time.“I think every decision we made, made it difficult for us. We kept thinking ‘Why aren’t we commercial? Why aren’t we on TV?’ On the other hand, we were so uncompromising on how we spoke to people, how we did interviews, how we looked, everything was utterly uncompromised. So we led ourselves down this difficult cult route. Which actually, 20 years later, worked out pretty well as it kept The Slits pure and now because we were so uncompromising the band has such a strong identity. But it did mean we made no money and we had no commercial success.”Their success seems on a par to a band like The Velvet Underground’s in the ’60s. Neither bands sold huge amounts of records on release but their influence has been huge and ongoing. But when I ask Tessa about when she first became aware of their now legendary status, she seems blissfully unaware of quite how influential the band have been.“I wasn’t aware at all till I hooked up with Ari a few years ago. She kept going on about how we had influenced the whole Riot Grrrl movement. I didn’t get it until we started playing in America and we had an audience out there, a young audience. I was quite shocked.”But long before Riot Grrrl, a young Madonna had been in the audience and you can see the influence The Slits had on her style on her first appearances on Channel 4’s innovative music programme The Tube. But again, Tessa has a very grounded view to this. “I think she must have been quite influenced by the way Viv dressed as she came to see us before her career took off but I don’t like to go on about things like that. I just think, so what? Everyone is going to get influenced by what they see. I just don’t like to blow my own trumpet. I just want to keep moving forward and try and not get egotistical about anything.”Palmolive by Ray StevensonAri Up by Ray StevensonThe Slits released their debut album, ‘Cut’, produced by legendary reggae producer Dennis Bovell, on the 7th September 1979. By this point drummer Palmolive had left the band and had been replaced by Budgie, who later went on to join Siouxsie And The Banshees. On the album’s cover, Ari, Tessa and Viv stare defiantly into the camera lens. Like Amazonian warriors they are caked in mud and naked apart from a loincloth. Pennie Smith shot this now legendary image of The Slits in the summer of 1979, almost 30 years ago to the day. In an era where female role models like Katie Price are most often surgically modified into the cartoon image of a woman, and the teacup-wielding Lady GaGa is considered to be outrageous, that image of The Slits seems more relevant than ever. I ask Tessa if they were aware quite how important that shot of them would become.“I think we knew it was going to cause a storm. But it was an incredibly liberating feeling splashing around in the mud. I can’t even remember where the idea came from but it was the perfect setting for it. It just had this ambiguity about it, us against a country house with roses growing up the walls. It got very mixed reactions. I think we just liked to push the boundaries. I spoke to Vivien Goldman and she was working for Sounds or Melody Maker at the time and she took it to her editor. They were saying, they are so fat and ugly we aren’t putting that in our paper. They just didn’t want to see women like that.”At the time the photos caused outrage with one man going so far as to try and sue the record company for crashing his car after seeing the three naked Slits looking down at him from a huge billboard.After the release of ‘Cut’ the band’s sound became increasingly experimental. In the early 1980s, The Slits formed an alliance with Bristol post-punk band The Pop Group, sharing a drummer (Bruce Smith) and releasing a joint single, ‘In The Beginning There was Rhythm’/ ‘Where There’s A Will’ (Y Records). The Slits released their second album, ‘Return Of The Giant Slits’ in 1981 and in the December of that year, the band decided to split. Ari was 14 when she joined the band, Tessa and Viv only a couple of years older. Tessa believes they did the right thing. “It felt like we needed a break,” she says. “We needed to go off and experience our own adventures. We had grown up together and we had worked so hard, everything was about The Slits. We needed to have our own individual experiences in life. I don’t think it was a bad thing and the whole music scene became so squeaky clean in the ’80s and I think that was what put me off. Something really switched in the ’80s.”Still, the split didn’t come easy. It left a huge hole in each of their lives. Tessa spiralled into heroin addiction and Viv likened the aftermath to being akin to posttraumatic stress disorder. “It meant so much to me,” she explains. “But by the time we split up I was burnt out. I couldn’t bear to listen to music for about two years, it was terrible. I went down the filmmaking path. I thought that was a better option at the time. In the ’80s music got very careerist, it was no longer about expressing yourself.”Ari had twins shortly after the split and left England to live in the jungles of Belize and then Jamaica.Tessa Pollit by Ray StevensonViv Albertine by Ray StevensonAri Up and Tessa Pollitt reformed The Slits with new members in 2005, and in 2006 released the EP ‘Revenge Of The Killer Slits’. The EP featured former Sex Pistol Paul Cook and Marco Pirroni (ex-Adam & the Ants, and Siouxsie & The Banshees) as both musicians and co-producers. In fact, Cook’s daughter Hollie is a member of the current line-up, singing and playing keyboards. Other members of the reformed band are German drummer Anna Schulte, and Adele Wilson on guitar. I asked Tessa what led her and Ari to getting The Slits back together.“I hooked up with Ari about five years ago, we hadn’t seen each other in years. She had been all over the place in the jungle, in Jamaica and America. I went to see some of her solo gigs and I just got itchy to get on stage again and play some of our old songs. It was like there had been no time gap and we got on like we had just seen each other yesterday. We have led very parallel lives and have been through similar experiences. She had lost her son’s father, he was shot in Jamaica, and I had lost my daughter’s father, Sean Oliver, when she was five, we have both been widowed.”Viv Albertine joined the group for two gigs in 2008 but decided she didn’t want to reform. “That sealed it for me. I didn’t want to go back,” she says. “I felt awkward singing songs like ‘Shoplifiting’. I am a woman now and still have stuff I want to talk about but I can’t be playing songs from 25 years ago.” Viv will be releasing a single of her own later this year and an album though US label Manimal Records. When I ask her what she thinks of The Slits now, Viv tells me, “You watch Ari on stage even now and she still comes over as something absolutely amazing and different. She has no fear and no body consciousness. She still does something for sexuality and women that I don’t think any other woman does.”2009 is a big year for The Slits. Not only is it the 30th Anniversary of their cult album ‘Cut’, but this year also sees the release of the first Slits album in 28 years. ‘Trapped Animal’ will be released in October. The band recorded the record in Los Angeles earlier this year. A superb biography on the band written by journalist Zoe Street Howe (Typical Girls? The Story of The Slits) was also released in April.Ari takes her role as a Slit very seriously and is still hugely conscious about not being pushed into a position she doesn’t feel comfortable with. “I am constantly worried about The Slits and haunted about The Slits, that The Slits do not have to sell their integrity or their principles or about being pushed into something we don’t want to do. I mean that is a struggle we all have to deal with all our lives anyway.”I remind her how Joe Strummer had praised them for managing to keep hold of their integrity.“The Slits have become something beyond The Slits, bigger than life, bigger than our personalities,” she says. “They have become very mythical. The responsibility to stay true to ourselves is huge. People need something like The Slits, even if it isn’t us. Every time we play, there is always a girl who says, ‘I am going to start a group’. There is always someone who tells us that we have been an inspiration or life changing.” 18 Jul 2009Originally published in Issue 08ArtistThe SlitsCategoryCover FeatureRelatedKim Gordon: “I don’t see myself as a musician. I never conventionally learned how to play music, I just fell into it”interview15 Feb 2024Lankum: “That’s the circumstances that brought about us in the band… Grim, but having quite a good time”interview17 Dec 2023The Streets: “I’m heartened by stories of other people pretty much going mad doing this”interview23 Sep 2023 ↑Loud And QuietIndependent music journalism•Subscribe Shorts Interviews Podcasts ReviewsNEW MERCH STORE Contact About Magazines Subscribe Subscriber FAQBecome a member© LOUD AND QUIET 2024. All rights reserved.Terms & ConditionsPrivacy Policy Website by 44 Bytes

'Here to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits': Tessa Pollitt on the Band's Overlooked Legacy | Billboard

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04/26/2018

The Slits’ Tessa Pollitt & Documentary Director Talk Punk Pioneers’ Legacy

After decades of being underappreciated, despite breaking music and gender barriers, the Slits -- the '70s British all-female punk band -- are finally given their due, this time on the big screen.

David Chiu

‘Cut’: Why The Slits’ Debut Album Was A Snip Above The Rest

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‘Cut’: Why The Slits’ Debut Album Was A Snip Above The Rest

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Here to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits review – rise of the punk pranksters | Documentary films | The Guardian

Skip to main contentSkip to navigationClose dialogue1/1Next imagePrevious imageToggle captionSkip to navigationPrint subscriptions Sign inSearch jobsSearchInternational editionInternational editionUK editionUS editionAustralia editionEurope editionThe Guardian - Back to homeThe GuardianNewsOpinionSportCultureLifestyleShowMoreShow MoreNewsView all NewsWorld newsUK newsClimate crisisUkraineEnvironmentScienceGlobal developmentFootballTechBusinessObituariesOpinionView all OpinionThe Guardian viewColumnistsCartoonsOpinion videosLettersSportView all SportFootballCricketRugby unionTennisCyclingF1GolfUS sportsCultureView all CultureBooksMusicTV & radioArt & designFilmGamesClassicalStageLifestyleView all LifestyleFashionFoodRecipesLove & sexHealth & fitnessHome & gardenWomenMenFamilyTravelMoneySearch input google-search SearchSupport usPrint subscriptionsInternational editionUK editionUS editionAustralia editionEurope editionSearch jobsHolidaysDigital ArchiveGuardian LicensingAbout UsThe Guardian appVideoPodcastsPicturesNewslettersToday's paperInside the GuardianThe ObserverGuardian WeeklyCrosswordsWordiplyCorrectionsFacebookTwitterSearch jobsHolidaysDigital ArchiveGuardian LicensingAbout UsBooksMusicTV & radioArt & designFilmGamesClassicalStage Caught in a whirlwind of controversy … the Slits. Photograph: MusicFilmNetworkView image in fullscreenCaught in a whirlwind of controversy … the Slits. Photograph: MusicFilmNetworkDocumentary films This article is more than 5 years oldReviewHere to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits review – rise of the punk prankstersThis article is more than 5 years oldThis baggy documentary charts the career of the tough-talking all-female rockers who redefined the concept of ‘girl bands’Peter Bradshaw@PeterBradshaw1Fri 23 Mar 2018 11.00 GMTLast modified on Wed 1 Sep 2021 15.31 BSTShareHere is a well-intentioned but baggy, unfocused and unsatisfying documentary about punk legends the Slits, which feels like an assemblage of footage that could have been shaped in a clearer and more interesting way. It is evidently coloured by the continuing sadness that followed the death of Ariane Daniela Forster, or Ari Up, in 2010, after the Slits had been enjoying a reformed renaissance.Ari was the fiercely talented and committed German singer whose mother Nora married John Lydon – a remarkable fact that does not, in fact, clearly emerge from this film and might on its own cast light on an intriguing emotional dynamic within the punk scene.When the Slits emerged on the scene in 1976, “girl bands” – and what a condescending phrase that is – were an exotic and scarcely tolerated rarity. They did not want to look pretty or sexy by male standards; they wanted to be tough and rock’n’roll – by male standards. There was an enormous amount of misogynist prejudice against them, although this was perhaps hardly noticed in the whirlwind of controversy and anarchy that punk conjured up in those years. It was, after all, a horribly violent culture.An interview with bass player Tessa Pollitt reveals that one of the band was slashed with a knife by a man who shouted: “There’s a slit for you!” She adds, equably: “People love a fight. Don’t we all?” (Er … no?)In the early 80s, the Slits experimented with new musical forms and had every claim to be considered a real influence. After the split, Viv Albertine became a respected author and Paloma Romero (or Palmolive) became a Christian and teacher. Sitting down and listening to their songs sorts the fans from the non-fans. Shoplifting and Typical Girls still throb with that Slits spirit.Explore more on these topicsDocumentary filmsPunkPop and rockViv AlbertinereviewsShareReuse this contentMost viewedMost viewedBooksMusicTV & radioArt & designFilmGamesClassicalStageNewsOpinionSportCultureLifestyleOriginal reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morningSign up for our emailHelpComplaints & correctionsSecureDropWork for us Privacy policyCookie policyTerms & conditionsContact usAll topicsAll writersDigital newspaper archiveFacebookYouTubeInstagramLinkedInTwitterNewslettersAdvertise with usSearch UK jobsBack to top© 2024 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (dcr)

'Here To Be Heard: The Story Of The Slits': Review

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Rebellion and redemption: how the Slits gave a voice to female prisoners | Theatre | The Guardian

Skip to main contentSkip to navigationClose dialogue1/3Next imagePrevious imageToggle captionSkip to navigationPrint subscriptions Sign inSearch jobsSearchInternational editionInternational editionUK editionUS editionAustralia editionEurope editionThe Guardian - Back to homeThe GuardianNewsOpinionSportCultureLifestyleShowMoreShow MoreNewsView all NewsWorld newsUK newsClimate crisisUkraineEnvironmentScienceGlobal developmentFootballTechBusinessObituariesOpinionView all OpinionThe Guardian viewColumnistsCartoonsOpinion videosLettersSportView all SportFootballCricketRugby unionTennisCyclingF1GolfUS sportsCultureView all CultureBooksMusicTV & radioArt & designFilmGamesClassicalStageLifestyleView all LifestyleFashionFoodRecipesLove & sexHealth & fitnessHome & gardenWomenMenFamilyTravelMoneySearch input google-search SearchSupport usPrint subscriptionsInternational editionUK editionUS editionAustralia editionEurope editionSearch jobsHolidaysDigital ArchiveGuardian LicensingAbout UsThe Guardian appVideoPodcastsPicturesNewslettersToday's paperInside the GuardianThe ObserverGuardian WeeklyCrosswordsWordiplyCorrectionsFacebookTwitterSearch jobsHolidaysDigital ArchiveGuardian LicensingAbout UsBooksMusicTV & radioArt & designFilmGamesClassicalStage Punk royalty … Viv Albertine, Palmolive, Tessa Pollitt and Ari Up of the Slits in 1975. Photograph: Ray Stevenson/REX/Ray Stevenson/RexView image in fullscreenPunk royalty … Viv Albertine, Palmolive, Tessa Pollitt and Ari Up of the Slits in 1975. Photograph: Ray Stevenson/REX/Ray Stevenson/RexTheatre This article is more than 2 years oldRebellion and redemption: how the Slits gave a voice to female prisonersThis article is more than 2 years oldPlaywright Morgan Lloyd Malcolm on how the groundbreaking female punk band helped her tell the story of women suffocating in the prison systemMorgan Lloyd MalcolmMon 20 Sep 2021 00.01 BSTLast modified on Wed 29 Dec 2021 09.52 GMTShareIt was a bit of a “pinch me” moment, to be honest. Earlier this month I sat in the rehearsal room for Typical Girls and watched our incredible cast play the music of the Slits to Tessa Pollitt, an original member of the band.When I first started writing this show, never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined we would get to this point. This absolute legend, punk royalty, was beaming at the liveness of it all and so were we. This is what we’ve all been aching to do.The Slits epitomised rebellion and self-expression, finding your own unique voice and ignoring the haters, rejecting the status quo and challenging what it means to be a woman. Their music bursts with influences from all over the world, and sparks joy and fury and playfulness. I’ve long been a fan, so being able to create characters who would find layers of meaning in the lyrics of these songs has been such a wonderful opportunity.This piece of gig-theatre has been six years in the writing and was halted by Covid when we had to postpone our dates for late 2020. Thankfully Clean Break and Sheffield Theatres were able to reschedule it. Finally we are staging the piece and I couldn’t be more excited. It’s a big, messy, joyous show about trying to exist in a society that doesn’t care for you and the redemptive power of creativity.View image in fullscreenArtwork for Typical GirlsWhen collaborating with Clean Break, a theatre company that works with women affected by the criminal justice system – in prisons and at its London studios – I was sent into HMP Send in Woking to create a short piece of theatre with some women who were in the Pipes unit there. It is a mental health unit that works with women who have personality disorders and who have already completed fairly intensive treatments. It’s what’s called a “progression unit” and it means they are usually pretty close to release.We had come in to create a short piece of theatre informed by their experiences in prison, which they performed to the other women and staff in the unit. It was an eye-opening, joyful and humbling few sessions. The joy of working with Clean Break is that they fully invest in work that is transformative and creatively exciting, and the women were given the freedom to explore what that meant. As the playwright in the room, I was tasked with cobbling together a script we could all work from and they could continue to mould and play with. It was an excellent exercise in collaboration.So when I was commissioned to write a longer piece for Clean Break I came back to this experience in the unit. In fact I think the initial idea came from an instruction I had received on my way into HMP Send on the first day there. I was told not to tweet about what we were doing or to publicise it in any way. When I asked why, I was told very matter-of-factly that if it got into the press we were at risk of being shut down. Or even worse, the unit was at risk of it. The media didn’t take kindly to arty types doing creative stuff with people in prisons.View image in fullscreen‘Art and music and creativity can heal’ … Morgan Lloyd Malcolm. Photograph: Dan Wooller/Rex/ShutterstockI was mystified how anyone could think that the work was something to get angry about. The work we and other visiting companies did was around the healing nature of “play” and learning to form good attachments. The studies showed unequivocally that Pipes units saw a huge reduction in reoffending after release. These units worked.So when I started writing the play I explored these ideas of restrictions and quiet projects working under the radar to effect change. I explored what it means to rebel against a system when you’re living in the most oppressive ones. I explored what people do under duress to express themselves and find humanity. I explored how art and music and creativity can heal. And I channelled these things into this play. Then I realised it needed music – and what better music to work with than that of the Slits?And sitting in the rehearsal room with Tessa, listening to it all coming together, was beyond anything I could have dreamed of. Our incredible cast are going to blow the roof off the Crucible, and show what music and theatre is capable of. An empathy machine like no other.

Typical Girls is at the Crucible, Sheffield, 24 September–16 October and streamed online on 6 October.

Explore more on these topicsTheatrePrisons and probationUK criminal justiceMorgan Lloyd MalcolmfeaturesShareReuse this contentMost viewedMost viewedBooksMusicTV & radioArt & designFilmGamesClassicalStageNewsOpinionSportCultureLifestyleOriginal reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morningSign up for our emailHelpComplaints & correctionsSecureDropWork for us Privacy policyCookie policyTerms & conditionsContact usAll topicsAll writersDigital newspaper archiveFacebookYouTubeInstagramLinkedInTwitterNewslettersAdvertise with usSearch UK jobsBack to top© 2024 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (dcr)

The First Cut Is The Deepest: The Slits' Classic Debut Turns 40 - Rock and Roll Globe

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The First Cut Is The Deepest: The Slits’ Classic Debut Turns 40

They were a band willing and able to transcend their peers’ three-chord pop songs and political sloganeering to create something that really did chip away at the rock ‘n’ roll myth

September 18, 2019October 18, 2021

Addie Moore

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1979, 40th Anniversary, adblock, Ari Up, Cut, Dennis Bovell, Island Records, Palmolive, Punky Reggae Party, Reggae, Teresa Pollitt, The Clash, The Police, The Ruts, The Slits, Typical Girls, Viv Albertine

The Slits’ debut album Cut, which turned 40 on Sept. 7, could simply be lauded as part of the same punky reggae party in the U.K. that brought us The Clash, The Ruts and even The Police, but that’d be a limiting description. It has long served as a beacon of encouragement for independent minded indie-pop acts, riot grrrls and others, but even that conclusion feels like it short-changes an album different from anything to come before or since.

Instead, a band willing and able to transcend their peer’s three-chord pop songs and political sloganeering and create something that really did chip away at the rock ‘n’ roll myth deserves separate billing. As for Cut’s influence, the masterwork of a group that doubled as an inclusive tribe for Rastas and other outcasts deserves closer consideration at a time when underground music scenes are way more accepting of others.

It’s easy to assume that The Slits’ three year wait for a record deal reeks of sexism. While the classic lineup of Ari Up (vocals), Tessa Pollitt (bass), Viv Albertine (guitar) and Palmolive (drums) made men in suits nervous at every turn, the delayed arrival of a debut album can be credited to the group’s insistence on joining its Jamaican music heroes as Island Record signees.

The wait paid off, as constantly playing live since 1976 transformed the band from a ramshackle troupe of non-musicians to a resourceful bunch, able to make the most of its musical limitations and near-boundless imaginations.

Before breaking down the album, it’s worth noting that calling the band non-musicians isn’t meant as a slight. Not being a supposed real bass player allowed Pollitt to recreate the rhythms of rock and reggae in her own, peculiar way. Albertine had to take guitar lessons years after The Slits ended to start her current singer-songwriter career, which just means that her less-is-more picking on Cut really did take the shine off aging rock gods’ self-aggrandizing solos and virtuoso training.

Slits ’79 with Palmolive

The album, recorded after Palmolive left the fold and featuring future Siouxsie & The Banshees drummer Budgie, teamed the band with reggae musician and producer Dennis Bovell. Some take Bovell’s involvement as an excuse to discredit three women’s work—as if they’d ever give men’s credit for a studio creation to someone like, say, George Martin. Plus, no one was going to take the reigns completely away from teenage Ari Up, who by all accounts was too much of a pain in the ass to just sit there and let someone else do a lion’s share of the work.

More realistically, a great producer identified what made The Slits’ punk and reggae hybrid work and helped the group make something that really did render the boundaries of rock ‘n’ roll’s millionaires’ game obsolete.

As for the album itself, it nullifies punk’s formulaic two-and-a-half minute pop songs with such sprawling soundscapes as the cynical “Spend, Spend, Spend” and “Adventures Close to Home,” declaration of independence “Typical Girls” and even a breakup song in “Ping Pong Affair.” There is one fast, loud and angry punk song titled “Shoplifting” which, despite its own Caribbean feel, teases what it might’ve sounded like if the band stayed closer to the Sex Pistols plan of poisoning rock with its own medicine. Otherwise, The Slits’ treatment of punk’s own expectations calls to mind the name of a Simon Reynolds book: they opted to “rip it up and start again,” much like many young people today challenge the underground’s status quo for much greater causes.

Author Recent Posts Addie MooreAddie Moore (she/her) is a Middle Tennessee-based music journalist. She books the Nashville Transcore series of shows for bands with trans and nonbinary members and runs the 'No Spectators' punk zine. Latest posts by Addie Moore (see all) Long Shadow: Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros’ Streetcore at 20 - October 21, 2023 ALBUMS: Speedy Ortiz Finds Its Pace on Rabbit Rabbit - September 5, 2023 Catching Up with Seattle Supergroup Who Is She? - September 2, 2023

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bitpie手机版|slits

The Slits - Wikipedia

The Slits - I Heard It Through The Grapevine - YouTube

The Slits - Earthbeat (Official Video) - YouTube

Girls Unconditional: The story of The Slits, told exclusively by The Slits - Loud And Quiet

'Here to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits': Tessa Pollitt on the Band's Overlooked Legacy | Billboard

‘Cut’: Why The Slits’ Debut Album Was A Snip Above The Rest

Here to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits review – rise of the punk pranksters | Documentary films | The Guardian

'Here To Be Heard: The Story Of The Slits': Review

Rebellion and redemption: how the Slits gave a voice to female prisoners | Theatre | The Guardian

The First Cut Is The Deepest: The Slits' Classic Debut Turns 40 - Rock and Roll Globe

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The Slits - Wikipedia

The Slits - I Heard It Through The Grapevine - YouTube

The Slits - Earthbeat (Official Video) - YouTube

Girls Unconditional: The story of The Slits, told exclusively by The Slits - Loud And Quiet

'Here to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits': Tessa Pollitt on the Band's Overlooked Legacy | Billboard

‘Cut’: Why The Slits’ Debut Album Was A Snip Above The Rest

Here to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits review – rise of the punk pranksters | Documentary films | The Guardian

'Here To Be Heard: The Story Of The Slits': Review

Rebellion and redemption: how the Slits gave a voice to female prisoners | Theatre | The Guardian

The First Cut Is The Deepest: The Slits' Classic Debut Turns 40 - Rock and Roll Globe

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