Bandcamp Friday

Suburban stories, fractured friendships, puncturing power: Showtunes from the Shadows is here for you on #BandcampFriday!

https://helenmcc.bandcamp.com/album/showtunes-from-the-shadows

Changing Gear

On Tuesday, Gina and Lindy and me went for our annual lunch together, going to a oc park afterwards where we watched a very friendly fox pottering around. It was so relaxed that it was perfectly happy for children to film it on their phones. There were tiny blue butterflies landing on the flowers around us, and a dusting of drizzle swept past us to complete the magical experience.

I had to cancel everything last week because of illness, but thankfully everything slotted in an exact week later. Yesterday, I went to Hove with a bag full of recording equipment to record Tracy Preston who used to sing in the Smartees, the rambling band of songwriters that bridged Joby and the Hooligans and The Chefs/The Accents. It was a really nice afternoon: she hasn't been used to singing, but what she did sounded just right. I met her son and her Mum who lives upstairs, and who I remember from way back then as being a gentle and loving person. She is still the same, all these years later. Precious cargo, those recordings!

Today I went to Westcombe Park to pick up Gran's banjo from Maggie. We sat and talked about art and ideas and kindness. The banjo case is so ancient that it's turning to powder, and I came home with a dusting of rust-coloured leather powder on my shirt. It needs new strings but the music shop was closed ('back soon'- what does soon mean?). Next week will do.

I've printed out all the stuff for Rebellion- train tickets, hotel details, lyrics for the new songs, which I'll have to prop on a music stand. I'm still fine-tuning them, but I think it will be OK. I'm travelling really light tomorrow. I bought a swanky new travel bag in a well-known discount store on Tuesday but had misgivings about it looking so posh, and was telling Gina and Lindy about when my brother and his wife got their luggage nicked on a train to Scotland. Sure enough, when I got home a friend posted on Facebook about their luggage being ransacked on the way to Blackpool. So the swanky new travel bag will be staying at home and I'll be travelling without it. Poor bag. Serves it right for being swanky! I've crammed basically a change of clothes into a small bag and anyone who wants to nick 'em will have a fight on their hands.

What else?

Zoe Howe's book on The Slits has been revised and reprinted, and she asked me to write a foreword for it. It's been published today. I re-read it and enjoyed it even more the second time around. I thoroughly recommend it!

Woman With Nasty Little Dog In Pushchair

 

Dessicated Slug

I really don't like snails and slugs at all, but yesterday I felt so sorry for a dried up slug that was lying on the paving stones that I watered it with a bit of water. I thought it might have died because even its skirt had warped, and it had curved inwards upon itself. This morning, though, it had gone. I hope it managed to survive.

I've been watering the garden with bath water. A while ago I got a couple of old galvanised iron watering cans, and I fill them up with a bucket and let it cool down. Not food plants like herbs and my poor raspberry plants though.

Dog's Pawprint In the Sand

 

From Last Sunday At The High Tide Festival In Twickenham

 

Left to right: Lester Square, me, Karina Townsend and Ruth Tidmarsh. I haven't had time to write it up because I was ill last week, but it was a fantastic afternoon at the Eel Pie pub. There is some footage of it which I'll upload soon.

Almost Acoustic at Rebellion Punk Festival

Almost Acoustic at Rebellion Punk festival in Blackpool next Saturday- onstage at 6.30 p.m. when I'll be playing a set of brand new songs about the Brighton punk scene in 1977

I'll also be interviewing Pete Bentham of The Dinner Ladies on Saturday lunchtime, and Shanne Bradley of The Nips on Sunday lunchtime.

She-Punks: The Origin Of The Name

In 2015, Gina and me were chatting about my book The Lost Women of Rock Music and a film she was in the process of making about The Raincoats. Gina had shot extra footage of many of the women she'd interviewed, and we talked about maybe collaborating on a DIY film loosely based on that footage and possibly more interviews with the musicians I'd spoken to for the original book.

I'd been teaching entrepreneurship at the University of East London and as quite often happened when I was lecturing, I decided to put into practice what I'd been preaching.

'Let's go to see Andy Linehan at the British Library and ask him if he'll show our film'.

Andy was the music librarian there. Very sadly, he died a few years ago: this was a great loss because not only was he very funny, but he was also brave enough to take a punt on an idea. He told us that in 2016 the British Library would be celebrating the 40th anniversary of punk, and he'd be prepared to show even 20 minutes of film and build an evening around it. In fact, we were the first event he booked for the week of celebrations.

All he needed was a name for the documentary. We went off, started arranging interviews with people straight away, and I came up with the title, 'Stories from the She-Punks: music with a different agenda'. 

Lots of the women I'd spoken to about their bands mentioned how much they hated the term 'punkette', which diminished them so much. Zillah Ashworth (also a woman punk documentarian) and Caroline Coon (the respected rock music writer) recommended Dale Spender's book Man Made Language, and there everything was laid out really clearly. 

My own problem was wo-man and fe-male. I'd tried 'Lady Punks' for a book chapter I'd written, but that felt really clunky. She-Punks was perfect, and I also had the possibly rather grating 'a-gender' part of the title.

I wrote to Andy with the title; both Gina and Andy thought it was great, and over the next six months we made our very DIY film. 

Here's the original blurb from the British Library website in 2016: https://web.archive.org/web/20201108112648/https://www.bl.uk/events/stories-from-the-she-punks

The screening was terrific: the auditorium was full, the reception was brilliant and we ended with a quickly put-together cover version of Oh Bondage! Up Yours, with Terry Tyldesley, Tessa Pollitt, Jane Perry Woodgate, Zoe Howe, Karina Townsend, Gina and me- and the audience. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NrFckg-WAA&t=19s

The film features Vivien Goldman, Shanne Bradley. Jane Perry Woodgate, Enid Williams, Lucy O'Brien, Ana Da Silva, Viv Albertine, Palmolive, Liz Naylor, Hester Smith, Rachel Lovell, Lesley Woods, Jane Munro, June Miles-Kingston, Gaye Black, Gina Birch, Karen Gymslip, Trash from the Ettes, me and more.

Thanks to Gina for suggesting the name Up Yours! Collective to an organisation formed to celebrate Poly Styrene's legacy.

Here is the film- now public: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zki9nj8tjZA

Posh Loo In Posh Shopping Centre

I went to the posh loo in a posh shopping centre. There were recordings of a forest with birds singing, and trees swishing in a gentle breeze. It did smell rather horrible in there, though.

The conveniences themselves had fancy hard translucent pink seats for hygiene (they said). I lifted the seat and a fly flew out of the bowl.

Later, when I went to wash my hands, the cleaner was trimming the bristles of the tattered broom she'd been using to sweep up, holding it over the bin to give it a haircut. Now that, I thought, was very sweet.

Harlequin at London Bridge

 

Hare

One of my favourite animals is the hare. To escape being detected, it jumps sideways to break its scent trail.

It is then faced with an entirely different landscape to work out a route through. 

I keep this in mind, constantly.

https://helenmccookerybook.bandcamp.com/track/hare

Caroline Trettine's Album Launch 12th September

Stop press! I'm honoured to be part of a supporting cast for Caroline Trettine's album launch on the 12th of September. Terry Edwards will join me for a couple of songs.
Look at the line-up!
Further details here: www.carolinetrettine.com

The 'Song From The Kitchen' That Didn't Happen

I've recorded thirteen songs for my new album and as always, it is changing tack as it goes on. Originally I'd thought of a simple guitar and vocal recording but then it just grew. I am going to ask a couple of other guest musicians next week (they may say no, because they are both very busy), but as it is it is already surprising me with its sound.

I tried to record one of the songs this morning but I've got a gig tomorrow and a rehearsal this afternoon and I couldn't relax enough to do it. In a few day's time, maybe.

Also, I'm out of coffee!

The Morning After The Night Before, Newcastle

 

Seasonal Song