Nick Cave gave an interview the other week to the Sunday Times which began thus; Every morning Nick Cave puts on his suit, kisses his wife goodbye and steps into a cupboard. he steps out again for lunch, then again at 6pm, when his working day is over. He is an old friend of mine and I love his work but I’m a writer prone to comparing and despairing, I’ll focus on artists who have prolific output and muse on why it is only now I’m writing a blog, setting up a website and looking for an agent to take on my novel, Tempo. I’ve started speaking with musicians I used to work with about post punk and electronica. I’m getting an angle on ideas which stayed put through years of raising and providing for children. I’m curious about joining other women nudging a feminine narrative into the post punk zeitgeist and its place in rock n’ roll history and add colour to memories of the Marquee or the Vortex, New York nightclubs like Danceteria, and the many others that populated New York, Paris, Berlin and London in the late seventies and early eighties.
I was the first woman to do live sound. I toured with Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Nick Cave’s The Birthday Party, and many others. I lived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, bums on the Bowery, artists, writers, film makers, musicians in low rent apartments and do it yourself converted warehouse lofts. Moving through late afternoon into the night on the outside edge of an already diversely populated area, innovating, creating something new. People look out for each other on the edge of society and in those days notions of freedom and self sufficiency melded with non-sexist, non -racist politics and an anarchic punk discord which tore the apathy out of the seventies.
My novel, Tempo, is fiction. Thinking about early 80’s post punk music is an embarkation aboard a story whose musical journey was an influence on hip hop, house, techno. I worked with electronic sound and the rampant rage of post punk screaming vocals and guitar, with pop music, Yazoo or Depeche Mode as they emerged from what was hitherto known as the underground. I tipped headlong into touring with The Birthday Party, Lydia Lunch and German experimental bands like Liaison Dangerous and Die Haut.
I’d like to say something new, bring a ‘wow’ factor, draw attention to my stories. I’ll settle for talking through those times with people I used to work alongside to bring some focus and direction to my thoughts. I started out wondering could I write a biography of The Birthday Party, maybe I will. For now, I’m going to speak to musicians I knew at that time time and see what story emerges of that life on the road in post punk America and Europe. I’ll be musing on my perspective with blank spots filled in from interviews. I hope you’ll join me as I figure it out.