Newport is buzzing today. Thousands throng the city for the food festival, the Dragons thrash the Scarlets in the rugby – and, on another balmy shorts-and-T-shirts night, 12 acts are at a sold-out Le Pub for Wales’ first Loud Women festival.
Despite an early start, young Newport punk band Hairdye pack out the main room with their healthy following, though there’s a big gap onstage – lead singer Dakota Richardson has now left, with bassist Penny Laine now on vocal duties. The band have a big month coming up, with the release of their debut EP and a headline show at the Corn Exchange, but enough confidence to make this difficult transition.
Festivals can sometimes deal you cards from a random deck. Tonight, a shiny diamond: one who’ve flown from Jacksonville, Florida for our pleasure. 1blackfrend, fronted by the gorgeous vocals of Randi Jackson, offer a blues/soul palette with shades of Alabama Shakes, and sometimes deliver pinch-me moments, leaving you standing there thinking “wow, this band are great”.
Still top of the Premier League in band names, Cardiff’s Lady Garden start their set with their backs to the audience, Clash-style, before turning in unison to launch into a brash, high-octane set. Lead singer Isobel Mussa feeds off the energy of guitarist Sali Morgan and bassist Ameile Wallace; completed by drummer Xanthe Barnes, they create a wondrous racket, and aren’t ones to shy away lyrically. Drop Dead Gorgeous comes complete with a rally call of “Suck it up, suck it in / The fat bitches never win…”
It’s been quite a year for The NaNaz: debut EP Nanafesto, gigging in New York, a BBC documentary and prestigious festival slots in the summer. The band are worthy headliners tonight, and the room is packed with expectant fans for the band’s first home-city show in months.
With three songwriters in their ranks, there is much shuffling around and instrument swapping – done increasingly adeptly – and guitarist Claire Symons gets one of the biggest cheers of the night with “this song is about the menopause”. Marega Palser is a charismatic performer, switching from guitar to bass with consummate ease, but it’s when she takes lead vocals that her true personality truly shines: take Isles, a throbbing gristle of a song with stream-of-consciousness lyrics backed up by Deb De Lloyd’s haunting viola. Anne Marie Bollen, dubbed ‘the agitator’, writes the most politically-charged lyrics, addressing the injustices of care home costs and WASPI pensions (60 Lies, with its infectious singalong chorus).
The band finish with new single Be Beautiful, another crafty pop anthem with echoes of early Blondie and Sex Pistols. The mostly female crowd sing a long in acknowledgement about being chatted up in older age: “So you used to be beautiful / So what am I now?”
Though the importance of women in early punk rock is often overlooked, it would have been very different without Siouxsie Sioux, Debbie Harry, The Slits or – slightly later, from the 2-tone movement – Pauline Black carrying the flag. And it remains important that the Loud Women organisation are there to encourage women to pick up instruments and form bands – with plenty of evidence of that today.
Loud Women Festival, Le Public Space, Newport, Sat 3 Oct
words and photos PAUL WINDSOR
