Viv Albertine [The Slits]

Viv says

We have a new website!: https://www.vivalbertine.co.uk/

 

Gal Musician of the Day: Viv Albertine

 Now someone posted this online and I’ll be damned if I didn’t note their name . . . if its you please drop me a note and I will credit but it made total sense to me!

"This post is for the punk poster collectors out there. If provenance is important, you won’t do much better than this. Viv Albertine will soon be selling off her personal collection via Twentieth Century Posters. Most of the posters date to the early days of UK punk & post punk, and include artwork from her band, The Slits, as well as friends like the Sex Pistols & The Clash. This is some top shelf stuff to be sure. While you consider any purchases, have a listen to the playlist created by Viv for the Stupefaction blog back in 2013. Apple Music link in bio."

Birthdays : Viv Albertine (of The Slits) | Punk Globe

Happy Birthday to Viviane "Viv" Albertine, musician, author, visual artist and filmmaker, formerly of the UK Punk bands The Flowers Of Romance and The Slits, born Dec. 1, 1954. With The Slits she released two albums, Cut (1979) and Return Of The Giant Slits (1981); during this time she also contributed to the New Age Steppers Dub collective and Flying Lizards debut records. 

After the breakup of The Slits she intensely pursued a career in film directing, and blossomed into an acclaimed writer. She published two memoirs, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys (2014) and the book drawn from her late mother's personal diaries To Throw Away Unopened (2018). As a solo artist she has released one EP, Flesh (2010) and one album, The Vermilion Border (2012).  

In a 2023 interview with Punk Globe Magazine, Albertine revealed that she is working on more books, and discussed her first two bands--the courage it took to get onstage and play original, outsider music she later channeled into laying out her life on paper.

 

Punk Globe: When did The Slits form, Viv? What was the idea for forming the band?

Viv: The Slits were already a band when I joined. I saw them play at Harlesden Colosseum in 1977 and thought Ari and Palmolive in particular were fantastic. I called them up the next day to say how much I enjoyed the gig ( there were so few of us in this new ‘movement’ that we all knew each other) and they laughed because they’d asked me to join the band six months earlier but I’d said no. I was in a band with Sid Vicious at the time, called The Flowers of Romance but Sid chucked me out and then he joined The Sex Pistols, so by the time I saw The Slits play I was free. There was no big idea about forming the band as far as I know there was a general ethos in the air called (now called punk) that you didn’t have to be able to play, or be male, or be able-bodied, or be white to be in a ‘punk’ band. The attitude opened the door to music for many more people than before. I’d never seen a girl play guitar and drums, I thought only boys who were very good at playing guitar could be guitarists (with their boring guitar solos and could be Guitarists fancy jazz chords). It never occurred to me I could be in a band until I saw The Sex Pistols play, I made the mental leap. They were working-class like me (they were better than me, I couldn’t play at all) so all I had to do was to get past the fact they were male to realize I could do it too. I didn’t realize until recently that I was actually poorer and less educated than most other ‘punks’. I thought we were all working-class rebels. We didn’t talk about our backgrounds much (some of them pretended to be working class) it wasn’t a  ‘thing’ like now. My mother was very strict about how I spoke growing up because she was a child of immigrants (my father was also an immigrant) and she thought I would get on better in life if I spoke ‘properly’ so most people around me in punk times I was middle class because of how I spoke and carried myself but I was poorer and had a more dysfunctional background than all of them. I can count on one hand the real working class (or poor) people from those days.

One of the famous images shot August 1, 1980, 

the "Ladies' Tea Party" at the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington, London organised by Deborah Harry. 

L to R: Chrissie Hynde, Pauline Black, Deborah Harry, Poly Styrene, Viv Albertine and Siouxsie Sioux.

Punk Globe: What was it like writing your autobiography?

Viv: It took three years each to write my books- Clothes Clothes Clothes, Music Music Music, Boys Boys Boys, and To Throw Away Unopened (both published by Faber in the UK) and like playing the guitar, I didn’t know if I would be able to do it when I started but again I took the leap. In the early 2000’s, I thought, I’ve lived an unusual life and made a couple of big leaps against the odds, against society, and against class and gender expectations think my story could be interesting, to young people especially, but no one is going to invite me to tell it. I’m going to have to do it myself, same as picking up the guitar. Certain demographics in society, usually not very radical ones, are always being asked to tell their story and being celebrated on TV, in exhibitions etc. I wasn’t in that demographic and nor were The Slits. Even forty years later, it’s the ‘punk’ bands playing derivative versions of our rock n roll that we are celebrating and getting the royalties. The Slits didn’t have any role models and our music and lyrics still sound fresh and original because of that. I’m so glad I put my story-and in some ways a woman’s story-and experiences out there. The books did well which shows if you can get past the gatekeepers, people do want to hear about alternative lives.

Interview with a True Punk Legend - VIV ALBERTINE in PunkGlobe

The Slits - Earthbeat

albums bought when they came out . . . . .| THE SLITS : CUT [1979] ZERO G SOUNDS

 

The Slits - Cut (1979)

Zero says: Its amateurish musicianship, less-than-honed singing, and thick, dubwise rhythms might not be for everyone, but there's little denying the crucial nature of the Slits' first record. Along with more recognized post-punk records like Public Image Limited's "Metal Box", the Pop Group's "Y", and less-recognized fare like the Ruts DC and Mad Professor's "Rhythm Collision Dub", "Cut" displayed a love affair with the style of reggae that honed in on deep throbs, pulses, and disorienting effects, providing little focus on anything other than that and periodic scrapes from guitarist Viv Albertine. 

But more importantly, "Cut" placed the Slits along with the Raincoats and Lydia Lunch as major figureheads of unbridled female expression in the post-punk era. Sure, Hole, Sleater-Kinney, and Bikini Kill would have still happened without this record (there were still the Pretenders and Patti Smith, just to mention a few of the less-subversive groundbreakers), but "Cut" placed a rather indelible notch of its own in the "influential" category, providing a spirited level rarely seen since. 

Heck, the Slits themselves couldn't match it again. You could call some of these songs a reaction to the Nuggets bands, or the '60s garage acts that would find as many ways as possible to say "women are evil." Songs like "Instant Hit" (about PiL guitarist Keith Levene), "So Tough" (about Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten), "Ping Pong Affair," and "Love Und Romance" point out the shortcomings of the opposite sex and romantic involvements with more precision and sass than the boys were ever able to. "Spend Spend Spend" and "Shoplifting" target consumerism with an equal sense of humor ("We pay f*ck all!"). Despite the less-than-polished nature and street-tough ruggedness, "Cut" is entirely fun and catchy; it's filled with memorable hooks, whether they're courtesy of the piano lick that carries "Typical Girls" or Ari Up's exuberant vocals. (One listen to "Up" will demonstrate that Björk might not be as original as you've been led to believe.)               


Tracklist:

1	Instant Hit
2	So Tough
3	Spend, Spend, Spend
4	Shoplifting
5	FM
6	Newtown
7	Ping Pong Affair
8	Love Und Romance
9	Typical Girls
10	Adventures Close To Home
11	I Heard It Through The Grapevine
12	Liebe And Romanze (Slow Version)

The Slits -The Man Next Door live in Berlin, 1981

so any excuse to re-post and wasn’t sure the links were working so . . . . 

check this for attitude! Post punk glory! 

Typical Girls - The Slits . . . . . 

Songs bought when they came out! THE SLITS (FIRST Album and this single) | I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE

Always loved this one so we’ll start a rainy day here with the SLITS!

O My Soul

The Slits | I Heard It Through the Grapevine

more Anton Corbijn | THE SLITS 1981

"Typical girls are looking for something. Typical girls fall under spells. Typical girls buy magazines. Typical girls feel like hell..." - The Slits - Viv Albertine, Ari Up and Tessa Pollitt in 1981 - Photo by Anton Corbijn

.

#theslits #vivalbertine #blur #ariup #tessapollitt #punkwomen #punk #punkrock #antoncorbijn

 I Heard It Through The Grapevine

The Slits - The Peel Sessions | Zero G Sounds

The Slits - The Peel Sessions

Upgrading an earlier disc that featured the band's first two John Peel sessions only, this ten-track compilation rounds up all of the Slits' BBC recordings, with the most crucial of their three sessions, the previously unreleased October 1981 airing, added in to remind listeners that the group's early reputation as a slipshod blur of punk-oid energy was only the first of the faces they turned to the world. In terms of classic punk energy, sessions dating from September 1977 and May 1978 are unbeatable, the sound of the unsigned, untutored, and -- in the eyes of many people -- unlistenable Slits crashing defiantly through distinctly formative renditions of songs that would not reach fruition for another year, and the completion of their debut album. "Vindictive" alone was not realigned for that disc; of the other six songs, all underwent sufficient reinvention to create starry-eyed converts of even the most disdainful of early witnesses. Famously, at the band's first BBC session, an anguished technician crept out to retune their instruments while the quartet was busy elsewhere. It doesn't affect their performance.

By the time the Slits returned to the BBC in 1981, their original vision had become totally skewed -- along with much of their early optimism. The Return of the Giant Slits, their long-awaited second album, had arrived to absolute incomprehension, and the band's future was already in doubt. The music they were playing, however, was the future. No longer the adrenalined D.I.Y. disaster that had clattered so alluringly across the early sessions, nor the dubbed-out hybrid of Cut, the Slits were now embracing a tribal thud that, while wholly anticipating the later fashion for world music, was so far out on a limb that even Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush had yet to clamber out to join them.

Lengthy throbs through "In the Beginning There Was Rhythm," the so-haunting mantra "Earthbeat," and (the aptly titled) "Difficult Fun" are readily superior to their vinyl counterparts, tasting much the same as the band's period live performances, but imbibed, too, with a questing tenderness that reveals just what a fabulous vocalist Ari Up was; her post-Slits recordings with the New Age Steppers caught many people by surprise, but the Peel rendition of "Earthbeat," in particular, proves there was no need for that.

Sometime during the mid-'90s, John Peel rated the first two Slits broadcasts among his all-time favorite sessions -- one reason why many first-time purchasers chose to overlook the repackaged Peel Sessions altogether. In terms of illustrating all that the Slits were truly capable of, however, the third session is even better than either.


Tracklist:

1 Love Und Romance 2:28

2 Vindictive 2:17

3 New Town 3:31

4 Shoplifting 1:31

5 So Tough 2:19

6 Instant Hit 2:32

7 FM 3:32

8 Difficult Fun 5:42

9 In The Beginning 11:03

10 Earthbeat / Wedding Song 8:31

From Zerosounds as always well worth the visit!

VIV ALBERTINE born 1st December 1954 - Sounds bought when they came out!

 

Viv Albertine (born the 1st of December, 1954) in Berlin, 1978. 

“I’m wearing red ballet panty hose, a blue ballet rehearsal dress (made of viscose, which falls well), a school merit badge pinned to the dress (not mine, I never got one of those), socks, and trainers. A fan has thrown her high-heeled shoes onto the stage. Maybe she realized you can still be cute in flat shoes. I’m playing a Les Paul Junior — red scarf tied to the neck — which I’ve had sprayed sparkly black.”

This in tribute Viv and noting I bought the Slits debut 'Cut' when it came out and I was oncverted! Viv later claimed they were paid no royalties whatsoever 

The Slits::I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Love this film and will never not post it!

The Slits at the punk best!

Typical Girls (of course!)

Instant Hit - it was!  . . . . . well with some of us!

Music Italy 70 came up with a great idea this morning and it features photos of great rock figures and the adding a track featuring them at their best
So . . . . . well I changed some and might carry on the tradition a picture and a clip. . . . 

It's Friday! have a great one and it will soon be the weekend!

Jeff plays Beatles . . . . . 

Heck let's play the video!

CARL RADLE & ERIC CLAPTON

Slunky

https://youtu.be/EP0x2oCXGPg

Oh go on then grab this while it lasts . . . . . note Pete Ham from Badfinger on accompanying guitar

BANGLADESH for the people there and the recent victims of the terrible fire, purchasing the single on iTunes helps support the people of Bangladesh still

Changed this one to mey choice of track David and Tina working together . . . . . 
\

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON

Me And Bobby McGee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YaWBIJZ8go

Al Kooper

Season of The Witch

https://youtu.be/NWkMMXgQohc

BOB MARLEY

Lively Up Yourself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDnNqsy7rYE

Viv Albertine -The Slits

Rare(ish) full length video

Typical Girls

The late Ariane Foster (Ari Up), Viv Albertine, Teressa Pollitt and Peter Edward Clarke ("Budgie") create some new wave punk in 1979

I bought 'Cut' by The Slits when it came out out and they continued to fascinate me . . . . . .doing what P.I.L. did later somehow . . . . . . .

Enjoy!
I know I did . . . . . .





they still do to a degree and I totally enjoyed the film starring Viv Albertine with writer/director Joanna Hogg in the 2013 Exhibition, alongside Tom Hiddleston and Liam Gillick. Which I must watch again soon . . . . . I have developed a recent obsession with films that feature architecture 'Attack The Block', 'High Rise' etc etc . . . . . .