“Enjoy it/destroy it”
One of the greatest female bands ever, the Slits’ legacy is undiminished. We still dress like them (Madonna and Bananarama ripped off their lace skirts, leggings and big fuck off boots in the 80s and 90s, now we lazily deem it ‘vintage’) and their no-bullshit stance is hugely inspirational- they were railing against female fashion mag paradigms (Typical Girls) when Miley Cyrus was but a fly in her daddy’s moonshine, and sang about drugs, London being shit without money,shoplifting and love being a construct.
The Slits live
At the Electric, photo by Kevin Cummins
Arianna Forster, aka Ari Up remains one of the greatest frontwomen ever (RIP) with her Germanic warble, skanking on stage and tendency to kick hecklers in the throat. Debut album Cut, first released on Island Records in 1979, was produced by reggae legend Dennis Bovell, and contains gems like the snarky Love und Romance, So Tough, and FM. It still sounds deadly, a bratty fusion of skewed punk and reggae with really filthy guitars.
Rough Trade are re-releasing it on limited edition purple vinyl (2000 copies) and it includes their unique cover of Marvin Gaye’s I Heard It Through the Grapevine.Buy it and see why they are still so timeless- fearless female warriors. Then get Viv Albertine’s book-it’s amazing.
(Lorna Irvine)
Cut artwork
Out on June 10th, Rough Trade.
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