Page 3 - Wonderful Yoko Ono is our ipspirationa[ creative pin-up for the weekend. Page 4 - Everyone is excited about 81'!rri seeing the two founder members of The 1c* l Raincoats, Ana Da Silva and Gina Birch, coxrfACT ' copt Lp|'l/ FEST rSgDS @ en^*lL perform on Saturday nightl Lucky Swithun Cooper was able to have a cosy chat with them about why they love 3(i :si Ladyfests. SS r-': Cover illustration by Jennifer Rodgers ' jenrodgers@hotmail'co'uk rd:" - your www. warmtoastcafe. com/art/f ancypantsrod gers/ Page 6 Cotour in own Ladyfestl And spot a few stray items on the way... fC Atso find out what's going on at the oEr Autonymous space. ^t--- t:i Page 7 - Vite Vite Creatures are set to l:i., ptay at Saturdays exciting gig at Josephs ra a:. Wett. They tatk atlotments with us! 13i U> .- l Page 8 - At 5.30pm on Sunday there'tl \ =l be a right racket coming out of The Carriageworks as the lmprovised Jazz and Jamming workshop gets under way. Ruth Witde gives us a few tips on how to jam sweetly. Page 9 - With the sound of 'Leed's next big thing'ringing in their ears, Sky 7 Larkin witt be takingthe stage in the headtining spot on Sunday night. Katie Har*in tetts us their gig wilt require a brave audiencel Page 10 - Bedroom Dancing... Page 11 - lmages of LadYfest, can You spot yoursetf at the Rotter Disco? Page 12 - Our final word, courtesy of Lizzie Guinness. Time for a tittte mysticism from the east: born in Japan in 'i 933, Yoko Ono is a world-famous artist, musician and campaigner" She grew up in poverty around San Francisco and Nevr York, and by ihe age of 18 was the first woman everto be accepted by- peers r-Jniver- sity to study phitosophy. During her time in New York she converted her apartnert ii-',t? a concert hatt and hetped to form the avant-garde, post-Dada ar: cotlective Fluxus. Between 1964 and 1972 she made '.!6 ari r:n:s. inctuding the wortd-famous'No. 4' - a fitm investigating txcl iss:res by fitming people's bottoms with voice-overs by the subjecs ard people who were considering joining the project. By 1961 her experimental music - incorporating ctassical a...- ']e77 piano and the harsh sounds of Japanese opera - had made rer successful enough to setl out New Yorks famous Carnegle r.1:1.., and after she met John Lennon in 1967 she formed the Plastic Or-,e 3.and, collaborating with him on several projects. (lt is often s6{ -Llra: Or€ bravety retieved the wortd of The Beatles by encouraging -e-1L3,r tc leave the band, but sadty this rumour remains unfound,ec" i uar! cr her songs - inctuding 'O'Oh', Watking on Thin lce' and D'qn t rft;{-r-} - have been covered by the tikes of Etvis Costetlo, Pet Simp tsc_"s ard Sonic Youth. Throughout her tife Ono has campaigned for wortd peace ar,J sprjd(en .Cut Above image is of Ono performing Piece' in 1965, out against racism and sexism. ln2OOZ, she started uo a pea:e perforrnance a where Ono invited the audience to award giving 550,000 to artists tiving in conftict, in counl-es s.r,:-: :s come and cut the clothes from her body. lsrael and Patestine. AT Til4E e4aa{t€rsnehjoRKS Li.kte {kri^ g,;Bc}:f ir*rs and you're bored with all the over-priced, sweatshop-made tat on the high street, tl F' :llz *!4. 1-: r, +r i J i 'i ":':; * made from gg% recycled/reelaimed materials + n,:i-fol-3rrcf?t: aii procsed-a gc to '.'*,lir1€ n j'q il e e t-p {}sitive *rganisati{}E?s = er-ery item betw'een gg - f lS !:' I+1,- f-a -- tr=i i.>'.c,:Lt \l The Maeifesta Distre staeks raage of ziaes & eoaies, mnsie a,ail erafts. " nr'-rdels requiredli fr|-r-4, riww.ma.nif esta. co . uk/zi_e.es w errr-. pe dalkraft.:: i; :,:..COfTl ff up came the rain ..-.. _-ir.'-e:"-.. -rr:tji-j!,:=_r:!:l:_.--r-i :: . ' 'nl:' &?tg %. E Kim Gordon and Kurt Cobain loved them. They turned The Kinks' sugary 'Lola' into a dark homage to girls who don't play by the rules. They were one of the most prominent female bands on the punk scene. They were The Raincoats. Swithun Cooper talks to founder members Ana Da Silva and Gina Birch - who make a rare appear- ance together at Ladyfest Leeds. "You know, these guys are no Bikini prominence of Vicky Aspinatt's viotin 'Watching the Sex Pistols didn't Kitt or Raincoats, but they're not on most tracks, the contemplative, make me feet tike I could form a bad." Thus spake Heath Ledger in mid-tempo'You're a Mittion' and the band," says Gina Birch, "but when I 'No the cutety trite teen movie Ten vocal metodies of Side to Fatl in' saw The Stits I thought, 'Wow, I wish Things I Hate About You . And unwit- set them apart from most punk I coutd do that.' I think it was impor. tingty, the scant Google research music. But as Ana Da Silva says, tant to feel you were able to do it. that the scriptwriters no doubt did their inftuences stretched outside of So it was the punk ethos itself - the into "gir[ bands with attitude" paid that sphere. idea of l;etting up and getting off. Because tike Bikini Kitt, The "l had always listened to a lot of Bob involved - that caused them to star: Raincoats are one of the most Dylan," she says. "l loved Patti Smith the band? "l think when we started important and influentiat gir[ bands and The Vetvet Underground, The we didn't have any big ideas or a of a[[ time. Stits, The Ctash and the Sex Pistols. plan," Da Sitva explains. 'We had Formed in 1977, The Raincoats were Our influences came from seeing seen other people play and one da1 part of the punk explosion. But the women do things in other bands." we were in the pub, wondering, What if we started a band?' lt just went on from there." 'When we played our first show m-v art teacher came along and said, 'Don't give up the day job,"' Birch says with a laugh, "but at the time that didn't matter - everything seemed ephemerat, amazing, tike things were changing." But within just a few years, they found that the punk movement hac dissipated in Britain and they sptir "lt + r:p ln tla+. fett tike it was a[[ a r! bit of a con," Birch claims. 'At its 0 .l height there was a fever pitch of:' i: citement, and a feeting of change'- 1:; the air - then Thatcher got in anc the New Romantic movement Vi started. Bands like Spandau Batle: ti came around. I was so disintereste: t:.: in it - it fel,t tike the whole thine "t: ,:. fizzted out. There weren't many girts Their invotvement in various was just fantastic," Bitdr says. 'ir:'s doing it.- She adds that there were a Ladyfests reatly proves this inftu- such a smatl town and it seerned to 'Madonna few important artists, and ence: both have appeared at events have been overtaken by LaQfestens Annie Leflnox", but overatt Birch fett that grew out of riot grrrt. Birch - workshops, art, music, cwrnecfy and atienated and disiltusioned, and ptayed at the first ever Ladyfest in fitms." moved to Germany where she Otympia in 2000, as wett as the 'Madrid was reatty great." Da Sitva ptayed in Red Krayota. London one in 2002, while Da Sitva enthuses. 'When this came up aboLt recentty performed at Ladyfestspain It was a decade tater that Birch says Leeds I just wanted to do it" 0threr in Madrid. she started to get excited about the things have happened because C "l music scene again: think it was Some might argue that it's the in- Ladyfest in Madrid, I made ms* Ana who got me into it," she says. grained sexism in the music industry friends there..." Best of att. she adds "She went to see Huggy Bear and I that has kept Ladyfest the way it is - - and the same should be t,rure ar went atong with he4 and the spirit individuat, irregular festivals organ- Leeds - "Everybody was so into it.- was rekindled. lt was very exciting. I ised from scratch by peopte in their didn't real[y feet part of it, and I'm spare time. Da Sitva agrees, but Gina Birch and Ana Da Silra headhne at sure it was as fraught with personat points out the positive aspect of 10.30pm on Saturday at Jorepfis Well. issues as any other scene but from this: "lt's great this way because The whole day's musk lin+up starts at the outside it seemed so cohesive. there's an identity about it, through 4pm and cocts f.10 {t8 corc, or fi'ee Punk tolerated women but riot grrr[ the name, but each one has its own with a wristband). reatty tmk the butt by the homs." identity - the spirit of the event is ' different because the people who do jnce I discovered that we were in- it are different too." ;;irarcnal for these bands," Da Sitva "l :ies. ehink that's a big achieve- And it's the spirit of each event that -€'^L Ard then we got inspired by has encouraged them to keep -,st g.:-n and started ptaying again." getting involved, it seems.