What excuses are there not to take a trip to your local polling station today? I mean, what good excuses? One of my favourite bloggers, Penny Red, puts it very well:

“…if you don’t get out there and tick whatever box you need to tick, right now if you’re at home, or as soon as you can get out of work, I shall consider whatever happens tomorrow your fault. And you should too, because it will be. Turn in your internet license, you’ve got no more business ranting at empty cyberspace if you can’t put your shoes on and engage with hard copy the one time it matters.” [read the full, excellent, post here]

I just can’t understand how anyone, particularly any woman, can be so blase about not voting. We haven’t exactly been doing it for very long – it was only in 1918 that women over 30 were allowed to vote, and universal suffrage wasn’t implemented until 1928. So that’s just 82 years of being allowed to vote equally alongside men. I don’t see any good reason not to take advantage of this hard won right. Women died for this!

We get precious little opportunity in this society to affect the powers that be, but if every American citizen in 2008 had decided they couldn’t be bothered to put their cross in the box the world would be a very different place. We don’t exactly have an Obama in the running, but we do have evil lurking and we need to bat it away with whatever means we have. Or we could all not vote and let Nick Griffin continue to be taken seriously as a politician.

So me, the Boy and Mister Benji are off down to the local primary school to put crosses in boxes and cross our fingers for change. I will be voting Liberal Democrat again today and I hope my fellow lefties turn out in force, but better to vote anything (except BNP, obviously) than not at all.

So go – vote! Let’s do it!

This is why there is no sign of a warriorgrrl remix on the Let This Be microsite, by the way. Grrrrrr again.

Aside from such bureaucratic timewasting this week has been great. On Wednesday night I attended the Association of Independent Music’s Women In Music and Entertainment night at Cargo, the highlight of which was seeing Geoff Travis and Jeanette Lee of Rough Trade chatting to AIM’s Alison Wenham on stage about their partnership. I got all excited and went up to Jeanette afterwards gushing a little and thrusting a card in to her hand. I do hope she looks me up.

I got a turn on the mic, too. We were discussing sexism in the music business and after my recent experiences at the hands of women, and knowing there were a number of A&R ladies in the room I asked Geoff and Jeanette if they were aware of sexism in other areas of the biz than just the labels. The collective gasp in the room when I told my little story (naming no names, because for some reason I am still *that* professional) made me feel a lot less alone, and speaking to some people afterwards it was obvious they’d never realised there was a reason you don’t get many women in session bands beyond there not being as many women playing in the first place.

I’d never been to an event like that, where the potential to meet someone ‘useful’ was so great. I’ve never liked the idea of working a room, assessing who’s the most important and ignoring other people in favour of sidling up to them. I value the conversations I had with a couple of music management students (lovely girls) just as much as the one I had with the A&R woman from Domino Records. Plus the chances of the students staying in touch with me is way higher.

I was struck by a little speech a woman in the row ahead of me gave to the room about how we can all create our own space in this business and how the traditional industry had no control over that. I’m really glad she gave me her card after she heard my sacking story because I looked her up when I got home and wow – it was only Gaynor O’Flynn, BFI Award winning director, musician and artist. Check her out, she does some very interesting things.

Last night I was supposed to go and see Amanda Palmer’s new musical project Evelyn Evelyn at Koko but decided to stay at home and write interview questions for Juliana Hatfield instead (for a music blog called Tuned-Out) – the EE show was switched to being an AFP solo show due to the volcano keeping her bandmate in the States and I wasn’t bothered about seeing MAdM support either. Some artists are better in theory than in reality.

This lady I would *kill* to see play live again (saw her at Brixton Academy on the Stories From The City tour):

Anywayyyyy…rant complete. I spent last night in indie heaven listening to Juliana Hatfield albums and researching good questions for her. Did you know she published a memoir in 2008? I didn’t, but have rectified this by ordering it. Her fantastic new acoustic album is out now, composed, arranged, performed, produced, engineered and mixed by herself. How appropriate for a woman so accomplished to make an intimate acoustic album with no obstructions whatsoever between her and the listener.

I can’t find much of her recent work on YouTube but came across this lovely live performance of famous track “Spin The Bottle” – the song that featured on the Reality Bites soundtrack. Enjoy the video and make sure you visit her website…

Photo by Jonny Hughes

It’s been a pretty bad week, all in all, kicking off with being fired from my shiny new session job (more on that shortly) and ending last night with my house being burgled while I was out performing at LDNtwestival – thank you Twitter buddies for watching me play, Twitpiccing me and sending me lovely messages post-burglary. You’re the best.

They took all my really important filming gear (Canon XH A1 plus Rode NTG2 mic, batteries etc), my Canon 50D, some lenses and my Macbook Pro, which thankfully I backed up really recently – very unlike me. I am insured, so fingers tightly crossed there aren’t any problems replacing the stuff. What upset me was that my dog Benji was home, and when I couldn’t get in because the chain was over the front door I had to wait for the police to come and force their way in before I could give him a big cuddle. He was really upset but not harmed, and today he’s bounced right back.

There’s a nice end to the week though, with She Makes War getting its very first mention in the national press. Jude Rogers wrote an awesome article for the Guardian about angry women in music and I get a mention alongside luminaries like Kristin Hersh, Kathleen Hanna and Joan Jett. This is a girlhood dream come true for me!

I feel very privileged, but I need to clarify my statement a little: the comment I made about problems as a female session musician comes from an experience I had a few years ago when I was booked in to audition for Alesha Dixon’s band. The audition got cancelled at the last minute and I was told it was because her management were “not interested in female musicians”. This Monday I was let go from my job with the other female singer mentioned in the article and was told it was because she wanted an all-male band. So, on Monday I made sure the Guardian knew that I was no longer playing in the band so they wouldn’t call me “Laura Kidd of [said band]“. I have since been told there were also other reasons for the sacking, and as there are a zillion reasons, spurious and non-spurious, that session musicians can be fired on the spot AND as there are no proper agreements, contracts or severance payment schemes (yes, ouch!) there’s little else I can do about the situation except to make it clear that I am unhappy with being told I’m fired for being a woman. I am certainly not courting publicity on the back of it, to be honest I just can’t wait for this week to be over.

Funnily enough, that comment about Dixon was a very tiny part of a largely upbeat and breezy set of answers to the interview questions. When I wrote the responses a week and a half ago I was feeling really good about being a woman working in the music biz – if I was answering them this week my answers would be quite different.

But hey, in the spirit of focussing on the good things, I’ll leave you with a bit of last night’s Twestival performance, filmed by @b33god – I’m off to file some insurance claims.

She’s creative, silly and serious, the music is always fabulous, the visuals are stunning, she often uses female musicians on tour (Ms P, feel free to get in touch whenever, okay?), she directs many of her own videos and she really really doesn’t care what anyone thinks. Here’s the video for “Mommy Complex”:

More vagina-shaped clothing in music videos, please!

On the other end of the lyrical spectrum, here’s a real treat for you: a gorgeous performance of “Seasons” by Sierra Swan and Carina Round. Sierra’s brand new album “Girl Who Cried Wolf” is available now from her website along with her second, “Queen Of The Valley”, which features this song – I’ve just ordered my CDs

I’m still working on my list of aims for 2010 (or ten past eight as someone was calling it on Twitter) – what are your resolutions this year?

Happy New Year everyone!! xxx

On Saturday I attended my first protest march: Million Women Rise. I was nervous about going not because I doubted my commitment to the cause – to end male violence against women – but because I have had so many negative experiences of women in the past.

It dates back to school days, of course, when being the new girl all the time (my family moved a lot), having blonde hair, being a bookworm, playing musical instruments and enjoying crafty pursuits all combined to make me a constant target for gangs of girl bullies. In the years since then, problematic relationships with so-called “best friends” and some painful experiences with female musicians didn’t exactly make me more comfortable with people of my own sex. Where was the loyalty, the empathy, the intimate friendships based on shared experiences, shared pain?

I’ve got used to being the only woman in every band I’ve ever played in and usually the only female musician on the bill at gigs, but I’ve never wanted to be one of the boys. I’d rather be the token outspoken feminist in a situation than bite my lip to keep the peace, so meeting similarly opinionated and – shock horror – friendly women over the last three years has been a massive relief and Saturday’s march felt like the pinnacle of that experience. I can’t adequately describe in words the feeling of being part of that mass of females: from bumps to babies to little kids to old ladies we’re different in a million ways but at the same time deeply connected – not only by our physiology but by our frequently uncomfortable position in society.

In this country most of us have it pretty easy. I was humbled by the messages sent to us from women around the world, living in societies where rape is used as a weapon by the military, where foetuses are aborted against the mother’s will and where daughters are kidnapped never to be seen again. As an example, on Saturday women from all over Afghanistan ignored the very real threat of violence to gather in groups and pray, wearing blue scarves to show their solidarity. Marching through London was the very least I could do.

Talking to these vocal, vibrant women about their groups and getting their thoughts on the importance of marches like Million Women Rise on camera made me yearn to be more of a part of the rich feminist fabric in this country and I’m determined to get involved. This video of Saturday’s march is just the start:

Thank you to everyone who spoke on camera and special thanks to Jess McCabe for all her help on the day – see her excellent photos here.

Further reading:
The F Word
Million Women Rise
Reclaim The Night
London Feminist Network
FemAcadem
Birmingham Fems

Brilliant, just brilliant, and the immense cheering at the end makes me feel all shivery. There’s a nice short review of the show here as well.

Tomorrow’s my last day on Dollymix, boo! That does mean better service will resume around here after the weekend though, so it’s not all bad news.

I hope you’re all keeping well in my semi-absence.

- 5 reasons to love Amanda Palmer
- Take That to reform properly – “one day”, maybe + other real news stories
- Are you a wet liberal? Are you a misogynist?
- Question: music at work – essential or annoying?

And one from yesterday:

- Britney tops the search polls – again

This week I started sorting through the piles of CDs I’ve been carting from one home to another throughout my nine years in London. I was surprised at the memories that flooded back when I cast my eye over such classics as ‘The Score’ by The Fugees and ‘Crazy Sexy Cool’ by TLC. Top 40 r ‘n’ b was a big part of the soundtrack to my early teens; having spent three years abroad with no decent radio stations I was oblivious to guitar music until just after grunge imploded. But I also spent a happy hour singing along to ‘On’ by Echobelly – I still know pretty much all the words – and revelling in the delights of ‘Social Dancing’ by Bis.

Coincidentally, I met former Bis frontwoman Manda Rin last week at the BBC last week when she was taking part in Never Mind The Buzzcocks and got to have a quick chat with her. What a lovely woman – very friendly and pleased to hear my (reasonably restrained) gushings about how much I loved her band when I was at school and how inspirational the lyrics were. And they really were. ‘I’m A Slut’ made a massive impression on me – not least because I was going out with an extremely jealous and possessive boy at the time – and has definitely affected my songwriting. Biting feminist commentary in a cheeky electroey pop song? Yes please!

Bis – I’m A Slut

Have I done something to upset you?
Was my dress a bit too see through?
Was it talking to that boy I knew?
Don’t you like my brand new hairdo?

You tell me I deserve this
Cos I’m a slut and I provoke you to do
These things to me

Manda has some great new solo material coming out soon and I came across this excellent interview where she not only discusses music and the internet and being a solo artist as opposed to being in a band, but proves you don’t have to be an arrogant tosser to make music: