She is a very articulate person, and also very warm and forthcoming: so I think you could say, the ideal interviewee. There is lots to transcribe, all of it interesting and relevant to the field of research I'm doing at the moment. Many thanks to Jenny, who organised it!
So on to the gig: Gina Birch came as my plus one and we smiled and bopped our way through the evening, alongside a very appreciative crowd who sang along heartily. The band is testament to Tina and Chris (her partner and drummer) who have an open attitude to musicianship; lead vocals were shared out between all of the band including Chris and a feisty additional female vocalist who played guitar on several numbers. It was refreshing to see such an ego-less performance from a band who have generated endless inspiration through copious use of their music as samples, and a woman who invented possibly one of the most influential bass lines ever. Back in the seventies, female bassplayers fell into three categories: the reggae girls, the Stranglers Peaches girls, and the Psycho Killer girls. I was one of the latter, and even today I feel quite overcome to have not only been able to do the interview but also to see the band in action. We spent part of the time talking about 'the groove'; this was very much in evidence last night and I'm just about to log on to Amazon to buy their latest album, a live set recorded at their house and a collection of remixes of their best known stuff.
Photo by Frank ('by name and by nature'), Tom Tom Club's tour manager who used also to work for Suzi Quatro!
No comments:
Post a Comment