1 Tessa Pollitt sings and Ari Up plays bass at a benefit gig for Sid Vicious' defense fund when he'd been arrested for murder in the U.S. (November 1978 at Camden Music Machine in November 1978).
mickmercer.com
Don't Call it a Comeback
Issue #28
Not content to be a footnote in punk history, Ari Up says the Slits are ready to reclaim their legacy by making ‘totally new stuff’
By Charlotte Robinson
Published: June 1st, 2006 | 1:12pm
Ari Up wants to get something straight: The Slits have not reunited. Although Up, who began fronting the legendary all-female punk/dub band at the age of 14, and bassist Tessa Pollitt are once again playing together under the Slits name, they aren't on a nostalgia trip. "It's none of this reforming of like the Buzzcocks doing the same old, same old vintage thing," Up says. "It's no reunion of the old Slits bashing out the old Slits stuff. It's like a totally new Slits unit doing new Slits stuff."
Of course, no one would expect the Slits to do anything in a boring or conventional way. Like most of the original punk bands in England, they were initially inspired by the Sex Pistols, but their chaotic and utterly original approach to the guitar-bass-drums lineup set them apart from the start, as did their gender. "I hear a very Celtic, tribal sort of warrior, female sound in the early punk stuff," Up says. Almost as soon as they made their live debut in March 1977, the Slits were besieged with offers but not the kind they wanted. "They tried to cash in on making a ridiculous clown joke out of the Slits," Up angrily recalls of the record-company suits. "'Let's take the Slits and cash in on making a quick record of them being females and let's glamorize them as these Charlie's Angels of punk.' It was sickening what they tried to do with us."
Not ones to be tamed, the Slits held out for a deal that offered them artistic freedom, which they finally got with Island Records, which released the band's 1979 debut, Cut. By that time, their sound had totally changed. Helmed by reggae producer Dennis Bovell, Cut was a bold artistic statement, heavily informed by dub's rhythms and scratchy guitars but with catchy melodies and lyrics that commented on rebellion and conformity without ever sounding pretentious. By the 1981 release of Return of the Giant Slits on CBS, the Slits' sound had mutated into a more oblique, intoxicating blend of tribal beats and chants. "[I]n a way we were the first to do worldbeat," Up says. "This was way before that word even existed."
Although the Slits were one of the most creative and influential bands to emerge from the class of '77, they've remained somewhat obscure in large part because their records were long out of print. Although Cut was belatedly released on CD in the States in 2004, Return of the Giant Slits remains rare. "Women are shut out of history," laments Ari. "We are being shut out of fucking history. The Slits are essential to be back again because we have to accomplish the mission of finishing history."
With a new twenty-something, multinational lineup that includes two guitarists and a drummer (plus Sex Pistol Paul Cook's daughter Holly doing some vocals) the Slits are ready to accomplish that mission. They are playing shows and have already recorded an EP. "This is not a punk band reuniting," Up reiterates. "This is like a group that has been shut out and put out in exile, has not been included in that whole punk scene and we're together in a totally different way than any other band because we never got the privilege that other punk bands had which was to say, 'We belong in this category.'"
But as surely as the Slits were a crucial part of punk history, they went a lot further than most of their counterparts. "I think we had three evolutions in a very short space of time, like the Pokémon did," Up says. "The Pokémon apparently had three evolutions." One element that will likely find its way into the next evolution is Jamaican dancehall music. A longtime resident of Jamaica, where she is known on the party scene as Madussa, Up says the island is where the current musical revolution is taking place. "You've got to see these people dance, see the energy," she marvels. "It is so fucking punk I can't even tell you. These people, they know how to rock a revolution over there."
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more