The Slits

The Slits

02 September, 2009
by: Gina Louise

Like The Raincoats and Lydia Lunch, The Slits are famous for their driving influence on femme fronted punk, even though they hate the label. Forming with little to no musical skill, they have enjoyed an astonishing musical career which has seen them push the boundaries of musical genre, rejecting contemporary sounds and spurning out new and exciting music. Even now, after a multi-member swap career and a lengthy break from the lime light, they are back, acting like nothing has happened and still making music that sounds fresh.

The group's first taste of success came when they joined The Clash's White Riot Tour in 1977, and even though Mick Jones famously tuned their guitars on stage, they we're already spewing out the raw mixture of reggae rhythms and angst that would go on to inspire generations of Riot Grrls from Bikini Kill to the Spice Girls. Through the '80s their music became increasingly experimental, and after the release of their second album, rifts were formed and the band split.

Reuniting in 2005 in that frantic period of post-punk rediscovery, original member Ari Up and Tessa Pollitt recorded a new EP entitled 'Revenge of the Killer Slits'. Four years later and The Slits are still going strong and plan to release their newest album 'Trapped Animal' after their October 2009 tour. Touting influences from dub step and reggae, it still has a smattering of punk to keep things dangerous.

I catch up with Ari and Tessa as they lounge in their hotel room pre-London tour, and begin to realise that 11.30am on tour time may not be the best time to get chatty with the girls. Tessa answers with muffled voice and stifled yawns...

You have often been praised for your refusal to conform to expectations, both generally and even within the punk genre. Do you find yourself under pressure these days to compromise your style to fit with more mainstream music?

No we never have to compromise, I think that's the great thing about The Slits, you can't put a label on us or our music. One minute you think it might be punk but then you listen to the next song and it's in a totally different style. I think as usual we're always ahead, and you can't classify it as one genre at all. No, there's no compromise at all.

It has often been said that the success of your music relied more upon your passion and emotion than your musical capabilities. Do you think this is justified?

No, this is definitely not true, I mean we do have plenty of passion and emotion, but we have been plagued by this thing that we can't play. I mean you only have to listen to any of our records to see that we can play, and I swear it's 'cause we are women that we're plagued by this stigma, it's just like 'oh they're women they can't play'.

We started off really raw and we were learning yeah, but we quickly worked our way up and moved on from that. I just get a little sick of people saying that we can't play.

When new musicians quote you as their influences, are you flattered, or do you think they are just using your punk-ethos as an excuse to behave badly?

No, not at all, I'm really flattered if people say they are influenced by us, I mean I think every artist is influenced by other artists, it's natural, so yeah I'm always really I'm flattered by that.

So who are you're influences?

Ahh there are loads. They go way back to childhood, I mean there's classical music, err musicals… nursery rhymes. You absorb everything that surrounds you throughout your life; you are influenced by everything you like.

What was your favourite nursery rhyme growing up then?

With a little giggle, Tessa launches into a verse of
'Half a pound of tuppeny rice,
 Half a pound of treacle,
 That's the way the money goes,
 Pop! Goes the weasel.'

The thing is with favourites is that I don't really have favourites, it's constantly changing depending on where I am and what I'm going, what mood I'm in.

You are performing at Offset at the weekend. Are you excited about it? What are you up to after the event?

Yeah it should be good, and after we've got a UK tour in October finishing at the London ULU. We're doing about ten dates, one in Portugal and the rest in the UK. You should come to review one!

Do you like the new generation of punk music? How do you think it differs from the punk of the late 70's?

Well it's obviously out of context from the original punk; I mean I'm not really paying attention to it to be honest. I'm not really that impressed… I was there the first time round and the second time around it's not going to have the intensity because it's not the music of that time. Not to put it down but I don't really see the point of it. I just don't like the labelling of punk, especially now in 2009, it doesn't really make sense to me.

The Slits have seen many members come and go, are you still all on good terms, or has there been some conflict along the way?

No we all get on really well. People come and go but the solid group at the moment is Holly on the keyboards and singing, Anna our drummer, Ari and Me.

You have had many crazy experiences along the way, playing in schools and prisons and supporting the Clash… What has been the highlight of The Slits career so far?

(Hesitation) Err… highlight… I don't really know. The whole thing I guess, I don't have one favourite moment, the whole thing has been one continuing highlight! It was really fun supporting the Clash, really fun. It was like being on a school trip or something, and obviously it was a great opportunity for us to play in front of huge audiences. It was great to be around Subway Sect and The Buzzcocks; they were a great group of people.

You've had a notoriously rocky ride during The Slits career, with drug usage, the bereavement of friends and a tough time from journalists. Do you think that you have learnt things from these bad experiences, and in what way has it influenced your music?

You have to have bad experiences in life, that's what life is you know? Who wants to have a perfect happy life all the time you want the ups and the downs to make you appreciate the ups. I like the extreme ups and downs. They have definitely influenced my music as an artist. You need a bit of suffering in life to balance things out, to help you understand the ups and downs better.


After promising the girls that I would come to review their London ULU gig, and after a quick well wishing for their performance at Offset on 5th September at Hainault Forest Country Park, I let them get back to some much deserved sleep.

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Gina Louise