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Showing posts with label helen mccookerybook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label helen mccookerybook. Show all posts
Monday, 29 April 2013
Saturday, 20 April 2013
HELEN McCOOKERYBOOK: Writes about the Limerick Riot Grrrl conference, and other stuff
The plane bumped and lurched into Shannon Airport on Monday narrowly missing the tornado that had been forecast (it didn't arrive, thankfully); I was rustling with papers ready for the Riot Grrrl Symposium at the University of Limerick.
After the papers had been presented I was struck by just how different things had been for girls and women in punk bands. Riot Grrrl was bristling with manifestoes and a network of communication through letters, zines and music, all centred on how young women felt about themselves in relation to family, society, the media and politics.
Our experience was infinitely more raw and clumsy; I simply can't imagine how it must have felt to be part of something that women did internationally rather than to reside in a corner of punk. There were women's music groups all over the UK (and Europe, and the USA) back in the 1970s but I was put off by the cliqueyness, which simply doesn't raise it's head in the rosy histories of the moment. I recall a deeply upset older woman musician being told at a Women's Meeting that one of the group was physically repulsed by her because of her age. Some support network that was!
I'm sure it wasn't the same everywhere, and the women's bands in Brighton played alongside everyone else. But there seemed to be an awful lot of rules and that was what I thought I was escaping from by playing music in the first place.
So this was all very interesting.
So this was all very interesting.
Read on...
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT GONZO
Hamilton Square
CD - £9.99
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT GONZO
Hamilton SquareCD - £9.99
| Take One CD - £9.99 |
| Poems And Rhymes CD - £9.99 |
Tuesday, 2 April 2013
HELEN McCOOKERYBOOK: The Womens' story
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The Womens' story
By Helen McCookerybook
At the core of British punk music and the punk subculture in the 1970's was the concept of subver-sion, and the punk women in the London punk environment who formed and joined bands exercised a double subversion: not only the subversion associated with the subculture itself, but also a subversion of sounds normally associated with 'male' music making in the pop and rock arenas.
If you listen to music by The Slits and The Raincoats, for instance, they do have their own 'sound,' with space, vocal harmonies and clear and distinctive bass-lines to the forefront. In my book The Lost Women of Rock Music: female musicians of the punk era, I explored politics, the media, gender issues and social context but not the musical legacy of punk in any detail; this article is based on a more detailed academic paper that is currently in progress, and is based in part on interviews with musicians Tessa Pollitt of The Slits and Gina Birch of The Raincoats.
HELEN McCOOKERYBOOK AT GONZO
Sunday, 31 March 2013
UNRELEASED GEM FROM HELEN McCOOKERYBOOK
I have been rummaging in the drawers (oo-er madam!) and I found the song 'Paradise Lost' which I wrote for a song-cycle called 'Herms', which was about the seven new deadly sins. It is about greedy bankers and although I wrote it twenty years ago, it is just as relevant now, I think.
Hamilton SquareCD - £9.99
| Take One CD - £9.99 |
| Poems And Rhymes CD - £9.99 |
Saturday, 30 March 2013
Sunday, 17 March 2013
HELEN'S ON THE ROAD AGAIN (WITH HER ACADEMIC HAT ON)
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT GONZO
Hamilton SquareCD - £9.99
| Take One CD - £9.99 |
| Poems And Rhymes CD - £9.99 |
Thursday, 14 March 2013
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
ENTOMOLOGICAL EXCLUSIVE: Helen McCookerybook Vs Tineola bisselliella
During the last cold snap. I bundled up all of my clothes and left them in bin bags in the cold, dry air at the end of the yard for a week at sub-zero temperatures to kill any moth eggs and larvae that might have taken hold of them since last summer.I forgot two of my hats, which were nestled one on top of the other, and this is what I found yesterday: a hat wriggling and teeming with adult moths who in a matter of four weeks had reduced the hats to dirty, fluffy hat-rubble.
Read on...
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT GONZO
Hamilton SquareCD - £9.99
| Take One CD - £9.99 |
| Poems And Rhymes CD - £9.99 |
Wednesday, 6 March 2013
HELEN McCOOKERYBOOK: Rrrants at the Camden Head
Rrrants events happen in the smallest rooms above pubs in Camden, which gives them an exciting secret vibe and for the performers, an intimacy that makes you feel at one with the audience. This could be terrifying anywhere larger, but it actually makes for a refreshing feeling of authenticity and spontaneity in a London live music scene that can sometimes feel overwhelmed by concealed and fierce ambition.The first act was a three-piece close harmony group, missing the top piece but still beautiful singers. Their a capella style was fortiesish, but they did a cover of Amy Winehouse's Rehab that was very effective. I can't remember their name and I've checked on their poster- I'll find out because they really were very good. It was lovely to hear mature-sounding female voices that weren't desperately reaching for gospel or Britney; their performance was self-assured and I love the way they melted out of the audience on to the stage: Bravo!
After that was a succession of poets (including the Anti Poet who host the show, and who performed their Gentlemen Duellers sketch, my fave, especially because I originally misheard it as Gentleman Jewellers and couldn't understand why there were no diamonds and emeralds in the dialogue). I liked Keith Jarrett's poem about the gay poem (yes, he did).
Read on...
HELEN AT GONZO
| Take One CD - £9.99 |
| Poems And Rhymes CD - £9.99 |
HELEN AND MARTIN AT GONZO
| Hamilton Square CD - £9.99 |
Click on the Rrrants logo below for more information...
Monday, 25 February 2013
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
Saturday, 12 January 2013
Sunday, 16 December 2012
A VERY TOUCHING POST FROM HELEN McCOOKERYBOOK
Helen McCookerybook posted this on her excellent blog a few minutes ago, and I was so touched I have reposted it in full. Check her blog out - you won't be disappointed. Also, check her out at Gonzo..
Every year my Champagne Friend and myself go to a carol service. This one was hidden, rather; it wasn't on the Southwark Cathedral website but I had seen an ad on a tube train and I got us a couple of tickets.
It was a wonderful combination of the Secular, the the Spiritual and the Christian; there were some painfully moving accounts from people that had been helped by the charity and some lovely singing from the choir (and congregation). One story was funny: a woman described being given a free Christmas tree as a child, the last one on the stall, and dragging the massive thing home on a piece of string with her sister. They'd taken all their not-much-money to get one to try to cheer up their mum after their dad left home because he'd gambled away all their money. As the tree became wedged in the stairwell of their block of flats, their mum was furious. But eventually she borrowed a saw and after what seemed like an age managed to saw off enough of the tree to get it into their flat, where the sisters made decorations for it. And mum was happy. The Crisis Skylight Choir, which featured a solo cameo from each singer, were so touchingly brilliant that the congregation broke protocol and gave them a huge round of applause. Perhaps the most grave speech was from the man who has been volunteering for 30 years after going along because he needed help himself after a terrible family upset (he didn't tell us what it was). Voice cracking with the combination of a sore throat and passionately-felt emotion, he ended his talk with the words: 'This is ordinary people, helping ordinary people'.
He described working at the food counter last Christmas alongside a Jamaican brickie and a Dutch investment banker, all working together to make sure that single homeless people felt loved and cared for when it is so cold and bleak outside.
The youngest volunteers, two children, marched down the aisle with Christmas puddings with sparklers poked into the top that went out as soon as they were lit, which in itself was a rather symbolic moment.
The Merbecke Choir ('retired' child choristers) and the London Philharmonia Orchestra injected energy into the carols- the descants whammed into the final verses of the carols in a congregation-versus-choir competition that was oddly uplifting.
Somehow, this morning all the money-and-party thing doesn't seem to matter very much. I came away moved to the core by the kindness of the Crisis volunteers, and horrified by the face that in the last five years homelessness has increased by 43% in London. And we are still one of the wealthiest countries in the world, in spite of the recession.
Winter is vicious on the streets. I am putting their link here in the hope that if any of the people that read this blog can afford it (and only if) some of you might be willing to donate to them today:
crisis.org.uk/
It was a wonderful combination of the Secular, the the Spiritual and the Christian; there were some painfully moving accounts from people that had been helped by the charity and some lovely singing from the choir (and congregation). One story was funny: a woman described being given a free Christmas tree as a child, the last one on the stall, and dragging the massive thing home on a piece of string with her sister. They'd taken all their not-much-money to get one to try to cheer up their mum after their dad left home because he'd gambled away all their money. As the tree became wedged in the stairwell of their block of flats, their mum was furious. But eventually she borrowed a saw and after what seemed like an age managed to saw off enough of the tree to get it into their flat, where the sisters made decorations for it. And mum was happy. The Crisis Skylight Choir, which featured a solo cameo from each singer, were so touchingly brilliant that the congregation broke protocol and gave them a huge round of applause. Perhaps the most grave speech was from the man who has been volunteering for 30 years after going along because he needed help himself after a terrible family upset (he didn't tell us what it was). Voice cracking with the combination of a sore throat and passionately-felt emotion, he ended his talk with the words: 'This is ordinary people, helping ordinary people'.
He described working at the food counter last Christmas alongside a Jamaican brickie and a Dutch investment banker, all working together to make sure that single homeless people felt loved and cared for when it is so cold and bleak outside.
The youngest volunteers, two children, marched down the aisle with Christmas puddings with sparklers poked into the top that went out as soon as they were lit, which in itself was a rather symbolic moment.
The Merbecke Choir ('retired' child choristers) and the London Philharmonia Orchestra injected energy into the carols- the descants whammed into the final verses of the carols in a congregation-versus-choir competition that was oddly uplifting.
Somehow, this morning all the money-and-party thing doesn't seem to matter very much. I came away moved to the core by the kindness of the Crisis volunteers, and horrified by the face that in the last five years homelessness has increased by 43% in London. And we are still one of the wealthiest countries in the world, in spite of the recession.
Winter is vicious on the streets. I am putting their link here in the hope that if any of the people that read this blog can afford it (and only if) some of you might be willing to donate to them today:
crisis.org.uk/
Saturday, 15 December 2012
Thursday, 13 December 2012
MORE HELEN AND THE HORNS STUFF PINCHED SHAMELESSLY FROM HER BLOG
Saturday, 8 December 2012
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
HELEN McCOOKERYBOOK VIDEO
Following yesterday's posting about Helen and the Horns at the Camden Eye, here ladies and gentlemen for your delectation is some video of the gig, shot by our very own Martin Stephenson...
Tuesday, 4 December 2012
HELEN AND THE HORNS GIG AT THE CAMDEN EYE (by Helen)
Read on...
HELEN AT GONZO
Hamilton SquareCD - £9.99
| Take One CD - £9.99 |
| Poems And Rhymes CD - £9.99 |
Monday, 26 November 2012
HELEN McCOOKERYBOOK AND MARTIN STEPHENSON IN DARWEN
http://mccookerybook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/darwen.html
...and check out Helen's Gonzo artist page
Check out the Martin Stephenson artist page on the Gonzo site, and also the Martin Stephenson and the Daintees artist page, and the Martin Stephenson and Helen McCookerybook page...
...and check out Helen's Gonzo artist page
Check out the Martin Stephenson artist page on the Gonzo site, and also the Martin Stephenson and the Daintees artist page, and the Martin Stephenson and Helen McCookerybook page...
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