We hope you’re all well and managing the current situation with the help of good music! Apologies if you receive any advertisements in this post – they are inserted without our permission.

Special Offer: Buy One Get One Free! The Women’s Liberation Music Archive is having its tenth birthday and to mark the anniversary we’re offering a special two-for-one deal on a compilation CD: twenty tracks by feminist musicians from the 1970s and 80s. £10 including postage and packing. All proceeds from the CD go toward the upkeep of the archive. Email us to order copies: wlmmusicarchive@gmail.com

WLMA is happy to see new releases from women musicians who are featured in the archive. 

The Stepney Sisters have released a new single from 1975 called ‘SISTERS’. This feminist band formed in Stepney in the mid-70s (pre Jam Today and Guest Stars). Their album is being released on the Alcopop Record label and will also be on digital platforms such as Spotify. There will be a feature on the Stepney Sisters in The Guardian in late February. Stepney Sisters are Ruthie Smith, Noni Ardill, Caroline Gilfillan, Bennie Lees and Suzy Hogarth. Stream and share:  https://backl.ink/144796024

Maggie Nicols CD ‘Creative Contradiction: Poetry, Story, Songs and Sound’ is on the TakuRoku label – Café Oto’s new digital imprint which raises funds for artists and the venue. An 8-page feature on Maggie by Louise Gray is the cover feature in the March 2021 issue of The Wire, issue 445. https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/91998/spread/1 Buy the magazine directly from https://www.thewire.co.uk/issues/ https://ocean.exacteditions.com/issues/91998/spread/1 and there’s an audio clip from a 2015 performance here: https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/listen-maggie-nicols-and-joelle-leandre-live

‘Back to the Seventies’ ! Blow The Fuse is showing archive films from the 1970s and early 1980s: check out their Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/blowthefuse2008  for ‘Life before the Guest Stars’ – they recently ‘discovered some amazing footage which offers a rare insight to part of the Women’s music scene from that time.’ You can view it on 25^th February or subsequently, as with all their great performances, on Blow the Fuse ‘On Air’ – ‘a series of online concerts recorded exclusively by Blow the Fuse from the Vortex Jazz Club in Dalston. You can subscribe to the Blow the Fuse YouTube channel – it’s totally free to do so. And please DONATE ‘to keep supporting their shows and musicians in these turbulent times.’ All shows after initial broadcast can be viewed anytime on our You Tube channel HERE You can already watch shows featuring Carol Grimes, Deirdre Cartwright, Liane Carroll, Annie Whitehead, The Guest Stars 1985 film, Martha & Eve plus DaDa Dandies. More live performances coming soon: ARQ (Alison Rayner Quintet), Casimir Connection, Ian Shaw, Georgia Mancio & Kate Williams, plus there will be more interviews and archive film footage. Each show is about 50-60 minutes long and goes live on Thursday evenings at 8pm

‘Back to the Seventies’ features the following bands: Jam Today 1 with Deirdre Cartwright, Alison Rayner, Terry Hunt, Josie Mitten, Angele Veltmeijer, Diana Wood, Frankie Green and featuring guest vocalist Laka Daisical. Tour de Force with Deirdre Cartwright, Bernice Cartwright, Viv Corringham and Val Lloyd. The Raincoats with Ana da Silva, Gina Birch, Vicky Aspinall and unknown drummer. Jam Today 3 with Alison Rayner, Terry Hunt, Barbara Stretch, Julia Dawkins and Jackie Crew. Also tantalising glimpses of Ruthie Smith, Angele Veltmeijer, Laka Daisical, Linda da Mango, Lindsay Cooper, Vicky Scrivener, Maggie Nichols, Rosemary Schonfeld, Jana Runnalls, Tierl Thompson and many others from a Womens Day March in the late 1970s. Please let BtF know if you recognise anyone else from this rare footage.

Check out Peggy Seeger’s 20 minute lockdown series Peggy at 5 on Sundays: she writes ‘Every episode of this new series takes a focus track from my upcoming album First Farewell and builds the programme around a theme.  Peggy at 5 on Sunday is on YouTube and Facebook and you can download song lyrics in advance HERE.’